UltraScenery [Commercial]
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People arriving in those boats better watch out! We know what comes out at sunset.
My favorite of your island is the daylight one with the birds. The island and trees look very inviting in that scene.
Thanks again.
Skies of iRadiance could add a lot to the scene - https://www.daz3d.com/skies-of-iradiance-high-sky-hdri-bundle-for-iray
What other sets are you using with UltraScenery?
My absolute favorite HDRI to use with UltraScenery is the free Sunflowers HDRI from HDRI Haven. It has fabulous blue sky and white clouds and a fairly flat terrain that doesn't interfere with my UltraScenery. I've used it over and over.
I could not help myself. Bought the pine trees needed. Also just bought mossy hollow botanica in anticipation of another release for US Now installing and cant wait to give it a go.
It was mentioned an experimentation thread on US somewhere?
FUTURE PRODUCT ... more shorelines ... beach, gravel, underwashed, etc etc. Maybe the ability to have a lake with dead trees or a shoreline with fallen dead trees.
Ok, thanks for the tips.
My UltraScenery experimentation thread is here. It just so happens, that I describe how to create your own ecology with dead tress. Since it is an experimentation thread, I ran into a few gotcha's during my experiment. Scan the thread before following step by step, so you can avoid some of those issues.
Here I used the dead tree ecology I built with River 2 feature.
Might be a very silly newbie question - does "UltraScenery Pines" truly require "Nature Trees Pack 4" as it says so on the site? Because if it does, then I am probably misunderstanding what UltraScenery does as a product! :P
Update: never mind, just saw a few earlier responses which seemed to suggest that Nature Trees Pack 4 is a requirement for Pines.
Yes it does require it. The basic UltraScenery product comes with some plants and other props (Aspen trees, grass, daisies, rocks, pebbles, logs, etc.) You can create scene after scene with just that basic UltraScenery product.
Customers clamored for more!!!! At our request, HoweFarkes and TangoAlpha created additional ecology packs that used plants and props from other existing products. I believe Tango Alpha even added some new plants and props that didn't rely on additional products. Many people already owned other HowieFarkes products like the Harpwood Trail series and the Mossy Hollow series, so that was a good option for expansion. Then the fabulous Nature Trees Pack 4 was released into the store (by another vendor) and an ecology was used to take advantage of those trees. The theory is kind of "why reinvent the wheel by creating new plants and props when great ones already exist in the store". The ecology packs that require the other products are priced lower because less work is required to create them, I believe.
The ecology pack itself defines how those props get scattered on the terrain. Each ecology is different in how many trees it uses, what kind of trees it uses, how they are spaced, what other kinds of grass, reeds, rocks, pebbles, flowers, etc. are also scattered on the terrain. It is an ingenious and flexible system.
I think this explains it very well and I think that I now get it!
ps. I just successfully loaded an UltraScene in like 15 seconds... bald and naked with nothing except the terrain so now I can actually get to work! Initially the script popped up an error when I tried to Build but after making some new selections, it finally loaded!
It can be really easy to forget to set Instancing Optimization to Memory, and a pain to gain control of DS again when you forget. (Voice of experience, of course!) What I did was set up my Custom Menus to include an action that will make the change for me:
When I go to open any of my Instancing scripts, (interesting they are all from Howie!) the first thing I see is the item to Set Optimization to Memory. I click on that, and then come back and open the script I need.
To create something like that, you have to first save a Render-Settings preset with optimization set to Memory. Use Uncheck All in the popup dialog and then drill down to Instancing Optimization and check that, then save. Find the preset and right-click, then select Create a Custom Action from the popup menu. (You can further customize these menus from the Window > Workspace > Customize, or F3, dialog.)
Yipee! You are on your way. Add things gradually to see where the computer gets bogged down and groans. If you just bought UltraScenery you should have the latest version, so that shouldn't be an issue. Be sure to select a feature (even if it is the "No Feature" feature) and an Ecology. There was a problem at one point if no feature was selected at all, but I think that has been corrected. A "feature" is just something extra in the scene, like a trail or a pond or an island. There are so many possible combinations of features and ecologies, and just changing terrain or seed makes something entirely different.
First render with the Pines
I am actually able now to toy around with the terrain "seeds"... who would have imagined that just a couple of hours ago! haha
Trying to build a little island but it isn't one of the "features"... how do you guys go about forcing an island to appear?... this newbie can only imagine perhaps building a hill then submerging it underwater by Y-translation :D Reading the pdf, I guess I might also achieve this by creating a simple greyscale map or use the Tangram Heightmapper...?
I've mostly tinkered with USC, but I finally have a first true scene using the script. This Ultrascene was created with Lake 3 and Oaks 11. The mountains in the background are the BZone prop from TerraDome 3 with a Mountains morph applied. The prop is significantly further back than the default load. I used the SS Sun Node for lighting, assigned to a camera I created just for the purpose, (as recommended somewhere else in the forums.) I then rendered with Draw Dome off and added the sky and clouds in Photoshop. (I also tinkered with levels…)
Fall Colors
The full-size image is 2000 pixels wide, and can be viewed from the Gallery page here.
41cessna, normally I'd comment about stuff being too dark, but it really works there.
First render with the Pines
Does anybody else get this error? I get it more often than not and despite not making any special selections.
eg. Terrain Default, River 2, Woodland 4, Terrain only - produces this error below and the log file at times seems to say that some "coordinates are out of range"
020-06-18 18:52:40.095 Error in script execution: ...DAZ/My DAZ 3D Library/environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/ultrascenecreator.dse
2020-06-18 18:54:19.981 Loading script: .../DAZ/My DAZ 3D Library/environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/ultrascenecreator.dse
2020-06-18 18:54:44.829 WARNING: Script Error: Line 425
2020-06-18 18:54:44.829 WARNING: SyntaxError: Unable to parse JSON string
2020-06-18 18:54:44.829 WARNING: Stack Trace:
I'm not seeing that error. Run UltraScene Creator.dse and verify what version you are running. The version number will be up at the top.
You may be able to creat an island yourself, but most of the islands shown in this thread are made using the add-on pack Landscape Features Vol 1 - it's available as part of the bundle with the oaks and the willows.
I made my own Island feature by creating heightmap images and editing the product JSON files. It would be a lot easier to purchase TangoAlpha's features pack that MelanieL linked to.
@DMax, I had another thought about your script error problem. How did you install UltraScenery? Did you use the Daz Install Manager (DIM) or did you install from inside Daz Studio (Daz Connect) or some other method? Some script products do not work correctly when they are installed with Daz Connect.
Another thought - do you have Octane renderer installed? It has caused problems for people using UltraScenery, even when Octane is installed but not being used.
Take a look at the very first post on page 1 of this thread. It has a list of things to try if UltraScenery is not working for you.
Selection: Terrain Default, River 2, Woodland 4, Terrain only - produced the same error :(
This is the entirety of my log file as I emptied it prior to running UltraSceneCreator.dse to have a clean log
2020-06-18 19:28:39.169 Iray [INFO] - IRAY:RENDER :: 1.0 IRAY rend progr: Received update to 03648 iterations after 211.139s.
2020-06-18 19:28:41.670 Loading script: /Volumes/Seagate 4TB/DAZ/My DAZ 3D Library/environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/ultrascenecreator.dse
2020-06-18 19:28:57.377 Iray [INFO] - IRAY:RENDER :: 1.0 IRAY rend progr: Received update to 03926 iterations after 229.348s.
2020-06-18 19:28:58.694 WARNING: Script Error: Line 425
2020-06-18 19:28:58.694 WARNING: SyntaxError: Unable to parse JSON string
2020-06-18 19:28:58.695 WARNING: Stack Trace:
<anonymous>()@/Volumes/Seagate 4TB/DAZ/My DAZ 3D Library/environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/ultrascenecreator.dse:425
2020-06-18 19:28:58.707 Error in script execution: /Volumes/Seagate 4TB/DAZ/My DAZ 3D Library/environments/landscapes/ultrascenery/ultrascenecreator.dse
Through DIM... I am way too much of a newbie to do it by any other means nor do I know what Octane is so I definitely do not have it :P
I will go check page 1!
@Barbult: it works, for example, when I select River1/Woodland4... or River2/Grasslands... but River2/Woodland4 and Pond /Woodland4 both error out... isn't this so strange. Methinks that UltraScenery dislikes noobs :P
This script shows that you have a render running at the same time that you are trying to run the script. Did you forget to turn off Iray preview or ???? What is going on????
Nothing else is running and Iray preview is off and optimizer is under Memory. I followed every word of the pros in here :)
Examples of combos that work: River1/Woodland4 River2/Grasslands
Examples that don't work: River2/Woodland4 Pond/Woodland4
I think, if all else fails, I am going to shut everything and reboot!
That sounds like a good idea (reboot). Those "rend prog" lines in your log file look like some render is going on that you are unaware of. Maybe some process is running in the background that didn't shutdown properly. You installed with DIM, that is good. I didn't see if you posted your script version number, though.
If reboot doesn't solve the problem, you'll probably have to wait for @HowieFarkes to see your problem. Only he has visibility to the script to know what line 425 is looking for, but he will need to know what version of the script you are running.
I decided to take this opportunity to completely factory reset my Mac and upgrade to Catalina at the same time. Hopefully DAZ will work well with Catalina, I previously had some issues with PostgreSQL not connecting. While all these are happening, I will probably be away for a good couple of hours if the reset and reinstalls proceed smoothly! Thank you @barbult !
nice. thanks. I'll check it out for sure
There have been problems with Daz Studio and Catalina, but I haven't paid close attention, because I use Windows 10. Maybe the problems have been fixed by now.
Beautiful scene! Love the colors and bzone. Was wondering how TD3 might be used with USC, and this is a great example!
Also, regarding your render settings script, I suggested in this forum if Howie could just flip optimization to memory when the Build button is clicked. That way we don't have to remember to do it, and it would be even more helpful when switching to another HDRI that might set it back to Speed. He hasn't replied yet (understandable given all the add-on etc.) but hopefully it is easy enough to do.