The VSI Lab scene from "The Lawnmower Man" built in Maya 6.5 using an SGI Tezro

Irinikus

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This is a summary of the work I've done on this scene up until this point:

I started working on this a while ago and this is as far as I got with the lighting setup for the object in question before I started Fallout 4, so it will have to wait for now, but this is going to be my next scene: (Extremely early in the build process though!)

This is the beginning of one of the assets to be used in the scene and the scene will definitely end up being the most complex I've created to date!

Hint: It's a pivotal set from a movie released in the 90's involving allot of graphics generated on SGI machines.



This is the beginnings of the “mainframe” from “The Lawnmower Man”.

I have captured enough still images of the main lab featured in the movie, to be able to reproduce it with reasonable accuracy.

Here's a little more progress on this! (This is eating into my gaming time!!!)



I'm going to build "the lab" at VSI up completely, asset by asset, the gyroscopes will be next!

Here's some more progress! (It's now starting to become a bit more recognisable!!!)





I'm just about done with the mainframe:





I've now made a start on the Gyro's:



I'm almost done with the gyro's, next I'll import them into the scene with the mainframe and give them texture:





They're now textured:





It's starting to take shape slowly!!!

Today Made a start on the multimedia setup and created the floor and messed around with lighting a bit.

It's amazing what you learn about something while modelling it. (The speakers in the scene are not symmetrical about their lateral axis, indicating that they more than likely employed some kind of direct/reflecting technology, typical of Bose speakers!)

Here's where I am at this point, still a long way to go, but it's starting to look like something!





Tonight I started on the environment for the scene:





That's it for today, it's probably about 65% complete at this point.

Optimising the lighting in a scene like this is rather time-consuming on a slow machine like the Tezro, as every time I make a change, it takes me about 30 minutes to see the result!

I think I've almost optimised the lighting setup, and these are pretty much the settings I'm going to continue with:



Now onto the VR helmets with their fibre optic linkups and the completion of the multimedia station.

Here's one last adjustment before I move on with the build:

 
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Irinikus

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I'm really starting to hit the limits of what the Tezro can render here!!!!!

Tonight I've had countless failures when trying to render this scene, as the machine keeps on running out of memory!!! (So it says, even tough there's plenty of free memory!!!)

I've unfortunately encountered this problem on many machines before, when the scene starts to become complex! (So the Tezro's not the first!!!)

SO here it is: (I've worked on the scaling and have added to the multimedia setup)



I REALY HOPE I'LL BE ABLE TO COMPLETE IT!!! (AS IT'S VERY CLOSE TO BEING COMPLETED NOW!!!)
 

Irinikus

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I have considered using the method that I used to render the Voyager scene. (Rendering it in two parts), but the reflections on the floor and the shadows on the walls will make this difficult to achieve. (As all the assets in the scene interact with each other.)

Here's the process I went through to render the Voyager scene:
 
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Irinikus

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Thanks to a confirmation by @jrra: (It's now confirmed that Maya6.5 is indeed a 32-BIT binary!!!)

"jrraToday at 11:37 AM
@Irinikus I have Maya 6.5 too, on my Octane, so I opened up the Maya6.5 launch script and followed the trail. Internally it runs maya.bin. file says: maya.bin: ELF N32 MSB mips-3 dynamic executable MIPS - version 1
So, it's definitely a 32-bit binary."

Therefore Maya only has access to 2GB of the Tezro's memory, as shown in this error message:



It's hard to believe that they did this in 2004!!!! As it's incredibly limiting!!!!
 
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Irinikus

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Here I am, at it again this morning!!!!

Now that I've got around the emery issue, I've allocated a light source to every light in the scene to set it up as the original set was! This is still in the experimental phase, as allot of adjustment will be required here and the scene is probably taking about 1.5 hours to render at this point!!! (So Adjustments will be time consuming to the MAXX)



I'm listening to this as I work: (It's pretty cool trance, so I thought I would share it!!!)

 
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Jacques

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Looking really good N!

Given scenes like this would have been rendered on multiple nodes, 1.5hours per frame is actually Ok'ish. I recall somebody saying some Toy Story 2 frames took around 2.5 hours to render each.
 

Irinikus

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Thanks Jaques!!! :)

After experimenting the whole day, I've decided to leave the lighting pretty much where it was!!! (Just not as blue)

The Tezro's been running at full tilt the whole day!!!





At one point I added 72 extra lights, and the result wasn't positive!!!

Leaving the lighting the way it was, it takes about 30 minutes to render!
 
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Irinikus

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Today I pushed this scene as far as I could before it stared to fail using "Batch Render" in Maya 6.5. (In the end I was literally counting vertices, where as little as 4 extra vertices meant the difference between a successful render or not!)

Here's the complete set:



Here are the final outputs for this project:







I really wanted to increase the detail further, but in the end, this is as far as I could take it!!!
 
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flexion

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Next I'm plan to model a complete Cray2 system! (My favourite computer design!!!)
excellent idea!! :cool: wondering why you're such an experienced maya user.

I've just reinstalled both my indigo2s (sgug-rse still running right now), after fixing a crashing GE board in the IMPACT and am now ready for some 3D adventures too. Although I rarely used Maya. I started with 3D studio (DOS) in the early 90s, followed by 3dmax on x86 and then continued with blender (linux only). Installed blender 1.0 on the SGI today just for the kicks, because the apprentice insisted on seeing it.. :) will try blender 2.x in the next days, hoping the UI is a bit more as in current versions :D
 

Irinikus

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I personally like Maya, as its interface is more similar to that of 3D Studio Max, than the other packages available on IRIX! In many ways, I still actually prefer 3D studio max!

This video shows a rendering that I did in 3D Studio Max R3 on my 320 Visual Workstation: (I'm also an avid pen collector by the way!)

 

Irinikus

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It was rendered with MentalRay, and it's not 64-bit! Batch render just allows you to squeeze little bit more out of it, as it spares the memory used to send the rendered image to the frame buffer.
 
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