Oh well, I guess there's no escape from reinstalling Windows...
The render I left overnight didn't do anything. so is a test render I just lunched, and waited half an hour for something I later rendered through Maya in 17 min:
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4375/tempks3.jpg
Benny

Firewall blocking it maybe?

No... I don't use firewalls :attn: (router)
How can a firewall block a render?

I'll try it again this night. this time I added a flag for the output file so I don't go looking for it again.

Together with lots of other stuff, search feature got f***ed up - I can't find anything in My Documents (maybe in a larger area, but in D:\ it works fine) even if when I run a search inside a folder with one item for that item...
Benny

It's possible that a firewall could block any program that uses network facilities. Even if it doesn't connect to another network and just uses the local network. (sockets)

Oo, OK...
Apparently this render with Maya closed does work:
Here's what it did overnight:
http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/6631/tempwq5.th.jpg

I just noticed that the white king is on the wrong spot...
(I had this kind of problem in all of the renders so far...)
I tried to fix it by re-rendering that region but it left seams for some reason.

C&C please, before I re-render the whole thing this night
(not just because of the king. Other small issues as well...)
Benny

how come it takes so long for your renders?

I think you should have some shadows in the scene. :)

It's a combination om my old PC, the high quality and the huge resolution. The last render through Maya took ~ 9h
I don't know how much it takes with Maya closed...

I do have shadows, they're simply very weak. They were weak before but now that I increased the light radius and decreased the intensity of the key light the shadows kind of disappeared.
They would've disappeared completely only when the render time will go down by 1-2 h :)

I'll see what I can do about it... Thanks for the advice :bow:

Benny

Modifications...
 

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/6758/tempxw2.png
Shadows are still a bit too weak...
C&C please,
Benny

i like the faint shadows. :)

The board still looks like its floating. Also, you're not doing yourself any favors by making the renders such a high res and waiting hours unless you're completely (and I can't stress this enough) completely satisfied and now you're doing a final render.

Well, I'm not COMPLETELY satisfied but I've got nothing better for the computer to do overnight so why not? I see more details and stuff I need to improve that way...
Any advice for making the board look better? I can't think of anything that'll help...
Thanks for the replies :bow:
Benny

Haha sorry for the hassle :p

nvm it.

I'm going to sleep now... Another render overnight I hope...
Holiday's over :shakehead - I've got school tomorrow. Some tests as well soon...
I expect to slow down for a while. No other big holiday in almost two months :(
Benny

Another test render:
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/5115/tempbe6.png
Shadow annotation raised to as high as it gets. shadows are a bit darker but still not as much as they should be...

Another full sized render I left overnight:
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/8...ess2yq1.th.jpghttp://img406.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

I think that's it for this project... It lasted far longer then I intended it to.

Thanks a lot to everyone who helped me through it :bow:
Couldn't have done it without you
Benny

I guess its about that time to move on. Well you stuck with it and you finished it.:p