The War Mage’s Room (tS5, in 2001)

Software Used : trueSpace 5, VistaPro 3
 

A snapshot from an alternative history that runs almost parallel to our own. This scene is meant to leave the viewer asking questions - is the War Mage reviewing a completed battle, or preparing for one tomorrow? What sort of magic and alchemy does he practice? What has kept him up until this time of night, and where has he gone, leaving his chair pushed back and his wine half finished? I hope you enjoy coming up with your own stories around this image!

Technical Stuff

This has become a benchmark scene for me, as I rework it every time I get a new copy of trueSpace! This lets me test just what improvements the new version has to offer, and I think it’s interesting to see how it has evolved, which is why I leave all three copies of the image on my site.

I’ve used the new volumetrics to go for a much softer look. The firelight is now created by two goniometric lights, one with shadowcasting (mapped shadows), and one without, and the candlelight is still done by a local light. The new render engine in tS5 does an excellent job, giving a subtle but noticeable improvement in the “look” of the image.

Some materials have been tweaked, some straight edges have been broken up a little, and some objects moved slightly for composition, but nothing was remodelled.

Finally, tS5 and a faster computer have allowed me to render this at 800x600 rather than the previous 640x480, without me having to age significantly while waiting for the render to finish!