SimFox's non-Asian BATs

[Sim shady 12]

oh! oh! OH DANG! That is some good stuff there SimFox. Release this one day pl0x!

[autoVino 26]

Holy!  This is gonna take one hell of a machine to render...

as for bat size, apperently we (I?) got confused and that the real limit for texture slabs is much greater, my guess now sould be 256 texutres, but as before, I don't want this to be final.  I'ts just a guess, an educated one.  It's renderable, it'll just take one hell of a machine to do it.  Wish as much luck as I possibly can.

[OffTopic 3]

Wow, this stuff is awesome. I especially like the rocking chair.

[Jasoncw 11,933]

First, I'll have to reinforce what T Wrecks said.

About the 133% scaling.  Instead of thinking of it as being scaled up a lot, think of it as being squashed down a lot.  It will be taller in the game, but it's proportions will be correct.

About the panel lines.

   

The first one is my lines without the values.  The next one is the same lines made darker (at two different darknesses).

The wall is 43 meters tall.  The image is 1300 pixels tall.  So it's about 30 pixels per meter, and about 6 bitmap pixels per rendered pixel assuming .2 meters per pixel.  It has the same ratio in the other direction.  I used the line tool for the lines, so the lines are between 1 and 3 pixels tall, with differing intensities.  If you look (especially to the right), the sharp lines are the ones that only occupy one pixel in the bitmap.  It's easiest to see on the vertical lines.

Anyway, you can experiment with everything yourself to get a good solution for such large buildings, but I do think the panel lines need to be sharper.

[SimFox 802]

Red is almost done...

What left is to decide how to light up the lobby and roof-top patio and then it is off for modding and hopully speedy release ;-)...

 

and one "mood" shot of Red's howetown at night

[Antoine_SC 25]

Your work is fantastic !!!! and the nightlight... no word !

[Sim shady 12]

this baby is going to look extremely good in sim city

[bixel 1,224]

I am calling your Mom and having you grounded until you get a BAT released. XD

[autoVino 26]

very nice!  It's gonna be interesting to see how  the rest of the game will compare to this increadible quality!

[SimFox 802]

Originally posted by: nofunk Well, architecturally, it's not my cup of tea, but that is some incredible modeling! And what a massive structure!

Is this actually going up in Moscow? (I notice your art deco building make an appearance in the 2nd interior rendering!)quote>

nofunk:

of course it does!! haven't you heard Moscow builds now MORE than any other city in the world, more then Shanghai, Beijing and Dubai

[Sim shady 12]

wow...i had not heard that...its just skyscrapers dont feel right in a city like moscow.

[ardecila 124]

Originally posted by: SimFoxof course it does!! haven't you heard Moscow builds now MORE than any other city in the world, more then Shanghai, Beijing and Dubaiquote>

Hmm..  Dubai has the world's greatest number of tower cranes, implying that it is building more skyscrapers.  Moscow's tremendous growth must be occurring in smaller-scale buildings.

Moscow's fantastic growth is interesting in light of Russia's population crisis.

[spa 970]

Moscow's growth can be attributed to two things; 1. that there is no future in much of Russia and 2. people are free to move to the city now that communism is dead.

[plasticboy 36]

Originally posted by: spa Moscow's growth can be attributed to two things; 1. that there is no future in much of Russia and 2. people are free to move to the city now that communism is dead.quote>

Wow that's pretty harsh. However, facts and figures tell us otherwise about the economical growth in much of Russia, and other regional centers like Ekatirinburg, Barnaul, and Novosribirsk are really catching up right now.

Simfox. I know you're a very usy person and by no means I want to sound pushy, but any chance you are making some of Ekaterinburg-City's high-rises? I think they will look absolutely gorgeous when completed.

'Iset' Tower'

'Ural'

'Gennin'

'Tatishev'

[SimFox 802]

I'm sincerely apologize that I'm behind the schedule (in a best tradition of all construction project - what left is to invent the way to be over the budget in CG).

But here it is the final night render of RED.

I've decided to leave the "grid" on a roof top as without it it looks a bit "shapeless" but I have made it less apparent, softer as to mimic dirt accumulation at the places of the edges of the panels under the foil or what ever is that they put on roof... Also I've decided to do Lobby with Night maps same as windows. Only roof patio uses "lights" and even those are made with same technique and lights are light emitting geometry to give realistic soft area shading.

But that is NOT all i would like to show you and ask your opinion on:

Here is my new "old" pet project that I would call TruNite for the luck of better term and for descriptiveness of it.

I'm to be honest sick and tired of DayNight of SimCity (like in old movies when they film night scene during day time with very strong filter on the lens. It looks dark but it doesn't look a bit like night.

So to bring SimCity from 50's b movies to the modern world and still keep it compatible with all the old stuff I've devised little alteration to night lighting scheme.

Building on the left is default "night" appearance of SC4 and one on the right is done with TruNite:

[Jasoncw 11,933]

I think it looks quite a bit better, but might need some tweaking to not stick out in the game.  Right now it looks a lot darker, and that might look strange.

[DuskTrooper 314]

plasticboyquote>

*rises from the dead*

Please place ALL building requests into the official BAT request thread!  Thank you!

*goes back to being dead

[SimFox 802]

well I think darkER is a key here! you didn't say dark, you've used comparative because you have something to compare and that something is ring next to it. Remove it and voil

[josefmayor 8]

Amazing SimFox, I'm really liking this, its inspired me to want to start on Tampa's version of this, and sketch a building loosley based off of this and several other buildings so now I have my own building!!

SimFox This is awesome and I can't wait for its release

[Fledgeling 1]

lordy, i love it. Heh its just fine the way it is i think. Run, dont walk, to download when its up, folks!

[SimFox 802]

Josef:

Despite being rooted in Russian Constructivism of 20s I believe this building will be very much at home in Florida. I remember you have shown some pictures of some modern developments.

Fledgeling:

he he It will not be long now... all the modeling and texturing is done, I'll be exporting it this night and then it will be off to be moded and then released. There will be two versions normal and CAMeLOT one - both R$$

Also I think there will be two versions in terms of night look - regular and TruNite one

I leave you here with comparisons of regular and TruNite look:

South elevation:

North elevation:

East elevation:

West elevation:

TruNite version will come at the expence of having it properly displayed during "sunset". It will turn into full Night version as soon as lights will go up and revert to regular night one as soon as light will go off and will behave like noraml till next sunset.

[nofunk 1,933]

The TrueNite version is phenomenal. The subtle play of light and shadow adds so much realism, and when one compares the original to it, it looks like original has some strange spotlight illuminating it (a perpetual full moon, perhaps). Very awkward!

I wouldn't worry so much about Jason's point (no offense, Jason!) because like you said: it's all relative. However, I do wonder about the transition from day to night in the game. Have you exported and tested it in-game yet? I wonder how awkward it looks jumping between the extremes with no transition. (Of course, I heard somewhere that most of us don't play with day/night enabled, but I do appreciate viewing my cities at different times of the day!)

In any event, now I need to wipe the drool off my keyboard... lol

[HONG KONG 74]

I know that you love technical discussions, but now it is time for one release.....lol

[outriderdriver 4]

We arent forgetting about moonlight are we. The default looks just fine. However actually true night would be much darker to where you wouldnt even see the lines in a building. One thing I feel EA left out that is important to me is street glow. The streets are too dark, wouldnt the shops light them up?

[SimFox 802]

Red's release ins imminent!! :-)

Here is probably more appropriate comparision not between TruNite and regular night but between DAY and each of the night variety:

I think this explains why I'm pushing for TruNite.

nofunk:

to enable TruNite night alpha have to encompase teh entire building not just "light" areas. Game makes Night view by putting overlay on top of day view and on top of that it puts masked (with night alpha) the light areas. Naturally masking only employed when Lights are on, rest of the night when lights are off what you see is simply overlaid day view. Dusk is made by animated overlay with lights on top.

So with TruNite dusk will be most problematic moment - as soon as lights will be switched on by the game you'll see TruNite render. Later at night when lights go off TruNite will be replaced by regular night View - think it as VERY bright full moon came from behind the clouds... Dawn with be working normally.

Actually TruNite does MORE then just making more realistic look by removing strong direct light (Sun) from the scene. It overall significantly improves the appearance of night view. Problem with masking is that it isn't even 256 shade grey, more like 16, as a result there are noticeable banding on the "flat" surfaces and in case of slight gradations of both light and texture color - as if you would be looking at photo on monitor with say 256 or 65 00 colors.

So I actually was thinking of doing total alpha anyway... and total alpha means dusk issue. BTW that is also how Lippo is made...

I can make 2 versions TruNite one and regular so people could choose one they prefer.

BTW have any of yu had any experience with Gizmo's DayNight Mod? it suppose to make games nights DARKER. OF course it would affect TruNite buildings, as they will be totally masked out, but all in all by making night darker game should look better and TruNite buildings will be fitting perfectly into it.

[crazyarchitect 7]

trunite looks great

[Antoine_SC 25]

This is excellent ! Do you work with 3dsmax for your job ?

[tohokingdom 0]

"Red" is SO amazing.

Seriously.

Can't wait for your Federation Tower!!!!!

GO MOSCOW!

(I'll be going there in a year and a half. I'm so excited!)

[HONG KONG 74]

You give us the choice between super-ulta-great and super-mega-great. That's easy

I take ultramegasupergreat

[DarkEldar 6]

Excellent! reminds me of an apartment i saw while i was in Malaysia, would you be able to tell me what sort of lighting rig you use or some information on how to setup a good one?