Nycc06's BAT Workshop

[Craig91 12]

I think it looks fantastic

[art128 4,618]

Looks fantastic, what can I say more ?? !

[SimFox 802]

This light distribution is MUCH better!

The only last thing that could/should (IMHO) be addressed this time 8given that htis is GMAX work) is the illumination of the spire... right now it is half brightly light. in fact so bright that it goes flat white, and the other half is not... Also it looks like it is light from just one side, it that is true it will look very different in other views..

What I would do is to replace the lighting of the spire by a rig of at least 4 narrower beam lights and set their decay manually so that is softly diminished to the top rather than stops so abruptly

[Andronicus22 1]

simply amazing....can't wait to get my hands on it! I've got to say though you did a fantastic job! Cheers!

[nycc06 229]

Thanks for the comments. SimFox, here's my re-worked lights on the spire.

[nycc06 229]

Ok, the Freedom Tower is now partially exported. The base and mid section pieces work fine, however, i'm still again having problems with the top section model. When doing preview renders of the model, it appears to work fine, however when the model exports and is put into the lot editor, you can clearly see the problems.

Firstly, my most annoyong probelm is that for some reason every time I export the model renders fine and zoom 5 but at all other zoom levels the lighting rig seems to stop working and the model becomes far brighter with all shadows turing off. You can see this below.

The other problem seems to be that at zoom 2 view west the tower doesn't export porperly at all. See below image.

So really after many attempts at trying to fix it, I can't seem to solve the probelm. So i hope someone here can help. Thanks.

[jacqulina 162]

very nice

[SimFox 802]

hm, I'm confused...

Is the model in one piece or are you exporting in in bits and then assembling in Lot Editor?

[nycc06 229]

becuase of the file size, I'm exporting the mnodel in three sections then assembling it in the lot editor, otherwise i would be trying to export a file nearly 150,000KB, which my computer cannot handle

[bixel 1,223]

Something you will need to do when exporting peices.

#1 looks like you have some LOD issues - thats why there is offset. Make your own LODs from a mesh or box.

#2 after LODs are made, create a box of similar shape of the other objects that are not in the scene but supposed to be there. Right click on the object in the scene - uncheck visible to camera, uncheck receive shadows, uncheck receive reflections. You will now get accurate shadowing on your exports. This is so the peices dont look separate when you put it all together in LOT editor.

[nycc06 229]

thanks for the info bixel. I think that this may have fixed the top section object as the shadows seem to be dispalyed on all zoom levels in the preview renders. I've just started exporting the model, should take about 8 hours, so fingers crossed.

[SimFox 802]

Are you sure about that? 150 Mb isn't all that big! If anything it isn't a problem for a compute part of equation.

But you problem stems form the fact that you do export in pieces!

First of all because of that GMAX is using different RIGs for different pieces and some are faulty in terms of lighting - that issue that you have no shadows at the top part. Actually there is one in-game building that suffers from same very problem - Pedriana Pharmaceuticals. Quite amazing, actually that apparently professionals who were tasked with making them decided not to bother with such "details". Also amazing that in all those years nobody got around to actually fix them. I guess models that tall weren't that often.. Yet there are some faulty once around one of the Dubai supertalls by that Japanese fellow. Spending some much time making model and then exporting it and not getting around to fix obvious problem... strange... So not Confucian approach... But that's lights... there were some copies of fixed rig floating around. I never used them since never exported anything in GMAX so I can't help you tracing those. Also I can't vouch for the quality of the fix...

But your Lot Editor screenie shows another issue with rigs, or to be precise, between them - they are, apparently, misaligned...

So, you'll have to dig into Rig files and fix them. To same more I would need to see the actual model file. I assume that you use rig files hat came with original installation of BAT, right? Or are you using any custom ones? If that is the case (custom rigs) then I would need to see them too...

[bixel 1,223]

I have the fxd gmax rig. You should just stop the export now and get this rig 1st

These should be them in the attach (be sure to back up the old ones)

With this rig - you should be able to do it in one go. Another thing to do that greatly increases redner productivity it to lower object count. If you have 4000+ objects try to combine them (collapsable mesh) into a small ammount like 1000 or less.

gmax_CamLightRigs.zip

[nycc06 229]

the only problem i have with exporting a file of 150mb is that when all the model is togther in one file, the computer will go so slow until it crashes. It won't even do draft preview renders. As a result, i have found in my experience that i cannot export a single file over 60mb.

[SimFox 802]

yep you should model efficiently... even 1000 object is a madness! I would say 100 tops and that on a really big project...

Edit.

PS.

Bixel, just checked you RIGs they are faulty too.

Actually rig like that is exactly that causes the problem with Pedriana Pharmaceuticals. It is a fix, alright, but one that cures the paper cut in a finger by amputating the arm.

Mind you, it may work for a model of specific size... But when it does, it is by accident, not design... And looking at it I have a nagging suspicion that the accident will not happen in this case...

As I've said the rig has to be tuned for the actual building...

PS #2...

Actually on closer examination it may work... I've confused the screen denotion of spot to the fall-off...

[nycc06 229]

if all obejcts in the model are ungrouped in say the top section file, there's like 19,000 objects. When you talk about collapsible mesh do you mean grouping the objects together?

[SimFox 802]

Nope Grouping ain't it...

you have to attach one object be it geometry or shape to another...

Shapes may only attach other shapes to it. Geometry will attach shape to itself but it will convert it to geometry of the same class (Editable Poly or Editable Mesh)

And primitives can't attached anything to themselves, but can be attached to Meshes or Polygons

Attach command is found on Edit Geometry Roll-out of either Editable Poly or Editable Mesh object, or Geometry Roll-out of Editable spline (line) shape object

[nycc06 229]

Thanks for the info, i bear that in mind in the future. I just did a test on attatching objects. I made a wall of windows in the way that i would normally do it, then i made the same wall of windows but attatched them together and it nearly halved the file size.

The problem i have with applying this to the freedom tower model is that all the windows have their own individual UVW maps on them to make the glass and i can't attatch them all together whilst the UVW map is attatched. But i can't remove the maps all in one go without having to remove the maps individually which would take far to long.

Another issue is that by make all of the windows a single object, i would not be able to apply the nite maps for the windows in the same way.

Any suggestions?

[SimFox 802]

yes you can!

In order to keep your UVW coordinates you have to collapse the object with UVW map modifier on it into editable Poly, or editable Mesh... this will effectively "bake" the UVW coordinates in. As long as you don't move any vertecies afterwards all will stay same...

About night windows.. all you have to do is to make all night windows into a separate single object.

But as I've said in the beginning... it would have been faster to re-create it in Max...

[nycc06 229]

Ok, I have re-exported the top section of the tower. Good news and Bad news. The good news is that the lighting probelm is now completely fixed thanks to bixels new lighting rigs. Bad news is that no matter what I try, the LOD problem at zoom 2 view west is still occuring.

To solve it i have tried piutting the whole model into a brand new empty file, creating my own custom LODs and used past working LODs and resized them, and still the problem occurs. But strange thing is that i watched the export in process and when it got to zoom 2 view west, the preview showed that the model was displaying correctly, but when it goes into the Lot Editor, the same view error occurs as before. I've ran out of ideas really, so any help would be much appreciated.

[bixel 1,223]

you know... you should really use 3mds max instead. Why dont you email me the gmax file and its textures - (or choose the archive option from the file menu) and I will convert it to 3ds and export it.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Your zoom 2 problem is due to the wrong map dimensions on your models S3D file. If you go into Reader and select the effected file and change a few values. Looks like your y direction needs to be halved. But don't let me try to describe it, here is a link:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=3020

Its pretty easy to do, just have a calculator handy to crunch those long decimal places.

And I agree with bixel, you would do lovely work in 3dsmax,

-Todd

[SimFox 802]

I think SimHoTToDDy is right here...

It may be just the case of half pixel, that gets rounded the wrong way. You can do it manually in iLive Reader as he suggests or you could try to widen LODs a bit so as to "move over" that contended pixel

And I also join the choir and urge you to take on Bixels offer and let him to convert the model into Max one.. You could do the export yourself, as far as I remember you've gotten your self max, haven't you?.

[nycc06 229]

Great news everyone, I have finally managed to get the Freedom Tower to successfully export. I've checked the model and it is working fine now. I'll post the ingame screenshots later today.

On a separate note, as this project will be closing my gmax modelling days, the rest of my future projects including the remaining new wtc towers will be made in 3dsmax.

Finally i have a project for all of you out there who are interested. As many people know, the new wtc consists of four main towers, the new transit hub and the trde center memorial. On older plans the space between the Freedom Tower and Two World Trade Center used to be occupied by a performing arts center. It seems as though this plan has been scrapped in recent plans. Because i don't want to just leave the space empty as shown on the plans, i am holding a competition, which i will clear with dirk later on.

The competition will be to design a new performing arts or art center for this open grass area. For those who are interested, here are the stats.

• Model size: no more than 4 tiles wide by 5 tiles deep
• Model height : must not exceed 100m
• Model must be made in 3ds Max

The shape and design can be anything but must conform to a modernist style that reflect the modern design used in the rest of the new world trade center site.

The winning design will be then included in the final model of the world trade center site.

The deadline for completed models to be submitted is the December 18th 2009. PM me if you are interested.

[zero7 68]

Originally posted by: nycc06

The competition will be to design a new performing arts or art center for this open grass area. For those who are interested, here are the stats.

• Model size: no more than 4 tiles wide by 5 tiles deep
• Model height : must not exceed 100m
• Model must be made in 3ds Max

The shape and design can be anything but must conform to a modernist style that reflect the modern design used in the rest of the new world trade center site.

The winning design will be then included in the final model of the world trade center site.

The deadline for completed models to be submitted is the December 18th 2009. PM me if you are interested.quote>

I think you may have tempted me out of retirement!

Can you post a plan of the site so that we know what surrounds it.  Also how much space there is between the 4x5 model size you've mentioned and the other buildings in the complex.

[nycc06 229]

For my 100th post, I'm happy to announce the release of the Freedom Tower to the stex at last. The non diagonal version wull be released on the LEX soon.

here are the ingame pics

  

[_Atticus 10]

Nycc06, you're awesome. Great job.

[nycc06 229]

Hi everyone. Thanks for all of the great feedback on One WTC. A quick update on the progress of the complex, here is the basic model of the site showing the layout of all the buildings in the main complex. The next section that I will be working on is Four World Trade Center. Should have some early renders for you in the next few days. Until then here's the complex so far.

P.S. I will be setting up the new thread for the design competition soon after having got the go ahead from dirk, so i'll keep you posted on any updates.

[Keegan V50 15]

looks good!!

all the best

victor

[Kryptowhite 9]

Just clarifying about that contest. You want us to BAT the building? When we are done, should we export it, or will you be doing that?