mipro Barry Sanders Project

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Page flip!

[SpartanBadger 4]

Man you're doing all the BATs I wanted to do, great job! Please keep on BATting, I'm getting excited about the BSP again. Everything looks great, so keep it up!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Well, I just did a high quality zoom 4 preview render, and it pretty much looks like what I posted.  the low quality zoom 4 looks really bad though

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The very top part of the roof needs finishing, and the ground floor needs to be done.  I also need to find out if there are any loading docks or parking garage entrances, and where they are (if you know, speak up! ).  I just recently found a picture of the top mechanical penthouse that's good enough to work off of, and I'm pretty sure how the night lighting system on the building works.  Texturing hasn't started yet.

Also, I don't remember if I mentioned it, but the building is a 3x3, and the lot is a 4x3.  Of course, a 3x3 will probably be included as well.

[Don Miguel 560]

For the roof, I find that it helps to know the exact location of the building. If you can find it in Google Maps under the satellite view, you can have a half decent image from when doing the roof.

[JBSimio 152]

Looks great Jason!

JB

[Jasoncw 11,840]

cool, it's Don Miguel!  You're one of my favorite BATers. I posted in your BAT thread while my username was still Kefka.  Have you been working on anything new lately?

yeah, I use google maps alot, especially for figureing out lot sizes and how wide and deep the buildings are.  I use it for roof stuff too, but I'm not too particular about the accuracy of the roof.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

progress

[SpartanBadger 4]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it looks a little squashed...is that the proper height? Either way you're doing great work, I'm excited to see more! What are your plans for the nightlighting?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Well, simtropolis went down before trying to post this, so I had to re-write it.

Anyway, I modeled it thinking that each story should be 4 meters.  Since the only part of the building that isn't defined by the stories is the glass lobby at the bottom, I used emporises measurement, converted it to meters, and multiplied it by 1.3 to account for the normal squishing from the isometric view.

I thought it was looking a little short too, but I was also trying to remember that this isn't a really tall building anyway (only 28 floors).  But after I read your post, I took the emporis overal height measurement (131 m), and multplied it by 1.3 (170 m).  My BAT was surprisingly 130 meters, so I scaled it up to 170 meters, and boy was it tall!  but too tall!

but!!  comparing it to some other buildings in the game, I noticed that the game has different floor heights it uses!  But since the full scaling was too tall, I made a comprimise, and it is now looking better imo.

For the nitlites, I'll be using nitemaps for the windows, and for the top, I'll be using omnis or spot lights.  If you look, on the top mechanical floors there is a white wall spaced about a meter behind the slim columns, and that's where I'll be putting the lights.  I think this is how it works in real life too.

And you can see in the picture that I started texturing the roof area.  The lower roof texture still needs some work on it, but overal I think it's looking good.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I've modeled the window washer (those grey lines are tracks for the window washer "crane"). It will stay parked behind the top mechanical penthouse. Its hard to see in those pictures, but the tracks also go right behind the top part, and that's where it will sit. So is the roof too plain, and if so, what should I add to it? It can't be much though because the real roof is pretty plain (because their's 5 stories of mechanical rooms on the top, lol).

[budweiserdude23 80]

Holy hell, long time no see. Well, needless to say I'm back. Not that many remember the high hopes we had only for most of us to retire to RLS...but I've got the itch back to begin anew with a few things.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect too much from me here...it's been so long since I've modeled anything I'm pretty much back to square one. That being said, hey who knows, maybe I could produce a thing or two.

To begin anew I'm going simple with this...

This is where I worked for the past couple of years. Not a large building by any stretch of the imagination and thus by the past tense one could tell I no longer work there. But I figure an easy building to model and easy enough to change the company title.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It's nice to see you back. 

If you search the STEX for bsp, or look through my BATs, you'll find the Detroit Free Press Building.  More recent bsp BAT progress shots are in my BAT thread.

Do you have any buildings that you were thinking about doing?

[budweiserdude23 80]

Oh heck yeah I do. But to forwarn you I had plans before but let me give a little backround...

A while back I had really planned on modeling the RenCen which had gotten to 25% completion when my old computer ate itself, combusted, shot fire out at me, you get the point. At the time, I was pissed....see I hadn't backed anything up. So I quit for a while and RLS took effect. I traveled due to my job more than I could have ever expected, sometimes for a week or more non stop away from my house. Needless to say access to a computer was a luxury at times.

At varying periods over the last year and half or so my interest has waned and increased with SC4 somewhat like a sine curve (remember all that fun math from high school) I had tried this past winter to try anew at the BAT but when my newer computer puked I pretty much said the hell with it.  Thus I sat dejected and continued on with RLS...

At this point I will interject for a moment, I've been a lurker so I've kept up to a small degree...

That being said, somehow the itch has struck me lately, maybe need the creativity...don't know. What stunk was when I went to reload SC4 the other day I found disc1 to be cracked in half  but that urge was still there so I forked out the $20 for a new deluxe edition and thus here I am beginning anew.

So my plans, well let's start slow. A couple of box buildings to get me reaquainted..etc...etc...

My question is, is there a modder? Custom queries, which I noticed you and Jb seem to have figured out, were never something I did figure out.

Other than that, still have to relearn my tricks so hopefully a question or two could be answered by you guys. Nice to be back

Oh and Jason, you really kept the drive alive

[budweiserdude23 80]

Double post alert....where are the SimTrop police?

J?k....but this might strike a noted few as kind of funny as they would know what I'm talking about....

Think it's time I update the list?

[ardecila 124]

Custom queries are somewhat easy, so long as you download the UIEdit program in the modds section. You can change images, and move stuff around. Not completely foolproof, though, and it crashes sometimes.

[JBSimio 152]

Welcome back, Bud!  Once you update the list and summer is over, I can start doing some buildings as well.  The only condition is that someone help me with pictures... I'm not very mobile at the moment.  Custom queries are fairly simple... I actually still have all the templates from the Freep Building... and I'll gladly help you with those if you like when the time comes.

JB

[mightygoose 92]

jason that building is awesome

[budweiserdude23 80]

Are you ready for some football?

Larger pic here for those who wish to see...

https://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k181/budweiserdude23/UofMfield.jpg

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Cool, the game definitly needs more stadiums.

[bixel 1,223]

About your building....you just might have to make those lattice peices a tad thinner....I've seen problems with this kind of building before...Look at Portland Wells Fargo Tower (used to be 1st Interstate) I think either PDA did it or JTPortland...he had the same problem, the sides of the building extrude too far at the Maxis default 20 degree angle.

Here's an idea, rotate the enture building by 10 degrees so that we are looking a little more direct at the building and it will not hide the windows so much.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I just ran into this picture a few minutes ago, and I downloaded it, but I can't trace my steps back to find the source or the photographer.

There are very few pictures of the top, and since it's so far from the ground it's hard to see, but this picture shows those skinny lattice things in the gaps.  It also shows more columns on the top part which I suspected.  I don't know if I'll add them in though.

Rotating it can't happen because the building just plain isn't tilited, lol.  I thought what I can do though, is that I can turn the columns at the top part into v shapes, with the big end facing the outside.  After I do that, I'll give the lighting another shot, if it fixes the problem that was there in the first place then it should work.  If I can't get it right, I'll send you the new file to see what you can do with it.

Right now I'm trying to finish 211 West Fort though.  On Saturday I'll be leaving for a week of camping, and Friday is my Mom's birthday.  While I'm camping, my brother will be reinstalling Windows on my computer, and all of my stuff will be sitting on my storage drive.  I want to get as much as I can done before then so that in case something goes wrong.  Nothing will go wrong, but I'm paranoid.  Plus, as soon as my computer is redone, I'll finally get around to putting 3dsmax on it, and I'd to finish as much of my plate as I can.  The new light rig you guys are making is exciting, and will save time on texturing but with better results than the old way (adding a gradient to the texture, etc.).

aaaaannnnnyyyyyway, it's about time I went to bed.

[budweiserdude23 80]

Just a suggestion and take it as that only but...

Couldn't you just make vertical box, extend it ever so slightly beyond the facing of the building (say .05 or whatever suits the task), array it accordingly, and texture it a little bit darker?

Only problem is the spacing is probably a you know what....

[ardecila 124]

bud - That field looks amazing, but I wouldn't want to trip over those giant letters!

[budweiserdude23 80]

Yeah, me neither. Anyways, I worked on it a bit today. The field is essentially completed, time to move on to the stadium itself. BTW, no textures yet, just generic colors from the pallette...

Here's the link for a larger pic for those who wish too see...shows a little more detail.

[choco1 4]

These buildings are looking great! That white concrete one is especially realistic and well designed. I don't know much about American Football, but that field looks great!

Anyway, this is a fantastic project, well done guys!

[jacqulina 162]

great work you guys

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Since the football pitch is entirely flat and the BAT is known to bleach horizontal surfaces immensely, wouldn't it be better to make all the details on texture level, save a lot of polygons and avoid the bleaching effect? Just wondering...

[Simfan34 11]

Wow. How's Hudson's going?

[budweiserdude23 80]

Originally posted by: T Wrecks Since the football pitch is entirely flat and the BAT is known to bleach horizontal surfaces immensely, wouldn't it be better to make all the details on texture level, save a lot of polygons and avoid the bleaching effect? Just wondering...quote>

I don't know if the look could be acheived. It probably could but you know I wanted it to be as real as possible. I'm worried about the bleaching effect but darker textures hopefully will eliminate that nuiance. We'll see....