Uss Cutlass

skyhawk223 · April 2nd, 2004, 05:47 AM

Hey kids. I was playing with the Cutlass the other day. trueSpace has this annoying bug in which the lights tend to change position when you open a previously saved file. Very annoying when you nav and position lights are not 15 units away from where you placed them. So I deleted the lights and made a scene that didn't need them. I also went a little overboard on the rays.

Thomas P · April 2nd, 2004, 06:03 AM

Good touch to pull in the red from the clusters of gases / stars in the background.

skyhawk223 · April 2nd, 2004, 12:02 PM

Thanks. trueSpace has a lighting setup library. One of the setups was called "sunset". Hence the reddish/orange lighting. I then found a related background image from APOD and added a light with the glow applied. Thanks for the comment.

Thomas P · April 2nd, 2004, 02:06 PM

What rez / size are the images you are using? How big in size are you limited to, if at all?

skyhawk223 · April 5th, 2004, 06:07 AM

I try to keep my background images no smaller than my screen resolution (1024x768 in this case but varies depending on which computer I am using). That image above is 1065x771.

trueSpace's maximum render size is 8192x8192 although I haven't tried to render anything even close to that large.

What's the largest Max can do and have you used that resolution for anything?

April 6th, 2004, 05:18 PM

Hmm. I'm thinking that the star is very bright but that the lighting on the ship is very soft. With that bright a star, the lighting on the ship should perhaps be more contrasty.

Thomas P · April 6th, 2004, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skyhawk223

What's the largest Max can do and have you used that resolution for anything?

To my knowledge there is no maximum size but you are limited by memory. I've read that you can tile images that are very large and then stitch them together. Realistically there are no reasons, other than print (poster) to go very large at all.

The largest output I have done is 3500x2625 at 150dpi output.

The reason I ask about backgrounds is for quality issues. I use very hi-rez and large format backgrounds, typically the size of output above, but render the image at a reduced size (1024x768px). The larger, hi-rez, images are better than small JPG files. Does TrueSpace make you use backgrounds the same as the output size?

skyhawk223 · April 7th, 2004, 06:32 AM

Masao: It would probably help the scene out if I turned down the light shining from behind the camera. That would provide more contrast. If I still have that scene saved, I will try that.

Thomas: I can use any size background I want. I only use screen resolution size images as a minimum. Several of the images from APOD are twice that size. The only reason I would use a smaller rez background image is when I am rendering something smaller than screen rez.
Does Max do the tile stitching, or would you have to do that in your favorite 2D app?