3DSciFi

It's good to hear you're getting some time off too. Nine months is a long stretch, but I've been there. I took my first actual vacation on the job I have now almost two years in. So, that was a bit of a stretch. I work with some people who just call in when they're wanting some time off, or when their points drop off and they can call in without getting fired. I've called in twice in four years, so I'm definitely ready for a vacation.

You doing anything fun on yours, besides Blender?

I keep thinking I'd start learning Blender yesterday ... then today ... but I haven't.  So, I may not EVEN have learning Blender on the docket.

I'm going to try though.  How about you?

I plan to take a look at 2.8.

One thing I know is I've about had it with the Cycles render engine. My TV I bought to use as a monitor is brighter than the monitor I was using, and I've noticed lot of fireflies in my renders. Between that and the noise, I'm not too happy with it. Issues like those are what drove me away from Lightwave 2018. But, Blender gives you options. I was looking at the original Blender render engine before I left the house, and I may just use that. That or take a look at the new one in 2.8.

Yeah, I get it.  I've been using a LOT of render time to compensate for those fireflies.  The latest thing is using de-noisers with renders now to automatically clean up a render.

They tend to remove some detail, but sometimes these things take a render and make it FAST!

I've seen renders done with those de-noisers. It's nothing I want to do for my own work.

One of the best movies ever made right here:



Seriously, it is. That nearly 40 year old $20 million movie can put more of a smile on my face than any of today's $100 million to $200 million CGI fest Sci-Fi "epics." Why? Because it knows how to have fun and just tell a story about characters, rather than trying to be ultra serious and part of a larger universe. There's no setup for a sequel in it, no attempt to be more than it is. It's just hammy fun. I'm not saying modern movies are bad, but they just don't have that kind of fun anymore. I was actually reading an article yesterday about how modern movies could learn some lessons from Flash Gordon, and I agree. Of course, that put me in the mood to watch the movie, so I whipped out the Blu-ray.

Also, fun fact: George Lucas wanted to make Flash Gordon, but the producers didn't hire him. So, he went off and made Star Wars instead.

Such a great film. Got to love the sound track as well.

Yeah, I don't know why that trend of doing rock and roll soundtracks for Sci-Fi and fantasy films didn't last more than a few years.

Been meaning to post the specs to my new PC and now finally getting around to it.

CPU: Ryzen 5 2400G at 3.6GHz
GPU: XFX Radeon RX 570 8GB
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Storage: 2.5 TB
Power: 750W Power Supply

That's a nice looking rig, Malach. I've got similar specs in my gaming machine.

Quote from: scifidude79 on Sep 23, 2019, 12:02 amI plan to take a look at 2.8.

The more I look at 2.8, the less I like it. Not only have they completely borked redone the UI, but they also have made other functional changes, such as messing around with keyboard shortcuts. I have enough issues remembering the damn shortcuts and trying to **not** use the ones from Lightwave without them going and changing the ones I remember. For example, pressing "A" selects and deselects in 2.79b and earlier. In 2.80, you have to press Alt+A or double tap A to deselect. This is an intentional change, as I found out on their bug submission site. I was wondering why it was hit or miss to deselect, I guess after multiple hits of just "A," I was doing it fast enough to count as a double tap. Is this a massive change? No. But, why change it at all? What use is it to change something like that? I can't figure out how to change it back, as the keymapper doesn't even say you have to double press the button. Between that and not knowing where the hell anything is in the UI, plus whatever changes that are lurking that I don't know about, I'm not impressed with 2.80 at all.

https://developer.blender.org/T68542

Anyway, I may just stick with 2.79b. There's no reason I have to "upgrade" just because they released it. I'm actually in the mood to model something and trying to figure out a program while simultaneously trying to build something is never fun.

Quote from: scifidude79 on Sep 23, 2019, 12:02 amOne thing I know is I've about had it with the Cycles render engine. My TV I bought to use as a monitor is brighter than the monitor I was using, and I've noticed lot of fireflies in my renders. Between that and the noise, I'm not too happy with it. Issues like those are what drove me away from Lightwave 2018. But, Blender gives you options. I was looking at the original Blender render engine before I left the house, and I may just use that. That or take a look at the new one in 2.8.

OK, I had a moment earlier. I figured out what a major issue was with me and Cycles. It all started with this tutorial:

https://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/introduction-to-cycles

It's at a little after 10 minutes into the video. At that time, the lamps in Blender didn't work with Cycles. So, I've always done what it says to do in that video, which is to create light emitting objects, rather than use the lamps. Well, that's a major part of my problem. I guess somewhere in the last 8 years they made the lamps work with Cycles, so that information is out of date. I didn't know this because my Blender use has been sporadic. Ironically, I was messing around in Blender 2.8, trying to get somewhere with the Eevee rendering engine. I switched all of my spheres to lamps and then tried to get it working, but the rendered result wasn't good because I wound up with weird shadow artifacts. I switched to Cycles and found out my renders were a lot cleaner. I wasn't sure if this was because Blender 2.80 is newer, but it's not. It's actually because of the point lights I'm using now instead of light emitting objects. I know this is the case because I was able to get the same results in 2.79b. The proof is in the renders.

Light emitting objects:



Point lights:



Light emitting objects:



Point lights:



Same object, same materials, just different light sources. I have no fireflies and little noise. Also, since I'm using real lights, I was able to make the shadows softer.

Anywho, just thought I'd share that. I'm sure other Blender users knew this, but it was kind of a "Eureka!" moment for me.

Oh wow!  Thanks Chris!  I'll have to make some changes.

And yeah, I think I'm going to reinstall 2.79b.

I finally got some time, the new day job was eating all my time learning it and fixin' what my outgoing boss may have done on purpose to try and make things a mess for me.

I have deduced fully thouge he said he retired .. he was actually fired.

kinda retire now, or we will boot you, sort of thing. It mainly comes down to some stuff I can't say, and the way labour law works. so a forcible golden handshake. LOL  so he was a bit of an ass and very carefully set up som gotchas because he knew it was me replacing him and well he and I never got along after the first year.

so on a hunch, I did a full security audit and found a bunch of stuff just waiting to cause me problems in about 2 months. and the things I found had to be done by hand in a manner intended to hide them.
if they had come upon their own it would have looked like I was negligent or worse.
so I found about a day worth of work. just fixing to do.
I wrote up a report and shewed it to my client rep, and what I found and my opinions on it. they agreed.

I have spent more time correcting stuff and re-writing policy that what my job would normally be.
I took this week off so Heather birthday could be a good one and relax form that last week of extra work. LOL

 

oh, and I have some time to work on the RTS game.

The engine it's built with is getting better with new Game studios actually supporting with code and cash.
this makes it very likely by x-mass season I could support cloud bassed server for connoting the game.
That means way easier for say all of us to play, no need to change router settings or anything. 

a whole host of good stuff coming that my RTS game won't need .. yet.  I'm trying to get the AI working at its basic roots. where units can react and retaliate based on their state. you know shoot em and piss em off and now they mark you as an enemy if they did not think you were enemy, to begin with.

missiles now have a flame/flare that has animated properties. and then when the animation finishes it passe control over to its seek function.