Thanks, Lonnie. I couldn’t help but wonder. Nothing personal, of course. And Hanuman has a good suggestion. This is something I’ve been waiting to see as well, a side by side.
I realized a question I wanted to ask.
Does 1.5 allow a higher ppi than 72 on export? Any other file formats now available?
And I too, would like to see a side by side comparison of a 1.23b vs that same file in 1.5. (with render time comparison)
How about some simple radiosity renders against native materials side by side with 1.23b? (with render time comparison)
I’m enjoying the creatures, too. But if this is Beta testing, let’s do some Beta tests.
Well about the only thing I can say (maybe Matthew can elaborate) is that as far as your requests go Kathy and Han not all of that is possible right now with the beta. Remember Matthew said not all of the tools/functions in 1.5 were implemented in the beta. The renderings that I did are identical to what I would do in 1.23b. There is only one small finite adjustment done in the beta (that I can’t go into) that is any different. My renderings are a trick of light and fog. I used a dark fog to make them look faded and more 3d. I also tweaked the lighting and used ADJUSTMENTS in the render menu. So to answer your question in a more direct route…I know I can’t do any comparitive stuff that you asked for. But you can get very very close to the same rendering results (that I did with my beta images) in 1.23b. I am looking forward to the new rendering engine as well and will be re-rendering these images once it is available.
Mentat7, So your saying all the beta pics you posted have NOT been rendered with the new version? Awesome pics pal… Awesome…
No Neoz…they were in fact rendered in the beta but they do not take advantage of any render enhancements. Here is the AH’HM-BROSIIM rendered in 1.23b The effect is in the technique not the software. If anyone is interested I can show you how to accomplish this in 1.23. We’ll start a new thread for it though. 
“Remember Matthew said not all of the tools/functions in 1.5 were implemented in the beta. The renderings that I did are identical to what I would do in 1.23b. There is only one small finite adjustment done in the beta (that I can’t go into) that is any different. My renderings are a trick of light and fog. I used a dark fog to make them look faded and more 3d. I also tweaked the lighting and used ADJUSTMENTS in the render menu.”
Ah! Thanks Mentat. Your talent is so strong, you make it look like a real upgrade!
Obviously though, you are using the Zsphere, right? Or are you just having access to the new UI? Which by the way is an awesome improvement, so much less wasted real estate!
Can’t comment on all of that Kat but yes the ZSphere was used exclusively to create the bodies of my figures. It makes such work a real breeze! All other objects were created with traditional methods/tools. 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Not to take the words out of Matthew’s mouth but we (the testers) were aware of who most of the other testers were (but not all) and I can say we haven’t yet seen posts from everyone. I was kind of wondering the same though. Where are those pics guys? Come on out!!! Olly olly oxen free…<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Well, don’t look at me. I wasn’t one of them. 
A little post with a number of new features used. A ,ot of post work was done to this ugly guy.
BTW…Mentat…I am SO impressed by your latest work. Are you going to share your light and render settings??? PLEASE!!!
JUST BRING IT!
Same theory. different mesh.
Nice work Southern! I see one of your people has small hands…
Mentat7, I for one would love a little insight into your world. Lets start that thread…
Great pics Southern…One more question for Southern, Mentat7 or other beta testers, are these beta models made from one zphere? Or numerous zpheres then put together?
Great images, Beta guru’s!
Mentat, it’s astounding that your images could have the same look when rendered in the current version, I’ve noticed that when you use fog on a model and render using the preview render button, there is interesting depth effects. I was thinking a few weeks ago that somehow if you could apply these to a standard rendered image (maybe using layers in photoshop) then you would get a simmilar look to your beta images. Am I close?
Hi Neoz,
I’m afraid that question can’t be answered just yet. Never fear; the answers will be forthcoming soon.
The most important thing I think 1.5 needs is to be able to save files as .gif or .jpg so we don’t have to spend a lot of time converting our pictures. Also, a 3d text creater would be cool. Just some thoughts. When did you ask for volunteers anyway? I never got the message.
David
Had a play with fog, adjustments, lights, heres the best result I could come up with.
Looking forward to see what methods your using Mentat. I’m beat!
Grub. That looks cool. If you made it shiny it would kine of look like jade. It has a nice transluscent kind of look to it. I’d like to know what settings you used as well, Grub.
Southern: I love the claws and textures on that guy.
Zerobudgetgamemaker: I don’t think they sent out a call for volunteers, I think some people sent in unsolicited requests to test the beta version and they filled what slots they could. That’s just a guess though.
I’m sure other people will probably get a chance once 1.6 or 1.8 or 2.0 or whatever comes around.
Grub, you don’t have to answer. I think I got it down.
What I did, is I took the basic material and raised the left side of the diffuse graph most of the way up and I put a little hill in the middle of the graph as well. I raised the GDI and GSI levels in the lighting menu to about 50. Plus I moved the left side of the light intensity graph all the way up. In addition I used the black fog like Mentat used.
This was the result I got.
Hehehehehe…just shows you there IS more than one way to skin a cat. I just posted my lighting/rendering methods in this thread .
Take it from a professional Lapidary, W/O…
That is definitely high-quality Chinese Imperial Jadeite you have depicted there…