This is a SINGLE Procedural Ridge Cloud made using SWELL
(See Lower Threads for link).

Previously I had been grouping SEVERAL Camera Facing Billboard clouds as a GROUP and saving them as a VOB. This worked OK, but I still had CFB Clouds at ODD ANGLES. Using a SINGLE CFB is the Trick That WORKS!

Note that there are STILL some issues with some banding. This MIGHT be do to having shadows ON when I save the CFB Cloud. Running another test now...

ALSO- this technique renders 10-20 TIMES FASTER than using 3D Volumetric Clouds! Try this with 3D Clouds and watch your renders S L O W -to -a -C R A W L!

2D CFB ECO-CLOUDS render FAST!

Still some edge problems- still tweaking these. Will maybe send this over to E-ON to see if they know what's causing that...

Next render will get rid of the Funky Snow Covered Fir Trees and maybe try something Tropical...

CFB Eco-Clouds, while requiring a little light angle tweaking, are worth the effort, I think. E-on could still do some more to make this work even better- and I am sending them some notes I have made...

Sweet. Awsome technique. Now all I need is Vue Infinite ;)

Yee-haaah! Excellent research Veritas777! Hope this one goes to the Backroom.

(I got a bit of NOISE in this render, however. Normally I would post it out but these are just experimental renders anyway...)

Still some strange memory handling issues with Eco-Clouds and Eco-Terrains. One over TOP of the other can cancel the second one out. YET- if I slide the second one OVER and OFF of the first one- I can make it work again (like repopulate) and THEN I can slide it back into place.

Definately an ECO-BUG- as I don't think E-ON has thought of using eco-terrains like this (one over top of the other.)

I plan to make lots of different Eco-Cloud Systems- including some Tropical RAIN SQUALLS that have high tops and dense rain falling beneath.

Oh yes, one other thing I like about these ECO-CLOUDS is that they CAST SHADOWS! You can get beautiful LONG Ray-Cast Shadows with these types of Clouds...

Awesome Veritas. You always come up with such innovative concepts. Cheerio lululee

I'm still getting to grips with Vue5i, having come from a Bryce background, so my knowledge is extremely limited. But, my main concern with the above images is that the clouds in most of the pics are all obviously clones of each other. Not realistic - I've never seen 2 clouds that look the same. Is there any way to vary the images/trans maps so that the clouds all look different? Cheers, Diolma

Thanks Lululee! My REAL AGENDA is to get E-ON to further develop this concept and issue their own "Official" E-ON Clouds- because by doing so they will help solve a few of the remaining bugs that exist. Hi Diolma- Yes, I'm creating a large number of cloud types using the SWELL software and the Flight SIM Cloud Maps (see lower down threads for more info these softwares.) These are all the SAME SO FAR as I'm still in the process of determining the best methods for using the ECO-SYSTEMS process- AND how to best MAKE Cloud Objects. But certainly, I could load in 5, 10 or 15 different clouds (which I'm working on now) - and you would see ECO-CLOUD Formations with a great deal of "natural" diversity! My renders so far are just "tests" to prove the concept and hopefully get some others out there to experiment with it. In fact- it would be a good opportunity for someone who wants to make ECO-CLOUD PACKS, ECO-CLOUD SETS, etc. and sell or give them away. I can see Cloud Sets ranging from TOON Looking to REALISTIC looking. There is (or will BE) a MARKET for all sorts of clouds- just like there is now for Plants and Trees! Maybe we could even get TRAVELER to make some POSER CLOUDS and Vue users will BUY THOSE and import them into V5I- or even Vue 4 or Bryce even. It's a market thats READY TO HAPPEN...

Veritas -- The SWELL application crashes on startup on my PC, which is running Win XP SP2. Any advice for getting it to run?

I'm running XP SP1 and it works fine for me- but that probably isn't the problem. SWELL does use some Microsoft Visual Basic stuff- I THINK. Unfortunately SWELL is neither a well documented software- nor a polished release- but for me it has worked surprisingly well considering it was basically written by a Grad Student (and Jazz Musician) with no previous software to his credit. BUT-it did get him a job working for DISNEY- and more recently DREAMWORKS! But- back to the Crashing... I don't really know what the answer is- WAIT! I think I know what it is- GLUT32.DLL- that needs to be in the SWELL directory! Do a search on your computer for where it resides and then COPY it into the SWELL directory. ALSO- you need to be using a relatively recent ATI or nVidia Card (and drivers) for the procedural stuff to work right. One other thing- depending upon when you downloaded SWELL- I had placed a phone call and some emails to Purdue and got them to POST a couple of more little "help" and "Getting Started" links- so make sure you have those. It's nothing technical- just some basics on how SWELL works (previously you were forced to GUESS and HACK at it) so its a little bit easier to figure out. Too bad they haven't made a true Windows version. I actually think they could sell a LOT of copies to the 3D communities!

bookmark for when the swell running problem is sorted out error msg as follows error: GL 1.1 and up are not supported OW! Init Hardware Vendor: NVIDIA Corp Renderer: GeForce FX 5200/AGP/SSE/3DNOW! Version : 2.0.0 Max 3D texture size = 512 Init Interface... vertexcloud.cg 3Dglut.dll present in folder (comes with swell - not present anywhere else on machine)

Attached Link: http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?glut32

Here's my opening DOS screen- just before SWELL loads.

It says "Fragment Program Failed To Load" but that hasn't yet created any problems for me. It might be a separate test module- but SWELL works fine without it.

I know why I found GLUT32.DLL- because I already use MicroDem (a free Terrain-Mapping software) and MicroDem
installs it automatically. The DLL is used in many scientific programs associated with OpenGL programming.
I forgot that it isn't part of the normal Win XP install.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12368&Form.ShowMessage=2410250

These maps can be recreated using PhotoShop, which is what I'm doing now- building my own clouds for personal use.

Ah, OK Veritas, I'll keep watching this thread then..:-)

Cheers,
Diolma
Edited to add: In the meantime, I'll carry on looking for interesting skies and photograph them..

Message edited on: 09/28/2005 16:14

Victor Seven Seven Seven thats a negative on swell running with new DLL. Same problem as before, Over.