Meadow Grass using Vray

[Three D]

hi. the attached image shows a house i modeled in autocad 2008 and rendered in 3ds max 9 using vray. i'm happy enough with the result as it is to be used in a photomontage showing the house's relationship with the existing site and the existing photo was taken on an overcast day. typical irish weather. however i would like to replace the grass shown with some meadow type grass similar to the grass on the following webpage

 

http://www.evp.vt.edu/images/meadow1.jpg

 

can anybody suggest a way of doing this. i've tried a vray displacement modifier and displacement map (seperately) but max crashes even though i'm working on a 2.9ghz quad core with 4gb ram. i've also tried the scatter command but max crashes with this also as the number of objects becomes enormous. i've set the dynamic memory limit in the vray system setting to 2600mb but max crashes at about 1500mb usage (according to task manager). also, the scene is lit with a HDRI image so i was wondering if this is contributing to the crash. i dunno. any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

[Stephen Thomas]

VrayFur is probably your best bet. You could try downloading this to give you a start then play with the settings to get what you want.

http://www.vray-materials.de/all_materials.php?mat=476

[chuck]

I usually don't have crashing problems with displacement, I'd give it another try with the Windows 3gb switch...that will allow you to use up to 3gb before Vray crashes...theoretically.

 

 

You just need to add some code to the boot.ini file, not a big deal:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/PAEmem.mspx

[manta]

Well here's what i came up with after about 5 minutes of playing with vrayfur...

[Three D]

Thanks for your help guys. I'll give the 3GB switch a go later but this is what I came up with - image attached. The vray fur worked in the end but I had to render the grass seperately to the rest of the model and then photoshop it.

[Joseph Petrino]

If you decide to go with displacement, use 2D displacement.

 

3D displacement crashes even our 64 bit machines, but 2D works fine.

[Crimsus]

I typically don't touch VRayGrass because it takes way too long in my opinion.

 

I prefer to use the built-in Hair-Fur modifier in 3ds. After I have determined I have a good patch of grass I convert it to a mesh. After that, I bring the grass patch into the scene as a Proxy and then generate a material using a gradient ramp, etc.

 

VRayProxy also works well but lacks the ability to store the material info, which is actually a plus in some cases since some scenes would require somewhat drier grass, some require greener grass, etc.

 

-Crimsus

[ovzoc]

I prefer doing grass in Photoshop or Gimp... Brushes and layers, maximum time 20 minutes and my grass is ready... Keep in mind that you should pick colours relative to the environment...

[bparker]

This is an old post, but does anybody have tips on using vrayfur for long grass? I am trying, but the render time is out of this world!

 

 

Any Help would be appreciated.

http://www.whitebirchstudios.com

[Hoa Dinh]

I prefer doing grass in Photoshop or Gimp... Brushes and layers, maximum time 20 minutes and my grass is ready... Keep in mind that you should pick colours relative to the environment...

I agree with you, doing grass in PS or vray displace, I think vrayfur and hair&fur is good to make small area (carpet...)

[Three D]

Thanks for your replies guys. I've started using vray displacement modifier for grass and it works fine. Images attached.

[Eric Sosa]

humm, we have had a long discussion about the same 3d grass here at this very forums.

 

the best way to make a realistic grass with max and vray is using vray displacement mod (3d displacement) in a small plane of 1200x1200mm, align them together until yout get the rigth grass area you want and then proxi it. by proxing it you avoid max crashing.

 

want a huge area (more then 1.0 km2) covered with displaced vray grass?, then make a plane of the area you want and use 2D displacement mod.

[ramy]

want a huge area (more then 1.0 km2) covered with displaced vray grass?, then make a plane of the area you want and use 2D displacement mod.

 

I agree with this comment, and it's very useful for creating large sites. This is my solution for vray grass.

[gfriedman]

did you relocate this post elsewhere...I would like to have a look