UltraScenery - new(er) territory [Commercial]

Widdershins Studio · July 7

Thanks very much :)

barbult · July 7

Widdershins Studio said:

Thanks very much :)

They look expensive right now. Put them on the wishlist, unless they are included in some sale category.

algovincian · July 7

barbult said:

algovincian said:

barbult said:

This is UltraScenery2 with Classic Feature TA Coast 02 (estuary) and Classic Ecology PNW 02. I instanced the Water node 4 times and placed the instances in a horizontal row behind the existing Water node, to have more water between the foreground and the horizon. The background is a photograph of the sky. I added Matte fog and some Bloom to better blend the water edge to the sky for the horizon. The small fishing boat was added and scaled down to make it look distant, to enhance the apparent horizon distance. In the end, I brightened it a bit in Photoshop.

Beautiful image, @Barbult - great job!

- Greg

Thank you, Greg. How are you doing? I haven't seen you around the forum much.

Yeah I know I've been MIA, but I'm still kickin ;)

Haven't rendered anything in what seems like ages. Suppose I should see what I can do about that.

Keep the US2 scenery comin!

- Greg

Artini · July 8

barbult said:

Artini said:

barbult said:

This is UltraScenery2 with Classic Feature TA Coast 02 (estuary) and Classic Ecology PNW 02. I instanced the Water node 4 times and placed the instances in a horizontal row behind the existing Water node, to have more water between the foreground and the horizon. The background is a photograph of the sky. I added Matte fog and some Bloom to better blend the water edge to the sky for the horizon. The small fishing boat was added and scaled down to make it look distant, to enhance the apparent horizon distance. In the end, I brightened it a bit in Photoshop.

Really beautiful.

What lights are you used, if I may ask?

That is just Sun-Sky lighting at 8:30 AM with some Matte Fog. No HDRI was used. The background sky is just a photograph in the Environment pane as a backdrop. The fall of the light on the tress and terrain is due to the low angle Sun-Sky light and the position of the trees the light shines through. The render was a little dark, so I brightened it in Photoshop a little.

Thanks a lot. I have noticed, that Sun-Sky light gives very natural look.

memcneil70 · July 8

barbult said:

This is UltraScenery2 with Classic Feature TA Coast 02 (estuary) and Classic Ecology PNW 02. I instanced the Water node 4 times and placed the instances in a horizontal row behind the existing Water node, to have more water between the foreground and the horizon. The background is a photograph of the sky. I added Matte fog and some Bloom to better blend the water edge to the sky for the horizon. The small fishing boat was added and scaled down to make it look distant, to enhance the apparent horizon distance. In the end, I brightened it a bit in Photoshop.

@barbult this is simply breathtaking. I also appreciate all the explanations you have provided to everyone on how you composed this work of art.

Thank you

Mary

richardandtracy · July 8

Widdershins Studio said:

barbult said:

...

...

What do I need to buy to get the "Classic Feature TA Coast 02 (estuary) and Classic Ecology PNW 02" please?

....

I think Barbult missed the main thing in her reply. Money...

It's a really beautiful image Barbult. I think it was inspired to use so many water planes. I wonder, though, if it wouldn't be good to have a transition plane, so near to shore we have something like US water, far out we have ocean like DA's Big ocean, and a transition (like a graft between the two) with either breakwater rocks or just some transition where the waves get higher & higher the further out in the ocean it gets.

Regards,

Richard

barbult · July 8

I did mention that both products are currently expensive, but often go on sale. I've owned them for a long time, since both are USC1 products. Sun-Sky lighting is built into Daz Studio. I didn't currently spend any additional money to create that image. I have used Big Ocean with UltraScenery in the past, but I haven't tried to create a breakwater. One time I made an island scene with it.

barbult · July 8

Thanks for your nice compliment, Mary. I had no idea this image would inspire such a great response here, but I'm glad and hope it inspires others to take advantage of their USC1 assets while we wait for more new USC2 content. The new marinas were a welcome addition. I was inspired to use some of TangoAlphas earlier water features, by the post daveso made about shrinking the marinas down and deleting the docks. I thought, let's just use a water feature that is already 64x64 and has no docks. So I gave it a try.

daveso · July 8

Ultrascenery is extremely vast. I think its never ending. The possibilities are endless. I would sure love to get that never-ending trail or road look though. Its not really easy to combine multiple sceneries like @Barbult did with her water planes. Or is it thaqt hard...you know how that light bulb goes off in your head? it just did

barbult · July 8

daveso said:

Ultrascenery is extremely vast. I think its never ending. The possibilities are endless. I would sure love to get that never-ending trail or road look though. Its not really easy to combine multiple sceneries like @Barbult did with her water planes. Or is it thaqt hard...you know how that light bulb goes off in your head? it just did

I'm looking forward to seeing the result.

paulawp (marahzen) · July 8

Stacking multiple Ultrascenery objects is a go-to technique that I used extensively before the last Daz upgrade. It's a great way of extending the scene, or having variations that one terrain doesn't accommodate.

memcneil70 · July 9

And these last few comments are the secret sauce as to why USC and USC2 have two commercial threads (and their cousin USXT). So many varied options to play with, added to other 3D products, along with or without post-render. It is just such a great sandbox to play in and to solve challenges (never problems).

Mary

richardandtracy · July 9

Absolutely. It allows the creation of the natural world outside the myopic little box around a character that Poser & DS used to be largely limited to. Howie has allowed 3D characters to have a world bigger than a room or a small street. When I started playing with Poser in 2002? I always wanted the ability to have landscapes & people in them.

My first published image in 2005 was where the background was created in Bryce 2 and the character done in Poser. (My only released Poser image to date)

And then I got Vue 2 on the front of a magazine, allowing the background to be layered behind a DS image to create this 2006 image. I had to learn about layers for this, never used them before.

So, I have actually long wanted landscape backgrounds. On returning to DS in 2019 it was still myopic, so I investigated exporting posed characters to Flowscape.

But the rendering was not great. And then enter Howie stage Left with US. Brilliant. The combination of iRay rendering and the ability to customise the set with characters and props. Perfect.

I remain a very happy bunny. It would be nice to paint vegetation instances a-la-Flowscape, but I can live without, the ability to use it in DS is what makes it so versatile. And then with XT the world expanded further: People, props & landscape. Pretty much where I wanted to be 20+ years ago.

Regards,

Richard

Oso3D · July 9

Richard:

Regarding painting in plants, one option is to explore masks to change things. Another option (that I want to experiment with) is supplementing UltraScenery with UltraScatter, to add in plants in some specific areas.

Gogger · July 9

One of these days I will finally commit to copying a biome and replacing the plants with "Permian/Devonian Plant Collection" available elsewhere. This would create a prehistoric scenery dream!

Somewhen.

richardandtracy · July 9

@Oso3D, the Flowscape method of applying plants is to select one from a palette plants and then wave the cursor over the landscape, dropping instances at intervals determined by the size and speed of movement of the cursor. It's a really clever and effective way of doing it. Doesn't have the self consistency of a fully thought through biome but it involves the user much more and allows for easier customisation. It is, however a method that could be used with almost any prop in the DS library, whether houses, rocks, stones, pebbles , tree trunks, sticks, twigs, trees and bushes. The ability to sculpt the ground would be useful too. Not sure if it's possible to do in DS, but would be interesting to try. Regards, Richard.

Artini · July 9

Probably not. That would require non-modal dialogs and V3Digitimes explained that in:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/735201/released-wayfinder-sign-generator-commercial#latest

"Unless Daz has changed its policy very recently, only modal dialogs are allowed in Daz Studio scripts.

Non-modal dialogs are explicitly forbidden because they can cause instability."

Probably creating the plugin version, like IltraScenery2, would work.

Artini · July 9

Example of UltraScenery2 with UltraScatter2 used on the rocks.

Dave_1043192 · July 20

So a few days ago I bought the ultrascenery 2 a comprehensive guide and whilst watching the videos saw that the ultrascenery 2 panels have labels saying what they are while mine do not .its always been like that since i installed it Everything works just fine but things can be a bit tricky working out what each bit does any one know what's wrong?

version is 2.0.1.2 windows 10 OS

barbult · July 20

Dave said:

So a few days ago I bought the ultrascenery 2 a comprehensive guide and whilst watching the videos saw that the ultrascenery 2 panels have labels saying what they are while mine do not .its always been like that since i installed it Everything works just fine but things can be a bit tricky working out what each bit does any one know what's wrong?

version is 2.0.1.2 windows 10 OS

This is the right place to ask UltraScenery2 questions, to keep things in one place.
Your problem is most likely an installation problem. You mentioned that you installed the files manually . Check to make sure you have the the "UltraScenery2.dsx" file installed in the proper location. See attached screenshot. Storing files in Program Files requires that you give Windows permission to do so when it asks. This is the file that the UltraScenery2 plugin uses to get the label information that you are missing. If you don't have that file, install it and then restart Daz Studio.
You also may not have the latest version of UltraScenery2 installed. I have 2.0.1.9 on Windows 10.
I recommend using DIM to install products like this, because it ensures that things are put in the right place (using the right permissions) and informs you of product updates.

Dave_1043192 · July 20

the file is there i have a problem with dim sometimes that i dont know how to fix . a long time a go i had carrara befor daz studio and it created a location of program files /DAZ3D/carrara 8.5/DAZ3D/DAZstudio4/and the pluggins are in a folder there once using DAZ studio with DIM i found it would not put pluggins in there but that they wouldnt work unless they were in there so i just did it all manually and everything just worked in cluding the first ultra scenery and ultra scenery xt

Dave_1043192 · July 20

well after a bit of rooting around that does seem to have fixed it I noticed that i had the pluggin installed twice in the pluggin tabs in DAZ and that one , must have been the one DAZ was useing didnt have that file so adding it there and it works , many thanks for your help pointing me in the right direction

raven · August 5

I thought this was worth mentioning. If anyone doesn't have it and is interested in Ultrascenery 2, it's currently in the Quick-Grab section at $9.99 for non members or $4.99 for Plus/Premier members. Bargain!!

daveso · August 6

raven said:

I thought this was worth mentioning. If anyone doesn't have it and is interested in Ultrascenery 2, it's currently in the Quick-Grab section at $9.99 for non members or $4.99 for Plus/Premier members. Bargain!!

wow--a great opportunity.

AnEye4Art · August 7

Test rendering an idea that came to mind.

abiflash · August 7

I would like to know what terrain and ecology were used for the latest promo of UltraScenery2 - Biomes Volume 2

Steel Rat · August 13

I've had texture issues with several of the Ultrascenery 1 features. Most were solved by an update a while back, one that I had missed for a long time. The Uplands 2 feature was one of those. The last time I rendered it with the Britain 5 ecology, it was fine. But today with Britain 6, the path on the bottom half doesn't appear. I don't see any missing textures, I can see the masks which layout the path, but it just doesn't render. I did spot renders with Britain 6 and Britain 5, 5 still works.

I noticed that 6 takes a VERY long time to start rendering, spending most of the prep time in "Updating materials", which leads me to believe something material-wise is missing.

DIM doesn't show any updates for US1, so not sure what to make of this.

Barbult suggested in another thread that perhaps I had changed some default settings, but that's not the case. These are the defaults for all items involved.

I tried attaching two files, but they won't upload. See my other thread here for the attachments: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/739891/ultrascenery-1-uplands-2-texture-issues#latest

barbult · August 13

Steel Rat said:

I've had texture issues with several of the Ultrascenery 1 features. Most were solved by an update a while back, one that I had missed for a long time. The Uplands 2 feature was one of those. The last time I rendered it with the Britain 5 ecology, it was fine. But today with Britain 6, the path on the bottom half doesn't appear. I don't see any missing textures, I can see the masks which layout the path, but it just doesn't render. I did spot renders with Britain 6 and Britain 5, 5 still works.

I noticed that 6 takes a VERY long time to start rendering, spending most of the prep time in "Updating materials", which leads me to believe something material-wise is missing.

DIM doesn't show any updates for US1, so not sure what to make of this.

Barbult suggested in another thread that perhaps I had changed some default settings, but that's not the case. These are the defaults for all items involved.

I tried attaching two files, but they won't upload. See my other thread here for the attachments: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/739891/ultrascenery-1-uplands-2-texture-issues#latest

Thanks for posting here. Many experienced UltraScenery users watch this thread.

Since I am unable to reproduce your problem, I don't think there is an error in the products. Since you didn't change any settings when building the UltraScenery scene, we need to dig deeper to see why it works for me and not for you.

How do you install your products? DIM is the best way to install UltraScenery products. Installing or even updating UltraScenery products from inside Daz Studio (that is called using Daz Connect) is the kiss of death for UltraScenery. Even if you installed a product with DIM, it is possible (and way too easy) to accidently update the product from within Daz Studio, without realizing the consequences. UltraScenery products require an exact installation path, and Daz Connect does not use that required path. Once you have installed or updated a product using Daz Connect, any prior or future DIM installation or update of that product will be completely ignored by Daz Studio. I am emphasizing this Daz Connect issue, because it has caused problems for many UltraScenery users.
There are two Britain Botanica products: Britain Botanica - Trees and Shrubs and Britain Botanica - UnderStorey. DIM says their package dates are 10/13/2022, so there have been no recent updates that you might be missing.
Can you reproduce the problem? If you restart Daz Studio and run UltraScenery again, when you build a new scene with Upland 2 and Britain 6, does it have the same problem?
When you build the scene, does it create any interesting error or warning messages in the Daz Studio log file? You can view the log from Daz Studio with the menu selection Help/Troubleshooting/View Log File. The most recent data is at the end of the log file. Each log entry is dated.
Does Britain 6 work for you with a different Feature, other than Upland 2?
Can you post a link (Dropbox or something) where I can download your problematic Upland 2 Britain 6 scene so I can examine it and see if I can figure out what happened?

Steel Rat · August 13

barbult said:

Thanks for posting here. Many experienced UltraScenery users watch this thread.

Since I am unable to reproduce your problem, I don't think there is an error in the products. Since you didn't change any settings when building the UltraScenery scene, we need to dig deeper to see why it works for me and not for you.

How do you install your products? DIM is the best way to install UltraScenery products. Installing or even updating UltraScenery products from inside Daz Studio (that is called using Daz Connect) is the kiss of death for UltraScenery. Even if you installed a product with DIM, it is possible (and way too easy) to accidently update the product from within Daz Studio, without realizing the consequences. UltraScenery products require an exact installation path, and Daz Connect does not use that required path. Once you have installed or updated a product using Daz Connect, any prior or future DIM installation or update of that product will be completely ignored by Daz Studio. I am emphasizing this Daz Connect issue, because it has caused problems for many UltraScenery users.

There are two Britain Botanica products: Britain Botanica - Trees and Shrubs and Britain Botanica - UnderStorey. DIM says their package dates are 10/13/2022, so there have been no recent updates that you might be missing.

Can you reproduce the problem? If you restart Daz Studio and run UltraScenery again, when you build a new scene with Upland 2 and Britain 6, does it have the same problem?

When you build the scene, does it create any interesting error or warning messages in the Daz Studio log file? You can view the log from Daz Studio with the menu selection Help/Troubleshooting/View Log File. The most recent data is at the end of the log file. Each log entry is dated.

Does Britain 6 work for you with a different Feature, other than Upland 2?

Can you post a link (Dropbox or something) where I can download your problematic Upland 2 Britain 6 scene so I can examine it and see if I can figure out what happened?

1: I use DIM or ZIP files downloaded from my library. I never use Connect or update anything inside DS.

2: Pretty sure it's Understorey. Is there more than one Britain 6 ecology? I only see one.

3: Yes, it's consistent.

4: The log file shows no warnings related to the scene file, or when setting up the render.

5: Everything else seems to be correct. Upland 1, which is the same except for the horse, works perfectly. I even tried one of the Stone Bridge features, which I had trouble with in any ecology I tried, prior to the old update I mentioned. That worked as it should. The upland 2 path also doesn't render in Britain 7.

6: http://rpgmapshare.com/images/UltraScenery.zip (55mb)

I very much appreciate you looking into this.

barbult · August 13

Good, DIM is the best choice.
There is only one Britain 6 ecology. I was referring to the two Britain Botanica packages in DIM that provide the props used by the Britain ecologies. They are the Trees and Shrubs and the UnderStorey. They are years old, so I doubt that you are missing any update.
Good that it is reproducible. It will be easier to debug.
OK, then there is no clue in the log, but it was worth looking.
The horse?? I misunderstood and thought you were just building an UltraScenery scene. I did not know tht you had other things in the scene. They may cause the problem. Can you start with an empty scene and just build UltraScenery with Upland 2 and Britain 6, without anything else in the scene? Does that work correctly? I suspect it will.
Thanks for providing the scene. I have loaded it. I got a lot of missing file errors, because I don't own all the products you used in this scene. It took a long time, but the scene finally loaded and rendered. In your scene, I can see the same issue you posted, so now I can help debug the problem. The forum won't let me upload the rendered scene. Maybe it is too big, but it looks like the small snippet you posted in the other thread.

I attached the list of missing files that I got.

More later, after I look at the scene contents...

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