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    Using 'instancing/proxies' is fun

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    • K Offline
      kwistenbiebel
      last edited by kwistenbiebel

      Hi people,

      With all the talk going on about Sketchup needing multicore support to handle high polycount scenes(I agree with that by the way 😉 ), I did feel the need though to illustrate that rendering hugh polycount scenes is supported by some of the main render engines, by using the 'instancing/proxies' method.
      In a nutshell it means that one can populate a scene with the low-poly dummy alter ego of a high poly component..

      Currently (and correct me if I am wrong) three of the main renderengines support this feature, each using their own method: Indigo, Fry render and Kerkythea.
      I believe Maxwell supports it as well but only in the 'Studio', not through the SU plugin

      Some examples I made using Fry's proxy/instancing method:

      2500 dead trees :

      http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/dead-woodsmall.jpg

      Green trees:

      http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/tree-proxies.jpg

      rabbits?.... 😆

      http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/rabbitsb.jpg

      Cheers,
      Kwistenbiebel

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      • L Offline
        lewiswadsworth
        last edited by

        The full VRay plugin for 3DS Max (the one you get from Chaos Group)used to do this, and I assume still does. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem in the cards for ASGvis' version of VRay for SU.

        col sporcar si trova

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        • R Offline
          remus
          last edited by

          Nice rabbits 👍 wish i had the time to play around with tihngs like this 😉

          http://remusrendering.wordpress.com/

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          • F Offline
            FIRE1BULL
            last edited by

            Looking good! I really hope this will be supported to in the future of the excelent Podium plugin 😄

            Greetz...
            Johannes R.

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            • N Offline
              notareal
              last edited by

              Instancing can really made a difference. It's like micropoly displacement, when you get used to it, you cannot live without it.

              Welcome to try [Thea Render](http://www.thearender.com/), Thea support | [kerkythea.net](http://www.kerkythea.net/) -team member

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              • FrederikF Offline
                Frederik
                last edited by

                Looks great, Biebel..!! 😉
                Instancing sure is a nice feature... 😄

                Thanks for sharing the info on TBD's 'drop.rb' ruby to place the array of low poly dummies on the sloped terrain...

                Hopefully the SU2KT plug-in will be able to have a similar feature in near future... Sure will be handy for high poly components, cause SU sure has an issue with this... 😐

                Cheers
                Kim Frederik

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                • I Offline
                  ilay7k
                  last edited by

                  don't forget D.Bur's Component Spray Tool!

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                  • K Offline
                    kwistenbiebel
                    last edited by

                    @ilay7k said:

                    don't forget D.Bur's Component Spray Tool!

                    Oh...I need to check that one out !
                    Where can I find the ruby?

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                    • marked001M Offline
                      marked001
                      last edited by

                      i reeeeaallly wish the new maxwell plugin was ready, i spent alot of time last night trying to get a scene with a bunch of grass and trees to run....and kept crashing 😕 these are very cool 😄

                      http://www.revision21vis.com

                      instagram: revi21on

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                      • soloS Offline
                        solo
                        last edited by

                        I really need to look into this instancing thing, they look so cool. I saw a render on the KT site once where a user populated a scene with a ridiculous amount of trees and it was awesome.

                        I like the dead trees above, the bunnies look very militant, almost threatening.... very cool.

                        http://www.solos-art.com

                        If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

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                        • TIGT Offline
                          TIG Moderator
                          last edited by

                          A while ago I wrote Matrix+Proximity script.

                          Matrix lets you place 1d, 2d and 3d matrices of components, using randomized spacing, rotation or scaling - if desired. If you make these copies above a land-form then there's also a built in 'drop' function to plonk them down onto the ground sufrace.

                          Proximity works when you have three types of a component (e.g. tree1-, tree1~ and tree1+) that each have increasing amount of detail / polygons. So you model with the simple stick "tree1-", then when you want a detailed shadowed render you use it swap out any tree1's near to the camera with tree1+ and tree1~ in the middle-ground. A dialog lets you set ranges from the camera position for each. You can always swap all back to tree1- by setting the detail level to (near) zero...

                          It was the only way of using highly detailed components in large numbers without killing the processor. There could be many uses - landscape trees/bushes etc, people in crowds, cars in streetscapes, seats in stadia etc...

                          Generic 'simple' component use, with later swapping out seems the way forward ?

                          TIG

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                          • K Offline
                            kwistenbiebel
                            last edited by

                            @TIG,

                            I didn't have the chance to try out the 'matrix-proximity' plugin but I certainly will.

                            A little experiment on populating the Sharoun scene with proxies :

                            http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/veggy-frenzyb-small.jpg

                            For the record: only 3 components were used.
                            When using proxy/instancing a degree of randomness seems to be easily accomplished, even with a low number of different tree components:

                            Too bad it is not possible to have the same view within Sketchup itself for e.g a hidden line SU render..... 😢

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                            • I Offline
                              ilay7k
                              last edited by

                              Jason, Pavol made new build of maxwell exporter?

                              biebel, great pic!
                              dark-green autumn(close) world

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                              • K Offline
                                kwistenbiebel
                                last edited by

                                Some roses added and a somewhat different tonemapping:

                                http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/GREENSTUFF-fry1-smallc.jpg

                                Once you start using instances/proxies, you don't need to worry about polycount anymore in sketchup....that is if you are willing to give up the ability to have default sketchup image output. ( the dummies look like crap in your SU viewport 😉 )

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                                • K Offline
                                  kwistenbiebel
                                  last edited by

                                  As a note,
                                  I used TBD's 'drop.rb' ruby to place the array of low poly dummies on the sloped terrain.

                                  The SU screen:

                                  The blue box shows one selected dummy. In this case,I replaced the high poly rabbit component with a dummy containing just 10 triangles. The dummy was copied 2500 times and the array dropped on the terrain;

                                  http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/proxies-su-screensmall.jpg

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                                  • K Offline
                                    kwistenbiebel
                                    last edited by

                                    This is a crop of the original sized image so you can see some of the veg in close-up:

                                    http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r3/kwistenbiebel1/fragment-naturescene2.jpg

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                                    • soloS Offline
                                      solo
                                      last edited by

                                      Dang!!!

                                      What app did you use? Fryrender?

                                      That is amazing.

                                      http://www.solos-art.com

                                      If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

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                                      • K Offline
                                        kwistenbiebel
                                        last edited by

                                        Thanks Pete,
                                        Yes, I used Fry render for this one. I let it render for about 4 hours, which I find acceptable for a complex scene like this to get it clean.

                                        I am not planning to render this with other soft (Indigo and KT has instancing too) as I would have to start again from scratch (they all have different methods of making proxies). 😉

                                        Cheers,
                                        Kwistenbiebel

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                                        • FrederikF Offline
                                          Frederik
                                          last edited by

                                          http://www.kerkythea.net//users/Frederik/Anim-Icons/applause.gif
                                          Really impressive, Kwistenbiebel...
                                          http://www.kerkythea.net//users/Frederik/Anim-Icons/clap-above.gif

                                          Could fool many to believe this was a real photo... 😉

                                          Cheers
                                          Kim Frederik

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                                          • P Offline
                                            pibuz
                                            last edited by

                                            Hi master Kwisten 😄
                                            REALLY impressive images! I assume you've done an export from Sketch to fry, before the render: am i right?

                                            If so, i'd be very very very interested in how did you map the foliage on the plants and bushes. And I'd very like to know where the rose-bush component comes from...

                                            I've tried converting to ".3ds" some 3D trees i found for 3dsMax, but mapping every single leaf it's an endless work to do: how can you do that? If i can ask, obviously: this can be a little secret to keep, i'd understand you 😉

                                            Thank you so much, however!

                                            WEB (ita) - https://filipposcarso.wixsite.com/ordinentropico

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