didn't come out as brilliant as hoped

This is taking ages! I've got the fastest EC2 instance as before, it's been at this stage for around 20mins...

Thanks for your help
I still haven't had time to sort out materials and stuff, but I've done some more angles. Click to enlarge.

Thank you
I will post whenever I make any progress, but that's pretty slow atm... I've just made some vray materials, and added coloured stripes to the room, but the noticeable change will be when I apply the materials to the balls. There are 4 materials, and they will be applied randomly.
It's quite overdone - once you find vray or any other renderer, a lot of people just make a room and fill it with shiny spheres. However I've noticed most people just spread them around the floor, I've never seen them floating randomly in 3d before.

Model: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzUvtdlY91uaZGtyTUNmZ1FaaGc
Render, 1728x3456, 360x180°:
[xxl-img:16qftfz6]http://i.imgur.com/cRUFp.jpg[/xxl-img:16qftfz6]

Here's the first preview

Just realised model didn't upload.
It's 156MB! where can I upload it?
Eye candy will take a while also, rendering will take ages!

I'm sorry, but I don't understand some of what you just said.
In my model, there are multiple instances of one component, "box", "box" should contain one group, a cube, which sketchyphysics considers a sphere. My plan is to run the simulation, then replace the group with a sphere, so I have a room full of spheres.
I get a bit scared with all these hacks, command-line things and BIOS settings, and I'm not sure what you mean by memory allocation, but when running the simulation, 2.8 out of 4 GB are used in total, and 1.6 out of the 2.8 is sketchup.
anyway I felt a bit guilty wasting your time on my little project, so I found a workaround. I restarted my computer, temporarily uninstalled all other plugins, ended all un-necessary processes. Ran it once until it crashed, to see how far I can go, which was 383 frames, then used the recording function to get to 380 precisely.
I can't remember distributions well, but I wanted relatively even spacing, but a random feel, I think that's "poisson"? you are right, they are a bit denser around the starting points, but I can live with that.
Here's the final result, with 1296-sided spheres. I will use vray to make some cliched eye-candy! The walls will be very colourful and stripy, and the spheres will be a mix of glass, frosted glass and metal, the ceiling will be a light-source and the ground a mirror. I will make a 360x180 panorama from where the camera is now.

Erm, my old machine is 64-bit, and the graphics driver is 54 bit if that's what you're talking about?
Model is attached. The cubes are big enough, and I've told sketchyphysics to consider them to be spheres, because I will eventually make them high-poly spheres - the cubes are my way of lowering polys.
The cubes are basically occupying the same space as each other, and when you click "go" the force themselves away from each other. I've tried putting them in 0G and 1G - 0G provided something similar to what I wanted when I tried it with 400 instances, but I needed more.
Perhaps this way of initially placing the cubes is the problem? But I did try it before by having the top open, and the cubes falling from above - it was fine at first but still crashed eventually.
I don't want to use an array because it needs to be "random".

I just tried re-running my simulation a few times to make observations.
When I run it from the beginning, it gets a few hundred frames in, before crashing. When I split it up into segments of around 75 frames, using the record feature, it can only last around 2 segments, and on the third it crashes immediately.
Memory usage stays at 2.7/4, processor at 55. I presumed 5% was other processes, and 50% was sketchup using only one core, but actually it seems like it's using each core equally.

When I ran your model, it took 5 seconds each time I zoomed or orbited. Even if I just press the "zoom extents" button, it took about 3 seconds to figure it out

sp.skp

That's a shame, thanks for the help anyway. Quick questions:
I've never heard of LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE, is it enabled by default, or how else do I enable it?
Also any other ideas for this situation? It's just a bit of fun, but I want to fill a room randomly, but roughly evenly, with around 1152 spheres.

I wanted to fill a volume with particles, and I decided sketchyphysics would do the trick.
To simplify, I used cubes, therefore limiting the number of polys. It is essential that I have around 1000 instances of the component, so it is relatively resource-intensive.
At around 300 instances, it was working pretty well, but at 500 my old machine started to groan, and eventually crash. So it was no surprise that 1000 made it crash after 70 frames.
So I started using Replay to save the positions, and advance at around 70 frames at a time. But I've now got to a point where it crashes after one frame.
So, I thought, it's probably my rubbishy old computer, which is 2ghz core 2 duo. I bought myself one hour of the highest power EC2 instance out there - i.e. I rented a omputer from amazon. This had the equivalent of 26 combined GHz and 34GB of ram. I could use this to do the simulation quickly.
But even given that, the program crashed after one frame.
It is frustrating, because it seems like I am being limited by something other than the available resources, and it refuses to work even slowly, it will just not work at all.

Any ideas for getting around this?

Interesting thoughts on the curves.
It is true that Apple tend to stay away from non geometric curves - their toolset seems to consist of straight lines, sectors of circles, and right angles. In fact I'm quite a big fan of this policy. So I was quite nervous about generating the body of the phone with nurbs.
I don't know why, but I suddenly decided that the back would probably be curvy, and the front should continue being glass. That's when I came up with the one in the middle. However what I came up with is not what I had envisioned. I had thought of a more "blobist" back - which I then realised was like the iPhone 3G.
So I was in a situation where what I was imagining was a thinner iPhone 3Gs with a smaller bezel and aluminium finish, and what I was getting was a fatter iToucch with a matte back.
So, what I realised was, there have been rumours of a curved screen a while back. Samsung already had curved screens, but at the time of designing this, they only had concave sreens. So Apple would most likely go for convex. Therefore, I decided to make the whole thing a blob.

In hindsight, you're right, apple rarely go for curves like that. it's possible that the curved screen is a complete fabrication, or that the curve will be different.
In fact it's very likely the real iPhone 5 will looks like the iPad. but that woulda been boring to render.

Anyway, this will make the product launch a whole lot more interesting for me.

@unknownuser said:

digi zoom is a hoax

Agreed, can't beleive people still fall for that.
Though I guess it's ok for video, since the sensor has considerably more pixels than are being recorded.

Thank you all
Google, I think, found they were loosing money for sketchup. They got a bit of ad money in the warehouse, and better integration with google earth, but they also had to pay for servers and developers.
I do consider myself very lucky to be surrounded by all this accessible software at a young age.
I didn't realise the vol+ button was camera! I don't have an iPhone myself. What's digital zoom? But yeah, they do tend to remove buttons where possible

[xxl-img:2umf366m]http://i.imgur.com/tFXmh.jpg[/xxl-img:2umf366m]

Here are the three ideas I have come up with so far, with the real iPhone 4 at the back. The furthest I came up with a while ago, it's aluminium unibody, but I rejected it because it looks bad - the aesthetic makes it look thicker than it is, and it feels strange to have the screen as a seperate panel to the front.
In the middle is one that looks like a fat iPhod touch, with an anodised back. I also increased the dimensions to 120x60mm. In the end, the front one was my favourite.

Thank you
If they ahnge the dimensions, that will mean two things:

1. gasp
2. I might finally switch from Android

It's always fun trying to second-guess what companies like this will do.

The other interesting matter for the iPhone 5 - if they switch to 4.0" screen, they will either have to raise to 1024x768px - that's the same as the old iPad and would be the second time they've changed the iPhone resolution - or they would have to lower the famous 326ppi.

Long time no post!
I've been very busy with AS Levels... last time I was here, I was showing a semi-complete house.
I decided the house would never be completed. I started it years ago, and since then I have learnt new skills and changed my mind over things so many times. I was going into so much detail in certain areas, and it was seeming like the Forth Bridge. So, I may come back to it, but it is on back burner indefinitely.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about you can check these posts: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=42169, http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=38267
I am not a big part of this community, so most of you will have no idea who I am, lol
I've been lurking though, and mainly going back through some old posts I found via google. I have to say, I love how many people put free plugins up! This truly is a great community, and I hope it is not at all disrupted by the fact Google is selling Sketchup.
I do have something to show you, this is the gallery after all
The underlying point is, I couldn't have got close to making this without the helpful posts and plugins I've stumbled upon here. So thanks, everyone!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacobbleygriffiths/7146104299/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacobbleygriffiths/7139774509/

It's an iPhone 5 concept!
What I've changed relative to old iPhones:

• Aluminium back - feels like the best next step, dunno why.
• curved 4.0" screen - based on many, many rumours.
• 7.75mm thick - they like to be the thinnest.
• 3D camera - based on rumours that apple are making something with a 3d screen. maybe more likely to be in iPhone 6 though
• Added camera button - Apple want us to take the iPhone seriously as a camera, and people do... they need a button!

What I've kept the same:

• Same height and width (118x59mm).
• Same screen ratio.
• Button layout, other than added camera button..

rendered in VRay

thanks again for the feedback
I am happy to stay here, but previously mods have got a bit pissed on other forums if I post in the wrong place...
I did design a bit of the furniture, if you see the video I made the dining table and all of the kitchen from scratch (apart from the texture of the dishwasher) myself, and got the sofa and TV from the warehouse. it does take time, I took about as long just doing stairs, doors, kitchen induvidually as the rest of the house!

I was aiming for something similar to that, though this latest part of the interior will have colour and better textures, so it will be a bit more cosy

and, yes I am.

I was heartbroken when I had to cancel this render!
So far it had been going for 240 hours
I made most of the walls thinner, and added skirting boards. Recently I've been working on lighting, and render times have been a hold up - since adding internal lights they're 20x what they were.
In this one there aren't enough in the kitchen, and too many by the front door. I also think there are minor changes to be made in the lights settings box, but I'm not sure, I would love your opinion on this!

http://i.imgur.com/fkqwI.jpg (scaled down from 3456x1728)

I haven't given up, but I've been very busy with school.
Also I've been working on this:
http://i.imgur.com/fcCeX.jpg
So far that's been 45 minutes of modelling, and 9 hours of rendering.

Well the structure of the house can be seen in the images I have previously uploaded, and the videos, and here's what I'm going to do.

External walls will remain 12in so it can be overkill on stability and insulation

There are four main walls downstairs which divide up the space, because it is open plan. These will all remain 12in. There aren't many walls in the lower storey, and they support the upper storey and a staircase. Also, in their locations it will be a lot more aesthetically pleasing to have thick walls - some of them are single stretches, completely unconnected to other walls. the edges are very visible, there are no doors or corners, etc.

There are several instances where there are walls used in a more traditional sense - walls with corners connect to each other to make completely separated rooms, with doors. here the thickness will hardly be noticed, and it actually might make the space more claustrophobic. not to mention it uses up space. so I shall do as you say and downgrade them to 4-6in.

This occurs in the bathroom downstairs (which you were just looking at), and all the upstairs rooms.

An image can probably explain this better than me, so a sort of house plan thing is below. Red walls and external walls will remain 12in, blue walls will be made thinner.