Sgt Pepper's BATs

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Ah, thanks for the screenshot and the explanation. In fact, after taking a good look at the building in Google Maps (it is 80 Pine Street), I saw that in the original building the tower walls are parallel with two of the base walls, and the base footprint is not a rectangle at all, but a trapezoid. It's a very odd shape, but it somehow makes sense in the context. In my opinion, the best solution would be either to keep the angle and recreate the actual shape of the real-life building (because in that context the angle looks sensible) or to straighten things up and focus on the setbacks. Of course you're free to do whatever you want - even a nuclear Starbucks.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

IDS2-Thank you. Mine however isn't exactly the real thing but its close enough with the diagonal tower.

bixel- I kept it diagonal. Hope you'll like this next update.

Gn_Leugim- I'm quite a different guy I've noticed.

T Wrecks- Haha, a Nuclear Starbucks... xD I guess these proportions are close enough. I kept it diagonal, however I also made the other side diagonal with it as well. You'll see what I'm talking about in a moment. In fact, it gave the lot a 4x5 size now, barely. That gives it space for a plaza, and even better it could be modded for one of those FAR pieces probably with the way it is now.

From what I've said, I put more effort into this to make the lower part of the building angled like the tower on the north side.

Well I'm hoping this will be more practical.

(some images of the south side first)

Now the North(you'll notice something odd about the glass that I'll discuss after the pics)

Obviously its textured now and I went with a dark blue facade with silver or white mullions. However, you'll notice the glass on this diagonal side(and I think its affecting the West Side as well but I didn't check it just looks like it from the image) that there's these diagonal streaks on the glass, just the glass. The glass are all planes, but there is no overlapping geometry/or copied planes. I checked... Anyone have any idea why this is happening?

This happened on my second version of 22 Cortlandt Street before the file got corrupted or something but it wasn't this noticeable... I also have 3 of these files saved just in case... Any ideas?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

It's looking really great now! Especially in terms of textures this may be your best work as of yet. I'm really sorry, but I have no idea what causes that strange effect on the windows.

[Francis90b 748]

Texturing-wise it's really looking superb.

Idk what might cause that problem

[darn42 1,268]

My guess would be overlapping polygons. If you have any geometry in the same space as another, delete or get rid of the intersecting parts. That seems to be what it is. good work though.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

T Wrecks- Why thank you! And oh it's quite all right. I'll figure it out myself pretty soon I'm sure. I may have found a solution but I'm not too sure. Fingers crossed though!

Francis90b- Thank you sir! I'm surprised there isn't a lot of input this time. I'll take it as a sign that I fixed it up right. As for the problem...like I said I may have found a solution.

darn42- That's the thing, there isn't anything overlapping or behind it that's too close. And its only affecting certain sides in renders. And there's nothing like it appearing in view port views.

I ran into a similar problem when modeling out the base. A glass pane had very thick streaks on it(even though its not textured) but the glass pane on the other side did not. Well I moved the glass panes forward very slightly and the streaks on that lobby window vanished. Perhaps doing the same thing to the windows on that diagonal side, moving them out very slightly would fix this. But its odd because there's nothing behind them that they could overlap with... But I'll see about that soon. Or just the merging into a new scene voodoo. I wish saying that would bring Simfox in here...

Well here's some progress on modeling out the entrance-

It's not much, but on the West Side(this is South in the image btw) There will be like an area modeled to look like a store or an area for the store. And on the East Side, it'll be like a garage area mainly on one portion of it. Then on the North side that's slanted I'm basically copying the front.

Oh and here's what I got so far for the night scene, the lighting is pretty much done except for the base-

Of course, once I'm done with the base, I'll start on the roof junk. I think on the tower the roof will be raised up more to the top, but there will be a recessed area with a massive HVAC and a water tower.

The building that this is loosely based on or inspired by actually has two water towers...wondering if I should do the same, since I don't think there will be much on the lower roof.

[Gn_leugim 853]

I would only tell one thing about the textures. the window to be exact. maybe you could turn down a bit the contrast between different tones. I mean, you have some parts that are light green, others light blue, others grey and so on. I know it is part of the glass texture but it could help out to turn the contrast down among these different shades of color no?

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Wow wow i missed so much here. Much stuff within a few days. I think it looks really really great. I love how you make these buildings, you keep their nyc style they have, and we miss these kind of buildings, although there are so many of these in nyc. Anyway back on the model i will only have to agree with gn_leugim

[emperordaniel 1,281]

It seems there's been a lot of goings-on in the thread since I was last here. The new BATs look pretty cool, too.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Thanks guys. I slightly modified the contrast on the glass, it is the Maxis default glass just modified in color. I personally like it like that, but I think this may be a better improvement. We'll see whatcha think.

Whale then... I finished modeling the base I think. Here's a few shots overall and up close on the base, just on the south and west sides(but its finished on the north and east sides too, just didn't feel like waiting an hour or two more for a render)

South-

And a night view as a bonus(south)-

West-

I noticed the UVW Mapping got a little screwed on part of the base on this side, fixing it now. I wanted to model this area to look like a little store, but I'm not sure what t do to make it look like that. Well besides modeling the entire interior of the lobby which I really don't feel up to honestly. Maybe like a metal awning above the entrances, and some posters on the glass?

Glass...still...has...those... streaks.... Doing what I did just moving the planes slightly didn't fix the glitch. I'm going to try see if merging it into a new scene would help any but I don't know... Meh...

Oh and here's a night view on the west side.

T Wrecks, since I don't know how to mod this to be ploppable and have a version that overhangs to be used perhaps with a FAR road piece, would you like to help me do that? When its done of course.

[Jasoncw 11,839]

Yeah I don't know what to say about the glass problem. It really does look like overlapping geometry.

For the texture itself, right now you've done a pretty good job of lining the "floors" of the texture (the bright/dark squares) onto the floors of the building, but you have it so that each floor of the texture is two floors of the building.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great, the glass does look like a over lapping problem.

[harishna 847]

About the night lights, I would reduce the contrast and then make two or three versions with different tints of yellow, red or green applied.

cheers,

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Good progress once again! Of course I'm willing to help you, BUT I'll be gone for 3 weeks soon, so it might have to wait until I'm back.

[Gn_leugim 853]

Looks great, the glass does look like a over lapping problem.

I double this. it looks you have them too close or something like that. It can be also a antialias issue on the render software donno.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I personally like the effect of the overlapping stuff. Whatever sauses the problem, it gives the windows a special look.

[harishna 847]

Well it is a special look but a weird looking one so in my opinion it would be definitely worth fixing it...

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Jasoncw- I wish it were overlapping geometry. I checked and there's nothing overlapping. :/ And thank you for your words and advice there. I changed the UVW mapping a bit to try and match what you were inferring I should do. I'm certain it'll suffice. I'm pleased with it even more now.

Aaron Graham- Thanks friend! And yeah it looks like it doesn't it... Still trying to figure this out.

harishna- Thank you, but I'm afraid I don't know what you mean about shifting something with green or red applied? These are just the nightmaps that Aaron gave me a while back. If it'll help the appearance, I could have some floors lit up with a less bright appearance, giving some contrast.

T Wrecks- Thanks! And oh thank you again and it's quite all right. I can wait. I'm not sure how much more time I'll need on this anyway. I mean I'm almost done. But we can all be patient with this time. I'd love to see what you can do with the lotting on this one. I even considered BATing my own planters for this, for a growable version that'll have that space on the 4x5 lot. But I'm sure there's plenty all ready as props.

Gn_Leugim- I even looked to see if the planes were touching each other on the sides in between each mullion, but that isn't the case either. They're spaced out enough and not touching. I don't know what else to do or what else it could be...

skyscraper241- Ah making a slight negative a positive? Thanks, if I can't fix this issue then I guess this means it won't be much of a problem.

harishna- Well hello again! Still thinking what else to do. I'm trying to merge it into a new scene as we speak to see if that does anything. Other than that, it may have to stay that way...

Okay so not much progress on modeling, just fixed up the glass texture though I did start on modeling on the tower's roof, a recessed area for a massive HVAC. There's going to be a water tower in that space too. Oh, and you'll notice the corner of a green box sticking out through the top. Please dismiss that, it's fixed now, I just didn't rerender a preview. The modeling isn't done for the roof, so there won't be an appearance of the upper roof "floating" soon.

Seems like I'm going to be stuck with those diagonal streaks guys. It won't be that bad for it though right? Merging it into a new scene didn't help either...

But here's a night view on the North side(same side as above) in case I didn't show it yet.

Not going to lie, and I hope it doesn't sound conceited, but I absolutely love this building that I made.

[mattb325 28,878]

Not going to lie, and I hope it doesn't sound conceited, but I absolutely love this building that I made.

Got to agree there

For those diagonal areas - are your windows one big rectangle set to an editable spline, but made in the front or left viewports? If so, check the vertices (by clicking under the edit spline and select the vertices rollout, highlight all four vertices, then right-click to get the options) and make sure they are set to 'corner'.

The default is bezier corner which sometimes causes issues when you rotate by a small degree.

The only other issue I can think of is to rotate the UVW map to match the wall (if set to a box, sometimes it retains the initial orientation)

[Sgt Pepper 864]

mattb325- Hey thanks I really appreciate that. Oh and this option you're referring too, I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with Gmax as much as I let on. Could you elaborate a little further or show me a picture, if you please? It could help me in the long run with upcoming stuff. However, my windows are all individual planes. I had attached them to each other after a while to keep some organization. So I had 2 separate objects of a collection of planes, one being the lit up windows.

However, I have some great news! I fixed the streaks. I had to, however, delete the glass completely and start over. This time, each side is just a huge plane of glass and not individual planes. And everything is fine. However, this means I have to start over on making the night scene. But no biggie. This makes it worth it.

Unless there's any objections, the modelling is done, even the roof. I feel like I could maybe add something to the top roof. Maybe like these metal beams covering the recessed area in the roof a bit. But I don't know I just think I'm done with modelling and need to finish the night lights.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great, look like it will fit in perfectly with the Maxis building.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Thanks Aaron.

I have a few more shots of the East and West sides I can show.

East

West

I can show a north view soon. It hasn't really changed much at all save for the fact that there's no streaks anymore.

EDIT: Wait a con-picking minute, that area on the west side, on the base is still effed up. I think I'm having a problem Gn_leugim was having when he tried to mirror something with a texture all ready on it and that it apparently ruined the textures on it. I'll have to fix that.

  Edited August 13, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

I like this alot, it has come a long way since I last looked, great update.

[mattb325 28,878]

Hopefully this explains it more easily

After creating a rectangle, convert it to an editable spline.

1) Then click on the little '+' to reveal the options. Vertex is the one you are after

2) In your scene, highlight all the vertices that are now displayed

3) Right click to bring up the options dialogue - change 'bezier corner' to just corner

That way when you manipulate splines/rotate etc, the vertices are more likely to stay put.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Great progress here! I really like the result, and I'm gald to hear that you got rid of the streaks problem.

As for the roof, please do add these details if you can muster the motivation to do so - they often make the difference between good and great. I have experienced that myself when building a scale model of a ship... build it out of box, and it looks ok, albeit somewhat plain. Add after-market parts like fine railing and ladders, rig masts and cranes... and all of a sudden, the model buzzes with life and detail and becomes very realistic. It's not just a quantitative aspect, it really adds a different quality - from toy to model in my example.

On a side note, I really like the water tower, but I wonder if the top may be a bit too pointed, or if the whole thing could be raised a bit... recessed so deeply and with that pointed top, it reminds me a bit of a missile in an open silo.

[Gn_leugim 853]

wow, coming along pretty nice I have to say

[Sgt Pepper 864]

mattb325- Ah thank you that's certainly something to try next time. I keep learning new things it seems.

T Wrecks- Thanks! I added some more roof details and edited the water tower where it shouldn't look like a missile in a silo anymore. I added just a little bit more roof detail but I hope it will suffice.

Gn_leugim- Thanks friend.

Well I'm pleased to say and satisfied to say that I am done with it. I'm going to leave it as is. I think its just fine and I hope you guys would agree.

The lot is pretty meager but I just wanted to get it in game. I'd like T Wrecks to do the lot for the release though. You guys think it would also be good to have a version to fit along a FAR piece?

[mattb325 28,878]

Very nice! Look forward to this one being released

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Mattb325- Thanks! Speaking of something released, you've been churning out some great stuff lately.

Well while we wait on this new one to be released(modded and lotted) I started something new that I hope will be fairly interesting-

It's going to be an International Styled Department Store. I wanted to try making something smaller and something that's Commercial Service instead since I get a lot more demand for that than office buildings. It's going to be 2x2 and W2W on its sides. The back has a similar facade of the front, its just the base on the back will be for garages and stuff. Still have to model the roof and that area in the back.

For the entrance, I'm not sure what more detail to put there. I want it to look kind of like the Maxis little stores that go on the front of buildings but not entirely sure what to put there.

[Gn_leugim 853]

what's the width of it? gonna be w2w?

  Edited August 18, 2012 by Gn_leugim