The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 2

[sparkythepenguin 90]

HI everyone,

Welcome to the next chapter in the Portland project! Bixel, last I heard from him, has some exiting ideas, and I have some stuff that ought to impress. I am planning on revisiting some old friends from the project's first years, and introducing some new faces. Plus I have a commitment from one of the great BAT teams for a Portland building that I am sure will come out awesome!!!

Heck, we have until 2011 now, so let's go!!!

I am also happy to announce that I will be joining Bixel in exclusively modelling in 3ds Max now. I am still working the bugs out of it, but expect to see some progress on that coming up.

This first post will be temporary, with a permanent design for our STEX listings, project lists, etc.. forthcoming. Pardon my dust.

I am going to ask Jasoncw to close the old thread, so please redirect your feedback on existing BATs here.

Here's the table of BATs from the first project, and where to find them on the STEX:

Blue=Commercial

Green=Residential

Yellow=Industrial

Orange=Civic/Landmark

Purple=Transportation

White=two different functional versions available

	Name	Nickname(s) and alternative names:	BATer(s):	Function(s) in game:
	Waddle's Drive-in	"The Ducky Diner"	Sparkythepenguin	CS$$, LM
	Bank of America Financial Center	One Financial Center	Sparkythepenguin	CO$$, LM
	Standard Insurance Plaza		Sparkythepenguin	CO$$, LM
	Bishop's House	Al-Amir	Sparkythepenguin	CS$$/CO$$
	MAX Light Rail Set

[Jasoncw 11,840]

ahhh, chapter 2!  Your skills have increased a lot over the last year, and to top it off you'll be using 3ds Max now too.  Definitely looking forward to it!

But you really need to show us SimPortland.  You have so many adjacent buildings now that you have to. 

[bixel 1,223]

I got you on MSN Messenger, and I am ready to start on some stuff, if there is anything you need help on doing in 3DS or tips and tricks, just pm me.

[1ajs 49]

you latest uploads are nothing but a work of art!

[mcarch 15]

511 Building, Portland Hilton, Lloyd 700 Building, Green Wyatt US Federal Building, Commonwealth Building, and Jackson Tower all do not have a model included in the zip/exe. Just thought I would let you know.

[zzazzmatazz 3]

yea, in fact there is no model file for all the BATS sparkythepenguin uploaded today.....and when i played Simcity 4 this appeared: 

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to go and lock those up and re-upload.... Sorry that it will take a little bit to do that, have social commitments going on at the moment.... What a nightmare, I am soooooo sorry everyone!

I'll go and lock the files and have them back on tomorrow or by morning if I can manage to stay awake that long!

By the way, the files are NOT supposed to have desc files. They aren't really needed after what Andreas did to them. I'll grab the model files and add them in. I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT!!!

OK Sorry again and I'll try to get them back online again soon...

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK, The last batch of BATs now have model files. Man am I tired.. But I did fix it well before daybreak (in my time zone), so have at it. Hopefully all should be well in BATland. Hoappy mayoring!

Someone please post something before I wake up so I can run some renders and show y'all something that I have been working on during the vetting process of the last 7 BATs: My fun little journey from GMax into 3ds.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wow, what a flood of superb stuff on the STEX! I salute you, man. I can't wait to download and check them all. Nice to see a new thread as well - oh, and will your move from gmax to 3DS involve some remakes? That would make for quite an interesting comparison, I think.

[1thegragg 0]

Anybody actually have pictures of their sim portland?

[JakeMD 107]

Very nice! Glad to see more BATers out there to stay committed!

[NightshadeAnarch 0]

Love the Portland buildings. I go to Portland all the time since I live in Salem. Quick question though, where is Pioneer Courthouse Square?

[LivingInThePast 364]

Glad to see this still running. By the way, any hopes of me making Mall 205 have been abandoned. The mall is pretty dead anyways.

[USA Patriot 49]

I love how the buildings look, but I'm very saddened I can't play them. They were uploaded on EXE files.... I wish you had BAT. My Filejuicer won't extract anymore either....

Your new Portland buildings are amazing but they are EXE... So I fear I may never get them into my city. I have all your other old buildings.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

What a great start to the new chapter of this project! Sorry if I get a little incommunicado. It's getting a bit crazy here in real-life.... Plus I have been in a little bit of a funk due to some pain issues. I have good days and bad ones. And getting insurance to cover my impending procedure is a pain in itself. One word of advice: ALWAYS keep your health insurance no matter what you have to do to do so!

OK First, before I show you something new, I want to address the previous  posts:

@1ajs: The Fort Garry Hotel is now converted into a 3ds file. I have a lot done on it and it is in the 1/2 done file. Those have a bigger chance of getting done now than new projects. But those will go onto CDI_Spy's thread, if that's still going on. If it isn't I'll just do a special thread just for the Forth Garry Hotel.

@Jasoncw: Need your help with lighting rigs!!!! See our little discussion over in our private thread...

@Bixel: Watch out, I may be nagging you soon, as you have the same version of 3ds that I do. After all you gave it to me!

@T_Wrecks: You'll see just the first re-do's pretty soon. More to come.

@1thegragg: Working on making the SImPortland I have work again. Turns out the NAM version that I used in it is really old. The new one does not like it. I'm now working on re-building my plugins folder and am going to be sure to have a second one for the old Sim Portland. I luckily backed it and all plugins up and just have to find the CD it is on...

@Nightshadeanarch: Pioneer Courthouse Square is smack dab in the middle of Portland. On Google maps, Google Earth, or even better, MS Live search Bird's Eye view (a link is in my signature), find the corner of SW Broadway and Yamhill. You can't miss it! My best friend lives in Salem. I hope to do some buildings from the Cherry City sometime.

@Livinginthepast: Too bad you haven't done it and won't now. Maybe once the MAX Green line opens and it is easier for me to get to, I may take some shots to lay the groundwork for a Mall 205 BAT, if you want still do it or if I ever get to it.... I am getting pretty old now and so long as I have the groundwork, I can remember how it used to look back in the day.

@USA Patriot: Oh I forget, you use a Mac! Hmmmmmmmm.... I could just send you all the relavent files if you want. I'd make a new STEX listing with just zips, but I want to reduce redundant files as much as possible.... (I wold still be a Mac user if my first laptop still worked. ) PM me with your email if you want just the zips and I'll send you the whole enchillada via YouSendit.

OK New, maybe old stuff. Just one screen to tease you all.

Remember back in the day? I first started BATing and felt such a rush when I finally exported my first BAT and saw a Portland building of my own doing in SC4. Now I can relive that feeling as I venture into 3ds.

Remember this beast?

Yeah, ol' Pinky. Big Pink. The US Bancorp Tower. Actually probably the first building ever named that. My first BAT, ah the memories. So much that I have learned can now fix the major deficiencies of the first version. Actually, there's been a bunch of them since I first tried recreating Portland buildings even befor

[Fledgeling 1]

Splendid! I love your work, and more is always good thing. Seems its an interesting shape too, a bonus.

[zzazzmatazz 3]

Fine work sparkythepenguin, i can't wait to see the new version of the US Bancorp tower in my cities!

[bixel 1,223]

Excellent, it is looking so good. Youhave done so much work on it already! The extra office/mall is a great representation.

[patriots_1228 51]

damn! nice work. If this building really is pink (which i assume it is since you called it "ol pinky") could you make a blue version?

[hamsterTK 93]

have you thought of actually making pioneer square? having a 4x4 sunken plaza with GLR station capacity would kick ass.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Currently, I am having some problems with the lighting rigs in 3ds, but I am recieving lots of help with this and I hope to have that fixed by the end of next week. You can see a weird shadow at the top of Big Pink...

Texturing will begin soon too. I plan on pushing reflecting windows to its limits (I hope!), but I only have 3ds Max 7, and I need something more recent to make good use of the excellent tutorial on that.

As for night lighting, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I do have some really cool ideas for what to do. I may be grasping at straws, but my plan is to turn The Sims 2 into a BATing tool! More on this later!

Since everyone is now interested, I'd like to tell some more about the US Bancorp Tower.

It is a really neat, dynamic, and weird building. There are NO 90 degree angles in its footprint, as it follows a quirk in the downtown street grid. From some angles, the tower looks ultra-thin, others it is wide and looming.

The materials used were picked by Pietro Belluschi who was more concerned with how the building would look in different levels of lighting. The windows are made out of a unique material which will reflect or absorb different amounts of light. The stone work is a pinkish-tan granite that has similar properties. Most of the time, the tower looks pink or purple, and this earned it the nickname "Big Pink", after an album by The Band (a band named "The Band", I know, weird). Other times, it can appear orange, grey, and dark brown/blackish.

There is a building right by Universal Studios in California that looks very much like Big Pink, but a tad shorter, darker materials, and without  the zigzagging glass curtain at the top. I hear it is the tallest building between LA and SF. Although you'd think it was their copy, it was built later and by a different architect.

Also notable is it is Portland's second-tallest building. It was first proposed and approved in the 1970's before the strict height limits were imposed, but wasn't built until the 1980's (US Bank dragged their feet building their HQ complex). Since it was approved by the city for construction before the limits were imposed, it was excepted from height regulations.

The attached, low plaza building predates the tower, built in mind to integrate the tower at its north end. If one looks at the south end of the plaza structure, there is a large empty area in front of the plaza and there are skywalks that end in a service door inside the SE corner. So there may have been plans to attach another building of some sort and bring the block to the south into the US Bancorp "superblock", but I've found nothing about that anywhere.

And yeah, I've thought about making a blue version at one time. I'm just concentrating on getting this version done at this time though.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Sorry for the double-post but forgot to mention Hamster's post!

Different topic, so new post...

Pioneer Square is insanely complex for the SC4 world. JtPortland and I thought about it, but never could figure out something that would work right. It's an old debate and one that does crop up in my mind from time to time.

The problem lays with the fact that, as those who follow this project know, Portland's downtown slopes up from the river. Probably the most challenging aspect of architecture in Portland is how to build stuff on these sloping blocks. One of the most creative ways was what they did to make Pioneer Courthouse and also Pioneer Courthouse Square.

For the courthouse, they just centered the building on the lot and built a level plateau for it to sit on. Easy to reproduce in SC4 and useful 100% of the time. For Pioneer Square, they dug out and leveled the lot from the downhill side. Not easy to reproduce.

The fun part is how it tricks you into thinking that it is level or open-cut, when it certainly isn't. The east end of the square (lowest point) is flush with the street. The high point, where Starbucks is, is at Street level too, and the MAX stations along the side slope downhill to the east from there. Inside, you can make out the slope and cut, but your eyes are drawn away from that. Some people get vertigo due to the fact that the space has no vertical point of reference.

Part of BATing real-life stuff is to capture the spirit and essence of the subject work. I feel that making Pioneer Square as an open-cut (or conversely, a raised, ampitheater area) would not capture the magic. Only an exact, measured model would, but that would not be suitable 100% of the time in the SC4 world, as you would have to have a map that included that exact slope, which is a really weird point that not only slopes east-west, but also down slightly south-to-north. I think it would be too much work for too little interest in a lot that can't be used 99.9% of the time. I don't even think hard-core City Journalers would find a lot of use for it in that form.

So if it does get done by me, I will only call it something "Based on" Pioneer Square, and not the real one, as I would really have to break some of the magic that is the real one to make it work. It is just demands too much exactness to make a true reproduction work.

Anyone want to see some photos I took of it? I may have some that really show off how weird it is!

[mightygoose 92]

just looked up pioneer square and god it meses with your eyes just lookng at pictures of it.... i think the only way you could recreate that close as would be the have the middle of the plaza sunken with the top edge of the chlidrens play area(that purple bit) the starbucks and the glr at ground level. so you have steps on three sides with the plaza sloping from one end of the lot to the other...? other that that i think its pretty much a no go.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Well, for now folks, RL has just is really bad, bad, bad....

My relationship of almost 7 years has ended and I am niot exactly in a state to do much of anything. Sorry everyone. I have to go and deal with this, which is not my fault, btw... (for a change!) I will eventually move elsewhere, don't know yet, but it is highly likely I will remain in the Portland area.

Bix we may just have to go out and have some beers sometime. Yeah, I'm off the wagon.

Until things get settled and my heart is in it, I am taking time off my BATs. Sorry guys.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Sorry to hear about your bad news.

You can always move to Detroit. 

[Sim shady 12]

So sorry to hear the bad news. I hope things will get better for you.

[mcarch 15]

I'm Sorry to hear that. =( Things in life such as this suck.

[Andreas Roth 607]

I'm sorry to hear that as well, Sparky. Sometimes life just blows - please take all the time you need. Things will settle down eventually, and I'm sure you'll get back on track soon. And by all means, have a few beers together with bixel.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I agree. While beer itself obviously doesn't solve anything, having a few with friends can help. 7 years, jeez... I haven't even had such a long-lasting relationship in my life. oO

Take your time and don't put yourself under any form of pressure - you have given us so much great stuff to play with that it should last for quite a while, you know.

[bixel 1,223]

got next monday off.