Even better: side by side.
I’m going to need a lot of opinions on this!
well i like the look without freestyle more, it looks more realistic and simply prettier…
I prefer freestyle also, it looks cooler and I’m not going for complete realism, just whatever looks the best. Without freestyle, the fog blends everything together and its hard to tell objects apart in the distance. This could be a nice effect in some scenes.
So, Freestyle 2, None 0. Other opinions please?
you misunderstood me… I like it more without freestyle, non-freestyle… I’m pro non-freestyle…
Oh, lol. Yeah I misread that. 1 and 1 then.
I also prefer it without freestyle. I just thought the edges were too thick, especially for objects in fog, it somehow broke the believability in my opinion.
Ok, its 2 to 1, I’ll go with majority. While we wait for more opinions, here is a .303 that I made:
It was used by the British as the main caliber in both machine guns and rifles.
Try some streaks coming from between the boards. it may be only lightly raining now, but rain would make mud squeeze through the cracks
What exactly do you mean by streaks?
nice bullet, mark… how did you make the scratches on the shell?
photorealism is oversold, imo. if you are trying to insert effects into live-action film, then it needs to be perfectly photo-real. if everything that the viewer sees will be coming out of your computer, then you can make it have whatever look you want. if you like the look with the Freestyle mix, then go with it 
my observation about the frame you’ve rendered: with or without the Freestyle lines, most of the values are very mid-range - the lighter lights and the darker darks under-represented. i know that you are going for a foggy look, but things near the camera could still have more contrast - more “punch”. then let objects in the distance fade to mid-tones. that’s my 2 cents’ worth.
in any event, you’re off to a great start.
@wolfred: thanks! I agree, people are always aiming for photorealism, but real life always wins over CG in photorealism. CG is intended for something to look better than real. I’m going to take that as a for-freestyle, making it 2 for and 2 against. I will add more contrast to my list, unfortunately I’m busy though. I’m already falling behind in this project, and I have to study my 10 pages of tech support notes for a test that is a month earlier than I expected. Btw, if anyone knows the difference between a Cat-5e and an RJ-11, feel free to message me lol.
@msquared:
Hey, sorry for being a bit late to reply. Crazy Bump is probably the best. I personally use njob which works great and is free!!!
(For everyone thinking this is a bit random, I asked what normal map maker Robert Banks uses on page 2)
thanks for the explanation mark, one more question though. the scratch image texture are black lines, or white lines on transparent background?
Haven’t heard of it, but if its free that is good. Right now its 2 for 2 against freestyle, and I need more votes. Once we decide on freestyle and I finish the inside of the trench, I’ll finally start modeling the soldiers. If I can make them look satisfactory, I’ll start a topic in the WIP forum.
@msquared: the scratches are from a jpeg that looks similar to this: http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=6850&PHPSESSID=lg6lmgau9dic4afs3p7vn8f3a4
Needed: render volunteers
Is that really making the scratches glossy? I’m having to make an assumption that your scratches are dark in the image texture since we haven’t seen it, if that’s the case then wouldn’t it send a low factor value to the mix node resulting in diffuse being predominantly shown? Either way…why would you want the scratches to be glossy?
Regarding free style / no free style, I would have to a full render of each. There are a lot more objects on the right hand side of the image where you have half and half, so it’s not an easy comparison. To be honest, I can’t really make a call on that anyway, it really depends on what the overall look of the film is supposed to be like.
picking up on Blender Matt’s remark, I would have to say this: the look that works best is the one that tells your story the best. what look is going to set the right mood for your story? it’s hard for us to vote one way or the other if we don’t know what mood you are trying to evoke. action sequence? moody existential piece? etc…
I have a couple of themes selected, it all depends on whether I can get volunteers or not.
@Blender Matt: The bullets have been sitting in boxes and mud for months, so they have a layer of dirt on them. Scratches would actually remove the dirt as well as the metal, so the scratches are cleaner than the actual object. To compare, if you picked up a muddy stick outdoors and broke it, the surface of the broken part will be clean.
And, here are some bayonets made by jdover and textured by me. There will be tons of variations.
Ok, that’s fair enough reasoning. What colour are the scratches in your texture? Are they lighter on a dark background? If that is the case then it makes sense in the fac socket, but wouldn’t you rather have the inverse of that going into the normal socket of the diffuse so that scratches are recessed relative to everything else? If the scratches are dark on a light background, then the I think the fac will be doing the opposite of what you describe but the bump will make sense.
Maybe I’ve just gone mad 
I will have to test what I’m talking about to check.