Swats BATs

[Jazzmaster 716]

For these windows, the night lights don't really work...they look like moldy, blue cheese many BATs nowadays have textures that look like there's a lot of details inside the building when there's really not, but they come out looking very well. You might also try omnis, which would of course involve some interior detailing and WOULD increase render time, but not a horrible amount...the end result would look much better than what you have now. Model itself is perfect though, still not quite done and needs more exciting textures...but you probably already knew that proportions/scaling seem to hit the bulls eye

[bixel 1,223]

working on window and night textures is so hard to do. If you really want this building to shine you will have to go TruNight style

If you have simtropolis tools 1.4 installed you can use the nifty randomize color windows feature. Select all your windows and make parameters 1-3 so you get 3 color options. After the windows have been renamed select all C1 windows and combine it as a single mesh object. Select all C2 and C3 and combine and make that all single mesh object. Save the scene as a new version (you will want to go back if you've made any mistakes).

Go to gmax/gamepacks/BAT/textures and grab the window texture they provided. Make a new Material in the material editor and name it NightWindows. for bitmap use the glass texture from Maxis, hit the check box on self illumination and select the box next to it to assign a texture to it. Select the same Maxis glass texture, on the Bitmap button select that and change it to composite, keep the old layer. For the next layer select your original windows texture you were using for the day pass. Scroll down on the rollout and change the output value to .25. Go up on the heiarchy within the material editor and go to the maps rollout. Change self illumination to 75-80 which ever. Save scene as "SceneName"+N to signifiy this as the night pass scene.

Apply this Nightwindows material to C2 if you want 2/3 windows to be illuminated (I set uvm value to box and 60x60y60z) or apply to C1 for 1/3 illuminated windows.

Download my TruNight BXL way Tut (cause its awesome) and in the xref scene use my Night camera rig and do a test render see if your night windows look good. Follow the rest of the tut to make a trunight export. Hope this helps.

[bixel 1,223]

Ah you are using gmax - srry. Don't get too discouraged about the nightnites. Just look at my Taikoo Group, those BATs have terrible terrible nightlights, but the day renders r nice.

[LE0 5]

Cool building. is that in minneapolis

[LE0 5]

Cool building. is that in minneapolis

[LE0 5]

Cool building. is that in minneapolis

[JakeMD 107]

Thanks guys!! 

Bixel -- Simfox showed me a method that can be used with Gmax, i'll post a picture of that later, when I can get it sorted out. 

Leo- Yeah, its the 5th tallest in Minneapolis.

Here's an update,

https://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq161/swat-medic/Simcity/Untitled-1basdj5hj4jalkhfg9iur.jpg

https://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq161/swat-medic/Simcity/Untitled-1bckahse50adjkrhdasdf.jpg

Open to suggestions, thanks! 

[Theirishnintendonerd 13]

nice building Jake. looking forward to using it in my city's!

[Simcity player 13]

all I can say is wow.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Coming along great....the lattice on the far side seems a bit whiter in the lower corner though....

[JakeMD 107]

Thanks guys!

Yoshi: I think it has to do with the lighting rig...  I'll see if I can fix that.

Anyway, quick texture update.  Ignore the roof junk for now.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Roof junk is coming along good imo, but obviously not done (you asked me to ignore it lmao)

For the roof...the texture pattern/design looks great...the colors though, I'm not so sure about to be honest. Maybe make them a little less tan/creamy?

[Kevin 101]

Great work SWAT... you seem to have picked up on how to do this stuff rather quickly!

[Evillions 552]

Did you actcally modeled the windows or its just textures?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You have the relationship between the spandrels and the windows backwards. On the top of the facade, there should be spandrels, and below that should be the window. The way you have it now, there is no parapet wall and not even room for the thickness of the roof itself. Also, the height of the spandrels vs the height of the windows is different on your BAT. But anyway, the top of the facade should end with a spandrel instead of a window.

[JakeMD 107]

Thanks a lot guys! 

Evillions: Its all modeled.

Did some work on the windows, and someother minor tweaking.  Mainly textures

[Simcity player 13]

nice window textures. i wonder how the finished nitelites will look like, stripes or random.

[Evillions 552]

Originally posted by: Simcity player

nice window textures. i wonder how the finished nitelites will look like, stripes or random.quote>

I think you can only that in 3dsmax only. GMAX is the free version based on 3dsmax. I really wish I do have 3dsmax. I wonder what's so good compared to GMAX?

[JakeMD 107]

you can do it in Gmax, its just more tedious. And I think I have a similar method to the 3ds max Trunite method, with the help of Simfox. Will show that soon.

Edit:

Jasoncw: I fixed that, thanks for mentioning it!

[bixel 1,223]

Whooo its really coming together quite nice!

[mben92 9]

I think you've outdone yourself on this one, very nice with the textures. Can't wait to see this on the STEX!!

[Simcity player 13]

i actually ment to say nightmaps for the windows

[JakeMD 107]

Ok, thanks a BUNCH to Bixel, who helped me work through this last night in a way that was simpleish..

Here's a low quality render.  Testing for scale, and.. Gmax "trunite" nightlights!  Thanks Simfox and Bixel! 

Don't worry about that blue window there.. not sure how that snuck in.  Its getting there!

Whoops.. like jill mentioned below, its squashed.. I didn't scale it up by 133%.  

[Jillybean86 38]

That is so awesome, but unfortunately to say at this late stage, it seems a little squashed. the actual building is taller and skinnier - both the main building and the crest at the top.

[Simcity player 13]

tru-nite for gmax.(i think i,m gonna explode!)

[JakeMD 107]

Ok, it has been Released!,/b>.

[Cockatoo 2,256]

What you've posted there isn't exactly truNite (that gets rid of shadows at night), but it sure is clever -- whatever it is. It's like 3ds Max lighting from Gmax, is there anything Simfox & Bixel can't do?

[timcravey 168]

Is there a tutorial on this lighting technique?

Oh, BTW, beautiful work.

[JakeMD 107]

I suppose I can create a nice tutorial in here, for now. Here's the method I used, its a little different than simfox or bixel explained.

I will create a nice one some day, but for now, here's an outline.

1. Create your scene. Day only, No nightlights.

2. Create one spot, name it nitelite_spot01 and turn it off.

3. Double check that you have NO night-lit windows (press h and search for "nite_ or nitelite_")

4. Do the render as normal.

5 Remove the .sc4model file from your plugins. Move it to your desktop, or somewhere you can find it.

6. Open up your day scene. Modify it to Create your Night Scene. Here you can do normal BAT nightlights, or you can use the following method:

6.1. Press "m" and create a NEW standard material. Find any 'Trunite window textures' you have. If you don't have any, you can download some from Bixel Here.  Also, there is some great one's at CGTextures (You must make them yourself, though.

6.2. Click the box next to the diffuse color, and navigate to a trunite map. Leave the color at a lighter gray.

6.3. Click the box next to the "Self-illumination" box, and find the same texture you used for diffuse. Set the self-illumination to 100 (Or lower if you want. 70-100 is good. You can also control the brightness with the diffuse color. You can ALSO adjust the brightness by only using the diffuse, or self-illumination maps)

6.4. Apply to your night windows. Use the UVW Map modifier to make it fit into your window. Generally the maps will fit into a 1.5-2m wide by 4m tall window perfectly.

6.5. Do a test preview. Medium quality is good. You will still be looking at the Night render in BAT.

6.6. If you like what you see, go to step 7. If you want to 'spice it up, continue reading)

6.7. You can use projector maps, which is essential a spot light with an image instead of a light beam. If you need help with that, PM Cockatoo-210893.

6.8. You can also change the geometry around, so long as it fits within the same LOD, and it remains basically the same shape. So you can take down things that appear in daytime , but maybe not nighttime.

7. Proceed to Export your new night scene. No need to rename it, as we want the night FSH iid's to be th same. Be sure your day scene was removed from your plugins folder

8. once finished, open up your day scene in Reader. (I assume you have it, and are a little familiar with it. If you need help with that, you can post here)

9. Go to Tools --> Filter. Uncheck everything, and choose the FSH Texture. Click refresh.

10. Click the instance tab to get the instance numbers in order numerically.

11. This is where things get tricky.

Find all Instance IID's that have an 8 in the middle. For example:

000f8000. This is the starting night light FSH instance ID for the Campbell Mithun Insurance buiding. The last one is 000f843d.

Select all of the FSH Files with the 8 in the middle like that, and remove it. Carefully do this, because if you remove one of the DAY FSH files, your model will not appear right in the game.

12. Open your Night scene in a brand new Reader. Select all of the FSH Files with the 8 in it using the method explained above, and right click - copy properties. Then go into your other Reader, the day scene, and paste your Files in there. You should now have your night windows from your night scene, in your day scene. We do this, because self - illumination works in the day as well.

Remember to save! Put your day render into yourp lugins, and remove the night render. Test it in game, remember that if you make it a landmark or building it needs power to show nightlights!

Anyway, that's the basic idea. I will eventually make a nice one for the Omnibus, but this works for now.

[keith_parquette1 0]

Nice work, Swat. Would you be interested in BATing buildings from Atlanta? There are so few on STEX. What I would like to see are Peachtree Center, the downtown Hyatt, the downtown Hilton and Mariott, 191 Peachtree Tower, the Georgia Pacific Building, the Equitable building, SunTrust Plaza and the old First Atlanta Bank tower (now a state office building)