The Renderfarm

TARDIS Maker

12:21 AM

@LateralTerminal Never trust friends :P

They're going to feel obligated to say it's good

You can get valuable info, but it's going to be high level and might need to be interpretted

@LateralTerminal Okay, I don't know what that's like

That's from after my time

@LateralTerminal what is it supposed to be made of?

I just can't get rid of the impression that it's too glossy

Specifically the top

The bottom looks pretty solid

TARDIS Maker

2:05 AM

Apparently Cities: Skylines was free to play for a couple days...

I wish I had known that so I could shout it on the rooftops :P

It's done now though...

gandalf3

@TARDISMaker I saw that and gave it a whirl

@LateralTerminal imgur kind of murdered it a bit.. I think I see some small scale detail in the jpg artifacts, but I can't be sure :P

X-27

3:04 AM

THIS is halarious:

Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan

►

@LateralTerminal Pretty good! It does look a bit too shiny though. Keep in mind, this in an anvil - hammered on often and chipped, usually covered in grease, dust, or other debris.

That looks like someone just took a wire brush and cleaned it off, then sanded off the imperfections...

TARDIS Maker

3:57 AM

@gandalf3 Nice! How far in did you get?

gandalf3

@TARDISMaker second to last city stage thingy

TARDIS Maker

The fun part is when you get to deal with crazy traffic problems

gandalf3

Those were just starting to occur..

TARDIS Maker

Second to last unlock?

gandalf3

yes

TARDIS Maker

3:58 AM

And problems were only just starting?

gandalf3

Unfortunately there seemed to be some kind of vram leak or something, and my framerate would slowly drop until I toggled the resolution..

@TARDISMaker just about

TARDIS Maker

You have to be the best person at that game I've ever heard of

gandalf3

:P I probably worked around everything by installing absurd amounts of everything instead of having proper transport

Is three crematoriums per neighborhood normal?

4

X-27

Why not just start out by making the streets... 8 lanes wide?

TARDIS Maker

Most people have huge bottle necks by the time they get past the basic necisity unlocks

gandalf3

4:01 AM

huh

TARDIS Maker

@X-27 That doesn't actually help

gandalf3

^^ intersections are the problem, not the lanes

X-27

@TARDISMaker high speed rails?

gandalf3

in fact, more lanes make the intersections worse..

@TARDISMaker I tried to emphasize public transport a lot, maybe that helped too?

X-27

Then just have a twisty network of one way streets? XD

TARDIS Maker

4:02 AM

@gandalf3 Exactly

@gandalf3 Probably

What was your approach?

Just lots everywhere?

X-27

Or don't use intersections! Why not make a city only made with roundabouts? XD

gandalf3

:D

X-27

(for the record, I have not played this game)

TARDIS Maker

@X-27 Actually a really good Idea

gandalf3

Sounds like basically all of Europe (or so I hear)

@TARDISMaker For transport?

TARDIS Maker

4:04 AM

I'm pretty sure I've had cities where just replacing an intersection with a roundabout fixed huge issues

X-27

Ohhhh! What if you built your city with a bunch of canals, like venice?

gandalf3

@TARDISMaker Basically, though I made some effort to centralize routes around schools and train stations etc.

X-27

you can have your citizens row around!

TARDIS Maker

@gandalf3 Yeah

gandalf3

So you could take the bus to the metro for e.g.

idk if the ai actually would actually do that though..

TARDIS Maker

4:05 AM

Okay, sure

@gandalf3 I'm pretty sure they do

gandalf3

neat

TARDIS Maker

I always take more of a public transport second approach

gandalf3

I didn't follow everyone around very much; zooming in seemed to accelerate the vram leak :P

X-27

Crazy idea. What if you only had one street? A really long street. It could twist and turn through the entire city, in a big loop!

I live on 4103856 Only Street!

gandalf3

@X-27 It'd be so tempting to put shortcuts between folds..

X-27

4:07 AM

:)

TARDIS Maker

My surface streets are usually fine, but freeway interchanges have always been big bottlenecks

gandalf3

huh

my freeways seemed pretty low traffic

well, there were one or two that were typically close to solid, but I didn't put interchanges on those

TARDIS Maker

Probably because you took advantage of trains?

gandalf3

@TARDISMaker Luckily the map I chose had some rails already, so I kind of hijacked those :D

TARDIS Maker

Full disclosure, the game is extremely slow on my computer

gandalf3

4:09 AM

ah

X-27

Or.... you could fix your transportation issues like this

1 hour ago, by X-27

Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan

►

TARDIS Maker

My cpu can't properly handle the simulation

gandalf3

I was getting easily playable framerates (on min settings) after toggling the resolution

TARDIS Maker

It probably runs at about half speed

gandalf3

So I was still gpu bound

@X-27 :DD

TARDIS Maker

4:10 AM

@gandalf3 You must have a pretty nice cpu...

But I usually stop working on a city around the time I unlock trains

Thats when it starts to get really slow

Also, the demand goes slower so game is just paced a bit too slow

gandalf3

@TARDISMaker Not really.. cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Xeon+E5420+%40+2.50GHz

@TARDISMaker It was definitely getting a bit uncomfortable to work with at that point

I was probably resetting the resolution every 5 minutes or something

TARDIS Maker

Wow...

I think I just put everything on min settings...

gandalf3

If I quit from a game to the menu and then load a map it'd start with like 3 fps every time

until I reset the resolution

(my first few attempts failed right off the bat, I didn't know how water or electricity worked..)

TARDIS Maker

Okay

gandalf3

@TARDISMaker Have you succeeded in getting hydro to work?

I built one but it never activated itself..

I was impressed by the water simulation though :D

TARDIS Maker

4:20 AM

@gandalf3 Maybe a bit?

I never really tried

I mostly stick with wind power

It's more cost effective than the other options

gandalf3

I ended up using all wind (and some of those hybrid/swirly things just to see what they did)

Oh and a solar plant too

@TARDISMaker In the early game I was having problems with electric costs..

X-27

you got a link to this game?

(I'm too lazy to google the name)

gandalf3

store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines

X-27

does that mean the game was free to play last week end, or free to get and you can keep playing?

gandalf3

free to play last weekend

X-27

4:26 AM

Ahh. I have seen other games where they offer it free for a limited time, and if you get it then you can keep it for free after the promotion ends.

TARDIS Maker

So I have you guys curious about Cities: Skylines, now I need to convince you all to play factorio

X-27

@TARDISMaker Thom was playing that quite a lot a while back XD

TARDIS Maker

And then we could look into setting up a renderfarm server :D

@X-27 Yeah, I told him about it :P

(was watching let's plays of it at the time)

Btw, it doesn't go on sale

But it's $20 and could easily be more

GiantCowFilms

5:36 AM

@TARDISMaker I'm actually more inclined to delete my question. Its based on me misreading the documentation. That's just embarrassing.

@gandalf3 Speaking of HDRIs, I'm not sure to do with all the stuff I shot.

some of them weren't half bad.

Not going to process them though. That was such a labor intensive task. Half of the R&D issues were because I couldn't iterate fast enough.

gandalf3

hm..

GiantCowFilms

I'll upload the couple that turned out okay to my site.

The few testing ones that didn't have issues.

gandalf3

You can always use them for desktop backgrounds :P

GiantCowFilms

lol

But I need an HDR display to get the full benefit.

gandalf3

that's what tonemapping is for..

GiantCowFilms

5:48 AM

:P

gandalf3

/me doesn't understand why HDR displays are so often said to be *needed* for HDR images to be benificial

GiantCowFilms

That was a troll response

gandalf3

oh

/me trolled

GiantCowFilms

I forgot the :P

now the real question is, can I still login to my wordpress site

gandalf3

XD

x2

GiantCowFilms

5:53 AM

Welp, I'll upload one right now

TARDIS Maker

@GiantCowFilms I'm positive someone will find it useful, if not because they have a similar problem, maybe it can at least teach a few people how to read docs

GiantCowFilms

Okay. I answered

giantcowfilms.com/2018/02/14/hdri-clouded-skies-lava-field

^^Also, new HDRI image!

Tada

TARDIS Maker

6:23 AM

@GiantCowFilms Okay, cool. I might throw in an edit.

We'll see

gandalf3

6:35 AM

@GiantCowFilms :O load-downing

GiantCowFilms

you mean load-dowing

gandalf3

o.o

Can I see into those dark crevices in the hdr version?

GiantCowFilms

@gandalf3 I think so.

gandalf3

@GiantCowFilms also, 4k photographc png o.O

I'm impressed it's only 10MB

GiantCowFilms

I probably should have scaled that back a bit

gandalf3

6:38 AM

why not jpg?

GiantCowFilms

@gandalf3 because I am tired and did not think this through

Even worse, I think that png is uncompressed.

gandalf3

whot

no way that's 10MB uncompressed

maybe FF is lying

GiantCowFilms

Oh, wordpress might have done that

gandalf3

ah

I just today found out Greg Zaal made all his commercial HDRs CC0 O.o

blog.hdrihaven.com/2017/10/01/why-the-change

GiantCowFilms

I was already moving on and working on other projects, and when he did that I decided I was done with HDRIs.

gandalf3

6:44 AM

ah

Well no reason you can't shoot them for fun every now and then ;)

GiantCowFilms

I learned a huge amount though.

gandalf3

I have a few I want to stitch lying around..

GiantCowFilms

@gandalf3 Its a huge inconvenience, especially to get the ideal opportunities. So I doubt I will.

@gandalf3 a few

I wouldn't be surprised if I have over 100

gandalf3

:O

whoa

GiantCowFilms

On some trips, I'd full up 128 gb of card space in a day.

Because you have to get an HDRI with every single interesting feature along the side of the road

and then another set on the way back because the light changed.

gandalf3

6:53 AM

yes

I don't nave the filters for proper HDRs, but that hasn't stopped me from taking bracketed panoramas of everything in the hopes of tonemapping it into a desktop background

I've even got stuck in a loop while taking a panorama where by the time I've 360⁰ the light/clouds changed and I like it all better now so I end up going around again

GiantCowFilms

@gandalf3 I've done that to

infact, I had this whole trick for shooting it in such a way it blends okay.

And I usually go twice around for good measure. Useful for removal people and traffic as well.

gandalf3

clever

GiantCowFilms

Of course though there will be that van that is in exactly the same spot as that red hatchback on the previous rotation that is in front of an extremely detailed object you cannot paint in by hand.

gandalf3

xD

GiantCowFilms

I also mastered the photographers glare. People would literally run to get out of my photos. Sometimes during a sunset you have to work really fast, and there is no chance for a second pass. If they started getting near, I'd glance at them aggressively, then just start to stare. They'd move pretty quick :P

gandalf3

7:03 AM

lol

GiantCowFilms

Nobody wants to make a Giant Cow angry.

gandalf3

I guess for the most part I've been taking panos in relatively unbusy areas

GiantCowFilms

I try to. But for some reason people like looking at sunsets on the beach. No idea why.

gandalf3

lol

Our "beaches" are usually sheer cliffs so if you get an edge spot (not hard when it's raining) you have no problems with people in front of you

GiantCowFilms

@gandalf3 good luck shooting a pano in the rain :(

gandalf3

7:07 AM

It's a pain yes, but the light was insane

lemme find it

GiantCowFilms

Oooh

gandalf3

*digikam booting*

My main experience with people getting in the way while trying to shoot panos is when hiking with non-photographer friends think that the goal of hiking is to reach the destination in less than a week :P

(on a two hour hike)

GiantCowFilms

My family has got in my once while shooting an HDRI. Never again.

I get so stressed.

when I was still new at it, and was not practiced, I'd be shaking when I was done.

especially because I basically started shooting them on holiday, in places I could not easily visit again. So every shot was a one of a kind.

So as a result I'd get pretty snappy :(

I feel so bad all the trouble I put them to then not to launch my site.

gandalf3

Yes.. I know that feeling ;)

GiantCowFilms

Ugh, I'm missing words again.

Hopefully you can work out the gaps.

gandalf3

7:15 AM

? I didn't notice

GiantCowFilms

@gandalf3 found the pictures yet?

gandalf3

huh, I know I stitched it, but I can't find it

I have the source images

But this was before I established a convention in seems

I thought I'd have at least tagged the stitched version?

D:

Why is past me so terrible at organizing my stuff

GiantCowFilms

Present me is still terrible at organizing my stuff.

gandalf3

If that's true for me, that would explain the problem with past me..

gandalf3

7:35 AM

hah, thank goodness for locate

it was in a totally different place than it should've been, and I know why...

2

@GiantCowFilms ^^ there

I have one with more images/more focal length/more resolution, but it seems I never did finish masking out all the raindrops on it..

this one was the initial "omg must take panorama as fast as possible"

which was followed by the usual "okay now I have to take a proper one" one

LateralTerminal

2:28 PM

@TARDISMaker Anvils are shiny. But only on the top actually. Because they are polished for some reason XD

Here I'll upload the refernece of real anvils so I can show you

@X-27 Yeah that's what I thought too but the tutorial made me make it shiny. Apparently that's what you do to anvils. You're supposed to clean them and polish them all the time. TV really distorts what we think anvils look like XD

@gandalf3 That's beautiful

LateralTerminal

3:20 PM

Here's a higher res version of my anvil V2

I added more obvious hammer marks this time and less scratches. I've been looking at it for too long to decide if it's good or not

TARDIS Maker

4:00 PM

@gandalf3 Wow! Could you post the proper one?

@LateralTerminal Well something about it looks off...

The hammer marks and dents might be too pronounced

The reference makes it look really smooth

Also, the scaling on the hammer marks seems off

But seriously, you should go study your friend's anvil

LateralTerminal

4:22 PM

@TARDISMaker There's one big hammer mark closer to the front that bleeds over and that was an accident. Anyway besides that I showed him this one this morning and he said it looks a lot more like his anvil now.

@TARDISMaker I should note that the reference with no hammer marks was just to show that anvils are indeed shiny at the top. However, my anvil has just been hammered after being polished. That's why my anvil has the hammer marks (also because the tutorial told me to do it)

@TARDISMaker I agree that something looks off. Unfortunately because of the blender guru workflow I have to erase all my texture painting and start from scratch every time I fix a mistake or it looks off. So I'll be uploading V3 after I redo all the texture painting from scratch.

gandalf3

6:11 PM

@LateralTerminal O.o why's that?

@LateralTerminal It looks kind of like there's an abrupt roughness change at the edge of the hammer marks

LateralTerminal

6:28 PM

@gandalf3 Because the nicks and hammer marks and scratch marks are on the same texture paint layer. So I end up erasing everything if I erase one thing. I'm sure there's a way around this but my node setup is already confusing. Im just barely starting to understand how nodes work.

X-27

That is why I generally don't like "follow the leader" tutorials. Quite a while ago, I tried following Andrew Price's flamethrower tutorial. I had no idea what I was doing. I was trying to copy what he did exactly - unfortunately, I missed a step - and had no idea where to begin to look to fix it.

It turns out I hadn't made a material

I had added the texture, but never put it on a material. :/

Sooooo as you can imagine, it didn't work. And I didn't discover what was wrong until much later.

TARDIS Maker

@LateralTerminal You can use mix nodes to combine several textures

So you could separate all of those layers and then combine them again using something like the multiply blend mode

Can you post an image of your setup?

GiantCowFilms

@gandalf3 Woah, that looks amazing.

LateralTerminal

@TARDISMaker I can upload a picture of my nodes sure.
I was planning on doing the whole tutorial over again anyway to really get a grasp of how all the nodes comes together. I'm using the node wrangler addon and it's really helped me figure out what textures are doing what.

TARDIS Maker

@LateralTerminal Yeah, thats a really good addon

LateralTerminal

6:49 PM

TARDIS Maker

@LateralTerminal The way you have that organized is making it harder for you

Try to keep everything in neat groups

So all your image textures in one line

All your combination nodes grouped in a way that gives enough space to show what's going where

LateralTerminal

I tried to keep it like how blender guru had it. XD

@TARDISMaker

TARDIS Maker

If you keep it neat and tidy it will be a lot easier to track what's going on

Tip, you can use Blender's editing hotkeys in the node editor

LateralTerminal

@TARDISMaker Yeah you're right. I'll try harder when I redo the tutorial.

Yeah I noticed I can duplicate using the shift d it's really dope

TARDIS Maker

So you can scale on the x or the y by 0 to align all your nodes

LateralTerminal

6:55 PM

Really? I'll have to try that

TARDIS Maker

Or select multiple and use g to move them

@LateralTerminal Yup, I used to use that all the time

Along with naming the labels and minimizing them

What you have there isn't really all that complicated when it comes to node trees

If you organize it a bit is should start to make more sense

Also, the mix nodes going into the bump nodes are duplicates aren't they?

LateralTerminal

I'm not really sure what pressing 0 is doing honestly

@TARDISMaker It's supposed to be that way though

I don't remember why ): that's why I need to redo the tutorial

TARDIS Maker

I'm pretty sure you could remove one of them and replace the input it was feeding with the other output

@LateralTerminal See what happens

I'm 90% sure it won't make a difference

Unless you're looking for a different blend mixture, but currently you just have it at 50/50

@LateralTerminal Think of it like multiplying

Multiplying by one results in one

Multiplying by 0 results in 0

LateralTerminal

@TARDISMaker I meant scale by 0 I'm not sure what you mean. I see how x or y works by pressing that after pressing G

TARDIS Maker

@LateralTerminal s x 0

That's what you press

Oh, you probably never have done exact transformations

You can enter a number instead of dragging

So if you want to move a cube over on the x 3 blender units, you would press gx3<enter>

LateralTerminal

7:04 PM

Amazing! No I've never done that before. I'm doing everything visually

@TARDISMaker

TARDIS Maker

:)

Sorry, It's easy to forget that that isn't something beginners wouldn't know

btw, you're doing really well for a beginner

My first few things didn't look half as good as yours

Now you just have to learn to translate it to something outside of a tutorial

It might actually be really good to go without the tutorial when you do your next try

It will force you to think about it yourself

If you have questions you can post them here

LateralTerminal

7:38 PM

@TARDISMaker Thanks! If I reply slow it's because I'm at work. They let me play with blender during down time (because it's graphic design related) :p

And stack exchange looks like work too ;)

TARDIS Maker

@LateralTerminal Nice :P

GiantCowFilms

8:05 PM

More HDRIs added to my site

LateralTerminal

8:18 PM

@GiantCowFilms That's your website? Very impressive!

GiantCowFilms

@LateralTerminal No

giantcowfilms.com/category/hdrs