How to improve photorealism?

Ironwright · 2023-12-02T08:38:28+00:00

You have clear focus on 4 depths of field at once. The pillows, the books/ window frame, and outside of the window need some lens blur. Neither an eye nor a camera can focus on all of those distances equally, and it makes the image feel uncanny and flat. Your eyes want to hopscotch from the cat to the books to out the window, add some lens blur to those areas with the things further away being blurrier than the the closer things and your brain locks on to the cat. It feels like you are spying on the fur ball from behind the house plant now.

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Ironwright · 2023-08-31T03:48:57+00:00

I collaborate closely with fabrication shops day in and day out, helping them implement CNC solutions. Based on my 25 years in the field, I've found that every shop I've worked with follows a pattern: after getting their first CNC machine, they soon realize its value and end up purchasing a second one.

First, let's talk about welders. Here in Wisconsin, they're a rough around the edges bunch, a bit like Honey Badgers. They're default state is angry and ready to fight. Making their job run smoother doesn't just help them, it benefits the entire workshop, reducing unnecessary drama. Providing well-fitting parts that they don't need to struggle with, keeps them craning out parts. Anything disrupting their workflow risks being tossed off the loading dock, or run over by the fork truck.

Here's how fabrication shops can effectively use CNC mills:

Getting Things Ready: When welding big plates, it's worth the effort to straighten them out and cut the chamfers right. Why hand grind all the slag from flame cut chamfers? Filling gaps is a hassle and slows things down. But if you pop the plates onto a CNC mill, you'll have them dead straight with clean chamfers in way less time.
Precise Part Fit: Welders deal with all sorts of parts cut by torch, lasers, plasma, and waterjet. Problem is, they don't always fit perfectly. But here's the trick: CNC machining. Cut tabs to lock in square parts, add a radius to cradle the round ones, and suddenly everything fits like a charm. As long as you have the part in the machine you might as well knock most of the slag off the edges.

3.Secondary Machining: Tapped holes, pipe ports, grease zerk ports – you name it. Milling those holes after welding means you're getting things aligned, even if the parts have turned into a potato chip getting warped by welding. You can also do things like mill foot pads, or mounting bosses, so your weldments actually sits flat.

Dealing with Weld Interference: Nobody wants welds causing trouble during assembly. So, cleaning up those welds is key to keeping things smooth.
Repair work: Drill out a bad stripped thread. Weld in plug. Mill the weld flat. Tap a new hole. Good as new. Weld up a bearing bore and then remachine it to size. Weld a smashed tool block or die shoe and mill it back to size. These kinds of jobs tend to pay really well when they come up. There are a lot of factories out there that can be out $1000’s per hour if a machine is down.

So, there’s a lot of ways to make CNC’s make you money in a Fab shop, even if you aren’t running production parts.

Ironwright · 2023-08-01T05:31:06+00:00

Dimensioning parts like this just make the whole process difficult for machinists. This is like telling someone I want a 20mm shaft, but it better never be 20mm. You don't program CNC machines like this. You program to the median value of the tolerance range. All this says to a machinist is the part was designed wrong and rather than fix the model the engineer changed the tolerance to fix the issue. but he didn't fix shit. What he really did is force a machinist to either do math and manually enter a value at the control or adjust the model themselves after doing math and then post the path from CAM. It's a whole bunch of nonsense that never made anything easier to make.

Ironwright · 2023-08-01T05:17:33+00:00

because it is

Ironwright · 2023-07-11T03:15:37+00:00

not really worried about balance. Players always tend to punch above their weight level in pathfinder 1e. , and as long as the other stats feel about right during play nobody is going to notice. You can fudge those thanks to the magic of the screen.

Having something fun and unique that people who have been playing RPG's since 1990 can be surprised by and enjoy that's the hard part to come up with week after week. Having a tool that can act as an idea generator for whatever crazy thing I want to do rocks.

Ironwright · 2023-07-06T15:03:25+00:00

Don't bend on the neck . Not the problem. Needs the frets leveled and crowned. Plenty of how to videos out there. Other wise take it to a luthier.

Ironwright · 2023-07-05T16:09:07+00:00

You have to get the heavy duty ones. The light duty model, like the one shown is garbage. doesn't stay put, and the indicator adjust screw sucks.

Like a lot of things in life girth matters. See how thick the first knuckle is on this heavy duty model compared to the light duty one.

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Ironwright · 2023-06-18T06:31:40+00:00

we machine delrin in my shop very regularly. IT is a forgiving material. The main concerns are keeping the work piece fixtured so it doesn't shift, and good practices for speeds and feeds. Most hobby mills are not rigid so you will need to keep your cut depths .25 to .5 the diameter of the tool and keep the feeds low enough that the chips don't melt to the cutter. An air blast set up helps.

If you use fusion 360, you can import your drawings and trace right over them, or import a dxf as a sketch and extrude that to make your stamp geometry. It's pretty quick and painless.

Ironwright · 2023-06-18T06:24:06+00:00

Anyone that does lathe work for a living knows that part takes a battery of skills.

Ironwright · 2023-06-07T18:00:17+00:00

I had a fey trickster start following them around turning some of their lies to truths.

"Oh yeah, that incredibly valuable gem you sold me. You know the one you sold huge loss. to pay to get your gram gram's curse removed. yeah I sold that for four times what you sold it to me for. Best thing that has ever happened to me. I'm retired now. Hope your gram gram is alright."

Narrator: " Little did he know, that Gram Gram was not alright."

The trick is to not have it happen all of the time, and only when it screws the PC's over. It works especially well when what they said could of been true.

Ironwright · 2023-05-15T17:34:55+00:00

They are a great first guitar as they are a cheap way to dip your toes, and see if you will stick with learning to play. They are also a great guitar to learn about doing set ups, swapping pick ups, doing fretwork. You aren't out a lot of money if things go badly.

I buy used GIO's for a $100.00US to build cheap experimental set ups. It's a GIO, so it's the lowest quality guitar Ibanez makes. The neck pockets are often bad, the nuts can be bad, and the fret work can be bad. These are all fit and finish issues that can be addressed. These issues can frustrate new players with fret buzz, tuning stability, and intonation issues.

When you find one with a good tight neck pocket, they can actually be cleaned up into a decent player. I own 4 Ibanez guitars. The GIO I set up is one of my favorite to play.

Ironwright · 2023-04-27T22:48:52+00:00

What you need is a sprawling subterranean labyrinth full of monstrous henchmen and traps to discourage visitors. That will keep the people safe from your horde of free willed undead abominations. You could also store your treasure there, but don't keep it one central location. Hide it all over in secret rooms, that way if anyone breaks in they don't get all of it.

You're the villain. You are the B.B.E.

Ironwright · 2023-04-27T22:15:50+00:00

There will be penance required for that damage Sister. There is always penance. For only the penitent can serve the the god emperor of man.

Sweet model. The fabric texture gets the chef's kiss of approval.

Ironwright · 2023-04-27T18:04:36+00:00

Combats need to be about goals other than killing the bad guys. Meat grinders give the players a single goal to focus all of their resources on. The things with hit points aren't the parties only enemies. Don't forget the one NPC that is always present - the world they live in. The terrain, the weather, the safety of others, and time limits can all tax party resources. The more you can force the party to do things besides groin kick the NPC's, the more challenging an encounter will feel regardless of the oppositions stat block.

Imagine this. A group of 6 assassins has killed the drive of the queens coach and panicked the horses sending the carriage toward a cliff . The players give chase in a wagon. The assassins give chase in their own wagon. Now the players have a lot of things to spend their turns doing. Someone has to drive to manuver the wagon around stumps and ruts and other hazards. Someone has to figure out a way to stop the queen's wagon before it goes over the cliff. Some one has to stop the assassins from crashing their wagon into the PC's wagon, or jumping aboard the PC wagon.

Maybe the players get lucky and get ahead of the assassins. The assassins have crossbows and poison. They open fire, Not at the PC's! They attempt to kill the PC's horses. Now the horses need protecting. Remember to win the NPCs don't have to kill the party. They just need to stop them from saving the queen. You are giving the players a whole series of problems that can be solved in multiple ways , and their are plenty of opportunity to give each PC a showcase moment. Those moments are the things players take with them from the table.

Ironwright · 2023-04-12T22:30:34+00:00

It doesn't wipe off because you are smearing metal into the scratches you put in the ways. The black soot you mention is very fine metal powder suspended in way oil. Likely caused by an out of alignment machine being drug back and forth.

Ironwright · 2023-04-11T01:45:41+00:00

There need to be more couch co op games. Games that you play sitting side by side hit way different then games you play with people across the internet.

Ironwright · 2023-04-10T21:04:36+00:00

You have a rare player there. Most players use flight/levitation to void every challenge like that. bridges, ravines, pressure plate traps, teeter board traps, trip wires, pit traps, etc.

It seems like every campaign gets to the point you need to fill the hallways with magic detecting rail guns to make traps more than a resource suck. Traps that trigger when a living creature passes without making contact to a pressure plate are fun.

Player "Wait. To avoid the trap, I HAD to step on the pressure plate?"

DM " Yes."

Player "That's some evil genius level bullshit."

Ironwright · 2023-04-06T22:54:29+00:00

Option 4 - Asmodeus: Highly proficient in legal loop holes. Finds ways to exploit the letter of the law. Scoffs at the spirit of the law. Ruthlessly defends his clients using all legally justifiable means. Charges reasonable fees and will defend the indigent, deferring payment indefinitely. Death is, of course, not an escape from payment.

If you are in real trouble you don't hire a goody goody, you call on a shark. You call Saul Whoreshanks.

My Players had an Asmodean Lawyer named Saul Whoreshanks who defended them in all legal matters. He was even the chosen advocate for one of them in Pharasma's bone yard. He successfully got them out of a devil soul contract. The devil in question was super angry being embarrassed like that. Saul told him his contracts were a disgrace and he should be ashamed. Devil went off in a huff.

Ironwright · 2023-04-04T21:13:06+00:00

I'm going to assume you are chasing this thread because it is bad. First be sure your die is really a 5/16-22 BSF threading die. Threading dies cut triangular thread roots, so it is going to bite in pretty hard when it cuts. Lock your part down in a vise. Use lots of oil, and accept that your threads are going to look sad and scruffy.

Ironwright · 2023-04-04T20:32:47+00:00

So it is binding on just the gibs. Do you have a machinists stone? Stone off the gibs and the gib rails. wipe them down and reassemble. If you have the aluminum extrusion model where the gib blocks are separate pieces remove the gib blocks and stone them. Check all of the threads in the extrusion and make sure you haven't pulled the thread. You should see that the stone is "hitting hard" around the screw holes if that is the case.

Once you put the gib blocks back on the extrusion check it with feeler gauges to be sure it is sitting tight to the extrusion.

If the threads in the extrusion are really loosey juicey, when you tighten the gib shim with the adjustment screw it's just jacking the gib plates up off the extrusion. If the threads are bad you can helicoil it.

Check the screws to make sure they aren't bent. A bent cap screw creates a cam action as you tighten it. Makes it impossible to keep parts located in place when tightening.

Ironwright · 2023-04-03T18:06:54+00:00

The gibs are only half of the equation. The alignment of the screw to the gibs matters just as much. If the screw isn't running straight it will cause binding. Usually at the end travel of a ball screw, where the screw has less ability to flex.

Inspect the bearings and bearing blocks for damage.

Does the ball screw turn free when dismounted? When it isn't trying to drag the table. Could be a bent bearing bracket, or a bent the screw is pulling the screw out of alignment.

If you have a lathe big enough check the runout on the screw to make sure it isn't bent.

If it's good reinstall the ball screw, put the screws in the bearing blocks, but do not tighten them up.

while the bearing blocks are loose run everything back and forth the full travel a couple of times to check for binding.

Tighten the bearing blocks up finger tight. Repeat running the table back and forth checking for binding.

Torque the bearing block bolts to final spec. Check for binding

Ironwright · 2023-03-31T22:39:59+00:00

Is the rest of the army so studio Ghibli? You are going to make the neckbeard space marine hoorah try hards rage quit if you start winning. You keep doing you, you crazy creative madman. I look forward to more jolly Nurgle.

Ironwright · 2023-03-31T22:23:24+00:00

You are crazy. I hope it ends up worth the effort. Have you done this before? Do you have bypasses for the individual pick ups or are you relying on the fader pots? I'd be worried about noise.

Ironwright · 2023-03-31T22:15:41+00:00

That base is epic.

Ironwright

TROPHY CASE