AndisArt's BAT cookery

[AndisArt 2,066]

Hellö folks and welcome to my kitchen, hehe :-D

Currently in the steam-pot:  Lighthouse Tower, Dubai.

To be released very soon.

Have a little wallpaper hors-d'œuvre:

[ilikehotdogsalot 307]

that tower is absolutely SPECTACULAR!

WOW!

[Antoine_SC 25]

Excellent work !!

[SimRabbit 48]

the lighhouse tower OMG my fav dubai skyscraper!!!!

[autoVino 26]

 Oh my.

That tower is beyond beautiful!

[mproca 0]

Hmmmm I don't like it )

Just lied

One incredible skyscraper ever seen on simtropolis

Keep building as many as u can

Andisart u re fantastic

for comments prv me

[AndisArt 2,066]

Thanks you, thank you :-D

Lighthouse Tower release, download here

Next I will try to render the volume lights for the final version of MSG, Pink Floyd theme. SimFox gave me some tips how to edit the BAT script so I will give it a shot.

The next new project I will give a try is something twisted, hehe.

[SimRabbit 48]

The next new project I will give a try is something twisted, hehe. quote>

Do you mean that skyscraper that is planned in Dubai that will be the 1st rotating skyscraper.

[AndisArt 2,066]

You mean the Infinity Tower? Or the modular one which can change it's shape? No, it's not one of them. No, I am leaving Dubai for that one, hehe. Paris of the North, don't say more :-D

I started basic shape elaboration and I am wondering about something. I created a shape from a line by extruding it. Now is it possible to increase the interpolation steps of the geometry?

The shape I have needs softer edges.

See here the edges are not really rounded:

[Jasoncw 11,840]

When you extrude something, "segments" is what you want, the box under the extrude height.

Or if you've converted it into an editable polygon already, before you add the twist (or whatever) modifier, the quickslice tool, or slice plane tool (with the faces you want divided selected) would add more divisions.  You can also use the tesselate tool (over and over again), but it would make your geometry very dense, but could be useful for making mullions later on.

The nitelites on the new building are cool looking.  The normal lights seem like the default lights though.  Did you ever get that rig I sent you to work?

[AndisArt 2,066]

Perfect, thank you! That was exactly what I was looking for, the segments in extruding.

I never got the rig you sent me to work properly. I gave up mental ray rendering because I just couldn't get it to work and I found it complicated. Might give it another try. Will definitely go into learning to make reflective glass for this new baby, here's what I have so far:

On thing catches the eye, the polygons do not look quite right:

[SimFox 801]

ha ha Miller Stick!!!

I'll say no more let's see how quickly it will get recognized

You polygons do not look right cause they are not planar anymore a a result of twisting...

you can select them one by one and use MakePlanar command (don't use it on the entire model) Or write some script that would do it, or simply make more subdivisions and live with it... it is hard choice...

BTW can I see TOP projection??

Need more source materials? I can try dig some for you...

[AndisArt 2,066]

Originally posted by: SimFox

let's see how quickly it will get recognized

quote>

 

hehe

Oh that sounds like work, that would be a lot of polygons to modify... But I guess I can do that, those polys looks too ugly this way. By the way: "write a script" I wish *lol

Here's a top view. I know it's not 100% accurate

By the way: I was just looking through your thread to look for hints on nightwindows and saw the last renders of Federation tower. They are superb and look like an official model. How do you create this accuracy?  I usually start with a basic shape and then try to refine it to make it match more with the renders I have of the original building, but this method is of course just eye measurement and couldn't be exact.

Regards material, I got all the pics from the skyscapercity thread. What would be helpful to have close ups of the top section and the BASE! I might do the base, tending towards the old winding design, but I'd need more material for that.

PS: Making it planar LITERALLY, haha! No easy way out..

[plasticboy 36]

Heh, you're making the infamous Gazprom Tower proposed for St Petersburg, aren't you?

[MMorales2 4]

What a beautiful model. I can't wait to see the complete model finish.

[SimFox 801]

Andi, well igf it is not 100% accurate it is more accurate then the real plans so far I would say! you have absolutely nailed the "flower" shape! Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL work!

About planarity of polygons... I may face the very similar problem soon, so I was already considering such a script... Basically what has to be done - all the polygons should be represented (in script) as array. and then one by one (this is essential) be applied to(what a mouthful) make planar command. Another thing that I think would be important is the order .. but anyway If I'll progress in this department I'll let you know.

One tinny bit of a suggestion - don't make it a sharp point at the top, flatten it just a bit I mean very very tinny bit - it would look better I think

Plastic, you had to!? tsa-tsa-tsa You should have given people time to figure it out ; oh well cat's out of the bag!

[plasticboy 36]

Simfox. Sorry! Heheh. But for some reason I can't explain, I reserve the right to be a smart-ass time to time.

The shape of the tower is such that it's really hard to not to stare at it with your mouth wide open, really amazing. And I think mr. Andisart nailed it perfectly, what a great job you're doing!

[SimFox 801]

Yep, smart plastic ass ;-)

Yes he did, didn't he???! it is such a pretty sight with top projection!

Andi, I'll try to get that plannar thing working and will help you in any way I can with this project.

[plasticboy 36]

Haha, Simfox. That's possibly one of the nicest insults about my nickname I had to put with for the past two years.

Andi, if you are seriously considering to get this done, hell I might even spare a little while to stop by a bakery shop and buy you some chocolate chip cookies!

[AndisArt 2,066]

hehe, LoL at your conversation..

Thanks 4 the compliments

I did some work on mullions and also some trials on textures.

Here's a zoom 5:

The official renders suggest a very reflective glass surface, apart from the fact that reflections are beyond my skills I have to say that I quite like what I have so far though:

As you can see the top part doesn't have glass anymore.

Some renders suggest that there is glass but see-through. On some there is no glass visible. Dunno which is the most current design, but going for see-through is a no-go I think because you wouldn't be able to see the SC4 background through it and that would loko weird, right?

By the way, I made the model a bit more wide to match the original.

I will put ingame to see how it looks.

And plasticboy, I'll hold you to it. I LOVE chocolate chip cookies, hehe

EDIT: I just recognized that on the renders with glass top the shape of the tower is different, the shape doesn't "emerge" from the bottom but is sharp from the start (hope that makes sense..)

[BurroDiablo 222]

Damn thats nice... Gazprom is evil but they at least know how to design a headquarters, lol...

[AndisArt 2,066]

Actually the tower's name luckily changed is now Ohta Center. Wouldn't want to call it Gazprom..

[mcarch 15]

andisart I LOVE IT!

[autoVino 26]

well, through a long, painful, and tedious process, you can make the glass transparent so that you can see the game in it.  But this taxes the game somewhat and will be unrealistic in terms of refraction and reflection...

Love the buildingm though!

[SimFox 801]

Andi:

If this is a zoom 5 picture:

then I should say there is something very wrong with scaling... it look more like zoom3 to me what is a "bounding square" side size??

Yep creating realistic material for this one could be quite complex... as tower will be clad in layers of regular, reflecting and dichroic glass - one that changes color depending on the illumination levels

[AndisArt 2,066]

@mcharch: :-)

@autovino: I didn't know that is possible! Is there a tut somewhere? I might need to do that in the future

@SimFox: Well the base is around 48 meters diameter. You find the scale too big or too small?? What you mean with "bounding square"? Sounds great with the glass, I just don't have a clue what that all means LOL :-D Do you want to put your expertise hands on the texturing?

By the way: Is it possbile to make full size Zoom 5 preview renders in Bat4MAX?

[SimFox 801]

48 m fills way to small, did you get this number from somewhere?? How credible is that source?

Bounding box for a circle would be a box with all of it's sides tangible to the circle within it.

I might... :-)

yep you can get exact pixel perfect and absolutelly of any hight preview. But there are couple of things that you have to be aware of:

1. simply chosing the Zoom5 or whatever camera will not give you zoom 5 preview. the way things work in max is the actual size is set in addition of camera settings by output box. so to get Zoom5 you would have to set right camera as a current one, and then set output window WIDTH to be 793 pixels, the hight could be ANY number you desire - it doesn't affect scaling in a slightest.

to fit 396 meter building into output window it would have to be very big! Also because of the way camera is pointing half of the window will be empty - bottom half. This isn't really a crucial issue but could be annoying... so what you could do is after you've set you viewport to Zomm5 camera then change it to User and move everything down as to center your model. Model remain fixed in coordinate system, it's just your view of it that moves.

[AndisArt 2,066]

I started of with the official height of 396meters but had to scale down to 370 because I misscalculated the intersections and they looked too big as floors. That didn't make the tower much simmer though. The tower fills slightly more than a 3x3 lot and will have to be put on 4x4 lot for ingame, I think that's a good size, no?

Thanks 4 the tip on Z5, I'll try that.

[SimFox 801]

well I just wonder if there has been any information as of size... I'll try to dog for it... if you can put it on ice for a day or so... I sort of think i would be something around 55-60 m in diameter - most towers mysteriously tend to be...

OK here is something:

this is a very good picture in a sense  that it exclude perspective distortion. Tower is 370 pixels tall and 56 pixels wide. That if we assume the total hight of 396m gives us about 60m in wides point. But it doesn't really get all that much narrower at the bottom either. I would say about 53-55 m may be. so those 48 m you've mentioned are those are the very base of at the widest point?

[AndisArt 2,066]

Ok now this is interesting

You can see that my model is not as wide. Also the twisting is the other way round *lol and needs to be intensified a bit in top-bottom direction. Also the middle part is more wide in original.

The 48 meters would be for the widest part, the base itself is 44. So according to your calculation I need to adjust so I will have around 56 meters maximum diameter.

We are getting granular on this one, hehe (well, you say that in English??? what the heck..)