Within the next week or two we expect the price of the Dystopia City Blocks 021-030 package to go up to $30. This will bring it into line with the other packages and at the same time we'll add some bonuse blocks (the city walls seen in the above render) which will also bring it into line with the other packages. Anybody who buys before then will get the package $5 cheaper and will still get the bonus blocks as a free download when they come out (as will all the people who bought the package in the past). Only a short time left to get this package at $25, people. If you've had it on your wishlist for a while, now's the time to buy.

Attached Link: Click here to go to store page

Here's another shot, showing what will be the contents of the package after the update. The three city wall blocks are the new content. One of them has a defensive gun with five moving parts.

I was rendering some of these blocks earlier today :)..fantastic models !

And... as Stonemason is here, i couldn't resist... Those blocks could really be great with some low res traffic... ;-) By the way, i have those blocks in my wishlist since a long time... I believe it's time to go to checkout...

heh..you just couldn't resist could ya ;)

this series is awesome, no doubt about it. But I was sure hoping for a sale at some point instead of a price increase. bummer. Its overall over my head, especially with having to grab all the stonemason stuff, although I missed that last one too before it went off sale. Don't take this wrong on Dystopia, I rarely buy anything that isn't on sale, even at Sears, or anywhere for that matter.

There's not really any likelihood of us having a sale I'm afraid, Dave-so. Frankly, the price is already rock bottom. A lot of places in the Poser world would charge you $10 or $20 for just one of the buildings off one of the 10 blocks in a Dystopia pack. It's part of the Dystopia team's philosophy to price things as low as we can, rather than putting them on the market at a high price and then having a sale to make you feel like you're getting some kind of deal that you aren't. That doesn't leave us a lot of room for price reduction. We do plan to release a combo package with blocks 021-060 that will be cheaper than than buying those sets separately, however it won't include any of the bonus blocks, so you need to weigh that against the price saving. Buying the individual packages will be the only way to ever get the bonus blocks.

Great news, Ajax! :o) This brings all the Dystopia City Block packages in to line. All the commercial packages each now have a series of bonus meshes... and we've gotten the pricing all in line. I suppose we should release some low-polygon traffic to compliment these blocks now. :o) Cheers! M

Been meaning to talk to you about low poly traffic actually, Moe. Stef already has some sky traffic in the works, but I have some ideas for ground traffic that I want to run by you. I'll send you an e-mail later :-)

Hiya Ajax, I'm not sure how hectic your schedule is, but I've been wanting to release some standalone freebies to compliment our free city blocks. I'd like to do another little series called Dystopian Monuments. The first one I would like to do is a really large temple like structure. This was actually a request over at the 3D Modeling Forum. Please let me know if we can squeeze this in. We can even start hosting our freestuff items from over at Team Dystopia even if the website still is under construction. I'll wait for the email about ground traffic and let's bundle those together with stonemason's sky traffic. :o) Perhaps we can ask Billy to mix up all our different low-polygon vehicles? :o) Cheers! M

Sounds good, Moe. I'll be in touch.

Sounds great !!!!

Dystopia sets rock! Bought them all so far - lo poly traffic would be great! Keep 'em coming guys :D

Another things that could be great is a set of alternate textures. The current textures are great, but we could use some varieties. Perhaps a more metallic or rusty textures ?

i suppose I could buy one set every other month or so until I have them all. Ground and sky traffic...now that's a much needed deal. AS far as pricing again ... I realize the work and agree the price is set at a good level. The overall quality is awesome. But I'm one of those frugal cheap guys :) I'm not afraid to admit it.

Dave-So... do you get the special offers from Renderosity for 10% off? If so, then there's a way to get it on sale! Team Dystopia... you know how much I use your products! It's always the perfect compiment when I need a city backdrop. Can't wait for the walls, monuments, traffic etc! hmmmm, wasnt I going to be added to a beta list...?? ;) Doug

Hello For the users :what about the texture of the buiding when yu render gros plan(near buildings).Someone have pictures? Thanks

martial, here's a "close up" on the wall gun from the picture at the top of this thread.

And here's a close up of one of the towers. The windows won't look like this by default though. These windows are a Poser 5/6 setting I've been working on.

Wow!!Thanks a lot.I 'll think about it seriusly for the next week.

You're welcom martial. Don't think too long, because the price will go up as soon as renderosity staff get to loading the update.

Ajax.: wil lthe settings also available with the update ? Looks great !

They won't be in the update, no, but here's a screenshot if you want to try it. This is the window_b shader (A and C are exactly the same, just with the corresponding colour and bump maps). To use this set-up, there are a few key things to remember: 1. Set the window_lights_b material to fully transparent (because this shader is already supplying the lights) 2. Make sure you have raytracing on. You're going to need a lot of bounces because buildings get reflected in buildings get reflected in buildings. I usually go for 12 bounces. 3. Make sure you use a skydome or that you add an appropriate background to the reflect node in the shader - you need some kind of sky to reflect in the windows when they don't reflect buildings. 4. Try different camera angles. You'll find some work a lot better than others. Try to make sure you get some sky reflected. If you only get pavement and buildings, it can look really dull. I've got this pack in mind that I occassionally tinker with. The plan is to have a few different texture schemes, P6 shaders, a sky dome, some atmospheres, some useful Dystopia python scripts (like a randomiser), figures that will pull all 100 blocks together and maybe some other stuff I haven't thought of yet. This window shader was made to go with that pack. It's all on hold until I get some other Dytopia products finished though.

PS...all of the 3 image maps shown in that shader are already supplied with any Dystopia City Block set, including the free ones. The reason I've shown the windowlights image map with the settings expanded is that the U and V scale and offset settings I've used there are important. The other two image maps just have the default settings.

Just for fun, here's one of my test renders from when I was last playing with that window shader. You can see my sky dome in the background too.

Why is it these buildings always look better when someone else is rendering them? :o( Those look awesome, Ajax!!! :o) I've started set 081-090, but I am still stuck with the bonus mesh for pack 071-080. I'm hoping we can get all 100 done before the year is over... nah... whatever will we do next year, my friend? LOL! Cheers! M

Really impressive ! And thanks for the shader ! M: If you don't know what to do next, why not doing a "In construction Dystopia Block", showing some building that are in construction (you see the inside structure, the wall aren't existing yet, etc...)

Entry/exit points for ground and waterborne traffic to complement the city walls would be a useful bonus. 'Dystopia welomes careful drivers' or some such. Also, is now a good time to ask about the status of the Hyperion Bar, street furniture and other Dystopia Destinations?

Dave-So, Since you're so bargain oriented, I thought you might like to know that two of our Dsytopia City Block sets are on sale over at Poser Pros right now. I don't know how long the sale lasts. I only know they're on sale because a couple of people bought them there and we got $3.50 each for each purchase instead of the usual $5. Meanwhile, Renderosity staff have just implemented the update for 021-030, so if you didn't get it at $25 before the price rise, it's too late now :-(

thanks Ajax :) yes, I noticed the new listing tonight ... bummer ... I missed it ...but I'm broke anyway right now. No dystopia for awhile until my wife quits giving away all my cash to those bill collectors.

Ajax, Those windows looks awesome! I agree with Moe, I can never get my Dystopian renders to look as nice. Fantastic work! Moe, I mentioned this to Ajax. If you are stuck on an idea for a new bonus mesh, I would love you suggest a Masamune Shirow style arcology. If I have the scale right it should be in line with the space port or Planetary gun mesh. If you are not sure what I mean, but are interested, let me know and I'll dig up some references. Low poly traffic would be a great add-on, and Ajax's comments on an add-on shader set sounds great! Team Dystopia has put together a truly wonderful and cohesive product line here. Top notch work! Shogakusha BTW, Ajax...do you really do all your renders in Poser?

Yep, I really do all my store/promo renders and animations in Poser because my customers are Poser users and it wouldn't be fair on them to show them the way the product looks in some other application, but I like Vue as well and I use that for some of my personal pictures and animations. Poser is actually a pretty good renderer these days so it's usually no hardship to do my renders there. With the material room, the new lighting options, depth cue and volumetric atmosphere I can usually get the results I want. Caustics is about the only thing I regularly find myself wishing for in the render engine these days - and some improvements/bug fixes for some of the existing features.

Hi Shogakusa, Yes, I would love to see some references to some Shirow stuff. :o) Perhaps you could send some links to me at moebius87@team-dystopia.com. We're always looking for interesting additions to this little project. Many thanks in advance! Cheers! M