nybt-forum-threads NYBT BAT Thread

[kellydale2003 2,276]

I do love your modelling - You can become a great BATter using 3DS Max - Just give it a try, PM me if your interested in trying

Quality is great.

[simcity4fan12 13]

I'm fine with what I use, my quality of BATs is great the way it is. You can't just trust 3DSMAX to make the best BATs. Some of the greatest BATs on the STEX weren't made by 3DSMAX. So please don't remind me again about 3DSMAX. And don't double post like that either.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

When the time comes, it would definitely be worth it to switch (its just a better piece of software), however, if you are happy with how things look then what does it matter? Its not about getting people to come to your thread or download your BATs (hell, they don't even have to like them), its all about having fun modeling and creating something for the game you love. Gmax, if you really put the time and effort into it, can make some beautiful things (Spa's recent work comes to mind), and this little group appears to be doing just fine so far.

Have you been able to convert your sketchup models into gmax well? Sketchup is pretty fun to model with but converting can be a bear. Best of luck to you,

-Todd

[kellydale2003 2,276]

@simcity4fan12 - Alright - I was just trying to make things better, but my suggestion has no consideration to you, so it's alright.

@SimHoTToDDy - I believe that you can export to .3DS and import .3DS to 3DS Max. 3DS Max Native files are (.max)

[simcity4fan12 13]

Thanks Todd, yep so far I haven't had any problems converting sketchup models to gmax. I have been doing that for awhile, before I even released my first BAT. So I know most about sketchup, and how to make sure everything comes out allright.

No updates yet on my BATs maybe other NYBT members have some, I'm still working on the other side of WTC7. I'll post some pics when I start the back which maybe tonight or tomorrow.

[mben92 9]

simcity4fan12, you said something about creating apartments soon. Will you look into entire housing projects or brownstones or something along those lines?

[simcity4fan12 13]

I was thinking maybe some apartments in Battery Park City, possibly some brownstones too. I think I'll make a couple of brownstones. Possibly some apartment complexes in the Lower East Side, TriBeCa, Battery Park City, or maybe some of the few apartment buildings in the Financial District. Stay tuned

[mben92 9]

Sweet, can't wait. But to be honest with you I was opting for some housing projects, simply because the ones that are standard in the game are a little bit bland and are only individual buildings, And that there aren't enough of them on the STEX. If you were to make some housing projects further down the road, I would like to see the Gowanus houses be made. something to ponder, can't wait to see more, though.

[_Atticus 10]

mben92: actually, there are some really great housing projects by marczar over at SC4D, in case you haven't looked at those yet.

Anyways, some generic apartment buildings from NYC, like the ones you might find in the Upper East or West sides, are severely lacking in SC4. There are a thousand different apartment buildings from Hong Kong on the STEX, but none from NYC. Rivaling Hong Kong's dominance on the STEX could be a great thing if you could somehow do it. There are my two cents.

-Pingangster

[simcity4fan12 13]

I'm back with a new BAT I started: some Brownstones! Here's what I got so far.

They aren't wide enought to completely fit a 1x2 so I'm going to copy those two in a seperate scene and change up the colors and the roof then import it back in this scene and maybe mess around with the scale and they will be 1x2 W2W! How do you like them so far?

[mben92 9]

i have to say, very impressive. I like the textures.

[simcity4fan12 13]

Well, I made 2 seperate scenes, and merged them together. It seemed to work out fine, then I wanted to test them in the lot editor to see if they would fit a 1x2. Not only did it not, but now I have a problem...

I'm thinking I have to export the 2 different scenes seperately and have one as a prop while the other is the building...but I don't think that will look good at certain views. Is there any way to fix this?

[mben92 9]

I'm going to say this about the housing projects that pingangster was talking about: I have used them, and I am very pleased with them, but I feel as though I am limited to only three building types, so I don't see very much diversity there, a perfect example featured in marczar's work would be the gowanus houses. The buildings look completely different in the game than they do in real life. I know what he's trying to do, but I still feel there's a need for something "more realistic". just something to get off my chest. Still nice Brownstones, though.

[maikeli.1 12]

Hey Simcity4fan12 ask hanson784 what happened with the citicorp tower he was recreating?

[simcity4fan12 13]

It was lost when a virus attacked his computer. He has to start over on it. I might re-make it for him though. Can any one help with the error I'm having with the Brownstones? There's a picture above.

EDIT: I fixed the error I had with the Brownstones! Turns out it was just the lighting rig and the camera rig. Here's a pic of them so far.

Adorable aren't they?  Haha, I'm thinking they will be either Low Wealth Residential, or Medium Wealth. What do ya'll think?

Here's a nite preview so far. I only got one building barely lit up, I have to light up the door and the back windows too.

They are probably the easiest and quickest BAT I made, starting in sketchup then gmax. Each of them are 4 storeys tall and all together they fit a 1x2 lot as W2W. I like how they turned out so far.

[Hanson784 165]

That's happened to me a few times and can be very frustrating. Try merging it into a new scene. When you merge the model don't select the camera, any lighting or ypur LOD's as those may be causing the render problems. Refit your LOD's and reset your camera and lighting after you merge. Hope that helps.

As for Citicorp it was indeed lost when I reinstalled Windows, I was about 1/2 done. I forgot to back up my BAT folder in my hurry and all the BAT's I was currently working on a couple of months ago were erased. Thankfully, I can reBAT them.

Speaking of which does anyone have the 3D model of Citicorp I put up for download in my downloads section on my blog? The download link has changed for it.

EDIT: Very nice work. Glad to see you have everything sorted out. Those brownstones remind me of Brooklyn. They can be R$ or R$. Many middle income residents in NYC live in apartments like that (and with the recent US real estate bubble maybe even R$$$ lol)

Don Miguel, Great to see a recent work by you! Broadway-Chambers fits in nicely with the rest of the Maxis buildings. The details are very nicely done also, looking forward to it.

I'll show progress of my projects when I have more time.

[simcity4fan12 13]

I had it, but I lost it as well. Maybe the free one is on that other site that he put his free WTC on. I haven't checked there yet. I did re-fit LOD's and the camera and lighting rig and now everything is fine.

[Francis90b 748]

You should think that building wealth in RL is not only conditioned by their architecture, but also by their location.

Therefore, a building like this may, in real life, be either low-wealth or medium wealth.

I think it would be great if your brownstones could be released as both R$ and R$$ also because they would be much more useful .

Do you plan some more variations?

I'd like to have also a cream one and a white one, and i think it would be great if you can release some more of them in other brick colors (right now you have orange and brown, but maybe those beauties may look wonderful also in other shades of red-brown )

Sorry to hear about citycorp building .I usually save the BATs i'm doing on a USB memory, so that i could save them if my HD burns or other unpleasant things happens.

[simcity4fan12 13]

I'll possible do some more variations soon. After my mian BATs are done. Maybe after I export those I'll keep the gmax model file and change the wall textures to another color and different brick texture.

When I release the Brownstones(those you see in the picture will be released TODAY!!!) I'll include two versions: A R$ and a R$$ version.

I'm working on alot of NYC skyscrapers, but I might put 2 of them on hold and save them to a CD and delete the current files on my computer to save room. These 2 I'm putting on hold will be the Bertlesmann Building and Fiterman Hall. I might add the Trump Building to be put on hold...maybe. Either that or my WTC project.

[_Atticus 10]

These brownstones look fantastic! I just think they may be a bit to narrow. It may just be me, but I think 4 houses in one tile is a bit too much. I would try it out with just 3, but that's just me. Other than that, they're great!

-Pingangster

[simcity4fan12 13]

Well if I did just 3, they wouldn't be W2W on one side becuase of how narrow they are. But that looks interesting IMO. They are 1x2 BTW. 1 tile wide and 2 tiles deep. I'm thinking for the lot, that the front tile will be concrete will the back tile will be grass with fences seperating the backyards. Possibly that. I'm thinking of some more colors to do after those. In those it's just red, brown, red brown, and some pink color lol. And when there's more, not only will there be different colors, but I might change the architecture on them. I might use those one more time and make another release with different colors and just change up the roofs again to make them look a tad different.

I wanted to make them, so I searched on google 3d warehouse for some New York Brownstones to get an idea of what the ones I made look like. I downloaded one, to get a good look at, and it had a google earth terrain peice under it, showing how narrow these buildings were in real life. I'm not sure where in New York that was though, maybe Brooklyn.

[simcity4fan12 13]

Coming soon(most likely in a few minutes after this post) to the STEX.....

[mben92 9]

those look really nice. Are you going to make color variations?

[simcity4fan12 13]

Soon I will...just trying to upload these right now but I'm having problems with the STEX...

[Kryptowhite 9]

WAIT!

you've got a major issue. Look at how bad that scaling is

Either the church is incredibly over scaled or the rowhomes are incredibly underscaled, i don't know. My guess though is it is a little bit of both. Make sure all floors are around 4 meters and that the base floor is slightly taller than 4, somewhere between 4 and 5 meters. Otherwise these models, no matter how good they look, won't be usable.

Edit: just noticed the sims, which tell you that its the homes that need to be scaled up. Look, the guy in the wheelchair is nearly as tall as the entrance!

[simcity4fan12 13]

Yea, I need to scale them up. I compared them to real life ones(like in widith and height) but apparently the model of one I found on 3d warehouse that I compared mine to wasen't scaled in the height. I also think the church is slightly over-scaled but I'm not too sure. I'm going to delete the finished ones, change the scale, and hopefully release them right.

Unfortunately, I tried releasing them already, but for some reason the STEX wouldn't upload them and I tried to upload them 3 times... Francis90b told me that the STEX might be just clogged and will be fixed when unclogged. I hope that when its fixed that there won't be 3 files of the same thing on there! Everyone will have a fit...

[simcity4fan12 13]

I re-scaled the brownstones. How does it look now?

[_Atticus 10]

They look better. Glad to see you went with my suggestion of three houses, but I would still say they need to be scaled up. Just look at the sims and compare them with your roof height.

-Pingangster

[simcity4fan12 13]

I did scale them up...If I scale them any more, they will have to fit on a 2x2 lot.

[Kryptowhite 9]

you can scale them vertically only. They don't need any scaling width or length wise. But they should be nearly twice as tall vertically i think.