UltraScenery [Commercial]

barbult

Gogger said:

barbult said:

I made another olives ecology with more bare ground and yellower grass and rocks. I kept the poppies for a splash of color. For the one with the river, I used the green reeds rather than the brown reeds, because I didn't want everything too dry and yellow. I figured the water of the river could make the reeds grow green. For the barn picture, I added the props after generating the UltraScenery.

Track 2

Track 1 Hedgerow

River 2

WOW - All three are VERY nice!

Thank you. Gogger. I just can't get enough of UltraScenery. 

barbult

Gogger said:

Kinda surprised I haven't seen any renders with FLINKS flowers etc yet.  Well, here goes. Mind you, nothing tricky or fancy here, I generated the UltraSystem scene and then just dragged and dropped Flinks flowers here and there.  I messed with them a little (rotations and scaling) but otherwise right out of the box. Some worked better than others, but man, I'd LOVE to see some add on packs for UltraSystem that uses Flinks sets!  Probably one or two more examples coming as they develop.

I didn't even know FLINKS flowers existed. They add some color to the nice scene.

dawnblade

Gogger said:

barbult said:

I made another olives ecology with more bare ground and yellower grass and rocks. I kept the poppies for a splash of color. For the one with the river, I used the green reeds rather than the brown reeds, because I didn't want everything too dry and yellow. I figured the water of the river could make the reeds grow green. For the barn picture, I added the props after generating the UltraScenery.

Track 2

Track 1 Hedgerow

River 2

WOW - All three are VERY nice!

+1! Is it just me or does the 2560 x 1440 make the scenes look better than 1920 x 1080?

dawnblade

@Gogger: I'll take the bait. What are FLINKS flowers, and which qualify in the Daz store? Beautiful render too!

barbult

dawnblade said:

Gogger said:

barbult said:

I made another olives ecology with more bare ground and yellower grass and rocks. I kept the poppies for a splash of color. For the one with the river, I used the green reeds rather than the brown reeds, because I didn't want everything too dry and yellow. I figured the water of the river could make the reeds grow green. For the barn picture, I added the props after generating the UltraScenery.

Track 2

Track 1 Hedgerow

River 2

WOW - All three are VERY nice!

+1! Is it just me or does the 2560 x 1440 make the scenes look better than 1920 x 1080?

The bigger the better, I say. But sometimes my old graphics card can't handle it. Look at my first set of Olive tree ecologies. They were 3840 x 2160. 

dawnblade

barbult said:

dawnblade said:

Gogger said:

barbult said:

I made another olives ecology with more bare ground and yellower grass and rocks. I kept the poppies for a splash of color. For the one with the river, I used the green reeds rather than the brown reeds, because I didn't want everything too dry and yellow. I figured the water of the river could make the reeds grow green. For the barn picture, I added the props after generating the UltraScenery.

Track 2

Track 1 Hedgerow

River 2

WOW - All three are VERY nice!

+1! Is it just me or does the 2560 x 1440 make the scenes look better than 1920 x 1080?

The bigger the better, I say. But sometimes my old graphics card can't handle it. Look at my first set of Olive tree ecologies. They were 3840 x 2160. 

Yes, I thought those were great!

barbult

dawnblade said:

barbult said:

dawnblade said:

Gogger said:

barbult said:

I made another olives ecology with more bare ground and yellower grass and rocks. I kept the poppies for a splash of color. For the one with the river, I used the green reeds rather than the brown reeds, because I didn't want everything too dry and yellow. I figured the water of the river could make the reeds grow green. For the barn picture, I added the props after generating the UltraScenery.

Track 2

Track 1 Hedgerow

River 2

WOW - All three are VERY nice!

+1! Is it just me or does the 2560 x 1440 make the scenes look better than 1920 x 1080?

The bigger the better, I say. But sometimes my old graphics card can't handle it. Look at my first set of Olive tree ecologies. They were 3840 x 2160. 

Yes, I thought those were great!

Thank, I appreciate the feedback. I'm having so much fun creating these things.

Gogger

dawnblade said:

@Gogger: I'll take the bait. What are FLINKS flowers, and which qualify in the Daz store? Beautiful render too!

The PA, Flink (over at Arrr-Enderrrrrr-osity), has a very, very large catalog of items, mostly nature stuff and has been around quite a while offering some pretty amazing products. Watch closely though - many things are Poser, or Vue, but if you read the descriptions DAZ Iray materials are quite often included as well. I'm attaching an image made entirely with Flinks Green Hills, and Flowers add-on, then processed with Topaz Studio. The original render is 3440x1440. I think Flink's stuff and UltraSystem could make beautiful, beautiful babies together!



 

TangoAlpha

@barbult I have a corrected build, but it still needs testing. It should go off to QA in the next few days.

barbult

TangoAlpha said:

@barbult I have a corrected build, but it still needs testing. It should go off to QA in the next few days.

Thank you. We appreciate your fixes.

dawnblade

Gogger said:

dawnblade said:

@Gogger: I'll take the bait. What are FLINKS flowers, and which qualify in the Daz store? Beautiful render too!

The PA, Flink (over at Arrr-Enderrrrrr-osity), has a very, very large catalog of items, mostly nature stuff and has been around quite a while offering some pretty amazing products. Watch closely though - many things are Poser, or Vue, but if you read the descriptions DAZ Iray materials are quite often included as well. I'm attaching an image made entirely with Flinks Green Hills, and Flowers add-on, then processed with Topaz Studio. The original render is 3440x1440. I think Flink's stuff and UltraSystem could make beautiful, beautiful babies together!



 

Thanks for the info. This is beautiful!

Uthgard

barbult said:

I made another olives ecology with more bare ground and yellower grass and rocks. I kept the poppies for a splash of color. For the one with the river, I used the green reeds rather than the brown reeds, because I didn't want everything too dry and yellow. I figured the water of the river could make the reeds grow green. For the barn picture, I added the props after generating the UltraScenery.

Track 2

Track 1 Hedgerow

River 2

 

 

Asides from commenting on how gorgeous the pictures are, if you want any feedback on how realistic the choices are I can tell you they are pretty much spot on for a Mediterranean olive grove. The style of the barn in the first picture is not something you would see around here (either a modern construction will be used or an old stone building or cob house, depending on the region--cob is more favored in the drier parts of Spain, for instance). The second picture, though, could be a photograph taken in Aragón--it is perfectly accurate and I can't think of any way to improve it. As to the third one, I agree the reeds tend to be green in these landscapes. I should say that green grass is not exactly unheard of, either, but it mostly appears on spring or the days after it has rained and tends to be as sparse as in these ecologies. The exception would be the dehesas, which are extremely sparse forests with dense grass mostly useful for cattle (and iconically for bull rearing) as those tend to be very green landscapes.

barbult

Uthgard said:

barbult said:

I made another olives ecology with more bare ground and yellower grass and rocks. I kept the poppies for a splash of color. For the one with the river, I used the green reeds rather than the brown reeds, because I didn't want everything too dry and yellow. I figured the water of the river could make the reeds grow green. For the barn picture, I added the props after generating the UltraScenery.

Track 2

Track 1 Hedgerow

River 2

 

 

Asides from commenting on how gorgeous the pictures are, if you want any feedback on how realistic the choices are I can tell you they are pretty much spot on for a Mediterranean olive grove. The style of the barn in the first picture is not something you would see around here (either a modern construction will be used or an old stone building or cob house, depending on the region--cob is more favored in the drier parts of Spain, for instance). The second picture, though, could be a photograph taken in Aragón--it is perfectly accurate and I can't think of any way to improve it. As to the third one, I agree the reeds tend to be green in these landscapes. I should say that green grass is not exactly unheard of, either, but it mostly appears on spring or the days after it has rained and tends to be as sparse as in these ecologies. The exception would be the dehesas, which are extremely sparse forests with dense grass mostly useful for cattle (and iconically for bull rearing) as those tend to be very green landscapes.

That's excellent feedback, thanks. I'll see what I can find in my content library for a stone structure. That barn is straight out of the midwest US farming country.

richardandtracy

Barbult, a ruin might work - such as this freebie from DryJack : https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/remains-set-2---ruined-cottage/65612

I saw a number of similar ruins in Crete once, where people had abandoned non-earthquake-proof buildings for more modern and safer structures.

I got the model to work in iRay by applying the DAZ Uber shader.

Regards,

Richard.

Edited to add: I really hate predictive text.

barbult

richardandtracy said:

Barbult, a ruin might work - such as this freebie from DryJack : https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/remains-set-2---ruined-cottage/65612

I saw a number of similar ruins in Crete once, where people had abandoned non-earthquake-proof buildings for more modern and safer structures.

I got the model to work in iRay by applying the DAZ Uber shader.

Regards,

Richard.

Edited to add: I really hate predictive text.

I like the look of that. I may even have it somewhere. I just did a render with a Merlin Studios ruined cottage from the Daz store. I'll post it soon, but I'm trying out other options, too.

barbult

Here is the Olives render with the Merlin Studios Ruined Cottage. (I think the Dry Jack one that Richard gave the link to looks nicer. I'll try that later.)

 

 

Uthgard

Wow, that captures the essence of the scene perfectly. Many olive groves have this kind of ruins lying around, as they are very long-lived trees, so the image is completely believable.

richardandtracy

Just..

Don't really have the words. It looks absolutely right. The idea and models fit together just right. You are playing DS like a finely tuned instrument and getting something better from it than anyone could have imagined. What more can I say?

Regards,

Richard.

dawnblade

@barbult: your experiments with the olive trees--as well as other addons--are truly great. Have you thought about becoming a PA and creating add-ons for USC in the Daz store, such as with the olive trees? You seem to have the knack for json scripting and creativity, and QA! 

barbult

Thank you @Uthgard, @richardandtracy, and @dawnblade for your suggestions and encouragement! I briefly considered trying to become a PA, not for UltraScenery addons, but for some unusual hair I made over a year ago. I made several styles and textures, etc. In the end, I decided becoming a PA sounded like too much of a hassle, and I never even submitted it to Daz for consideration. So, I remain happily retired. 

Here are a couple more old stone buildings among the olive trees. The DryJack ruined cottage really showed its age as an old Poser 3D model. I ended up applying a rough block texture from Texture Haven and a moss geometry shell from DA Let There Be Moss. The "MFC Shelter Cow" is from Modular Field Environment. I ended up using the texture it loads with. At first I thought it blended into the scenery too much. Then I decided that is exactly what it should do, so I didn't change it.

DryJack Ruined Cottage

MFC Shelter Cow

MelanieL

Those are lovely! May I ask: are those skies a photo, one of the store cloud products, or an HDRI image (and if so which?) I love the clouds especially in the top image on this page.

barbult

MelanieL said:

Those are lovely! May I ask: are those skies a photo, one of the store cloud products, or an HDRI image (and if so which?) I love the clouds especially in the top image on this page.

My all time favorite HDRI for use with UltrsScenery is Sunflowers from HDRI Haven. That is the one I used in the DryJack Ruined Cottage and the Merlin Studios Ruined Cottage renders. I like it because 1) it is free, 2) it has a pretty empty skyline, so there is not much that shows up in the background of your image, 3) It has wonderful, bright sunny light and puffy white clouds. I adjusted the tone mapping to use a slightly yellow white point and add contrast. In the Environment section of Render Settings, I used Dome and Scene, Infinite Sphere, and Ground Position Mode Auto (Auto keeps the HDRI ground below the water in your scene, or you can just turn Draw Ground Off).

Edit: In the barn image I think I used Green Point Park, also from HDRI Haven. I'm not sure which image you were asking about speciifically. If I still didn't address the right one, let me know.

richardandtracy

Hmm, shame you had trouble with the DryJack model. I have used it once, and iirc I ended up using the texture map as a displacement map with a +/- 3cm displacement. However, as it was out of focus in the image I wasn't hugely bothered. (Not an US image, so just a link)

 https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/4e/ac771bd8581fb6efd94023cc6b2da7.jpg

Regards,

Richard.

barbult

richardandtracy said:

Hmm, shame you had trouble with the DryJack model. I have used it once, and iirc I ended up using the texture map as a displacement map with a +/- 3cm displacement. However, as it was out of focus in the image I wasn't hugely bothered. (Not an US image, so just a link)

 https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/4e/ac771bd8581fb6efd94023cc6b2da7.jpg

Regards,

Richard.

I didn't think to try using diffuse as displacement with the original textures. I did use a high displacement on the shader I applied, though, if I recall correctly. I've made so many versions now...

I'm bored with olive trees for now. I'm trying some plants I got in some Polish nature bundles. I'm playing with cactus, but there may not be enough variety of each type. For example. there is only one saguaro, so they all have the same arms. There is only one barrel cactus, etc.

MelanieL

barbult said:

MelanieL said:

Those are lovely! May I ask: are those skies a photo, one of the store cloud products, or an HDRI image (and if so which?) I love the clouds especially in the top image on this page.

My all time favorite HDRI for use with UltrsScenery is Sunflowers from HDRI Haven. That is the one I used in the DryJack Ruined Cottage and the Merlin Studios Ruined Cottage renders. I like it because 1) it is free, 2) it has a pretty empty skyline, so there is not much that shows up in the background of your image, 3) It has wonderful, bright sunny light and puffy white clouds. I adjusted the tone mapping to use a slightly yellow white point and add contrast. In the Environment section of Render Settings, I used Dome and Scene, Infinite Sphere, and Ground Position Mode Auto (Auto keeps the HDRI ground below the water in your scene, or you can just turn Draw Ground Off).

Edit: In the barn image I think I used Green Point Park, also from HDRI Haven. I'm not sure which image you were asking about speciifically. If I still didn't address the right one, let me know.

I think it's the Sunflowers one - annoyingly I went and downloaded that one some time ago, when it was mentioned before (probably by you) as particularly useful, but had forgotten!  I'll have to see whether I ever put it onto my DS PC.
Thanks for reminding me.

barbult

MelanieL said:

barbult said:

MelanieL said:

Those are lovely! May I ask: are those skies a photo, one of the store cloud products, or an HDRI image (and if so which?) I love the clouds especially in the top image on this page.

My all time favorite HDRI for use with UltrsScenery is Sunflowers from HDRI Haven. That is the one I used in the DryJack Ruined Cottage and the Merlin Studios Ruined Cottage renders. I like it because 1) it is free, 2) it has a pretty empty skyline, so there is not much that shows up in the background of your image, 3) It has wonderful, bright sunny light and puffy white clouds. I adjusted the tone mapping to use a slightly yellow white point and add contrast. In the Environment section of Render Settings, I used Dome and Scene, Infinite Sphere, and Ground Position Mode Auto (Auto keeps the HDRI ground below the water in your scene, or you can just turn Draw Ground Off).

Edit: In the barn image I think I used Green Point Park, also from HDRI Haven. I'm not sure which image you were asking about speciifically. If I still didn't address the right one, let me know.

I think it's the Sunflowers one - annoyingly I went and downloaded that one some time ago, when it was mentioned before (probably by you) as particularly useful, but had forgotten!  I'll have to see whether I ever put it onto my DS PC.
Thanks for reminding me.

I did mention it before someplace in this thread, so it probably was me. There are 77 pages here, though, so it doesn't hurt to ask again.

memcneil70

barbult, your images could also be from the California coast, Santa Barbara County, where there are Midwest farms and Spanish missions, alongside modern structures. We have various tree groves, fruit and vegetable growers, along with flower farms, and cattle ranches. Dry baked earth, long bleached-out grass is common between cultivated areas and towns. (Hence fire danger.) Those olive trees remind me of scrub oak trees. 

You are doing such remarkable work. I am just loving it.

barbult

memcneil70 said:

barbult, your images could also be from the California coast, Santa Barbara County, where there are Midwest farms and Spanish missions, alongside modern structures. We have various tree groves, fruit and vegetable growers, along with flower farms, and cattle ranches. Dry baked earth, long bleached-out grass is common between cultivated areas and towns. (Hence fire danger.) Those olive trees remind me of scrub oak trees. 

You are doing such remarkable work. I am just loving it.

Thank you, Mary. I haven't spent much time in California - mostly short business trips spaced far apart in big cities.

barbult

I'm working on my desert/cactus ecology. I've only found a few cactus models in my library, but they are nice ones. Here is what I have so far. 

butterflyfish

That looks fantastic!