North American Stadiums

[patriots_1228 51]

kk ill be waiting.

[lrfox 2]

ok, well get better soon.

[lrfox 2]

ok, well get better soon.

[Sim shady 12]

ugh...i feel for you...= / ive been down with some virus the past two days. Doctors couldnt diagnos it, but they still found the need to send me an obscenely high bill...hopefully we'll get better soon

[teemu_om 47]

edit: Excuse my language, but perkele! I guess I was a bit hasty. Now without the trees I'm able to render the zoom 5 south view, both day and night, but after that I still get the error code 6. Which means that I don't know what to do.

I might be able to export this thing after all. At least it started rendering the night view without stopping on an error now. But there is a compromise that annoys me: the trees had to be removed. It could be possible to cut holes in the LODs and put the trees in LOT editor afterwards, but their shadows will be messed up.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Do you have any less complicated trees you could use?  The Maxis one's aren't very complex anyway.

Otherwise, maybe you could not BAT the ground, and then make that area with lot editor textures.  You could make your own custom ones based off a top viewport render.

[teemu_om 47]

Yes, I guess some of the ground could be made in LOT editor. Since removing the trees helped a bit, I'm suspecting this is a RAM issue. What a coincidence, because I have actually been thinking about buying another gig (I have one at the moment) in the near future anyway.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I'm not sure if it would help or not, but try attaching all of the objects together that you can.  Objects are actually entries in a big database, and attaching makes a smaller number of entires.  Instancing creates instances of other entries (instead of making a new entry it just points to an old entry), so doing that should help things out too.  I'm not 100% sure if that's exactly how it works, but making a smaller number of objects might help things.

[Creathir 3]

If you can step me through it, step by step, I could try rendering it on my PC. I have 2GB of RAM. (That would remove that possibility)

Just an offer. 

I have NO experience with Gmax and/or 3D studio max... but I can follow directions with no problem.

Let me know.

 - Creathir

[dmscopio 225]

Originally posted by: teemu_om Yes, I guess some of the ground could be made in LOT editor. Since removing the trees helped a bit, I'm suspecting this is a RAM issue. What a coincidence, because I have actually been thinking about buying another gig (I have one at the moment) in the near future anyway.quote>

I am not sure it is the RAM issue...I used my Macbook Pro to render the LOD for you last time. It has 2GB of RAM, but still give me code 6 error. I think it is caused by the limitation of GMAX. I got the same error when I rendered my other stadium even though i got 2G of RAM.

[patriots_1228 51]

could 3ds do any better?

[SimFox 804]

Teemu; what are you exporting with MAX? What is you windows version? I assume it is 32bit one, right? Is it XP pro? if it is there may be a way around memory issue. Buying additional 1 Gb althoug a good idea in this case may not solve the problem, as the tottal memory accesible to your application is made up of both Phisical and virtual memory and is constant, so if it isn't enough now, it will still be not enough with another 1Gb. You should increase that total. If you have Pro version it could be raised from 2Gb to 3, but ultimate solution would be 64bit OS...

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Originally posted by: patriots_1228 could 3ds do any better?quote>

Gmax is used to export the LODs, which creates the .SC4Model file.  Then the images of the building are rendered with 3ds max.  Then you replace the images from Gmax with the ones from 3ds max.  If you have iLive Reader, open a .SC4Model file and you'll see a bunch of .FSH files.  To make a long story short, 3ds max users replace the .FSH files.  Does that make sense?

[teemu_om 47]

Jasoncw: Yeah, I used to be quite careless about wasting resources (I was foolish enough to believe that it will only slow things down) so the model is quite messy and I need to clean it up. At least I've learned something now (the hard way).

Creathir: Thanks for the offer, though it doesn't seem to be about RAM after all.

SimFox: I split the LODs in four pieces and I'm trying to export the NE corner of the building in MAX. I'm trying to remove unnecessary stuff * to help with the memory issue. 32bit Windows XP yes, and not pro, unfortunately.

* Which helped a bit and I got a bit further. It still gave me the error after the first view was rendered, but this time I actually got something into the game, although completely messed up:

[Shadow Assassin 336]

I've tried rendering the LODs for you... Gmax doesn't give a Code 6 error, but just freezes, and requires Ctrl + Alt + Del to shut it down.

[teemu_om 47]

Thanks for trying! I don't need those LODs to be rendered anymore though, because I can't render the building in one piece anyway.

[patriots_1228 51]

hopefully this works, im really looking foward to this. another thing you could do, while i guess its not the best thing, is split the stadium in half and export them as two separate things, and make both props. just a suggestion, may not work.

[patriots_1228 51]

sorry for the double post but maybe you could get rid of some of the small things, like tables and stuff. they make it really detailed but you hardly notice them when you look at the pics.

[J0nnD0ugh 31]

**sniff** I weep for this thread.

[canuck3360 14]

as patroits suggested Maybe removeal of some of the details would help you could always take things like tables and BAT them seperatly then place them on the Lot in LE just thought I'd throw my two cents in the pond

[patriots_1228 51]

im gonna cry if this is dead so brace yourself

[SimFox 804]

Sorry to barge in again... I'm a bit confused as to what is exactly the problem, I mean at what stage? is it at the stage of LODs export from GMAX? If hat is a case the complexity of the model is absolutely irrelevant, what you would need to do is to limit volume (or , and ) surface area of the LODs.

Main problem with GMAX is that it is (I believe artificially) limited on how much resources it can use, it only employs one CPU/Core for rendering calculations for instance. My experience is that memory is limited to about 350 mb once over this limit there comes error. But since it is again error reported by the script and not GMAX itself there might be possibility of editing script to fix it. But, naturally, the precise nature of it should be understood first.

Anyway to cut long story short, I missed the time when LODs were available for download, and if you still have the issue with those I could try to take a look at them, I have some experience with optimizations, I managed to get Burj Dubai get exported in one piece which was also believed to be impossible...

[Creathir 3]

I would highly suggest letting SimFox take a crack at this. Your work is just TOO awesome to be deprived from SimCity....

- Creathir

[teemu_om 47]

Exporting the LODs from GMAX was the first problem I had. The size of the LODs was obviously too big, because when I divided the LODs into four pieces, I was able to export them.

So the problem with LODs was kind of solved. The idea was to render the model in four pieces. But then I had a second problem. When I tried to export the model from 3ds max it rendered the first view (zoom 5 south, day) fine, but gave the error code 6 immediately after that. So I tried removing stuff that was unnecessary for the north east corner (which was the part I was trying to export) of the stadium. Now I was able to succesfully render the first two views (zoom 5 south, both day AND night). But then... Error code 6.

So I don't know if there is much to do, at least I'm not actively seeking solutions.

Oh, and by the way I have started modeling a new baseball stadium.

EDIT: Hahahahahaahhahaaaa... Well I think I solved the error code 6 issue. I had named the LODs in a wrong way (LOD03, LOD04 and LOD05 when they should be LOD3, LOD4 and LOD5). I can't believe I didn't notice it before. Sorry for wasting your time by asking solutions to a problem that never really existed.

[Sim shady 12]

does this mean u can render this? praise to the lord if i understood u right

[scba 180]

Care to spill any details on the new project?

[Creathir 3]

Oh how I HOPE it can be rendered... I loved the progress of this stadium...

- Creathir

[JDRCRASH 53]

With the backing of the entire State of California, L.A. is one step closer to hosting the Summer Olympics in 2016.

There is a plan to give the city of Los Angeles $250 million in taxpayer dollars if the olympics don't bring real venues for the city.  

But only one possible candidate city stands in our way.......Tokyo

Anyways, here is the stadium, as well as the proposed renovated version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Coliseum

Nice looking progress on this stadium.

Wait, SimFox, you exported the Burj Dubai from GMAX?!

Man, thats a whole lot of MBs!

[Sim shady 12]

*cough xough* sorry its just that darn smog... actully that would be fantastic if US got the olympics in the near future again

[patriots_1228 51]

good luck on the baseball feild im trying to do fenway park and its tough!