SimHoTToDDy BATs

[nihonkaranws 88]

WOW it looks really great in-game! You will have to release it, since I have a communist city with the perfect place for that!

[mcarch 15]

That looks great! The brighter version definately!

[bixel 1,223]

SimHoTToDDy: Yes you can. Go to render > environment - set brightness to 1.2 or 1.3.

[Jasoncw 11,841]

It would be easier just to open your texture files (there should only be a handful of them) and change the brightness there. 3ds Max can adjust it, by you going to Render>Environment>Exposure Control and changing the stuff there. You can also change this per material, in the bitmap slot in the material editor, go down to the bottom and there should be a rollout called "Output" and there you can change some stuff.

But I think the best thing to do is to make the textures themselves brighter directly. That way, the lighting in your scene is actually responding to the color you want (for example, more light will bounce off a bright wall than a dark wall), and I think making the textures themselves brighter is the most direct way of maintaining this.

Also, it's not usually too good of an idea to compare your buildings to other BATs, since who knows if those BATers know anything more or less than you about color in the first place (though at the same time you do need to respond to the reality that your BATs will sit among other BATs, especially for themed). Have you ever played the game "telephone" where everyone stands in a line, and whispers a sentence into the next person's ear, and they relay the message down the line, and by the sentence gets to the end of the line it's way different than how it started? That's how texturing can be (so now what if someone uses your BAT as a reference for color, and then someone uses that BAT for a reference, etc.).

My personal advice for the colors would be, for the wall texture, adding a layer filled with "Pastel Cyan" set to overlay, at 10% opacity. Then for the roof I'd try a new layer filled with "Pure Blue Violet" set to overlay, at 20% opacity. But that's just what I would do.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Jason: I went with your suggestion and edited the textures directly, and added the layers of color. I do think the roof is a little too blue, but I'm not the expert. If you think its good then I'm ok with it.

(click)

Pending some feedback for the textures, this is just about done, minus lighting of course.

-Todd

[Jasoncw 11,841]

hmm, yeah, the roof looks too blue and too dark I think. Try reducing the opacity of that layer until it looks good. The roof should have a bit of blue in it though.

Also, is that the actual scale of the building? It seems too small (or maybe the buildings around it are too small). The floors should be about 4 meters tall. Maybe 3.5 since the floors are probably low.

[nofunk 1,933]

That looks nice! I have to echo Jason's comments on the roof, and I also wonder if the red/brown band along the roof line is a little too saturated?

Can't wait to see this on the STEX!

[SimFox 802]

I would say that this is an excellent model all-in-all, but... it is in a VERY different color/white balance space than the rest of the game. Comparing it to those prefab models isn't very helpfull since they stand out too much themselves, but your building stands out even in their midsts...

A) it is too dark overall,

B) it is too cool/cold

C) it is too contrasty...

[bixel 1,223]

hrmm..something is very wrong here

try my camera rigs

Scanline Day.zip

[Gn_leugim 858]

yap.. it a bit blue on the roof, as well dark on the overall.. the model is awesome, but the colours need some more tuning

[spa 970]

Looking good Todd but I have to echo the comments made. The roof is too dark and too blue (it looked quite different before). I would also desaturate the red brick at top. It also is coming on too strong now. The main building though is spot on in my opinion

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Jason: The tower itself is ~ 64m wide (plus 16m for the base) 50m long (also add 16 for the base) and 36m tall (plus the top floor and utility shacks). The floors are 4m tall exactly, I made them a bit taller so I didn't have to worry about a vertical scale so much. As for that pic, I donno what is up with the scale, I think the picture I placed it into wasn't the right size or something.

nofunk: I hear ya, I turned that down a bit. Its so annoying to have something looking good until you see it in game, its like I had to re-texture the whole thing after I had finished already. I was actually hoping to have this done by.. ugh.. yesterday (my birthday) but I had about 10 weeks of CADD drawings to do in 5 days, so things were tossed into the back seat. Thanks!

Simfox: Thank you! I think this was a good project to work on my modeling, but as you can see, my textures are still catching up! I am in a bit of a pickle though, if I change the wall color too much, I end up with something that looks nothing like the real thing, but if I don't change it enough, It looks alienated in game. But, I think I have it to where I am happy with it.

A)Yup, I think I fixed it this time.

B)Roof more than anything, but yeah. It got toned down a bit when I brightened the walls too.

C)Not sure I follow you here, would help if you explained a bit better.

Bixel: As much as I appreciate the offer, your rig breaks my 3ds. It renders with little to no shadows and weird green/yellow tint. I would show you a pic of what I mean, but it also crashes MAX a few seconds into the render. No, offense, but I am going to stick with Simfox's (or was it Jasons? Hmmmm) Thanks by the way.

Gn_leugim: Thank you, should be fixed.

spa: Thanks, general consensus of ye olde STEX masters is compelling me to fix everything. =P

I'll let the pics speak for them selves:

I would get a different background pic, but I am lazy and don't have many other zoom 5s laying around. (click)

I think its good to go, or at least much better off. I don't know if I want to change the color too much more at this point (even brightness). Now, back to nightlights, I have about 1/3 done but I think I'll wait to show anything.

Thanks guys,

-Todd

[spa 970]

Todd, that looks a lot better. I think the roof texture works a lot better now. The lighter roof really makes the little railing and other details stand out which is a good thing. The new brick top is also much improved. I might be tempted to desaturate it just a touch more and maybe lighten it just a touch, but it's certainly passable now.

[Jasoncw 11,841]

I'd try making the railings darker.  I know you don't want to do any more of this kind of tweaking, but according to my timeline you still have a few weeks of tweaking textures before it's time for nitelites, lol.  Then of course after that you have a few months of working on other projects since you don't really feel like doing the nitelites, and then after doing the nitelites you have a few months where the rendered BAT sits around until you feel like getting it modded.

Have you thought about how you want to lot this?  Sometimes it can be good to BAT certain elements.  Let's say there were to be bushes along the ground floor windows.  You could BAT those in, and they'd cast shadows on the wall and could make the BAT and bushes sit more naturally together.

Also, the doors on the roof are really big.  Try making them something like 1x3 meters.

The BAT is looking really good. 

[Gn_leugim 858]

awesome work, looking forward the lights

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work

[art128 4,618]

looking great, can't wait to see the light too !

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

spa: Thanks, I might tone the red part down a bit, I'll have to let this version settle in first. I think just a bit more brightness would be best as the color seems just right this time.

Jason, shhhhh! don't tell them my secret time line!!!  Anyway, I probably won't BAT to many things in for the lot, mostly because I haven't tried to make trees or anything yet. I'll probably play around with the LODs to make props viable. IRL, there aren't many plants directly under the balconies, but more offset from the structure to make room for pathways and the like, so I'm not that concerned for this one. I'll adjust the doors when I get around to it, they are roughly 1.5x3.2, but I resizing them will probably be best.

And thanks to everyone else!

I like where things are going. I do have to adjust the utility lights up top so they show up on the walls. Still have half of the lights to finish, but thats about it, unless you can think of something else.

Oh, and do you think I should use a less noisy floor texture for the shop/entrance so you can see the window frames? Thought it might be more interesting looking at it now.

-Todd

[Francis90b 748]

This is not my genre, but you're doing really well.I notice that you' ve fixed the roof, but i would also suggest of brightening a bit the whole building (red and gray parts).

The nightlighting is beautiful, but maybe you need to fix the mosty orange-ish lights in the window.

[deathtopumpkins 43]

Looking great Todd!

Great nightlights too!

[Gn_leugim 858]

bice work, I would left the floor texture as it is

[art128 4,618]

fantastic work on the light

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Fixed the door size, and the lighting for the utility towers. I changed the ground floor lighting a little bit (to get rid of those dark spots) but other wise the lighting is done.

Joint1: I actually hate the uniform white, yellow, and blue lights that are on most of the BATs out there, so I wanted to see some real variation and some cool colors, like red and orange and green. Hell, not everyone has the same color rug/ drapes/ what ever junk that is in their window, so why have it be the same in our BATs? I appreciate the advice, but I like how these turned out.

Gn_leugim: Thanks, I decided to keep it, it would be too much work to replace something that already looks good  =P

And thanks to everyone else!

I'll probably wait until I have my new video card to export this (a few days), but in the meantime I'll work on some new stuff.

-Todd

[ianpaschal 77]

I'm not crazy about how dim and redish the lights are, but otherwise pretty awesome.

[Jasoncw 11,841]

I thought the floor texture was funny when I saw it.  I always associate that kind of floor tiling with kitchy 1950s diners and things like that, which totally contrasts with the rest of the building which has a different spirit even though they may be from the same time period.  As far as seeing things goes, you don't really need to see anything unless you really want to see it.  It's ok to not see the frames.

For the lights, I think that using different colors is fine, but I think that regardless of the color, your current lights are too saturated and maybe too dim (though my lights tend to be too bright sometimes).  Since we're supposed to be outside in the dark, our eyes aren't adjusted to the brightness of the insides of the rooms, so they look really bright.

I don't think your computer uses your video card for rendering.  I think it just uses it for handling the viewports.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Scipio: I can change the brightness pretty easy by adjusting the opacity of the windows, but I like how the colors came out. I do have to agree that they are a bit saturated though.

Jason: Hmm, That being the case, what would you suggest instead of the tiles? What floor designs go with communist tenements, that's a question I have never asked... I might have to try a few things before I find something I'm happy with, but I agree that the tiles don't go as well as one might hope. As I said to Scipio fixing the brightness and the saturation shouldn't be a problem. I wasn't sure whether or not the video card helped with rendering, but I suppose I will find out. All I have now is an 'graphics' mother board which is just handling the view ports as it is, so even if it doesn't help there, It will make MAX much more bearable.

Thanks by the way.

[Francis90b 748]

Your ideas about the lights is good and quite original and i didn't want to criticize it, but the orange lights that are too strong (not all of the orange light) seems to suggest that a fire is going inside (or at least this is what suggests to me).

[Jasoncw 11,841]

oh, I meant funny in a lol way, not in a bad way.  I think you should keep the tiles.

[nihonkaranws 88]

What kind of nightlighting is that?

[Deionn 137]

Sexi lighting.