3D-Pangel

Not sure why Lenovo is a no go for you? I know people like to build their own as that gives you the best value for the dollar, but the downside to that plan is that the warranty period is limited to the individual components and you need to register each component separately to get it. The advantage of Lenovo is that they are one of the few OEM's who offer a 5 year warranty on their build for an extremely low price (and for a few dollars more you can get 24 hour in-home replacement service). Also, with every machine I purchase, I look at the OEM cost vs. the individual component cost via sources like Newegg, etc. The cost difference is between 3% to 5% so the savings are not as much as you would expect over Lenovo or Dell (though Dell is getting pretty pricey) who get volume pricing on the components that you are buying as well. Now, I have spent 38 years as an engineer in electronics manufacturing for high-end telecommunication gear and servers. When it comes to reliability, most OEM's (original equipment manufacturers) stress test product through "infant mortality" -- manufacturing defects that cause the product to fail quickly. After you get through infant mortality, the product is usually good for about 3 years for consumer products. That is why most warranties are no more than 3 years. I know how these things are built and I am amazed that they last that long. I have yet to walk into any final assembly line across the globe where all the components come together (CPU, memory, child cards, etc.) and not found something that couldn't be improved. And these are professional Tier 1 assembly sites. Here are the concerns when you build your own: ESD protection. DIMM's and especially CPU's are prone to ESD damage. Therefore, are you assembling your PC on an ESD dissipative surface and wearing and ESD wrist strap and gloves to bleed off the charge from your body (the human body is one big capacitor --- hence the term HCM or human capacitance model). DIMM insertion. The newer DIMM's have a much finer gold finger pitch (this distance between the electrical contacts). The keying pin on the socket is plastic and it only takes about 15 pounds of insertion force for the DIMM to notch that key should it be mis-aligned during insertion. You think it is properly aligned but it really could be slightly off because you notched the key as you inserted it. Given the finer lead pitch you could easily misalign the power and ground connections between the DIMM and the socket during insertion. When that happens you can get a board fire during power up. Robotic DIMM insertion with force feedback transducers was originally considered too expensive but is now showing a payback over manual insertion. Enough said. GPU insertion (or any component using gold fingers requiring insertion into a socket) - Same gold finger designs as DIMM's. Same keying concerns. CPU Insertion into the socket - Not much to worry there as the socket design makes it pretty foolproof. Just be grounded and wear thin anti-static gloves as you do not want to get any skin oils on the CPU pins or the socket. Most CPU's come with their own tools for handling the CPU from the box to the socket but that tool still doesn't protect the CPU from clumsy handling. And you still need to be grounded. Heat Sink assembly --- the biggest source of failure in the whole assembly process. You really need to use a calibrated torque wrench to tighten the heatsink to a defined level and ideally do that tightening in a two pass operation following an X pattern across the four screws with each pass. For example, if the recommended final torque is 10 inch-lbs, then the first pass brings it to 8 inch-lbs and the second pass brings it to the final 10 inch-lb setting. Do NOT over tighten and do not jam the screw (otherwise you really aren't reaching the required torque). Most devices do not want to see more than 30 PSI of pressure or you risk crushing the leads of the device in the socket. Also, poor application of the thermal grease is a stress concentration riser across the component (professionals stencil print it across the component). All you need is 30 PSI over any single CPU lead to have a problem. It doesn't take much. Main Board - Again, be grounded, wear anti-static gloves and you do NOT want to get any finger oils on any of the exposed copper or tinned surfaces of the board. This will lead to oxidation, corrosion, and potentially promote tin-whisker growth (which is very bad). While this won't result in an early failure, it could shorten the overall life of the product. And I could go on...but I think you get the point. So product failures are very high at the beginning from manufacturing defects (the infant mortality portion that you stress test through), then they drop to very low rates and then rise again as you reach the end of life (EOL) for the product. Most EOL failures have to do with cleanliness issues and non-activated fluxes left on the board. When you build your own, you are responsible for all the infant mortality failures created by the assembly operation. Plus, you will probably get less than 3 year warranties from most of the PC component manufacturers. So for me, OEM's make sense and I am protected. For a 3% to 5% cost difference, I think that is a worthy price to pay to avoid all the assembly risks and the hassles of submitting all the paperwork to get the individual warranties. Lenovo offers a pretty good price, have a pretty good build quality and the all important 5 year warranty. I love Puget Systems, but their warranties are still only 3 years. Dave

Thank you sir! High praise indeed!! I made a slight modification to the back door and added a little hallway behind it. Now to put other doors in the on the side walls, add some crates, cables and pipes (in essence visual noise to make it look more real), Then I move on to modeling the outside (if my stamina hold out). Dave

My understanding is that in addition to a fast and capable GPU with a high nVidia compute capability score you also need a full complement of PCIe lanes (16) to and from the GPU, CPU and hard drives. The CPU is nothing more than a traffic cop that sets the speed that data is sent but the bigger the highway the more data can be pumped to and from the GPU. This position is based on a Redshift paper on hardware requirements. So I am wondering about your conclusion that PCIe lanes is not a factor in fast render times with Octane as my assumption is that apart from the rendering algorithms of a specific render engine, GPU rendering would still be impacted by the rate that data is sent to and from the GPU. For the benchmark results you posted from the Octane Bench leader board, what was the speed of the CPU? Dave

The back wall is completed. Note the blast doors toward the right of the rear wall....they are rigged to open as they do in the movie with an inner and an outer set of doors that close with a slight offset (inner closes first and outer about 20% later). There is really no guidance on what the back of a hanger bay looks like as all those shots were at ground level or from very far away as exterior shots of the Death Star mid-trench. So...dramatic license was taken. Dave

Actually, I think it is evidence of just how desperate people are for...well....pretty much anything. Pretty confident that 3 million people are not interested in cutting logs and if you check out their YouTube page (Triple L Rustic Designs) every video has her in tight spandex. Plus every cut is framed from the waste down and from behind....so we all know what they are selling and it is not logs....but it is "wood". Now, personally, 5 seconds was about all I could take, but I think that still counts as a "view". So, I hold out hope for humanity that people were more interested in determining whether her body shape in the thumbnail was real or enhanced by video or make-up and when you realize it was real you can't help but feel sorry for the poor women and stop watching. Dave

Based on your build up and the two runner ups who are EXTREMELY good (Ian Hubert and Clinton Jones), I was a bit let down by your selection of a winner. Now, Polyfjord is also an extremely gifted artist and had you just started with your third post, I would be clapping along with you. But in reality, all three artists (Clinton, Ian and Polyfjord) are equally amazing influencers in the world of 3D. But that build up was just incredible and you really set a high bar of expectation. Honestly, if I ever needed a publicist, I would hire you. So, bravo for that!!! Now, I will admit that I have a bias toward Clinton Jones as he is a C4D user. Second, he really excels at environment creation which is an area of interest to me as well, so his Pwinsher tutorials are immediately applicable to me. I mean this work is just amazing. Plus, he is an ex-Corridor Digital member and I do enjoy their content (I even have one of their T-shirts given to me as a present). And third, they set him on fire.... literally. I mean that is commitment to craft and career. 🙂 Dave

There are so many things I want to say here but there are always consequences to written posts on any social media site being taken the wrong way and out of context. I do not want to spin the Core4D community the wrong way given the respect I have for our global community. But with that said, I just want to state my absolute admiration and respect for Ukraine citizens, leaders and military and what I have learned from their example. They are showing the world and NATO what it means to value freedom and the sovereignty of their country. There have been many who once thought that this attitude would only be found in the old, those who once lived under Russian rule, but that is not turning out to be true as young men who fled early to seek safety for the families are now returning to fight. Global citizens who take their freedoms for granted can learn a great deal from the Ukrainians. They are teaching us something that we may all have forgotten during these covid years and that is freedom should never be taken for granted. Just as precious as our current freedoms is the national unity required to preserve those freedoms in your own country. Dave

Hopefully this post does not violate community guidelines, but I received two emails today that I felt I just had to pass along. The first was from the Pilgway Team, makers of 3D-Coat. Typical of the grit, determination and courage of the Ukraine people, The Pilgway team is still working on 3D-Coat in the middle of a Russian invasion in Kyiv. Just amazing! The link for Ukraine support provided in that message is found here The next email was from Evermotion: The link for Ukraine support in that message is found here Dave

Not sure how far back your subscriptions go, but in the days when they did ship with DVD's, I realized that I had over 100 DVD's stock full of assets (tutorials, models, software, textures) but no way of finding anything easily. So I contacted the editor at the time (Steve Jarrett) and asked if they had any plan to create a database of the content. He said "good idea" but no. So I offered to do it and in return got a free subscription (cheap labor I know, but I was happy to give something back to the 3D community). Ultimately, that Excel database got converted into an on-line database by another person who wanted to give something back (Daniel Skovli). Overtime though as editors changed, support for the database stopped and the free subscriptions stopped at Issue 151 (around 12/29/2011). It was a lot of work and if no one wanted to support it then I decided to no longer keep it going. The on-line version was taken down as well. But the excel version still exists on my PC. So if you have old issues, Excel, and lots of DVD's that you are wondering if they have still had anything in them worth keeping, let me know and I will send the Excel file. Dave

Welcome to Core4D! This site is an extremely friendly and helpful place and its staff of moderators are insanely good. There are many threads on best tutorial sites or best teachers as well but don't think that the only way to get help is to search for past threads. Feel free to ask again as that always brings up new information. I also hope you are enjoying the warm Brazilian summer. I live in Northeast USA and we are getting over 12 inches of snow today....not that I am jealous or anything (okay....maybe a little). Dave Dave

HappyPolygon, You once again shine as an amazing resource of industry information to the C4D community. Question: Have you read the camera tutorial/article and if so, how would you rate it? Any interesting tidbits of information that would make purchasing this issue worthwhile? Most of the available tutorials on YouTube just cover the basics (though there are a few with some neat tips - my personal favorite found here). Dave

What you are missing is that HappyPolygon has been 100% replaced by Unreal's MetaHuman Creator module with this official release. The human, formerly known as "HappyPolygon", is now a high-resolution AI avatar rendered in real time. The upside is that the real HappyPolygon accepted a 10-year deal from Epic to be replaced and is now residing in a beach side bungalow in Hawaii. The downside is that bungalow has no wifi, wireless or internet access so as to protect switch from human to AI across all social media platforms. Gotta go, Kim Libreri is calling me.😀 Dave

X-particles has its place and this animation of the "Creature Breach" was NOT it. As shown in the preview shot above, that feathering of the particle/fluid simulation is what makes any fluid simulation appear "large scale" and it is NOT achieved by massive particle counts alone but rather how the simulation solves for scale when "meshing" the particles. Not only can XP not do large-scale fluid simulations to this level of accuracy, but neither can Real Flow (as far as I have seen) or anything from Blender. Maybe Maya but not sure. So far, the only commercially available package that can produce accurate large-scale simulations is Houdini. What you tend to get from all these other packages tends to look like this Maybe someday we can get this in XP, Embergen or Blender, but it will not be via GPU acceleration but rather via advancements in the fluid simulation engine itself....and that is NOT a trivial task. Dave

I shared an interview with our Wireless CTO about the potential of 5G and Wifi 6 in this post here particularly on augmented reality glasses -- in a sense pumping the output of cloud computing to each individual. The power of all that is not in the cloud (you can always build bigger cloud rendering/data farms) but rather creating a bigger data pipe over a wireless network to each individual - or what is called the "last mile" in telecommunication hierarchies. Central offices - or the hubs in a telecommunication network - transmit to each other at 100 Gbps to 400 Gbps - but those speeds drastically get reduced as you split the data through a big network of "off-ramps" to the individual. The last mile has always been the bottleneck and great advancements in telecommunication occur when that pipe gets bigger. 5G and particularly Wifi 6E show the potential to widen that last mile pipeline to over 1Gbps once the networks are fully deployed. Dave

In NH, the situation is a little different. I live in the 11th most connected town in all of NH and we have 6 providers of home internet service. The biggest one is Xfinity and the second largest in Consolidated Communications (formerly Fairpoint). Pricewise, when you bundle cable (extended cable with 165 channels), phone, international calling and internet, I am paying $150/month using Xfinity. As I work from home, I need pretty fast upload/download so I have 400 Mbs/10 Mbs download/upload. Also, my company subsidizes me $35/month for an internet connection. No issues with service and Xfinity has some pretty good tools for managing your network remotely as well extending wifi connectivity within the home. So while those rates seem competitive (with the subsidy) and that fact that biggest competitor, Fairpoint, had an awful reputation in NH for service (thus causing them to go out of business and be sold to Consolidated Communications), I was pretty happy with Xfinity....at the beginning. Overtime, I began to see a slow overall cost increase. Nothing big, less than a dollar. But in the last year, a more notable increase. When you wake up to it, you realize that it is all the fee's on top of the flat package rate of $150/month. That $150 rate has not changed for years but the fees are constantly going up. Service fees (Broadcast TV fee and Regional Sports Fee) are $36.80/month...and increase of $13/month in the last year alone. Then there is another $12.67/month in state taxes, franchise costs, regulatory cost recovery fees, 911 fees, etc. So that is another $50/month in fees that I can't control. You can shop around for an ISP, which I have done, and all they tell you about is the basic package price. You have to call to fully understand all the taxes and fees that go with it. Plus, when you start to break cable away from internet (honestly, no one uses phone anymore. You add it just to get a bigger "bundle" at a cheaper rate), then you run into the problem that not all providers provide the same services, and the separate "unbundled" costs begin to wipe away any perceived savings. You then have to deal with the change in level of service. You may save some money, but loose big on reliability and/or response to widespread service outages. As this is NH, all our lines are above ground and on telephone poles. We get ice storms, wind storms, snow storms that can bring down lines. Xfinity trucks are always out there trimming back tree branches from the lines, upgrading/servicing their curb-side huts, etc. Again, as I work from home, I need that reliability and the shortest amount of downtime when recovering from a big storm. So, I am going to stick with Xfinity internet. My only opportunity for savings is to pick a cheaper cable plan and go with something like YouTube TV (which is not cheap either at $70/month) or its equivalent. But the cheaper plans don't come with DVR subsidies...so honestly, they have you coming and going. Dave

Just to add a bit to this discussion...imagine (again in 10 years' time -- or less) a world where you have an AI creating photo realism combined with a fast cellular/wi-fi network. From an interview with our CTO of wireless technology: The article then went on to describe other fanciful situations, but you get the picture. So, will there be a future where the CGI enthusiast will no longer be rendering images of their virtual world to show others in a forum but rather invite their friends to experience those worlds within their own augmented reality? Honestly, I hope not. Some of those virtual worlds could be a little strange. Just because you can make it from your imagination, does not always mean you should. Dave

There are a lot of good questions in that chat exchange below the video...and some have been answered by Insydium. I have extracted some of those directly asked in this forum. I am not going to paraphrase, but just post a snap shot of the question and the answer: Also, 4 hours before I posted my question above, someone did ask if this would be sold separately (maybe implying as a subscription only product). Again no answer and it was posted definitely during their workday. Also, someone made this post which I think perfectly sums up most of our concerns: I think we all have STSD (subscription traumatic stress disorder) whenever a company announces that they are following a hybrid licensing model....and for good reason given how Maxon handled it. Dave

Good point. But now it is past Noon on Friday in the UK and my post is still at the top of the stack in the chat section. No reply yet.

I did. Around 1PM EST. Notice how fast they responded to the first post but now....crickets. I don't know. A little nervous. Dave

By "Mash" do you mean Imashination and the 3D Fluff Youtube channel or someone else? I am already subscribed to 3D Fluff (great stuff..highly recommended) but perpetually on the lookout for good trainers. Thanks, Dave

I am confused regarding your need for the discussion. Did you bring it up because ----- You wanted to have a philosophical discussion on the merits of C4D post R20 (your current version). You do feel like you have missed out on something with future versions and want to know what that is. You want to validate if R20 plus all your current plugins provides the same (or more) capability than the latest C4D version. Now, all discussion points are certainly valid and worth asking. So, no issues with the subject being brought up on the forum at all. I guess I am just wondering "why not download a demo and see for yourself"? Until you do that, then it appears that only option 1 applies -- this is a philosophical discussion only. Again, that is perfectly okay so no criticism there. I am just looking for understanding as to the point of the whole thread from the perspective of its author. In short, what do you hope to get out of it? Dave

Either way, I tend to think of Maxon Releases the same way I feel about the Star Trek movies. The even numbered movies were always better than the odd numbered movies. I wonder if that is why they made the even numbered releases for subscribers only? Dave

LOL! Was that the scene with David Prowse (pre Darth Vader)?

So thought I would share a short question I posted on the Insydium YouTube site: Given that Insydium did NOT answer the question is troubling. Was my question in any way ambiguous? Is it just me or does it feel like a dodge? Dave