Grand Space Opera 3D Entry: Stefano Massaron

#101

I hope they find you soon on that island you are “stranded” on Stefano…:cool: …Nice to hear that you are still thinking of your next steps while you wait…I think the thinking phase is more time consuming then modleing time anyways…Hope you get things going again as soon as is possible,and I’ll be looking for your updates…:arteest: :beer:

#102

great work so far, hope to see some new aditions soon.

the last pov makes me dizzy, so you totally have the height effect right, more please … and fast:arteest:

#103

Nice detail on the building. I like the last update especially. What is the final effect you are trying to achieve?

#104

Hi Kenny, thanks a lot for your interest. Glad the POV I chose made you dizzy… :twisted:

My XSI Foundation trial has expired, so I’m waiting for the real Foundation to arrive. Seller said tomorrow will be ready, I’m keeping my fingers crossed because I can’t wait 1) to have it at last - and 2) to continue this project.

Stefano

#105

I want to depict chaos. Not an easy task, but as I said in my first message, I’m here to learn :slight_smile:

Chaos because the image will be the moment in which the poor people living in the barracks surrounding the Big Palace will begin the riot. At first I wanted to title it “Babel”, but then “Riot” seemed more proper.

I’m a very poor sketcher, so my drawings were really far from what I have in mind. I hope to be able to update soon.

Thanks a bunch for the interest.

Stefano

#106

Stefano, you asked about mental ray’s 2 million triangle limit in XSI, so I thought I’d better fill you in before you start constructing the lower levels of your scene.

You’ll find the general information on p. 23 of the “Render” .pdf under “General Memory Requirements”:

"A general rule for calculating memory requirements is to allow 1 Mb of memory for every 1000 surface triangles. For every 512 x 512 texture, you need an additional 1 Mb of memory.

“These rules assume that you’re using raytracing features (reflection, shadows, refraction, etc.). If you are not using raytracing, you can render much larger scenes with this amount of memory.”

Of course, that’s that catch: most of us who use XSI were first attracted to the package by the raytracing capabilities of mental ray, so we’re unlikely to be doing scanline rendering of complex scenes.

What makes the memory requirements basically a hard-and-fast “two million triangle limit” has nothing to do with mental ray, and everything to do with the Windows operating environment. You see, with 32-bit Windows operating systems, the OS will only allow 2 Gb of RAM to be allocated to any single application, meaning that even if you went out and purchased 4 Gb of RAM for your workstation, you’d only be able to utilize 2 Gb of that for XSI. Net result: with XSI running on Windows XP Pro or Windows 2000, you can only render 2 million triangles in any given pass.

So before you start rendering a large and complex scene, you’d do very well to go to Edit --> Info Scene to find out how many triangles you’ve got, otherwise you could be in for a nasty shock.

I first ran into this problem last January, when I was using a huge terrain mesh for my Alienware Challenge scene. The scene files were about 100 Mb, so I thought there’d be no problem since I’ve got 2.5 Gb of RAM on my system (the full 2 Gb limit for any application, plus 500 Mb for the operating system itself). Unfortunately, I hadn’t read the manual carefully enough and had completely missed the bit about the triangles-to-memory ratio. So I learned the hard way – a lesson that, incidentally, would’ve been a lot softer if I’d actually downloaded the “new features” video when 3.0 came out and learned about the new geometry approximation tools. (That video is included in the “Principles of XSI” DVD so be sure to take a good look at it, because it will actually show you what I’m about to sketch out for you.)

So … unless you’re running XSI on a Linux or SGI system, you’ve got a potential problem each time you set out to render a huge scene. (I’m not sure what the maximum amount of RAM is in an SGI system, but I know you can buy HP workstations with 8 Gb of RAM.)

You can always break the scene up into a number of different passes, with certain objects visible in one pass, other objects in another pass, OR you can take full advantage of the geometry approximation tools to keep the triangle count as low as possible when using subdivision for smoothing.

Anyway, that’s a brief synopsis of the limit. :slight_smile: Most folks never come up against it, but it’s better to be forewarned and prepared than to be scratching your head over why a scene keeps crashing each time you try to render it.

#107

looking good. I like the original idea and the composition with the tall building, reminds me of the scene in fight club where they are on top of the building and they explode a burning happy face on the building. Good luck

peace

#108

hi Stefano…
i’ve been following your thread from the beginning and i have to say you are going very well…
but i’d like to underline how cool and great your idea is… :thumbsup: i don’t know why but i think you are predicting next russian revolution… :smiley: somehow the same feelings… great… it’s obvious that you are writer…
untill later and cheers!

#109

:deal: I have small amusing lesson on texturing for you - I has developed it recently.
When you have free time you can simply knock on a surface of various subjects (wall, wooden chair, the glasswares etc.) .The sound will give you an idea with what there should be a surface of your objects from which of materials it is possible them make. You must feel the surface and talk with it :)If it will help please let me know!

#110

Michael, thanks a lot, really. As usual, your patience and the time you give to newbies are just amazing. Thanks again!

PS: Today I received my Foundation license :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: !

6 DVDs, plus the 4,500 PDF pages of manuals, the printed XSI Fundamentals, the 700 pages of tutorials… I think I’ll be secluded here for the next months or so! :slight_smile:

Stefano

#111

@HieSpike : Thanks a lot… I’m really glad you found similarities with Fight Club. Not only I liked the movie a lot, but I also found the book absolutely fantastic. I didn’t think about it when I planned this, but here’s definitely something to be proud of. :slight_smile:

@greentek : Thanks! I don’t know if it’s obvious that I write, but I do think that my writing background shows off in everything I do… and I’m really happy to see that we share the same feelings… Don’t know where Wilderness of Paran is :wink: but I’m really quite worried about the situation here in Italy, so I think that my uneasiness came out in the planning of this image.

@centavrus: Hi dear! Hey… it worked! Some “tactile-texturing” technique… you should patent it. I’m joking about the patent, but I’m not joking about the rest… it’s really a cool, inspirational way to think about materials. Thanks a lot and a kiss.

Now I’ll go back putting out something new. I’m finally able to resume the work with Foundation. Did I say that it finally arrived? :bounce: Ah, ok… :slight_smile:

Stefano

#112

Stefano, you’re quite welcome, and that’s GREAT news concerning the license! Congratulations! :slight_smile:

#113

I have been contemplating moving my main station over to a Mac. The reviews on them have been fantastic with their 64bit native OS and Dual processors up to 8GB of DDR SDRAM dual 1GB FSB’s Optical everything, the list goes on! That sounds pretty bad @$$ to me. What do you think?

#114

Personally, I’ll stay with XP. Mostly because Windoz it’s the only OS that I know and that I always used (starting from Windows 3.1). Plus, frankly I don’t like a lot the Apple-thing in general, too expensive and “elite” for my tastes, but this is absolutely personal, of course.

I’m thinking of updating to a dual Xeon, but it’s still some months (and some money, sigh) in the future. Right now, I’m using a normal PC with AMD Athlon 2600+, 1 GB RAM (other 512 coming soon) and a somewhat old but very stable nVidia geForce.

Stefano

#115

yep… good concept… no update now ? :scream: hahahaha…

I must to thank you Stefano, for your sweet comment in an another thread… I’m happy you like to used the textures of 3dt :bounce:

#116

Hey there, this is all looking excellent my friend! good back-story, and very dramatic/epic imagery coming from your early renders too. keep it up! :thumbsup:

#117

You’re most welcome, Lemog… if you have the time and want to take a look at the Renderosity link in my signature, I’m sure you will recognize many of your tileables in my past works. If you haven’t the time, I’d be glad, if you like, to send you some images in which I used them. Just let me know and… thanks again!

Stefano

#118

Hi everyone…

I will have to stay dis-connected for a while, because of some maintenance of the fiber-line I’m using to connect to the net.

Hopefully it will be a matter of few days, no more. I will be using this period to start blasting my mind on all the learning material I received with my XSI Foundation package, so I hope to update the thread as soon as I get back online.

In the meanwhile, I’d like to thank you all big time for all the unexpected and fantastic support I received since I signed up for this challenge. You are really precious and inspiring.

:beer:

Later,
Stefano

#119

We’ll be here and as always eager to see where your work is going!

#120

Maybe you could make that a tax building, with barricaded spiked ramps

that encircle if defensively with angled walls. Like a paranoia building.
I don’t think a floating garden level adds to the attack feeling. Maybe add
lotsa antennas and dishes on top, and a helicopter on top.

my 3D whole enchillada