nybt-forum-threads PBGV's BAT Thread

[PBGV103 729]

Night exports are supposed to be shorter than day exports, right? Well this one wasn't. The day render took 10.5 hours and the night render took 18 hours!!!! O_o I have no ide why that happened. The materials where all set up the same way as my previous models.

Anyway, here's a few pics from the game.

[mben92 9]

This Looks Amazing! I think this is ready for a STEX upload, unless there are any loose ends needing to be tied up...

[harishna 847]

Umn I think you should change the maps you are using for the night views, they look like tiles rather than windows. I think they should be a bit more homogeneous, so much variations in color, intensity and texture pattern don't seem to work for this kind of building. From the distant looks fantastic.

  Edited October 7, 2011 by harishna  

[Jazzmaster 716]

I like that you used this night shot to showcase it. It can be hard to really know what a building will look like in game if we can't see it ourselves. Having it next to other buildings works good too, obviously, since a building like this would never stand alone or shine alone at night.

Hope to see it soon, although some of the more knowledgeable modelers here may have a few more words about it.

EDIT: It seems somebody already got there.

  Edited October 7, 2011 by Yoshiisland  

[PBGV103 729]

Yeah, I know what you mean Harishna, but if I do that zoom 1-3 won't look as good while zoom 4&5 will look better. I'm not sure what the solution is. Anyone have any advice?

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

That's what happen to me on the Park Towers Apartment night render, it was 5 hours, I thought night what supposed to be shorter but I think not, it has something to do with all the lighten on the model.

[gutterclub 2,729]

I reckon most people operate at zoom 3-4, is there any way to get a happy medium. Otherwise it is looking lovely as expected.

[Vlasky 1,803]

The Night shots are really stunning, but I agree with Harishna. I'd say go with uniform material. And maybe warm it up a bit. I can post pics here that I've just found, hope they help you with pattern and maps a bit:

And lobby from building's official site, which is what I'd strongly suggest you go for as it looks a bit saturated, but much more attractive :

[Seraf 1,239]

I agree with Vlasky, can you make night windows more similar to those from Seagram Building? I mean - mainly in color Anyway, nightview looks fantastic

[PBGV103 729]

As far as the actual window bitmaps go, do they look any better now? I decreased the contrast and increased the brightness on each. Next I could adjust the color of the self-illumination, but I really don't think it should look exactly like the Seagram. The Seagram has glazed bronzed windows while this building has standard double pane windows. Short of finding completely new maps I'm not sure what else I could do. The interior of the lobby also bothers me a little because it's so empty, but as you can see from the photos Vlasky supplied, even if I modeled the interior, you wouldn't be able to see it because everything is so far back from the windows.

[gutterclub 2,729]

I don't tit matters too much if there is stuff visible in the interior, but you could always add some planter boxes or something little if its not too time consuming? Either way, I'm really looking forward to its release, making boxes look wonderful!

[anotn 223]

The lobby looks a bit empty but it is no big deal, but you could do as gutterclub says add some planter boxes and as one of the pictures Vlasky posted actually shows that there are at least one in the actual building standing right by the windows. About the night lights I agree with you that it should not look like the seagram but I think you still can add some warmth in the color of them. And maybe tone down the glare just a bit. Amazing work on this one from you, looking forward to use this in my cities.

[Vlasky 1,803]

I might have overdid it, but warmth wise this is what I would aim for. nothing like Seagream, but war non the less:

Pardon my bad PS skills

[PBGV103 729]

The planter boxes have been there this whole time. lol You can see them if you go back to the in-game pics of the south side of the building.

Vlasky, I think I can do that, but what about the individual bitmaps?

  Edited October 8, 2011 by PBGV103  

[Vlasky 1,803]

SF posted this image. Maybe you can extract maps from this image, it does offer some diversity

[PBGV103 729]

Thanks Vlasky, that pic really helped. Now the only problem is the obvious repetition of maps for the windows. A single multi/sub map lets me use 20 bit maps and I haven't been able to make one multi/sub the child of another. So I'm stuck with 4 materials with 20 randomized bitmaps on each. That means 80 different windows, but only 20 different maps per group. I'm sure it sounds a little confusing, but basically I'm just looking for a better way to reduce the repetition.

  Edited October 9, 2011 by PBGV103  

[PBGV103 729]

I need to turn down the kelvin of the lights on the plaza and add the lighting under the trees, but are the windows looking any better?

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Yes, much better. Hope to see more of your work!

[PBGV103 729]

Thanks Brandon! Here's a quick update on the Citigroup Center. I think I might have finally gotten the aluminum right.

[Vlasky 1,803]

Don't worry, repetition of maps is not noticeable. New windows look great Really stunning work

Citigroup: Well first thing, I wanted to say way back, is that those cylinders on top of the crown should be squashed a little bit. About Aluminium, well I like the change, but it does kindof looks matte and in previous renders it look like it has that aluminium shine. Dunno, maybe it's just me, or maybe you should increase glossies and reflection

[ozdaniel 4]

when you are going to upload the citigroup center ? i can't wait to place it in my city

[PBGV103 729]

Vlasky you're focusing on the upper part of the building. Take a look at the lower part. The higher the aluminum is, the further away from the ground plane and anything else it could reflect it is. If you look at the lower floors on the previous render you can see that the aluminum near the ground is way too reflective. I think the current settings are the closest I've come to replicating the actual material used on the building.

Ozdaniel, don't start worrying about that. It'll be a very long time till the model is finished.

[PBGV103 729]

I just exported the Citigroup Center to see how the new material looks in the game. Personally I think it's the best yet by far. The material on the slanted part of the roof is slightly different from the other aluminum and I'm still having issues with it. From some angles it's exactly what I'm going for but from the south end I think it looks too reflective. It should definitely be a lot brighter at this angle since it's reflecting the sun, but not as bright as it looks right now. So how can I keep the level of reflectivity at those other angles but reduce it from the south side?

Viewing from the east

Viewing form the south

Other views

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

i had this issue with one of my buildings (this one here) on the left part theres that angled roof like on yours, it has a reflective textue i havent posted a picture of yet (still working on it)

Anyway it suffred from the same thing yours did and heres how i solved it: I made a seprate camera and faced it directly at that face. and rendered from there. It gave me a "texture" of that face with the reflection on it. I saved that as a image then replaced it with the current diffuse texture on that face. After that i turned the reflection all the way off. Since i rendered the refection separately on a view that wasn't blown out, it still looked like it had it, it was just "fake" but still looked just fine.

In short, render a camera view looking directly at that face with the problem, save the output as a image and use that image as the new texture but with the refection off (the render will add the reflection)

[PBGV103 729]

The problem with that is it changes the reflection seen at the other angles as well. Essentially I need to reduce the maximum reflectivity while maintaining the low and mid range values.

[Vlasky 1,803]

But can't you make separate material for those parts? And make them less reflective, while maintaining the others' reflectivity. can you even do that?

***EDIT***

from east it looks perfect in game (except from those cobalt blue reflections on top).

East view, well I get that it's too reflective, but it is very reflective in RL as well. Its crown shines bright even on pics from downtown. It is only a bit excessive, and I do get that It can't be kept like this in game. And again we see cobalt blue here as well.

Other that this. It looks perfect and completely captures the RL spirit of it in those in game shots. I love it, it's like chameleon, every view, different story

  Edited October 9, 2011 by Vlasky  

[PBGV103 729]

The problem with making two materials is that it isn't two set areas, it's a gradient of reflectivity, and actually, that way it's more true to real life. To be honest, I'm perfectly happy with the way it looks.

I also fixed up 600 Lexington Ave today. I just need to make a new brick bitmap for the back of the building and it'll be finished. Unfortunately I don't have photoshop so I'll have to figure out a way to make one in gimp.

[PBGV103 729]

So why did exporting 600 Lexington only take 2 hours when exporting 345 Park Ave took almost 30 hours? Obviously there's a size difference, but 345 isn't 15 times larger than 600.

[mben92 9]

600 Lexington Ave. looks awesome! keep up the good work

[Chris M 406]

Wow, I totally missed 600 Lexington Ave. in all of the previous pictures you've posted. Anyway, it looks great and really looking forward to this one on the STEX. :-)