Operation Buffalo Wing: A Blizzard of BAT

[davidhogan 1]

i'm getting more and more excited about this city hall, i ended up giving the san diego gulls the HSBC arena, something tells me san diego will copy buffalo's city hall too. 

 

dave

[jsieczka 19]

Ok, I got a chance to do some more work on New York Central  Station.  It is shorter now then Before and looks right now.  I have started on the passanger parts now.  The back is going to be a bit harder in terms of detal because there are no close up pictures.  There are so many layers to the walls that i'm running out of names to call each part.  I still haven't decided how much of the complex to do.  Other then the main building there is a massive cargo section. 

 

 

 

[Sabretooth78 808]

You probably could do without the cargo section, especially if you don't have good pics of that.  It would be cool to make it function as a combination cargo/passenger station in SC though.  But that's the same reason I left the garage off HSBC - as cool as the overhead walkways would be (I don't think we have any in the game, at least until Petronas is out?), it wasn't worth doing an inaccurate job on a portion of the building which doesn't fulfill the purpose of the building.

 

I saw your sig - just take as long as you want, I think I'm in the same boat with City Hall.  No sense rushing something only to have it fetch lousy ratings and such, and then have to deal with an upgrade.  Good luck!

 

As for City Hall, I may not have any updates for a few days.  Gonna go work on some of the little component parts like I did yesterday (and as I did with NiMo).  Once I get them done, however, this thing will start falling right into place!

 

-Chris

[Predator88 2]

Outstanding job guys, both buildings are coming along really well. I also made a discovery in my house. I have a book about the city of bufflao that has tons of old picutres of some various buildings in the city as well as like road layout maps and sketches for designs that were made that would sort of build a modern look for downtown. One shows lafayette (spelling??) square in the backdrop of this big modern looking canal with glas buildings up around it that are supposed to be like restaurants and stuff, it's pretty interesting. The title of it is Buffalo, New York: Design Research on the Retail Core
Written by Robert G. Shibley. My brother got it for i think his urban planning classes at UB. IF anyone is in need of a picutre from it, or wants to see if a picture exists in just email me and I'll check it out and then scan if you want.
****EDIT****
Just had an interesting idea. It would probably take alot of work and research on the buildings but it'd be pretty sweet to build one of the UB campuses and use them in the game as a university. Of course it'd be a massive lot in the game and would be extremely hard to really make. Same thing could go for like other campuses anywhere. I really wish I could actually use the BAT instead of trying to figure out everythign throuhg these tutorials, I'm working my way up to building a simple house right now, lol gotta start somewhere i guess.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Yeah the University idea is something that's crossed my mind a few times...  I don't have much experience with UB, however.  I was thinking it would be cool to model Clarkson University (where I went, in Potsdam, NY) since it's not too large and not really horribly complex.  However it would still be a massive undertaking and I'll probably never get to it.

 

As far as BAT, I started with one of the tutorials that comes with it and quickly became bored.  I then made my soundwall set, which had nothing too complicated.  After putting it aside for a few weeks, I saw a Buffalo postcard I had bought at one of the Thruway rest areas and thought, you know, HSBC Center doesn't look like it'd be too difficult to model.  Of course I ended up re-doing it about 3 times to get it right, but look what it started!

 

Patience is the key, take baby steps.  As others would agree, get accustomed to working with lines and rectangles (editable splines), the spline modification tools (attach, weld, trim, extend, etc.), the extrude modifier, and the occasional loft or boolean.  This probably accounts for about 90% of what you need to know, as for the rest, when you get confidence with the basics you'll be more able to learn some of the other stuff (textures, meshes, lighting, etc.)  In fact I still don't have much confidence in my ability to texture (the UVW stuff - I've usually just found ways to create situations where I don't need textures, I just make each element a different color, and it's probably causing my 2x the effort!), working with meshes (last night was one of my first attempts), and I still feel like I have a long way to go with lighting - but yet I feel pretty good about what I've been able to create.  Long story short, like I said, take it slow.  There sure is alot to gMax, but try not to let it be intimidating - you'll never use most of it anyways!!

 

And it sure would be great to have another team member to help wittle away at the visions in my list!

 

-Chris

[Sabretooth78 808]

Well although I've been quiet lately (and this thread seems to be sinking into oblivion ), I just wanted to say that I have been quite busy with the modeling, still working on the top edge of the buttress wings.  I'm about 40% done with those now, and should hopefully be even farther later on tonight, and maybe have another picture for you all sometime during the weekend.  And seeing it's a long weekend for me, I may be able to get a little ahead on this thing!

 

As you may have already guessed, I don't like to be boastful of my own work;  but I promise you will not be disappointed the next time I update!

 

-Chris

[jsieczka 19]

Ok, i made a good bit of progress on my art deco project.  The main structure's base walling and such is done.  I still have to make sure the size still seems right in the game.  Getting back to my thoughts of how much of the complex to make i have included a labled picture.  I am going to do cargo complex 1, i am debating doing cargo 2 and the switch house.  If I do them I will put out 2 lots because of the increase in lot size that the buildings will add.

 

 

 

[frogface 354]

the station looks pretty good but will you do the whole thing? it looks massive!

good work anyway

[Ryan B 35]

Looks VERY GOOD!

[Predator88 2]

Comin along very nicely, and yes that whole thing would be really massive. Personally i don't think it's really necessary but either way will be great. Without doing all of it it become more usable in cities in the game that already exist, but would be less true to life.

[Sabretooth78 808]

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[Ryan B 35]

Wow.  That's big!  Looks VERY nice!

[Sabretooth78 808]

Last night I was thinking about the grocery stores (Tops and Wegmans) on my OBW list, and it occured to me to offer the request up to SimGoober to see if he was interested in making them, seeing he's probably far-and-away the best guy here for making brand names.

 

In response he said he would play around with it - so I'm asking if any of you Western New Yorkers out there have any good pictures of the exteriors of the stores.  Especially the front, I don't think I really care what the rest of the building looks like since we're not trying to model a particular building or landmark, really just a Buffalo-area Brand Name.  Especially since all grocery stores look fundamentally the same anyways.  If SG does take these on, here's a link to his thread , I imagine he'd post the progress there instead of here!

 

AfroThunda - I know you had requested an East Aurora variant of Tops, and that probably won't come out of this.  But the next time I visit my parents I'll have to stop at Viddler's for penny candy anyways, at which time I'll take some shots and do the building myself if I have to.  It just won't be for a while.

 

Don't know if I'm going to get a heck of alot done on City Hall today, it's a nice day outside (so far)!  Probably won't be another update for a few days anyways while I complete the tower.  I also need to start work on the Niagara Square lot so I can get them done at roughly the same time.

 

-Chris

[jsieczka 19]

Ok, I have got a bit more work done.  I finished modeling the back side.  Now the last part of the main building that needs to be done is the loading platforms.  These are going to be hard becaosue I have to line them up So that the fit next to railroad tracks in the LE

 

Edit: pic removed newer ones ahead

[Sabretooth78 808]

That looks good, and I imagine it'll only get better once it has textures to it, especially the roof.

 

As for lining it up with the tracks, that shouldn't be too difficult since you know how wide tiles are.  You may be able to tighten that a little even, since the tracks don't quite take up a full tile.  While the end result may not be entirely dimensionally realistic, it'll have to be good enough since it would look pretty stupid if it didn't match up with the tracks in SC4.

 

-Chris

[SimGoober 2,365]

Looks good all!  If you look in my thread, you'll see Wegmans is coming along.  I'll do the Tops next.  I'll make a smaller one of the Wegmans, with a few small shops attached, and also a bigger stand alone, on a 6x6 lot, or close to that.

 

You had also mentioned a convenience store.  My BSC team just finished the 7-Eleven upgrade; these are just about everywhere I go.  Locally, we are getting our first WaWa, which I know is based somewhere in the northeast; are they in the Buffalo area?  If you want any others, give me some info and/or pics and I'll see what I can do.  These types are basically just variations of each other, and once you have the basic design process down, they go together pretty quickly.

[Sabretooth78 808]

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[DuskTrooper 316]

Nice buildings you are working on!

 

[SimGoober 2,365]

Adding steps to the tops of the columns is easy.  There are a couple ways to do it, but I like to keep it simple.  Just make a series of boxes that get smaller as they go up, and stack them on top of each other, then on top of the pillars.  If you column is 1.0 meters square, make a box .8 square by .2 high, then a .6, a .4 and a .2 .  Stack them on top of each other, apply an edit mesh to one of them, and attach the others.  You can then clone it to put on the tops of all the colums.  You can also attach it to the columns, which will keep the number of objects smaller, and allow them to texture together.  Play with the different sizes until you get the desired effect. For a longer looking tapered effect, just add a little more height to each box.

[subedei 3]

Sarg, could you change the name of this thread cuz each time i see wings i get hungry and gain a pound.  

 

 

Subedei

[Ryan B 35]

I agree. I really, really like chicken wings!

[subedei 3]

This looks sweet so far. Keep up the great work.  

 

 

Subedei

[Sabretooth78 808]

Simgoober - That's what I have done (except the edit mesh parts), on the ones that more visibly taper.  However, there are some that look cleaved and just get smaller by a couple sheets of material.  (It's more evident when you look at a good close-up)   They're pointless to model because it won't come out in the end, but it just looks like something's missing.  Once again I'm hoping that textures cover alot of it up.  I figure I'll complete the modeling leaving it as is, and then when it's done I'll go back and refine some things if I think it'll make a difference.  Just because it's frustrating to have half a building to go and you're just superdetailing a little pillar.  Even though the building itself is 80-90% complete, I still have texturing, night lighting, Niagara Square, etc to do so there's plenty of time to regain the energy to do these things.

 

-Chris

[jsieczka 19]

After some work the boarding platforms are done. I strted with having all of them, i then found out that the lot would and up 20 tiles deep.  I cut it down to 2 of them to make the lot usable.  On both sides of the platforms there will be tracks that will be rail enabled.  There widths are also wrong that is to deal with the fact of the rail size in the game. 

 

Edit: Newer Pictures Ahead

[Sabretooth78 808]

Jsieczka - That terminal is coming along nicely, and I would imagine it'll start looking even better once you get textures on that thing?  Especially that red on the roof (please don't tell me the roof actually is red)!

 

-Chris

[SimGoober 2,365]

This is looking sharp!  You are definitely working hard in it.

 

The Wegmans and Tops are uploaded.  I forgot to add the Project Buffalo Wing logo. Sorry.  Another lot was giving me fits; kept crashing for no appearant reason.  I had to start the modding over, and ran a little late, and just plain forgot.  Maybe I'll edit the pics tommorrow, and add it in.

[jsieczka 19]

Ok the buildings has windows and textures now.  The large window's texture i am not happy with, but I don't have a better texture.  If anyone has a better one please let me know.  The roof colors are right now, it is red but it is a burnt red.

 

[Sabretooth78 808]

Hmm.. I still think you might need to dull that red a little bit, but that's just me.  BTW, how do you get your texture color matches?  I have a little technique that I follow that I think looks pretty well (although City Hall is going to put it to the test, I can feel it);  if you're interested, let me know.

 

As for City Hall, I'm at a bit of a standstill right now.  No hangups, just haven't been able to string a few hours together lately to get to work on it.  Things should improve possibly as early as tomorrow though.

 

As a holdover and staying on the Buffalo topic, I thought it would be interesting to present this website I found, The Truth About Snow in Buffalo .  Enjoy!

 

-Chris

 

Thanks to the bugfixes in the Profiles area, I should soon be able to update my sig!

[Sabretooth78 808]

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[Ryan B 35]

W. O. W. That is some pretty good detailing right there!