hkabat-forum-threads PaulvMontfort's Showcase

[MarcosMX 222]

Great work Paul, as they say, the detailing is amazing

[tommiej 0]

damn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! youre recreation of the Lippo centre looks almost more realistic then the real one!!! the reflection is totally awesome!!!!!the pacific place looks very nice, really like the way how you did the road!!

keep it up!!!!!!

[villagemayor 0]

I love how the road leads to the underground parking. Well done!

[jacqulina 162]

yes things are looking very good and coming together great

[exodus 10]

I see One Pacific Place on the STEX. Are you releasing each building seperatly or is that just a taster until the entier complex is finished?

[ILL Tonkso 1,239]

Crikey! That is simply amazing! How did you get the road to conform to the curve too?

[paulvmontfort 617]

@ T Wrecks: No, that side is diagonal. the front side will be the side were One Pacific Place and the entrances to the shopping mall are located.

@ dmscopio: Sorry, it would be cool, but i don't think it can be done. The road ends just over 12 meters above ground and it would require very poly intensive lods which slow the game significant.

@ exodus: They are released already. Search for my name in the STEX and you'll find them.

@ ILL Tonkso: Using 'loft' in the 'Compound Objects' in the drop-down menu under the 'create' tab. After lofting a shape along a path, you can easily create mapping coördinates that follow the curve of your created loft.

@ SimFox: Thanks for the tutorial. The 'Shatter' tool comes in very handy for a lot of things. BTW. I didn't know if you know this already, but you probably do. I've been studying the glass window of our kitchen door that leads to the garden. And i noticed very clearly these things:

-you can look much more clearly through glass from a dark space to a light space (you can look through skyscraper glass from outside during the night but nog as well during the day)

-you can also look through glass if both sides are equally light or dark.

This would be a cool effect to have on the base of Pacific Place, specially on the Marriott base in which i'm putting much more detail.

[SimFox 804]

paul:

I believe you mean Scater, not shatter... well, it is very handy to "naturally" populate space with organic sort of things, like trees and stuff.

About the glass - yes this is exactly what I'm calling people to do - for any artist it is essential to closely observe the world around, to peel the preconceptions away from ones eyes! These physical properties of the glass are something we subconsciously recognize and what missing from almost all glass Textures. And it is a good reason not to use ANY if you can. And with MAX you certainly can! Although it is possible to paint perfect fake it would be way too complicated to take into account all the interactions of reflection and refraction

In fact, what you've described in the case with you glass door (and any glass for that matter) is but an illusion, but a very important one for that matter! In reality (which is also good to understand when you try to make a material) you always see same "clear" through the glass regardless of the lighting conditions, this only alters with the viewing angle not with lighting. In case of lighting what happens is that in some cases you've simply hasn't got much to see, that's all. When you look at the glass you ALWAYS see a composite of reflection (something on your side of the glass) and refraction - anything on the opposite side. Clarity (generally not too correct term, but will do for now, more proper would be ratio)) is same at the constant viewing angle. Relative brightness of the reflection or refraction is what a key in here. It is then multiplied by the "clarity" and both (reflection and refraction) are blended in a fashion similar to screen in Photoshop. So, amount of light and the size of space it is spread over are key factors. This is also a reason to model the basic structure of the interior (of course only in case you use any bounced light). Glass on the window with tinny room behind it would look very different than glass on the window of vast lobby. Scale of the game will degrade it to some degree, but it will still be there playing with your mind. And here we come back to the UNIT question - is it same what to use inches or meters or generic units - whatever those might be. The answer is, if you want to be accurate - NO, it is NOT same. Light in complex calculations of GI is calculated on Meter scale. The way it looses its energy over the distances the way it get diffracted by air and objects in the scene. So, building of 250 inches would not look same as building of 250 meters even if you'll adjust all the cameras accordingly.

This is also a key reason why when movies are made models are made as large as studio could afford it.

Another KEY feature of the glass is that it doesn't have color, EVER! Not like other non-transparent materials, and you should remember this when making glass in material editor. The diffuse channel should always stay black, which is technically correct, or some shade of neutral grey - not correct but admissible if you want to get certain effects you glass will still look like a glass. So you would ask, how come then wee see all sorts of colored glass around. And this is where that part when I was speaking of composite look of glass, comes to play. You see color of the glass in the REFRACTED part of the composite. This is a KEY point, as that part is dependent on the illumination of the space behind the glass - the darker it is - the less of it in composite and hence LESS of color of the glass you see! This is a reason it is so difficult to make realistic BITMAP TEXTURE of the glass. See how everybody liked the last version of the glass of the Lippo - everybody was asking to make it blue, but did I? NOPE. All I did was to make it transparent and black and give some color to the refractions. So actual color you see is constantly pixel by pixel changing depending on numerous variables, now - go paint that in Photoshop!! And it is sooo easy by setting material right - rendering engine does then all the painting for you! Of course, as almost always in real life situations, I had to bend general rules somewhat to accommodate for the fact that this is just a model and has not got actual complexity of the real thing, and that we still haven't got quantum computers!

On a different subject - I'm working on the foliage I've promised but I hit some obstacles... I managed to get them in 3DS format, but now whenever taken back to MAX they make it crash ... hm...

What about the texture of the road?? did you make it yourself? or is it somehow lifted from the game?

[bixel 1,228]

simfox: export selected. usually works for me. automatically creates it as a 3ds file in the meshes folder.

paulvmontfort: yes the model is great..but just like simfox and illtonkso what really blows me away is your work and textures on the roads!!! I know you don't like to give up secrets easily but I would pay you some euros if you can teach me that. (well..ok I problably wont REALLY pay you but I would try if I had some extra $$).

[paulvmontfort 617]

@ bixel, I'll explain it to you on MSN sometime

Marriott Lobby interior:

[tommiej 0]

now that's one fancy interior!! looks nice and very realistic, just like the rest

keep it up!!!!!

[toxicpiano 125]

wow that looks incredible! HOORAY FOR LOFTING!

[bixel 1,228]

Lovely interiors..but will all of that be visible in the game? Yo may want to add the camerarig to the xref scene and switch your perspective view to camera 4 to see if all the interior shows.

[Krio 626]

Holy pig! This really good batting.

[paulvmontfort 617]

bixel: that's something wouldn't forget, i know what's visible and what not

[SURUMI 2]

Incl. Interior ?? OMG.

Awesome.

[spa 970]

That's really really impressive. I never have the patience of the inspiration to do interiors. Yours has just come out brillantly. I really hope we'll be able to see it clearly when the bat is rendered.

[jacqulina 162]

wow i could sit in there thats some excellent details very nice work

[mightygoose 92]

hell is freezing over as we speak...

[jesselong 0]

'Cheers! This wine tastes really great... hey... who's the guy looking us out of the window?'

Oh! We can see through the hall clearly! Realistic detail!

Actually who minds someone staring through such a masterpiece through the window?

That's really amazing!

P.S Merry Christmas to everyone!

[Skyfire2275 23]

Oh wow, that's absolutely amazing.

[lrfox 2]

incredible attention to detail

great work

[toxicpiano 125]

You doing another Christmas day release Paul?

[Blazerhawk 162]

Estimated Retail Value on turbosquid.com $750. I'm serious if this was uploaded on turbosquid it could go for that price easily. That is incredible work.

[villagemayor 0]

Ok, maybe too realistic, and its scary. I am now awaiting Paulvmontfort to add people carrying luggages inside the lobby. Where's the bellboy!!

[paulvmontfort 617]

Simfox, any succes on the nightlighting of the Lippo Centre?

little update:

[bixel 1,228]

OMG that looks brilliant!

[mcarch 15]

Is this going to be a grow or a plop? A rectangular lot or one that overhangs?

[tommiej 0]

totally awesome job!! looks very realistic, if you would show it to somebody who don't know about BATting and doesn't play simcity, with the right background, he would say it's real!!!!

really looking forward!!

[ardecila 125]

SimFox, you are truly amazing.

Would you mind sharing the bump map you used on the glass?