autoVino's bat projects

[art128]

this tower look good

[autoVino]

I think Simfox is right in that you should try bouncing some light into the centre rather than fight with caustics....

caustics are a way to bounce light into the center (or at least it should offer some diffuse reflection), but the problem is that they look too realistic for simcity or just plain ugly in the renders    GI (as far as I understand from reading posts by simfox) only works with feet-inches as standard unit, so that is kind of out of the question.  Maybe there is a way to tweek how the light bounces off of the walls of the center, i.e. make the light decay less than it would normally.

Another thing you could and probably should do is to add large ground plane. It would bounce great deal of lignt back into the scene - even you roof-tops will get brighter, but particularly the shaded parts, although the courtyard will still likely be a problem without some cheating

A large ground plane should help.  But I doubt that the courtyard will greatly benafit from it.  Maybe, like I said, there is a way to cheat how fg works inside the center or off of some materials.

[callagrafx]

caustics are a way to bounce light into the center (or at least it should offer some diffuse reflection), but the problem is that they look too realistic for simcity or just plain ugly in the renders    GI (as far as I understand from reading posts by simfox) only works with feet-inches as standard unit, so that is kind of out of the question. 

Caustic light is formed when light rays reflected from or transmitted through specular surfaces strikes a diffuse surface....they shouldn't really be used as an illumination method as they are more for realism and effect.  And I use GI with meters as standard units without any problem...but I'm using Max 2008 and MR sun/sky with MR Photographic exposure and it's possible the problem's been fixed.  But there's nothing to stop you changing the standard units once the model has been completed....And if you are using photometrics without FG or GI, I'm not surprised you are having difficulty.

And no, a groundplane won't help the courtyard (but will help the towers), but if you add a couple of bounces to FG, then the light reflected off the white towers should help brighten the area a little better.

[autoVino]

Actually I think I'm going to try without caustics, as you said, and try with GI.  As far as I understand, the GI bug was fixed in max2008 and was a problem in all earlier versions 
but there's no reason not to try.

Currently I'm using only FG with 10 diffuse bounces and the standard low quality settings.

[callagrafx]

You may lose some of the more subtler shadows at 10 bounces, I'd try 5 to start...When testing, I normally set FG to draft to speed up render time as more bounces = longer render times

[autoVino]

yup.  for some reason the longest part of render time is actually before the render, when trying to convert all the objects into memory, or something similar.  3ds max freezes after the objects are translated at 98% and says rendering for about 15 minutes and then the render is fairly fast (~5 to 10 min depending on the settings).

[surdanis]

good stuff here, autovino. whatever happened to that casino? the cooper plant looks good, among others. it's a shame you've only got 3 uploads available. is there a website you're hiding with more of your finished work?

[autoVino]

the cooper plant I still have but the casino is either on a different HD when I got a bigger HD.  I don't have a website where I'm hiding anything 
here are two more renders, I took a closer look at the renders I have and decided that they were not accurate to the floorplans, so instead I redid the buidling according to the renders.
 
Tower D is not in this render.  Any suggestions so far?

[Fatsuhono]

Autovino, this is looking amazing! What kind of nitelites will you be use?

[sithlrd98]

Beautiful! (the first word that popped in to my head)

Jayson

[autoVino]

Autovino, this is looking amazing! What kind of nitelites will you be use?

oh I have some ideas for nitelites on this one.   
something festive looking in the plaza, and the standard tower lighting for the towers.  The base should be fairly well lit.

[art128]

that's beautiful 

[autoVino]

gamma = 1.6
I have to say I like the lighting at how it is right now.  Still a couple of geometry errors on the base that are popping up, but that's fixable easily.
(here is an older render, south view with gamma = 1.7)

Suggestions so far?

[Pat]

OMG Auto that is just wickedly sick!!!!! 

[threestooges]

I love it. Aside from some details on the patios, etc. I think it looks great.

[art128]

again, it's great 

[autoVino]

I have an array of images here with different gamma values, in increments of 0.2, tell me which you think is the best.

gamma = 1.0

   

gamma = 1.2

   

gamma = 1.4

   

gamma = 1.6

   

so which looks the best as of now?

[art128]

that tower is good y friend 
i think gamma = 1.2 is the best 

[threestooges]

I think 1.0 is a bit dark, but either that or 1.2 are the best.

[jacqulina]

wonderfull work