> I do like Philippe Gibone's dome, as it is not a standard structure you
> would expect.

Exactly - it works out a lot better for the buildings too, I found that 
Geodesic domes made the center buildings *way* too tall.  I had to play with 
the domes a lot to get a city with a good population density as well as a 
decent view for some.

My theory is that with real estate being essentially priceless, they are 
GOING to build right to the edge of the dome.

> Something about the landscape outside troubles me though. We
> are on the brink of Valles Marineris, right?

Correct.

> There is an impression of the
> dome going to slide down, to the right.

Interesting.  My animation in the IRTC (whoot! Third prize) shows the same 
landscape, but the dome is MUCH further inland.  The problem I found was 
that there was no view from the tram or the highest buildings.

Why go all that distance and go to the trouble of building a city and not 
have a view?

So I had to successively move the dome closer and closer to the valley.  I 
layer height fields to make it blend right, I'll post some more images when 
I get the outside finished again.  Third time I've moved it, let's hope I 
don't have to do all that again.

> Also, it is difficult to judge the
> scale of the Valles...

Scale is 'correct' without vertical exaggeration, but I agree with you.  Fog 
was supposed to help but didn't seem to much.

The terrain is a bit too flat; I got Leveller to 'curve' the height field 
over a globe but that didn't work (the resulting mesh was too big).  I'll 
post some other images of it.

Render time was 42 hours, so I'm a little reluctant to use an iso surface 
for the valley, but the real issue was I couldn't get it to work well with 
high resolution height maps.

>hmmm, perhaps some structure within the Valles would
> give us a hint on that... another dome perhaps?

The 'train rails' were supposed to show scale but I need to work on them.

Another dome could be possible, hadn't thought of that.  Maybe a road too. 
My original concept was a space port, but I put that behind the dome on the 
flatter area, so it can't be seen from this angle.

After further thinking about it, I put the space port behind a low set of 
hills, as if there was an explosion on landing, you wouldn't want anything 
to hit the dome.

> just my 2 dimes worth idea,
> though.
> Otherwise, awsome image.

Thanks!  Was it funny though?  Maybe no one gets it but me :)  Someone at 
work suggested changing the guys head angle slightly (and less chunky).

> Oh yes, railing paint. yes, I seem to recognize that one. Nice 
> modifications
> too :-)

*lol*

Actually it was TdG_FlackedPaint_Horizontal_1 ... pretty heavily modified 
Nothing might be left of the original but a normal ;-)

        == John ==

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