AndisArt's BAT cookery

[Jack_wilds 550]

awesome house set... thx  

[dirtguru 24]

The house set is excellent. Work beautifully on sloped lots. I build a lot of hillside neighborhoods and these are the first single family homes that I have not had to tweek a bit. 

[Vlasky 1,803]

Great job. I am very thankful for your creation. I hope we will see more projects like this because I think that they impact the game more than any of skyscrapers.

[Bipin 3,403]

Well done! It's about time the game received more North American-style houses.

[AndisArt 2,068]

Thanks guys :-) And you're welcome, it's half of the fun of BAT creation to release something and get you guys to enjoy it, so I'm glad you do!

That's also why I would love to...

 

The house set is excellent. Work beautifully on sloped lots. I build a lot of hillside neighborhoods and these are the first single family homes that I have not had to tweek a bit. 

...see your hillside neighborhoods. Send us a link or post a pic! :-)

[weixc812 509]

Great BAT, andisart. Thank you!

I have to be greedy to ask what's gonna be the next jewelry?

[AndisArt 2,068]

Great BAT, andisart. Thank you!

I have to be greedy to ask what's gonna be the next jewelry?

I'm not sure yet, either the wavy tower or creating diagonal and FAR-compatible versions of the SC2013-style homes.

 

About the tutorial on custom foundations, I tried submitting it to the Omnibus over a week ago, but it never went through.

I contacted an admin to look into it, but t's been a few days that I heard from him. So I'm just gonna post the tutorial here.

[AndisArt 2,068]

Custom building foundations in 3DS Max

 

Tutorial level: Intermediate; general knowledge of BAT creation and modding required.

 

There are two effective methods to create custom building foundations in 3DS Max.

 

The first is creating building foundations the traditional way in the same fashion they work in the game (assigning a foundation model as a foundation in the Pluginmanager (PIM)), the other is using building and foundation as props.

 

Both methods have their pros and cons:

 

Traditional method

+ automatic matching of building and foundation in game

+ convenient to use in PIM when creating the lot

- nightlights not possible for foundation (can create abrupt breaks in night view, if lights in scene illumine both building and foundation)

- not suited for cases where LODs of building and foundation differ (impossible to match foundation to building in Lot Editor (LE))

- possibility of a bug occuring requiring manual texture ID fix

 

Method using props

+ nightlights on the foundation possible

+ foundation can extend beyond building as both can be matched manually in LE

- matching process not 100% clean if LODs differ

- extra step in lot creation needed: since building and foundation work as a prop, an empty object needs to be assigned as the actual building

- if slope is too steep, slope can move into building because it functions as a prop. More finetuning in slope settings of lot required

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Traditional method

 

Create building and foundation as separate geometry.

Make sure foundation geometry does not exceed ground level (0 on Z axis).

 

Render seperately. When creating the LODs, make sure they sit on top of each other and have the same width and length (height can differ). If they don't building and foundation will not line up later in the game.

Foundation LODs may not exceed ground level (0 at Z axis).

 

 

When rendering the foundation LODs in gmax, make sure to select the option for "Foundation" in the BAT options tab:

 

 

It is not necessary to render the nightview of the foundation, since nightlights don't work with this method anyway.

Render building as normal.

After rendering, assign the foundation model as a "Foundation" in the PIM:

 

Afterwards assign the building model to a building type of your choice.

In the properties options under the Advanced tab you can now select the building foundation you created before:

 

 

When creating the lot in the LE you can just create your lot normally, the building foundation is already assigned to your building through the PIM.

There is an option to change the foundation within the LE, however, when I tried that it didn't work properly, so better leave that option alone.

 

Lastly, you need to make sure the lot can actually have a slope in the game. As an orientation: for the example model with a foundation of approx. 3m depth a good value for the threshold is 8. This is subject to fine-tuning.

 

 

In the game it should then look like this, left on flat and right on slope with foundation:

 

You should be done!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Possible bug:

If you don't see the foundation but instead just green, blue and red colors then the beforementioned bug hit you.

In this case the material IDs of the foundation model need to be corrected. They need to say 0x00030xxx, and not 0x00031xxx or anything else.

You can find the ID's in the Reader in the "Mats" tab of the S3D files of the model.

Note: Every S3D file of the model has to be fixed.

 

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

Method using props

 

The two advantages of this methods are nightlights and the possibility of having differing LODs between building and foundation.

The following model has a foundation that is wider than the building and a nightscene which illumines the foundation as well. So this method is the prefered choice.

 

Foundation extends beyond building:

 

Nightlights shine on foundation, nightwindo on foundation:

 

LODs of foundation and building have different footprint:

 

 

You start off as with the traditional method above with separate geometry and LODs for your building and foundation.

 

However, the foundation LOD and geometry must be slightly below ground level, otherwise there will be glitches with the base and overlay textures on the lot. A value of -0,01 meters on the Z axis will work (values below that don't seem to work without glitches).

 

During the rendering process there are the following differences:

 

- you render the foundation LODs in gmax without the "Foundation" option ticked, that is as a normal model.

 

- if foundation extends beyond the building footprint: when rendering the foundation leave the building in the scene to avoid false lighting of the extened foundation parts (if building not present the correct shadows cant be cast onto foundation parts).

 

- if applicable, also render the nightscene of your foundation. As with for the dayscene inlcude the building as well, especially all lights shining onto the foundation

 

 

In the PIM assign both models as props with the necessary options. Important here are to set IsGroundModel and QueryAsMainBuilding to true for the building model.

Note: Options changed for foundation were only Lights and AppearanceZoomsFlag. Changing other options hasn't been tested for foundation.

 

Now, because our building is a prop, we need a blank model that serves as the acutal building exemplar.

For example create a small cube with LODs, then before rendering delete the cube and render LODs only.

Use this blank model in the PIM to assign to the building type you want your lot to be.

 

In the LE replace building with the blank model:

 

 

Then add foundation and building props.

 

In order to be able to allign the props you need to remove the base- and probably the overlay-textures as well.

It's a bit tricky to match the two, if not impossible to perfectly allign. What helps is to not emphasize vertical elements between building and foundation. So it's advised to make the design so that the foundation is more independent from the building, i.e. without vertical elements reaching from building down to foundation (unlike in the example building).

 

Note: if your LODs sit on top of each other and have the same width and length the matching process is very simple in LE, just allign them on top of each other and it will look perfect in game.

 

After adding base-textures back, the foundation should be completely covered:

 

 

When you're done with the LE you can mod your lot as usual.

Important here:

• in order to avoid any Maxis foundations from showing change the foundation ID in your lot to 0x194B1000.
• as with the above method you need to finetune the values for maximum lot slope. Again, a good starting point is threshold value 8. This is the more important since with the building as a prop the slope can reach into the building if it's too steep, which will not like so nice

You should be done!

In the game it should look like this:

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

Special thanks to Aaron Graham, c.p., callagrafx for their help

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Great tutorial! Just one question: why not keep the building as a regular model and add the foundation as a prop?

[AndisArt 2,068]

Great tutorial! Just one question: why not keep the building as a regular model and add the foundation as a prop?

Very good question T Wrecks! I havent gotten it to work this way. If I'm correct I think the reason is because of differing height placements on slopes between building and props. At least it looks that way:

 

 

When both are props, it works without this issue.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Hmm... are your foundation props set to "IsGroundModel=true"? If not, that could explain the difference. I could imagine that buildings are automatically treated as ground models. Then again, maybe foundations never look OK when they are set up otherwise.

[AndisArt 2,068]

Hmm... are your foundation props set to "IsGroundModel=true"? If not, that could explain the difference. I could imagine that buildings are automatically treated as ground models. Then again, maybe foundations never look OK when they are set up otherwise.

That doesnt change anything unfortunately.

 

So I started the nightlights on the curvy office tower.

Here's a work-in-progress. I used displacement maps for the floors instead of self-illuminated maps on the windows.

Does need a bit of color-correction, too flat atm.

 

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

^ Oh quite the teaser! That building is looking great! Also love the homes

[weixc812 509]

Nightlight looks great so far!

But from my unprofessional perspective, the day scene of wavy tower looks a little too blue. I don't know what the building looks like in reality, but this blue just make me feel unreal. Maybe a little lighter will be better? Or the outer glass needs to be more transparent?

[AndisArt 2,068]

^ Oh quite the teaser! That building is looking great! Also love the homes

Thank you! :-)

 

Nightlight looks great so far!

But from my unprofessional perspective, the day scene of wavy tower looks a little too blue. I don't know what the building looks like in reality, but this blue just make me feel unreal. Maybe a little lighter will be better? Or the outer glass needs to be more transparent?

I see what you mean, but the real building is quite blue.

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, that picture shows the window glass reflecting the clear blue sky (logical when looking up), and if you look at the "radioactive green" trees and everything, you can clearly see it is ridiculously oversaturated and idealised. Of course the glass can still be tinted blue, but maybe it should be toned down somewhat.

 

Another factor often overlooked is the effect of scale. Everything has its colours, and you could walk up right to a wall of a real building, copy the exact colour and hue, and texture your BAT with the exact same colour and hue. Now you'd have a BAT that looks 100% accurate, right? Not quite. Because, you see, it's a difference whether you stand right in front of something, or whether you look at it from hundreds of metres away. Due to particles in the air, colours will look less vibrant and saturated from further away. Since the camera in SimCity imitates a certain distance even in zoom 5, you'd have an (albeit slight) effect of scale even on that zoom level. Since the distance at zoom 1 is larger by magnitudes, of course it would be ideal if the graphics engine of SimCity simulated this effect of scale automatically... oh well, enough semi-off-topic rambling.

[AndisArt 2,068]

It's still a blue glassed building You can see it in the parts that dont reflect the sky.

 

 

No radioactivity here

 

The model is actually less saturated than the building in the above image.

I'm happy with and will leave it as it is.

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

It's going to be awesome!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, what's the most recent shot of the building? I somehow had it in mind as rather blindingly blue, but when I leafed back to page 11 or something, I saw a picture where it was blue, but by far not as intense as I used to have it in mind. If this was the final colour, I certainly wouldn't object.

[AndisArt 2,068]

Page 11, jep, that's the final day version, I havent changed it since. So not too blue then

 

I made progress on the displacement map floors for nightview, I quite like the effect it gives. Creates tons of structure, but not too chaotic to not be convincing.

It works for a tower this size, but beyond that polygon count may be an issue. I can already feel it with this project, but I'm on an old laptop as well.

 

Bulk of nightscene is in place, need to do corrections and fine-tuning now.

 

[darn42 1,268]

Simply gorgeous nightlighting.

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Wow! This building is so different and you did it so perfectly. Stunning!

[PBGV103 729]

The lighting does look amazing. Is that zoom 4 or 5?

[Girafe 1,729]

looks really nice, something you had to use for Lakhta center

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I think andisart is right! Keep the colors the way they are.

[.soapy 127]

ho gahd that's so gooood !

[weixc812 509]

stunning nightlight!

[Reddonquixote 4,339]

That's looking great.. is this the method Kellydale came up with, or one you came up with yourself? Is there a tut somewhere? (Or can you make one )

 

I'm looking for an alternative for 140 William Street, its the first time I'm using night maps for windows in 3DS Max 2012 and I can't seem to get them looking right. The night windows look like pasted on stickers .

 

Thanks, either way, great job

[AndisArt 2,068]

Thanks for your comments :-) 

 

The lighting does look amazing. Is that zoom 4 or 5?

It's Zoom 5

 

That's looking great.. is this the method Kellydale came up with, or one you came up with yourself? Is there a tut somewhere? (Or can you make one )

 

I'm looking for an alternative for 140 William Street, its the first time I'm using night maps for windows in 3DS Max 2012 and I can't seem to get them looking right. The night windows look like pasted on stickers .

 

Thanks, either way, great job

Hm, not sure if it is the way Kellydale made it. I've been experimenting with it, but the idea originated somewhere else.

 

It's not very complex actually. I used a displacement map similar to this one. I'm at school now, so dont have the one I used at hand.

The floor polygon needs to be tessalated enough for the displacement to work correctly.

 

 

As textures I left the ones I had already applied, which were office floors from top-view (I put them together using graphics I found online).

Even though the textures dont match the displacment at all, the effect it gives is still convincing. I used 4 different textures total, also the blinds create variety in appearance.

 

I still want to experiment using a texture that fits the displacement, but I have the feeling that it will look too clean and too similar. But this is pending experimentation ;-) 

For lights I generally have 5 lights on each window side, in some areas I removed a few to create variety. I used 3 different light colors in total, a blue, a yellow and a green tinted light.

 

When I have time I will put together a little tutorial, although I have the impression that it might be more cost-effective to model simple shapes instead. Displacement requires many polygons to work, which increases the load on the machine. I will investigate!

[Reddonquixote 4,339]

Ah ok, so the displacement map just simulates office furniture, is that right? My building already has office furniture, so I wouldn't need to do this, I would just add internal lighting instead?

 

Sorry, I thought the displacement map did something else. I does have a nice busy feel to it.