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trueSpace + Vue + outer space = outertruevuespace
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
trueSpace + Vue + outer space = outertruevuespace // Image Gallery
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 7:00pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Hi folks, Wizard has been away from the forums for a wee bit, trying to whip up some magic in orbit around Jupiter. Here's some pictures from my trip....
Scene 1 Approach to Jupiter Station
Mankind’s stereoscopic vision evolved to be highly effective at spotting prey across the wide grasslands of prehistoric Africa. Humans became very good at estimate relative distances to both potential food and potential threats.
In outer space however our visual organs are not so good at determining distance and scale. There are no visual cues to tell us how far away or how big a given object is. With no air to soften the light, colours do not fade as distance increases, with no intervening landscape features like trees or hills the eye cannot sense the true size of the things it sees.
This image shows the Orbital Transfer Vessel Braveheart decelerating backwards on its ion drives as it approaches Jupiter Station, in orbit near the Jovian moon, Io.
Braveheart is 120 metre’s (nearly 400 feet) from bridge dome to stern. Beyond is the great wheel of Jupiter Station, a vast space habitat grown with nanotechnology from the core of a nickel-iron asteroid. Jupiter Station is 44 kilometres (over 27 miles) in diameter, the rim section over 500 metres (1640 feet) wide. The hub section surrounding the remains of the asteroid is 10 kilometres long (6.21 miles).
In the distance, some 5600 kilometres away (nearly 3500 miles) is Io, a volcanically active moon with a diameter of 3642 kilometres (2263 miles). Even further away is Jupiter, the solar systems largest planet. It’s about half a million kilometres away (more than 300,000 miles) and boasts a massive diameter of 142,795,996 Kilometres (88,733,431.9 miles). |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 7:02pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Scene 2
Braveheart’s pilot adjusts the attitude and refines approach vectors as guidance computers match orbits with the great wheel. |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 7:04pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Scene 3
At last some sense of scale is revealed as Braveheart’s shadow flits across the rim section of Jupiter Station. |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 7:12pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Scene 4 Inside Jupiter Station
Jupiter Station spins on its axis so that centrifugal force provides about 85% Earth normal gravity. 12 million people live amongst the stations luxurious apartments and ample parklands. Vast hydroponics farms grow genetically modified food plants which also filter and refresh the air.
This picture shows one of many lakes, vital waterways necessary for the complex and tightly managed ecosystem within the station. To the right is a nuclear power plant fuelled by thorium and thus much safer than the earlier plutonium reactors from the beginning of the atomic age. |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 7:15pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Scene 5 The Jupiter Bar
Jupiter Station hosts a thriving tourism industry, with shuttles arriving regularly from the inner solar system. The high-tech environment attracts many scientists, astronomers and planetary geophysicists keen to explore Jupiter’s wealth of moons and study the complex weather dynamics of the Suns largest planet.
Nanotechnology is a vital ingredient of deep space living – more habitats are being grown all the time both in orbit around Jupiter and throughout the Asteroid Belt.
Micro-molecular nano-machines are required to build the carbon-steel foam hulls of the great space stations and to regulate their contained ecosystems, provide foodstuffs and recycle used products into new materials for reuse.
Commercial competition is rife with industrial espionage playing a large role in inter-corporate warfare as the big interplanetary companies struggle for economic advantage.
This security camera view clearly shows Interplanetary Private Investigator Dick Crikey and his glamorous assistant Liz Dexia, working on behalf of Wizitch Enterprises. They are in the Jupiter Bar using the cover of a game of 3d chess to stake out the genetically engineered space construction nano-technician at the extreme right of the shot. The nano-tech is suspected of selling scientific information to a rival corporation. |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 7:17pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Scene 6 Dick Crikey and Liz Dexia, Interplanetary Private Investigators.
This image is a close-up of our two heroes, taken by an unseen camera as they carry out their surveillance. The big question is: who is watching the watchers? |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 7:20pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Technical info-
Scene 1: The star background was made using Celestia – the astronomically savvy viewer will no doubt recognise the constellation of Orion, between the arms of the space station. Celestia also provided the texture maps for Io and Jupiter. Everything else was modelled by me using trueSpace 6.6 except the crew module of the Braveheart which was originally built in tS 5.1 and recycled for use here.
Scene 2: Essentially the same set-up as scene 1. In fact the star background was used in each of these pictures except for the last one. These first two images were rendered solely in trueSpace.
Scene 3: Here a section of the space station rim modelled in higher resolution and detail was built in trueSpace 6.6 and imported into Vue 5 Esprit. This picture was actually made using Vue after the next one in the series and then imported as a background image. Using the shadow catcher shader on a simple plain I used trueSpace 6.6 to render the Braveheart and its shadow onto the Vue image of the spacestation.
Scene 4: Mostly modelled using trueSpace 6.6. this one is a Vue 5 render. The atmosphere is a solid shape painted with one of Vue’s excellent volumetric shaders. Plants and terrains were made using the relevant tools in Vue. The city is mostly a Vue terrain and Vue textures with a few hero buildings thrown in (well, carefully placed!). Some hero buildings come supplied with Vue, I just changed the textures and some hero buildings were made with tS. This was the image I originally set out to make. The other images were suggested by the creation process.
Scene 5. Seeing as this whole series is about scale I wanted to finish it with a more human scene. This is the Jupiter Bar, section 88, Jupiter Station. The characters are largely remodelled versions of my earlier Wizard and Witch characters. The ‘Liz Dexia’ character sports my latest attempts at alpha plane hair.
Scene 6. A close up view of my latest attempts at character modelling. Both head meshes are heavily modified versions of stock heads that come with trueSpace’s Facial Animator and the bodies and clothing are even more heavily modified freebie meshes from the Net. Details such as textures, eyelashes and eyebrows and hair are all my own work. I’m quite pleased with the results but still have a long way to go to match a lot of the great work done with Poser.
As always I'm open to any criticisms and comments on my artwork and I hope you enjoyed looking.
ATB
W!ZARD |
Post by trueBlue // Sep 16, 2006, 7:47pm
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trueBlue
Total Posts: 1761
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Dang W!zard,
That looks like one awesome vacation you went on! What kind of camera did you use? Great images! |
Post by Alien // Sep 16, 2006, 8:29pm
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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Wow! You've certainly been busy, W!zard!
Despite what you said about scale, pics 1 & 2, especially 1, don't look quite right, scale wise, but other than that they're cool. #4's my favourite of the bunch. :cool: |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 16, 2006, 9:30pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Wow! You've certainly been busy, W!zard!
Despite what you said about scale, pics 1 & 2, especially 1, don't look quite right, scale wise, but other than that they're cool. #4's my favourite of the bunch. :cool:
Thanks Alien - bowing in deference to your greater experience with things of an extraterrestrial nature I'm interested to know how it is that pics 1 & 2 'don't look quite right' scalewise and I also wonder if you have any recommendations as to ways of making them 'look right'?
Thanks also trueblue - glad you like these. |
Post by xmanflash // Sep 17, 2006, 12:41am
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xmanflash
Total Posts: 335
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Thanks Alien - bowing in deference to your greater experience with things of an extraterrestrial nature I'm interested to know how it is that pics 1 & 2 'don't look quite right' scalewise and I also wonder if you have any recommendations as to ways of making them 'look right'?
Thanks also trueblue - glad you like these.
Excellent stuff Wizard! |
Post by hemulin // Sep 17, 2006, 4:36am
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hemulin
Total Posts: 1058
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These are brilliant Wizard, I really like the storyline too. Is this something that's been in the works for a while or something that just came out of the blue? |
Post by GraySho // Sep 17, 2006, 7:47am
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GraySho
Total Posts: 695
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Not bad, not bad. Must have been a lot of work to put those things together. The station reminds me a bit of halo :)
The last scene can't hold up though, the female needs an overhaul for sure :D |
Post by MadMouse // Sep 17, 2006, 9:09am
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MadMouse
Total Posts: 1069
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Crikey Stephen!!!! now I see what you meant!! Excellent stuff. Any more???? |
Post by Alien // Sep 17, 2006, 1:12pm
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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Thanks Alien - bowing in deference to your greater experience with things of an extraterrestrial nature I'm interested to know how it is that pics 1 & 2 'don't look quite right' scalewise and I also wonder if you have any recommendations as to ways of making them 'look right'?
No idea on how to improve it, but to show you what I mean about the scale not looking right...
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alien42/images_for_caligari_forum/jupiter-io-scale.png
All 3 objects are to scale in terms of size, & Jupiter & Io are to scale in terms of their distance apart as well [though they aren't perfectly perpendicular to the viewpoint, so Io should probably be a bit further out], the station [all 2 pixels of it] is not in the correct position according to your text, I just wanted to get it in the pic so you could see what I meant. Jupiter is BIG, compared to which even the station is tiny. |
Post by Rareth // Sep 18, 2006, 2:53am
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Rareth
Total Posts: 149
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Wow awesome work Wiz,
I do see Alien's point though.. Jupiter should pretty much fill the screen with IO taking up about 1/4 with the distances and sizes you mentioned. |
Post by Matski007 // Sep 18, 2006, 2:53am
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Matski007
Total Posts: 539
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lol lets get annoyangly technical and say that Io is actually 1.04 times the size of the moon and 0.285 the size of earth, ur Io sphere should be roughly 3 quarters smaller, which as about 1 3rd of the Eye of Jupiter, fantastic images by the way, there is so much detail in them, keep up the good work! |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 18, 2006, 3:36am
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Thanks for the comments folks.
Hemulin; yes there is a back ground story. I have two background stories that I base almost all my pictures on - stating the obvious here but one story is a whimsical fantasy story with magic and Witches and so on whereas the other story is more your hard core sci-fi. These scenes take place roughly a third of the way into the story line.
Graysho; Yeah it was a bit of work getting the main interior picture set up - needed lots of new models and a crash session of learning Vue to get the look I was after - there was also a few 30 hour renders involved which were an exercise in patience (I'm SOOO looking forward to getting my new PC!!). Re the last image - I sort of threw that one in as an after thought really - I liked the idea of moving from a vast space scene to a more human level close up - but my human modeling skills leave a lot to be desired!!
Madmouse: thanks Steve - re your 'anymore' question I have to say not quite yet. I do have plans for a giant hollow asteroid space environment - think Babylon 5 or Arthur C Clarkes 'Rama' series only bigger - so many ideas so little time. Rest assured that any new work I do will get shared here with my trueSpace mates though.
Alien; Thanks for raising the scale question - my response is that it's all relative and depends on where you are looking from. Heres an image from the wonderful (and free) astronomy software Celestia which is based as much as possible on astronomically accurate data.
The Discovery (from 2001 A Space Odessy) is roughly 250 metres away, Io is 10540 Kilometres away and Jupiter is 430458 kilometres away yet they all appear to be the same width! In my pictures I imagines that the Space Station was orbiting Jupiter slightly further out than Io and that the 'photos' were taken just as Io was passing between the station and the planet.
Realistically you probably wouldn't have a space station 44 kms across orbiting this close to Io's orbit as Io's gravity would be a problem everytime it went past - not to mention the intense radiation this close to Jupiter! But hey this is science fiction! (Plus I had to find a way to fit all this on my little 17 inch monitor!!)
Thanks again everyone. |
Post by TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb // Sep 18, 2006, 5:12am
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TheWickedWitchOfTheWeb
Total Posts: 858
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Fantastic stuff Mr Wiz! I particularly like scene 4, inside the station, that gives a great sense of the (vast) scale of the thing! And don't worry about the scales too much - if it looks good, that'll do! :-)
Looking forward to more! |
Post by Chester Desmond // Sep 18, 2006, 9:35am
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Chester Desmond
Total Posts: 323
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Pics look great so far, I also liked the interior shot with the massive view through the windows.....and, yeah, scale is all relative
http://static.flickr.com/3/3484646_1bf10a350f.jpg |
Post by spacekdet // Sep 18, 2006, 10:41am
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spacekdet
Total Posts: 1360
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It's nice to see that with all that advanced technology they are still driving around in Chevrolet cube vans.
"Can't forget the Motor City..." |
Post by Délé // Sep 18, 2006, 2:04pm
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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More great work Mr. Wizard! :D It's really fun to see your story grow. I'm itching to see an animation, or walk around in it like a game to explore more of the story. Great stuff. :) |
Post by Alien // Sep 19, 2006, 12:04am
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Alien
Total Posts: 1231
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Alien; Thanks for raising the scale question - my response is that it's all relative and depends on where you are looking from. Heres an image from the wonderful (and free) astronomy software Celestia which is based as much as possible on astronomically accurate data.
I do see your point, I played around with it some more in tS. Like you say, it all depends on you point of view[ing]. :)
Realistically you probably wouldn't have a space station 44 kms across orbiting this close to Io's orbit as Io's gravity would be a problem everytime it went past - not to mention the intense radiation this close to Jupiter!
I just assumed it would be orbiting with Io, in such a position as to keep Io between the station & Jupiter. I didn't know Jupiter was especially radioactive, but if it is I would have thought Io would provide some shielding. |
Post by Rareth // Sep 19, 2006, 11:09am
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Rareth
Total Posts: 149
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Jupiter has a nasty radiation belt alot stronger than the Earth's, I do not remember if Jupiter actually emits radiation. |
Post by chrisj // Sep 19, 2006, 1:00pm
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chrisj
Total Posts: 239
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everything gives off radiation of different types and intensity. Jupiter may well have a higher x-ray emission than earth, due to the electrical activity in the atmosphere stripping electrons. there's are no fission or fusion reactions, so other than natural events, it's unlikely there will be a great deal of electromagnetic radation, certainly at high frequencies, is unlikely to be intense. unless we consider the mass of Jupiter to be concentration cosmic and localised high energy particles (hmmmm!!)
this is pure conjecture of course, fuelled be home brewed beer. I may be wrong. |
Post by chrisj // Sep 19, 2006, 1:04pm
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chrisj
Total Posts: 239
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By the way, well done with these images, I've been observing from afar. One thing that I'd like to comment on, is that your objects seen a bit overly illuminated. In space you expect harsh shadows due to effective point sources of light, and no atmospheric diffusion. Cant help admiring your imagination though.
cheers
chris |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 20, 2006, 11:17pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Well it’s nice to see my thread have provoked some discussion thanks to all who’ve commented.
Spacekdet: Well spotted my friend – I’ve always had a soft spot for box vans, having spent many years driving them in my youth – one of them was even a chevy but they are not very common here in NZ as we drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road.
Dele: Thanks very much. All going well I’ll soon be getting a more powerful computer but at the moment animations are not really feasible on my current very underpowered machine. I too would to be able to wander around these scenes with more freedom.
Alien: Hi mate – I’ve done my homework on this and I’ve been interested in Astronomy since I was a kid – New Zealand is blessed with excellent conditions for stargazing. I’m also a huge fan of Celestia, the free astronomical software that allows you to travel anywhere in the galaxy (well the nearer bits of it anyway) and get a good idea of how things may look.
Re Jupiter and radioactivity. After the sun itself Jupiter is easily the biggest source of radio noise and other electromagnetic phenomena in the solar system. As pointed out by Rareth the space around Jupiter is highly radioactive. It's been suggested that had Jupiter been about 4 times larger it would have become a small star as shown in the movie 2010.
Apparently the most powerful phenomenon in the solar system (other than the sun) is the so-called Io Flux Tube. This is a stream of highly ionised particles reaching from Io to the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. Because Io is quite volcanic (thanks to the massive gravitational tides from Jupiter) it is constantly ejecting particles into space which are then pulled down to Jupiter. These particles apparently provide a path for massive electrical charges that move between Io and Jupiter – the Io Flux Tube – which is in itself a major source of electromagnetic radiation.
I’ve tried to represent the volcanic particles ejected from Io by adding a subtle yellowish mottled pattern on the space station textures (best seen in the 3rd image) to suggest the build up of sulphuric ash.
By itself the Io Flux Tube is a good reason NOT to put a space station where I’ve put it but I’m assuming that a future society capable of building a 44 kilometre diameter space habitat with nanotechnology is also capable of shielding it from high levels of background radiation. I imagine a sort of carbon steel foam doped with lead particles or something similar.
Chrisj: Thanks for the remarks Chris. Fair comment on the over-illumination of my objects, particularly in the first 3 images. The scenes are lit with 1 infinite light with shadows enabled to represent the sun and one very low level infinite light, no shadows, to represent a tiny amount of ambient light – mostly starlight and sunlight reflected from Jupiter and it’s larger moons. In order to make the spaceship models more visible I’ve added a few navigation lights (point lights of various colours). There are no volumetrics, soft shadow maps, fog or other effects enabled as I was specifically trying to avoid anything that looked like atmospheric diffusion.
I did brighten the overall levels in the first too pics as I felt they were a little too dark on my monitor setup – perhaps I brightened them too much?
And in case anyone is wondering – yes I LOVE science fiction and especially love space operas!!
Thanks again all. |
Post by Nez // Oct 9, 2006, 5:00am
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Nez
Total Posts: 1102
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Madmouse: thanks Steve - re your 'anymore' question I have to say not quite yet. I do have plans for a giant hollow asteroid space environment - think Babylon 5 or Arthur C Clarkes 'Rama' series only bigger - so many ideas so little time. Rest assured that any new work I do will get shared here with my trueSpace mates though.
Haven't come across the Rama series, but have you read Greg Bear's Eternity/Eon books? They feature an amazing asteroid too - great books.
Your pictures are great too - I particularly like the interior... |
Post by W!ZARD // Oct 9, 2006, 7:35pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Haven't come across the Rama series, but have you read Greg Bear's Eternity/Eon books? They feature an amazing asteroid too - great books.
Your pictures are great too - I particularly like the interior...
Hi Nez, welcome to the forums. Arthur C Clarke wrote and co-wrote a seris of books starting with 'Rendezvous with Rama' about a series of giant space ships passing through the solar system from places unknown. Like many Clarke stories ('Fountains of paradise' for example) this gives an excellent description of what really big space architecture could look like - and makes a good read too.
Yes I've read the Greg Bear Eternity/Eon books - I thought they were fantastic. I loved the idea that the asteroid was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside - TARDIS anyone?
I see you are from Kent - I'm originally from the Medway towns myself but my family moved to New Zealand when I was 6. I went back to Kent and lived in Maidstone and Strood for a while. There's quite a few other Brits on these forums so you should fit right in here. |
Post by Nez // Oct 9, 2006, 10:15pm
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Nez
Total Posts: 1102
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Thanks for the welcome W!zard.
Interestingly, I'm also from Medway - grew up in Rainham and returned after Uni.
I'll definitely look for those Rama books - sounds like I'd enjoy them. I thought the Greg Bear stuff was great - what I think of as 'hard' sci-fi because the science is quite a strong feature (and quite advanced - singularities and stuff!).
Look forward to seeing some more of your work - I've never tried a space scene in Truespace but really ought to give it a go.... |
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