hkabat-forum-threads Amthaak BATS Thread

[rasiquiz 0]

hello im new on simtropolis. how can i indstall the files ?

and how make you buildings to sim city 4 ?

/rasiquiz

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Take a look though this thread.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=108100&enterthread=y

[HONG KONG 74]

VIVE LA HKABT

[kellydale2003 2,276]

Now that's amazing Amthaak! But the "H"'s on the heli pad seem to perfectly point towards the camera. Maybe doing a little rotation will help? I just think it looks a little odd :L But great work, keep it up buddy!

[Amthaak 1,501]

Hi my friends, it's true that there is not so much news these days concerning the HKABT, thanks to Bixel who released some news Bats from HK (BTW, perfect bats, as usual), but it seems that for the major projects we are all late...! Concerning my work I still have great difficulty for the rendering of the complete Bat. I many times mentioned that I will upgrade my PC and it should be finalized next week:

For who might be interested, my new PC will be:

mother board: INTEL desktop board DG55WB

RAM memory: 4 Go DDRAM3 1333 Mhz

Processor: Intel socket 1156 Core i3 530

OS: W7 professionnal 64 bits

Video card: MSI N250GTS 1G

I hope it will help...

SO! Dear Hong Kong : VIVE la HKABT

AAAH! Dear KELLY! you are eagle-eyed, what about that?

BTW, are you competing for the "best never released Bat"? Well, if it the case, you definitively have my vote!

[Amthaak 1,501]

Another pic with better definition and some "textures" test...

[kellydale2003 2,276]

You're upgrading your computer!? Awesome! I need that!

And yeah, that looks much greater and realistic! 

"Best Never Released Bat"? Never heard of it... and like 99% of my BATs are unreleased! 

[Amthaak 1,501]

Maybe this one is even closer to RL...! What do you think?

Of course you never heard of it! It does not exist yet, but maybe it will be create this year, JUST FOR YOU ('cause nobody can compete with 99% of so fantastic unreleased Bats!)

[HONG KONG 74]

99% of so fantastic unreleased Bats

[Amthaak 1,501]

Hi everybody! Sorry, for my absence, I hope that my renders difficulties will end very soon as I just got my new PC! I just have to install everything iin order to move to it. Anyway I was still working on the Peninsula project and I think that the new part of it is quite finihed. Don't hesitate to comment if you see some mistakes!

[HONG KONG 74]

I look forward. that rocks

[Amthaak 1,501]

Well, well, well, ... at least Hong kong is following this thread and after all , that's the most important, So, here is the back view, I have the impression that maybe the wall texture might be a little bit to bright (My eternal default...) but maybe it's just an impression, That's happen when you always have the "nose on the handlebars". As usual, comments and (pertinent) critics are very welcome!

[Simcity player 13]

incredible

[Vlasky 1,803]

Great work Amthaak!

But you said we should comment what we like or dislike, so> I love how glass on the front facade has "come to life" with reflections, but the back is saying death to me lol.

You said before that the Peninsula is ritzy, but no building is that ritzy to have so clean roofs (the base's roof).

As for textures being too bright> I like how white the white is but, on those setbacks like balconies and on parts where glass penthouse sets back, it does seem too bright.

Hope I helped! Keep on amazing work, grats on your super-computer lol

[Simbourgeois 139]

Oh la la! C'est vraiment magnifique

By the way, I hope your new computer looks like this

Laughingly yours,

Simbourgeois

Maire de Belleville

[Amthaak 1,501]

Dear Vlad! Well, you are right for the back reflection, I tried in fact to reveal the existing reflection according to the close position of the building just on the other side of the street. A pick will give you a better idea of what I try to explain...!

Anyway, I lighted a little the ground map I use for the reflection with a new approach and here is the result. What do you think?

Dear Simbourgeois, merci pour ton soutien, j'espère que ton année s'est bien passé pour toi! 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Don't worry - I can assure you that there are more people following this thread than posting actively. Most are probably just speechless.

Oh, and I think the new window reflections make a huge difference. Now the back looks much better!  The reflection on that left column of windows might be a tad too defined, but that's not really a biggie.

[Red Lightning 8]

looking great

[Roger51 381]

Looking good now Amthaak!! But i sort of have to agree with T-Wrecks that the left and the top glass reflections are a bit too sharp, but it looks a lot better than before!!

As for the texture colour, I like the current texture. Its seems to fit the building well and has great detail in it.

Will be awaiting the release of this

[SimFox 804]

the only problem I see with reflection is that it is to perfect. Like one you get from ideal plane. Glass on the the other hand is imperfect (even best one) and these imperfections will warp reflections.

So you should introduce these imperfections into your glass material by stacking noise (with size of about 2-3m) map into bump slot. When you do so make sure you tick "Do not apply bumps to diffuse shading" option.

Also remember that in order to look natural these imperfections must be limited by each individual ***** of glass. Most effective way to fake this would be to create two identical glass materials that will only differ by their bump maps. In fact you can use the same very noise map, just change the phase of noise. Once you mats are ready make sure that they are applied in a checker pattern so that no two polygons with same material share any edges.

As for the sharpness of reflections... well if it to look like glass, rather then a pice of plastic reflections HAVE to be sharp. Sharp but not necessarily defined. And the method I just described will take car of that.

[Rearviewmirror. 3]

Looking good.

[Amthaak 1,501]

Sorry guys for late reply, it took me more time than expected to move to my new PC! I have to find my marks again 'cause W7! Anyway I had some difficulties to install max, but even if it is not 100% satisfaction it worked! I try to include all the remarks you made i.e; size of the bdg (old compare with tower) size of the windows and space between them (old and new bdg) , add some noise to give the impression of glass irregularity, and now I can work on the entire Bdg

So please don't hesitate to comment, I know that some of you are really following this thread and sorry again to be so slow....!

[SimFox 804]

Glass doesn't look right. It doesn't look like natural imperfections on a smooth glass, but rather like a specially rippled glass. You haven't paid attention to the point I've stressed specifically - the size of the noise!

Also the base look weird now it is some very odd and not game compatible color... Generally, I think you would want to take another look at your materials.. they don't look real, more like a plastic toy. For instance the helipad... it is so flat. like a MS Paint drawing

I might be wrong though... Try pasting the alpha-ed PNG into game and see how it fairs...

[Amthaak 1,501]

"Ingame" pic,

Quote: "Also the base look weird now it is some very odd and not game compatible color... "

Unquote

I saw worse these days on the stex...!

But you are right materials used for the base (at least) can be improved I 'll come back on previous one!

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Fantastic work with it.

[jacqulina 162]

hiya my friend i hope you r well,great work your doing here

[Simbourgeois 139]

Ah, quelle beauté  Un vrai plaisir pour les yeux!

Amitiés,

Simbourgeois

Maire de Belleville

[SimFox 804]

the whole thing has very pronounced turquoise cast on it. It is one those game incompatible colors. I mean you can make something of this specific color, but when it is there just like a cast, like a hint it usually doesn't look right. like a picture shot with wrong white balance.

Have you set your ground plane to be ignored in FG calculations? If not I think it is a main suspect that introduces a lot of weird stray colors into scene. You can also (if not using it already) try warmer rig LtbL

Another way to check things out would be to render the entire scene in tint neutral (say 50-75% grey) material set as over-ride mat in Mental ray - that way you wouldn't need to assign it to any geometry specifically. if cast would be present there as well then there is something wrong with lighting... if it would look right (cast wise) then it is clearly issue of materials currently used

[Evillions 552]

Doesn't the wall textures have to match with Maxis wall's? Like the majority has to be white?

[Amthaak 1,501]

SimFox: thanks for the link , I changed for the warmer rig LtbL.

Here is a pic according with your post concerning the noise addition for the windows. Sorry , but I did'nt understand first how to do it. Is it better now? I just work on the tower part for the time being (too much work this month...!) , I'll come back later on the materials issue I have for the old building.

Just a question about the setting for the ground plane to be ignore in Final Gather calculation: how  I have to do that?

Can you also explain how to "render the entire scene in tint neutral (say 50-75% grey) material set as over-ride mat in Mental ray".

I 'll do it but I am quite sure that the pbs come from the materials I used. Last thing, what is your recommandation for the materials format (for ex: .png, . jpeg  ... etc...!) Thanks again for your comments and your help!