Modelling/texturing is nearing completion so here is a taste of our next project;

                                                    The Great Sea Gate

The Norsca Narrows had always been a problem for all concerned. Those small 'stepping stones' of land which divided the two great continents were the bane of the seafaring community. Firstly, negotiating the tiny islands and large rocks that lay a few miles to the north was a sailor's nightmare, the wrecks of the many vessels that littered this area bore testomony to it's peril. There were a few natural 'pathways' through this labyrinth but ships then had to contend with pirates or the giant Kraken which was often encountered but only occasionally by those who lived to tell!

Then of course there was the narrows themselves. A broken causeway with many places for ships to pass, but none safely. 'A no man's land of water.' To one side the great empire of the Neregeneth, a clever and ruthless race who had conquered one third of the western continent. To the other side the Maiyaks, an army of vicious and barbaric clan warriors and sworn enemies of the Neregeneth. Any ship passing through the narrows that were allies of either race ran the risk of meeting the enemy. Any ship that were allies if neither race were seldom seen again.

After almost a millennia of warring an allience was finally forged between the Neregeneth and the Maiyaks and a series of fortified bridges was built across the narrows and in what was agreed to be the central point, the Great Sea Gate was erected. This magnificent structure, with it's colossal sculptures of emperor Claymaar of the Neregeneth linking King Sotto of the Maiyaks in the famous 'Greeting of the Gods' pose served as a safe passage to and from the north for those who could not make the 'around the continent' trip of up to two years!  A fair toll was agreed upon with a third of it being put aside to maintain the gates and steam pumping stations and a third each for the Neregeneth and Maiyaks. The routes through the islands to the north were also policed by both sides, cutting piracy by half in the first year. The gate, when closed, had the added advantage of joining the two continents for the first time as on it's south side was brige wide enough for two carriages to pass! This bridge had a 'negotiable' toll at each end and opened up an important land based trade route.

Almost two decades after it's opening, a Neregeneth architect who had worked on the mechanics of the gate told on his death bed of a secret passageway which led to a tunnel through the arms of the two gigantic sculptures. The passageway was never found, however the rumours of it's existance created great suspicion among the Maiyaks and they doubled the guard at their end of the gate. The Neregeneth retaliated by sending a garrison of soldiers onto the gate 'for their own protection'. War broke out two moths later. The Neregoneth invaded the Maiyak capital, slaughtering the king and the clan leaders. The remaining Maiyaks fled to the waste lands, but not before poisoning their water and food supplies. The Neregoneth empire fell a year later when a plague caused by the contaminated water and food swept through their lands killing four fifths of thier people.

Story and sketches courtesy of Dark Anvil product designer, Joe Bailey.

This is a mammoth model. The gate would be some 150 feet tall at least. There is so much on it that it is a necessarily large file. We'll be dividing it up to make it easier to download so it may be in 2 or 3 product packs, or split according to software type.

1st rendered images will be available before the end of May, and we expect to launch the pack in June, so start hunting for that ship model to use with it!

Regards

Graeme McMillan - The Dark Anvil team

Wow! cool looks really excellent!

If ya need anyone to test!!!!!!!!!!_____________

Holy cow, this looks impressive. Perhaps you could consider an alternate version with Dragon Statues, too?

Coming into port. A sailors eye view of the winding house, looking up to the south tower.

The small building to the right of the winding house is the Port Authority house, where your toll should be paid. Unfortunately the tides out, so you'll have to come back later.

New model looks cool

Very cool!  Looks like an environment straight out of a computer RPG!

Progress continues. The Nargorath surfs have erected the main gates and carving has begun on the 2 main statues to hold the gates in place.

The gates are constructed from whole tree trunks assembled in a massive frame. Took some sorting but they got there in the end.

With some generous whipping, those surfs work fast so it shouldn't be long now.

Regards

Graeme

YOu can count on my sale. Simply awesome!!

Watching and waiting for its release. :)

The great statues are in place.

There was a minor scare when the ropes broke when winching one head into place, but it's there now.

The painters and decorators are in now.

Expect the Vue/obj versions in about 2 weeks. Poserising will be done separately.

Do look at our new model, the ruined Trollhouse. It's just a quick one to keep you all going for this big release, but we are pleased with it.
http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=47156

Regards

Graeme

Finished

1st render. Imported to vue and spent only 5 minutes on the scene. This is what you can achieve.

We'll post some release dates and prices here soon. Expect 2 to 3 weeks for product packing and testing.

It's a big model, as you can see. The emphasis has been on high quality. Users with low RAM may need to arrange scenes with boxes first and replace with the model for rendering, or render in layers. I have no trouble on this machine, but it does have 1.5gb of RAM.

Happy rendering

Graeme

Wow!  This is looking quite nice - good job!

Update...

The Seagate is ready. We nipped in the wonderful Derelict Barn item first (post is here)

For initial launch of the Seagate we have the Vue5 file. This was too big for a Renderosity submition. We will have it available at our new site this week though, here.

The poser library setup has been made and is undergoing final testing. It will also be available by the weekend. (we'll post here with links).

We'll look into ways of getting the Seagate into Renderosity friendly packs.

Many Renderosity user like to wait for the Poser files, but the Vue5 file can be purchased from Cornucopia now, here

Please do credit us in gallery listings so we can appear on the League Table one day.

Regards

Graeme
Dark Anvil

What is a League Table...............?  Something new to me. :)

Waiting patiently for Poser version :)

The models I buy I like to be versatile between different softwares...I use several and to date poser/3ds/OBj is the only one that offers that versatility.  I hate being restricted to one software.

Whoa! Looks awesome!

What is a League Table...............?  Something new to me. :)

Here is the 'artchart' league table link, it's just a bit of fun, and we are vain enough to want to appear in the most credited merchants column!
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/artchart.php

The poser library setup is all ready. The only one-off delay here is getting the digital download system up and running on our new site. Should be ready soon.

We need to divide up the model before we can submit to Rendo. It's too big as a single pack. That will take a little longer.

Regards

Graeme

However the good news is the model has now passed all tests and the delay with the download system should be over by tommorow.

The model loads and renders perfectly well in Poser 4, indeed it renders well on a 256MB RAM under XP on a 2ghz PC with the optional no bump map versions.

So heres another picture to tease you you a little more :)   

Poser  4 (and higher) and Vue versions are now on sale.

http://www.darkanvil.net/p_seagate.html

I am curious why the vue vob file is twice as large as the poser files.
 I am not very smart when it comes to these things but do notice a big difference in size. :)

Probably because the Poser version contains text files (the OBJ etc.) which are very compressible, the Vue VOB is binary and so much less compressible.

Thanks for that explanation.  I was curios why so big a difference. :)

"I am curious why the vue vob file is twice as large as the poser files."

So was I. :)

Nruddock is correct. OBJ files and Poser stuff apart from the maps) are literally large text files and so compress really well.

Vue has some quirks as well. A vob file with embedded textures is often the same size as one without embeded textures. I don't know why.

Vue 5 seems more RAM hungry than Vue 4 as well.

I had trouble loading the Vue 5 seagate on a 256MB/2GHZ/XP Home SP2, hence the cautionary note on the product page.  Whereas the poser version loaded fine on P6 on that box and a PC running Pro Pack under 512mb/98.   

Also, OBJs can be saved without the normal information which cuts the file size down a lot.

Waht i'd like to see is just one packagae for Poser, Vob and obj or a 3ds like chikako packages his models.  I am sure most would like a package like that if its possible to do. :)

For this product it would be far too large to have all in one download.

The decision to split the packages even on smaller buildings was made to help speed up the release process, and to continue to keep the prices low. I'm sure poser users who don't have vue would not want to pay for a vue .vob file.

Quote - Update...

The Seagate is ready. We nipped in the wonderful Derelict Barn item first (post is here)

For initial launch of the Seagate we have the Vue5 file. This was too big for a Renderosity submition. We will have it available at our new site this week though, here.

The poser library setup has been made and is undergoing final testing. It will also be available by the weekend. (we'll post here with links).

We'll look into ways of getting the Seagate into Renderosity friendly packs.

Many Renderosity user like to wait for the Poser files, but the Vue5 file can be purchased from Cornucopia now, here

Please do credit us in gallery listings so we can appear on the League Table one day.

Regards

Graeme
Dark Anvil

Graeme,

Did you try compacting the model as a .vob? Ive created some .vob versions and the savings is massive.

Generall consenus amongst buyers is the Poser versions are prefered.

I guess most folks work in the same way I do. Normally I just load a model, pose it then export from Poser into Vue.  

Though we could include the OBJ .MTL file as well if would that help vue users import the .OBJ without having to use Poser. 

Great idea and would be a big help mrsparky to have it included with the poser files. :)

OK will do on the next models.

Hi Chikako

The vue5 version is a compacted vob with the texture maps incorporated, which is how the model has to be presented at Cornucopia where we also sell. We don't copy protect our models there by the way.

Regards

Graeme