Art for games

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Yeah. I got Daz 4 Advanced for $50, instead of $230 (I pretty much need the advanced versions anymore), and Reality 2.0 for $20 instead of $80. So, I managed to save a good $200+ by upgrading over Christmas. Which I turned around and spent on more content.

Reality has a sharp learning curve, and it is processor and time intensive. I'm running an 8-core i7, and MonkeyFist has an identical computer, so I export rendering to him as well. So, that picture of Meagen took nearly 20 hours to come out. The picture of Aven took only 8, because it's just using the Sun as a light source instead of several lights throughout the room.

Reality is NOT for the weak of heart. But, it is awesome.

Oh my. I should reconsider this then - I thought it had GPU rendering support by the way? I have an i5, 4 cores no HT. I run it at 4.3 GHz. I also have a now mainstream 6950 and was hoping to make good use of it since none of the games I have can push it to its limits. I really am not going to render for 20+ hours - 8 is more doable. So, do you think Reality would be a wasted investment for me?

Cheers...

[Mark Skarr]

It depends. This picture has only been cooking for an hour on both computers (16 cores). Keep in mind I do "large" pictures. My pictures are, usually 1024x1325. I've got a hand-full of 1920x1080 (which won't be posted here due to characters I'm not willing to share copyright on).

Usually, I'll work on a scene before I go to work or bed (like now). And I'll leave the computer to render all day/night. Reality doesn't render like Daz or Poser, where you tell it to render and wait for it to finish. Reality just renders and lets you decide when it's done. It updates the screen as often as you'd like it to (me, I have it update every minute).

You're looking at needing about 1,000 samples/pixel for a high-quality picture. The picture above has around 310 s/p. Some pictures need more than others. The picture of Meagen needed about 4.3k s/p. The picture of Kalyn was 3.1k s/p.

If you're just using Daz for fun, and only using it occasionally, then you don't want to splurge on Reality. But, like me, where I use it constantly, it's an investment. And it really makes a difference.

(Rob, when that picture gets done, I'll put it on Bob's site for you guys to use, if'n you think you'd use her.)

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

It depends. This picture has only been cooking for an hour on both computers (16 cores). Keep in mind I do "large" pictures. My pictures are, usually 1024x1325. I've got a hand-full of 1920x1080 (which won't be posted here due to characters I'm not willing to share copyright on).

Usually, I'll work on a scene before I go to work or bed (like now). And I'll leave the computer to render all day/night. Reality doesn't render like Daz or Poser, where you tell it to render and wait for it to finish. Reality just renders and lets you decide when it's done. It updates the screen as often as you'd like it to (me, I have it update every minute).

You're looking at needing about 1,000 samples/pixel for a high-quality picture. The picture above has around 310 s/p. Some pictures need more than others. The picture of Meagen needed about 4.3k s/p. The picture of Kalyn was 3.1k s/p.

If you're just using Daz for fun, and only using it occasionally, then you don't want to splurge on Reality. But, like me, where I use it constantly, it's an investment. And it really makes a difference.

Ah, thanks for that. Progressive rendering, now that definitely is something to think about. I usually do full-screen native res renders (currently 1080p) so reality will be slow for me but I think I can wait and catch a deal (too bad I missed the festive season).

Cheers...

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Mehmet

Thanks for this. Looks like my wallet will see some little black holes in the near future.

Here - have a little something to make the wallet shock a little less painful (assuming you make your purchase this calendar month), so you have more money left for games.

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

It depends. This picture has only been cooking for an hour on both computers (16 cores). Keep in mind I do "large" pictures. My pictures are, usually 1024x1325. I've got a hand-full of 1920x1080 (which won't be posted here due to characters I'm not willing to share copyright on).
...
(Rob, when that picture gets done, I'll put it on Bob's site for you guys to use, if'n you think you'd use her.)

In that outfit, she probably lives in one of the Crystal Cities of Venus... so, yes, I think we can use her. (grin)

Do you mind if she becomes a villain, or would you prefer she stay on the "good" side of the morality slider?

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by robkelk

Here - have a little something to make the wallet shock a little less painful (assuming you make your purchase this calendar month), so you have more money left for games.



In that outfit, she probably lives in one of the Crystal Cities of Venus... so, yes, I think we can use her. (grin)

Do you mind if she becomes a villain, or would you prefer she stay on the "good" side of the morality slider?

That was a £30 save, I owe you a lot of pints :)

Edit: yeah, leap of faith, bought both DAZ4 advanced and reality. I will figure out a way to make this work or will just switch back to XP 64 (no, I won't actually).

Cheers...

[Mark Skarr]

Here is the final version of the girl in red. That was after 10 hours and had 2.93k s/p.

My native res is also 1080, but I tend to do my renders for a more useful printout on paper. And, if you use Reality, here's a final word of warning: don't use "Exterior" for any scene. It's been borked since Lux 0.7 and they haven't fixed it yet. It doesn't allow for true transparency and objects set to null ghost into the image anyway. Really, really annoying.

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Here is the final version of the girl in red. That was after 10 hours and had 2.93k s/p.

My native res is also 1080, but I tend to do my renders for a more useful printout on paper. And, if you use Reality, here's a final word of warning: don't use "Exterior" for any scene. It's been borked since Lux 0.7 and they haven't fixed it yet. It doesn't allow for true transparency and objects set to null ghost into the image anyway. Really, really annoying.

My intellect knows that this woman is impossible but my eyes tell me she is real. I think I'm in love with Reality.

Cheers...

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Mehmet

My intellect knows that this woman is impossible but my eyes tell me she is real. I think I'm in love with Reality.

Bruno, you've got another convert.

Yeah. That's why I like it.

I have two pictures that I use to demonstrate why I switched to using Lux, full-time. I can't post the Daz render here as Pink's dress in it is practically transparent (erring on the side of caution), but the second picture comes out so much better (if you check my photobucket, the first picture is PinkDance03DSJ.jpg). I would have stopped working on the scene in Daz as I couldn't make it do what I wanted. But, it only took a few tries to get Lux/Reality to do what I wanted.

Keep in mind the only differences in the picture are:
#1. PinkDance03DSJ was rendered in with the Daz Studio Renderman engine and PinkDance03LuxJ was rendered with Reality and Lux.
#2. There are fewer lights in the Lux scene as Lux needs only the lights you're using, instead of additional lights to brighten the scene up.
#3. Eight hours.
#4. The File Name.

I've posted both of them on Bob Schroeck's Access Denied page to demonstrate, a while ago. I'm not even sure where I put them, but I think they're in the HandofBobb thread for Fenspace.

[Mehmet]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Bruno, you've got another convert.

Yeah. That's why I like it.
<snip>

I know I'm derailing this thread but yeah, the engine is amazing. Can't wait to start playing with it...

Cheers...

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

Well, you might like Meagen, a character I did for a friend. She's still slender, but a bit meater than my normal characters.

Oy, that's a good one, very nicely done.

(I'm assuming you were aiming for a Slavic moll.)