BAT advice

[harishna 847]

I think you should also change/fix the material and UVW maps used for the roof and floors. The size for the floor tiles is too large, to be honest I don't like the material at all...

[darn42 1,268]

Thank you everybody for being so supportive and helpflul, this would not be looking nearly as good at all if I didn't have all of you to help me.

T Wrecks, I am using 3dsmax.

For the pool, what aspects of the water material should I change to give that effect?

Also, the middle windows don't have any reflection... I kept experimenting and i found 1 wave no reflection and 95 refraction gave the best results. I'm not sure if that would work on the rest but I'll see.

  Edited March 4, 2012 by darn42  

[darn42 1,268]

I changed my main windows to have 85 refraction, 4 reflection, and 2 bump effect wave. They've definitely improved. Also, ignore the missing pool; I forgot to unhide it. They were between 35 and 65 raytraced reflection before, but it just looked weird.

  Edited March 4, 2012 by darn42  

[darn42 1,268]

Tinkered a little more with windows. Changed the floor texture of base and middle. I think it looks better in the middle roof, but on the base it kinda looks too bright. I'm going to make the stairs a seperate color and see if that helps for the next edition. Roof junk will also be there in the next round.

[darn42 1,268]

added some roof junk. How does the roof junk look, and what should I add/change to it? Windows look different cause I froze the ground and it turned white. Does it look better or worse that way? It's an easy change back to how it was.

  Edited March 4, 2012 by darn42  

[darn42 1,268]

What I have been working on when i don't know what to do with the grand villa. I would like comments and suggestions about this one, too. Btw, can a moderator take the other thread I posted about this down.

[darn42 1,268]

Mah new update on the newer building

[Evillions 552]

For your first model, I have a feeling that this is underscaled, can you Photoshop that render into an in-game picture of that same zoom so we can get a better idea of what your model looks like in-game.

As for your second model, it looks decent. Do you plan on making it a W2W (Wall to Wall) building or as a stand alone building?

  Edited March 6, 2012 by Evillions  

[IDS2 3,429]

Grand Villa is looking better! The colors look more even now, I'd say. 1) I'd change the roof material from wood to something like concrete since I doubt they'd bother installing fine hardwood floors in a place where nobody could see them. 2) Maybe add some accessories (chairs, small tables) to the pools if there's room? 3) the existing roof junk could use a bit more detail, and you might consider adding a couple roof fans or something as long as it doesn't look overdone. 4) Have you considered a modeled lot? This is just an option, it doesn't make a huge difference either way. 5) I'd check your reflections - right now they look a bit flat to be convincing. Also, what is the scale of the building?

About the new building, although it's a cool shape, I find it a bit...unconvincing, I'm not really sure how else to describe it. For one thing, the parapets and mullions are a bit thick - 0.3 meters seems to be the rule of thumb for parapets, while mullions are probably down more in the 0.075 - 0.1 meter range. The general design is what I'm hung up on, though. There seems to be a disparity between the facade and the rest of the building, like two types of buildings are being blended together. On one hand, the facade seems rather modern and sleek (though check your glass material) while on the other hand the brick part reminds me more of a residential building. I'm really not sure how to describe it...it just feels like the building is trying to go in two different directions at once. If you keep the brick material, be sure to check the texture to make sure there isn't any tiling going on. Finally, always be sure to think about the interior layout - the bent portion is a bit narrow to be as functional as it otherwise could be.

I dunno, just my thoughts. I really like what I'm seeing, though, so keep at it

  Edited March 6, 2012 by IDS2  

[darn42 1,268]

Thank you for the suggestions.

As for Grand Villa, I have added some chairs to the pool area and gave a better texture to the roof. As for the roof junk, I'm not positive what direction to go there. I have to say I have little to no knowledge of roof junk, I am planning on perusing some of the better buildings on the STEX for some more ideas on how to do them. I have definitely considered a modeled lot because the lot editor is just disgusting... How much more time would it take to make a convincing modeled lot look good? (I don't care if it takes a long time, I just want to see what I'm getting in to) Grand Villa is currently on a 4x4 lot and is I think about 125-150 meters tall. I really hope it isn't underscaled because that is one of the main things I've been focusing on in redoing it. I'm using zoom 4 if that helps clarify things, render times get a bit excessive at 5.

The new building I'm working on, I was kinda going for a brick vs. modern look, but if it doesn't look like it's meant to do that then it definitely needs some work. The horizontal mullions on the front side of the building are separators for different stories so they should be thick, but I can definitely thin up the vertical ones and add an extra one in. Also, I want this lot to fit on a 2x1 lot for more tight spaces, so I had to make it relatively narrow. Also, I experimented with it being longer, and it was not as aesthetically nice of a shape when it was wider.

  Edited March 6, 2012 by darn42  

[darn42 1,268]

And an update for grand villa. changed roof texture, added some nice reclining pool chairs, and upped the glass reflection from 6 to 20. Didn't have time to mess with roof junk tonight. Also, I'm running out of space on my texture pallet (I have one spot left) is there a way to keep the textures I have and get some more spaces? Or make it so I can access the textures I'm using now later.

[harishna 847]

already looks so much better I would play with the roof texture a bit more. The floors also look better however I think the tiles are a bit big, remember to keep things on the right scale...Nonetheless I believe you going in the right direction.

[darn42 1,268]

Ok first off, I made the roof a concrete texture I found (I think that I can probably find a better fit) I haven't had time for the roof junk yet.

I believe I have drastically improved the windows. I changed the background photo to one that was less... blue. I included two colorstrips in the pic the left one was what the diffuse of the window texture was set to. And I darkened it a lot (second strip) and it seems to have changed significantly. I will experiment with the color in the future if these two still need improving in your opinion.

Also, I put up a comparison of the reflectivities; one was at 35 and the other 25.

Then, finally, I recolored the canopy as I found out the texture I thought I was using to manipulate it, was not affiliated with the canopy in any way.

Like always, tell me what you think about what I did and what I still need to do.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

It's coming along well.

If you're using max 9 or newer, use the Arch & Design material type. You can read all about it in the "Help" documentation. You should use the Arch & Design for everything. It's a better and easier material than the Standard material type.

[Ceafus 88 1,906]

Wow, this has progressed well, I would go with the 25, but that's just my opinion, its up to you

This has progressed along well, I would use 25, but that's just my opinion, its up to you.

[darn42 1,268]

Here is my work today. I've done a lot of arch & design stuff now. The windows are now arch & design glass, it totally made a difference and I love this new texture compared to old- it's getting really close to a realistic glass texture, thank you so much Jason. Also, I redid some of the roof junk, added a nice fan to it and retextured it. Also I added a bit more detail to it. And because I feel I'm coming closer to completion; I took the extra time to render a zoom 5 pic . Tell me what you think.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Z5 helps a lot lot more when trying to give advice

I would try adding a UV map to your ground pane, to either 100x100 or 50x50..this would give the window reflection less of a stretched look and make it look a little busier. Right now there are too big a chunks a colour and it's a little too fuzzy. I think you may have just mapped a city bitmap to the ground pane that was setup when you clicked the ground button. As far as I know this pane is about 1000m x 1000m so the bitmap will be way too stretched.

It's coming along great and goes to show what taking your time over something archieves!

  Edited March 8, 2012 by gutterclub  

[SimFox 804]

What version of 3ds Max do you use?

[harishna 847]

Don't forget to add a bump and/or noise map to your glass to make it more realistic. you should also be careful with the materials you are applying for the roof access you are using something that is highly reflective almost like metal (never seen something like that in my life). You should check the stair dimension in terms of the depth and high of the steps. Also the wall around the base has a texture that looks weird, I am also concern about the modeling of this wall it seems as if it was made up of different pieces that not fit with each other.

Nonetheless you are progressing a lot so keep it up!

[darn42 1,268]

Simfox, I have the latest version of 3dsmax; 2012.

I'm at school right now so I can't make any of the changes yet. But thank you all for being so helpful.

I agree the fence is really not the best. I had forgot about that, but I had just extruded it from the base and it didn't line up that well. Also, I didn't realize that the size of the bitmap would affect the reflection. I will definitely change that and see what it looks like. I will also start to do my renders in z5. I'm just wondering, is there a way to stop/pause a preview? cause it seems that if I start it I have to see it all the way through and it can get a bit annoying when I realize something I should do mid-render.

[gutterclub 2,729]

You can press escape at any point during a render to stop it.

[darn42 1,268]

no bump map on left for windows, wave bump on right for windows

My night's work on this. I reworked some of the shape and the textures of the roof junk; lowered reflection a lot and added a few more details.

Redid the fence at the bottom. New texture, and completely modeled new.

The majority of my time though, was experimenting with those windows. I did a lot of bump map experimentating and such. The amount of rendering I did tonight was depressing, but that esc button thing really helped soooo much. I got to a decent bump map (on the right), it's a wave bump and I messed around a lot of the specs in a completely random fashion. I like how it looks on the middle set of windows on the 2nd to top section, but to the right it gets too frequent of distortion for my liking. Is there any way to change this? Or should I even change it? does the extra distortion look good to you guys?

[darn42 1,268]

Ok, major change; modeled a lot , now I don't have to use the stupid lot editor for nearly as long. I changed the roof access stairwell thing to be more consistent with other roof structures. I also changed the bump map to a "dent" map. I think that this one looks the best of the bumps I've been messing with.

As always, leave your comments and suggestions for me; they are why this BAT is turning out so much better than it was.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Actually it's best to avoid BATing the ground if you can. So unless having custom driveways are important to you I'd leave them out. The in-game shadows don't get cast on BATed ground, which can make the ground look weird if it's in the shadow of another building. BATing elevated plazas like the one you started out with is usually fine because the elevation change helps disguise the transition between the in-game shadows and the BAT's internal shadows. A row of hedges can do the same. Also, BATing props, like trees, can work out well since props don't get shadows cast on them anyway, and if you BAT them they can at least receive internal shadows from the main building.

For the bump map you can just use a noise map.

[darn42 1,268]

Ok, I changed bump map to noise and deleted the grass plane. That's pretty much it. Tell me what you think.

[darn42 1,268]

This is my new side project, Cherry Blossom Inc. I couldn't really get into the other apartments but I am already into this one. This is just a few hours work so it definitely needs some blatant improvements (textures and tiling of textures) I plan on keeping the windows very transparent and adding cubicles and such on the inside. Anyways, tell me what you all think of this and any suggestions you have for me.

Just wondering, btw, is there a way to keep a texture and cut down on the tiling? 'Cause I like the texture on the base and I want to keep it but I don't like what's happening.

[IDS2 3,429]

It looks to me like Grand Villa is done except for the glass. Glass is reeeeally hard to get right, but once you get it you can repeat it over and over on all of your buildings without having to change much. I advise checking out what simfox had to say here. It's pretty much like jasoncw's method here but...you'll see. Draw from the two methods as necessary to get where you need to go.

New one looks cool! I'll wait to see where this one is going. I know you said you were still working on textures, but remember to keep the grass a bit less saturated Also, what's happening to your trees in the render?

[Ceafus 88 1,906]

Grand Villa is looking nice, this second one looks promising, its textures on the roof, and ground are tiling very much, also, reduce the saturation in the grass.

[darn42 1,268]

Thank you so much for the links. I was looking for those fora while but I couldn't find them :s. And about the trees, I'm using the default 3dsmax cherry blossoms, and the have a lot of detail, so I set the level of detail on each of them down to low for now cause I just want to see my building and how it looks at this point.

[darn42 1,268]

Ok I tried out that two bump kinda thing. Made it in two materials so I could make it nightlights possibly later. The glass is definitely looking more realistic. Especially compared to where it started. If you all think the day glass is ready, I'll start trying to figure out nightlights.