nybt-forum-threads Sgt Pepper's NYBT Projects

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Model looks great, Do you know what kind of compound object it is?

  Edited April 1, 2012 by Aaron Graham  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Each mullion was a compound object before hand...bolean to be exact. But accidentally hitting it again caused the distortion. Any fixes? Or do I have to start over on all of the mullions? -.-

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Want you try to use the extraction button to extract the object. The down fall it only shows two object for me, I now in max it's more complex can you ca save you self from a little disaster.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I'm having trouble seeing the whole picture. It only shows part of it and when I try clicking on it nothing happens. Nor is there a way to scroll on the picture or something.

EDIT: Saved the picture to my computer to view the whole thing. That didn't work Aaron. I ended up deleting all the mullions and frames. I'll just start from scratch on there no real biggie though it'll take me longer and is really tedious.

  Edited April 4, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Here's the link, this website is so slow, and it's making me mad. I have a better internet service and my internet speed is 10mps, so i know it's not my internet.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

What I have now. The building itself is pretty reflective even in its facade. Not sure if I could manage that illusion though. So The facade texture will remain the same.

The Roof is undetailed for now. But more obviously will be done to it.

As for the base...there isn't a lot of good images of the base that are close and clear. Tried Street View but that didn't help or show me all sides. Emporis.com wasn't helpful for the base either.

If anyone, or wondrous Vlasky picture delver, could get me some nice phots of the base and entrances and other areas of the base, I'd appreciate it.

EDIT: Btw. could someone tell me what's wrong with my internet? To elaborate, everything on web pages is either invisible, with invisible buttons, or there are infamous Red X's for everything. It's quite hard to navigate with, and it's been like this for months now. I don't know what to do. Tried going somewhere with internet tools or something but that didn't help.

EDIT EDIT: Furthermore, it's not just this website. It's all websites. Google's logo is a big Red X each time.

  Edited April 6, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[gutterclub 2,729]

Maybe someone could move it over to Max just to do the glass which could make it reflective. I think I recall Bixel and Cockatoo doing that many years ago when Cockatoo was still on GMAX for the Gateway Tower..or something like that?

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I don't think I'll be sharing this into 3ds. Max. There definitely will be conflicts with the model I'm sure. Besides, I'd feel lazy just handing over for someone else to render it.

I haven't touched it for a week at least, or a tad longer, but I'm still keeping work on it, as well as 160-170 Water Street.

But I have a question, Does anyone know any other Buildings surrounding the World Trade Center construction site that were devastated beyond repair or destroyed on September 11th 2001? I've made the St. Nicholas Orthodox Greek Church, and 130 Liberty Street. Fitterman Hall, is what I'm missing for a tribute. Oh and the Former World Trade Center 7. But is there any others?

I am feeling ambitious and a little ambiguous about attempting the old World Trade Center 7, to add to the recreation Rubrik3 wonderfully achieved and created. I know he had finished his own WTC 7 but never released it. But this year I'd like at least former building 7 done or Fitterman Hall. Most likely Fitterman Hall will be done, I can do Fitterman Hall concurrently with old WTC 7 though, get it done before September 11th 2012. I also want to do definitely finish what I had originally planned for 130 Liberty Street, the massive Flag that was draped on it before the demolition process.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I can't really be public about my personal life, so I'll keep this as cryptic and vague as possible.

I might not be around anymore.

I don't have any BATs backed up on friend's PCs, and if anything was to happen, they'd just be permanently on my computer with noone to access them.

So, I'd like to hand over all my remaining BATs, NYBT BATs or others, to any takers.

Just PM me, if you wish, and we'll sort out some way to send my unfinished works over or maybe some stuff I hadn't exactly released yet.

  Edited April 30, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[Hanson784 165]

Sorry to hear this and sad to see so many NY BATer's disappearing.

It would be nice to have you continue BATing but we understand, I'll send you a PM and hopefully can finish any unfinished projects you had.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Uuh, that's indeed sad to hear. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would agree that you will not be missed as a BATter alone, but also as a person.

I hope your possible leave is due to a positive or neutral change in your life (i.e., moving on to something else), and not to some catastrophe. In any case, I wish you luck!

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Things might turn out better than I'm imagining.

I was quite at a loss last night, and almost done something unorthodox.

I wish to have my unfinished hobby related BATs to be in the hands in friends as well, just as insurance and assurance to make sure they get done.

I don't know what will happen now.

Much has been done before but it doesn't seem that it is enough.

But I digress, and this is a website only for SimCity.

I wish you all well.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I'm sorry to hear that.

Remember you're always welcome here, even if you're not BATing.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

So after prioritzing some things, seeking some good advice, and looking past the negative, my sanity is saved for another day.

I'd like to thank those that were here and spoke with me about this.

I have help now, and some hope, so I should probably stick with my hobbies and keep calm.

[mntoes 271]

Hope this means things are getting better for you. We've all been there at least once, when things look bad, I know I have. The main thing is that you sought some advice.

good luck

Mntoes.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Hey guys I got some pretty awesome news, if I say so myself.

Soon, I'm going on a trip to New York City! A flight from Louisiana all the way to the Big Apple. I'm thinking this will inspire me to get into BATing NY buildings again for NYBT. I really can't wait. I'd love to see the buildings we've made up close and in real life. I always admired the city and it's architecture. I can't wait to see everything, the culture, the surroundings, the buildings. This is really exciting for me. Country boy heading to the big city. I'm sure I'll probably make some New Yorkers laugh but hey I'll have fun.

Also, I know this might sound like a downgrade to you guys, but I'm thinking about just using Sketchup to model buildings again. Some of you may have noticed, none of my BATs are that precise. It's hard since there's no like exact measurements it seems in the Gmax program. Well, unless I've overlooked something these years I've used it... I'll admit, I can't even model splines and what not still. Everything I've made, was from pure primitive shapes put together or some use with the boolean tool.

I'll see what I'll do. I think I did make some pretty good models with Sketcup a couple of years back. They had more precise measurements compared to my recent stuff. Everything I made recently was purely guessing or trial and error and a basic knowledge of tile sizes that represent lot size.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

So to get myself back into the habit of recreations, I decided to make a V2 of 22 Cortlandt Street in Lower Manhattan, across from the World Trade Center, next to the Millennium Hilton and One Liberty Plaza.

And speaking of One Liberty Plaza, I considered making a V2 of it as well possibly...

[darn42 1,268]

glad to see more updates from you. Looking good so far.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Thanks darn.

Well I mainly worked on the roof but here's a full shot again first.

And the roof up close.

I didn't realize how the UVW setting on the roof of the water tower would actually look like until it finished this HQ render after all that time. I fixed it a few moments ago but didn't feel like rerendering this side just for that.

The Pent House isn't done, detail wise. The window washer tracks will be added soon, and the Window Washer itself, though I'm a little uncertain on how it actually looks, since Bing Maps and Google Earth are too far and not close enough on it. Oh and that blue thing is actually unfinished steps. There's stairs that go up onto the roof of the pent house up to the Window Washer.

The area below the huge HVACs haven't been detailed yet, but I'm thinking just a few pipes and boxes textured to look like some type of roof equipment. Also, going to add a roof texture in that area, since currently its just the main facade texture.

I'm wondering if I should add the dark tan shades to the windows. I mean it would give it an interesting look, and the fact that they are very noticeable in all pictures so yeah I probably should shouldn't I?

I'm most likely going to finish the main tower before starting on the base, and detailing the Century 21 Department store, though I'm not sure if I'm going to put the store's logo on it, just for a more average aesthetic affect where it could be used anywhere I guess?

But speaking of which, on the real building it looks like the half-trapezoid base is actually an annex or an addition added later. The facade of it has a slightly different hue, and is definitely different in appearance to the rest of the base. So I was wondering if I could render and release a few versions of this-

1. Being the store and the main building together, like the real building.

2. Having the main building rendered separately from the front base annex, where it would be W2W on this front area for smaller buildings, and of course still W2W on its back.

3. With it separate from the main building, having the store annex as its own commercial service building. A small building W2W on its back, for more low-rise W2W blocks.

What do you guys think so far?

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Hey, nice work you have there

Really like it so far i think the glass looks great, and yes it is almost impossible to judge details on the roof from bing maps/google earth sometimes, had same issues

You should really add the shades on the windows they will make it look way better and not the same everywhere. Plus it looked great on V1

Now i am not really good at this but i think that the texture you have for the walls looks a bit more yellow than it should. Judging from a few photos it looks a bit more grey. And maybe the tiling should be smaller cause IRL it looks like there are a lot of small parts (whatever they called), and in the model it looks like there are a few bigger..maybe you have made it this way but they dont show up on renders IDK just a thought once again i am not expert on texturing at all.

Hope i helped and looking forward to see more and especially roof junk

  Edited July 29, 2012 by AlexandrosB13  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Alexandros- Thanks for the input. But the building is actually tan and yellowish in photos, not grey.

Coming along...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looking good buddy, why you wanted to redo this building any way?

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Simply because the old one wasn't that great, or well it was good, I just didn't like how I over scaled it. I wanted this one to be a little more accurate.

Oh and I'm in the mood to start another recreation but I don't know which one I should really do or if any of them would be needed.

One Chase Manhattan Plaza- Darknono35 made a great version of this. But, the overhanged plaza is bugged. Despite how well Darknono35 did on the recreaton, for some reason I feel like I really want to try my hand at recreating it. I really like the tower, how tall and narrow it is. Darknono's version was a little wider than it should've been. Either way he did a great job, but I still feel the need to try BATing it for myself.

One Liberty Plaza- Hanson did a great job on his, but just as I feel for One Chase I feel like trying it out for myself.

Western Electric Building- This one hasn't been recreated before. I like the way it looks. It's my style for certain.

1 Whitehall Street- Basically its a mini version of the building located next to the Woolworth Building, and International styled building at the address 250 Broadway I think. None of us have tried it before and its tempting me.

Any thoughts on this? As in which I should really do next? I know, I just can't make decisions on my own. But honestly I'm leaning more on trying One Chase Manhattan Plaza. And any more thoughts on 22 Cortlandt V2?

  Edited August 1, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[Ceafus 88 1,886]

I agree, the One Chase Manhattan Plaza would be a great choice, or 1 Whitehall Street would be an excellent 2nd choice.

The 22 Cortlandt V2 is looking really good.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Thanks Frex. I like 1 Whitehall Street for its size, and of course its appearance is my style of buildings. It'd be a nice more mid-rise building for a skyline. It's only 23 floors high I think.

One of my friends recommended me to do One Liberty Plaza. I like all of them, I feel like I'm just going to end up working on One Liberty and One Chase simultaneously though.

Well here's several images I started modeling the base.

Don't mind the pink cubes in the back, they won't be there for long. I also haven't done the flat wall on the back that makes this building unique. I'll get to it soon.

I must be honest, the proportions are not exact unfortunately.. :/// I mean it's close enough and I hope it looks good. That's all that matters right?

Here's a comparison pic just for fun. I remember being in this area of NY on my trip. One of my favorite areas.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the West Side(last two images before the comparison), the glass has these little diagonal streaks on them, noticeable up close it seems. I don't know what's happening here. There's no overlapping geometry or copied glass on top of itself. Personally I don't really care, unless everyone feels it needs to be fixed then let me know what it is because I do not.

  Edited August 2, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[maikeli.1 12]

Very nice and it will look good keep up the good work

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, of course it's up to you how exactly you are going to recreate this building. As far as I can see from the comparison screenshot, the tower looks fine, but the slightly angled section of the base is too "fat".

The textures look like the general direction you're heading is perfectly OK, I just think that the windows are a bit too hard to tell apart from the spandrels.

I also noticed that those two HVAC boxes on the roof are slightly narrower than in your BAT, and that there's some free space between them and they overlap a bit.

[Ceafus 88 1,886]

Looking great! Just a few minor adjustments like T Wrecks mentioned above and this will be absolutely perfect!

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I would love to adjust those points but I have some bad news...

I tried opening 22 Cortlandt Street to work on it some more, but it keeps telling me that it failed to open. I tried having a blank scene and merging the file itself but that does absolutely nothing. I tried going into My Computer into Gmax then Gamepacks and BAT folders to manually open it but that didn't work either...

Can anyone tell me what I can do?

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Hm did you try back up files? This should work..i dont remember where they are located for gmax, but it should be somebody in the gmax files, you should be able to find it.