BAT - Troubleshooting & General Discussion

[confused04 14]

So I've been BATing this rather large fictional dome building, there are three domes, one tall primary and two shallow secondary domes... I began texturing and noticed a problem...

Ignoring the not so good textures below the roof.... but my idea was to create a limestone building with corroded copper dome(s). However, as you can see in the pic, I've run into a bit of a problem with texturing the little domes. For some reason, despite the fact that I'm using the same map, the domes look different and all buggy.

I made the little domes by making a cylinder taper (overtaper actually). Lattice was created by making the edges a separate object (as per the make a lattice quickly omnibus article). The dome on the left is the original, the dome on the right is a clone (not mirrored). After cloning the left dome, I just moved the clone to its current position, not even requiring a rotate. So why the heck does the map not look right?

Warning... I'm rather new at this so I don't exactly know all the terms (can you tell?). If you know the remedy please tell me in simple step by step instructions.

I would appreciate comments like "Why are you doing that?" Or "I don't like that texture" or "Use x program, its better" to not be posted. I'm doing it the way I know cause I actually like gmax save for my texturing problem. Thanks in advance.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Why did you make the domes out of tapered cylinders?  I don't really like that copper texture, maybe you should check to see if you can get 3ds Max from your university, it's better.

-oh wait....  

It's strange that you just cloned it and the two look different.  Have you tried deleting the bad one and recloning the good one?  Also, from how it sounds, they both have the same UVW Map, and the only thing that you've done to either of them, is clone them, right?

Nice to see you BATing, btw.

[confused04 14]

Yea, I've deleted the bad one and cloned it again...

Makes me wonder if somethings wrong with the original... the texture doesn't exactly look awesome of the left one either and I rotated the building 45 degrees and re rendered it and now the left dome looks dumb...

so if thats the case, would just recreating the tapered dome do the trick and if not, then I'd have to find a way to make a similar dome.

[Gn_leugim 853]

when cloning you scale it? if you did, you also scale the UVW and therefore it could look different

(and yet.. I have no nitelites at my props :'( )

[Jasoncw 11,840]

confused04: Try giving your dome different types of UVW Maps, try a sphere or a cylinder map, or try them all. Do the domes look the same from every angle, or do they look different in each rotation?

Gn_leugim: So, you found the property in the plugin manager about lights? Do you have the nitelites patch from the official website? Also, I think your lot needs to require power, and it needs to be powered, in order for nitelites to show up.

[confused04 14]

I figured it out ! YAY!

So here's what happens (at least in MY experience with this particular problem ).  So when I made the lattice, it required being made a completely separate object... BUT that would then separate the faces and even though they were part of the same object, each face was mapped separately for some odd reason cause they no longer shared a common edge (even if they appeared to on the viewport). And when you taper a cylinder its faces make weird shapes, it was rendered as very small diagonal faces each mapped independently. Making those weird repetitive patterns...

Solution... delete dome start over

I kept the lattice as is from the previous dome, but made a new dome underneath that still has its edges... low and behold, it textures as a single unit and works just fine.

Hurray for me!

And no I didn't scale it

[Jasoncw 11,840]

hmm, did you ever have a UVW Map on the domes? You would have gone to Modifiers>UV Coordinates>UVW Map (or something like that) if you had put it on.

[ja/att 61]

Can anyone tell me the secret to rendering. For one sign post it takes 1 out of 12 tries to export properly. Once its in LE the post looks fine in zooms 1-3 but in 4 and 5 it mutates into maxis bldg fragments. Anybody have any thoughts? ja/att

[Jasoncw 11,840]

That problem happens when you export the building too many times. Every time you export from the scene, a number in the ID of your building goes up by one, and if you do that too many times the number will go into Maxis's range of numbers. Select everything in your scene, and go to file>save selected, and save it as something. Then start a new scene in Gmax, and go to file>merge, and merge what you just saved into the new scene, and export from that.

[ja/att 61]

Sorry J but it was a no go with the save/ merge method. I even trashed all the previous scenes and started fresh but the third export went south on me. ja/att

[Gn_leugim 853]

ty jasoncw.. My lights are working now

[nihonkaranws 88]

I've looked at a few lots in the LE, and I noticed that some of them use props as buildings. When I open the lot in-game, the props even appear at the highest zoom (1). How can I make my BAT props appear at zoom 1?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

There's a property about it in the plugin manager. Check all of the tabs.

[ngeeves 5]

I posted this in my thread but for some reason it didnt give it a little 'recently updated' sticky on the side so i don't think many people saw it. Basically the problem comes when im trying to export the lods from a 3ds max exported model. Ive put the lods from my model into gmax/BAT (via export and import whilst maintaining there is no conversion of units etc) and ive tried to export it but it just gets to 13% and stops. Can anyone help with this problem please?

[SimFox 802]

that is almost certainly the issue with wrong units. As a result your model is Huge when it gets to GMAX.

you can check this but actually measuring imported LODs in gmax. Remember that GMAX is set to use generic units in it's interface, but GMAX system unit is set to meters. If your Max System unit is a inch then when you export 3ds of the LOD the size is specifier in system units. So as a result in GMAX you model is about 40 times larger then it should be...

BTW you could attach the troubled model to you message so that people could chek it rather then guessing...

[angel0fmars 0]

Can someone direct me to 3ds MAX BAT software? I would really like to try BATing and see if my past experience with "BATing" on SC3K would help. Thanks!

[SimFox 802]

Andel0fmars:

you can get original Bat For Max v2.0 HERE

but I would recommend to update it with tow additions:

1. Update 2.1 found in attachment HERE

2. Preview System found in Attachment HERE

these will make both installation and usage easier.

[awake_78 0]

Hi everybody,

I would like to create a prop in BAT ( highway divider) which when i put it in the Lot editor in my 1x1 lot will apear in the side lot.

What I meen is that I wanna put the props blue foundation in the middle of my lot for example and appears 1 block left.

I think some props of the Gare du Nord is that way.

Does somebody know how can I possibly do that?

Thanx

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Try moving your model away from the center of the scene before you export it.

[angel0fmars 0]

Can I use 3ds max 9 instead since 8 doesn't support vista?

[SimFox 802]

you can use any version of 3ds MAX except latest ones - 3ds Max 2009 and 3dsMax 2009 Design

[angel0fmars 0]

Oy...Thanks anyway!

[astoria_expatriate 0]

I am wondering if and how I can use the BSC Mega textures in gmax to texture some of my models.

Otherwise, how can I access the textures I need easily?

[SimFox 802]

Textures in such a pack aren't really suitable to texture anything apart form ground. They sole application is to be base textures.

[nihonkaranws 88]

HELP! When I export a BAT, it does everything properly. Yet, when I look at my BAT in the lot editor, it looks like a cutaway of a default Maxis building. I keep trying to export it, but only once in a while does it appear properly. What's going on?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

That problem has been covered a lot in this thread, look back to earlier pages and there are some in depth explanations and solutions.

[nycc06 229]

ok, i need some help with this. recently i have completed work on my new riviera tower complex. However, when thew BAT is exported, it will continue through until it completes the zoom 2 renders then the message below shows up saying export failed. I don't know what is causing this problem and i have tried the export several times. in addition to this i have altered the LODs and lighting rigs for each export and the message remains the same. Can anyone help with this cause i really want this BAt finished. thanks. 

[SimFox 802]

I have no clue what that particular code mean (if anything clear at all) but, alternatively, you can use Preview to get rest of the zooms done.

[nihonkaranws 88]

Okay Jason, I looked back through the pages and found that you want me to merge the file to a new file and re-export. I do this so many times, and every time it exports it looks like a collage of Maxis buildings. How do I avoid this entirely?

[patriots_1228 51]

nycc06: I beleive there is a list of bat errors and there meanings on the BAT Mega Fact Page.