Here's the reason why I had asked some weeks ago about greebles. It's, of course, a WIP... there's a lot more of the ship that needs work. The trees are just placements for now, that's why they are all the same. The skull is a marker for something that will be there. Not worried ATM for the high ambient setting of the ship's material.

So far it renders quick, but the greebled stuff makes working in wireframe ultra slow. There's several outer rings of greeble work, each is a poly bomb. There's to be 20 of these. Two are present.

I like the topic ...   the background ship is terrific...  the sand texture is very good too...  The skull makes an appropriate touch to the scene.... 

This should be interesting. So far it looks like a great concept.

How about the view as box option in wireframe mode? that might speed it up a touch. Looks promising!

Ahh, the classic Angus McKie spacewreck scene; always nice to see it revisited. I think there's another 3D version in the galleries here somewhere.

Looking forward to your final.

Greebles? Aren't you a cardinal? ;-)

maybe it's an outreach program..;)  I tried something where I textured the non-greebled parts, and just used a mat on the 'default' material.

or you can 'cheat', and replicate and rotate the sections, so they look 'different'..just some ideas...

Replication, like Pakled said, might be the way to go. From that angle, you're only seeing about  1/3 of a greeble ring.
Also, Bryce has some weird sort of pseudo-instancing going on. At least I think so.

@ PJF: The Angus Mckie painting has always been in my mind for years, and has always been one I've always wanted to do, but my own version, not a direct copy. This shall be my humble attempt. I think the artist in Renderosity you saw may be scarab1. A search for "shipwreck" will show his interpretation.

@ Pakled and dvlenk6: I think that is good advice, to greeble the visible parts. I shall do that.

@ Alexclark: The box view option is on... but the challenge is when replicating or doing copy/paste of the greebled ring.... takes 10 min in Bryce 5 to paste, 5 min in Bryce 6 on a dual core with 2 gigs RAM. I didn't wait for the replicate function to finish just doing three of them. It took more than an hour to save 4 of them rings. Need 20 of them.

I used my favorite CAD program to make the rings, well actually a single panel of the ring. The outer ring is made of several arcs. The diameter is nearly a mile.

Here's some more WIP.

Here is what I'm refering to as the outer ring. There should be about 20 of these. Some with missing panels, some complete, some warped and distorted from the crash/weight of the ship. Simple greebled work here.

Here's a more detailed view of the engine of the ship. This includes an inner ring where more greeble work is, but not shown in this image. 

It's got a real "Chris Foss" look to it :)

Attached Link: Skull Image

Oooh I've got an old painted picture like that... it's still up on my old website...  Not as good but the same theme.

Maybe Bryce 7 will have cloning/instancing and distance poly reduction, so we can all load up billions of polygons and not worry about the puter breaking.:)

It's already been announced that Bryce7 will have instancing. I wouldn't hold my breath for distance poly reduction.

Well, I'm super happy to hear that.

I've always loved this Angus McKie illustration - an aboslute classic! The sense of scale is just awesome. It was referred to as "The Wreck of the Jancis Jo" I think in theTerran Trade Authority Handbook called Spacewreck. Can't wait to see the final version of your tribute to this scif-fi classic, D@M! It looks stunning already!

Now, can someone please explain to me exactly what a "greeble" is and how you go about making them? I would love to have a go at a complex ship such as this, and greebles (whatever they are!) seem to be the way to model such complexity. There is an exact model of this very ship available at turbosquid.com, but I'm into making my own stuff!

Attached Link: Death_at_Midnight's "Greeble Question" thread

@Sunsethunter: Several definitions from several sources: greeble(s): To add random detail to a surface. Usually created by adding geometric detail like small randomly sized cubes or other geomtric instances. A small piece of detailing added to break up the surface of an object to add visual interest to a surface or object, particularly in movie special effects. Detailing that helps give a model a believable and interesting appearance, working together with the colour scheme and shape of the MOC. This includes all sorts of things from clusters of mechanical looking elements on the side of a ship, brick-built* guns and engine areas, to brick-built cockpits and controls. Some programs can do this natively, some do it with plug-ins, etc. D-at-M had a thread about how to accomplish in Bryce this not too long ago; check the link attached for more info.

Thanx Rosemaryr for the translation of greeble - that was just what I was looking for! I've heard the term a bit, though never knew what it was until now. Thanx too for the link to D@Ms 'Greebles' thread - now I can make them too! I have been doing something similar using PS already, but I like this 'all-Bryce' solution mentioned in that thread.

Thanx again!

I had hoped to submit this for the Old Stuff challenge, but I might not make it in time.

@ SunsetHunter: I don't have the Shipwreck books, instead I have one from 1978 "Space Wars, Worlds, and Weapons" by Steven Eisler. The book covers various Sci-Fi themes, of which one is that painting by Angus Mckie. It always stayed in my mind. My version will not be a duplicate of his work, but will be similar (I hope). Scarab1 here in Renderosity did a model of the ship that matches closely to the painting. It's for sale at Turbosquid for like... $125. I just rather do my own models. ;-)

Looks great! Very nice greeblage on the ship, and I thought I spotted a nurny, or two. ;-) I know what you mean about the modeling; if you know how and you're able to make satisfying models it's just more fun to make your own. I did my own Bryce take on a spaceship crash a while back. It's a fun theme.

Problem I forsee is a distance object (assuming miles away in the haze) never works well with a cloud base thats preset above it. You almost have to use a no texture sky or one that is heavily hazed so that the background sky barely shows though, other wise in theory that sky is literally a hundred miles up etc.

@ Danamo: good eye! I'm temporarily using OriginalMoron's cylinder nurny thing in the inner ring part. I say temporary now, but who knows.. Thing is, once a model gets complex, the temporary things have a way of staying on.

D@M - I'd not heard of that book before where you first saw that Angus McKie picture - might have to track that one down! I've always loved scif-fi illustration, spaceships in particular, so was instantly attracted to the works of Chris Foss, Peter Elson, Angus McKie etc.

I saw that model on turbosquid.com - I agree- I'd rather make my own. Bringing one's vison to life is all about putting in the effort, and that includes modelling (well, in my book anyway).

I do hope you can get your image done in time for the challenge - it'll look superb! When I first read your notes on the challenge - "a ruined spacehip in a desert" - I immediately thought of the Angus McKie picture! Best of luck with it!