nybt-forum-threads PBGV's BAT Thread

[PBGV103 729]

Thanks Vlasky. I actually follow the skyscraperpage equivalent of that thread. It'll take some hunting around but I might be able to find enough reference material eventually.

I'll also have to wait for the construction to fully finish. There's still debate over whether the dark patch of panels at the tip of the building is actually the color of the glass or just a protective wrap.

[weixc812 509]

sten1700: My plan is to release all of the area's buildings at the same time.

Will the big release plan include some old BATs like Citi tower?

[PBGV103 729]

With what I know know with modeling, it would probably be smarter to just remake a lot of the old stuff. But for now I'm just focused on these new buildings.

[unclesahm 32]

Paul, you are more than a strong BATer - you are an artist. And I should know, because I work with artists. Your creations are incredible; your attention to detail is peerless. For months I've been salivating over your teasers because they are so gorgeous. But as Steve Jobs said, "great artists ship." I think -- and I know I'm not alone on this -- that you should start releasing your backlog -- the Park Ave. buildings, maybe the Citibank building -- because I can tell you've put so much time, effort, and talent into these BATs that it would be a shame to let them go.

 

I know I'm probably not going to change your mind, but I think you should consider it. Come claim your crown.

[PBGV103 729]

weixc812: Right now I'm focused on the Carnegie Hall area towers. Eventually I would like to get back to Citigroup Center, but a large portion of it will need to be remade for efficiency's sake.

unclesahm: I still have a long way to go before anything is released. I will never release unfinished projects.

I had trouble sleeping last night so I was bored and threw together a quick mock up of a proposed tower. As you can see It's nearly twice as tall as most buildings in the area and about 45% taller than One57. Does anyone recognize it?

[Vlasky 1,803]

217 West 57th street

 

My first guess was 432 Park Avenue, but, lol I guessed that this is the area (Metropolitan-Carnegie-CitySpire-One57) and than there is that overhanging part of it as well , so I looked it up and, I discovered this building that is in the prep stage (!?) lol

 

EDIT:

 

Anyhow, I'd advise against going further with that one, as it seems that there is no final design available for it.

[Parisian 556]

Btw, what a mess this tower. In my opinion this project is ruining the whole perspective of the south central park area. But that's just my point of view...

 

Anyway, I will be more than happy to see this "not yet built" project becoming reality in SC4. 

 

Question : The one you are realizing is the final project? Or this one get all its chance to come? 

 

[PBGV103 729]

Vlasky: Of course, I would never spend significant time on a building that hasn't been completed yet. I just wanted to see how tall 434 meters looked in the game and get a better perspective on the cantilever everyone hates. I have to admit it looks a little strange, but no more than the rest of the building. The whole thing looks like a bad game of tetris.

Parisian: The one in your picture is 220 Central Park South. The building Vlasky is talking about, and the one in the render is Nordstrom Tower or 217 W 57th Street. In my opinion, 220 CPS is one of the most beautiful of the buildings that should be rising soon, along with Tower Verre and 111 W 57th Street. Again, however, I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time on a building that will likely have major design changes as construction begins.

[cmdp123789 710]

Omg! Cityspire... And did I see the Carnegie and the museum? Those look awesome... And they fill up that void we all have in midtown manhattan! I have to admit, at this point, and after your long absence, I have nothing but words of gratitude and admiration... I wish I could BAT like you do!

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Amazing!

It's going to be a great project!

[Hanson784 165]

Cityspire and Metropolitan Tower look great in the game! And I spy Carnegie Hall Tower also, looking forward to seeing them hit the STEX

 

Personally not too much of a fan of the supertall swath going up along 57th Street (now dubbed "Billionaire's Row"); Nordstrom Tower does indeed look like something of of Tetris and is dangerously tall... did it really get the green light for construction? So many buildings going up in that area it's hard to keep up. A bit of an aside but I've decided for my own NYC recreation that the Midtown skyline set in 2012 before the Supertall craze made a visual impact.... though Parisian making One 57 might have me bending the rules since it's growing on me every time I pass by it.

[PBGV103 729]

I wouldn't call it dangerously tall. After all it will be roughly the same height as 432 Park Avenue, and the Burj Khalifa is nearly twice as tall, 434 meters vs 828 meters. I do agree that the 6 buildings over 300 meters tall will look a little out of place for a while until other projects fill in the gaps. One or two, like One57 look fine peaking out of the crowd of Midtown, but eventually it will begin to look strange. I would equate it to a smile missing every other tooth.

Also, I haven't started on Carnegie Hall Tower yet. What you see is just a textured box. Which museum are you talking about cmdp? There aren't any in that picture.

[cmdp123789 710]

I meant metropolitan... I don't know why I said museum lol! Basically the 2 buildings behind cityspire.. Are those 2 boxes? They look pretty good to be boxes... Now I read again... And you mentioned that you want to release them as a pack and that you wanna work faster... What are the odds of that becoming true... Cause you seem to work pretty fast to me... And at this pace, and based on the fact that you don't want to repeat what happened to 270 park ave... You seem to have everything to become probably the most influential batter of manhattan'is midtown ever... By the way you are doing right now, I really believe that in 2 months we will be seeing this buildings released... If of course you keep this crazy and fast pace... If not.. Well it wouldn't be bad either since most of good creations take time... As I said befor, nothing but words if gratitude towards this projects of you

[PBGV103 729]

Only Carnegie Hall Tower is a textured box. Metropolitan Tower is modeled but not entirely finished. There are renders of it a page or two back. I can't speak to how quickly these buildings will be finished. I've been working on modeling the interior walls and floors of CitySpire Center tonight, and with the complex facade it's taking much longer than I expected. You can't simply make planes for floors as I had done with old models. In this case each floor needs to be form fitting to the exterior and included the inner walls and window frames, all in order to prevent light from traveling between floors in the night renders. As you can see below, a lot of the detail will be lost in renders, but it still needs to be there to prevent the light seepage.

[edwardjeria 503]

in before and after 

would look so central park south 

 

if I'm cincero nome like 

takes a lot of that old style neighborhood 

you believe

[PBGV103 729]

Unless I'm mistaken there's no way to make a residential landmark, correct? Since these buildings are mixed use (part commercial, part residential), but mostly residential, I was leaning toward making them residential in the game. From experimenting before, even with the extra cheats building plop, placing residential buildings causes them to be abandoned unless there is already a similar density residential building on the same tiles, and even then there seems to be no commuters from the building. Does anyone else have any insight on this issue?

[cmdp123789 710]

No no.. You got it right! No way to really make a residential plop work 100% I would rather have it commercial landmark... And a residential growable... But that's just my opinion

[PBGV103 729]

Here's a small update on CitySpire. I know it looks like not much has change, but I've been working on it nonstop. The floors took forever but they're finally done. Next on the to-do list is fix the more details on the facade, make blinds, roof tops, base, then interior. Luckily there's no plaza attached to this building so that speeds things up a little.

[cmdp123789 710]

Wow!! I spotted the floors and some new details in the base! I really like the way this is turning!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Lovely work on the building and the details are coming together.

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Well done, it's looking nice.

[Vlasky 1,803]

I think that transparent glass makes it all so different And when the shades come in, it's all gonna look so much more like in RL

 

btw, are these taken from the perspective you were looking for?

 

 

[PBGV103 729]

Those pictures are from the correct side but it's the base I need to get a look at. It's a little late in the game to be changing the base now though, even if I can find pictures.

[Seraf 1,239]

Just wanted to say that the building comes along very nicely Good work!

[PBGV103 729]

I'm back and took a few pictures while I was in NYC. If anyone needs pictures of a particular building, just ask and I can see if I have any.

I'm still planning on finishing the towers I've been working on, but while I was in Times Square I realized that pictures alone don't do it justice. Video does a much better job at showing the dynamics of the area. So I think if/when I get around to making any of those buildings I'll need to figure out how to make animations, and it's not just signs but things like the changing colors of lights on the 4 Times Square and Bank of America antennas and the lights that shoot up the sides of the Westin. Even the signs cast light, so they'll need to be rendered as part of the buildings they're attached to.

Does anyone have experience with this type of thing?

I think it finally sunk in how infinitely much work there is to do to make an NYC recreation. It's feeling a little discouraging. At the rate I'm going it would take a decade to get anything that really resembled the city.

[cmdp123789 710]

Well... If we were yo be honest, there will never be a "complete" or 100% "accurate" recreation per se... But because of people like you, we have the chance to at least get something that resembles the real thing... So, as long as you keep batting, and others as well.. There will be hope!! I love the game... And to be honest, more than 10 years have passed, and I still play it like if it was day number one.. So I don't see why I wouldn't still play it 10 years from now lol

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Basically what you'd do is export the animation separately as an animated prop, which would contain the lights plus everything behind the lights that shows through (the facade mostly), and then the building itself which would have a generic lighting scheme which the prop would overlap. I did something similar for my US Bank BAT, along with some other BATs, where I had an optional sign at the top of the building. But because of the glare in the night version, the sign prop was actually a pretty big "cap" which covered the top 1/3rd or so of the tower. I also did the same thing for the Penobscot Building's seasonal top.

 

The downside to this technique is that the exporting of the main building and the prop isn't pixel perfect, and it seems impossible (all the times i've done it anyway) to get it to align on all sides properly. One rotation is always aligned incorrectly. The other downside is that the filesizes get really big really fast, but I think for something special like animated nitelites like that people might be willing to let such a massive file into their plugins folder.

[weixc812 509]

Paul, it's not because we want to build New York that we're supporting this thread. We just want something from NYC to create our own "New York". So every step you shared with us makes sense, though we know resembling even one district of New York is such an impossible task. We fully appreciate your work and look forward to finally having them(the BATs you showed us) one day.

[PBGV103 729]

Very little has changed since I last posted this building, but I haven't forgotten about it. I'll try to finish the major modeling and materials tonight and tomorrow and move on to the interior.

[Parisian 556]

Paul, your projects are amazing really. So realistic as usual. Don't know why I was dying for the CitySpire a long time ago. The fact to see it soon release for SC4 make me feel happy.

 

Anyway, concerning what you said about the Times Square area and the dynamic pulsed by gigantic screens, you are right the way that without any movements from the huge street commercials, it is not very Times Square. Maybe creating very luminous commercials with flashy colors etc etc could be a little closer from the reality? 

 

In my opinion, 4 buildings are now reprensenting the times square area like no one else : 4 Times Square, Bertelsmann, the Times Square tower and the Morgan Stanley. 

 

I think we also miss the Bryant Park area building forrest such as One Bryant Park, 500 Fifth Avenue and the Verizon.