lL gmax models

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Happy to.. not sure exactly what you're stuck on? You seem pretty skilled already... if you need help specifically with building a "lattice dome", I can't help, I don't know what that is.. but if you're just looking for help with how to build a dome that looks like the one in the picture, this is what I would do:

1) Make a sphere then chop in half, so its a basic dome shape

2) Select the vertical edges, and chamfer them

3) Select the narrow strips of vertical polygons created by the chamfer

4) Bevel them, inwards for grooves, or outwards for ridges

5) Select either the same polygons again, and auto-smooth, or the entire dome and auto-smooth

 

This will give you either a nicely ridged, grooved, or scalloped dome, depending on which you want. Hoping that isn't just telling you what you already know...

 

 

Ps. You probably want to scale upwards so its less perfectly spherical

[Jasoncw 11,841]

T Wrecks took the words right out of my mouth. 

 

Yeah, I would fix the number of arches and then double check that the higher number of arches didn't cause mistakes in other places.

[IL. 1,043]

Great modelling.  Maybe Reddonquixote can give you a few pointers for the Dome?

 

Thanks  

[IL. 1,043]

Happy to.. not sure exactly what you're stuck on? You seem pretty skilled already... if you need help specifically with building a "lattice dome", I can't help, I don't know what that is.. but if you're just looking for help with how to build a dome that looks like the one in the picture, this is what I would do:

1) Make a sphere then chop in half, so its a basic dome shape

2) Select the vertical edges, and chamfer them

3) Select the narrow strips of vertical polygons created by the chamfer

4) Bevel them, inwards for grooves, or outwards for ridges

5) Select either the same polygons again, and auto-smooth, or the entire dome and auto-smooth

 

This will give you either a nicely ridged, grooved, or scalloped dome, depending on which you want. Hoping that isn't just telling you what you already know...

 

 

Ps. You probably want to scale upwards so its less perfectly spherical

 

 

Oh don't worry, I have no idea what you have just said. Sorry about that. 

Can I ask what vertical edges? & by chamfer you mean like cut? 

 

I may look like I can model, but I'm not really skilled in any way, I'm still depending using basics, I don't use much tools apart from the mirror, boolean, and editing poly/mesh/patch. But I'm learning to use new ways and tools as I continue to make more models.

 

I you can pleas show me how to do that?

 

T Wrecks took the words right out of my mouth. 

 

Yeah, I would fix the number of arches and then double check that the higher number of arches didn't cause mistakes in other places.

 

Hehe, thanks anyway

[IL. 1,043]

This is an awkward one that I made:

 

 

 

This is how I made it:

 

 

I made a sphere, took out a spike, cut the rest of the sphere, and then copy and rotate around a point:

 

 

But the ones you made are much smoother and better.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

thats no problem at all... I was worried I was teaching you to 'suck eggs'. This is just how I would do it, its not the only, or even the best way, but I hope this helps get you to a point where you can play with it and make the dome you need

 

1) Make a sphere then chop in half, so its a basic dome shape. You can do this easily using the 'Hemisphere' parameter, set to Chop, at 0.5.

 

2) Select the vertical edges, and chamfer them.

• Start by converting the sphere to an editable poly. You will need to manually delete all the polygons under the base (the flat edge underneath).
• Select 'Edge', then select on the sphere only the vertical edges (the ones that run up and down the model, not across).
• For this example, I deselected the edges around the top, but you don't have to, its just a bit messier if you don't.

 

 

• I think of chamfering as taking a single edge and splitting it into many. You can set in the parameters how far apart you want the new edges to be and how many divisions you want.
• For this dome, I have chamfered just wide enough for the new edges to join together at the top. (the middle example), and only one division (Segments).
• If you go too far, like in the bottom example, you will end up with ovelapping polygons, and a mess basically.
• Make sure you click the little square box icon next to the chamfer button, not the chamfer button itself. The little box lets you input parameters, the button requires mouse manipulation and is difficult to do.

 

 

3) Select the narrow strips of vertical polygons created by the chamfer. Not sure if there is an especially easy way to do this, I find it easier to select all the polygons, then deselect the large ones, rather than try and select all the little narrow ones.

 

4) Bevel these polygons, inwards for grooves, or outwards for ridges - I'm only making outward ridges for this example.

• Beveling is basically changing the height of a selected polygon, while also changing its scale. For this dome, we want to raise the height so there are ridges running down the side of the dome, and we want to make the tops of the ridges narrower than the base to give it a sleeker result.
• You probably need to zoom in quite close, its easy to bevel the narrow strips of polygons too much and you would end up with overlapping polygons and a mess again.
• There are three options, Group, Local Normal, and By Polygon. You can play with these to see what they do, but for this dome you will want Local Normal. This kind of joins the consecutive polygons together and treats them as one, so it will bevel the whole strip uniformly.
• The default height is 10, you will need to bring this right down, I have used 0.2 in the example, but you will be able to work out whats best for your model. Basically, the more height you use the more pronounced the ridges will be.
• Finally, you will need to set the outline amount, this scales the extruded polygons to be larger or smaller than its base. You will need to use a negative setting to bring the scaling in, but don't go too far or the edges will overlap. You can tell when its overlapping because the selected polygons will turn black instead of red.
• If you have done it correctly it should look something like this:

 

 

 

5) Based on a closer look at the photo, I think you want a scalloped dome. Simply select every polygon and use the auto-smooth option 'Polygon: Smoothing Groups' roll-out.

 

[IL. 1,043]

Waow, that was very very helpfull! 

Thank you very much

[IL. 1,043]

I'm back with some really great results

 

 

Just some more details for this part, some texture variations (wather effect) 

 

 

 

 

 

Any suggestions for the Gamma ray or lights?

It would be better if it gets a bit darker.

 

Is there any tool to make the texture less repetitive? Or I have to do it the old school way? 

 

Is the minaret too thick comparing to the real life comparative? 

 

I welcome any suggestion or critics.

 

 

Thank you everyone for your help

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I would highly recommend Acme Brick.

 

It's an awesome free programme to create brick textures in a quite easy way. 

 

WEathering can be added later manually!

 

I like the details. Just started reading this topic so no comparison, sorry

[IL. 1,043]

It is great

It can surely be usefull.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Looks great! The dome worked out well... its a lattice dome! I agree the texture needs to be darker. The repetition is going to be tough on such a large expanse.. good luck!

[IL. 1,043]

Hello, it's been a long time since last time, and I think this BAT took a redeciously big time to finish, I have been busy with other things.

 

Anyway, here's some pictures:

 

 

 

& yeah, forgot a dome I'll add it later.

 

 

 

Because the model is too big (1 567 218 poylgons), I couldn't render it after texturing it, wich btw was very hard to do simple texturing because I was using the last small free memory avaibe to do so, when rendering it showed an "out of memory" error.

I think many details are very much uneeded for simcity 4 rendering, so I'm going to all the unseen parts in simcity4 (wich is alot of archs and other details, that use alot, I mean alot of polygons (the rest of the building are just boxes and low-poly shapes). Then I'll be able to texture it without any problem.

 

A model like that (wich is made according to almost precise real life dimentions) doesnt deserve to be deleted after exporting, so I'm going to upload it somewhere.

 

 

It is around 72x125 and the height is between 9 and 13 meters for the walls depending on the part of the building, the minaret is around 31.5 , wich would be 5x7 simcity 4 tiles, do you think that's too big? Should I make it like 4x6 or something? 

 

 

Some extra shots:

 

 

 

From the inside (all these corridor interior archs are going to be deleted to get more memory for texturing for simcity 4 exporting).

 

 

 

(P.s.: All in meters) 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I wouldn't make it smaller by compressing it to 4x6. IMO, 5x7 is perfectly appropriate for such a landmark.

 

If I were you, this is what I'd do: Cut the building in two halves. One would be the wing with the minaret plus the two side wings (which would form a U-shape together), and the other half the rectangular rest of the building. This should solve your memory problems without having to reduce size or visible details. (Of course it's alway a good idea to reduce invisible details to save computing resources!)

[IL. 1,043]

I wouldn't make it smaller by compressing it to 4x6. IMO, 5x7 is perfectly appropriate for such a landmark.

 

If I were you, this is what I'd do: Cut the building in two halves. One would be the wing with the minaret plus the two side wings (which would form a U-shape together), and the other half the rectangular rest of the building. This should solve your memory problems without having to reduce size or visible details. (Of course it's alway a good idea to reduce invisible details to save computing resources!)

 

That's a good idea, good thing that this model is easy to cut.

 

So I'll just do both, reduce the invisible details and cut the model. 

[IL. 1,043]

It seems to be going good (I cutted the model into two parts, and this is part 1)

 

 

 

 

Nevermind those errored parts, they're not going to be seen when the two parts are joint together later.

That empty roof is final, inless you suggest something, I was thinking about some solar panels.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Solar panels? Please don't. Even if they are there IRL, it would be a shame to spoil a beautiful mosque with solar panels IMO. What your roof needs, however, is a bigger texture. One that spans the entire surface instead of repeating itself so obviously.

 

One thing I just noticed: Take a look at the last picture in your post, at the small dome towards the courtyard. The big arches below that dome... shouldn't I see something behind them? I can understand that the parts left and right are arcades, but I'd expect some kind of building structure under the dome... of course, you're certainly familiar with the building - I am not.

[IL. 1,043]

Solar panels? Please don't. Even if they are there IRL, it would be a shame to spoil a beautiful mosque with solar panels IMO. What your roof needs, however, is a bigger texture. One that spans the entire surface instead of repeating itself so obviously.

 

One thing I just noticed: Take a look at the last picture in your post, at the small dome towards the courtyard. The big arches below that dome... shouldn't I see something behind them? I can understand that the parts left and right are arcades, but I'd expect some kind of building structure under the dome... of course, you're certainly familiar with the building - I am not.

 

Well, I was thinking to add some solar panels as props in a second version, I'll see how it will turns out later.

 

About the structure you're wondering about, I had to get rid of it to save some memory as they had much details and polygons as they are not going to be seen in Simcity4,but I will make some simple objects there to give the feeling of a structure (some boxes and maybe some pillars if the memory allows). 

Thanks for reminding me that there should be a wall there behind the archs, infact big arabesque wooden doors that have a size of a wall, but since they will not be obvious in Simcity4 I'll make something simpler but still looks the same.

[IL. 1,043]

Haha, now I need to cut this part into half too -_-

[elavery 1,013]

Looking great, once this is complete I will return to the desert.  Please don't add solar panels, they would seem so out of place.

[IL. 1,043]

I have some new BATs, they're done yet.

I also didn't forget about that mosque, I will try to export in parts again (I hope it works).

 

Santa Barbara Airport building:

 

*

 

 

 

 

A commercial building: not done yet, I'm thinking to remove all that parking and make one using lot editor, still need to change the texture of the windows' frames.

 

 

House: some sides are still empty and need to be done.

 

[SimCoug 5,973]

Very cool!  It's good to see you are still around 

[PBGV103 729]

The funny thing is, in the real world that car would be worth 2-5 times as much as the house.

[IL. 1,043]

The funny thing is, in the real world that car would be worth 2-5 times as much as the house.

 

Haha, who needs a big house when you have a nice car  

 

Very cool!  It's good to see you are still around 

 

Thanks  

[Cool_Z 1,547]

The funny thing is, in the real world that car would be worth 2-5 times as much as the house.

 

Looks like an Aston Martin vantage... wooohooooooo 

[PBGV103 729]

Not the Vantage, it's even more exotic. It's the One-77. You can tell from the tail lights.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Hmmmm The vents on the bonnet look like a vantage (look at the parking pic)

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Really nice job here!

[PBGV103 729]

The old Vantage has two vents, the new one has four but two of them are much longer than the others. The One-77 has four hood vents just like the car above. Also, the One-77 is the only Aston Martin to have tail lights like those. All other models have short tail lights on the sides, not one continuous bar.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

You're right...

 

anyway... back on topic

 

A commercial building: not done yet, I'm thinking to remove all that parking and make one using lot editor, still need to change the texture of the windows' frames.

 

 

If you keep that parking lot, get rid of the pine trees 

[Gn_leugim 858]

dont you forget you have a LE for something

 

And welcome back great work so far