Avoid large models?
How can I avoid large models with terrains that covers more than one square kilometer?
Here is a rendering from an 8GB file.
Sunflow is a powerful rendering engine, and SH3D is a great visualization program. I use it for what it's worth
And stunning it is. Obviously, yours is the elegant way of doing this. But just not to daunt the casual reader, there are simpler ways if all you need is a basic idea of what the view looks like. The blog post How to add a scenery around your home maybe the most straightforward.How can I avoid large models with terrains that covers more than one square kilometer?
Here is a rendering from an 8GB file.
Sunflow is a powerful rendering engine, and SH3D is a great visualization program. I use it for what it's worth
But it is also possible to use a sky texture with a panorama picture (to avoid those multi-Gig files) to get the general idea - especially for mountain sceneries - like discussed in thread 6362. This thread also links to a post which describes how sky textures are mapped on the horizon in SH3D (hint, the texture starts right in plan - due East if North is up in the plan).
True, the result will not be anywhere near as beautiful as Ceciliabr's pictures, but if you also add a bit of terrain underneath (elevating the building) and some objects around, this approach will produce the general idea.
As for sky textures, there are several possibilities. My preferred way, is to use a real 360 panorama made from my own pan photographs.
But you can also use 3D map viewers. Google Earth etc will not really give sufficient detail to look nice (but street view can be ok, provided you find a good vantage point). But there are other options too, like the Virtual Globe (with better imagery for Norway , btw - but I think there may be some Mac/Jave issues with the Virtual Globe).
Using panorama sky textures a is relatively easy cut-paste-scale job with some photo-editor the Gimp (or Photoshop, if you insist).
Even if the below pictures indeed look very plain compared to Ceciliabr's beautiful quality pictures, they have the advantage of being pretty small files (quick mock-ups with no ambition of producing something beautiful) where the extra 'scenery' is < 1 MB.
ok
Panoramic image as sky texture:
Curved object with image of trees, transparent at top (sky texture is just a gradient image seamless, 360°):
