https://www.posetteforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3908&p=44798#p44798
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Nik
Thursday, 17 March 2016, 03:24 PM

Re: First Pass At A Floor-plan Of 'Red Tower' 2016...
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Thanks, Chromium ! 

It is very much a 'Work in Progress', will be re-arranged as I re-learn turboCAD's UI...

Turned out the 'blocks' facility *is* in my 'deluxe' version. But, hey, it took some finding...

Selecting one of each type of 'arch-ery', defining it as a 'block', then *patiently* replacing all individuals of that type with its 'block' immediately halved the file-size. And that file-size is now growing much, much  slower...

High polygon count on the 'arch-ery' ? I'm not surprised. Compound curves add-up very, very quickly, especially if you want them half-way smooth, ready for re-use in a Poser scene in middle-distance. Another factor is all those 'soldier' bricks on the arches are individual blocks. Funnily enough, that bunch of individual cuboids add to a fraction of the polys of a single, 'wrinkled' mesh...

Which brings me to textures...

I've down-loaded a lot of freebies from the usual 3D sites, have been very, very surprised by how a simple mesh can look so good with a detailed 'material' mapped onto it.

eg: " Ooh, that's a *neat* Medieval-is tower, it might save me having to 'roll my own' !" But, when I look inside the 'zip', it's barely more than a single, cuboid block plus a base and crenels. The detailed windows, slits & doors had been painted onto a very pretty 'mtl'...

That's okay for a back-ground object in Poser, but not so much use in close-up, where perspective & shadows really show. Need careful lighting, at the very least...

I'm no Artist, to craft photo-realistic, 'trompe l'oeil' skins or back-drops, must go with my modest knack for 'Technical Drawing'...

So, I'm using those down-loads plus a *lot* of Google Image results to study what's appropriate detail. I'll then go back to my old turboCAD files, fetch out the 'profile cutters' I used to craft my 'arch-ery', use them and basic Boolean tools to punch holes in the walls...

I must also re-arrange the donjon and its stair-tower so they fit into the caravanserai's ten-foot grid. I'm on my fourth or fifth major iteration, and they're just not working. Next, I'll widen the stair-tower, see if that helps...


