I have many test methods that greatly facilitate life in the ongoing projects.
With your permission, I will be here to share their experiences

for starters, I talk a little about my duties .. I specialize in creating large landscapes and the visualization of exteriors of buildings

this is one of the current projects. I spent a little time on it.

Some previous projects

a little history of my experience.

I started the modeler in the gaming industry. worked as chief designer — modeler of the car simulator project, designer MMORPG game project, the modeler in the architectural firm.

There are steps to create architectural visualization. they invented a long time. but there are always new ways of working. this is due to the new tools, new high-performance computers, etc.

These are steps:

Obtaining technical specifications
Modeling
Texturing
Lighting
Render
Post processing

I hope there are no or few people who have difficulty with the creation of the base model.

my little tricks touch modeling, texturing (this complex maps) camera settings, lighting, and post processing.

I think most visualizers use 3ds max in own work. 3ds max is not entirely a procedural program. Use splines for modeling. Convert to polygon grid only at the end work.

И так, поехали)). So, let’s start

For general plan.

for texturing large areas using large photos images from google maps (Google, Yandex). find the exact address. create large texture (eg program sasgis http://sasgis.ru/)

create large texture

Use the actual address of the object. if there are no good pictures on the google map, use another similar photos images .. if you’re lucky, you do not need another texture to the middle distance.

I will continue on a small test. if you will not understand something, or show interest, I paid more attention to some details.

texturing medium and short-range plans. you know. Our worst enemy is the tiling. There are several ways to get rid of him.

Use the blend mat
Use the composite texture. composite texture for me is a good option. very comfortable mixing layers. they are similar to the layers in Photoshop

Let me describe the events that took place on the well known resource.
for many 3D artists will no longer news that a big part of share, which appeared on the network behind the extreme couple of years, it was leaked from current and former members of our team gfxdomain `a.
small digression. Until recently, just register, much less get into the «loyal» member list was not an easy task. will not go into, but if you have a lot of time, patience and unique content (own lessons or models nevarezny content), then sooner or later you will be found in the list of particularly close to Esanti. he is the founder of the resource. site is designed for sharing unique libraries of models, textures and so on. and to help artists in specific matters. in general, «Robin Hoods». the idea is interesting. if you have no money, but I really want / need some collection.
resource is moderated a few guys. one of them started with Eric (Esanti), someone he did Moder later. among them was Alexander Ivanov (Arh.alexndr or Arch.GFX)
the whole joke happened recently. You could see an influx of Varese 3-4 months ago. were laid a lot of useful stuff every day. what happened. Eric banned its Moder (Arch.Alexndr), but got a little excited. Ivanov has, by the way, he was a Russian-born, residing for many years in Bulgaria, the accumulated database of unique content. where he got such great wealth — only he knows. Ivanov wrote on the forum of Persia (cgpersia.com), all bought it himself or a purse with a team gfxdomain «and or others. Were hurt feelings and a lot of rare material appeared freely available for the joy of most of the 3D Internet audience.
and then Eric did a great folly — banned some particularly close.
reason for such drastic action — an attempt to get around Eric’s unique content. Ivanov about the reason of the ban is difficult to understand.
there was a revolution and the founder of the resource, „went on vacation.“
still need to add that gfxdomain not quite charitable resource. a source of income was the „Zone Vip users.“ for entry into it, most of all, you had to pay. the idea of ​​a place where to lay the base of rare materials owned by disgraced Moder, though the entry fee introduced Eric.
after a dialogue with Esanti, we had the idea to make a branch with notes about architectural visualization. there we laid out their observations and shared experiences. in a short time, these notes will be posted on our blog.

Once tested the material VrayDirt and I am very annoyed that the result can not be seen directly in the material editor, do you adjust the parameters «in the blind». Naturally, it takes time. The task was set — you need to Dirt displayed cell materials
You need to replace the standard ball on the model, which would be the interior angles, 3dsMax c easily allows you to do it. In pure scene I created a cube, extrude out of him polygons, as well as set up a scan unwrap UVW modifier

Save this 3d model, opening a new scene. this is important, otherwise 3dsMax collapses. Load previously saved scene through the options of the material editor. in sample type instead of a ball you need to download the new model.

Now you can see all the changes of parameters VrayDirt

Sukhanovo Park — is a unique residential complex, located 8 km of the Warsaw highway.

Houses and all the surroundings except for «green stuff», this low poly model. roofs of houses — it is also the geometry. Displacement in this case does not come as a very detailed tiles for roofs, we used «Roof Designer.» Visualized in V-Ray, a little post-processing in Photoshop.

The Client was given the task to show microdistrict. it complicated the lack of reference (the concept is a standard house designs and master plan for their placement). Therefore, in the simulation, we have solved the problem on the improvement and design of streets, so that future tenants was cozy and comfortable.

V-Ray, 3dsMax

General plan

in detail:

Central square: