A Vision of Conquest

Render time: 7 hours

Another fortress, another inhabitant. This one is located in a frozen wasteland, dominating the plains that surround it. Weary travellers might see it as a refuge after a long, gruelling journey, but don't let its quiet blue shine under clear skies distract you: there might be consequences to dropping in unannounced...

This is picture 2 out of four in a series!

A Vision of War

Render time: 53 hours

The next location isn't quite as inviting: the sharp angles, the dark structures and the large, enclosed lava moat sure don't look like your typical vacations resort. Even the scorching heat of that desert is no match for what is contained within that lava pool: you can spot the orange glow of the lava being projected on the nearby sand blocks! Trying to mount an assault on such a fortress would most likely end in failure.

This is image 3 out of four in a series!

A Vision of Death

Render time: 17 hours

Some places look inviting. Others leave you curious. And then there are locations like this one... From the get-go, anyone stumbling upon this place would know that something just isn't right. Ruins are everywhere, and the land appears to be corrupted by strands of a black force emerging from the ground and swallowing what it can!

This is image 4 out of four in a series!

Seems like a pleasant lil place

Sailing with Familiar Faces

Render time: 7 hours

This mighty ship was built by WindRider739 as a reference to the forums' long-standing logo. It's a carrack, a class of ships used in the 14th and 15th centuries for commerce and exploration. This one is obviously an ambassador for the Creeper's Lab, with the logo being prominent on its larger sail!

The ship is moored in front of Port Townshend's boardwalk. One would usually see the Transoceanic running behind it, along with an island or two in the distance, but I decided to omit these to focus on the carrack itself.

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle...

Render time: 17 hours

Forest City was established on the western portion of the map, not that far from Plymouth Rock, by a few enterprising players. They quickly got to task building a city square of sorts, multiple tree houses, a boat, and even used a temple as the gateway to the Nether portal. Nowadays, the place is a lot quieter since all residents have moved away.

Jungles are one of my favorite biomes in the game. The intense tree cover, vines everywhere, plus the abrupt varieties in the terrain's height make for a unique look that few locations in a world have. The rare presence of a jungle temple makes exploration all the more fun!

Monumental Discovery

Render time: 13 hours

Without surprise, the undersea monuments were quickly sought after on Rodinia and Laurasia post-1.8. After all, they offer all kinds of new blocks, new enemies, and a new challenge! Luckily, they turned out to be more plentiful than expected, so people don't have to fight over ownership.

Now, this image was really tricky to get done. Underwater light levels drop very quickly, so I couldn't just do a standard pose on one of these. Eventually, I settled on a close-up using a fisheye lens. That specific lens grabs a wider field of view, showing more of the building, while still being close enough for it to be visible despite the low-light setting. The end result reminds me of how an undersea explorer would find a shipwreck during a dive!

Sailing at Twilight

Render time: 36 hours

and

Sailing at Night

Render time: 74 hours

I couldn't decide on which pose would be more interesting, so I did both!


Anonymous_SoFar has been busy in his own corner of the world, recreating many buildings and structures of the classic Roman and Byzantine eras at full scale. Recently completed is the harbor, which hosts about a dozen ships in and out of the city's walls. These images focus on those that appear to be guarding or sailing out of the main access point. The area feels even larger in person, as you can get up-close to everything!

The first image gives you a rare sneak peek of the Hagia Sophia, which is waiting for a full outside render once the city is filled in (I did post an indoors render last summer). You can also glimpse the absolutely massive city walls, which surround the entire place and were completed a few weeks ago only. I expected the second picture to have a much darker sky, simulating night better, but the renderer appears to have a bug on that front. I think it still looks nice, so I opted to keep it in. The water reflection is especially attractive on that one!

Edited by Dr. Cossack on March 17, 2015 at 13:15:58

Edited by Doctacosa on December 6, 2019 at 17:27:28

Holy Ascension

Render time: 6 hours

Located in the middle of the endless seas, this is a remake of Wind Waker's Tower of the Gods. Built by Skreelink, it can easily be visited during Events Nights through a teleporter. The biggest challenge of this project was most likely attempting to gather all that quartz, which was needed to get the right look!

A Cozy Town Square

Render time: 43 hours

Some people build skyscrapers. Others dig sprawling underground caves. One might go for a floating palace. And then there are those who like to keep things grounded in reality. doorgunnerjgs has been quietly yet steadily working on a small town in his domain, fully furnished with several houses, a church, a school, and even more! This image shows how the place might look like in the morning, the rising sun waking the inhabitants from their slumber!

Central, February 2012

Render time: 12 hours

A blast from the past! This is an overhead view of Central, as it existed back in February 2012. The world had only been running for four months, but several key elements of Central were already into place: the walls of the inner city were up, the Community Center and Nether portal were in position, and even my Inverted Pyramid was there. Staples that have since been moved out include Kusorai's pagoda and Sage's lighthouse. Also notable is Grand Central Station: the first version of it was much smaller and didn't have room for many connections. I eventually rebuilt it following similar guidelines, but in a better scale and involving more details.

If anyone has render requests from this old version of the world, it's possible! I'm keeping a copy of it around just for fun.

Colorful Vision

Render time: 24 hours

I like colorful scenes. As you can see in this shot from Kaikon, the sun's light is going through the glass and making a neat rainbow pattern next to the rail.

A full blown shot of Kaikon will follow eventually. I've heard that some buildings need to be completed and moved before that should happen, though!


If any of you know an interesting location on the servers that's making good use of stained glass, be sure to let me know! The renderer usually goes great stuff with that material, and I want to see more done with it!

I promise I'm not dead, just going through my seemingly yearly end-of-winter cold/allergy assault. xP

The latest renders all look amazing~ I'm glad they're working out so well.

As for Kaikon, all of OUR work as of current is complete except for blowing out the walls of Gilly's just a smidge to allow for sittable tables; those changes won't hardly be noticeable on a render.

Ghost and Jade's bridge and houses and cmz's mansion to the best of my knowledge are the only things left that are still under construction, so I guess the render-ability of town would depend on where the shot was aimed. xD

And I believe the only other place I've seen a large amount of stained glass is on the tower at the iron farm at our base. I can't recall really seeing anyone else using a fair amount of it, though I could be mistaken? That wouldn't pass light though, which is a shame.

Edited by MediaKlepto on April 8, 2015 at 2:54:19

Down Below, Horror Awaits...

Render time: 48 hours

"You fear to go into those mines. The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm... shadow and flame." ~ Saruman, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Afraid of Heights?

Render time: 74 hours

The jumping board in Victoria goes high up. Very high up. This is the view from its summit, the town itself being that small-looking rectangle in the center.

That white glare you see at the bottom is none other than the platform's glass floor, completely out of focus. Watch your step, it's a long way down!

An Excessive Travel Distance

Render time: 26 hours

Ladies the gentlemen, the longest cart ride on the server: the Transoceanic! It's about 22 kilometers long, with a riding time of 57 minutes. What you see above is nearly the entire ride. A short distance from Central has been cut as an hilly island would block most of the view, while Centralia Islands (which would be to the right) has been removed as it'd make everything else too small. All of the other main attractions are there, up to and including Port Townshend in the far background!

This is an image that I tried to generate several times and kept failing at, until now. With the zoom factor turned way up, you get to see a compressed version of the ride which allows far away locations to still be visible and recognizable. I originally wanted to simulate a large ocean around the track, but it's impossible: the sheer amount of chunks that'd be required are too much for my PC to handle. Instead, you get a rather unique cutaway look of the underground!