> SP2 has been out for a while now but it's been very quiet on this list
> lately. Maybe SP2 solved so many problems there are no issues left?
SP2 ? Awesome ! Must re-D/L V5 so I'll gram the SP too .
Hi Garry,
Don't be put off by the grey icons, they haven't fixed that yet ;)
> BTW: see http://www.world-machine.com for some fascinating new landscape
> simulation software!
Yep , Maybe you remember the killer Xfrog tree Gilles Trans did in POV
with a World Machine (beta) landscape in the background . I linked to it
circa summer 2002 , but the link is now dead .
Great artist but I don't remember anything about World Machine...
Here's some of his work:
http://www.oyonale.com/histoire/english/index.htm
World machine did show much
potential , and was totally free (still is for the most basic version).
The gallery section now impresses with the lighting and the sharpness of
the excellent looking procedural driven terrains . However , I can't help
but feel that RSV5.2 could do just as good a job as this or even Terragen
style terrains , due to it's crazy raytracer/VSL potential .
Add collision detection , metaballs , volumetrics and the whole Realsoft
way of life and World Machine begins to look pretty limited , but excellent
still , strickly as a landscape animation tool .
There I go preaching to the choir again <g> . Have you had any time to
devote to landscapes rendering with RS lately ?
> cheers,
> Mark Heuymans
Talk to you later Mark .
GC
I don't think you can really compare WM with RS or any other software I
know. It only has one purpose: generating landscapes using simulation of
natural processes and exporting them to other software for rendering.
Realsoft can handle 512x512 meshes pretty well as long as you don't try to
smooth them. They render well in poly mode with phong shading, as long as
the camera doesn't get too close. I haven't tried 1024x1024 yet...
I have to admit I'm now checking out Vue 5 Infinite to render landscapes
that require massive amounts of plants (and even ecosystems). RS still has
some trouble with plants... a few trees are ok, but whole forests, that's
just too much. On the other hand, I can hardly live without VSL so it's
hard to choose, it all depends on the purpose.
Some Realsoft experiments with WM landscapes (not final pictures just some
experimental stuff!):
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/WM05.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/WM06.jpg
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/WM_14.jpg
Here, I first rendered a cratered map in RS, imported this into WM and
subjected it to erosion, imported the result in Terragen (free), exported
as obj with the For Export Only plugin and finally back into RS:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/flowmapmat01.jpg
Displacement of a nurbs mesh with a HDR bump map is possible:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/craterflowmap03.jpg
This is an example of a flowmap that's exported separately from WM which
was converted to a dark brown 'sediment deposit' with VSL:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/WM_flowmap_nosh.jpg
I was surprised to see this excellent Opengl preview in SP2
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ath8n0r/div/WM_flowmap_OGL.jpg
-Mark H
