Whitemagus Architecture

JoeQuick

Does anyone here use whitmagus' skyscraper blocks from over at Rendo? I need something to use in some giant robot renders, that's iray ready, and was hoping to get some customer feedback before making a purchase.

FSMCDesigns

I have used them with reality and luxrender. They do fine at a distance after you tweak the materials for metal and glass, but the actual textures are kinda low res.

Charlie Judge

Have you considered this free set: https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural-exterior/cityscape/nyc-block-set-8 ?

JoeQuick

The free set is interesting. I'm just looking for something that's ready out of the box as well as more modern, shiny, and massive.

Vhardamis

I have all of WM's sets and none of them come with iray materials. You'll need to tweek them to get the look you want. Word of caution, even the low poly sets can be a real resource hog if you're using a lot of buildings so be ready for that.

Cybersox

I also own most of the Whitemagus products and concur with the comments above, although I will say that the newer products are generally much better than the older ones in terms of resolution.  The materials do generally have to be adjusted for DS, but they're a great solution for mid ground and background details.   

JoeQuick

Vhardamis said:

I have all of WM's sets and none of them come with iray materials. You'll need to tweek them to get the look you want. Word of caution, even the low poly sets can be a real resource hog if you're using a lot of buildings so be ready for that.

Ah, I had assumed the daz studio renders and scenes were done in iray.

How numerous are the mat zones? Does setting them up for iray take forever?

mjc1016

JoeQuick said:

Vhardamis said:

I have all of WM's sets and none of them come with iray materials. You'll need to tweek them to get the look you want. Word of caution, even the low poly sets can be a real resource hog if you're using a lot of buildings so be ready for that.

 

Ah, I had assumed the daz studio renders and scenes were done in iray.

 

 

How numerous are the mat zones? Does setting them up for iray take forever?

Depending on what the materials are like, the auto-conversion at rendertime may be good enough for an Iray render...but a lot of glass should probably be preconverted.

JoeQuick

Would anyone be willing to do a render from this kind camera perspective?

https://www.google.com/search?q=street+level&client=ms-android-verizon&prmd=smivn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH_ZmZo_DLAhWK1CYKHZUjDPUQ_AUICSgD&biw=360&bih=559#tbm=isch&q=street+level+skyscrapers&imgrc=IGiurZt9_GLo2M:

I would also be curious to know what the textures look like? Like, is it one set of maps that is reused on every building? Different maps? Does he use tiling textures? I ask because I would consider doing my own pbr maps for it in substance painter.

Cybersox

JoeQuick said:

Vhardamis said:

I have all of WM's sets and none of them come with iray materials. You'll need to tweek them to get the look you want. Word of caution, even the low poly sets can be a real resource hog if you're using a lot of buildings so be ready for that.

 

Ah, I had assumed the daz studio renders and scenes were done in iray.

 

 

How numerous are the mat zones? Does setting them up for iray take forever?

I don't use iray myself, but keep in mind that a lot of the older items don't even have DAZ mats.  On the newer items, each individual building seems to run around 20+ zones, and I usually end up swapping a lot of his textures out for other shaders anyway.  Especially the glass and metals, which never seem to look right in DS.  And yes, it is generally one texture fits all, and a lot of those textures are VERY generic and plastic-y.  So, the short answer is that it'll probably be fairly labor intensive to get something that you'll be 100% satisfied with.        

Cybersox

JoeQuick said:

I ask because I would consider doing my own pbr maps for it in substance painter.

If you did those and put them up for sale, I'd certainly buy them.  I like WM's geometry a lot, but DS users are clearly an afterthought rather than the focus of his work. 

JoeQuick

Cybersox13 said:

JoeQuick said:

I ask because I would consider doing my own pbr maps for it in substance painter.

If you did those and put them up for sale, I'd certainly buy them.  I like WM's geometry a lot, but DS users are clearly an afterthought rather than the focus of his work. 

It would be dependent on how his uv's are laid out.

JoeQuick

I took the plunge and bought one.  First thing I've purchased from Rendo since 2013.  It does work well for dense arial shots (which is how the artist does all his promos), so I think I'll hold on to it for superhero stuff.  At street level I don't think it quite cuts it.  I think I'll wind up grabbing Stonemason's chinatown instead.

 

Taoz

Here's some quick renders of C.P.B.Contemporary Photovoltaic Buildings, the 3DL took less than a minute, iRay about 15 minutes (iRay skydome is postwork). Don't have much experience with iRay so it can probably be much better. No shaders altered.