Xyloxadoria's BAT and Portfolio Work Thread

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

So this is the bridge you were talking about. I'm personally not a fan of all that modernism, but I like the structuralism-elements.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Love love the look, to me the floor height is to high unless my eyes are lying to me.

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

Love love the look, to me the floor height is to high unless my eyes are lying to me.

I scaled the floors 133%, which might have been a bit much.

Anyway i have really good news  I was able to perform some Necromancy and revive the Cathedral of Learning. Since its back from the dead now, it will be my main focus.

 

The modeling on it is now done, and I have moved onto the texturing. Im working on the texturing and also trying to find a good set of paths to use for the building's lot since it has multiple places where paths would need to be added, as well as a hill in the back. Here are some pictures of the early phases of texturing, which is very beta at the moment, I put a picture of each side so that all the paths are visible. Ive also included a reference picture that shows the actual location of the paths in real life in hopes that someone knows of a base or overlay texture set that would work for said paths.

Oh also i haven't done vertical scaling on the building yet, so it looks short and stubby for the time being. Based on the cube in the second picture, 120% looks about right

 

 

[Girafe 1,729]

Looks amazing

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

That already looks spectacular! 

[madhatter106 3,931]

I love this. It looks gorgeous, and reminds me of my college days.  Though I wasn't at Pitt, I was at Carnegie, just up the street.  But the Cathedral of Learning was always in sight.  Yay Pittsburgh!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

A cathedral it is!

As for the paths, I guess it depends on how much exact faith to the original you are ready to sacrifice. It should be possible to create a similar pattern using the BSC texture packs, but a 100% recreation is probably impossible using only the LE.

[Harry's Place 918]

Cathedral of Learning back from the dead. OMG can't believe it, now that's what i call a halloween gift

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

Update: I'm mostly done with texturing except for a few tweaks and just have to add roofjunk. Looking for some texturing advice if you have any  

 

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

That grass unfortunately :/ I really appreciate that masterpiece but since you wanted some advise ... I don't like the grass. Especially when the ground has a steeper slope then the reast of the lot the grass looks blurred (although thanks to the perspective it's not too bad for most of the lot). Also, I don't like the atmosphere the grass causes. The grass would be better fitting for something like a sports ground with some dirt to it. The building with its Art-Deco design really looks a bit out of place with that grass and there deserves either some more watering, a decent lawnmower or a better gardener D: 

[gutterclub 2,729]

My gosh, the Cathedral of learning is amazing. I take it/hope you will be working on the glass windows? It doesn't look like it is textured or any materials on it yet?

 

Great work

[Harry's Place 918]

Indeed the grass should be changed. The building it's perfect

[Ernestmaxis 232]

What a masterpiece of art.Amazing work!

[Seraf 1,239]

Looks impressive

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

Update! Day is done there is now roof junk and a new front entrnace:

I took out the hill and replaced it with a staircase i made up and a little fenced green area:

 

I have also started on the night render:

(Ignore the boxes they are for testing purposes)

[art128 4,622]

I honestly prefer it without the hill, for some reasons. Looks good, the nightlights are great.  

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow! I think you found just the right compromise between a faithful recreation and a BAT that's good to handle in game. The building retains its character, the recreation is unmistakeable, but we'll be able to use it in SimCity easily, flexibly and without any downsides.

The night lights look great as well. Not too many, not too few, all realistic, and the illuminated crown as an eyecatcher to top it all off, but without being too flashy.

You might want to play with the green for hedges and grass areas to match in-game textures more closely, but that's about all I can find for now. Great progress!

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Nicely written TWrecks. Any alternatives about the grass I pointed out on your last update?

[Harry's Place 918]

OMG

[mattb325 28,891]

Absolutely stunning! I like the compromise you've made with the hill vs staircases.

[MushyMushy 3,618]

This is looking really good! I think you did a good job with the replacement for the hill.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looking good buddy.

[Ceafus 88 1,898]

Very well done my friend!

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

I have got the building in game!

So far i have figured out three things:

- No existing path sets I have line up with all of the doors of the building correctly. I will have to make my own custom path prop for the building

- The scale of the building might be a bit too small

- The grass doesn't match but that should be easy to fix.

Here is a picture of the building the smaller version is it at the current size, the bigger picture is the building 115% bigger. Which one looks like the correct size of the building? Or would the correct size be somewhere between the two?

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Theoretically, if you stick to RL width / depth and RL height * 133%, you should be fine. Comparing to other BATs is generally difficult; scotty222's stuff seems to be on the smaller side scale-wise, whereas the rendition of Lever House you used seemed pretty big in scale to me when I checked it out myself. If in doubt, I'd check against a mixture of Maxis buildings from comparable tilesets, plus maybe some of the NYBT skyscrapers by Darknono35 and/or some Art Deco mipro stuff by nofunk and Jason, or some of darn42's work.

As for the paths, delecto has made a bunch of footpath props that are perfectly flat and, hence, affected by the shadows of the building and of other props. I used them on these lots to great effect (or so I think), and even though it might not look like it in the LE, they do blend together pretty seamlessly in game. You just need to raise them by 0.1 to 0.2 units to avoid a graphical glitch.

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

15 hours ago, T Wrecks said:

Theoretically, if you stick to RL width / depth and RL height * 133%, you should be fine. Comparing to other BATs is generally difficult; scotty222's stuff seems to be on the smaller side scale-wise, whereas the rendition of Lever House you used seemed pretty big in scale to me when I checked it out myself. If in doubt, I'd check against a mixture of Maxis buildings from comparable tilesets, plus maybe some of the NYBT skyscrapers by Darknono35 and/or some Art Deco mipro stuff by nofunk and Jason, or some of darn42's work.

I followed your advice and used darn42's model of the Tribune Tower as a reference for scale since it is the closet building in architectural style to the one I am making. Right now my building is exactly as tall as his (Link to picture)

But in real life they are not the same height. Tribune Tower is 463' tall and the Cathedral of Learning is 535'  Doing the math, (535*100)/463 = x comes out that i need to make my building 115% bigger than it is currently height wise. It was only scaled up 120% in height for this render, so that means it would be right up at 133% after adding the rest of the missing vertical scale. Ill do a few render tests to see if I need to scale in the x/y dimensions as well.

Edit: Only needed to scale vertically. Here is an image link. The correctly scaled one on the right (133%) looks better.

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

This building looks amazing!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Oooh yes, the right one looks spot on! Man, if you get this one out before Dec 31, we have another hot candidate for Bat of the Year 2015! And if it takes a little longer, for BAT of the Year 2016.

[SimCoug 5,976]

Comparison to the Tribune tower was a good idea, and I agree that the last render looks perfect.  Nice work!

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

I decided to make custom paths and (if the LODS work) custom bushes for the lot. They will be rendered as separate props. (Don't worry the grass is not part of it, its just there for lot size reference, the lot is 8x8) I will then add the rest of the lot details in Lot Editor. The paths are a modified version of the actual paths the building has in real life. The National Registry of Historic Places had a site plan of the building on its page. (One of my previous posts shows the image)