nybt-forum-threads PBGV's BAT Thread

[Andreas Roth 629]

One thing that I'm missing in this configuration is a fast hard drive. For rendering purposes, it's probably not that relevant, but the WD Caviar Blue is a standard HD without anything that stands out. For a high performance workstation, I'd pick a fast HD or even an SSD. You can still store additional data on the HD, but install the OS and the most important application on the fast HD (or SSD).

[PBGV103 729]

SSD's are extremely expensive, so while I'd love to get one right away, I think I'll start out with this and move up when I have the extra money.

[PBGV103 729]

The university software distributor said they only sell upgrades for Win 7, not new installs.  So it looks like I'll be paying $270 for Win 7.  Kinda sucks.  So now my total is up to $1490.  Found new memory on newegg, that's 1600MHz with CL7, so I guess it would be underclocked to 1333MHz on my mobo.  Still don't know where I'm getting the money for 2/3 of this stuff.  I made some changes to the zanarkand building yesterday, I don't know how long the render took, but I took these screen shots midway through the render, when the computer started freaking out cause it was low on memory.  I streamlined as much of the geometry and as many of the materials as I could.  Is there a good way to maintain UV maps after attaching editable polys?  If I attach all the windows together, max no longer randomizes bump maps and none of the randomizing scripts I've tried seem to work with max 2011.

[Andreas Roth 629]

Originally posted by: PBGV103

SSD's are extremely expensive, so while I'd love to get one right away, I think I'll start out with this and move up when I have the extra money.quote>

... says the guy who wants to spend 700 bucks on a mainboard and CPU.  There's no need to buy a big SSD, I figure a 64 GB model should do fine as a start; I don't know US prices, but it's probably around $150-175 or so. Also, if your university distributor only sells Win7 upgrade versions, buy an older Windows version for a bargain (if you don't have one already anyway). Windows 7 will have to be reinstalled completely anyway if you're using Windows XP, so the "upgrade" is a full version, actually.

[PBGV103 729]

$700 on a mobo and cpu makes more sense to me long term, than $165 for a 64GB SSD which, between the OS and programs would quickly fill up. As far as the OS goes, what issues would I have going from 32bit winXP to 64bit win7? Is that even possible?

Also, I found a script for attaching groups of selected polys.  I selected a section of about 3000 mullion pieces and it's been attaching them for over 14 hours now...    It did the first group of about 1000 within an hour, but this is ridiculous.  I also have a few other large groups of mullions left to be attached.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

That is a lot of memory being used. When I use 3ds Max on my largest building it uses up to 45 to 50% of the RAM that not bad for me, but the other day I have copy and past the building like six times and it used up to 65% RAM. I do not know know how many object it is right know because I have group the objects a lot to keep the pieces together. I has 2,175,910 polys and 1,078,580 verts, and I think it took up to 30 to 40 mintues to finish rindering. How many objects and poly you have Paul and the render time?

Edit: I have un grouped it and I have up to 20,558 objects in that one scene, that a heck of a lot of items, you may have more do to your massive buildings, I just clone it over and over.

I wounder if there's a way to reduce the amount of f objects in making buildings, I have tried to make the perfect wall that I have seen in a tutorial that SimFox made in the past on sc4devotion, it have worked good juct a lot of connecting the line on the edges on the editable polys.

[PBGV103 729]

Cutting the object count down from 55000 to 30000 on my latest model took hours of work and made no difference in render times or the amount of RAM used in renders. It did, however, double the file size and cause max to freeze constantly. Good thing I made a backup copy before I did all of that.

[PBGV103 729]

Correction: Memory usage remained the same except for the final render pass where it dropped to 87% from the previous 98%, but the render took 5:00:26 vs the previous 4:45:34. I really don't understand why it used less memory but took 15 minutes longer...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Those are some long renders and it does dropped when it gets to the final renders, I do hate when it freeze up, and one time I got it on applying my textures, I had to use the task manger to crash. Oh, yea 55,000 is a lot of objects even 30,000 is still a whole lot. I should try clone my obejects again and see how my computer really perform, but there is no need for me to even bat anything that huge, it would take years to complete.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

30,000 is not a lot of objects, it is way to freakin' many. I'm no expert, but you probably won't see any significant results until you reach WAY under 10k. Also, how exactly are you reducing the object count? Why would it increase the file size if you are simplifying the scene?

You should only have a few hundred, or around 1,000 (if you are not quite perfect, like simfox's 5-10 object glory), in which case I doubt your machine would need to eat up all of your memory (since you have quite a bit).

At this rate, I'm going to need to make a tutorial, even if it isn't perfect (I sure as hell am not). There is no reason for the torment people are putting their PCs though to render, no, simply work in the BAT.

[PBGV103 729]

I turned the objects into editable polys and attached the ones ones with the same materials. I considered using boolean unions because it simplifies the geometry of the objects, but that takes much longer and often produces tons of geometry and smoothing group errors. The reason the count is so high is because I didn't attach objects with randomized bitmaps or bump maps. Obviously the same map is applied to the new object instead of what were previously the individual objects. I tried using a couple different custom scripts people recommended but they didn't work with max 2011 and google didn't really help.

I would need a script that applies a randomized sub-material to the individual faces of an object.

[PBGV103 729]

Well there's still not much going on here.

  Edited February 26, 2011 by PBGV103  

[PBGV103 729]

Should I worry about getting an nvidia quadro for iRay? It sounds like iRay is about to go mainstream for 3ds max. Plus how would SC4 run on a new workstation card? Would I need one GPU for the game and one for 3ds max?

[PBGV103 729]

Here's an old render of 299 Park Avenue from the north. Sadly I haven't so much as opened 3ds max in about a month. On a better note, my workstation computer is coming together, slowly. You can see pictures on my blog: www.manhattanmodels.blogspot.com

[harishna 847]

I wonder if you did find a randomize id script? I couldn't find one that worked for me until recently, it is actually a modifier, it works but it seems to have some cons to t as it seems that the objects need to be copies and not instances and it is easier to end up with the modifier applied multiple times nothing the undo can't solve but the good thing is that it works, so if you are still looking for one or if you got something better to what I am offering please let me know.

By the way nice building!

[PBGV103 729]

I've been using the randomization setting in the multi/sub material in 3ds max 2011. From what I've heard earlier versions didn't include it, but any script I've tried hasn't worked with 3ds max 2011. The only drawback to using this method is that you can't randomize/assign different material id's to different faces of an object. It's one id per object, thus making all of your windows into a single object put the same material on all of them. The problem I ran into with the scripts was they only worked with earlier versions of 3ds max.

[harishna 847]

http://forums.cgsoci...p/t-285096.html if you want to check it...it works with 3dsmax2011
  Edited March 11, 2011 by harishna  

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

That computer of yours is looking great, I wish I had something like that. One question how did you get rid of the black box and see through issue in 3ds max??

[PBGV103 729]

The black boxes and other rendering errors stopped showing up after I installed the updates for 3ds max 2011.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Thank you!!!!

[PBGV103 729]

I was bored tonight so I revisited 425 Lexington and fixed up the bump maps on the windows and the vertical scale so it's now 4/3 RL height instead of 6/5 or whatever I had it set to. I think I'll go ahead and fix a few other things on it as well like, the roof materials, hvac materials, ground floor windows/interiors, salmon colored granite, plants, LODS, night lights, etc. If you notice anything I miss along the way please let me know.

  Edited March 19, 2011 by PBGV103  

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great, I love the glass textures, so this is going to be a upgrade??

[Vlasky 1,803]

Great idea. Your skills improved drastically since the release of this one.

[Spike345 20]

I think it would be cool to somehow be able to see the retail stores logos and such that occupy the main level. It would make for a much nicer streetscape in the game.

[PBGV103 729]

Did some more work on 425, but there's still a lot to do. I made the windows metalic like they are in RL, and I think things are coming together nicely. An interesting side note, this only took 16 minutes to render, while the previous models I've worked on take 45 minutes to 4 hours to render a single view. The object count in this is about the same as 299 Park Ave. and that takes about three times as long to render, so I'm not sure whats going on. haha Maybe it's because this model is about 2/3 - 3/4 the height of 299? idk... The grey cement around the base is REALLY bothering me now, but I'm not quite sure of what to replace it with.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

OMG!!! I like the roof, before it was so clean. Yes that is a short render, maybe you have some errors with some objects or it could be th height diffrence in way the render take so long.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

So you are revitalizing this one? Interesting, the work you're putting into it so far is pretty grand.

About that grey cocrete ground plane there, you'd probably be better off to scratch that idea. I think the model would look better without it.

[PBGV103 729]

A little update. Still not done tho. How's it look so far?

[harishna 847]

I'll join the crowd the roof doesn't match, I also noticed a couple of minor things: first you may want to change the ground plane close to the building base as it looks like the ground floors are reflecting rooftops from other buildings, second the bump image used for the windows is now more evident, maybe tweaking the noise could help, I am no expert...other than that the model its coming along really nicely, I truly love it!

Regarding the rendering time I think the complexity of the materials/textures applied has a lot to do with it...

cheers

  Edited March 23, 2011 by harishna  

[PBGV103 729]

What do you mean the roof doesn't match?