[Flipside]

951, 703, 658 of 'em



To be honest, most of that is taken up by the Terrain, but don't be fooled, I bought Vue D'Esprit 6 the other day, and it's no Bryce, even if it started out as that sort of program. I'm doing some very interesting stuff with volumetrics, expect some details in the next day or so (the level of detail on Vue comes at a price, and this that even the new computer can take several hours to render the more complex materials).

[jr2]

[spoiled brat]FS Planet renders!!![/spoiled brat]

[Black Wolf]

Fancy. Looks like an oil painting, especially the trees in the midground.

Out of curiosity, does this perhaps mean what I hope it means?

[Flipside]

Yes, it has pretty advanced abilities for what I think you're talking about

Oh, and just wait till you see the volumetric nebulae

[Flipside]

That as it stands won't work as a background, it'd need work at the top and base, but it gives the general idea

[Hellstryker]

*jaw drops*...i need what programs your using... NOW! OR ELSE! 

[Flipside]

Hehehe, the problem with mixing Radiosity and Volumetric lights is that the rendering time gets exponentially slower with screen-size, so a 412 x 256 Preview version will take 4 minutes, a 2048 x 1024 preview version will take 10 hours. Still I have one hopeful for a skybox in the next day or two

Edit: I think what I'll have to do is move the scenes over to the server computer when they are complete and leave them rendering on there, it means they'll take even longer (probably about 4 days each for a final quality render) but at least I can do other stuff while I'm waiting

[Flipside]

Here's some more simplistic Backdrops, the problem is going to be that sphere mapping really doesn't like stuff at the poles (i.e. The top and bottom of the map, because the map breaks up into alternating triangles), I'll need to find a way to deal with that, but mostly, it's looking good. The last one has a bit of a clash going on between the blue and green and needs work, but still looks ok

[Flipside]

200 Reads. 3 Replies. This was why I stopped bothering with doing the FS2 Pimp Video Music.

[Black Wolf]

What about spheremapping onto geodesic spheres? Is that any easier?

Andf you're not getting replies because you're posting them in FF+Art. Put 'em in FS modding and your shoes'll be covered in newbie drool by lunchtime.

[Flipside]

Heh, yeah, I'm not really annoyed, it's just frustrating

I'm having a little more luck with some new stuff I'm trying with it, there's two ways of doing it, you can either avoid detail at the poles, or you can do make the sphere 'off-axis' so the join isn't directly above the area, and just put a smaller nebula or planet 'transfer' or the like over the join, the second way can work really well if done right, and look absolutely dreadful if it isn't.

[Vasudan Admiral]

I only found this thread just now from the 'recent posts' list.

But wow - that first one is stunning. The hills in the background look a little smooth - no rocky parts, but other than that it's great. 

Do you have higher res versions of any of them? I just tried the asteroid one in a scene, and though it certainly gives a great sense of depth and immersion, the resolution loss kinda kills it. The bright centre sorta just becomes a light blur and the smaller roids become groups of large pixels.

But I reckon if you combine that type of image with a starfield and *maybe* a more expansive nebulae system, you have a brilliant mission skybox.


The nebulae ones look good, (I like the middle one the best) but what are they intended for?

[Flipside]

Well, the original plan was as skyboxes, but obviously, the whole UV thing is giving me one or two problems I'm working on some 2048 x 1024 stuff, which is as big as the renderer goes at the moment, but they'll take time to render up, I'll try and get an asteroid one done first, since they give a nice 'full' image, whereas the others would need, as you say, the in-game stars etc to give them a proper 'feel', though the red one looks more like a planet map to be honest

[Vasudan Admiral]

Having a full skybox-covering background nebulae would look a bit odd in game wouldn't it? It'd kinda be like being inside a full nebulae except there's no clouds.
(And it's the lack of black around the top and bottom that really makes those seams show up btw. It's probably easiest just to keep the near-top and near bottom areas for stars only? )

And also, I reckon something in the style of that asteroid field skybox would be absolutely brilliant for the first mission in aesir space. BW has the mission made already - and that's what that backdrop immediately reminded me of.

And ooh - 4 digit post count. Go me.

[Flipside]

LOL Well, I've probably been playing too much Eve and Homeworld, both those games seem to give the impression that whatever space isn't taken up by Nebula is taken up by huge ship-graveyards, which is cool, but not really realistic

I'm working on a few bits for TI actually

[jr2]

200 Reads. 3 Replies. This was why I stopped bothering with doing the FS2 Pimp Video Music.

*drums fingers*

Wish you'd finish that.  I would then upload it whereever possible, once the Pimp Vid was done... just make sure the vid has a mention of this forum.

[Flipside]

Just a couple of random Desktop-size images, nothing special, but fun playing with refraction

[Hades]

Oooooooo Shiny.Nice.

[jr2]

As soon as I get my computer unstuck from 4-bit, 800x600 VgaSave crappiness, I'll be able to enjoy this. 

Freakin' thing; I didn't even change any settings this time & it's misbehaving... maybe a spanking will do it good! 

[achtung]

... wow  o.o

How long does it take you to create some of these scenes?  Not counting render times.