UltraScenery - new territory [Commercial]

avmorgan

DreamWeever said:

Does anyone know if you can have two US in the same scene?

Actually, I just did that in my last scene, with an UltraSceneryXT thrown in to boot. No real issues for me, even on a laptop (Gaming grade, but still on the low end of capible). 

DreamWeever

avmorgan said:

DreamWeever said:

Does anyone know if you can have two US in the same scene?

Actually, I just did that in my last scene, with an UltraSceneryXT thrown in to boot. No real issues for me, even on a laptop (Gaming grade, but still on the low end of capible). 

Thanks, I have yet to get USXT though it is in the wishlist. Just had an idea but figure I would need two US in there to get the look I want :)  

paulawp (marahzen)

DreamWeever said:

Does anyone know if you can have two US in the same scene?

Sure. Here's an example where I had three USC objects, on top of a USXT object: 

Around this train and track section, I wanted the high plains-style foreground, and another section of something similar behind the train, stretching into a pine-forested area, with the forested mountains in the background, so I arranged the USCs around my train props accordingly:

Underneath all of it is a USXT object - the scale of which is gigantic compared to everything else - which has been rotated and moved to put a mountain view where I wanted one.

daveso

it would be real good if it were possible to get the edges of the terrain to line up exactly...ridges with ridges, etc. Bryce could do that. It was possible to join as many terrain objects aS YOU WANTED  with all matching exactly, edge to edge. 

DreamWeever

paulawp (marahzen) said:

DreamWeever said:

Does anyone know if you can have two US in the same scene?

Sure. Here's an example where I had three USC objects, on top of a USXT object: 

Around this train and track section, I wanted the high plains-style foreground, and another section of something similar behind the train, stretching into a pine-forested area, with the forested mountains in the background, so I arranged the USCs around my train props accordingly:

Underneath all of it is a USXT object - the scale of which is gigantic compared to everything else - which has been rotated and moved to put a mountain view where I wanted one.

Thanks 

Tugpsx

Great work paulawp (marahzen) that looks very good thanks for sharing your technique.

barbult

I was trying Deepsea's eagle today with the Willows and a Wetland.

WendyLuvsCatz

daveso said:

it would be real good if it were possible to get the edges of the terrain to line up exactly...ridges with ridges, etc. Bryce could do that. It was possible to join as many terrain objects aS YOU WANTED  with all matching exactly, edge to edge. 

you could instance the terrain scaling the 3 adjoining ones 100x-100z,-100x-100z and -100x,100z

MelanieL

Nice renders added the last couple of days. I thought I'd drop a couple of mine in too.

First uses the Roadworks textures

Second is just the Tropics bundle with some added flowers.

 

Martinjfrost

MelanieL said:

Nice renders added the last couple of days. I thought I'd drop a couple of mine in too.

First uses the Roadworks textures

Second is just the Tropics bundle with some added flowers.

 

Nice work! ;-) 

Norman_R

I wanted to report back. I installed Howie's Grassy Grove in US.

memcneil70

I started two days ago to test RoadWorks, and then really wanted to add the LoREZ Horse 2 to it, but hadn't bought it. So saved and woke this morning to find Stones and Pebbles also released. Bought it and LoREZ Horse 2 Bundle this morning. An attempt to dForce a knight's outfit in a sitting pose was ugly and didn't want to fight with it. Switched to a standing pose, but a search of my library didn't find any pose with a hand laying on the back of any horse, dragon, dog by a human. Found the Goblin Rider Poses and modified it. After shifting the camera around, I think I lost the path fully, so you can't really see the materal sets after that work. But both super easy for me to use.

But here is a worn, tired knight and steed returning home.

I will also admit that the images from the BBC this week have influenced my choices. 

Mary

 

paulawp (marahzen)

Hey all - Help! I wish I were showing off something with Martin's new Stones and Pebbles - which I bought this morning to tinker with - but my Daz got mangled last night by a middle-of-the-night restart thanks to a Windows update. I've got it back up and functional, but USC seems slower than normal. It's taking over a minute to generate a new object (with the accelerator on) - something that normally takes 10-25 seconds - and sometimes it renders, sometimes it struggles on stuff that is trivially basic. I suspect that I now have to also reset various render settings that I've taken for granted for so long that I don't remember setting them. Yes, Instance Optimization is set to Memory.

Aside from the basic pointers on page 1 of this thread, is there a checklist anywhere showing typical settings to consider for USC/USXT? I suspect that I now have out-of-the-box settings for everything, everywhere.

It's better than not working at all ... but it definitely feels that something isn't quite right here.

algovincian

paulawp (marahzen) said:

Hey all - Help! I wish I were showing off something with Martin's new Stones and Pebbles - which I bought this morning to tinker with - but my Daz got mangled last night by a middle-of-the-night restart thanks to a Windows update. I've got it back up and functional, but USC seems slower than normal. It's taking over a minute to generate a new object (with the accelerator on) - something that normally takes 10-25 seconds - and sometimes it renders, sometimes it struggles on stuff that is trivially basic. I suspect that I now have to also reset various render settings that I've taken for granted for so long that I don't remember setting them. Yes, Instance Optimization is set to Memory.

Aside from the basic pointers on page 1 of this thread, is there a checklist anywhere showing typical settings to consider for USC/USXT? I suspect that I now have out-of-the-box settings for everything, everywhere.

It's better than not working at all ... but it definitely feels that something isn't quite right here.

My mind immediately goes to the Windows Update changing your driver on you - I'd check that first.

HTH.

- Greg 

paulawp (marahzen)

algovincian said:

paulawp (marahzen) said:

Hey all - Help! I wish I were showing off something with Martin's new Stones and Pebbles - which I bought this morning to tinker with - but my Daz got mangled last night by a middle-of-the-night restart thanks to a Windows update. I've got it back up and functional, but USC seems slower than normal. It's taking over a minute to generate a new object (with the accelerator on) - something that normally takes 10-25 seconds - and sometimes it renders, sometimes it struggles on stuff that is trivially basic. I suspect that I now have to also reset various render settings that I've taken for granted for so long that I don't remember setting them. Yes, Instance Optimization is set to Memory.

Aside from the basic pointers on page 1 of this thread, is there a checklist anywhere showing typical settings to consider for USC/USXT? I suspect that I now have out-of-the-box settings for everything, everywhere.

It's better than not working at all ... but it definitely feels that something isn't quite right here.

My mind immediately goes to the Windows Update changing your driver on you - I'd check that first.

HTH.

- Greg 

Good point - I'll check that. But it did for sure hose everything that was in my \user folder. I've spent all day fixing the workspace and recreating custom actions. 

Artini

memcneil70 said:

I started two days ago to test RoadWorks, and then really wanted to add the LoREZ Horse 2 to it, but hadn't bought it. So saved and woke this morning to find Stones and Pebbles also released. Bought it and LoREZ Horse 2 Bundle this morning. An attempt to dForce a knight's outfit in a sitting pose was ugly and didn't want to fight with it. Switched to a standing pose, but a search of my library didn't find any pose with a hand laying on the back of any horse, dragon, dog by a human. Found the Goblin Rider Poses and modified it. After shifting the camera around, I think I lost the path fully, so you can't really see the materal sets after that work. But both super easy for me to use.

But here is a worn, tired knight and steed returning home.

I will also admit that the images from the BBC this week have influenced my choices. 

Mary

 

Very nice.

Could you please make more renders with materials from Stones and Pebbles. Thanks.

 

memcneil70

@Artini, sure. But it will wait till maybe tomorrow. Today I am out to Buckley SFB and will be home exhausted and brain dead. And after 1pm MT, our electric rates go up until 7pm, so I generally turn off all my computers now after 1pm.

@paulawp (marahzen) I had that update hit me yesterday morning also when I opened my computers. I checked my driver afterwards, no update from Nvidia, so I went onto downloading my purchases and working on my render. I didn't notice a lag in performance on my system, which can be very picky if I do stress it too much. I did do lots of saves, and closed my scene, D|S, and rebooted my system halfway through working to prevent it pitching a fit. I think it took that scene about 30 minutes.

Mary

barbult

If you are having fun with the new Stones and Pebbles product, take a look at the Stones HR2 materials pack, too. The Stones HR2 materials pack has base rock, rock with moss, and rock with snow. It frequently goes on sale for a very low price.

Using the Stones HR2 materials won't be a quick one click solution like the Stones and Pebbles presets. MartinJFrost put work into making Stones and Pebbles presets easy to use with UltraScenery. The Stones HR2 materials are just normal Iray materials that apply only to those large rocks used in the USC Stones features, not pebbles or river rocks. After you build a scene with one of the Stones features, you will need to select each of the big stones in the Scene pane and apply the HR2 material preset. You can find those stones in your UltraScenery scene under UltraScene/UltraScene Terrain/UltraScene Feature Props. Yup, that's more work than applying a Stones and Pebbles preset! But you know me; I like to experiment and try other things, too.

Here's a moss example with one of the Tropics ecologies and a Stones feature.

Tugpsx

In the hands of an expert a button can be a deadly item. You are an expert!. These scene you have created with USC/USXT are awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the recommendations. Always welcome great ideas.

barbult

If you own Tropical Flowering Anthuriums - Flamingo Lillies, you can apply those materials to the USCT Anthurium LR in the UltraScenery Tropics ecologies. After building the Tropics scene, select some or all of the anthuriums in the scene and apply the selected color material. The UltraScenery anthuriums come from the Tropical Botanica - Understorey product.

EDIT Hey, guess what! I just discovered that the anthurium color materials are also in Tropical Botanica - Understorey product. You don't even need the separate anthurium product to access the color material options!

Here I colored most of them red, some pink and left some white.

Totte

DoctorJellybean said:

Thanks to @barbult for explaining how to create a flat terrain. Only the terrain, base and verge grass from USC were used.

Posted in my gallery as well.

That is lovely! And some biodynamic fertilizing ongoing, nice tough! 

Artini

Great images, @barbult.

 

MelanieL

Yes, lovely, @barbult. And thanks for the tip about anthurium textures - I hadn't thought of that!

paulawp (marahzen)

OK, I'm back up and running. Not that you can tell with the late afternoon lighting that I eventually went with here - yeah, it's dark, but for some reason it speaks to me today - but this incorporates the new path and stone textures, along with elements from all of the LoREZ horse bundle items.

Tugpsx

Nice one Paulawp, Try movie blue for the darken areas, or use the mcjLUTS to see what you get. 

Tugpsx

barbult said:

If you own Tropical Flowering Anthuriums - Flamingo Lillies, you can apply those materials to the USCT Anthurium LR in the UltraScenery Tropics ecologies. After building the Tropics scene, select some or all of the anthuriums in the scene and apply the selected color material. The UltraScenery anthuriums come from the Tropical Botanica - Understorey product.

Here I colored most of them red, some pink and left some white.

While in learning mode, do you mind a step by ste of how this scene was created? I would like to duplicate the effort and use some of these assets along with learning a few tricks. 

barbult

Tugpsx said:

barbult said:

If you own Tropical Flowering Anthuriums - Flamingo Lillies, you can apply those materials to the USCT Anthurium LR in the UltraScenery Tropics ecologies. After building the Tropics scene, select some or all of the anthuriums in the scene and apply the selected color material. The UltraScenery anthuriums come from the Tropical Botanica - Understorey product.

Here I colored most of them red, some pink and left some white.

While in learning mode, do you mind a step by ste of how this scene was created? I would like to duplicate the effort and use some of these assets along with learning a few tricks. 

There isn't much customized in this scene, except the anthurium materials. These are the steps and settings I used:

1. Run UltraSceneCreator.
2. In the UltraSceneCreator Scene tab lower contrast to -49 to create a flatter terrain.
3. Select Feature Crossing 1 and Ecology Tropics 5.
4. Build the scene with ecology seed 530 (randomly chosen) and Extend Forest checked.
5. Load UltraScenery lighting preset USC Late Morning (came with original UltraScenery product).
6. Place the camera near the north edge of the terrain, on the path, looking into the scene.
7. Adjust Render Settings EV to 12.5 and Crush Blacks to 0.2. (Tropics is very dense and dark. I wanted to brighten it a little.)
8. In Render Settings, set Dome Orientation Y to 20.
9. Set render aspect ratio to 16 by 9, dimensions 2000 by 1125.
10. Put a sky image with clouds into the DS Environment pane as a backdrop.
11. In the DS Scene pane, expand UltraScene>UltraScene Terrain>Misc Plants Layer.
12. Select some of the USCT Anthurium LR objects (not instances).
13. In the Content Library or Smart Content (I prefer Smart Content) open the product Tropical Flowering Anthuriums - Flamingo Lilies.
14. Double click on one of the TFLAN Flowers material presets to apply that color ot the selected USCT Anthurium LR objects.
15. Repeat steps 12-14 to apply other colors to other USCT Anthurium LR selections.
16. Render the image.

Oh, yes, I did modify some surface settings of the palm trees, because the default colors were too blue, saturated and dark for my taste. That is a personal choice, based on the trees I see where I live, the lighting I chose, and how the render looks on my monitor. I'm not going to dig into those settings here.

barbult

Here's another view of Crossing 1 and Tropics 5 with the recolored anthuriums.In this one, you can actually see the crossing (sort of).

Mark_e593e0a5

barbult said:

Tugpsx said:

barbult said:

If you own Tropical Flowering Anthuriums - Flamingo Lillies, you can apply those materials to the USCT Anthurium LR in the UltraScenery Tropics ecologies. After building the Tropics scene, select some or all of the anthuriums in the scene and apply the selected color material. The UltraScenery anthuriums come from the Tropical Botanica - Understorey product.

Here I colored most of them red, some pink and left some white.

While in learning mode, do you mind a step by ste of how this scene was created? I would like to duplicate the effort and use some of these assets along with learning a few tricks. 

There isn't much customized in this scene, except the anthurium materials. These are the steps and settings I used:

1. Run UltraSceneCreator.
2. In the UltraSceneCreator Scene tab lower contrast to -49 to create a flatter terrain.
3. Select Feature Crossing 1 and Ecology Tropics 5.
4. Build the scene with ecology seed 530 (randomly chosen) and Extend Forest checked.
5. Load UltraScenery lighting preset USC Late Morning (came with original UltraScenery product).
6. Place the camera near the north edge of the terrain, on the path, looking into the scene.
7. Adjust Render Settings EV to 12.5 and Crush Blacks to 0.2. (Tropics is very dense and dark. I wanted to brighten it a little.)
8. In Render Settings, set Dome Orientation Y to 20.
9. Set render aspect ratio to 16 by 9, dimensions 2000 by 1125.
10. Put a sky image with clouds into the DS Environment pane as a backdrop.
11. In the DS Scene pane, expand UltraScene>UltraScene Terrain>Misc Plants Layer.
12. Select some of the USCT Anthurium LR objects (not instances).
13. In the Content Library or Smart Content (I prefer Smart Content) open the product Tropical Flowering Anthuriums - Flamingo Lilies.
14. Double click on one of the TFLAN Flowers material presets to apply that color ot the selected USCT Anthurium LR objects.
15. Repeat steps 12-14 to apply other colors to other USCT Anthurium LR selections.
16. Render the image.

Oh, yes, I did modify some surface settings of the palm trees, because the default colors were too blue, saturated and dark for my taste. That is a personal choice, based on the trees I see where I live, the lighting I chose, and how the render looks on my monitor. I'm not going to dig into those settings here.

You are 100% sure you would not do a (commercial) tutorial? It would be an insta-buy for me. 

barbult

Mark_e593e0a5 said:

You are 100% sure you would not do a (commercial) tutorial? It would be an insta-buy for me. 

I'm 100% sure. I'll answer your questions here for free, when I'm able. Totte did a commercial tutorial available in the store.