(Peng)

Quote - Would it kill anyone to make a decent (and recent!) outdoor set?

     Well, I don't know if they will pass muster, but I've made a few enviro sets, and I'm working on a massive -by Poser standards- enviro which will have several alternatives for terrain.  The first terrain is elvish Lothlorien, another will be a Mad Max outback wasteland with roads, another will be a contemporary urban setting (to accomodate TinkerBell's Drive-In Cafe'), etc.

   The difficulty in making a large enviro set for Poser is

• texturing all that real estate, and
• populating it with trees.

     I've found that as of P8 and the introduction of IDL, you're better off using mesh leaves rather than beaucoup transmapped panels.  I use (strictly convex) n-gons to minimise poly count.      As for the terrain texture, the old method of applying an image to the terrain at 1:1 scale is useless with a big set.  I'm using a texture-switching technique which randomly shuffles everything to avoid that "plaid/checkerboard" effect that comes with tiling an image map a hundred times, and RGB maps to specify bare wet streambanks, worn footpaths, and rocky hillside outcroppings.  It's surprisingly conservative of system resources, yet retains sharp detail even up close.

     In this shot (less than half of the terrain is shown), you can see the grass segue to muddy streambank, and there are footpaths meandering from home to home.  The material room looks horrid, but it's really just multiple copies of the same texture-switching logic, all driven by the selective RGB map.  All the little lights are props/figures which are IDL-active self-illuminated items.  The terrain is pretty big (see raw mesh shot).  Note the cottages on the plateau, and the bridges at the mouths of the streams are about five stories high.

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     With a handful of modest sized image maps, this massive terrain is covered, without that repetitive "plaid/checkerboard" effect, and yet it stands up tolerably to close shots.  This is Galadriel's grotto, in the FaerieWylde freebies.  The firepans and lampposts are IDL-active props.

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     This smaller playset (the lovers' bridge at Imladris) is a bit rough, but I built it in ten days, including the broadleaf plants and the trees, so it was a rushed job (to fill a blank day in the FaerieWylde Christmas freebie event).  Comes with optional IDL-active moonbeams.  Again, all the tree leaves, broadleaf ground cover, and ivy is mesh foliage, not transmapped.  IDL runs much quicker and draws less RAM with mesh foliage.

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(Wolf359)

Quote - A highly authentic Firemans outfit with O2 tank and those cool pry bar tools they use.

     I have projects waiting already, but I could add this to my "to-do" list.  I have insider knowledge on this topic. :D  The tanks are air, 5000PSI on ours.  We have several different tools, Halligan, Hux bar, Kelley, several specialized variations of ax.  And, there's the all-important spotty dog.  ^^

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Poser 12, in feet.  

OSes:  Win7Prox64, Win7Ultx64

Silo Pro 2.5.6 64bit, Vue Infinite 2014.7, Genetica 4.0 Studio, UV Mapper Pro, UV Layout Pro, PhotoImpact X3, GIF Animator 5