Underworld`s Bat projects

[underworld 129]

Thanks for the replies!!

Here is just a pic of the progress sofar.

[Thut 0]

Great progress underworld, this is going to be huge!

 

Looking Great!

 

P.S. Explain the layout of the castle. Will it be like a square castle with open area in the middle. And Like a GARDEN in the middle? Oops got a little excited their haha...

[SYM Productions 7]

Woooo UW! love it! (and the castle, we don't have enough on the STEX! (talking about the castle, u gona have a wall around a courtyard or something, not just the front facade?) it all looks awsome, and the residential home, i like, there has a very contemporary feel to it! and i love the underground garage!

- Yatagan_L proud part of blablabla, you can finish the phrase.

 

(PS: i know, i jsut have to use my own account, but i kinda find it fun to put in these little phrases instead of you know what. and anyways, i have had some trouble joining, i did fill evrything out, but it ain't gonna send me an e-mail (i do have a yahoo account). ah well, might as well just shut up!)

[Kwakelaar 92]

This will be a truely unique building.

[underworld 129]

Thanks for the replies!

I can't tell you anything about the lay out of this castle because i make it up while batting!

I'll post an update later today.

Underworld

[mattb325 28,880]

Glad to see that you let inspiration be the guide...always the best way! Can't wait to see this one finished, we need more of these and it'll fit in with your castle ruins...

[underworld 129]

Thanks Matt.

Here is the promised update, It ain't much though.



The big tower in the back and the wall attached to it are swept slightly backward, making that corner less sharp.

What's next? I don't know yet, let's see what I come up with.

[underworld 129]

Again a small update:



Didn't do very much on this, just added a big tower and the white blob is a rough outline of the main building.

[Kwakelaar 92]

Like the new bigger tower a lot, very nice shape to it, and this could make a great set of puzzelpieces.

[underworld 129]

Thanks, Kwakelaar.

Here is a pic of some props i've made for this project. I'll make more props later.



And a pic of my progress sofar.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Incredible stuff! I doubt that there are many BATters with such a wide scope ranging from ancient castles to dirty industrial structures to adult shops to train stations to mansions... Mr. Versatile strikes again!

[sepsis 17]

 

Fantastic castle!!

 

 

IMO the walls look a tad too thin though..

 

 

[SYM Productions 7]

sepsis, i agree, but i love the way you made your plans for the castle, not just a square with a tower in the midle, but the main building on the side, gee, that's awsome, great work, underworld! can't wait to see the completed product!

- Yatagan_L

[jacqulina 162]

awesome update on the castle and outstanding work,i await with antisipation to the finish of this wonderfull piece of work

[underworld 129]

Thanks for replies everybody.

I might re-do the walls, I'm not sure about the myself.
And about the wide range of bat's I do; It keeps things interesting for me. Sure, they are not the most D/L-ed bats around because not everybody wants a castle/adult shop/dirty indus in their city, but I don't really care about D/L numbers and stuff.
This is a huge project for my dear old pc, it's gonna take me a while to finish this.

[bixel 1,223]

nice! Lookin good, I luv castles.

[underworld 129]

Thanks, Bixel.

And another update!

The final layout is finished now, just some minor things to do: details, nitelites, details, test render, test render, re-do nitelites, test render.....
Anyways, here is a pic:

[bixel 1,223]

Wow! That is a great update, I love the view! Someone is going to have a lot of fun and time putting all the LOT props on this one. Very nice castle, I am glad you made it interesting instead of a square wall around a square keep. I think Masterplanman would really dig this for the Modular Theme Park Project.

[profecy 2]

cool stuff, how about a few 5x5 or bigger industrial warehouses.........i would make dem, but i cant BAT

[underworld 129]

Thanks for the nice replies.

Here is another update: the main modelling is finished, some minor details and lights.



What's the best way to lower polygon count, I am way over a million on this one! Anybody got an idea?


@profecy: This isn't a bat request thread, post your requests in the proper thread.

[bixel 1,223]

Sorry big tutorial here!!!

 

Polycounts matter a little, but not too much. Rendering time increases with the number of objects. If you have 100,000 objects and 1,000,000 faces and vertices, it will render real slow. 1st off, are you using gmax, or 3DS Max? (only cause you wont really have to worry about this stuff in 3DS Max unless its really really big!!!)

 

2nd, for objects that you are absolutely sure you are not going to edit in the future I suggested to select the object, right click, select collapse all. This will reduce all the information stored into a simple editable mesh, all extrude, umv mapping information will be collated into the editable mesh, any other extra data not needed is discarded. I've have reduced a scene file size from 156megs to 65megs once, for the Liberte Complex.

 

3rd, very important that you make a back-up before you do this!!! --(me and Paulvmontfort do this all the time to speed up are rendering process but it can cause problems, I will prolly write a thread on this topic soon).--  (in the future I make all related objects the same color, that way you can select all those objects by color, instead of by hand.) Any objects with similar textures you may want to make as one object, collapse an object if it has not already been collapsed, select an object that would seem to act as the foundation of all other related objects. Make sure it is a unique object, if you are not sure go the editable properties rollout, right click in the properties box (where it says editablemesh) and select make unique if applicable. Go to the rollout select attach list (I usually hide any objects I dont want to attach before this) and attach those objects. If a warning pops us saying Make ID equal to object ID or sumthing select the 2nd option! (there should be 3 options).

 

Tips on the 3rd tip. When you attach objects to other objects I have learned that it is better for those objects to be very near, on top of, or below the main object that you are attaching to. If you attach objects to other objects on the opposite side of a scene it tends to make the wireframe-bounding box very large. Me and Paulvmontfort have had some discussions about this. When a object is selected there is a temporary wireframe-bounding box that surrounds it to show you have selected it, however when you attach objects together horizontally it tends to multiply the wireframe-bounding box. For some weird reason this makes the default LODs VERY LARGE. That is one of the problems I'm facing with Pacific Place, see HK Forum.

 

4th, look around you model, if there is any faces that you are absolutely sure they will not be seen in a render then delete them. Collapse all, select polygon, select face press delete. If it asks to delete isolated vertices do that as well. This lowers polycount. Hope this helps!

[underworld 129]

Thanks for the tut Bixel. I'm gonna try this.

[jacqulina 162]

wow that is wonderfull looking,the texture is awesome

[choco1 4]

Oooh, a castle! Haven't had one of those for the longest time. It looks fantastic, and really unique. I really like it!

[underworld 129]

Thanks for the replies, BUT...

But I took a break from the castle for a while. This is because its irritating me more and more. (lag, out of memory errors and stuff) So I decided to do a simple bat to get my mind of it for a while. Here is what i am working on now. Just a simple bat:



I will finish the castle, but it could take a while.

[mattb325 28,880]

wow!!!!! that looks absolutely stunning!!!!!!!

Yeah, right, small project of only 30 or so stories

 

Brilliant!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Just a simple BAT, all right.

Looks great with that Chrysler Building-inspired top. Your ideas for the lower half are nice. While the building does end up looking a bit like a rocket (even more so because of the top and the red/white spire, as well as the general colour scheme), you found a very unique look and a good way to get the building connected to the ground in a very natural way.

In fact, I only have two suggestions: It might look nice if the upper half of the tower was a little narrower than the lower one, so that there is a little step where that red horizontal division is located right now. If you leave it as it is, I'd suggest making the gradient all-over instead of applying one gradient to the top half and another one to the bottom half.

Anyway, a very promising building!

[underworld 129]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions!

I wasn't happy with the textures myself, so I re-did them, and added some nightlights.

Here is a pic of it:



I am satisfied with this one, I'll render it tonight and let my team members of SYM Prod do their magic on it.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Hm. Personally, I think that a yellowish/orange night lighting scheme would have gone better with the warm red of the edge structures and the neutral silver/grey of the main building...

Anyway, I can't wait to see an in-game shot.