Aye, I've been pondering this setup for quite some time... But I can't seem to get the scene to look busy enough. I've tried adding more and more vehicles, but alas, there really aren't enough pixels to do it all Brycean... One thing, I haven't turned the AA off for the central city tower terrain, it will be more sparkly and lit up in a final render... A few filters to bring out color, otherwise it's all Bryce. Ships made in Bryce, as well... Perhaps there is some kind of trick, or POV technique that I'm missing? Any thoughts or suggestions would be wonderful, and MrDodoBird, wherever you are, I'm interested in your take on this scene... (bows)

And here's the three ships I used. I made a track, a Path, and used that to make them spiral around the scene... Never done that before in a non-animation scene.... Up close they aren't much to look at, but I wanted them to render quickly and not add too much to the total time, which was ridiculous enough as it was with all those lights... Here's the silver ship...

I like that city, way cool...great atmosphere

And the smaller ship....

And the final, horribly textured freighter. The main problem is that the freighter ship is the only one you actually can make out in the main image. I dont' even like it, but thought it necessary... So, here this scene file sits, awaiting inspiration, and I thought i'd ask for some help on it! What's good, what sucks? What should I keep? Should I redo the vehicle system entirely? Any thoughts...?

The background reminds me of a football stadium....This is great so far, but I'd like to see this rendered at max settings.

the cetrepiece looks absolutely fantastic. but the outlying parts look like they need some serious randomization. that's really all that can be done in my opinion to make it look realistic. randomization and different textures. drac

Wow, that is a cool futuristic alien city. " Ladies and Gentlemens welcome to the Thunderdome of tomorrow...."

Wow, looks fantastic. Perhaps one ship in the near field of view, either coming towards the camera or flying away from , just to provide some more depth? Just my thought--either way, you've done a great job.

Whoa! Crazyness! That's insane! So much too look at. Very awsome. Well, the only thing I can think of for making it look more busy is the point of view. You have a point of view that's looking down on everything, making everything look small and insignificant. It's kinda like your whole image is background. (This sounds mean, but that is the furthest from my attempted meaning) All I mean is that there is no real subject, (except for the totally awsome tower in the middle!) but even that is looked down upon. If you were to bring the camera lower, maybe tilt it, it might make everything more dynamic. Really I think that's all it is, you're looking for depth and stuff, which is hard when it's all on one ground plane. (I think you were tyring to fix this with the ships. Oh, what if you were looking at the whole scene through a cockpit window! That would really give it a foreground, rather than just a background). But really, I don't know. It's a hard one. you could just keep adding more ships, but when does it get to that "overdone" point? Maybe if you added search lights or something, reaching out into the sky, making it less 2d? Well, good luck, I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Thanks for all the feedback! I think I'm going to try each of these ideas, in conjunction... Should be fun, perhaps I'll make a seperate scene for the cockpit and composite them afterwards...G ood call on the beam lights MrDodo, and I agree with you Drac about more randomization in the background area...

WOAH! That is sweet. I like the craft also. Nice. How about adding a light cloud layer and keeping it low. That or just dupe the hell out of the ships. Wait. Idea. Lots of open space, which looks cool, but what about some towers coming symmetrically from the paths going out? That would add some busyness to it.

Very effective textures and terrains.