What do you know, I turned my Bryce on and it still works?!

Will wonders never cease!?!

Lol...this reminds me, I got a few freestuff links to go dig out and bring back to you all. One can never have enough toys. NEVER. ;o)

AgentSmith

Interesting bubbles and pits textures you have there, AS.

Thanks Fran! Mesh texture and the floor texture are both DTE procedural textures. I'll also zip up that scenefile and post it up along with the other links to other stuff, (when I get them all found, lol).

AS

very cool

Good t see someone has time, music has consumed what little real life I have since retiring from here and after my cpu melt down haven't even reinstalled Bryce. No room on my replacement confuser to be honest. sigh.

OMG! Smithie & Bobby in the same thread. I thought you guys had gone to meet the big renderer in the sky!

Not yet! If Bryce lives, so do we! ;o)

Okay, first free toy - how I made the object in my Bryce render there.

I stumbled across this piece of freeware that creates interesting little 3d widgets and best of all, all you have to do is play with the sliders. It outputs in the .STL 3d file format, so you will need another piece of freeware called "Mesh Lab" to convert it. It's all fairly simple but I will put a quick step by step on what I did specifically, in case there are any questions.

• Download "SculptGen.zip" - http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~sequin/GEN/Sculpture%20Generator/

• Unzip it and run "generator.exe" in the "bin" directory folder.

• Play with sliders and make something!

• NOTICE the one slider in particular called "Grid Detail", it will increase the resolution of your mesh (number of polys), I maxed it out to 16.

• Save your settings = Click "File, Save File". Give it a name and click "OK". It will save it in the same folder as "generator.exe" (it will not have a file extension)

• Save your 3d file = IMPORTANT, you MUST type in the ".stl" after your prefix name (or you could overwrite your saved settings file). (i.e; test_01.stl)

• Download, install and run "Mesh Lab" - http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

• Click "File, Import Mesh". Browse to your .STL file and open it.

• It may give you a "Post Open Processing" window, just click "OK".

• Click "File, Export Mesh As".

• Choose .OBJ from the "Files of type" drop-down and click "Save". That's it.

• I started up Bryce, and imported the .OBJ

• Its polys are rough, so I selected the mesh, clicked the "E" button to Edit Mesh.

• I played with the Edit Mesh slider until I got "49" and then clicked the Checkmark and let Bryce smooth it out. It smoothed out really well.

That's it!

AS

BTW, I will also be getting the links together for a boatload of free HDRI's and a zipped download of my Bryce scenefile(s).

(and yup, I will be posting in the Freestuff forum first!) (that's still a protocol, right?)

Oh yeah, FYI...did you know that free 3D files from Thingverse, that are meant for physical 3D printing can be converted and used for regular 3D software like Bryce? Yeah, didn't totally occur to me until recently (jeez, lol). So, browse Thingverse, download stuff you like, convert those files (they are also .STL files), convert them to .OBJ with the previously mentioned "Mesh Lab" and then import into Bryce!

Thingverse - https://www.thingiverse.com/glitchpudding/collections/math-art

Mesh Lab - http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

This is an object from Thingverse in Bryce.

Okay - Now for FREE HDRI's!!!

As, I just posted over in the Freestuff forum; https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2896495

Here are two places to get some VERY nice HDRI's...

First up is Joost Vanhoutte - http://joostvanhoutte.com/hdris

He has a pack of 26 free HDRI's (at the very top). All of them are 3,000 x 1,500 except for 3 of them, which are 12,000+ pixels wide. Just insert email address and they will send you a link. Worked fast when I did it.

NOTES;

• He has also included in the zip, the same .hdr's converted into .tbsky files, (which are just .hdr for use in the program Marmoset Toolbag 2). I just deleted these files, myself.

• Three of those are actually (very large) .exr files which do not exist as .hdr's so, I converted the .exr's to .hdr's with freeware program "Picturenaut"

• Picturenaut - http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/

Used here is his HDR called "TrainStation02.hdr"

Second site with free HDRI's

NoEmotion HDRs - http://noemotionhdrs.net</http:>

These are some serious HDRI's! They are LARGE both in dimension and file size. So far, all the ones I have downloaded are 15,000 x 7,500 and weigh in at around 300Mb EACH. So, take care in choosing which ones you want before downloading. Did I mention there are 150 of them? They have them set up in categories and each file usually has 3 different download mirror links as bandwidth is usually being exceeded.

I'll mention that freeware program again, "Picturenaut", as I used this program to load the huge HDR's and resize copies down to 4k to 2k for faster loading during the tweaking stages - http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut</http:>

Used here with the HDR named "08-08_Sunset_A.hdr"

_AgentSmith posted at 12:51PM Sun, 22 November 2015 - #4240179

Okay - Now for FREE HDRI's!!! First up is Joost Vanhoutte - http://joostvanhoutte.com/hdris

He has a pack of 26 free HDRI's (at the very top). All of them are 3,000 x 1,500 except for 3 of them, which are 12,000+ pixels wide. Just insert email address and they will send you a link. Worked fast when I did it._

AS, it just says "name a fair price", nothing about inserting an email address, and although it SAYS free, you can't click on it and download it. I can't figure out how to do it.

Easy peasy. ;o)

Directly above the "I want this!" button, is a "Name a fair price: $" field, just type a 0 (zero) in there. Then click the "I want this!" button, give them an email address and they will mail you the link. (It's 1.4GB, and compressed into a .rar file).

Staggeringly brilliant!

Got it now AS, it's downloading now... still downloading - it must be huge.

DOWNLOAD my Bryce 7 scenfiles below! Do whatever you want with them, enjoy!!

AS

www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_01_a.zip

www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_02_a.zip

www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_04_c.zip

That's it! Keep Brycing!!!!

I like them all but I can't wait to take a real close look at that last one. Thanks so much AS. I'm gonna be a while downloading the NoEmotion HDRIs, I'm loving the night ones, but I'm not so sure why there are so many day ones, when they look so alike.

My faith in the Brycing community has been restored!!

Unfortunately I think those hdri's must be too big for Bryce 7 on Windows 10 - Bryce keeps crashing when I try using them.

"I think those hdri's must be too big for Bryce 7 on Windows 10 - Bryce keeps crashing when I try using them.

APOLOGIES! I forgot to mention in this forum about the freeware called "Picturenaught" - http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/ - Use this software to open, resize (smaller) and save out smaller copies of the HDR's. The Bryce scenefiles I have uploaded just use HDR's that are just 2,000 pixels wide. They originally are 15,000 pixels wide.

AS

Using Picturenaught to resize the 15,000 pixel wide HDR's;

• Click "File, Open".
• Broswe to HDR, double-click it to open it.
• After it is loaded, click "Image, Resize Image".
• I myself, didn't change any of the various settings.
• Except for the "Width", which I typed in "2000", then clicked "OK"
• Then click, "File, Save As" and then I gave it a different name. (example "02-04_Garage.hdr" was renamed to "02-04_Garage_2K.hdr"

That's it, then just use the smaller HDR, it will work just great! (and the smaller version will use WAY less memory) In my experience, a 300mb HDR went down to 6mb. After you get a scene exactly where you want it, you can always THEN swap in a larger version of the same HDR (but, I myself, normally do not) I almost always use the an HDR that is just 2,000 or 4,000 pixels wide.

AS

hdrlabs... is that the same place that does HDRShop? Is it possible to get HDRShop to work with Windows 10? I can't get it to open any of those HDRi's, I get an error message: And then HDRShop crashes. I've now downloaded PictureNaut - is it possible to get a shortcut for it on the Windows 10 desktop? (I'm having a lot of problems getting win10 to work as well as win7.1 used to - I hate windows10)

By the way - looking at these images with PictureNaut they all look a good deal darker and dimmer than the lovely images on the NoEmotion web page. That's rather worrying.

"hdrlabs... is that the same place that does HDRShop?"

• Nope.

"Is it possible to get HDRShop to work with Windows 10?"

• No idea myself, I use Win7.

"is it possible to get a shortcut for it on the Windows 10 desktop?"

• I can only guess that the operation still works the same in Win10?; browse to the executable in either Windows Explorer or in the "Start, Programs" (if you even have that in Win10?) right click on that executable and choose "Send to", then "Desktop (create shortcut)".

"looking at these images with PictureNaut they all look a good deal darker and dimmer"

• That can sometimes be normal, depending on ones computer setup but no worries, HDR's have a huge dynamic range and can be lightened within Bryce. (basically, doesn't matter, don't worry about it)

Interesting thread. Large HDRIs use a lot of memory and tone-mapping even more. How much I measured and compiled into a 3 page PDF if you're interested. https://horo.ch/docs/mine/pdf/HDRI-MemUse.pdf.

That is some amazing testing work and data compiling (as always), Horo! Thank you!

AS

One more render. You can download this complete Bryce 7 scenefile here; www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_05_a.zip

Again, this one has a mesh that I made in the "Sculpture Generator" freeeware that is mentioned above. This scene worked out well and I was able to implement a few little tricks I like to do;

• AFTER the HDRI was locked down, I turned on Fog and made it near black and with the right settings, it gives that dark gradient in the background horizon.

• Since the HDRI gave very blue reflections, I chose to go with the slightly opposite color of green for the mesh, so as to really set it apart. I also gave the ground plane a subtle red color. All these opposed colors help make the scene a little more dramatic.

NOTE - The scenefile only has only one difference to the image I am posting here, I had turned on the IBL soft shadows to a setting of 25.

Enjoy!

AS

For convenience, here are all the Free Download Links to everything that I have listed from all the various postings above;

Sculpture Generator (Creates abstract meshes) - http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~sequin/GEN/Sculpture%20Generator/

Mesh Lab (Converts .stl files to .obj files) - http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

Thingverse (Free 3D Meshes in .stl format) - https://www.thingiverse.com/glitchpudding/collections/math-art

Picturenaught (Resize giant HDRI's to a more use-able size) - http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/

Joost Vanhoutte (26 Free HDRI's) - http://joostvanhoutte.com/hdris

NoEmotion HDRs (150 free HDRI's) - http://noemotionhdrs.net

My Bryce 7 scenefiles;

• www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_01_a.zip
• www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_02_a.zip
• www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_04_c.zip
• www.kirkdunne.com/files/Import_05_a.zip

Keep Brycing!

AgentSmith

Many thanks for the scene files, Smithy, and of course all the links.

No problem, you're (all) very welcome! ;o)

AS

Nice to see the familiar names from the past, I have not used Bryce for over a year as I have had so much else on my plate. Now have the new 5K 27-inch iMac, so incentive is there again :)

Question 1: Are you back!!! This is classic A.S. stuff.

Question 2: I know you have a real job. I also know there is only 24 hours in a day in the universe. So, how do you do all this? Do you have some sort of time software zipper to get 36 hours work and sleep in one terrestrial day?

1.) Eh, never truly left? But, MUCH more of my time had to be shifted to work (the kind that pays the rent). But, I always check this forums postings.

2.) My off time is random but when I do have it, it might be for a week at time, maybe even a month. Gotta fill the hours somehow. How better than with some Brycing!

AS