The windows are about the size of the windshield of the shuttle. They are huge though but I already mentioned that. (4X10) Probably the fact that they are huge glowing boxes vs openings into a lit room make them stand out more close in. I just do not have the time to properly cut them in. I had considered making them smaller but TOS has already shown floor to ceiling windows in stations and other pressure buildings.
Some more refinements to the opening, dark areas will have some sort of detail in such as observation windows and navigation lights, not sure how I will do the meatball lights (ones you see on the connie's butt) Be they 2 lanes or not, unsure if this is how it is managed on carriers or airstrips. Also yanked off all the round geo for the interior as I doubt that will add anything. I am planning to add braces and stuff but it is not top priority ATM as this entire area will not be seen. I did narrow the opening a bit to allow some "room" for roll up pressure doors for emergency closure. Tempted to do a mini flight deck in the first step of the opening so there would be an array of "garage" doors on the 2 long ends of the opening then this leads to a much larger space with flight decks on either side. Re-spun the other pods too so they match up for now. (dunno why but I was back to smooth pods, hope all the crashing earlier did not loose me work heh. I think mostly it is from cloning cutting and chopping up of parts. Instances often do not survive well to the editing.
On another note, I have decided to axe all the sensor greebs along the saucers, I will be doing a stepped bracing that you see in various locations of the hull. I might be adding some smaller sensor like greebs and windows long this. I just think it will look more fitting to TOS than open pits of detail EXP at the size it is.
Scale wise I was worried it was too close to Vanguard but looking at things it is larger in span but girth it is more than 1/3rd the volume. Probably could verify with a scaled mesh of it though.
Top down to give an idea of size.
Re-spun groups and a few renders to show how it looks in frame. Have not spun the windows or cut out clearances for those larger observation ports as I am not sure I will go with them. I might just use those slots as sensor modules instead.
Messing with the main dome with the idea of a large observation/mess hall, an atrium. Likely would be split as I do not want a ceiling of windows. The blue is to denote it will be painted some color. Not liking seeing the stupid vray light gizmos are casting shadows. . . . Debate too is to do a spike or have a large beacon just sitting on the top. Paint area likely will grow some in size as it looks a bit small here.
Looking nice!
If I remember correctly, there's a checkbox somewhere where you can turn off "cast Shadows" of the light source, as in the rectangle won't cast a shadow. But this was 8 years ago..
instead of doing procedural, or instanced trees in an arboretum, try some png trees, would look okay from far away, or through some thick glass. something quick and dirty.
It turns off shadows on the light emitted not the gizmo.
I wont be populating the room per say as it will be at such an oblique angle. Least for now but likely it will be more of a lounge full of tables and chairs with maybe plants in dividers and boxes. I have done transparent pngs in 90s video game fashion in the past EG 2 polys in a X pattern and even flat mapped treelines (tsukuru and onimaru) If I remember though Vray will often render shadows from the poly not the transparent PNG.
Now with jambs, the window glass really makes them look thin. I really need to look more into the glass to see if there is a way to make it look like something is there. Be it fakery or not.
OK this one sorta works but boy chews up the cpu. Stopped it so lots of noise but meh should do for now.
That's looking really good! Would you perhaps be interested in the perspective-offset OSL shader / fake interior stuff I figured out for Vray and 3dsmax? Helps you get around the need to cut massive amounts of windows like this in, and works in both GPU and CPU rendering modes.
Here's a realtime demo of the same shader running in unity, or something very similar:
As for the Vray Light casting shadow thing - I'm curious if it's actual shadows, or being seen in the VRayDirt material, if you have one on that hull under it. If you do, setting the "ignore invisible objects" works great in CPU mode. GPU requires a bit more tweaking.
Anyhow, I really love it, can't wait to see more!
Yeah definitely will have to look at it when I get the time. I need to figure out how your getting those windows to snap to the hull though sans any clipping or other freakiness. In the past when I tried to use snaps for this I could never get it to work right so I never tried it since. Gonna guess the shader is in the DL listed in the video??
Yeah what are you using to snap those planes? I am guessing by the shape of the floating menu it is likely something from the ribbon menu?? ( I have it off as I hate the space it wastes) The one that pops up goes by so fast I cannot pause in time to catch it. I hope those menus are stock max vs any sort of add on or script lol.
Found it NORMAL ALIGN BUTTON. . .
The light gizmos are definitely the dirt shader shading them, as turning it off removes the shadow. I am running next 3.1 right now and there is no option to ignore invisible objects in the roll out ( I am guessing you mean in the shader settings) Pretty much a noob with vray as I have not really had any motivation to learn it lately. Basically using it cause I have it and mental ray is , well dead.
I do have a license for next5 but I have not transitioned yet as I am not willing to risk it while i have open jobs. I will have to some day as I keep finding my version lacking fixes to issues I keep having. I am pretty much stuck with max 2019 though as I refuse to RENT max.
OK I think I found it "normal Align" but it does not operate how it is in the video, no preview or any idea how it will look EG I gotta guess where it will go based on where I clicked on the origin object and placement object. Might be a different tool or method at work, I just have to move on and get back to work.
Poop I cannot open the mat files to deconstruct the work. Probably more of the 2019 vs 2021 file crap. Just loads blank libs and reloads cause errors.
Walled in and my cheapo park trees added to some cyl inside. Not what I plan to put in there in the future but for what I need it should do.
And here is the reason I am not so concerned about it. It is just blue bits of light and crap in the end. Final size might be 50% larger than this render.
EDIT (just adding to this post vs post flooding)
Some spun nipples. Dunno how much of this sort of crap it should have on it. . . .
46 emplacements in total. 10 per disc, 16 on the central core. X2 as each is a pair. I think well enough of them lol. Torps I think I will keep only on the core in 2 rings of 3, total of 6 pairs.
Most everyone I know outside of 3d forums using max dumped it about when MR was bought by nvidia, or quit it when it went subscription. So I know very few people using vray let alone vray for max. Only ones I know are here on these forums. Best I can say is at least is is similar to Mental Ray for me to get by. It so far is mostly an issue due to version conflicts as most everyone is long past version 3.2 and there have been a lot of fixes or additions to the render since then. As such I find fixes to present issues and it always involves some setting not present on my version.
Torp housings, really clunky but never going to get this close to them. Bits stolen off one of my other model as I likely would have just used simple tubes.
More issues with vrays light gizmos, no real decay settings. I see the cut off option but there is no in view example of the results meaning lots of rendering as I set arbitrary settings. I do wonder if this is the purpose of this setting. Idea is to eliminate lights after a certain distance cause at default they are set to infinite or whenever the default decay ramps them down. Which is far longer than the station is so it is lighting crap up that is far enough away it should not be picking up light. Only option I have found is to TMP fake it and point the lights at an angle and distort the gizmos with the scaler (if that works with vray gizmos not tried yet)
Image 1 shows light collecting on the dome. You can also see this occurring in the spire renders in the last post.
Anyhow would be cool if there is any way anyone knows to "show" the cutoff in gizmo so I have an idea where it is set? That or if there is another way to go about this. Maybe I am doing it wrong lol.
Render of the cut off set to 0.5 (whatever 0.5 is, guess it is some multiplier maybe) Anyhow light still needs tuning I think too bright and fat.
Oh also spent most of the day attempting to figure out why flat physical glass makes distortions like a barrel lens with the same glass material applied to the dome which looks proper, maybe a small bit of over distortion but not as visible as the flat pane which was like a half mirror effect. Oddly only fix was to use a shell modifier (found a post mentioning it) but All it really does is make a sealed fishtank of my glass pane. So I dunno. For now it kinda works so meh and it si only on those tall windows around the rim.
Sample of the lighting, dunno. I kinda suck at placing drama lighting lol. Maybe radiating out from the center on either side of those window recesses?
Also a few renders having a go at gizmo lights vs hdri. Ignore any strange smoothing effects as those are detached panels or objects in symmetry so the uvws are getting screwy.
Think I need to address those large rim windows though just seem way too big.
More lights some stuff int he bays adjusted rim observation windows and I forget what else, decals or something.
I need to address the docking collars again as it seems the lower control rooms are not lit. Really tempted to put the entire thing on a extending arm so I can just "hide" the others not in use behind doors.
Posts
On another note, I have decided to axe all the sensor greebs along the saucers, I will be doing a stepped bracing that you see in various locations of the hull. I might be adding some smaller sensor like greebs and windows long this. I just think it will look more fitting to TOS than open pits of detail EXP at the size it is.
Scale wise I was worried it was too close to Vanguard but looking at things it is larger in span but girth it is more than 1/3rd the volume. Probably could verify with a scaled mesh of it though.
Top down to give an idea of size.
Seeing I have a shadow issues with those cutouts in the disc. Dunno if this is cause the cutouts cross geo combined with not enough lateral edges?
Dunno about the larger window modules. Eh.
If I remember correctly, there's a checkbox somewhere where you can turn off "cast Shadows" of the light source, as in the rectangle won't cast a shadow. But this was 8 years ago..
instead of doing procedural, or instanced trees in an arboretum, try some png trees, would look okay from far away, or through some thick glass. something quick and dirty.
I wont be populating the room per say as it will be at such an oblique angle. Least for now but likely it will be more of a lounge full of tables and chairs with maybe plants in dividers and boxes. I have done transparent pngs in 90s video game fashion in the past EG 2 polys in a X pattern and even flat mapped treelines (tsukuru and onimaru) If I remember though Vray will often render shadows from the poly not the transparent PNG.
OK this one sorta works but boy chews up the cpu. Stopped it so lots of noise but meh should do for now.
Here's a realtime demo of the same shader running in unity, or something very similar:
As for the Vray Light casting shadow thing - I'm curious if it's actual shadows, or being seen in the VRayDirt material, if you have one on that hull under it. If you do, setting the "ignore invisible objects" works great in CPU mode. GPU requires a bit more tweaking.
Anyhow, I really love it, can't wait to see more!
Yeah what are you using to snap those planes? I am guessing by the shape of the floating menu it is likely something from the ribbon menu?? ( I have it off as I hate the space it wastes) The one that pops up goes by so fast I cannot pause in time to catch it. I hope those menus are stock max vs any sort of add on or script lol.
Found it NORMAL ALIGN BUTTON. . .
The light gizmos are definitely the dirt shader shading them, as turning it off removes the shadow. I am running next 3.1 right now and there is no option to ignore invisible objects in the roll out ( I am guessing you mean in the shader settings) Pretty much a noob with vray as I have not really had any motivation to learn it lately. Basically using it cause I have it and mental ray is , well dead.
I do have a license for next5 but I have not transitioned yet as I am not willing to risk it while i have open jobs. I will have to some day as I keep finding my version lacking fixes to issues I keep having. I am pretty much stuck with max 2019 though as I refuse to RENT max.
Poop I cannot open the mat files to deconstruct the work. Probably more of the 2019 vs 2021 file crap. Just loads blank libs and reloads cause errors.
And here is the reason I am not so concerned about it. It is just blue bits of light and crap in the end. Final size might be 50% larger than this render.
EDIT (just adding to this post vs post flooding)
Some spun nipples. Dunno how much of this sort of crap it should have on it. . . .
46 emplacements in total. 10 per disc, 16 on the central core. X2 as each is a pair. I think well enough of them lol. Torps I think I will keep only on the core in 2 rings of 3, total of 6 pairs.
As said, my Vray experiences ended in 2015, having learned just the basics. Got my by, but should have learned more of it. Owell.
Image 1 shows light collecting on the dome. You can also see this occurring in the spire renders in the last post.
Anyhow would be cool if there is any way anyone knows to "show" the cutoff in gizmo so I have an idea where it is set? That or if there is another way to go about this. Maybe I am doing it wrong lol.
Render of the cut off set to 0.5 (whatever 0.5 is, guess it is some multiplier maybe) Anyhow light still needs tuning I think too bright and fat.
Oh also spent most of the day attempting to figure out why flat physical glass makes distortions like a barrel lens with the same glass material applied to the dome which looks proper, maybe a small bit of over distortion but not as visible as the flat pane which was like a half mirror effect. Oddly only fix was to use a shell modifier (found a post mentioning it) but All it really does is make a sealed fishtank of my glass pane. So I dunno. For now it kinda works so meh and it si only on those tall windows around the rim.
Also a few renders having a go at gizmo lights vs hdri. Ignore any strange smoothing effects as those are detached panels or objects in symmetry so the uvws are getting screwy.
Think I need to address those large rim windows though just seem way too big.
attempt to sharpen the shadows by shrinking the gizmo size and increasing the multiplier, meaning it is at 3500. . . . .
No matter how small windows are, on space-going structures they will seem too big.
Maybe we should just embrace picture windows on space stations and space ships.
I need to address the docking collars again as it seems the lower control rooms are not lit. Really tempted to put the entire thing on a extending arm so I can just "hide" the others not in use behind doors.