daTS's BATs

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Well, it's about that time where I get active again.

I'm starting to make things that actually look good. Here's what I'm working on so far.

I'm having trouble with reflections though. Anywhere that light strikes, I get a great reflection. However, where direct sunlight doesn't strike, I don't get a reflection. :/

  Edited March 23, 2012 by daTSchikinhed  

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Well, since nobody's replied, how about I spice it up with a much better, sexier version of my towers! I've still gotta model out stuff on the central Plaza.

Any ideas on what else to do with it?

[Ion_Cannon 677]

I wouldn't worry to much about the lack of responses, the BAT forums seem rather dead as of late.

Its a very interesting looking building. Seems mixed use, some parts look like offices, but you also have alot of roof terraces and balconies which would suggest apartments.

As for suggestions as to what you should do next, it looks like it needs an entrance lobby area and you need more roof junk on the top roof area.

It may also just be an optical illusion but the concrete area which looks like a multi storey car park, has a wierd perspective. Additionally, it just looks a bit out of place.

[Terring 6,473]

I want this building in my cities

[pLynn 27]

While I hardly ever use skyscrapers, this one looks great; could be used as an island resort perhaps.

Getting few responses these days is probably the fault of Maxis - their SC5 idea seems to have everyone buzzing around it (not this player).

[darn42 1,268]

It looks great. The main things I see; the roof junk seems a bit undetailed, definitely see to that. And the windows just seem a bit too... blue I guess. They just don't seem quite realistic enough for me. Great job so far though!

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

I wouldn't worry to much about the lack of responses, the BAT forums seem rather dead as of late.

Its a very interesting looking building. Seems mixed use, some parts look like offices, but you also have alot of roof terraces and balconies which would suggest apartments.

As for suggestions as to what you should do next, it looks like it needs an entrance lobby area and you need more roof junk on the top roof area.

It may also just be an optical illusion but the concrete area which looks like a multi storey car park, has a wierd perspective. Additionally, it just looks a bit out of place.

Thanks! I'm thinking a botanical garden type thing for the entrance lobby surrounding the fountain. The "car park" is actually just more open terraces.

I want this building in my cities

Thanks! Hopefully it will be soon!

While I hardly ever use skyscrapers, this one looks great; could be used as an island resort perhaps.

Getting few responses these days is probably the fault of Maxis - their SC5 idea seems to have everyone buzzing around it (not this player).

Thanks, I appreciate it.

It looks great. The main things I see; the roof junk seems a bit undetailed, definitely see to that. And the windows just seem a bit too... blue I guess. They just don't seem quite realistic enough for me. Great job so far though!

Well, again it's a WIP. The roof junk is not finished, and I've yet to add any HVAC or comm arrays. I'm also planning on changing the window texture to black with a hint of gold reflections.

All in all, I have a lot of work left to finish on this before it becomes a usable unit.

[paulvmontfort 616]

My I do some suggestions to make the building look more realistic?

1: the covered terraces would be a very uncomfortable place to be in this way. Because they are completely open, wind will pass through them at quite a high speed due to tunneling effects. It would be better to have some kind of wall or interior area in the middle to prevent wind from gusting through.

2: Also the columns in this area look a bit big. Twice the size of the tables on the terraces. I think a diameter of 0.6 meters would be enough to support 7 floors above it. Add some insulation and covering and you'll get 1 to 1.2 meters.

3: Are the towers residential? If so, I'd make the balconies smaller. Balconies come with a price tag, the bigger they are, the more expensive the apartments are, up to a point where the price for an apartment is too high for the space you get. The balconies also prevent precious daylight from reaching the inner spaces of the towers.

I'm not saying you must change these things, they're just suggestions if you want to make your building more realistic. I nonetheless really like the uniqueness of the design so far so keep it up

  Edited April 11, 2012 by paulvmontfort  

[gutterclub 2,729]

I agree, it's a nice model and the textures are coming along very nicely, however it doesn't quite make sense yet as to what the building is / it's purpose / architecturaly. It's good fun to doodle but it makes most sense to recreate or at least strongly base it on something.

The glass is good, are you using a ground plane to reflect as te glass could do with being a little busier.

Keep it up.

[while 1]

I want this building in my cities

haha,the same to me .

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Well, here's a little treat I've been working on. Gonna have to study more on custom LOD's and such to get it working though.

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

I know its kind of late for the older building (I should have looked around the BAT froums more lol) but if you want reflections everywhere, you will need to turn on the sky then turn on the ground and put a texture on it.

Sky is under the Let There be light section of the BAT, and ground is under the LOD section. To get a texture on the ground you will need to unfreeze it apply the texture and freeze it again.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Hey, nice to see more highway decoration stuff! I like the model very much so far, but there are some details that look unrealistic to me - most notably the neon lighting. I mean, it looks really cool, just not in that place. It would be a terrible waste of energy. The light strip on the bridge itself might be justified, but not the illuminated edge of grass bed at the ramp... The regular lights shining down the walls might make sense or not, depending on what's at the bottom of the wall. If you envision an on/offramp to be used there, then I guess they make perfect sense.

I suppose the textures aren't finalised at this stage, or are they? Just wondering because everything looks very bright and a bit "sterile" so far, but that's nothing that can't be fixed.

On a totally unrelated side note, is that an Audi R8 in your avatar picture?

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

I plan on having a lit and non-lit version (the lit version will have some decorative stuff for urban interchanges). I do appreciate the input though!

And yes, it's an R8. I would kill to have one.

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Double post, I know, but an update on things. The towers in my second post are still high up in my to-do list. The Highway overpass as dropped to the bottom of the list, mainly because I don't really like it.

My current project, however, is at the top of the list. Reason? it's for my City Journal. I still have to add (lots of) details and roof junk, but the basic shape and window layout is done. Once that's done, the "Illium" related embellishments will be removed and I'll upload it to the STEX.

I'd love feedback though.

355m high with 116 floors.

//EDIT: added updated image

  Edited June 13, 2012 by daTSchikinhed  

[darn42 1,268]

Badass design.

Texture looks too clean imo, add some damage and such to it. Even new buildings have a little dirt. The same with that red arrow and highlights at the bottom, they don't look like they're actually on a building. I would change that.Then I'm sure you know the windows need work. I'm also not a fan of the texture at the very base near the entrance. Doesn't look like something I would ever see.

Great job though, you should finish this one.

[on001222 688]

Nice. I like stye Building. :D

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wow, that's a badass design indeed! I think it could work in two ways, and IMO your latest picture shows your building right inbetween. I'll explain: In a basic version without the fancy stuff (red applications, entrance shaped like a spaceship ramp) it could work as a sleek, modern real-world design. With those fancy elements, I guess you could add some equally fancy wall and window texture and turn this into a superb SimMars building.

However, in any case I think you should go for either of these two ways (or both), but not inbetween.

I also think that this two-storey structure on the side of the roof clashes with the rest of the design and takes away from the sleek and clean appearance of the building. For a real-world version, I'd just remove it, for a SimMars building it could become a control center for a spacecraft landing pad on the roof or something like that.

I also think the building needs a better accentuated base, but it has massive potential IMO!

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Damn... that is one hell of a tower.

I get that you're not going for a completely realistic/ real world look here... at the moment it looks a bit like something out of a sci-fi movie or 1984. And that's totally fine, you're just having a bit of fun with it.

But the design is so, well... striking... I'd really like to see it modified (as another version) into something that could work in the real world. Say for example, I can't even begin to imagine how the floors would be laid out in that thing! And as T-wrecks pointed out, a base like that just wouldn't happen. But there's so much interesting stuff going on there I'd really like to see what could be done with it.

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Thanks for the input! I'll definitely take everything into consideration

Cockatoo, if you'd like, I could send you the model. I think you could do some amazing variations of it.

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Doube Post, but a bit of an update on things. I've started an entirely new project, scrapping my old ones. School just went into lockdown mode as well, so I'll only have time for my current project, which will also be my entrant portfolio to Advanced Modeling program at my school.

I'm putting the previous two buildings up for download. They require Max 2011 or higher to run.

Illium Industries Tower

Residential Towers

My current project and portfolio entry is this:

I present to you, Serenity Industries Headquarters (Work in Progress), based heavily off of Greystone Industries' Caprica City HQ in the TV Show "Caprica"

There will be several buildings as part of a complex that surrounds all of it. So far, I just have the central tower.

  Edited July 13, 2012 by daTSchikinhed  

[darn42 1,268]

*whistles* phhheeeeew. Dang, that's one hot building. What's required to get into the advanced modeling course btw?

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

ohai, I did some stuff!

Greystone Industries is now night-lit. Now just to put some finishing touches on it.... and export it. This will probably be an overnight render, as my computer is a few years old now.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Great stuff! Have you released any of these? Such great works shame not to release them. Maybe this one? Hope to see more from you.

[B.C builder 291]

Wow, these nightlights are awesome !

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

I swear, one day I will finish one of these and release them.

As for the Greystone Tower seen in my previous post, the model itself is completed, however there are some issues with scaling (since I started it before setting up my scene [DERP]), and I also did the night model before finishing day (hey, it was my first real run at BATting. 

Anywho, I got kind of disheartened when I ran into all those problems and stopped modeling for a while.

 

Well, last week I found this (very unfinished) little beauty lying about my external drive while I was deep cleaning everything. I don't remember creating it, so either: 

a) I was incredibly intoxicated when I started it (which is very possible knowing me. I'm like the American version of a Russian drunk) or 
b) it is a public asset I found somewhere on the web. (equally as likely, considering I find stuff, download it, then forget about it the next day) 

Either way, I've put about 40 hours of work into it so far (it started out as nothing but a mess of meshes and unfinished splines), and I'm really liking where it's going.   

Excuse the placeholder textures. I'm still working on the grounds and such. I plan on adding a fountain and a mini-park somewhere. The tiled grass is just a reference point to know how many tiles in SC4 and where to put things. 

Anywho, opinions? 

 

//edit: Whoops, forgot to attach the picture!

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Great! 

The glasses *----*

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

I came across this thread today, and was absolutely blown away! You are doing a fantastic job!

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Thanks guys! I'm having a little trouble coming up with something I'm happy with for the grounds. Any ideas?

[jaredh 195]

This building looks like a hospital a bit to me.  Maybe a nice drive up into it?