Fantastic stuff Dug!!!

At some point I might have to pick your brains about building a mini concrete bowl in my back yard.

That reminds me - apparently there is another series of Arrested Development in the works and all of the original cast are on board.

I was trialing that yesterday and completely overlooked the QVTR option.

Thanks

If you model the kitchen using photomatch, in theory you only need to know one measurement (say the thickness of the worktop) to scale the model correctly. You should then get a pretty good estimation of the other measurements.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but does anyone know of a panorama viewer that can create standalone files that someone can view offline without having to download any software?

Looks really interesting and I can see this coming in handy for clients who want to explore models themselves (In fact I'm going to give it a go later today). It's just a pity that there's still no artificial lighting.

@speaker said:

If we can keep our angry monkey at bay, then there is some hope for some civil and interesting discussions in the corner bar

I think that's a really great aspiration and the best forum debaters are those who not only recognise when their inner monkey is trying to pull their strings, but are able to get other people to do the same thing - it's no use if your angry monkey is sitting out the discussion and everyone else's is riled up and slinging muck.

It's a hard trick to master since that angry little monkey is always lurking in the cupboard waiting to jump out when you least expect it........and he's damned hard to ignore.

Breaking Bad is great.

I've only just caught up with S2 and forgot how good it was. I can't wait around for a UK broadcaster to pick up the show (probably will not happen) so I've had no choice but to order the third season on region 1 DVD.

It's all very well setting up a poll where the only answer is 'Yes' or 'Yes', but what if that doesn't apply to you - can't we have another option for..........'Yes'?

Thanks for all the advice .

I spent quite a lot of time researching printers yesterday (Epson, Canon, HP, Lexmark & Brother). The problem I found is that most of the multifunction printers seem to be geared towards quality photo printing and tend to suck when it comes to general colour documents, which what I tend to do most.

The only exceptions appear to be a handful of the Canon models and up until this morning I was settled on the MG6250 - despite concerns about it's wifi and ink consumption. However I had another go at fixing my current printer and managed to get it working again. I know it's only a temporary fix, but it buys me some more time to consider my options and look at separate printers and scanners.

Thanks for that. I could read reviews all day, but nothing beats some hands on user experience.

Yes, Ink costs are a pain and I think that the fault with my Cannon is down keeping costs down by using 'compatible' inks.

I'm aware that Kodak are supposed to be better value when it comes to ink, but everyone I know with a Kodak printer says the quality (even for general printing) is rubbish unless you use photo paper.

Thanks for the input though

Thanks Rich, Eric & Andrew.

I've been really impressed with HP's high end printers, so I'll deffinately see what they have to offer. The Brother is a bit out of my price range and I don't do enough printing to justify the cost. The Canon is a consideration but I'm a bit wary after my print head problem - have you had any teething problems Eric?

Thinking about it, I don't think my Skog Lamp scene would be suitable (too many variables). It might be good for a render-this thread as we haven't had one in a while.

Yes/no?

I agree that the Bauhaus lamp would be pretty good.

As another option I've got a challenging product-viz scene with difficult glass materials. It's based on a photo which would be good for this purpose, as the end results could be judged according to how closely they resemble reality (taking time - both set-up and rendering - into consideration). My only reservation is that different approaches to materials could skew the results.

@unknownuser said:

it rendered out at 1600x1200 in 5mins.

It would be interesting to see the quality. Infact it would be good to see a test scene rendered using all of the software in the poll.

My Canon PIXMA MP780 all in one printer has just given up the ghost. It looks like a problem with the print head and the cost of a replacement might be better spent on a new printer.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a replacement all in one printer/scanner/copier?

Budget is around £80 - £150 and I'll be using it for small office duties e.g. printing invoices, copying documents and the occasional rough proof.

@unknownuser said:

Time for drinks then?

Sounds like a good plan to me

I'd be happy to continue the discussion if I thought it was going anywhere, but we've driven around the same block a few times already..............so it's probably as good a time as any to call it a day and restore our toolbar positions.

@jason_maranto said:

For exterior shots Maxwell could easily complete complex scenes of decent size within 2 hours using either the Maxwell Physical Sky or IBL (IBL preferred to me).

The same goes for Thea. I'm currently re-rendering one of my Villa PM scenes to use on my website and here is the result after just 40 minutes (1565 x 700 px).

It's already pretty clean and if you were in a rush you could run it through a denoise filter at this point and get very good results. The image will probably be good enough after another 20 minutes or so.

As with Maxwell the speed depends on the scene, lighting, materials etc. My night time shots with interior lighting took about 3 times longer to render.

Edit: I'm using a pretty ordinary i7 PC with 12GB of Ram.