McDRye tries BAT again..

[Francis90b 748]

I have a suggestion too...

[GMT 389]

so, I want pretty much everything!

noooo, j/k!

but the mansions would be cool, you know, faustin's crib (near firefly island) and the 3 4 mansions in northern alderney... uhm... and the rundown casino where the last mission takes place.

ohh and take your time, I don't want you to fall behind schedule with *your* projects because of some requests ;-)

[mosin33 5]

I really like ur underground rail pieces and would like to see you release or make more!

Your work is different and I love it, alot.

Mosin33

[mcdrye 104]

Update!: I'm finally getting somewhere with the 90 degree bend puzzle piece after re-starting from scratch. Unfortunately, in order to make the track look correct at the ends, there is a straight piece at each end. The lot itself though is only 1x1, under one end. Still some aligning issues etc but what do you think?

[mosin33 5]

I think those are simply amazing! You should hook up with the NAM team, probably couldnt TE these but I think It would be cool if you put a train down there sitting still

Either way I love these and the style is perfect. I really love stuff like this where normal boring SC4 train tracks, etc are modified to look like something realistic!

Great job hope to see more!

[Francis90b 748]

I'm speechless....i'm wondering about how can you do something like this .

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Really coming along!

Not sure what else to say other than 

-Todd

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Looks great!

[_Atticus 10]

Awesome!

[jacqulina 162]

awesome work

[SimFox 802]

Those look great.

But I'm afraid it wouldn't be possible to TransportEnable them (at lest not visually). Automate is a real 3d object that exists in real 3d environment. The "depth" of these pieces is though no more than just an illusion.

Train if to run at the bottom of those will effectively be underground...

I hope that I'm wrong, though

At any rate I could do the pathing...

[AndisArt 2,066]

wow looks wonderful! Hope you will get it functional! Best of luck

[art128 4,618]

That's looking wonderful !

[grbac80 5]

Well that is just amazing and fantastic.  

[mcdrye 104]

It is technically possible to TE the lots, but it wouldn't work as a whole (I think). You can have automata appearing the lot provided the LODs extend below the surface, but you can't have 2 transit enabled lots next to each other.

There's also the slight issue of making the ground invisible as the LODs being both above and below the ground makes the ground texture appear (This is seen even in the Maxis El-Rail to Subway lot). Puzzle pieces are also not the answer. It seems NAM puzzle pieces are completely 3d, not pre-rendered in BAT, I wouldn't be able to maintain the high texture quality and model detail.

On the plus side though the Rail/GLR to SSRail lot alone can be transit enabled, and automata can be pathed so they can be seen going down/up the slope to SSRail.

[allez l'om 1]

it looks perfect!!!

[Gn_leugim 853]

humm.. nice stuff there

[mcdrye 104]

Just for Fun

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Damn, that's some nice work there. Cut off the black background, and I'd call that photography.

[Spike345 20]

wow, I actually thought that was a photograph!

[mightygoose 92]

have you considered adding bump maps to your textures... then it really would look like a photograph....

[mcdrye 104]

I am using bump maps, though I admit they could be made more obvious.

[psander5 195]

Yep, for a second there I thought that was your reference photograph! Fun indeed. It looks like an interesting project.

[spa 968]

This is amazing work! You have good instincts for interesting projects (your parking garage is now the gold standard for garages). Keep it up.

[mcdrye 104]

So sorry! Have had a bout of RL and unfortunately technology has failed me yet again!

Started a new job in June and i've been busybusy, but the killer is that my laptop hard drive failed on me (though, due to me punching the already faulty keyboard).

It had a head crash (the reading head came into contact with the platter and scratched it) and a lot of data is unrecoverable. Thankfully I backed up my files to my external hard drive back in June so I can probs get a lot of BATs (and textures) back, but only when I can buy a new enclosure as my previous one (note: don't buy an enclousre with an obscure unreplaceable power adapter) died.

On more positive news I recieved a new hard drive last Friday and after hours of reinstalling Windows 7 and all the apps and generally getting back to normal, I'm ready to go once more! Until I can get back my old BATs I'm gonna work on something I've always wanted to do properly,

Thats right, a casino! Yeh I know, there's a few out there but I've been playing with this idea since 2003 when I first got the BAT. There was a thread on this forums once tracking my progress of my old casino but that disappeared long ago and I'm considerably better at Batting than I was back then, and I have 3dsmax at my disposal with all its neon friendly features.

I present my own creation, The Swan Casino Hotel, the casino that Vegas never built (obv not really but it would look quite normal there if it were real). A casino first built in 1967, and continuously added to, carries a late 80's enforced Classical/Caribbean theme, that looks a little tired today, thought the resort still thrives to this day in SimCity.

So far I'm working on the 2 floor base area, thoughts?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Ever since becoming aware of 3ds Max, I always thought it would be really cool if someone used all of the lighting and material features of Max to make a new casino. I personally never made one because, well, I don't really like Casino architecture very much, lol, but yours is coming along great. Maybe I'll put a casino/night life area in one of my cities someday.

[Delecto 941]

Really nice to see you back here McDRye, & really good and interesting start with the casino.

I'll be watching this with interest. 

DEL!

[mcdrye 104]

WOO! Received my hard drive enclosure today so I've got access to my old files and textures I think it's only fair to finish my previous project so I've been reworking my Sub Surface Rail pieces (again!) It's a much more symmetrical model (no more mismatching bits) and bump mapping is now used along with obligatory HD.

I love the Let There Be Light and it's effect on this set though it has made the set darker. Pictures to follow very shortly!

NOTE: My casino still exists and a lot of work has been done on it, but it's now on hold. I was having mental ray out of memory errors causing fatal crashes whilst rendering this. I've optismised the BAT a lot but it seems to be too much for mental ray, not sure whats causing it.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Glad to hear!

[mcdrye 104]

Heres the first pic, a simple straight piece and end piece are shown. No alignment problems, no abrupt colour change problem. BUT, I'm getting that pesky red and green artifact on one view of the end piece as shown in the second pic. I tried the Merge into new scene thing but to no avail. Whats causing it?