Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig)

[Ramona Brie 121]

I will download this.

[Cjah 15]

Originally posted by: Tracker I will download this.quote>

 

You and the other half of ST watching this thread.....

well.....lucky you....got a new label....

ummm can't wait to see the other parts of this project start....

[Micah 16]

That is just brilliant!

But it makes me wonder, will the STEX be able to handle it? How much MB?

[blahdy 21]

Originally posted by: Micah That is just brilliant!

But it makes me wonder, will the STEX be able to handle it? How much MB?quote>

Thanks everyone, and for the new label!

Micah:  Yea that won't be a problem.  The gmax model itself is 52MB with in excess of 700,000 polygons.  But note that all of this comes down to simple pictures after you take a long time to render it.  So it will fit well under the limits set by STEX (well under 14MB).

[ILL Tonkso 1,239]

Im going to be an annoying gimboid now and say, have fun with LODding THAT lol.

[blahdy 21]

yup it will be another engineering feat for modding...

there will be a lot of draft renderings to test LODing to best figure out the configuration that will work the best for the bridge.  this will take long

[sloppet 3]

sloppet says "BAN him!! - He is too Good!!"

[Borat in USA 0]

I love it. I travelled to Boston last year for KZ Ministry of Information. They plan on making similar bridge in Kazakhstan!

[blahdy 21]

hehe thanks guys.

we'll be starting LOD'ing + modding work on the groundHW-undergroundHW transition lot shortly. bridge is delayed for a few days since LODing work on the bridge will considerably take long time, so we dont really want to delay the project longer.

[blahdy 21]

Okay... I need help with LOD work again from experienced modders/BATters..

Take a look at the picture below:

See the dark-blue object?  This object will be used during boolean operation to punch a hole through the giant square LOD.  The idea here is that it will punch a hole in the area where SC4 vehicle traffic will appear in the lot.

Now my dilema is this.  As you can see, the boolean dark-blue object starts from ground level, then sinks below ground level.  The problem here is that the LOD box will start from ground level and go up, not down, so that the entire tunnel entrance shows up properly.  If you are thinking the same issue I'm thinking, the boolean above will be sticking out beyond the boundaries of the LOD box itself, below ground level... Follow me so far?   What is the best way to approach this problem, or is this even a problem i should worry about?

Thanks!

[blahdy 21]

And to better explain my concern... here is the final LOD work that's yet to be tested, after boolean operation.  You can clear see the 'boolean holes' for car traffic to show up in the lot.  Will this work?  The green object is the LOD.

[blahdy 21]

update to LOD problem

Okay.. I have kinda figured it out after testing it out in-game a few times. 

Here is the bad news and where we stand with LODing dilema with this entire project:

The light poles and sign posts are posing major problems to the lot.  Any place where these elements are placed, cars won't show up properly because of the LOD square enclosing these objects.

So the way I am looking at this right now is, we have two ways to solve this problem I think (anyone who has better idea, please speak up):

1.  Export each light pole and sign post objects as separate prop objects and bring them all together into lot editor.  This would make cars show up properly but create a new problem: the entire lot will look very ugly because of alpha channeling issue.  Each light pole and sign post will have very ugly black outlines that seriously degrades the look of the whole lot.

-- or --

2. Use a simple LOD and don't bother with having to make cars visible in the model object.  This may sound unreasonable to some of you, but this option does not degrade the quality of the overall lot since there is no alpha channel issues by using add-on props.

A third option, that is clone the entire model, turn it into editable mesh and call it LOD3,4,5 is out of the question b/c that will present serious performance constraint into SC4 (I am told that SC4 will give up displaying the lot once LOD gets complex enough).

Any ideas? If not, which of the above 2 options do you guys prefer?

[SC4Noobie 5]

Well, I have no idea what LODs were until you explained just now, and you have a great explanation. I think many people are going to say option 3, but that seems like an unreasonable amt of work, so I would have to go with option 2. I really want the actual lot to look good, instead of the cars on it, so that is the best choice. And if no one supports that, then just add randomly appearing car props in the LE. That would work! Great work on the most immense projests for SC.

[blahdy 21]

Thanks a lot for your quick insight late in the night :-)

Once we figure out and decide what to do about the LODing situation, without further interruption, this will be the first BAT that will be handed off to ardecila for modding:

Official Lot Name: CA/T Ground to Underground Highway Transition

Class: Type-3

Lot Part Number: BIGD-T3-GHT1

[ardecila 125]

I'd be happy to help you with the LODs. The issue you're running into with the transition is an issue I ran into with the NDEX Freeway Transition. If you want the cars to interact with parts of the model that are below ground, you have to extend the LOD box below ground. In fact, it's better to have the top of your LOD at the top of the tunnel boat, and the bottom at the actual bottom. Apart from the double-wide sign and the first 2 light posts (the ones on the sides), everything will show up correctly. These three things can be rendered seperately, and it won't affect quality TOO much.

Also, rather than subtracting one box for each direction, it'd be better to extend the box across both directions of traffic. Don't worry about the median, the end result will look better anyway.

I can show you the LOD for the NDEX one, if it helps you visualize what you should do.

[blahdy 21]

ardecila: Yea if you could please, a sample LOD of that would be very helpful!

I tried rendering the sign posts/light poles separately as a plan B to see how that would work... and it didn't quite work out as nice looking as I expected... The light poles and double-wide sign wasn't too bad, but the entrance electronic sign (with traffic lights and height sensors) is no go (looks ugly).

I'll put more thoughts with your sample LOD and let you know of any additional assistance i may need. Thanks!

[SC4Noobie 5]

Looks good, and I hope everything will work out! It's good to see the project get to the modding phases, and good to hear it's more than 1/2 way done!

[kaji 0]

its amazing how far this project has moved along since the last time i posted (although iv been checking regularly for updates ) and i hope you can work out the LOD issues youre having. i saw a program on discovery the other day about the BBD and i dont know who im in awe of the most. the rl project or yours lol  

~kaji

[Tommy_Vercetti3 3]

Great work man. Cant wait till its released.

[Glenni 1,447]

it would maybe work if you make a skinthight LOD to cover the pole of the streetlights itself,and then make a box hovering over the hovering over the freeway to cover the lights itself at the top

[blahdy 21]

Okay, on a separate topic, there apparently is a popular demand for sunken-ground-highway to underground highway transition (aka, a tunnel portal entrance) from many people.

So here is the beginning work of the sunken highway -to- underground transition model.

"Under construction" -- looks like cut-and-cover tunneling construction due to lack of roof lol:

Portal entrance:

[Haljackey 17,398]

Wow, just gotta say this is amazing stuff. Keep it up!

[hamsterTK 93]

cool, so it it going to be similiar to morifari's hillside GLR transistion?

[blahdy 21]

nope, it won't be hillside unfortunately, b/c the tunnel boat is too long.  it will be for use in sunken areas.

but it's interesting that you brought it up, b/c a hill-side tunnel portal is also on my todo list for later.

Okay, now...

It kinda bugs me how the tunnel entrace is too narrow (it quite stinks that SC4's highway is lesser than even 2 tiles wide, how ridiculous), when modern tunnel entrances are quite wide these days.  So this got me thinking to make the tunnel entrance look more modern -- I decided to get creative and borrow some design ideas from Netherland's new Westerscheld Tunnel going underneath Zeeland waters:

So, this is how it looks now.  It will have additional one-way road going next to the main highway to the right (similar to Zakim bridge setup), so you can drag 3 subway tubes across a body of water (if you are using this to create water-crossing tunnel) or other creative ways you can imagine.

And yes, I realize the lights are way too bright in these pics.  I'll turn them down -- it's still not even done.

[nycsc4 5,250]

you are amazing, i can't wait for all of this!!!

[Ryan B 35]

Not a bad idea! I'd use it. Big time.

[sloppet 3]

blahdy, this is just Amazing!! As Amazing as the Amazing Spider-Man!

[blahdy 21]

Alrlight, well, inner tunnel boats are now complete.  this thing is not taking too long..

outer layer of the tunnel boat section need completion and other stuff needed to be done from now heh.

Once I see some sample LODs, etc and figure out what to do with that, we'll see some testing of already completed models in SC4.

[Anarchy 0]

I can only say one thing. WORK HARDER SO WE CAN ENJOY OF THIS SOONER!!!!

[nycsc4 5,250]

Originally posted by: Anarchy I can only say one thing. WORK HARDER SO WE CAN ENJOY OF THIS SOONER!!!!

quote>

 

i could not agree more!!

keep up the amazing work!!