but how would i be able to do that? i have not found an option for that to set.

i created 4 planes because the road level is lower but come to think of it i could create one plane and add a transparency or alpha mask i guess ...

and yes, the grass is very nice! thank the creator of stones-and-groundcover :-)

the grass material is grass-generator from the stones and groundcover package ... the mapping is world standard ... and i found that i also cannot add eco-system and populate.

so i saved the road stuff as an object, created a new scene, added 4 grass planes ... and now it works?!?

i guess somehow the file went bad ... it's been a long day at the office :-)

more great mouthwatering software tools! i need more time!!! :-)

thanks for the tutorial

i'm afraid  have no other measured times than the above mentioned. i was so busy completing the project that i wasn't able to do tests.

from what i have experienced i believe the tiling of the render is the most optimizable part. but also the network speed will determine how fast the overhead is handled.

before the actual rendering of a tile/frame starts the geometry and textures are distributed to all rendercows and after the rendering is finished the calculated image is collected at the host. this is what i call the overhead and what "get's in the way" of the pure rendering time.

also i have no experience with animations. i dont know if the overhead time is spent another way (does it send all textures at the beginning or does it start sending texture only if they come into camera vue?)

basically i would expect that the longer the render time is the more benefit you would get from more pc's. if single tiles or frames are calculated "too" fast then the overhead might turn out counterproductive.

as soon as i have more comparisons i will post them here ...

good luck
chris

first: i have no experience with roads in vue :-) having said that ... i have often heard that to create roads in a "controlled" manner a lot use GeoControl2 and export the generated terrain from there to vue ... i know there (www.geocontrol2.com/e_index.htm) in the forums you might find video tutorials that might help you in the right direction.

thanks! couldn't have done it without the help here :-)

as i have received so much help and assistance i thought i give you a short update.
(all images copyright lukas lang building technologies)

last week i was able to finish the viz renders for our kindergarten project.

for the grass i made a vue rendering with grass blades and used that pic to create a seamless pattern which i overlayed to the grass material in vue (in post). i just was not happy with any grass vue would show me :) maybe i have to play around more ... the people are aXYZ meshes, good for midground, probably not for closeups. the lower foreground grass hill was not liked to the image was cropped! easy and fast solution.

here i would have liked to have more time to work on the upper left corner. would want to create better road and neighbourhood ...

the two foreground babies, the grid on the roof and the background landscape was edited in as i did not have the time and ability to create that in vue in time. the rest is all vue GR rendering.

the first two images (all at 2400x1500 resolution) took about 10-15 hours with 3PC's and the last where i could use all 5PC's (all dual socket quad core xeon) over the weekend took almost 24 hours. all with final settings where i user defined sub rays to 10/10 and AA to systematic 5/10 100%

after my first "real" project with vue i am quite happy how well it works. esp comparing it to making trees and other natural stuff in maya or blender. the only thing i would like to be better is the AA of "technical" meshes (basically anything with straight lines) at lower resolutions. but i guess everything is optimized for natural chaotic stuff in vue and at higher resolutions required for prints the AA is ok.

I am working with Vue 7xStream at the office and have fallen in love with it.

Up until now working with the PLE at home has been fine. I could experiment, learn things and be OK with the fact that one can not use the files on any other computer and has the horrible watermark.

But the time has come where I want more :-)

Now I want to buy a "real" version for home use. I want to do hobby fun stuff AND also prepare stuff for the office while I am keeping the five rendercowfarm busy there and be able to use these files once I get back to work.

The missing upgrade path, where I could start with a smaller version and in time upgrade all the way up to the final version, is making me hesitate. I don't want to be stuck with a "smaller" and - in the end - unsatisfying Vue (esp since I know what the grown up Vue can do from working with it at theoffice). But also its difficult for me to just let go of the full price for Vue Inf at once. Maybe it's just psychological but I would prefer to pay 100USD a month adding modules until I reach the final version. And, no, I wont go to a bank and ask for credit for buying Vue. I would do this for a car but not for a hobby software. I would just not buy the software.

I understand that the current pricing scheme is targeted for big commercial studios and I am all for e-On to milk their cow and make even better vues. Sercive Agreements with 24h bug fixing and this kind of stuff will be worth alot for companies depending on the software. But private home users like me dont need that. And in this area I believe the distinction between home and business should be drawn. Not between "small" and "big" version of Vue.

That's my two cents

actually your thread made me start think what i would want ... i'll go and post my 2c there :-)

thx, i'll try these in my break now and see what they tell me ...

thanks for all the input ... working with vue all day in the office i would have thought that at home i want to take a break and do something else ... thoughts can be wrong!

this software - even with all its potential quirks, bugs and pecularities (although i have to admit i have been treated nice by vue so far) - is just so addictive! so i guess i have to get a new pc and a new big vue for home.

will have to start budget talks with my lady :-)

rendercowupdate:

ran another rendering with 4pc's today but this time i unchecked the "force tile size to 64x64" in hypervue. instead vue chose 5x5 = 25tiles and now i see all pc working 100% on all 8 cores each. and that is with GR!

so i guess with 64x64 the tiles where so small and rendering completed so fast that prep time for new tiles was slowing everything down.

the reason why i checked 64x64 was, that i thought a multiple number of the 8 cores will be good, but i guess 64 was way to much :)

i will do another panorama test soon. i had one rendering going (apx 4000xsomething pixels) and on one 8core pc it was slaving away for 3 days! i want to see if i do the same thing with more pc's if the panoramic rendering does split up between pc's ...

i dare to say it can stay complex even when you have passed the beginners stage. but that's what i love about it ... tickles my creativity button :-)

thanks for the woodmaker link, looks very interesting. but also i want to learn how to make wood effect in vue. even if its only for learning the FE better ...

i found the oak material ... and WOAH ... that will take some time to dissect the FE nodes :)

the more i study the function editor i get the feeling that this is part of a strange dimension you can get lost in!