Harishna's BATs

[Francis90b 748]

I like both the 1st and the 2nd option, but i can't decide for one of the two... hope you'll make one of them !

Oh, welcome to page two!

[Bastet69008 1,102]

Great job here! Seems a lot of work with the textures!

Hell yeah! Insignia tower would be very interesting to BAT, it would be nice to have more Mexican buildings in the game! Good luck amigo!

[harishna 847]

Francis90b: thanks! well I0ll take your vote as -1 to the Insignia tower

Bastet69008: Gracias, I'll try to make a few more of Mexican buildings... LBT team made a great work, but I think there are still quite a few more to add.

Wow page two and I still haven't finish my first BAT, maybe is a good sign...

Well enough of dreaming about future projects, I had some time during the weekend (I guess not enough beers to stop me from batting) and I think I'm almost finish, the textures look good enough the model is mostly done, so I guess is just a matter of adding some props (I already added some) and applying the nightlights. But before that I have to confess that made the first floor a little bit narrower than the real thing I did this with the intention of making it less bulky but now I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do, but I guess is to lafindte to change that now. Anyways, nightlights, yes, umn, well I applied some omni lights here and there but I'm not that happy with the results. But first a rookie question is it normal that when previewing the building with day lights for the omni lights to be still visible? Like I was saying I applied some omni lights but I think there are to bright, or maybe to close from the windows I dont know...anyways here is the model at is current state, by the way I added a fountain and yes that is a face on the rock wall, and yes there is a face on the fountain wall in the real building, I just dont know how to simulate the water coming from the wall, I don't even know if should try to simulate it...sorry for the long message, one more thing the gray box is not part of the model I just use it to solve the texture problem

[Timmystwin 201]

wow, funky, really stands out

[Slashback 136]

^ I agree, very cool building!

[Amthaak 1,501]

Very nice progress, I was just wondering, as you are going to use max, it could be a good idea to make a max version of it. You will definitively get better result, specially for the windows reflections( even if they are not very "present" in the bdg) and for the nitelites (very limited in gmax). I know, that it will give you more work, but I think that your bat deserves it!

For your new projects I personnally like the Rectoria tower UNA. Keep it up!

[harishna 847]

Timmystwin: Thanks, I like funky!

ImVhOzzi: Thanks, I like cool too!

Amthaak: So, is it possible to export the model to max, or you mean making a new model?, which probably I wouldn't mind, I mean I already got the textures, I just need to re-model the whole thing, which may be good, I guess it cannot turn worse than the actual version... .

Anyways I exported the model in its current state to check the scale and noticed that it was underscaled, so I changed the scale and exported it again, but this time I cannot find the model in the LotEditor, I exported it as prop using the plugin manager, I have try several times but no luck... any ideas? ah, and how do I make the lights appear only during the night, I mean we need to take care of the environment and save energy!

votes so far:

Rectoria UNAM: 1

RSES: 0

Insignia tower: 0

[tcx 170]

Hi, excellent pogress on your Biblioteca BAT , I'll like to see Rector

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

#1 is a beautiful building, I would definitely love to see someone make that. The others are neat, but that one really strikes my fancy

I have been watching your thread since the beginning and I love the effort you are putting into your project. Its nice to see folks who are willing to perfect things. This building has an immense amount of character, to see it go half-assed would not do it justice.

The nature of this building is going to make it difficult to match up perfectly in game, so I played with the roof and mural textures in photoshop (I would recommend you popping a render into a SC4 screen shot to see how it looks in game). The main mural is a little too yellow (IMO) so I selected the yelow areas and desaturated a little bit (just to take that glowy edge off), I also think the white in the mural could be made a little more blue to counteract gmax's yellowy lighting rig. For the roof, I added some more noise and desaturated some.

Anyway, just my two cents, lovely work!

-Todd

[Spanisher 12]

Nice building, it brings me remembers from Tacheles in Berlin

[Amthaak 1,501]

About exporting to max , here is a link to the thread which explain how to do it! I personnally tried it , but due to the big quantity of polygons it didn't work. Anyway, I was confirm by Sim Fox's comment (page 4 of my bat thread) that it's better to make directly a new bat in max instead of trying to export a gmax model to max. Hope it help!

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=85422&enterthread=y

[harishna 847]

 tcxalapa Gracias, Yeah I think once I finish this I'll start with rectoria

Todd: Thanks very much, I think that if I'm going to do something I rather do it right from the beginning.

I'm also concern that I would proof a little bit difficult to match in the game. I played a little bit in GIMP with the roof texture, I reduced the saturation, but I was hopeless with the noise, I try randomly all the different types of noise with no success. Can you kindly point me in the right direction? also regarding the colors areas in the mural do you mean using magic wand and manually change the color, sorry but I know very little about editing images.

Spanisher: Thanks, looks like a very interesting building. 

Amthaak: I already tried following the method described and open the file in Deep Exploration but when I right click on the file nothing happens, so I got stuck on that...

I haven't have time invest in my model, I can blame a 155cm and 43kg Italian to be the cause of my distraction from duty...but who is complaining...

So besides my failures already mentioned to Todd and Amthaak I'm still stuck with the night lights (they show all the time, night and day), I tried putting nite in front of the omni lights names but doesn't seem to change do the trick...

I'm also having problems opening the file in LE, the first time I did it everything worked perfectly but on the subsequent occasions, after making the changes in the SC4 Plugin manager, I couldn't find the prop in LE.. Qoes the exporting quality affects this?

So resuming this week

SC4Model: big fail...

Italian girl: big success

I guess is not too bad...

[thingfishs 416]

- you need to put "nitelite" in front of the name, not just "nite".

- the reason it isn't showing up in the LE is because you have increased it's scale. Only props whose occupant size fits within the boundaries of a lot will show up in the list. By increasing the size of your lot you will make the item appear again... well that's probably what it is...

- Also with textures I find the most useful tool (I use PS but there will be an equivalent in GIMP) to be dodge & burn. These allow you to quickly and manually darken & lighten areas of the texture without applying a blanket effect to the whole texture.

Still love that building... btw there is a way to export from gmax to MAX which involves a 3rd party program, whose name elludes me. Google it.

[Amthaak 1,501]

"So resuming this week

SC4Model: big fail...

Italian girl: big success"

Italian girl: big success! CONGRATS! THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT!

BTW: omni is not the best option in Gmax, it's better to use spots! you can also use nite maps for your windows (you have some example in my bat thread too page 4)

[SimFox 802]

ah... italy... everything that comes out of that country is so damn sexy - fashion, girls, boys, cars etc, etc...

on the BAT it progressing great. but I think you would be wise to actually remodel it in MAX. The real issue would be not so much the reflexions, but rather lighting.

As for the adjusting texture/fitting textures.. I thin the very concept is deeply flawed. It, in effect counterproductive as it aims to neutralize the effect of the lighting. But that light there by design and for the purpose. And that purpose being compatibility to the game's lighting scheme. So trying to neutralize it is a bit absurd. Model should look natural in game environment. And in my book yours does. I don't see any problem with either yellows or whites. Roof wise... I guess it depends on the original and also if you actually want to follow original in this respect. But I like what I see I would only try to further desat it a bit and see j

[harishna 847]

 Hi, it has been a long time but I have been and still are incredibly busy, never the less I still want to finish the building that I started...So the last thing I did was to re-scaled and import it to the game this is how it looks...what you think about the scale? I don't know about the roof texture but it probably still looks a little bit to plain, any suggestions on how to make it more "alive"? I also still need to add some roof junk... There is also another issue, I don't know how bad it is but as you can see in the second picture something went wrong while exporting the model, any thoughts on this? That is all for now!

cheers

[bixel 1,223]

hrmm - i forgot how to fix this. you can export the lods again in gmax - to make a new model. Then rerender I guess. Also I noticed that gmax will sometimes rename the Lods LOD3.1 LOD3.2 if they are instances of each other. So make sure the LODs are "make unique"

[harishna 847]

Ok this is probably going to sound stupid bixel but what do you mean by export the LODs?

Excuse my ignorance

[Gn_leugim 858]

Remaking the LODs or making sure that they are LOD3 LOD4 and LOD5 (as bixel said) shall do the trick. after that, re-export the model altogether.

[harishna 847]

I think I solved the problem, it looks like it was the cameras and not the LOD's, I will try to export it again and try it on game

[harishna 847]

Hi so I think I am pretty much done with this but before uploading or anything I would like to know what are your opinions on textures, scale, lot, props, etc....I have to admit that I made the ground floor considerably narrower than it is reality thinking on the lot size for the game, but now I kinda regret it, so I don't know if should I change the whole thing and make it more realistic or is it fine as it is? Anyway here are some previews and an in-game picture, the previews are a more updated version I only made small corrections to this one.

[artist 4]

The wall textures are fine, looking good. It's up to you of coarse but perhaps a little more work on the roof textures. Perhaps add a few noise and/or dent masks?

[harishna 847]

artist: thanks, I am not that sure on adding more noise to the roof, the impermabilization used is almost like a paint that looks pretty smooth and that has to be applied frequently, so it is constantly repainted...maybe I can add some marks off puddles.

I have finally started playing with the night lights, here is a  rendered picture. So far I have added some omnis to the ground floor, self illuminated some windows in the main part of the building and used some spotlights to illuminate the facade. I don't know if the spot lights are too dim, unfortunatelly I can no test the nightlights in game. I was also thinking in adding some more details maybe furniture inside the building to make it less and a couple of trees and hedges here and there anyone know of some good models out there that I can use? I donwloaded the model a nice tree but I am having torubles applying the textures... I am still curious to see what you experts think about the scale of the building based on my previous images...I am also about to start another project for this I have installed 3dsMax, but haven't used, I would like to be point out to some good basic tutorials, and I wonder if I have to re-installed as the directory name is Program files.

Drop me a line with your comments

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

You may want to bump up the contrast/ noise on the first floors white concrete texture and perhaps add some flashing to the first floors parapet wall, but generally speaking, I think looks pretty good. You may also want to try making the roof a little more dynamic rather than so uniform. Perhaps add a little dirt/stains to match up with walls, the penthouse, and roof junk.

The fountain has a face

[harishna 847]

Todd: Thanks for such a quick answer I was still editing my comment .... I will try to add more contrast to concrete and try to make the roof lets boring as you suggested, I have to admit I am still pretty bad at using GIMP. I tried to use the noise, and the dodge and burn yesterday with terrible results, anyone knows of good tutorial for GIMP? Or maybe I should try to get photoshop... The only thing I couldn't understand is what you mean by adding some flashing to the parapet (sorry I am not a native English speaker).

cheers

[thingfishs 416]

G'day again Harishna, it's been a while since I've been in here. Great to see that you will at least see this one through to it's end (like the winery). It's all looking good to me, it just depends on how far you want to/can take it. In regards to the night lights, refresh my memory as to what this building's function is in RL (as to how lit up it might be at night)

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Well, the thing with burn and dodge is that you can turn down the intensity. I usually work with an intensity somewhere from 2-8%, more if I'm feeling ballsy. Think of it as a drawing, it may take many strokes and, in fact, you may want multiple stokes so that the seam between normal and darkened is not a sharp line. As for adding noise, sometimes it is as simple as adding contrast (and, depending no the bitmap, adjusting saturation and brightness so those don't get thrown out of whack by extra contrast). GIMP can do most of the things Photoshop can, but I have always been more familiar with PS, so that is what I use.

As for "flashing", it is a cap that goes on top of a wall to keep out the elements. Like so:

[harishna 847]

G'Day thingfishs I haven't got the time to finish this but I got the patience....your winery pack came out pretty well

Regarding the building it functions as the main library for the Mexican National Autonomous Universtiy her is a night shot.

[harishna 847]

So I was giving the "final" touches to my model but now there is an element of the model I can't get rid of (it is just a cylinder), I can't select, transform or delete it, or at least I don't know how....any ideas??? I don't want to go back to one of my previous back ups as I made quite a few changes...

[psander5 197]

It sounds like you might have accidentally frozen it.  Right click anywhere in the viewport and select 'unfreeze all'.  If you have frozen the cylinder it should now be unfrozen.  If it's still stuck then I don't know what else it might be  

The building is coming along nicely!  It's not a style that is likely to fit into my cities, but it is certainly very interesting.