Using Gmax, advice, tips and feedback.

[DarkMatter 21]

"Also, we often look at the series of coffee table books, "Above New York", "Above Paris", etc. The obvious benifit to aerial photos of cities is the similar POV we have in the game. So you see alot of rooftops, which are very important in SC."

Thats what I was looking for. Books. I've also never used googls image search...I'll have to give that a whirl. Thanks.

[MaxisBrian 6]

This is an asphalt roof. I tried to send the larger version of this before but the file size was too big.

[MaxisBrian 6]

Try this for a pitched roof.

[MaxisBrian 6]

Here's a bump map to go with the shingles.

[DarkMatter 21]

Thanks for the textures Brian!

[MaxisBrian 6]

DarkMatter, I have to say the whole art team owes a debt of gratitude to Google Image Search! I would have to say they were the single most important resource for visual references throughout the project. If that doesn't turn up what you want, check out corbis.com, and there are a couple of other image banks like that, but Google does the best job in my opinion.

[DarkMatter 21]

Your tellin me!! This is like heaven! I never even noticed the image tab on google before now. They have more pictures than I could have dreamed of. Thanks VERY much for the tip.

[MaxisBrian 6]

You bet!

 

By the way, check out the new News tab too. They pull from sources all over the world and give you all sorts of different perspectives.

 

Uh oh... I'm off topic here.

[mikeyb66 30]

Thanks for the textures and advive. Don't worry about being off topic we'll let you off.

[oppie 487]

Wow, those textures are fantastic! I almost don't dare to ask, but can you show us some more, pretty please?

[MaxisBrian 6]

Sure thing.

 

Here's one I use for corrugated tin roofs, which I have used on a lot of industry buildings in SC4. You'll want to apply it to a pitched, gabled roof, with the center lining up with the top ridge.

[MaxisBrian 6]

And here's the bump map to go with that. Set the bump strenght to around 80.

[MaxisBrian 6]

 

Here's the generic texture map I use on almost all the larger roof units I do for the game. Here I let the texture do most of the work, in suggesting intricate details. Some of you might recognize it as a modified version of a standard 3DS Max material, Space Panels. Try this: create a box with a couple of sections along x, y and z. Colapse it to Editable Mesh and start extruding faces, both in and out, so you end up with recesses and protrusions. You can also scale the face just after extruding it, so there is a chamfer. When you have something that looks sort of like an HVAC unit, or something like that, apply a UVW Map modifier, set to box. Make sure the dimensions are equal along x, y and z, and apply this material. I suggest something like 5x5x5 for the box map dimensions, but play with it by moving/scaling the mapping gizmo in the viewport. You can line the vents up with the right panels in the geometry, etc. Boom, you've got something that looks alot more sophisticated than it is, even in the closest zoom.

[MaxisBrian 6]

Here's the bump to go with it.

[MaxisBrian 6]

Try this on a tapered cylinder for a quick garbage can. It's a texture that is not very telling unto itself, but the following bump will bring it to life on the model...

[MaxisBrian 6]

Garbage can bump. Sometimes the bump does all the work, and not the texture.

[MaxisBrian 6]

I should have mentioned that for the garbage can, you'll need to check "Cylinder" and not Planar or Box in the mapping rollout. Then you'll need to make a lid, map it separately and just apply the gray texture without the bump (copy the material and eliminate the bump in mat. editor).

[MaxisBrian 6]

I made this one for large pipes and ducts that go on industry buildings. Remember, cylindrical mapping for pipes, and box mapping for ducts.

[MaxisBrian 6]

... and the bump for the pipes texture.

 

There's nothing super-sophisticated going on here, but we do just what we need to in order too have the buildings/props look good at zoom 5. If we ever go with closer zooms, we might have to put more detail into these maps. I hope these help.

[MaxisBrian 6]

Here's an industry building that uses the pipes texture/bump. Much of it is of course lost at zoom 5, but it sort of comes through. This is closer than zoom 5 though.

[MaxisBrian 6]

Oh, and here's the concrete you see mapped onto the walls of the industry building. These are mostly just quick concoctions worked up in Photoshop.

[MaxisBrian 6]

... and the bump for the concrete.

[GouRou 2]

nice textures

for others information, would you say that learning a quality graphics program would also help with making these buildings? or is it possible for a person to find most of what they need?

[rubik3 116]

Anyone interested in small to mid-sized log cabins?  I will end up having about 40 models pretty much ready to be ported over to SC4.  Here's a pic of one of the larger, nicer ones...most are rather small and rinky dink though.

 

 

Of course my first thing to do is finish up my WTC model if I can find the time, after that maybe Tenochitilan, but when I finish those up I will probably be bringing these cabins over unless there isn't much of a demand for them.

[MaxisBrian 6]

GouRou,

 

I'd say it would certainly be helpful to know a paint program, like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro,  Painter, etc. if you want to create your own bitmap textures, but not necessary if you know how to generate procedural materials. You could skip the texture creation part and just pull from the thousands of free textures you can find for free on the net.

 

Rubik3, nice log cabin there.

[DarkMatter 21]

Rubik, thats a GREAT looking house! Just out of curiosity....what lot size do you think that will need?

Brian, thanks a lot for all the textures. I've been trying to find some decent concrete for a long time. I have a site (hopefully its still bookmarked), that I found a number of months ago that has TONS of great textures. Most, if not all, are photos of real surfaces. I'll post the link here when I get home.

[twoleftturns 0]

Can any of you guys explain how to can save a picture of my gmax creation...so I can show it here....Do I export the file somehow? How do I make the jpeg?

 

Thanks.

[6459978. 106]

Thanks for all the great textures and stuff, but I still can't figure out how to use them! Do you think anyone could spare a moment to give me a sort of step by step on how to apply textures. (When you apply them, you should be able to see them in the 3D view, right?)

[twoleftturns 0]

I just dragged the texture onto the object....and whallaa

[Screwballl 196]

sounds like a good time for someone to put together a tutorial of sorts of all the info Brian has given us and will continue to give us....

 

the only question and i probably missed it was, what is the scale of say each square in the viewport pertaining to bitmaps... so what size should a wall be to properly fit the 256x256 bitmaps without distortion but also still be able to see the actual texture?