UltraScenery - new(er) territory [Commercial]

Martinjfrost

scorpio said:

Martinjfrost said:

scorpio said:

Totte said:

scorpio said:

tsroemi said:

mcorr said:

BTW...instead of comparing US2 to Bryce (huh?), the advert should have compared it to US1. That would hgave made sense and been useful. Given the promo, it is hard to see the exact benefits to buying US2, except for the additional area it creates landscapes on. What about rendering speed comparisons? What about other features and some promo picts of what it does. The comparison to Bryce is, well .... lame.

I agree, have posted in the store thread about the missing product details. We'll see what comes of it. 

Yea makes me wonder if there are any real improvements to US2, if you are comparing a new 'system' to something that hasn't even been updated to 64 bit I can't see that there's much need to spend all that money. 

I also can't seem to find any threads or info on what the improvements and advantages to US2 are. 

The improvements are huge, it's really really nice to work with.

But what are they - all I see is a comparison with an ancient product that has not been updated in years. The only advantage I can see is larger terrains, is that worth $40 I have to ask.

Silly if it is so good not to advertise the improvements. 

 

These are the things that i can rememebr off the top of my head ( the list is much, much longer this is a very differnt and much easier to work with beast):

Usc 2 is a plugin for daz studio rather than a script (SSC1 ) which means it now works in a pane and you can make alterations to your landscape/eco/biom/features in real time, you dont have to re open it and re run it.

You can now turn on and off the visualiation of plants and objects in layers and eco systems ( for both the new biome system and for the classic content too ) so you can see where plants are placed.

Instance culling around the camera

Biomes are rather like photoshop layers and you can now adjust the density, scale and many other propertys associated with the plants and features that the biom subject interacts with ( attract/ repel etc)

You have the option to back face cull items such as grass and pebbles making sure that stuff hiddedn behind a hill and not in view of the camera will not be considered in the render - not reccomended for trees as they tend to poke above the landscape

Some biom plants and obhects (small things like grass and pebbles though this lisdt will expand with time) now work on LOD which means that the high poly models are only placed near the camera and lower poly models are away from the camera

You can turn on and off sets of plants and objects in the render

Landscape size can be very considerably increased - usc1 was 64x64 meters, USC 2 goes up to the 200 odd meters square which is pretty vast.

 

in a nutshell you now have a pro active interface with a huge number of improvements to both the physical landscape propertys, how instances are used on it, and the efficency of it. As Totte said, its great fun to use, and much easier in your workflow as you dont have to keep re running a script as in the origional version, all of your old ecos and features will work, add ons for USC1 by Totte and Myself will not ( though i might update some of mine in the future). But all of your old content such as the Desert, Tropical and Britain botanica bundles along with all of the other ecosystem sets will work. 

 

I cover a lot of this in more detail and much more in the https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascenery-2--a-comprehensive-guide tutorial released today. Its intended as a jumping board based on my experiances using Ultrascenery 2 with some of my own work flow tips and tricks thrown in. 

 

Can't help but wonder- is the lack of info a sales tactic to get us to buy your guide? 

Not as far as Im aware. tho as conspircy theorys go thats an excellent one ;-)....... also USC 2 comes with full documentation which goes through everything you need to know.  

Martinjfrost

Drip said:

Elor said:

Oh, and it's a Daz Originals unlike the first version:

https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascenery2-realistic-landscape-system

I may have missed it on the product page, but what's included with US2 to create terrain ?

 That's something I wondered as well: Mountain ranges? Hills? Options to create a flat area to place a building?
The video is a great showcase for what can be accomplished, but doesn't give much of an idea about the exact features it has.

The format is certainly different,  I found the Additional Product detals (Click to expand) has a lot of good info on it when you click on it, but not immediatly apparent with out that click. 

echristopherclark

I was already very excited for this release, but the mention of "import real world maps" in the bullet points has me over the moon. How does this work? Will it be apparent when I buy and install the product?

DeeKay

How do I get US2 to pick up US1 Ecologies and features? All I get is a blank plane. Is there a user manual?

 

Totte

DeeKay said:

How do I get US2 to pick up US1 Ecologies and features? All I get is a blank plane. Is there a user manual?

 

They sit under the Classic Ecologies group in the UltraSceneryPane 

DeeKay

Totte said:

DeeKay said:

How do I get US2 to pick up US1 Ecologies and features? All I get is a blank plane. Is there a user manual?

 

They sit under the Classic Ecologies group in the UltraSceneryPane 

Found it - thanks for the prompt reply

alexhcowley

The really good news for me is that US2 not only comes with manual installers but this time they actually work!  There's three downloads, the content files, the Windows plug in and the Mac plug in. I had it up and running in no time.  You definately need to read the first few pages of the PDF manual, though, especially if you haven't used USXT. 

Below is my first attemp at a render.  I've added Herschel Hoffmeyer's latest monster, the Ankylosaurus, to add some extra interest.

Cheers,

Alex.

 

MarcCCTx

Classic Content works nicely.

druc

There has been mention of Toolbox 1 and 2 for UltraScenery not being required (also don't work in US2) because "most" of the functions are incorporated into USC2. I found it very useful in UltraScenery to be able to isolate an offending plant that was blocking the camera view. Move or delete option. Is this option available in USC2?

daveso

are there different paths for the roads, paths, etc? meaning not always in that slight uphill angle with a curve. Long straights, angled curves, and so forth? 
What is the recommended system? 

I would assume it would be possible to use usc1 with the usc2 terrain? or is it, why would you want or need to? 

From the product description, the classic ecologies/products can only be used on a 64x64 terrain size? 

ZippyGuitar

Do plugins work with DS Betas? I was thinking plugins did not, and only scripts worked with the Betas. I'm assuming US2 requires the latest DS version, so there's no point in me wasting time and money if it doesn't work in previous versions of DS. And I agree with the previous remarks in regards to the Bryce comparisons. It just seemed so off to compare the two, but whatever. Back in the day, when Bryce was supported and didn't crash every time I blinked, it was a great thing to use. That was over a decade ago.

alexhcowley

ZippyGuitar said:

Do plugins work with DS Betas? I was thinking plugins did not, and only scripts worked with the Betas. I'm assuming US2 requires the latest DS version, so there's no point in me wasting time and money if it doesn't work in previous versions of DS. And I agree with the previous remarks in regards to the Bryce comparisons. It just seemed so off to compare the two, but whatever. Back in the day, when Bryce was supported and didn't crash every time I blinked, it was a great thing to use. That was over a decade ago.

I've been using US2 with DS 4.21.05 without any problems so far so I don't think it requires the very latest version.  US2 has been in development for about nine months that I am aware of so Howie can't have used the latest version to write it.

Cheers,

Alex. 

Totte

Plugin works in betas, but you need to manually install them if the beta channel is not configured in the DIM file.

What minimum version it requires I do not know, that depends on what APIs are used.

Richard Haseltine

scorpio said:

Martinjfrost said:

scorpio said:

Totte said:

scorpio said:

tsroemi said:

mcorr said:

BTW...instead of comparing US2 to Bryce (huh?), the advert should have compared it to US1. That would hgave made sense and been useful. Given the promo, it is hard to see the exact benefits to buying US2, except for the additional area it creates landscapes on. What about rendering speed comparisons? What about other features and some promo picts of what it does. The comparison to Bryce is, well .... lame.

I agree, have posted in the store thread about the missing product details. We'll see what comes of it. 

Yea makes me wonder if there are any real improvements to US2, if you are comparing a new 'system' to something that hasn't even been updated to 64 bit I can't see that there's much need to spend all that money. 

I also can't seem to find any threads or info on what the improvements and advantages to US2 are. 

The improvements are huge, it's really really nice to work with.

But what are they - all I see is a comparison with an ancient product that has not been updated in years. The only advantage I can see is larger terrains, is that worth $40 I have to ask.

Silly if it is so good not to advertise the improvements. 

 

These are the things that i can rememebr off the top of my head ( the list is much, much longer this is a very differnt and much easier to work with beast):

Usc 2 is a plugin for daz studio rather than a script (SSC1 ) which means it now works in a pane and you can make alterations to your landscape/eco/biom/features in real time, you dont have to re open it and re run it.

You can now turn on and off the visualiation of plants and objects in layers and eco systems ( for both the new biome system and for the classic content too ) so you can see where plants are placed.

Instance culling around the camera

Biomes are rather like photoshop layers and you can now adjust the density, scale and many other propertys associated with the plants and features that the biom subject interacts with ( attract/ repel etc)

You have the option to back face cull items such as grass and pebbles making sure that stuff hiddedn behind a hill and not in view of the camera will not be considered in the render - not reccomended for trees as they tend to poke above the landscape

Some biom plants and obhects (small things like grass and pebbles though this lisdt will expand with time) now work on LOD which means that the high poly models are only placed near the camera and lower poly models are away from the camera

You can turn on and off sets of plants and objects in the render

Landscape size can be very considerably increased - usc1 was 64x64 meters, USC 2 goes up to the 200 odd meters square which is pretty vast.

 

in a nutshell you now have a pro active interface with a huge number of improvements to both the physical landscape propertys, how instances are used on it, and the efficency of it. As Totte said, its great fun to use, and much easier in your workflow as you dont have to keep re running a script as in the origional version, all of your old ecos and features will work, add ons for USC1 by Totte and Myself will not ( though i might update some of mine in the future). But all of your old content such as the Desert, Tropical and Britain botanica bundles along with all of the other ecosystem sets will work. 

 

I cover a lot of this in more detail and much more in the https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascenery-2--a-comprehensive-guide tutorial released today. Its intended as a jumping board based on my experiances using Ultrascenery 2 with some of my own work flow tips and tricks thrown in. 

 

Can't help but wonder- is the lack of info a sales tactic to get us to buy your guide? 

Did you Click to Expand next to "Additonal Product Details"? That seems to cover at least some of the new stuff.

The summary is

Features include:

• Created as a Daz Studio plug-in
• Bigger/Resizable Terrains
• Flexible Previews
• Layered Ecology/Biome system
• New high resolution terrain materials
• New terrain generation system
• Compatible with UltraScenery content

followed by a paragraph on each topic.

druc

Ghosty12 said:

So my first attempt with USC2 and it is awesome, I did find that some of the classic content in this case the stone bridges caused Studio to crash. Still working out how to get some of the classic biomes to show up properly as tried using one of the Australian presets and nothing happened. Also found will want to be careful how big of a scene you go, as even with my R9 7900X3D, 64GB ram and RTX 4070Ti Super, moving around a large scene got a bit laggy.

 

Select your terrain, use a USC2 one from the drop down box, set your size etc, up to 256 (mtrs) then go to "classic content panel" and choose one of the Australian ecologies. My first render, not very good, then I read the .PDF that came with it. :)

daveso

druc said:

Ghosty12 said:

So my first attempt with USC2 and it is awesome, I did find that some of the classic content in this case the stone bridges caused Studio to crash. Still working out how to get some of the classic biomes to show up properly as tried using one of the Australian presets and nothing happened. Also found will want to be careful how big of a scene you go, as even with my R9 7900X3D, 64GB ram and RTX 4070Ti Super, moving around a large scene got a bit laggy.

 

Select your terrain, use a USC2 one from the drop down box, set your size etc, up to 256 (mtrs) then go to "classic content panel" and choose one of the Australian ecologies. My first render, not very good, then I read the .PDF that came with it. :)

I like the meander of the stream. Do you feel it possible to change the way the stream flows through the scene? maybe straighten it, different curves, etc? 

druc

daveso said:

druc said:

Ghosty12 said:

So my first attempt with USC2 and it is awesome, I did find that some of the classic content in this case the stone bridges caused Studio to crash. Still working out how to get some of the classic biomes to show up properly as tried using one of the Australian presets and nothing happened. Also found will want to be careful how big of a scene you go, as even with my R9 7900X3D, 64GB ram and RTX 4070Ti Super, moving around a large scene got a bit laggy.

 

Select your terrain, use a USC2 one from the drop down box, set your size etc, up to 256 (mtrs) then go to "classic content panel" and choose one of the Australian ecologies. My first render, not very good, then I read the .PDF that came with it. :)

I like the meander of the stream. Do you feel it possible to change the way the stream flows through the scene? maybe straighten it, different curves, etc? 

There would be a way, but that is what we purchase when we buy new content. New ecologies, new terrain. 

Steel Rat

also USC 2 comes with full documentation which goes through everything you need to know.  

Where is this documentation? I did a DIM install, and in the USC2 section of my library, there is no guide, as there is for USC1. That would seem to be the logical place to put any PDF links...

DoctorJellybean

Steel Rat said:

also USC 2 comes with full documentation which goes through everything you need to know.  

Where is this documentation? I did a DIM install, and in the USC2 section of my library, there is no guide, as there is for USC1. That would seem to be the logical place to put any PDF links...

C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\docs\Plugins\UltraScenery2 

druc

Where your content is installed\My DAZ 3D Library\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\docs\Plugins\UltraScenery2

Strange path, but it's where the user guide is. I opened the zip file to locate it because I couldn't find it.

 

Steel Rat

Thanks folks. Maybe someone as DAZ will update the install to place the PDFs in the proper library paths so normal people can find them...

Totte

Steel Rat said:

Thanks folks. Maybe someone as DAZ will update the install to place the PDFs in the proper library paths so normal people can find them...

Cant test now, but cant you find it under the Help Pane -> Plugins? 

DoctorJellybean

Totte said:

Steel Rat said:

Thanks folks. Maybe someone as DAZ will update the install to place the PDFs in the proper library paths so normal people can find them...

Cant test now, but cant you find it under the Help Pane -> Plugins? 

 

Steel Rat

Totte said:

Steel Rat said:

Thanks folks. Maybe someone as DAZ will update the install to place the PDFs in the proper library paths so normal people can find them...

Cant test now, but cant you find it under the Help Pane -> Plugins? 

I did. Thanks! Been using DS for years and  had no idea that was even a thing.

druc

Just an observation, if the USC2 terrain has 64 or 128 in the bottom of the picture, that is the width you should choose to keep the scale of the road etc. correct. Changing the width to 256 doubles the size of the road making the render look odd. The ecology is the correct scale.

memcneil70

I just closed down my Win 11 laptop after going through part of the tutorial by Martin J Frost. I have the latest Beta installed, newest Nvidia driver released last week (?) for my RTX 4090 and other than me overtaxing it too fast, I had no issues. Have to headout for 3 - 4 hours before I can continue the tutorial and see what I did wrong to muck myself up. But my few tests as I went through the first few videos had no issue, were quite fast. But the tutorial is helping me as it works with how I learn.

Steel Rat

Another question, not finding it in the thread or the documentation.

The promo says "Water, Terrain, Atmosphere". But I'm seeing nothing about atmosphere in any of the pane options.

alexhcowley

Steel Rat said:

also USC 2 comes with full documentation which goes through everything you need to know.  

Where is this documentation? I did a DIM install, and in the USC2 section of my library, there is no guide, as there is for USC1. That would seem to be the logical place to put any PDF links...

I've no idea how to access it from within the product but, if you fancy a deep dive into your file system, you will find it here:

C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\docs\Plugins\UltraScenery2

Cheers,

Alex. 

Pitmatic

I will just agree that the product page is not very helpful the old format is better this told me little about the product,  I am still buyng it of course but the page is not marketing it very well imho.

Steel Rat

alexhcowley said:

I've no idea how to access it from within the product but, if you fancy a deep dive into your file system, you will find it here:

C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\docs\Plugins\UltraScenery2

Cheers,

Alex. 

Thanks Alf, er, Alex.