autoVino's bat projects

[spa 970]

This has turned out pretty darn well. The grey texture is spot on and that's not easy feat. Grey and whites are among the toughest textures to fit into maxis's world. That said I don't think the roof is quite right. The blue texture for the equipment doesn't sticks out and is kind of flat. Those concrete roof structures are featureless boxes. One would think that they would have some kind of trim and a roof different from their sides. Finally, where's the access door? With all that equipment it's going to need to be serviced sooner or later. Don't misunderstand me, this is a good bat but I really think you need to go back and pay just a little bit more attention to the roof to make it really great.

As for tutorials, there is one in the omnibus by simgoober that is really good. Eventually there will be a new tool released over at Devotion that will streamline the whole process but it's still in development.

[autoVino 26]

well on the real building, the boxes are kind of featureless and flat... they're just big ugly white (semigloss?) boxes.  They're probably for telecomunications compony on the real building though.

conerning for the acess door, all I can say is "omg!!! I completly forgot"... gotta put those in.  Might as well do some improv on the roof as well now that time seems to be clearing up.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[SimFox 804]

nice one..

few points though...

1. I think the roof junk should be more "hidden" by that parapet wall - but I guess it is too late for that.

2. White balance of your lighting is too far off the games one.. try to tweak white balance in the environment or ambient light in the same place. it is particularly obviuos in night shots where it looks disturbingly turquoise.

3. I think it is worth while to turn antialiasing against background... Just make you background enough neutral.

As far for truNite - you've got it very right! there is one exception... I don't really do any night renders. Just two day ones. There are couple of reasons for that. One is that this way you save yourself a need for night alpha pass so you export total time is cut by about a quarter. For large structures it could be quite a saving. Also in stead of one continues process that may take over you machine for days on end you have two separate ones that almost always would comfortably fit into a night. Additionally it reduces the risk of something going wrong during the process by cutting its time. Plus I've noticed that vast majorities of problems with script are occurring during day/night switch. The only drawback of this process is the need for manual copying of files. But if you still have to do it with the one you use now then... Anywho, This two fold solution gives you unparalleled level of control on either view without diving deep into scripting. And the whole substitution thing I believe could also be easily scripted outside of max as well. This was a logical step from my "manual export" where I just did fixed view reders and all the cutting was done in photoshop "manually" -in fact it has very easy ly automatable tool for that. Still you can't edit the entire image, so sometimes good ol' manual method may be usefull as well.

[bixel 1,228]

"The only drawback of this process is the need for manual copying of files" cant you just create a batch file to do that for you?

[SimRabbit 48]

the building is fine imho trunite looks awsome too.

btw good luck with reactor, it's very cool, i have been playing with it for days.

[autoVino 26]

Originally posted by: bixel "The only drawback of this process is the need for manual copying of files" cant you just create a batch file to do that for you?quote>

 

how do you create a batch file??  I'm not too good with computers you know

Originally posted by: SimRabbit the building is fine imho trunite looks awsome too.

btw good luck with reactor, it's very cool, i have been playing with it for days.quote>

 

ahh, I didn't quite get to it... didn't have time, but I did make the model.

[bixel 1,228]

basically its all the same commands given in the command line only written in a text file saved with the extension .bat. So for instance

cd\

E:

cd\3dsmax7\gamepacks\BAT

so you would need to know the command for move file, and the file name and its destination

fshtool.exe E:\3dsmax7\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\8WaterlooRoad-0x5ad0e817_0x945c1667_0x30000\7ab50e44_945c1667_30400\index.fsh

thats an example of running the fshtool on a file, you will have to do some google research on it, but I bet there is a thread somewhere on making batchs to move files. Here!!!

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/Bat-Samp.html

"the only drawback of this process is the need for manual copying of files."

Simfox can you expand on this, what files are you copying, the file names, form where, and where are you putig the files, I can write a batch file for it

good tuts and samples

[autoVino 26]

thanks!  this will make things soo much easier... and quicker.

[patfirefghtr 160]

LoL I see you are hidding here Auto and i just had to check up on your status and it seems to be going rather good, you are getting alot of good advice and i cant wait to see this up!!!!

[Sim shady 12]

wow i gotta say, this thread has turned into an intellectual discussion thread full of big scary words that i dont understand

Glad to see that you seem to have completely mastered BATing autovino

[autoVino 26]

thanks :-)

since I'll be pretty busy this next day before my trip, I decided to not work on the almost finished bulding and start yet another doodle that will probably be thrown out...

what I have now is a large mall/base area and two huge towers coming off of it.

[bixel 1,228]

yeh. um HURRY UP ALLREADY XMAS IS NEARLY HERE!!

I want moar toys!! ggogogogogogogo!!! XDXDXDXD

[autoVino 26]

I'm afraid I won't be in America come christmas.... :-( so I don't think I'll make the christmas deadline.  Based on the render time, I'm not too sure when I'll be able to finish it. (It takes about two days straight, 30 hours give or take)  Probably be done a few weeks into 2008. sorry.

Meanwhile here's a bat to take off stress of deadlines

[Sim shady 12]

ooh very cool design. I approve.

Where are you going out of town to?

[autoVino 26]

Mexico, the Yucatan/Cancun Area.

[SimFox 804]

Happy Xmas grilling under the sun...

Bixel:

bout bat (not BAT)

The idea is ofcourse a good one, but... I've taken a look at bat files BAT creates... it is just a looooong list of commands. Given that creation of such bat manually is defiting the very purpose. Question is how to automate the bat creation itself.

About truNite exporting the way I do it. I create two copies of project file - one fro day and another for night export. Technically they are both day ones ed no lights with special prefixes and no night libraries and other things like that. This way scripts doesn't run into the issue of turning off Xreffed rig. Plus as I've mentioned earlier this way vast majority of BAT problems associated exactly with day/night change is bypassed. Plus this way it is truly WYSIWYG operation - no need to keep you fingers crossed so to say. There is also need for a third - dummy scene. It is needed to basically generate that bat file that does inserting. You can not use ones generated during either of day exports as they only contain the list of DAY views. But that render could be blazingly fast. Just turn off all and every thing possible - lights, GI, AA - all!! So even on biggest structures it would take just few minutes. Of course all the images would be rubbish but you don't need any of those - just a bat file with list of them! after that is done you can simply substitute all the foldes in particular output with those generated during your two day and "night" exports. With day it is very simple and straightforward, but with night is a bit more complicated as the name of night folders must have "8" - the code of night view in predetermined position. Solution is either to rename all the folders - perfect task for automation - all is needed is to change on "o" in folder name with "8" - can you may be write appropriate bat?? Or stupid manual replacement of all 0000.bmp and 0000-a.bmps from each of the "day" folder into proper night one.

[Sim shady 12]

Cancun

I went there for vacation in 2004 or 2005...whenever that big hurricane came in and wiped the place's beaches out. My family was there the week that the hurricane hit, but we left like 2 days before it got bad. Really nice place though, I got this massage on the beach during the sunset...pretty amazing

Ps, rent a car, the taxi drivers there are freaking crazy. If you think new york cabbies are bad, wait till you ride with some of these guys. lol.

[autoVino 26]

Originally posted by: SimFox Happy Xmas grilling under the sun...

Bixel:

bout bat (not BAT)

The idea is ofcourse a good one, but... I've taken a look at bat files BAT creates... it is just a looooong list of commands. Given that creation of such bat manually is defiting the very purpose. Question is how to automate the bat creation itself.

About truNite exporting the way I do it. I create two copies of project file - one fro day and another for night export. Technically they are both day ones ed no lights with special prefixes and no night libraries and other things like that. This way scripts doesn't run into the issue of turning off Xreffed rig. Plus as I've mentioned earlier this way vast majority of BAT problems associated exactly with day/night change is bypassed. Plus this way it is truly WYSIWYG operation - no need to keep you fingers crossed so to say. There is also need for a third - dummy scene. It is needed to basically generate that bat file that does inserting. You can not use ones generated during either of day exports as they only contain the list of DAY views. But that render could be blazingly fast. Just turn off all and every thing possible - lights, GI, AA - all!! So even on biggest structures it would take just few minutes. Of course all the images would be rubbish but you don't need any of those - just a bat file with list of them! after that is done you can simply substitute all the foldes in particular output with those generated during your two day and "night" exports. With day it is very simple and straightforward, but with night is a bit more complicated as the name of night folders must have "8" - the code of night view in predetermined position. Solution is either to rename all the folders - perfect task for automation - all is needed is to change on "o" in folder name with "8" - can you may be write appropriate bat?? Or stupid manual replacement of all 0000.bmp and 0000-a.bmps from each of the "day" folder into proper night one.

quote>

 

thanks , but oh my!  that sounds a whole lot more complicated than what I do.  That method may prove faster with rendering times (as far as I understand) and is safer because of that (and because of no day/night switch) but it sounds like more work... haha.  For me it's just easier to run a render for 20 hours than to sit manually copying files.  The only tedious work my way is just changing the night alpha files with the day ones (and I hope that it's possible to get rid of the night alpha file render completely and just somehow copy the day alpha into the night one)

that would speed up the render considerably.

Originally posted by: Sim shady Cancun

I went there for vacation in 2004 or 2005...whenever that big hurricane came in and wiped the place's beaches out. My family was there the week that the hurricane hit, but we left like 2 days before it got bad. Really nice place though, I got this massage on the beach during the sunset...pretty amazing

Ps, rent a car, the taxi drivers there are freaking crazy. If you think new york cabbies are bad, wait till you ride with some of these guys. lol.quote>

 

we didn't rent a car :-D  but yeah, the taxi drivers were expensive and crazy drivers.  We used the bus most of the time.

For us the weather was nice but it was really crowded.  Come the day after Christmas it was pretty empty compared to the first few days.

here is another render with some more work done (still all poly modeling)

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[Cleaner475 150]

I love it, especially the design weird shapaed tower but cool none the less, I see another masterpiece ),

Richard

[autoVino 26]

thanks.

did some work on the base:

added mostly some more entrances, a little more roof detail.

[Sim shady 12]

Ooh i love where this is going, I especially like the tower to the right. Could you give us an idea of the lot size? 5 by 5?

Happy New Years eve!

[Interchange 0]

Are you still going to let me do some tests on this?

[autoVino 26]

Happy 2008 everyone!

@Sim shady: right now we're at a 11 by 12 lot size... kinda big.

@Interchange: sure, but I have to finish it first!

[Cleaner475 150]

Happy ne wyear to you to,

The base looks like a good shape, keep it up,

Richard

[autoVino 26]

thanks, side view render:

[toxicpiano 125]

Looking good The tallest tower reminds me of the sears tower

[bbfan02 23]

Yeah, I like the color. Very dull and realistic to many skyscrapers. Well done.

[autoVino 26]

thanks for the comments:

some more work on the roof, added some hvac cooling section, a little garage for the window cleaners and its track (zoom five preview)

[gabry85 2]

I like it! Looks very cool and details are stunning!

Wish you good luck.

[Godzillaman 21]

I like the look of this building! I'm saving some space for it.