Dilvish

Eurobricks Citizen
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Everything posted by Dilvish

  1. So, RIB files are the scene files utilized by Renderman? Are they plain text or binary? Is there a RIB syntax reference?
  2. How do you configure the camera and lighting? Does it require a separate tool? (Not familiar with LDD.)
  3. Some of you might be aware of Datsville, a ~20 year old community project aimed at creating a multi-user town in LDraw. There's a historical page dedicated to it at LUGNET, and a GitHub project with recent activity. There are also a Facebook page and a Flickr photo stream. Some recent discussion has appeared on the LDraw.org forums and LUGNET. What we need, however, is more submissions! If you'd like to create and submit a new model please drop us a line. Note that all submissions need to be licensed under a Creative Commons BY-SA license or public domain. There are high resolution 8192x4096px versions of the above images on Flickr if you click on the download link and select "Original Version".
  4. I am considering creating an image map and adding "hot spots" to it with text blurbs, other graphics, etc. However, the standard method requires a single image, not a grid of 128 images. Not sure what the alternatives are. [edit] There are a lot of ideas here. I will need to do some reading. [edit] If Datsville were made of highly regular 2D sprites or tiles with XY coordinates and Z indices, creating the imagemap/hotspots would be pretty easy. Otherwise, I don't see how the idea is feasible without rendering all the models in 3D like LDCad. At least not without tons of effort that would need to be expended each time a new revision to the town model is created.
  5. The PNG format has an "interlaced" mode which accomplishes much the same thing, but I keep forgetting to use it. [edit] Oops, I didn't understand what you meant. You can already zoom in/out by pressing CTRL and using the scroll wheel. (I should add a note to that effect.)
  6. Dumb question: How do I view and edit a forum post's "source" and type the BBCode directly? I'm not sure what forum software this site uses, or else I would search for an answer using Google. Thanks.
  7. I recently created a high resolution render of the town. You can see it here: https://mjhorvath.github.io/Datsville/docs/interactive-town-map/interactive-town-map.html Right now we could really use a new church MOC to replace the TLG Eastwicke Chapel model that had to be removed. PM me if you are interested.
  8. LOL, I just want a desktop background, but my monitor is 1920x1200px.
  9. Yeah, the lack of message threw me off.
  10. I am having trouble importing a large model. https://sourceforge.net/p/datsville/code/HEAD/tree/trunk/datsville_inlined/datsville_rev531_inlined_y_boxed_n.ldr There is no error message or indication of what is wrong.
  11. I got an LDraw model up to 225k parts, but that was only possible because I strategically split the model into smaller sections and worked on each section independently. Working with the whole thing at once is painful.
  12. The LGEO files "lg_10197.inc", "lg_10288.inc" and "lg_85940.inc" reference an object named "lg_tech_tube", but this object is not defined anywhere in the LGEO library. It is causing my scene to stop rendering. What can I do to fix this? Thanks.
  13. Since this is a thread about "Online Rendering", I would just like to add that in the past I have used Microsoft Azure to set up a virtual machine to do POV-Ray renderings. You could do the same with Blender or whatever. It's as easy to set up as any other Windows programming environment. Windows comes pre-installed. All you have to do is install POV-Ray and copy your model files over. Google has its own equivalent service that works about the same way. While not a render "farm", there are compute engines available with 64 cores, which is a lot. I'm not sure how the price compares to MecaBricks, however, since I used the $200 in free credits you are given for creating a new Azure account. Maybe someone can work out the math. My 2 cents.
  14. Two questions: 1. Could you mirror this tutorial to the LDraw wiki? 2. How do you export to POV-Ray from within LDCad?
  15. Sadly, ldraw2sunflow is no longer being updated either. https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/113687-software-ldraw2sunflow-a-rendering-engine-for-ldraw/
  16. I am getting 403 errors when I try to download the installer from here. Is there a better place to get it from?
  17. I'm rebooting my idea for a Lego themed RPG made in RPG Maker VX Ace. There seemed to be some interest here last time I mentioned it. There is a Google Code project that talks all about it here. I also created a ModDB page for the game. So far I've rendered and imported a lot of graphics, but one thing I am really missing is a good story or plot to tie it all together. I envision a story that starts in modern small town setting, but grows into a scifi or fantasy tale. Here's the latest video: More videos here:
  18. Dilvish

    Datsville RPG

    I have run into problems with LeTBS. It does not work well with sprites bigger than 1x1 tiles. So I am at an impasse. Anyway, I created a ModDB account for the game here: https://www.moddb.com/games/datsville-rpg
  19. Dilvish

    Datsville RPG

    You can download the latest version here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/groo0cvf07ic1je/Datsville_RPG_v0.8.0.zip There are graphical issues with the LeTBS combat scripts that I don't think can be solved. I haven't gotten any feedback from the scripts' author.
  20. Dilvish

    Datsville RPG

    I ported some of the maps and graphics to RPG Maker MV. I still have to implement the new LeTBS combat scripts however. Here's a screenshot: As you can see, the resolution of all the graphics has increased by 50% in the latest version of RPG Maker. The game window is also HD now.
  21. Depending on the settings that I enable, it can take anywhere between 6 and 24 hours to render. An alternative would be to use cloud computing. It might take 1/3 the time (16 threads at 2.4GHz instead of 4 threads at 3.6GHz), but the rates are about $1/hr or more. I used the $200 free service trial period on Microsoft Azure to do a render, but ran out of cash pretty quickly!
  22. I created a few test renders in POV-Ray to experiment with blurred reflections. Which of the following five images do you feel are the most realistic? The least? Also, note the transparent pieces. Is the reflection right for them too? IMO they look a bit too frosty. Thanks!! [edit] I just noticed that if you use desktop DPI scaling in Windows, these images will look extra grainy/blurry in Google Chrome. You might want to try a different browser temporarily. wrapper_townview_close_01 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr wrapper_townview_close_02 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr wrapper_townview_close_03 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr wrapper_townview_close_04 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr wrapper_townview_close_05 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr
  23. I can't do bump mapping, but there is already a normal map that makes the bricks look slightly wavy or warped. I tweaked the lighting. Maybe a little too bright.