I decided a few days ago to try doing some renders of the server!

For those who do not know, renders are done outside of the game, using the world's data. You can get much more interesting visual effects from them than through simple screenshots. Light sources show much better, impossible angles become possible and you can see much more further out! To start, I decided to render Central. Click the link below to see the whole image, in full HD resolution!

Central

I'll link these instead of including them on the page due to their sheer size.

This picture took about 19 hours to render of my PC, with the CPU locked at 100% for the entire duration! In this image, you can see things like the Creeper's Lab beaker's green glow on top of the Community Center, water reflections and glowing lights. The increased view distance allows Lost Island to appear near the top left, while Forks's emblem is visible at the right between the mountains!

I'm planning to do new ones over time, highlighting places on the server that could benefit from it. This includes busy areas, larger ones that wouldn't fit in a single shot, wild scenery, and so on.

Next on my list: Wind's Taj, in Windgrabah!

Oooh, that looks amazing~ It's so vibrant and has so much depth to it!

Sunset at the Taj Mahal

Render time: ~14 hours

What makes this one so special is that this view is impossible in-game: the gardens are so large that you can't see the Taj itself from the far end, even with your view distance cranked up! Picking a low sun also makes the shape of the Taj show up better thanks to the shadows.

By the way, some of these can totally work as nice desktop wallpapers!

Edited by Dr. Cossack on July 29, 2014 at 20:13:48

I'll take the above as a typo for "Chunky", and that's correct.

Ooh, when Anon finishes the city surrounding the Sophia, would that be something you'd render? I've seen some of the finished(ish) product on his screens and oh lord it'd be amazing.

Sanctum is already planned, of course.

Anon's entire area is definitely a target as well. I'm not doing it for now since he's actively working on the city, but once he says it's more-or-less done, it's moving to the top of my list for sure!

Allofmyyes

Oak Hills, sleeping at night

Render time: 58 hours (!!)

It's no secret that Oak Hills is one of my favorite locations on the server. I hope this image will help you to appreciate it as well!

It turns out that rendering large night scenes with several light sources takes forever to do! The quality on this one isn't perfect in some spots, but I think the result is still worth it! I want to keep on rolling with these, so large night shots will be few and far between.

Did someone say Sanctum?

Sanctum and its Harbor

Render time: 23 hours

The harbor by itself will probably be worth its own render eventually, as many of its details are simply not visible in this shot. I decided to put the city itself in the foreground, using the sea at the back for added depth. I didn't realize that the place is this planted, looking at it from above makes it look all green!

Yeah, I'd love to see the harbor done either by itself or with the town in the background. Just, you know, so I can feel more inferior. :I

Brewing storm at Orist's

Render time: 23 hours

I decided to go with a more atmospheric scene this time around. We've got several builds lost in the middle of the ocean, this gigantic tower is a surprising sight when you're wandering around on a boat!

By popular request...

Sanctum's harbor

Render time: 36 hours

It's definitely an interesting view on its own, but due to the sheer size of the harbor, the town gets thrown into the corner. That's why I went with the other angle at first! I had to cut the black-sailed ship from the view: it's too far out to include with the harbor AND town at the same time. I also took a shortcut by replacing some of the far chunks with water instead of land, cutting down the rendering time by several hours.

Edited by Dr. Cossack on August 6, 2014 at 23:22:56

kag gonna keep kag'ing, yo. And make everyone else feel inferior.

Still, it's nice to see the harbor with so much detail! It looks great~

Simply put, you can't!

The server doesn't provide enough chunks at once to get such deep views. I'm doing these using the raw server files, from the most recent backup, and feed them through Chunky. I open the world, select a view, and let the software run for several hours until I get an image I'm satisfied with!

Muncie, in the depths of hell

Render time: 47 hours

The moment I saw that red lava glow in the background, I knew I had a winner. Moo's statue is perfectly placed, too!

The image is slightly grainy, and I doubt that even doubling the render time would have helped much. You can pretend that this is the dirt and grime of Muncie being spread all over the town!

I love how the statue looks so friggin' evil. xD

"I can see into your soooooooul..."

The arboretum, withstanding sun and rain

Render time: 13 hours

Here's something recently built that the large majority of you have never seen: an arboretum, complete with several types of trees growing within! I very much like the stained glass pattern on the front. I'm not including the builder's name or its location... Good luck finding it!

I attempted to make an indoor view of Anon's Hagia Sophia, but I wasn't happy with how the pose I took was coming along so I trashed it. I'll make another attempt down the line! I'm taking a break from making these renders as I won't have the time to do so in the coming weeks, but I'll definitely get back to this as soon as possible: there are a lot more locations I want to explore!