Grassy field (how too?)

#21

Thanx a no probs :slight_smile:

As for Vue, yes, I also agree that there MUST BE a way to make grass work the way we want it to?
I have my own thoughts and ideas for doing this, but kinda donā€™t have the time to test them out.

But, just one of several ways, is to use seperate pieces of the same terrain like quarters,
and then that way each smaller section can have more attention put into it by Vue.
Because I have this feeling, that the problem has more to do with how many polygons
are in each section of terrain, compared to how many plants can be created overall.
And using grey scale maps, might help with this too, if done properly,
but again, no time to test right now.

But, if anyone knows me at all, they know Iā€™m very stubburn and I donā€™t give up very easily.
I stick to a challenge untill Iā€™ve exhausted any and all ideas I can think of.
And even then, I keep it in the back of my mind and come back to it later,
IF I think I may have missed something?

ā€¦md :slight_smile:

.

#22

I was kinda thinking and I am not sure if this works as I dont have vue in front of me. But maybe the terrain could be duplicated. then the second one made invisible or not seen by camera or not rendered. But populate both with a grassy eco-system. Or base both on a separate bitmap (like a render-clouds in PS). Dunno just a thought, Iā€™ll try later on. I too want to keep chuggin at this, but time wont permit on this project. I really want to create some of those stunning visuals I see in the gallery.

Thanks manā€¦ really got my wheels turning on this one. Iā€™ll post up what I end up with. (If I am permitted)

#23

I wish I COULD give some tips for Vue5I and making grass - unfortunately I havenā€™t had the need to (at this point) and was waiting for the xStream plugin to integrate it more fully into LW. Once this is established, I will probably still use Sas for grass.

And Mark, the rolling hills of grass image you showed above is VERY similar to what Worley showed that Sas v1 could do - which is what motivated me to pre-order Sas. Itā€™s expensive, but well worth it (IMO) - Iā€™ve got five seats of LW, four of Vue5I (three courtesy of the LW9 upgrade offer) and three seats of Sas. Couldnā€™t do without it now!

Megalodon

#24

Yeah, with xTream, the only way I can find so far, though I havenā€™t actually tested it yet,
is to load in the xTream Vue scene and then also load in an exported terrain of the same scene.
The reason being, that the xTream object, is actually the whole scene and you wouldnā€™t
want everything growing all over everything in the scene LOL

Should be able to do some of this in Post Processing too,
but again, I havenā€™t had any time to test out any of these things.

The current scenes Iā€™m making will also be my first experiments with Sas and Vue scenes.
Kinda canā€™t wait to see how things work out with this :slight_smile:

ā€¦md :slight_smile:

.

#25

This Xtream plugin, while nice in principal seems to be more controversial than anything. From the pricing on down to its actual function. Just seems to be kinda wishy washy. I would love to be part of the beta suad on this one tho. I do mainly print and web, so that plugin could be a very nice add on for me

#26

Well, though there are still some issues and what nots, I now canā€™t see living without it.
So, for me, I donā€™t bother paying attention to all the people who say bad things about it.
And it IS still a work in progress at his stage anyway :slight_smile:
But it sure is awesome to be able to do things with your Vue scenes right inside of LW, thatā€™s for sure.
No time consuming compositing tricks that take forever to deal with.
Though I never see the compositing tricks ever going away, as there
are just some things that are best done in Post work.

Iā€™m about to post up a sample pretty soon for those who have xTream, just so they can
see how cool it is to work with LW9 and xTream with killer clouds that you can fly through.
Iā€™ve already done the test, and trust me, itā€™s awesome and totally cool to work with!

People who want to bitch about the pricing and all, well, I could bitch about Sas Full
and itā€™s pricing and wonder why it doesnā€™t come with LW, instead of that Lite version?
But thatā€™s the way things are.
People already can work quite nicely back and forth between LW and Vue without much problems.
So when they make out like they donā€™t intergrate together well or something, theyā€™re wrong.

Ivan has already made those awesome tutorials Iā€™m trying to get posted up at my site,
that show just how easy and fun and cool it is to bring the two programs together.

ā€¦md :slight_smile:

.

#27

Cant wait to see that image. I do alot of compositing and image manipā€™s so Xtream sounds so good for me at this point. I hope it comes out soon while I still have money :smiley:

#28

Thanks for the info Mark! Iā€™m looking forward to seeing the image/scene.

Iā€™ve been waiting to buy xStream until tech support can answer a question about the licensing - floating and node-locked. Perhaps you/someone else here can help out. My question isā€¦

Letā€™s say that I have ten PCs all connected with a network hub. Each PC can see each other PC via mapped drive letters. Can I install xStream floating license on any one of these PCs and have the other PCs access it when necessary? As long as the other PCs can always access this PC, would there be any problem with the floating license?

I guess I would prefer the floating license since it seems much more flexible. Hopefully I CAN use it but if not, thereā€™s always the node-locked version.

Thanks!

Megalodon

#29

For your case, it sounds like you are going to want which ever
version does the Netwrok Licensing, but I could be wrong?
You may need the Floating Licence?

I went for the Node-Lock Licence, because for me, itā€™s just fine for what I have set up and do.
And I too had to ask about which version I needed, because I wasnā€™t for sure which one I would want.
Canā€™t recall why now, for the reasoning behind why I went for the
Node-Lock version, but it was the logical choice is all I remember about it LOL
Sorry, guess I wasnā€™t much help with that, but I didnā€™t pay
much attention to any of that, once I got up and running and everything.

Anyway, back to chillin on the Movies.
Thatā€™s all Iā€™m basically doing today, just chillin.
Just finished Hoodwinked, which is funny as all get out.
Itā€™s good to get away from the computr and let your brain clear out a little, every now and then :slight_smile:

ā€¦md :slight_smile:

.

#30

ā€¦that does not computeā€¦ :slight_smile:

#31

Quote:
Originally Posted by mdunakin
Itā€™s good to get away from the computr and let your brain clear out a little, every now and then :).

ā€¦that does not computeā€¦ :slight_smile:

Thatā€™s too funny :slight_smile:

ā€¦md :slight_smile:

.

#32

Hey people,
Thought Iā€™d chip in my 5 centsā€¦I created some grass objects in LW then converted to vob, ( simple textures were applied to the objects, but you can change them to what ever you want) and used them in eco systems to find it worked fine, pretty much looks like sas. You can download the vobs and rendered images of the results.
Ivan.

http://rapidshare.de/files/24041132/Grass_VOBs.rar.html

If its your first time at rapidshareā€¦do the followingā€¦
click the link
go to the ā€œfreeā€ icon (bottom right) click.
then you have to wait 45 seconds, and the download link will become available.
type in the 3 letters, download.

#33

looks pretty killerā€¦ I am still playing with methods of achieving ultra realistic grass. Even in sas the grass is not quite there. But I think that is in the lighting and my environment, Thanks for the tips.

#34

Actually Sas is right on the money. All you have to do is do lots of tests and tweaks. Weā€™ve been able to get grass indistinguishable from the real thing when holding two images side by side. Using salt and pepper with Fractal reflections along with density gives you realistic dispersal and itā€™s incredible. It also helps to have a decent grass texture for the ground. Our first few attempts (okayā€¦ maybe a hundred or more) were off the mark, but in a few days we were able to get great grass. I was like you thinking that Sas wasnā€™t quite there yet - I was wrong. It most definitely is! :slight_smile:

Megalodon

#35

I wish there was a training dvd or tutorial out there for this. I would actually pay for a tutorial on making ā€œuber-realisticā€ grass is sasquatch. Gonna keep at it.

#36

It seems that most hair/fur plugins deliberately seperate you from making good grass.
I just tried Shave for Maya and damn, it needed 3+ hours to get something decent.

Foreground grass on the first picture was definately Photoshopped. Nothing ā€œnaturalā€ about the scale. ;D

#37

Sorry about the big bump . IvanB : can you post that Sas Grass again ? I am looking for a god grass for 2 days now. And that grass might be the thing.

#38 

 Here's a quickie I did using Lush grasses and 3 terrains. The only terrain with a grass ecosystem is the closest one, and it has a falloff map so the density and size falloff rather quickly from the camera. It's not too bad, but I do see it's a bit splotchy.

DOF added in Photoshop.
 
 -Chipp
#39

Hereā€™s another one with a coloring a bit more like the original one. DOF added in Pshop.

#40

not bad chipp, it would just need alittle higher quality solidgrowth plant for the grass, lindaĀ“s solidgrowth grass is realy good, sheĀ“s one of my fav solidgrowth suppliers, but i think that for real closeup ones like your test render it would need alittle more quality atleast for the forefront.

hopefully real grass is easier to do real good in vue7 but it for sure is possible with v6 like youĀ“ve shown yourself.