Operation Buffalo Wing: A Blizzard of BAT

[vanshnookenraggen 0]

I could bash Troy for weeks. Boston is great tho. Actually Troy is the home of THE Uncle Sam. I've seen the proof and seen his grave. He was actually born in Monotomy, Mass which is now called Arlington wich is where I moved when I left Troy (go figure). Your right about Bostonians BTW. And you are right about poor sections, Boston has them too (Dorchester/Roxbury).
Keep up the great work.

[sblanc1087 0]

yea, I did post something it was long message, so now I'll just have to summerize it. I didnt make it home that night, and couldnt post the pictures, I found that I did indeed have some that would be of some use. Im currently at Pratt in NYC for a month I have my laptop with the picts and Ill soon be hopefully getting it on line at the labs here given that they dont have internet in the dorms. They have to check my laptop so it will take a few days, Ill get them to you soon.The lab computers wont accept the cd with the picts so Im working around that. sorry for the delay.

yes and I just realized that you added the plaza on your list! great! cant wait till you get to it, I have more picts when you get down to doing it, very detailed.

[GaryGerbrandt 6]

Date:7/6/2004 7:14:06 PM
Author:sblanc1087

quote>

Well put. LOL

Can we see some pics of the Liberty Building?

[Sabretooth78 808]

sblanc1087 - Forget to attach or say something?!?!

 

I'll have pics coming soon, I might not get much done today, but tomorrow should be good.  Count on something in the next couple days, and when it does happen the building will already be 70% modeled.

 

-Chris

[vanshnookenraggen 0]

Here are a few pics that I have. The really large ones are ones I took on my way through.
Empire State Plaza pics

All the others I have found online but can't give the source (I didn't think of getting the URL, smart!!)

[Sabretooth78 808]

Wow, now those are some excellent pictures!  Nice and high-res, they should be better than what I usually have to go by.  The only thing that seemed to be lacking were some good views of the bases of the 5 towers, especially towards the back (Corning and State towers).  I think the way I'll probably attack this is to make the Corning Tower first, and release it as it's own lot.  Then one of the State Towers (and the other 3 look identical except maybe around the back of the bases?), and release that as a separate lot.  I figure I should be able to get that far in only a couple weeks, as the buildings look very simple (at lease compared to what I've been doing lately).  Then I'll work on the mall itself and the museums, egg, etc.  Another thing that wouldn't hurt is if I had a better idea where the floodlights are situated, to make night lighting easier.  Maybe (and right now it's a big maybe) I'll consider doing the Capitol.  But don't count on it yet.  I also like that Art Deco Smith State Office Bldg.  From those distance pics, it almost looks like Buffalo City Hall!

 

It just might take a while to get it done, which is why I say Christmas.  Unfortunately for my BATting, I've been getting the itch to play the game again.  I think once I finish my prior committments (Liberty Building and ACC), I might start splitting my BAT time with getting back into the game (don't worry, I have no desire to put BAT down completely!).  One thing that would speed this project up is I'm thinking of possibly delaying the Statler Towers and Rand Building until after I can get some pictures myself, the ones I've preliminarily looked for on the web aren't very helpful.  Some great detail shots of the Statler, but nothing around the base.  And the Rand is essentially a wall-to-wall, so I have little detail around three of the sides (it actually literally abuts a building on one side - almost thinking of doing a double-building lot).  Check the picture I posted below, the Rand is the mini-Empire State Building on the left edge, and it literally touches that glass tower (the Tishman Bldg).

 

sblanc1087 - or anybody else for that matter - This is a bit of a stretch, so I'm not expecting to get an affirmative response here.  Do you happen to have any pictures that can give a good indication of what is behind the Liberty Building?  The area inside the red circles.  These pics are essentially the best I got, apparently there's a 3-4 story section in there that has the HVAC units and such.  You wouldn't happen to have anything from street level along that road? (Pearl St I believe?)  If not, don't worry because it's a minor part of the building that could be reasonably left out, but I have just enough info to be able to do a decent job of faking it at least.  It also appears there may be no windows near ground level back there?  I'm figuring because it probably abutted another building before they built Main Place in the 60's, much like there's a building abutting the newer portion on the south side (lower right).

 

 

BTW, it looks like another ugly white roof as well.  I might not feel so bad faking this one into grey, as this one's even bothering me!

 

-Chris

[sblanc1087 0]

great, not allowing picts to be posted, not sure if its my comp, I have the picts buffalo and albany here, but cant post them. I have whats behind the towers and Im looking for whats on the side of the liberty, so I have the picts, but I just can post them. Ill try again later, But its kicking me off. Thats it for tonight but later on I ll see if I can post them.

[jsieczka 19]

That little section is part of Main Place its a loading dock area.  Main place snakes around behind some existing buildings.  They needed every bit of space because it was going to be a the draw of downtown.

[JessiLaurn 184]

Date: 6/25/2004 11:44:46 PM
Author:

As you can see the level the entrences are on are raised there is a ramp that has been off camera on all of the screen shoots. Where the large black holes are is ground level. What the two large holes are I do not know. In all the pics they are just black holes. There are no rail lines, nor has there ever been.

PS sorry about my pic being removed, guess I should start looking at that kind of stuff.

quote>

OK, those two large holes were, if I recall correctly, designed to be taxi/bus runs, that would bring passengers into the terminal. Here's a link to a good photo: http://central.terminal.railfan.net/pics/railphoto.cgi?1995js/train6_1.jpg

Also, your platforms are very wide (about twice as wide as the prototype); you might want to consider going with narrower platforms that will fit between two parallel sets of tracks (as has been done in a number of the multi-track stations in the BAT). In real life, the platforms are relatively short on one side of the station concourse, but stretch out for a ways on the other side, and the ends of the platforms are not roofed; a decent photo of that (albeit with the currently amputated concourse), as well as of the elevated approach ramp that so many are asking about, can be found here: http://central.terminal.railfan.net/pics/railphoto.cgi?ctdsaerial/nyct3.jpg Yes, it's a sad photo, that shows the current sad state of the terminal, but it gets the idea across.

That said, wonderful work so far!

[JessiLaurn 184]

One more link: http://central.terminal.railfan.net/pics/railphoto.cgi?ctdsaerial/nyct2.jpg

A decent shot of the site, that really shows what the heck that ramp is all about as well as gives some perspective on the platforms. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could disable freight on all the tracks except for the one the runs closest to the terminal (the old Belt Line, which didn't have passenger platforms). Again, you can see the long, think passenger platforms; I'd really recommend thinning yours up for placement between two parallel sets of tracks, like on joerg's Suburban Highspeed Rail Stop (https://www.simtropolis.com/lots/details.cfm?id=1843).

[jsieczka 19]

I have all but stoped working on the Termenal because of the fact that I am having extreme problems transit enabeling the lot.  To the point that I have moved onto reworking the great Northern Elevator for the BCS.  Unless someone picks up that part of the project, or I find time to try some more, the project will stay shelved. 

[jsieczka 19]

Ok, I lied I went and put the changes that everyone recomened into the game.  This will be the last render, my computer is not on speaking terms with me now.  I started the render last night at 12:30a and it is at 5 East, last time it took 32 hours. 

[Sabretooth78 808]

Sorry, no updates yet (slow week, I got older!), but maybe tomorrow night.  Keep your fingers crossed!  I want to get Lady Liberty onto the roof before I show anything, and getting the roof built would be key!

 

bob3003 - I did a bit of sleuthing into ACC tonight, and I was surprised by the amount of additional pics I was able to find.  Couple of areas where I could use some help, however:

• I find aerials very useful, and Globexplorer doesn't have the same zooms as over the US.  Terraserver only gives me a lousy USGS-map equivalent.  Do you know of any quality (non-angular) high-res aerial images of the arena?  I mean like directly overheadAlso, for scaling, the Gardiner Expressway runs right next to the arena - is a standard highway lane in Canada 3.6m (12 ft) wide, the same as it is in the US?  (how do you think I scale aerials!?!)
• Speaking of dimensions, do you happen to have any?  They would be very helpful to avoid scaling errors.
• Those large wall-sized murals over what appear to be the ticket windows - could you possibly get a good photo of each so that I can make nice textures for them?   I have a halfway-decent picture of only the basketball one, and not even the full height.
• Night lighting - I only have pictures on that one side (the front, SW side)
• I also couldn't find a whole lot of good detail about the 12-sty office tower, especially around the base.

I may think of more later.  Just trying to have all the bases covered to eliminate as many potential snags snags as possible before I get started...

jsieczka - Yeah, I believe you about the loading dock, but nestled into that corner of the Liberty Building appears to be all the HVAC and stuff for the Liberty Building, it appears to be attached from the building and separated from Main Place, and about 4-5 stories in height.

Can you/anyone else confirm this?  I might just model it in rough, it's minor enough where I can probably relax a bit on realism.

-Chris

[Sabretooth78 808]

Wow, the silence is deafening.

 

Well it's not as far along as I would have hoped it would be, but I forced myself into showing a couple of progress photos on the Liberty Building:

 

Pretty much what is taking me so long is trying to decipher what the roof looks like due to a lack of good quality pictures.  I think I have enough pictures, it's the quality of those pictures that's a bit of a problem.  And considering that this building has alot going on up here, I guess it's no wonder I'm falling behind.  But basically, this pyramid-like tower repeats itself on the other end, and there's a fair amount of building towards that end as well (the reason why I've only finished one so far).  Either way, this rooftop still has a long way to go, and hopefully I'll get alot done this week.  Also you'll notice the bottom of the building is still missing, but hopefully that shouldn't take too long!

bob3003 - Any ideas on the points I outlined in the last post?

-Chris

[JessiLaurn 184]

jsieczka, I look forward to seeing your final render of Central Station; it really is a magnificant structure, the last of the truly grand Art Deco train stations.

Chris, nice work so far on the Liberty Building.

[GaryGerbrandt 6]

seargentcm: OK... sorry, I missed that.

We're up by Lake Simcoe right now, but we'll be moving to Brampton on July 31st. Until then, I doubt that my dad would be willing to drive me to Toronto just to take pictures of the ACC... so it might take a while. If he was still working downtown, it wouldn't be a problem; but unfortunately, that isn't so.

 

I'll search the web.

[subedei 3]

Loooks good so far. Cant wait for it to hit the STEX as this is a style of building that is needed. Keep up the great work.  

 

 

Subedei

[Sabretooth78 808]

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I haven't gotten much done in the past week.  Whether you could tell or not, I've been starting to feel burnt out with the BAT projects and I've decided to get back into the game with a new region and CJ and take a short sabbatical from BAT.

 

To all the loyal followers - do not worry, this project is far from dead, and I will still make everything I've committed to, and still more!  I just won't be working on them exclusively, at least for the time being.  In fact, I may start picking it back up again tomorrow.

 

And there will be no change in my visitations to this forum and all the general responsibilities that come with the BATT Squad tag.  All in all, you probably won't even notice!

 

-Chris

[hackinosa 29]

don't mind hte delay, that building looks great!

[hackinosa 29]

don't mind the delay, that building looks great!

[jsieczka 19]

Well the Terminal should be up on the STEX in a few days.  I have started a major rework on an old project.  It is the Great Northern Elevator.  After this one I'm going to stop my real building BATs.  I'm going to do some Buffalo infulenced civic and other buildings.  I would like to help the game get rid of its LAish feel.

 

[ardecila 125]

Oh, so that picture you posted in the BSC Submission thread was a render! I thhought it was a picture from somewhere on the 'Net, or a model railroad scenery book.

If that was a render, what was wrong with it? The only problems I see on this one are the textures (unless it actually was constructed like that).

[jsieczka 19]

It was just lacking a lot of the detals that this version is going to have.  Wrong number of windows, the towers were not really right.  It was an early work that I can improve on.

[Sabretooth78 808]

That elevator looks nice.  Definitely a need in SC4.  Also can't wait to see Central Terminal once it's uploaded.

 

As for myself, I plan on getting back into BAT this weekend, and having the Liberty Building done around the beginning of August and then I'll start work on Air Canada Centre, and Albany's Corning Tower as a second breather project.  They should be ready by the start of September, hopefully.  I still can't gauge how long ACC is going to take, but as long as it's ready before hockey season!

 

-Chris

[jsieczka 19]

I just uploaded the Terminal to the STEX at 9:00pm (Indiana time) 7/23/04.  Time to update the profile.

[subedei 3]

Date:7/23/2004 10:06:35 PM
Author:jsieczka

I just uploaded the Terminal to the STEX at 9:00pm (Indiana time) 7/23/04.  Time to update the profile.

quote>

 

Sorry do not see the terminal on the STEX. Is it just me?

 

Subedei

[jsieczka 19]

I think something is up with the STEX nothing has been added all night.  The building is shown as a box with that says updates are being preformed.  So it is uploaded but not downloadable yet.

[Sabretooth78 808]

You may have noticed I've tidied up this thread a bit in the past couple of days, I've deleted obsolete posts (mostly the development of City Hall) in the name of bandwidth.  I encourage others to clean up anything in their posts as well, if you wish.  (I've saved all the posted pics of the Liberty Building, ACC, and Empire State Plaza to my hard drive.)

 

I am officially back from my self-imposed BAT hiatus!  It was just too difficult to resist the temptations of all the BATs out there, and the Network Addon Mod.  In a couple weeks I'll be debuting a new City Journal, this one entirely fictional.  Aurieshire County, or as I like to call it, New England, Without the Attitude.  It's probably Journal-ready material now but I want to fill it out a bit more so I can dive right into developing thru the journal.  Who knows, it may eventually feature some of the buildings from this thread!  It's based on an interesting terrain layout (real-life), and is inspired largely by Lewellan222's Digby journal (who's isn't?).

 

I've gotten a little bit done on Liberty today.  The roof is pretty confusing though and it still might take a bit of effort.  I had hoped to re-start on Saturday, but I was having computer problems, and decided to reinstall XP, and I was curious to try also installing Windows 98 so I could have AutoCAD back.  Which by the way has worked perfectly so far.  Just need to get used to my XP hard drive being the D drive now!  Took a minute to fix my BAT stuff as well since all the paths were pointing to C addresses, but that's all done now.

 

jsieczka - I downloaded Central Terminal, and I think it looks great, with one notable exception:  I think the texturing on the white platform definitely needs some attention, it just gives it the impression of a steep slope, and it's also discontinuous looking.  Nothing to keep me from using it, however, I just thought maybe sometime you'll feel like taking it up for another render!  Also I realized for the first time today how narrow the M&T Plaza building really is, I think it could definitely use to be made wider.  Once again, just a suggestion, nothing earth-shattering!  On a brighter note, I can't wait to see some of the smaller stuff you'll come up with!

 

-Chris

[jsieczka 19]

I have finished 3 sides of the Great Northern Elevator rebuild, but i'm stuck on the land side.  I have found no pictures of the base.  I may end up guessing on it if i can't find anything soon.  I have some bury photos but nothing that I can get a good idea.  After that I'm going to do an urban elemtary school, the 70's era northeastern type.  As a side note a TV show rated Ted's hotdogs as one of the best places for hotdogs in the US.  As any one from Buffalo would tell you it is THE best.

[Merkinball 0]

*salivates at the thought of a Ted's Hot Dog*

We get the same hot dogs as Ted's here at home, unfortunately I lack a cheese and chili machine, but I do slather them in mustard and hot relish.

*salivates more*