SimHoTToDDy BATs

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Now this is droolware!

Just one question: On the last pic you showed, the smokestack that's depicted closest to the left edge of the picture looks different from the others. It seems to lack polygons or smoothing - is that a picture glitch, a render error, intention, or did you just forget to apply some smoothing? I'm just wondering... the rest of the model is looking so totally awesome I just can't imagine that smokestack is going to stay that way unless there's a good reason behind that decision.

Outstanding job so far - I hope you make frequent backups!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

T Wrecks: No It should not be there, I just can't find any reason WHY its there. Its not a texture problem, and the geometry of the stack itself is fine, but it always has that weird shadow going down the side. I think all of the towers have one spot like that, I just rotated them so you would get a different side of the texture each time. They were there when I started working on this model, I just haven't had any solution for it, not that I would know any since I'm still new at all this. My next step would be to cover them up with some pipes/wires for some lights at the top. And about the backups... I'm glad I had since my original got messed up during a power surge that restarted my comp. I was about to have a heart attack because I couldn't open it, but it wasn't corrupted.

If you, or anyone else has a solution to that, I would love to hear it, since I really don't like the idea of adding some junk to the sides of these.

I'll show off a new render when it finishes some time tonight,

-Todd

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Double post... bite me...

mntoes: Seeing how the textures were the only glareing thing missing when I started this, I figured that I should do the thing some justice I have to admit, I am partial to some of the things I whipped up in Photoshop, it really helps to be able to use it. I filled in the bare spots a bit, but I'm not going to go to town on things that arent there, unless of course I can't see what it is Glad you like it!

Gn_leugim: The texture looks grainy when the picture is small because of how the image is being compressed. That, and it is a completely different render for the further zooms, I'm not worried about it. I welcome the input though!

Bixel and spa: Thanks!!!

---

Well, I had been used to a zoom 5 taking.. I donno... an hour, hour and a half tops. But this last one took something on the order of 9 HOURS!!! Clearly something was amiss, because I really don't think some roof junk would more than quadruple the render time of the previous previews. That being said, I am probably going to look for another machine to export this thing because I REALLY don't have the two full days of CPU locked computeing. Unless, of course, I can get that time down to something more reasonable.

Anyway, enough complaining! Lets see this monstrosity that took half my day to finish!

(please click for full size)

Well, I like it, at least as much as a hyper critical self evaluator can like his own work. I'm afraid to add much more to this simply because of the worm welcome this last render recived. I might take a break from this to learn how to night light by playing with my (much much) much smaller apartment building back from page 2, which still needs to be finished itself.

Let me know what you think, or if you are interested in helping me get this exported. Any words that would aid me make this better in its final stages would be greately appreciated,

-Todd

[mightygoose 92]

sexy as hell...

[bixel 1,223]

OH MAH GAWD!!!!!

[toxicpiano 125]

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[delija21 295]

this is just awsome

[spa 968]

I don't know if you're working with max or gmax (max I know absolutely nothing about) but if it's gmax, when you're ready to render/preview save and then select everything and conver to an editable poly. It'll reduce the number of polygons. I have heard that this helps on big models... although I can't say I have noticed any difference from my own personel experience.

[toxicpiano 125]

judging by the lighting I imagine it's MAX?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

It is indeed MAX, 2009 to be exact. And spa, I would be willing to try that if I knew where to find it, thanks for the tip.

I cleaned up the model a little bit, removed some superfluous detail in some of the roof junk (the boxy thingys) that was adding some serious object count due to some vents I modeled on the side of them. They looked like a single object when I render them, so I replaced them with just that, one object.

This part is kinda funny, and is an indication that I am still new at this:

The square ones had 60 objects making up the sides

The longer ones had 150

so the total number of objects I was able to remove from just those was 3990!!!

You can figure out the poly count, but I'm sure its ridiculous. Anyway, I'm glad to hear all your whoooping and cheers, lets just hope I can light this without making it look hideous.

-Todd

[Gn_leugim 853]

just beautiful!!

[deathtopumpkins 43]

That is simply incredible! One of the best BATs I've seen... I want it

And like I said in chat, I'd love to be able to export it for you, but I just have gmax...

Anyway, can't wait to see this on the STEX!

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull work

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The polygon count isn't really that important.  The object count is a lot more important, so if you can attach objects together to get as few as possible, that should speed you up. 

About Spa's suggestion, I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's just a numbers game with max.  The number of polygons used to describe the object doesn't change. 

Your building is really big, and so it will take longer than usual to render it, but 9 hours is way too long for that.  The problem is probably that your rendering settings are too high.  I'm not super familiar with your version of 3ds Max, but I think there are pre-sets that you can change.  I'd do the lowest quality you can do without loosing worthwhile quality.

I don't think the roof looks bad right now, but I think it could be made a lot better with a custom roof texture.  To do this, after you're done adding all of your roof junk, select all of the roof planes, and group them together.  Then, in the top viewport, zoom out until you can see all of the roof.  Press the print screen button and paste it in photoshop.  Then crop out everything except for the roof objects in Photoshop.  Now increase the image size (for a building this big, you'll need a higher resolution texture than your screenshot can give you), and then rebuild your texture in that file.  Then make new layers and paint grime and weathering, using the screenshot to line things up.  Back in 3ds Max, give the group a UVW Map that stretches across all the roofs, and your new texture should be spread properly across them.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Thanks guys!!!

Jason: How 'bout this? (click)

This is with just the roof and the junk on it. Although a few walls did sneak in

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Raaah... stop that please... can't... *nnnf* reach... *gasp* pills... *faints*

[jacqulina 162]

wow wonderfull work

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Thanks guys!

Ok, back to boot camp, its lighting time. I kinda have the whole spotlight thing down, not too hard. But the windows are what are getting me. I redid them a few times and ended up using night materials and some interior lighting to get this:

I know some need to bee brightened/ darkened to balance things out, but that's not the problem so much. The real question is, how do I get the lights to only show during the night renders (this is a faked night shot done just with environment settings)? Mine still show if I do a day preview, well this one is basically a day preview so yeah... I added _night to the the various lights, but then I think that only works in gmax? Or will the lights only export in the night renders?

I'm just a little really mixed up. It would be great if someone could spell it out for me, or link me a bullet proof (or as close to that as you can get ) tutorial, I don't want to keep you here all day after all.

P.S. I'll get back to the Battersea as soon as I figure out lighting.

-Todd

[nihonkaranws 88]

Looks really nice. Ummm... well, night previews are disabled in BAT4max 2, and 2.5... I think you just have to use the environment settings, or show a picture from night in SC4.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Is that a render of the roof with the texture applied, or is that the texture itself? If it's a rendering with it applied it should look good, though it could be hard to tell without seeing it in the context of the rest of the building (I understand you can't do full renders all the time until you get the render times down though).

There aren't really any night previews in 3ds max. If you give the objects the right pre-fix, they'll turn on/off during the export. However, you can turn lights on and off, near where you edit their intensity multiplier and the other settings. Or you can just hide them when you want to do a day render.

I don't think they need to be evened out though, some windows will be brighter or darker than others, the variation is good. They're looking good, but right now I think I'd make them a little brighter.

All around your projects are looking good.

[Gn_leugim 853]

pretty nice lites? how did you do them?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Jason: that is the top view of the model with the texture applied, I just threw in the junk to give you an idea of where it matched up with things, still could use some subtle adjustment, but I'm happy with it.

Here is render with it applied, I found an iterative draft setting for the render, but it still took around 6 hours. I can't say I like it as much as the high settings, but I suppose it will do. If I could get some directions on how to actually merge some of my objects (without accidentally destroying my model by trying to figure it out on my own) I would be very grateful

I would have a full size for you, but for some reason, imageshack will only let me upload this tiny thing... shucks.

I'll have to darken those boxes up to match the new texture... my work is never done...

---

Well, I'm pretty much ready to upload this one, I just need to play with the LODs, they are coming up a tad to big, just over 16m which really throws off the LOTing. Oh well, could be having worse problems.

Gn_leugim: First of all, you would need 3ds max to use this method, I believe, but I'll tell you anyway. I created that effect by using night textures and interior lights that just target the "floor". You can look at how the night libraries are used HERE, it won't be an application you are going to use, but you can get the idea from it. The interior lights are just direct lights with only the one floor included. In order to get those to show however, I had to lower the opacity of my window textures to allow enough of the light to show ( I think I used 66%, but it depends a lot on your texture). The shop windows are the same thing, only instead or putting lights on the inside and lowering opacity, I made the night texture self illuminating, which can be less of a hassle then setting up rigs to light up your windows. The lighting outside is just a few direct spots, most simple, but I think I like them the most.

Let me know what you think!!!

-Todd

[Jasoncw 11,840]

hmm, try desaturating the roof texture and adding some blue to it. Yellow/green isn't really a color that goes in the game.

[jacqulina 162]

excellent progress great looking buildings

[art128 4,618]

that BAT look good my friend, like all your work !

[allez l'om 1]

It looks great!!! you have done a good job!!!!

[Gn_leugim 853]

I use only gmax =1 I guess I have to resume my ways ^^

[EvilCoolKid 9]

you are doing great my friend , i am going to start the armor again, after a long break doing other things "call of duty" mainly

[ianpaschal 77]

Now I know what's bothering me about Battersea's walls. They're the shiniest at the bottom. They should have some grime at the upper edge but I think the overall gradient needs to go the other way. The dirt dust and grime should be caked on really heavy near the bottom. Also some graffiti?

Sorry, this is Glenni and my "Urban *****heap" philosophy coming through

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Thanks everyone!

Scipio & Jason: Hope this fits the bill: (clickzilla)

I haven't wanted to do the night lighting for the Battersea just yet, mostly because I don't want to deal with the horrendous render times. If you have any specific pointers on how to help with hat it would be greatly appreciated. In the mean time, I have started a project that should keep me buissy for a good long time. If you can read the sign you will know what I'm doing

This lil thing is done, and yes it is a bright untextured looking sign IRL (so commenting on that will get you nowhere), but I did have to scale it up to make it legable.

And this is just a litle work in progress piece that just has some sloppy textureing to make it remotely presentable. If you think it needs a vertical scale, let me know. I am a bit on the fence about that right now. Obviously it still needs a roof and a ground floor. This might be a bit harder to Identify, but it is widely known photographicly if you know what you are looking for.

---

I could use some help testing the nightlights of my finished models, my CD is MIA so I can't get BAT nightlighting to work (the .exe that circumvents CD use can't be patched )

Anyway, let me know what you think, I should be showing more off shortly.

-Todd