nybt-forum-threads Sgt Pepper's NYBT Projects

[darn42 1,268]

.... That doesn't sound very promising You've tried everything that I would have thought to do

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Don't you keep incremental backups? I thought this was pretty much generally accepted good practice.

[darn42 1,268]

Yea, you should start doing this. I have 20 different saves on tribune tower :|

[Gn_leugim 858]

if you start noticing this after a error crash, there should be a backup file at "X:\gmax\autoback". but other than that I can remember anything else you can do =\

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Well unfortunately I never encountered such problems before so I was too lazy to do backups. :/ Thing is I wasn't anticipating this since gmax always ran smoothly for me. There was no crash the last time I had 22 Cortlandt Street opened, it saved and closed normally when I was done for the day. So it didn't make an autoback for it....

Well lesson learned, but I must say I'm quite pissed and a tad depressed. I worked on that for hours on end each day...all for nothing.

EDIT: And please no one tell me because of this time to move to Max, because personally I don't give that much of a sh!t to download a program that can't even run on my computers.

  Edited August 2, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

So I guess there's no way to recover the file that's failing to open? I wonder if it will actually open on someone else's computer in gmax? Or if would even open imported in someone's Max program? Just conjecture and postulation though.

But moving on...

Whipped this up today. However, rendering this single HQ view took about Two hours or more, it started rendering around 11 something and didn't finish till about 1:50 something or 2.

So what do you guys think?

Before you ask, yes, it's backed up this time. Two files saved so far.

[Gn_leugim 858]

well if you want I can try to open it here in my gmax. I also have max, I can see if it works there too.

about new building I like it, a blue one for a change

[Sciurus 323]

2 hours? OMG, couldn't wait! That's why I always make little buildings

It looks good for a start, I hope the roof doesn't stay like that

Guillaume

[AlexandrosB13 184]

That's unfortunate I still don't understand why you didnt find any backup files, the ones gmax creates automatically somehow, without you doing anything. I had the same problem twice back on gmax, and i was able to recover my building both times. Anyways..2 hours , that sounds too much, but i think it looks really great. Love the glass and can't wait for the plaza and roofjunk. Nice work so far

EDIT* Just something i noticed while scrolling up lol, i think the texture inside the roof space (inside) looks a bit too stretched? I not sure but maybe you want to check it.

  Edited August 3, 2012 by AlexandrosB13  

[Ceafus 88 1,887]

I love this buildings looks! I cannot wait to see the textures on it.

Great Work, I expect great things outta from you as always.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

All I can say is look for the auto back up area. That's why I hated Gmax. One of my buildings are messed up because of that and will never hit the STEX, Unless I bat them again the building name was 120 Wall street.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Gn_leugim- Ah yes a bluish one for once. xD It's actually a light grey, with the bluish glass. However in most pictures the building has an overall blue tone. I was wondering if I should make the spandrels, columns, and mullions more grey than blue, leaving the glass the same blue color.

Sciurus54- I guess I have a great deal of patience more than I give myself credit for. And oh yes, the roof is final... xD I'm debating what to work on first, the roof junk or the plaza.

AlexandrosB13- It is unfortunate but I'm trying to not give up. If there is no other way to open it, then I'll probably just start over on it. And thank you, I'm hoping my rendition of One Chase Manhattan Plaza will please.

Frex_Ceafus- Most of it's all ready textured actually. Thank you very much. I'm aspiring to make this BAT one of my best.

Aaron- I all ready looked in Autoback, and there was nothing there for 22 Cortlandt. However, I sent the model to our friend Gn_leugim to see if he could open it on his computer or if he could import it into 3ds. Max. If it only works to import it into 3ds. Max however, I wouldn't be able to finish it myself. We'd have to see if any of our friends or other teammates with 3ds. Max would be willing to finish the product for me. However, I'm hoping it'll just open on his computer and that it could be merged into a new scene that I could open and finish myself.

Okay, so I don't have anything to show for One Chase Manhattan Plaza at the moment. I made a basic box for the lobby and extended the columns down a bit.

However, I'm not sure how to approach the plaza... Can anyone give me some advice or shed some light on this situation? The plaza itself, upon closer inspection, is actually sloped. One side of it is only a few feet raised up from the ground reachable by some stairs(the side where 20 Pine Street occupies part of this area). On the other side, the plaza is much higher and is actually the first floor. On William Street, the road is lower than on Pine Street or the other streets, and thus the plaza is like a one story building with an entrance to One Chase Manhattan Plaza. The second floor is actually the lobby of the tower. The Tower itself only has 58 floors, excluding the lobby and plaza building.

So I guess the way I'm thinking to approach the plaza would be simply leaving all of it like it was the height of the side on William Street. I'm not sure about making it slope friendly.

Another question I guess would be if people wanted me to even BAT the plaza at all? The Tower itself would be only 3x6 and growable. However BATing the plaza and its overhang would mean it would have to be ploppable only. So with the plaza the ploppable lot will be about 7x5. Maybe 8x5. It will overhang and should leave a 3x3 space for a building about the size of 20 Pine Street, I think...

Any thoughts, opinions, or advice anyone would like to share? I mean I think I may have said all that needs to be said but I'd like to hear some perspectives.

  Edited August 4, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[Ceafus 88 1,887]

I started looking closer at the BAT, I see the textures now

I like them alot

[mattb325 28,890]

When you look at the gmax autobak files in C:/program files/gmax/autobak you are looking for the last three most recently modified files (assuming your current tower hasn't over-written them).

The BAT is set up to do this by default (3 files saved every 5 minutes), so they would have been there. The files are simply called Autobak1.gx, Autobak2.gx and Autbak3.gx. This is regardless of what you had called your scene and they are constantly over-written.

You can then merge the autobak into a new scene (even double clicking and opening in GMAX will work) and keep going. Hopefully something will be there for you to work with :|

[darn42 1,268]

They'll be lost if he's done anything else in gmax anyways which it seems he has.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Frex- Thanks.

Matt- Oh I had no idea. I wish I had known that ahead of time. When I checked it was just autosaves for Chase. Well, this is still very helpful to know in case that situation happens again. So thank you for sharing.

Darn- And you would be right.

Well I didn't do much, just started modeling out the basic form of the plaza...

I'm not sure if you'll notice, but I rotated Chase a little bit, to be slightly angled on the plaza. Can you notice? I think it's slightly angled in real life, but do you think I should make this angle more noticeable or leave it straight?

Here's a close up.

I'm aware that the camera slightly cuts this off. It'll be fixed. The plaza probably won't be proportioned right. I think if I did exact proportions the lot size would be bigger with empty space that could be used for roads.

Oh and we couldn't get 22 Cortlandt Street to open again. So I'll have to start over on it soon enough..

[Ceafus 88 1,887]

Great update, I cannot wait to see more. I know you have the skill, and everything it takes to redo 22 Cortlandt Street quickly and perfectly.

Keep up the superb work.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Hmm... tricky one. I've given it some thought, and I think the slight offset from the grid might be enough to look a bit unsettling (as if something was wrong), but not really enough to add any value to the lot - as in "OMG, finally a building that breaks the grid!". That's why I would leave it straight if I were the BATter.

As for the plaza, I'd pretend it was level, and either try to model the entire lot (so that it looks more cohrerent) or use textures to create most of the plaza and maybe add some props on it that make it look like the real thing. Mixing BATted ground and LOTted ground usually doesn't yield satisfactory results. Of course, a BATted base will increase LOD size (and hence, probably render times) as well.

[Gn_leugim 858]

it looks nice, I can only wait for the textures be be revealed to say more

[Francis90b 748]

I would subscribe what's been written in TWreck's post- From "H" to "l"

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Thanks for your feedback guys.

I actually haven't done much. I rotated the building back where its straight and I deleted the plaza. Render times would be too much for my computer with it. So it's just going to the the tower for now. However, I've considered rendering the plaza separately. Maybe that would suffice?

I'm actually enjoying this one. I hope I can make it come out great.

EDIT: I hope the pictures aren't misleading where you think it's taller than it actually is. I didn't divide the pictures like that or whatever. The building only has 58 or 59 floors.

  Edited August 19, 2012 by Sgt Pepper  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

*bump*

Well I hope being over-ambitious is all right. I decided to start over on my rendition of the HSBC Bank Building.

Here's where I'm at now. (Don't mind the bright white penthouse top, I'll fix it)

Well other than adding a minor facade detail and making sure which windows or floors are mechanical or covered like that, the main model of the building itself is pretty much done. I'll probably start the base, then model the facade of that top floor that's a little deeper in the top. Then of course there's the roof. I may start on all this simultaneously.

Of course I plan to create the famous Red Cube sculpture for the lot. I think I'll make the two large planters that are near the main entrance of the building as well, but the lot will be pretty bare besides that, unless it'd be preferred that I get a little more creative with it, but that's for a while away...

[Susaji 523]

Good Building.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Coming along...

I think one or two textures disappeared on it when I was doing the render. But the facade textures and glass remained. How's it looking so far?

[GuerrilaWarfare 39]

I think it looks fantastic. I'm wondering how you're going to pull the fountain off. Also. there's a building that shares a city block with One Chase Plaza, will you be BAT'ing that as well? One last thing though, I feel like the windows are too small, in pictures they seem longer.

[Gn_leugim 858]

I like the details on the roof as well the window's textures, looking good

[darn42 1,268]

I like how despite the simplistic techniques you use to model your buildings, they always come out great. I think it's because you are very good at texturing. It really goes to show how important texturing is, and when someone has almost mastered it, they get great results. But I think that if you just learned some basic polygon modeling techniques, you could really help yourself make buildings faster and with more flexibility. Like your roof units, those could be created in fewer steps polygon modeling than using different primitives and using those to create the object. You'd get the same result in the end, but potentially with a lot less time taken. The main thing is that you'd be able to make more of a variety of objects than you could with the techniques I see you use now. Either way, your buildings come out fantastic and I like watching your progress on them always.

  Edited August 29, 2012 by darn42  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

GuerrilaWarfare- I fixed some details about the windows I'm sure it looks correct this time. Oh gee, all that's really over my head right now. That's expecting a little much out of me. lol I had no intention of doing the other building on the block, which I believe is 70 Pine Street. Maybe someone else could try that one. I don't feel up to that right now. And the plaza? Oh boy, I may attempt trying to make the whole plaza and render it separately for a ploppable landmark lot with an overhang and a space for a building, but I'm not too certain on that idea yet. It may just end up as a growable tower with the NYBT querry. Of course...I haven't seen you BATing in a while, maybe this building on the block with Chase Manhattan would be something you could attempt? Just a thought of course.

Gn_leugim- Thanks my friend! It's so simple but I'm loving how it's coming out. I love these boxy buildings.

darn42- Thank you that means so much, especially coming from someone who is becoming quite the master with Max, who has better tools and texture techniques to work with than I. Yeah I've always been using standard primitives a lot. I found it the easiest way for me, though it usually doesn't take too long at all when I model something. Working with polys are quite complicated, I could learn a thing or two that will help me in the long run, but ti'll take some adjusting and some dedication.

Well Alexandria is getting hit by Hurricane Isaac, but I'm still here and I still have power and internet so here's where I'm at with Chase-

Most I did was scale up the tower a little, then re-adjusted the spandrels, I think this looks just about right now. Does the scaling look off? Too short? Or is it just right? I also added basic modeling of what I believe the window washer looks like...really hard to tell. From Bing Maps and Google Earth, it looked similar to that...um what's it called, you know those trucks that have that crane like part on it with a little cup-like part that a person is in and it stretches up to like reach a powerline or something? Yeah that's what it looks kinda like.

[Ceafus 88 1,887]

Its been a while since I have been in here, great work on these, I like all of them alot!

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Frex- Thanks!

Well guys I might just start over from scratch on the HSBC Building but keep the similar textures. I'm having trouble getting the scale and floor heights and what not correct...and it's really infuriating...

Speaking of scale, I wanted to test the scale of One Chase Manhattan Plaza, here's a draft export of it. Oh by the way, information tells me that Chase has a floor count of 60. I counted 58 floors from all the windows and the 3 mechanical floors. Then the lobby of the tower gives it 59. And the plaza it sits on gives it another floor resulting in 60. For those who didn't know, the elevated plaza is level, but the ground it is on is not. Part of it is sloping with the roads. It has an entrance to the tower on a few sides of the plaza, like the plaza is the first floor or its own structure...

Anyway I tested it with a few buildings...I think it's right...

Sorry that it's just small images from the lot editor.