Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig)

[van1357 15]

Blahdy, I don't know what to say. That tunnel entrance is a modelling masterpiece! It looks amazing. The other new models look great too. Thanks for taking the time to show us updates of your work and I can't wait to see the finished results in my cities. Keep up the wonderful work...

[tommiej 0]

thanks for the explaining about the RHW Underground.. i understand it better now..

It really looks awesome!! it's a true masterpiece of moddeling and detailing!! can't wait for it to put in my cities!!

looking forward for the next piece!!

[Haljackey 17,398]

Absolutely outstanding blahdy!

[simzebu 20]

OH. My. God. I am Amazed!

[blahdy 21]

owenluby:  That's actually a great idea... but I'm not sure how they can be achieved.  Does anyone know how to make an "empty" texture in gmax/3ds Max that isn't actually transparent?  Like in other words, alpha texture's transparency would actually show the underground section of the tunnel boat structure/concrete which should not show up at all in game.  A texture map that would not show any objects beneath it but just show the environment map/background would be nice...

Few new shots:

Night lighting work has been started on the RHW-bigdig transition, now that modelling phase is complete:

Also I finished the models for the promised Big Dig approach overhead signs for rural highway mod.  Ignore the RHW texture on the ground, that's only there for alignment purposes, it won't be part of the final product.

Initial Approach Sign:

Placed about 1&3/4th to 2 miles away from BigDig-RHW tunnel transition:

Mid-Point Approach Sign:

Placed about 3/4th to 1 mile away from Big Dig-RHW tunnel portal.  Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) network starts here.

Terminal Approach Sign:

Placed about 1/4th mile away from BigDig-RHW tunnel portal.

[patriots_1228 51]

awesome job one question. whats a hazmat?

[Filasimo 1]

patriots: hazardous materials sign

[It 0]

I just wandered, will this be available for LHD, or will it make a difference?

Edit: This is because the white and yellow outer lines will be the opposite of those with RHD.

[1dera3 29]

The ramps and the signs both look really good. Have you thought about releasing just the signs as regular overhead signs? I'm sure someone would use them.

[Corentin 2]

Magnifique....good job

[jplumbley 5]

Hello Blahdy!! Awesome work and updates.... I love this project!

As for transparent textures Jeronij has posted a tutorial he uses at SC4Devotion.... Link = https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=23.0

[Frankie_Grove 32]

Originally posted by: patriots_1228 awesome job one question. whats a hazmat?quote>

 

hazmat is short for hazardous material, usually carried on trucks...such as nuclear waste, certain chemcials, ect..

Blahdy: this was the look i had when i saw those pics!!!>>

[It 0]

@Frankie_Grove - how did you get the edges of your diagonal roads/rail so neat, and not jagged in your Downtown pic?

[It 0]

@Frankie_Grove - how did you get the edges of your diagonal roads/rail so neat, and not jagged in your Downtown pic?

[Frankie_Grove 32]

Originally posted by: It @Frankie_Grove - how did you get the edges of your diagonal roads/rail so neat, and not jagged in your Downtown pic?quote>

 

That is not relevant to this topic at all....

[bwatterud 7]

@It-A quote from Frankie's sig

Feel free to PM me with comments! DO NOT post comments in the thread that I have posted in...the idea is NOT to have public comments...quote>

On another note, the nightlights are looking great, blahdy. It's a shame that I won't be able to see them on my Mac....Until I'm done with them

[It 0]

I appologise, but these new onramps and accessories are lookin fantasic

[blahdy 21]

Thanks for comments;

1dera3: yea, i have more RHW-themed signs planned too.  I'll talk to Tarkus and see which signs I can make for RHW project in the future.

jplumbley: thanks, but I'm looking for ways to do that in 3ds Max (or gmax, same thing..).  I don't like the way SC4's drawing engine cuts through an underground model via LOD elevations, it ends up being too noisy for my eyes.  Being able to provide a transparent texture within modelling software would make a very smooth cut where the structure meets the ground.  Note that I'm not talking about alpha textures -- alpha textures are truly transparent textures where elements sitting behind an alpha textured object would show... 

patriots_1228: yea, as Frankie suggested, Hazmat refers to hazardous material.  Pretty much every interstate tunnels in US prohibit hazmats, because trucks carrying chemicals or explosive content don't really work too well inside a tunnel if there is an accident.

For Boston in real world, hazmat traffic is prohibited from using I-93 altogether.  Hazmats are required to use I-95 or I-495 instead to pass through Boston area.  And vehicle height restriction is 13'-9" on approach to I-93 tunnels.  I believe the height restriction actually got better / higher after the Big Dig due to Dewey Square Tunnel renovation work.  

Okay, new update:

Night lighting work is now complete.  Thanks to 3ds Max, photometric lighting is used now instead of standard spot/directional lights.  In-tunnel lighting consists of mercury flourescent lighting with about 125 lumens and three quartz halogen lights at the start of the tunnel with 50 lumens or so.  The overhead street lights are quartz halogen lights with yellow color filter.

You can see that with photometric lights, lighting is naturally spread out over a large area, instead of easily being able to see the outline of lighted area like it was back in gmax days.

So with this update, I believe we can now declare modelling work of RHW-MIS transition to be officially complete.  Tarkus: I'll pm you or message me in MSN if you have a chance, so we can discuss the next steps for modding requirements, etc.

[tommiej 0]

night lighting looks awesome blahdy!! really like that last pic where it just looks like you're driving it yourself!

keep it up!

[simzebu 20]

I am amazed! Dazzled! Astonished! Astounded! Thankful for online thesauruses!

[It 0]

That nightlighting is amazing blahdy! One question, what is the right hand tunnel for, i don't quite understand

[rickmastfan67 0]

Originally posted by: It That nightlighting is amazing blahdy! One question, what is the right hand tunnel for, i don't quite understandquote>

 

That's for connecting the "Big Dig" Subway lots to the future underground RHW (UDI-compatible) so if you don't want to have to redo your entire system, you don't have to.

Anyways blahdy, this is just incredible!!!!!!!! 

[ussbeethoven 0]

Fantastic work! Cannot wait for the NAM2007-compatible RHW.

[jcabassa 20]

Wow! Amazing work. That last picture is why they should have a first person view in U-Drive it mode.

[JCarter 0]

Cool!!!!!!

[nycsc4 5,250]

Hello all!

Blahdy, amazing work, I can't wait to see that ramp ingame!

I do have something for everyone else though.  I am sure most of you knew how amazing Big Dig is and how it helps traffic.  Well I have pictures of the effectiveness of Big Dig in my city, Chesterfield City.

The Atlantic Avenue Ramp has a capacity of 9,000 commuters.  I have 4 Atlantic Avenue Ramps in Chesterfield City, with not one of them operating with under 40,000 commuters per ramp.

To me this is the final proof that this is the best BAT for SC4 ever made and is also the most effective.  Not one of my freeways in Chesterfield City is used.  Except for Interstate 95 in Downtown Chesterfield City (Big Dig).  Thats right the only freeway used in Chesterfield is Blahdy's. 

If you have yet to download this, do it now you won't regret it!

[JCarter 0]

Cool! Can we see more pics of how you use it?

[nycsc4 5,250]

^^^Yes, maybe later I have to get some more.

[blahdy 21]

looks awesome there nycsc4.  never seen A-CN take that much traffic in SC4 before, it looks just like the real one during rush hour

I've completed the Mid-point Approach / Tunnel Ahead sign for 2-lanes RHW (placed about 3/4 to 1 mile away from big dig).  This one has a different type of VMS now, it's wider for more character capacity:

Aerial night time shot.  Notice how naturally the lighting from tunnel bleeds out onto ramp concrete surface, just like in real world. (3DS Mental ray lights, etc)

[DFire870 2]

Here is one scenario how this project could be useful.

Today while laying out the road and highway network for one of my future cities, I took about 15 minutes to raise the land up so that an avenue could make a tunnel under the bay in the city instead of making a huge bridge. After I finished I realized that I had this installed and it could've taken me 3 minutes to plop the on- and off-ramps and connect them. It also would look better because then I had two giant humps on either side of the bay (since I couldn't do sunken). I bulldozed the tunnel and flattened the terrain, then plopped down the ramps, and it looks MUCH better now.

Good job on the new models by the way!