autoVino's bat projects

[autoVino 26]

Actually, for this model, I'm working with a lot of shaders that were/are designed in mental mill AE.  I'm going to see if I can write shaders in c++ (as I don't really want to spend money on mental mill SE) for some more ray control while rendering.

I'm rendering a couple of previews right now (making typing rather difficult).  Added to the model is a substation and an extra tile on the north and east side of the model for fountains/entrance--just eye candy.

Click to view full resolutions:

i187.photobucket.com/albums/x62/autoVino/fg-ort-z4-01.jpg

i187.photobucket.com/albums/x62/autoVino/fg-ort-z4-02.jpg

Here is the first image within forum regulations:

[JakeMD 107]

Looking fantastic!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Looking damn fine. That's just the most reflective concrete I have ever seen (perhaps reduce the glossiness some), specificly next to the big gray box on the left.

Looking forward to seeing this finished,

-Todd

[nihonkaranws 88]

I love it, but I have to second Todd on that concrete business... This whole port also looks a bit too "clean" to be an industrial development. The flattened gray/grid texture on that taller building doesn't look right - you should change that whole area to a glass building kind of rise. You could also give it a "lookout" area to add to the idea of a controlled seaport.

I find the reflection in the water a bit too hazy or blurry. Instead, you could try giving it an ocean-like texture, with reflective properties, both to add to the effect and cut back on rendering time. That can actually work pretty well, especially when you're going for a more industrial look.

[Simcity player 13]

looks greater than great

[autoVino 26]

I appretiate the enthusiasm Nihonkaranws and SimHoTToDDy! The glossiness can still be adjusted, but I'm going for a more ultra-modern zero emissions effect so making the building look very dirty and too glassy would either be destructive to the effect or overkill. I will give the actual port area a little more work, though. I have some ideas that I can do with cavity mapping and deposit shaders.

The water will be removed (better yet masked in a special manor) so reflection is not an issue. Btw, it does physically mimic river water, the reason it looks like an glossy surface with a low sampling is because of the scaling. You must keep in mind that the whole complex right now is at 12x13 tiles :-)

[surdanis 6]

being that there is nothing quite like this on the STEX or possibly anywhere in cyberspace that is in this particular style, this BAT will be an absolute gem. i hope it see it up soon. i also hope you have similarly styled buildings. the sleekness would be a fresh look for any city. i think the best application of would be in mass transit stations or hubs--maybe even a ferry+subway hub or something.

[Djohaal 121]

It is quite funny to see that autodesk is selling mental mill separate from 3dsmax, while maya's nodes have so much funciontallity on them that mental mill feels somewhat redundant. Talk about milking the industry to its every last cent

I'm also loving this ultra-modern look for the port, however my only concern is how well it'll blend wih the nearby coastline. If I may suggest, put in the queue of models to make some "transition" like peices for it to blend with the coastline without looking like a dry transition like maxis's seaports...

[autoVino 26]

Mental mill is actually sold by Mental Images, and it has a free version for 3ds max shader exporting called Mental Mill artist's edition.  Unfortunatly the artists edition does not support a few key tools that allow for the most control for custom shader creation.

As for the port, transition may turn out to be rather rough, but creating more models for a smooth transition is unecessary because they already exist!

Peg's seaport sets would definately do the job

I haven't had too terribly much time to work on this (as work is becoming increasingly demanding as a new semester soon begins) so this is what I have so far.  I have added fencing, and done some light retexturing.  The tree models are not final yet, and the courtyard design is not final either.  I still may add vehicles and people to the model.

As usual, click to view the full zoom five image.

[bluemoose 223]

neat stuff all around. any plans to release anything?

[mosin33 5]

I noticed that your style is very clean and shiny/glossy when creating BATs. Which if fine of course but I think if your making a shipping port it should be dirty and grunging looking. So good textures could make this amazing model twice as good. Im sure whatever you deciede to do will be just fine seeing how good you are at BATing!!

I do think the model looks very good right now and cant wait to see more! Mabye some nightlighting!

-mosin33

[autoVino 26]

 

Click to view the image in full resoultion.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Completely epic and you are not even done

[Delecto 941]

Waooouuu autoVino, is really beautiful and very neatly done. Reflections in water are very realistic and we want to jump into.

My only advice would be to add a truck or something allowing to realize the size of the building, it looks very very big.

I am glad to see more!    

[bluemoose 223]

AWESOME!!!!

[grbac80 5]

Fantastic autoVino. Speaking of size, I'd say the ship is like 200m. Let's just hope this will find it's way to the STEX.

[kellydale2003 2,276]

Damn Autovino!! Your photos are beyond super: You should share some of that knowledge with us. And your rigs are amazing too!

[autoVino 26]

The lighting rig I am using is actually the one provided by SimFox.

The ship is 150m long, so it is a large coal barge.

I have added a few trucks to signify scale, but I may have scaled them incorrectly. I may need to import (and use?) the maxis ones for a better comparison.

Click to view full resolution

[kellydale2003 2,276]

I really love this - but I'm also having trouble understanding the scale for such a big project.

Whats the tile # with the side furthest from the water?

And this is slope conforming?

[autoVino 26]

The scale is fairly large (since it is a large power plant). Length should be 12 tiles, and the slope is conforming. I may import some models from simcity1.dat to give a better sense of scale, but this shall be in the next few weeks.

[madhatter106 3,922]

The evil low wealth pixie sitting on my shoulder wants to see more grime and dinge and dirt on the textures...the modelling, however, is utterly gorgeous. I haven't done much with seaports in SC4, but this makes me want to do a whole seaport town now...

[rushman5 33]

Love the sunken port idea, so to speak. I can't wait to implement in my city!

[Djohaal 121]

Some cosntructive thoughts

I beleive you should make the ship as a separate prop though. That could allow for a version with the empty dock without having to re-render it all.... (and since it is a 12xwhatever we all know how big the filesize gets...)

The roof itself I beleive is untextured, no? it lacks mosture stains that plaugue all concrete projects

And are those rows of fuzzy things in the right and top tree planters? If so I think you might need a better model, they don't look dense enough. Take care with those that hang beyond the buildings silhouette on the top too, the in-game aliasing might ruin them.

Other than that, plain awesome

[autoVino 26]

Thanks for the comments!

A few pointers I would like to give out -- grime is really not something that I'm going for here, I don't what this building to look dirty or like it's old -- because it's not supposed to be! It is whole point of a modern zero emission coal plant... of the future.

The roof is in fact textured, have you tried to click to view the full resolution?

The trees are of sufficient density in my opinion and aliasing in game should not be a problem with the final model (I know a few tricks about how the s3d mapping works).

Ship as a prop is possible, but it would be easier for me to run one version of this file as bat4max for mr 3.7 isn't necessarily stable at this moment... mine which intertwined with tons of small modifications is like a system of ropes and pulleys right now. So is mental ray on 32 bit vista.

All in all, this is supposed to be a more architectuall visualization than a real live representation of the building. If you look at a lot of the high tech buildings in the game, they do not look like run down old factories.

[kellydale2003 2,276]

The work is beyond great - I also understand this is a work in progress and I'm trying to cross a bridge thats not there yet.

But are you working on other "junk" on this BAT? I understand that little details usually come last, but I haven't seen any major movements since the last renders. So I would assume your close to finishing?

[autoVino 26]

Haha, there are a few more details (especially night lighting) that you haven't seen yet. I just need to find a good period of time outside graduate to work on it, so I'm enticing you all with eye candy :-)

[kellydale2003 2,276]

Ah - Saving the best for last?

Anyways - Since you love caustics. I have a question (and the reason why I dont try it myself because Im still having trouble with caustics and getting it to work in 9). But anyways, my question was...

Can you create caustics on an opaque surface? and let the light reflect like it should? I know all about the photons and their emissions - but I was just asking if it was possible.

[autoVino 26]

caustics will reflect off of anything that can reflect light in a specular fashion... meaning that the reflection is mirror like... it also works with materials with lower glossiness, but is not very effective over a distance. I strongly urge you to use mental ray materials with caustics and gi because standard materials are notorious (at last for me) to cause unwanted artifacts and errors in the caustics calculation (just look through my thread back when I was using caustics, I have many models with pink and green splotches).

FG does a fair job of calculating diffuse reflections in mental ray.

What troubles are you having with caustics in 3ds Max 9?

[kellydale2003 2,276]

GREAT thanks!

I was just having troubles with the IE sun that it's not generating caustics. Changed a few settings. And this is the let there be light "Day" render. But when I get around to it I will create my own rig and see if the caustics work from scratch. I'm still reading and re-reading a lot of material. But the thing is I can't learn all this stuff at once. +I need practice. So when I get around to it I will.

The reason I asked about the opaque surface was because I am building Trump Tower from New York and I didn't want to do every single floor. Since the building in real life has very little opacity I just might as well create a big spline of blocks and cover it up with textures and splines. No need modeleing the inside thats not going to be seen.

Thanks so much for your time Autovino.

[grbac80 5]

Speaking of clean energy, coal is not that clean and 0-emission. Well yes, maybe in the future, as you said it is modern future. But did you consider an LNG plant, maybe?