CompuServe Thread

#clouds gen.

12 messages in this thread
#122184From: ben barronSep 5, 1994 1:39 PM
I wish to make some clouds in 3ds3 not backgeound clouds ones I can run a path through so is there a cloud generator or a ipas that would do this ??? thanks Ben Barron
#122212From: Michael WendellSep 5, 1994 5:08 PM
Not exactly a cloud generator, but you could useYost Group's Vapor IPAS routine to generate swirling mists which can be flown through. m.
#122426From: ben barronSep 6, 1994 9:39 PM
Thanks Michael I have ipas-6 and will give it a try but I think this will be a long way from real looking clouds I got vistapro thinking it would make clouds but it only has clouds backgrounds. by the way have you ever seen any rough water in 3ds ? there is wave ipas but I have neathher seen it look like breaking seas do you know if some other programs for the PC address this problem or dose wavefrount or softimages ???? thanks Ben Barron
#122430From: Michael WendellSep 6, 1994 9:59 PM
I haven't seen anything that could generate realistic looking rough seas, with breaking waves and such. The complexity goes through the roof as soon as that first drop separates from the breaking wave! Even stuff on the SGI box doesn't really accomodate that degree of random motion in a complex interaction like a strong wave hitting a rocky shoreline. Maybe some kind of fractal-liquid-generator-IPAS remains to be written, treating the water as a particle system instead of the wavy surface we're dealing with now. Theoretically, I think, it could be a massive extension to Vapor or Flame, including particle interaction and collision detection. Imagine the horsepower you'd need to render that <g>. m.
#122476From: CyberdreamsSep 7, 1994 12:14 AM
one way to do clouds is to use a paint program, Make a gray scale image of clouds save out as gif. go to 3DS and use a combo opacity and brushmap of the gif apply your new material to the hemisphere and set your scean under it. I have had good results with useing two hemispheres one as a base color like blue and the other as my grayscale. Brandon
#122521From: Jim LammersSep 7, 1994 9:10 AM
>>Not exactly a cloud generator, but >> you could useYost Group's Vapor IPAS >> routine to generate swirling mists which >>can be flown through. Is it possible to fly through IPAS Vapor without killing render time? In my experience, when using thicker vapor, if the number of pixels that have vapor gets very high, the render time goes up astronomically. As in hours/frame! It's possible that there are more optimal settings that I am not aware of. Jim
#122532From: Yost GroupSep 7, 1994 9:55 AM
The vapor system is designed to be used for vapor trails, steam releases, smoke columns, etc. If you decide to fly through huge volumes of the stuff, it starts to become unpractical. – G
#122656From: Jamie Clay [DPh]Sep 7, 1994 6:29 PM
>> If you decide to fly through huge volumes of the stuff, it starts to become unpractical. Unless of course you take a tip from old movies and tv, overlay and repeat the effect! Render the sequence of flying through the vapor to a set of targas (with alpha of course) and 'cycle' that in Video Post over the 'real' action. Once you had the original fly through of the vapor, it would be easy to layer it on any scene. Just a thought… J-me
#122698From: Yost GroupSep 7, 1994 8:44 PM
Absolutely. Video Post to the rescue again! – G
#122718From: Jim LammersSep 7, 1994 10:11 PM
>>Unless of course you take a tip from old >>movies and tv, overlay and repeat the effect! … >> 'cycle' that in Video Post over the 'real' action. >>Once you had the original fly through of the >>vapor, it would be easy to layer it on any scene. Excellent idea! It's true that if one had a big library of pre-rendered flame/vapor effects, one could get much faster renders when they could use those instead of rendering within the scene (as long as the smoking/burning object was far enough away that its 2d-ness wouldn't be exposed). Maybe there's a market for a CD-ROM full of such renders? Jim
#122717From: Jim LammersSep 7, 1994 10:10 PM
>>The vapor system is designed to be >>used for vapor trails, steam releases, >>smoke columns, etc. If you decide >>to fly through huge volumes of the >>stuff, it starts to become unpractical. It creates incredible, beautiful effects. It's a remarkable work of programming. I know that the fact that it creates multi-layers of transparent objects is why it often slows rendering dramatically. Any comments on minimizing this effect? Perhaps a way to cause fewer layers of transparency without taking too much drama out of the effect? Jim
#122729From: Yost GroupSep 7, 1994 11:59 PM
I actually put an entire section in the readme.doc about how to optimize rendering times with vapor. Have you seen that? – G