Dilvish

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Posts posted by Dilvish

  3. Posted · Edited by Dilvish

    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.

  8. Posted

    On 9/16/2015 at 9:10 AM, SylvainLS said:

    neo-6930_5a.png

    neo-6930_5b.png

    Top is BR0005, about 27min in 1920x1080.

    Bottom is BR0005_bublible, about 50min in 1920x1080.

    Glasses are way better! Thanks a lot!

    A little problem though: there are reflections in the shadows. Look at the reflection of the lattice-pilar on the roof, in the shadow of the antenna. Same inside, under the lattice-pilar, there is a reflection of one of the grey thingies on a all-white wall supposed to be in the shadows. Another visible reflection in shadows is behind the head of the red astronaut.

    Is this a problem with the materials? too shiny?

    Nevertheless, keep up the good work!

    Do you have a higher resolution version of this image? Thanks.

  13. Posted · Edited by Dilvish

    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.

  21. Posted · Edited by Dilvish

    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!

  24. Posted · Edited by Dilvish

    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.

    39612302514_6367c88958_o.jpgwrapper_townview_close_01 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr

    26451649048_df2a98a7b5_o.jpgwrapper_townview_close_02 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr

    39612302144_4f7e164e76_o.jpgwrapper_townview_close_03 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr

    26451648828_cbe998e77c_o.jpgwrapper_townview_close_04 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr

    26451648748_12649fcb5f_o.jpgwrapper_townview_close_05 by Michael Horvath, on Flickr

  25. Posted · Edited by Dilvish

    I would have to say that my dream game(tm) would be a old school party-based isometric role-playing video game, maybe based off Dungeons & Dragons or GURPS. I think an RPG like GURPS would be a good fit for LEGO because it is also very modular. Just about every possible story setting has a GURPS module made for it. I believe there is also an unofficial LEGO d20 ruleset somewhere on the Web, as well as the BrickWars system.

    I'm not a real fan of building models while you're inside the game, however, unless the parts have clearly designated uses/purposes/mass/physics/etc. This doesn't seem to be the case with LEGO Worlds, AFAIK.

    I believe RPG Maker is also a good fit for LEGO, but using it you can only make simpler games, as there is nothing like d20 or GURPS for it.