3d printable fantasy village terrain Kickstarter- final 12 hours!

[Gallahad]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/532839686/city-of-tarok-3d-printable-medieval-buildings/description

I've bought a fair amount of printable terrain from other manufacturers, and this is far and away the campaign you've been waiting for. They are offering really terrific value and quality.

If you plan on getting a 3d printer for terrain at some point in the future, I wouldn't miss this.



This isn't even everything that has been unlocked:



The above is just a taste, click through and see what you think:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/532839686/city-of-tarok-3d-printable-medieval-buildings/description

[gibby64]

I'm in this one for sure. Great looking designs.

[YPU]

The overal look is ok, but on closer inspection of the sample files there are some very wonky choices and designs there. For instance the door handle is tiny free floating ring, most printers won't be able to deliver on that!

[Gallahad]

The overal look is ok, but on closer inspection of the sample files there are some very wonky choices and designs there. For instance the door handle is tiny free floating ring, most printers won't be able to deliver on that!

Huh, can you elaborate more? I currently send the 3d files I buy to a relative to print for me, so I wouldn't know what to look for.
The test prints look very good.
Even if there are small things to fix in the files or on the models, these files are less than half what other designers charge for similar buildings.

Unlike other similar designers these offer tabs and notches to perfectly align prints done in smaller sections as well as roof variations.

[Sangennaru]

I'm with YPU in this one. I was inspecting the free model and there was a LOT of mesh mess on the parts: the (digital) (z)brush strokes were clearly visible, and some parts were added there without much thinking.

Now, the overall design and volumes are pretty cool and the engineering work to have everything stackable is excellent. But the sculpt itself is quite sloppy, which is a pity.

Even if there are small things to fix in the files or on the models, these files are less than half what other designers charge for similar buildings.

Regarding the price, I believe there's a huge bubble in 3D files pricing. 10 $ don't seem much, but it's a purely digital content, and is pure margin. I'm selling my Round of Fire manual at that price, and it did involve a LOT more work that a single building of any kind.
I am saying this as a professional sculptor too, and considering what i would charge to sculpt something like that (either digitally or with traditional sculpting methods - the latter with a FAR HIGHER detail) the business model is ... too good.

Of course, as long as people are willing to pay for that, all the best to them!

And again, engineering-wise it's a brilliant kit, so i'd say it's better than 90% of what's on the digital market nowadays. Still sloppy.

Cheers
Jack

[Gallahad]

I'm with YPU in this one. I was inspecting the free model and there was a LOT of mesh mess on the parts: the (digital) (z)brush strokes were clearly visible, and some parts were added there without much thinking.

Now, the overall design and volumes are pretty cool and the engineering work to have everything stackable is excellent. But the sculpt itself is quite sloppy, which is a pity.

Regarding the price, I believe there's a huge bubble in 3D files pricing. 10 $ don't seem much, but it's a purely digital content, and is pure margin. I'm selling my Round of Fire manual at that price, and it did involve a LOT more work that a single building of any kind.
I am saying this as a professional sculptor too, and considering what i would charge to sculpt something like that (either digitally or with traditional sculpting methods - the latter with a FAR HIGHER detail) the business model is ... too good.

Of course, as long as people are willing to pay for that, all the best to them!

And again, engineering-wise it's a brilliant kit, so i'd say it's better than 90% of what's on the digital market nowadays. Still sloppy.

Cheers
Jack

Thank you, that great info.
Sorry for more questions, but I'm curious and I just don't know the answer.
How does "mesh mess" and visible zbrush strokes affect the final print? Does this make it harder to get the 3d printer to print it, or the parts not line up correctly? Or is it more just evidence of a 3d sculpting newbie?

In this campaign prices are currently more like $5 a building, plus a bunch of other stuff, so unless they are a total mess to print or won't look like their final printed pieces, it still seems like a great buy to me.

I can get pieces like these printed for $15-$20 for plastic at very high quality, which means I can get approximately 4-5 of these for the price of even a single Tabletop World model...
That is hard to resist.

[Sangennaru]

Thank you, that great info.
Sorry for more questions, but I'm curious and I just don't know the answer.
How does "mesh mess" and visible zbrush strokes affect the final print? Does this make it harder to get the 3d printer to print it, or the parts not line up correctly? Or is it more just evidence of a 3d sculpting newbie?

From what i've seen, printers tend to be quite good at "hiding" modelling issues. In particular, FDM printers (the ones with the nozzle) provide such a smoothed surface, that these polygons won't be visible.
That's not a great thing though: just because printers aren't very good it doesn't mean that future printers (or better ones) won't show the problems.

In this campaign prices are currently more like $5 a building, plus a bunch of other stuff, so unless they are a total mess to print or won't look like their final printed pieces, it still seems like a great buy to me.

Isn't that 6 buildings for 60$? But yes, compared to some competitors' campaigns, that's still good!

I can get pieces like these printed for $15-$20 for plastic at very high quality, which means I can get approximately 4-5 of these for the price of even a single Tabletop World model...
That is hard to resist.

Fair enough. Of course, you won't have anything as detailed or refined as TTW terrain. The overall designs and concepts will be good, but if you're planning to paint them nicely and invest a bit in a striking table, 3D FDM-printed terrain won't do the job. At least, nothing i've seen so far is nearly as convincing as traditional casts.

If you print with high-end UV printers, of course, things are different. But with 100$ per KG resin, it ends up being ways more expensive than epoxy resin casts. ^^

[Gallahad]

Thanks for your response Sangennaru! That is good info to have. I'll ask the creators about the mesh problems in the comments. Maybe they are fixable?
The six models are only those that were unlocked at funding. We've unlocked six more buildings since then plus towers and walls and other accessories.
The current stretch goals:

[Sangennaru]

Oh! Well, the price is more convincing this way, yes!

[Gallahad]

I contacted the creator on Kickstarter and they seem anxious to figure out what these problems might be since they aren't seeing them on their end. I directed then to this thread at their request.
Thanks again for the helpful comments guys. I'm sure we can get this cleared up or cleaned up!

[Gallahad]

We have knocked down all of the stretch goals listed above. We are now well below $5 USD per building, plus a bunch of walls, towers, and accessories.

Don't miss this one!

[gibby64]

I'm excited to see what the designs look like for the trees... if they are close to the illustrations I will be pleased...

[Gallahad]

I'm excited to see what the designs look like for the trees... if they are close to the illustrations I will be pleased...

I'm really excited for the trees too! I've always wanted a deciduous forest, and the current options out there aren't very satisfying to me.

[Gallahad]

Final 12 hours!
More stretch goals down, everything unlocked!

[gibby64]

what a great campaign... can't wait to get the files!