thread on tubes
here are my first 3D models for the Colossus project
still need some work but getting there
may ahve to do some lower res tubes for doing whole bay with 100’s of tubes!
not certain yet of all the real tubes that ahve been use on the rebuilt Colossus
some might be Metal or Glass tube
also did the photocell Black mask
thanks
happycl
did a quick test for how amny tubes we can put on a bay
so use instancing and got 420 tubes with about 4 K verts each
for a total around 16. millions verts on that bay
and no problems to work with very fast in viewport
and I got only a small machine
so I think should be possible to make one bay back and front,
not certain if possible for all the bays !
thanks
happy bl
You could cut down on the verts by using group instancing for those parts. Make that tube into its own group and use group instance. The down side is that you can’t array group instances, but the upside is that they don’t count as verts, edges or polys, only as objects. Or you can make the panels into groups and instance them as you need.
that might be another good idea
will test that later this week
thanks
happy bl
Duplicate group instances using additional geometry - subdivided plane e.g. - which you set to Duplicate from Faces.
Downside - you would increase vertex count by some verts and would need to manage positioning.
The tubes look great and I dig the shaders, especially of the glass tubes! 
Like you I start to worry a bit about the polycount of the final model. Instancing would reduce the load of course and dupli faces or dupli verts would be an option, like ajm and eppo said.
Maybe the vertex count of each of the tubes themselves could be reduced a bit? 4K verts is more than I expected.
But I know that you spoke about low poly versions yourself.
for long camera shot I mean don’t really need most of the inside verts
so low poly that would bring down the verts count a lot less then 40 % !
but using group instance it does not really matter it takes no verts at all !
happy cl
some of the basic circuits for COLOSSUS
I was unable to read all the symbols !
thanks
happy cl
These charts are looking great, Ricky. It appears you are more of an engineer than I am
Where did you find all these information? Are there any publications by the rebuilding team?
I did an approximation for a Lorenz wheel
still missing how the inside is made up !
the blue pins are used to activate numbers
happy cl
Looking good! The photocells were needed to read the perforated tape from the bedstead, right?
yes but not certain what model was used in the rebuilt !
that will be one question to ask !
thanks
happy cl
This is incredible work you’ve done! Those tubes, dials, and spindles look very real.
