I got it because of a tree Complaint Thread
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This is what I've been lusting over:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152444
..I don't see the fan config listed, I'll have to Google around. The above machine should be fine for a couple of years until something faster yet comes out (lol)!
There's a non-SSD 12GB version for about $1300 as well, than can be expanded to 32GB of RAM. I blow hot and cold on SSDs, so once I get the cash I'll have to make a decision.. urgh. :blank:
Then, I need to upgrade my tablet PC to a Core i3 based one, since the tablet is my travel machine. This machine will end up a backup sytem in case things Go Horribly Wrong(tm).
..And Still, It Renders.. but The End Is Near! :ahhh:
I guess that's one way to get them to leave the nest... bit harsh though... o.O.
;-)
It finished! Without crashing! :bug: :gulp:
I give you - The Guest! :vampire: I think it needs to be darker in the back, but the laptop needs a break.. it's worke soooo hard, so just some MP3 playing for now! :coolsmile:
Spooky! O.O... and small! >_o... did you really render that at 640 x 512?
... you can post bigger images (up to 2000x2000) - the forum upload process will scale the "thumbnail" down - my last one was 1000x2000px... (^_^)d.
...save 200$ more and this is what you can get.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231090
According to the ASUS site it is supposed to come with Win7. Just looked at both Newegg and Tiger Direct and both have it bundled with Win8 instead. Apparently this is a vendor ":upgrade". I wonder if you can specify Win7 as I so dislike Win8's UI and dependence on hidden toolbars/menus.
I guess that's one way to get them to leave the nest... bit harsh though... o.O.
;-)
We researched it once her mothers fire and found they have had recalls on batteries. He had a desktop to keep him going but we replaced it pretty quick.
Spooky! O.O... and small! >_o... did you really render that at 640 x 512?
... you can post bigger images (up to 2000x2000) - the forum upload process will scale the "thumbnail" down - my last one was 1000x2000px... (^_^)d.
I rendered it small because I knew a huge image would render for DAYS, and I have no desire to wait for days to see how it turns out! :blank:
If I had a real 3D machine I'd risk something bigger but this little Core i5 laptop isn't really up for anything bigger than 800x600. :down:
That machine looks pretty good.. bookmarked!
It's going to be 3-4 months AFTER the Portland vacation before I can even thnk about buying a new machine.. saving up takes a while, sigh, and this time I want as good as I can afford. No more cheaping out! :gulp:
I prefer Win7 but I suspect I'll have no choice but to Win8 it.. meh. :blank:
..did you use Nerd3D's fog tool?
It is a real memory hog during rendering (I used it to create the "fade out" on the bottom portion of the background in my Dogfightin' Dolls pic, the time difference between having the fog turned on and off was something like 3 hrs 20 min).
There are a lot of different adjustments and "morphs" (in the Poses folder of the runtime) for the Fog Tool that can help make it look more random and wispy. One thing is you have to watch how the individual fog planes are oriented with regards to the rendering camera so they have a "smooth" appearance. Granted, it took me a bit of experimentation with the settings to get it to look right. Also, don't be afraid to kill a render process part of the way through if things are not looking quite right. I do that all the time. The one good thing is 4.6 is a lot more stable than older versions and the old 3Delight memory leak issue has apparently been dealt with.
I used the fog tool in this old pic to give it the forested background a more misty look using one o f the wispy settings, (took forever to render with both the transmaps and fog).
..did you use Nerd3D's fog tool?
It is a real memory hog during rendering (I used it to create the "fade out" on the bottom portion of the background in my Dogfightin' Dolls pic, the time difference between having the fog turned on and off was something like 3 hrs 20 min).
There are a lot of different adjustments and "morphs" (in the Poses folder of the runtime) for the Fog Tool that can help make it look more random and wispy. One thing is you have to watch how the individual fog planes are oriented with regards to the rendering camera so they have a "smooth" appearance. Granted, it took me a bit of experimentation with the settings to get it to look right. Also, don't be afraid to kill a render process part of the way through if things are not looking quite right. I do that all the time. The one good thing is 4.6 is a lot more stable than older versions and the old 3Delight memory leak issue has apparently been dealt with.
I used the fog tool in this old pic to give it the forested background a more misty look using one o f the wispy settings, (took forever to render with both the transmaps and fog).
Nice pic! :coolsmile: :cheese:
Yeah, that's Fog Tool Deluxe. I'm thinking about trying the same shot with the atmospheric fog cam, and them maybe using volumetric lights or the voumetric camera.. I just wish I could exclude some of the lights from the volumetric cam, but there it is.. maybe UberVolume to the rescue! I need to find the manual for Ubervolume.. sigh.
Turning the shading rate up to 2 seems to help, and killing some lights to try to darken the scene. This is going to take some experimentation, I just started with the fog tool because I thought of it first (lol)! If I stick with it, I'll check out the pose settings.. I recall using this for ground fire once.. hmmph.
Almost beer time, w00t! :coolsmile: (beer emote)
...the only thing with the Atmospheric Cameras is they affect the entire scene and don't work for creating a low laying fog effect like you are trying to do here. Another thing you can do is adjust the opacity of the fog in the surfaces tab as well, that is what I did in the Fairies pic.
Haven't messed much with the UE volumetrics myself yet.
I had started the scene out ith one of the presets that came with the Vampire Chapel, then messed with it and added the fog and the ghost. I just now deleted the UE2 from the scene and it's rendering a lot faster, not to mention is darker and moodier (which is what I want).
I really need to take a break but I keep coming back to it.. lol.. argh! :red:
I had an SSD as the boot drive on my old desktop. It was fast booting into Win 7 but it died after only a bit more than a year. I don't think the speed performance was worth the added cost.
I've been using Win 8 since the first public beta and it's been my primary OS since it launched. I find it faster (as in more responsive) than Win 7 was and the only difference between my desktop now and my desktop on Win 7 is the fact that Win 8 doesn't support the Aero glass UI transparency stuff that was nothing but shiney anyway. The only time I see that Win 8 start screen is when I hit the Win key to either launch one of the apps that's right there or search for a seldom used app. Otherwise I stay in "desktop mode" and not Metro mode.
There are some hidden menu things but they're hidden so to be honest I don't know what they are :). I initially created a couple of desktop items for Shutdown and Reboot but I've since installed Start 8 from StarDock that basically brings back the Win 7 start menu which I really only use to get to control panel or the shutdown/restart commands. If you run into a Win 8 app that insists on running in Metro mode you might also check out Modern Mix also from StarDock that will let you run most of those in desktop mode.
All in all I find Win 8 isn't that much different than Win 7, just a bit more responsive and more secure.
I've been finding that most lighting presets that use UE end up to bright for my tastes so I end up turning it down.
If you're just doing test renders you can also select the UE light in the scene and then in Smart Content you should find the Set Quality presets (also under Light Presets->Omnifreaker->UberEnvironment2 in the content library). Setting that to low quality will improve your render time a lot. Set it to 3 Hi or 4XHi for your final render and then go on vacation :)
With that scene I'd think if you put spots outside the windows shining in and down on the floor and then used the volume camera it could be pretty cool. It should give you a "godray" like light coming in through each window.
@Sisca: yeah, most of the UE2 presets are way too intense, for this scene it was better without.
I'm going to give the volume camera a shot soon-ish, if I don't quit for the night. :coolsmile:
...first thing I did with WIn7 was dump the Aero UI. I like having a visible task bar on the bottom of the screen for my most used apps. Win7 works for me without requiring a third party utility or hacking things to get them to work the way I like them. I can't even look at the Metro UI without getting nauseous as it is just way to busy and cluttered with gaudy over-sized icons. Maybe great for a tablet or smartphone which relies on a touch screen display to work, but not a workstation.
...first thing I did with WIn7 was dump the Aero UI. I like having a visible task bar on the bottom of the screen for my most used apps. Win7 works for me without requiring a third party utility or hacking things to get them to work the way I like them. I can't even look at the Metro UI without getting nauseous as it is just way to busy and cluttered with gaudy over-sized icons. Maybe great for a tablet or smartphone which relies on a touch screen display to work, but not a workstation.
Start8 was just to get the actual start menu back, as I said I really only use this for Shutdown/Reboot or control panel on the rare occasions I need it. I could just type WinKey->Control and hit enter for the control panel.
All my other apps run just fine in desktop mode which is part of Win8 no hacking required. Even things like Word and Excel 2013 run in that mode by default.
I don't have a huge issue with the MetroUI, it works ok on a desktop but I will agree that it just looks more like a tablet UI. I can see it working on a laptop with a touch screen or with a trackpad like the one on Apple laptops with the gestures and swiping.
This is what I see on my desktop for most of the day (well with either Chrome or Daz covering most of the icons).
...but what about Excel/Word 2K? That is what I still use (hate that stupid ribbon thing they replaced the menu bar with in those apps plus they screwed up a lot of the hotkeys I usually use)
Almost done - I like the scene better, it's darker and the spirit stands out a bit more. I think I'll re-enable the distant light and turn it red, then dim it down to add a more ominous tone. :vampire:
Then I need to make the spirit glow.. been fighting the flourwcent haders off and on.. that's tomorrow night! :cheese:
Next cut - too dark in the foreground, but I think the distant light will help there. The ghost isn't near done but I like the position and the pose, so it'll be tomorrow night for sure.
WAY faster this time without UE2 and kicking the shading rate up a bit. :coolsmile:
Morning. Is raining and sunny with a chance of rainbows today :)
whoa fabulous :)
Goooooooooooooooooooooooood Morningggggggggggggggggggg! :coolsmile: :cheese:
whoa fabulous :)
It's getting there - thanks!!!!!!. I have a huge re-learning curve now that I've freed up time for 3D work.. and while this laptop is faster than the last one, my demands are also greater. :blank:
I'm going to start one last render (yeah, right) for the night with a red distant light dimmed down a ways.. should add atmosphere. :vampire: Don't know if it'll finish before I got o bed, though.. :blank:
Don't fall asleep :lol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuYoEtEI_go
It's getting there - thanks!!!!!!. I have a huge re-learning curve now that I've freed up time for 3D work.. and while this laptop is faster than the last one, my demands are also greater. :blank:
I'm going to start one last render (yeah, right) for the night with a red distant light dimmed down a ways.. should add atmosphere. :vampire: Don't know if it'll finish before I got o bed, though.. :blank:
Lighting is an area where less is more most of the time ;)
OMG When and where was this?
Somewhere in Russia
Somewhere in the store is a tute by someone how to export a genesis CR2, just can't recall what or who...
I use Office 2013 now, upgraded from 2010, so I can't say how 2k will look but it should be the same. Win 8 doesn't change the UI for any of your old apps so they'll still work the same as they do in Win 7.
I kind of like the ribbon in Word, not so much in Excel. Of course, for Word I can do 99% of what I need just using the hotkeys since I've been using it for so long. Excel I can do some things with hotkey's but more complex stuff I always relied on the menu's which I have to dig for now. Not a huge deal for me since I don't really use it that often and when I do it's for really basic stuff.
I'll also admit that for serious writing I tend to use Scrivener and for quick notes I'll use Notepad++ since I have it open for working with code anyway.
I'm not suggesting that anyone go out and upgrade an OS that's working perfectly fine, I'm just saying that when you do get a new box that has Win 8 on it it won't be as bad as you fear.