Jason Leo's European BATs

[jason leo 485]

Hi everyone, if you want to give tips about my BATs, please post them here

i hope you want to give extra tips and information to me so i could improve my BAT skill.

[Amthaak 1,501]

Hi! just put a small tut in my thread "amthaak other bats thread" ! fill free to have a look!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Hi everyone, if you want to give tips about my BATs, please post them here

Well, what BATs? I don't see any.

You've come to the right place if you want to gather some feedback, input, constructive critique, suggestions, etc. - however, we'll need to see what you're working on in order to help you out and suggest things you could do to improve your BATs or the techniques you employ to make them. I'm looking forward to seeing your BATs; it's always good to see new BATters!

[jason leo 485]

My only question is how to take the picture of my BATs ? I forget the right way to do it.

[00.7 Cheeses 69]

To get previews of your work you should go to the tab where the hammer is. Then you should go to B.A.T. --> Parameters to set a LOD. And then you can click on the tab which says preview. Choose an angle and the program will start rendering a picture of your building.

Always use this method if you're going to show us a picture in your BAT thread. If you don't and you show a viewport view then it can't be judged because colors and textures will be displayed differently. The preview render is also the same render you will get in the game so if it doesn't look good. Then that's your reference to get it better.

I hope this helps you a bit.

-Ernst

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You'll need some kind of image editing program. GIMP is free and has most of the functionality you could want, so just search google and you'll find their website.

After you do your preview in gmax, you'll want to take a screenshot of your preview render by pressing the "Print Screen" or "Prnt Scrn" (or some other variation) key on your keyboard. Then go into your image editing program, and you can go to Edit>Paste to paste your screenshot into it.

Then you need to get the image online. For that you'll need to find an image hosting site. I had to find a new image hosting site recently and I've been using imgur.com which seems to have good hosting features, and you can connect with it using your google account which I like.

After you've uploaded your image, it's time to come to Simtropolis to update your BAT thread. You start writing a new post, and you use the icon for inserting images, and when it asks for a url, you use the url of your image from the image hosting site.

It might sound like a lot of work but really it probably takes as much time to read what to do as it does to actually do it.

[Halen Of Dania 350]

Well welcome to the batting scene leo or whatever your name is!.

:|

[Notch805 0]

(\__/)

(='.'=)

(")_(")

What bats?

[jason leo 485]

I already have GIMP and look at the preview tab, but where is the print screen tab?

  Edited May 19, 2012 by jason leo  

[Shy Dude 149]

It's this button on your keyboard.

After you press that. Go on GIMP, go to File > Create > From Clipboard. Then crop the render, save the picture and upload it on an image hosting site like https://imgur.com/. There ya go.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I don't use print screen tab. I use snipping tool.

[Silur 3,304]

"Print Screen" tab and then "Insert" /"Paste"/ position in "Adobe Photoshop CS2" is EXCELLENT for me without any problems !!!

  Edited May 19, 2012 by Silur  

[jason leo 485]

For now, i already start a new project.

This far, the building is still unfinished, but this time the model is should be much better than my first BAT pack.

for now, i make details for the roof so it will not look so bare like that.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

In the top of the window you can see it says ".....South (1:2)" That means that the preview render is being scaled down 1:2 to fit on your screen. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in to 1:1 and take a screenshot of that.

Then use the crop tool in GIMP to crop out all of the stuff that's not the preview.

And finally, I don't know what you did or how it happened, but your render is really messed up. There are no shadows and not even any shading.

[zahrul3 471]

Your textures are messed up as well, and your scale is way off. The rule of thumb for BATters is, buildings in SC4 are 33% or a third taller than their real life counterpart, so 3m ceilings become 4m tall, and so on.

For good textures, you need to edit it yourself with GIMP, generally by enlarging the texture size, adding gradients and reducing saturation. Some BATters go the length to create their own textures but I'm not into that.

You can find a whole lot more tutorials at SC4D but you need to have a forum account there. They are generally for BATters who know the fundamentals but want to go slightly further and do advanced stuff.

[jason leo 485]

It still unfinished until now, and so far, i already reach this :

i don't know if this one is perfectly same or maybe better or worse from the first one.

  Edited May 21, 2012 by jason leo  

[gutterclub 2,729]

There are no shadows and the textures are washed out?

Compare this to someone elses preview render, you will notice a huge difference.

[zahrul3 471]

There are no shadows and the textures are washed out?

Compare this to someone elses preview render, you will notice a huge difference.

This is Madhatter's renderer, you should be able to see the difference;

To fix it, select the entire model but not lights/TB2CameraHandle, then in the 'File' toolbar you'll see 'Save Selected', press that and save the model as backup. After that, create an entirely new scene, and in the 'File' toolbar, select 'Merge' and open the backup model. Your render should be fixed by now

[MandelSoft 2,769]

In addition to what zahrul3 said, if it's still not fixed, check the self-illumination settings of your textures. These should be set to 0 in normal conditions...

[T Wrecks 10,209]

OK, good technical advice has been given - maybe a few words about the building: It's a huge improvement over your first upload! The vertical elements between the windows look very wide and massive, but that may be part of the architecture. I like how your parapet wall isn't thick and clunky, but looks realistic. I also like that you are apparently making a ground floor that looks different from the rest of the building and helps to define the building. Highrises often look stupid when they don't have a defined ground floor. The rooftop penthouse is also a good idea, but it should definitely be centered.

I hope you'll sort out the technical problems, the progress you show is promising!

[jason leo 485]

CPCH ( Casper Petrol Company Headquarter) is finished !

the night light already added here.

sorry if i can't to zoom it to 1:1, the building is so big, 1:1 will be just too big.

[paulvmontfort 616]

is it possible for you to post a final daytime preview zoomed to 1:1 as well? I don't mind if I can't see the whole building but I'd like to see how it looks up close. Then I can give some positive critics and suggestions

[jason leo 485]

Here, paulvmonfort.

[paulvmontfort 616]

Well, it looks as if there's still something wrong with the lighting setup. I'm not sure what though . Otherwise it looks very promising

[harishna 847]

You should do some very basic image editing before posting your previews, all you have to do is crop the image using something like Photoshop or GIMP.

[zahrul3 471]

I believe your not listening to us BAtters, the lighting problem is still unsolved. Read my other post above, I won't explain it again;

It can also be saturated textures but looking at the concrete texture is a giveway that its an improper lighting setup. My guess is, you have 2 camera sets placed on top of each other unintentionally.

Taking some day off and reading other BATters threads should give you some inspiration.

[jason leo 485]

I believe your not listening to us BAtters, the lighting problem is still unsolved. Read my other post above, I won't explain it again;

It can also be saturated textures but looking at the concrete texture is a giveway that its an improper lighting setup. My guess is, you have 2 camera sets placed on top of each other unintentionally.

Taking some day off and reading other BATters threads should give you some inspiration.

I already do anything with TB2 Camera handle and self-illumintion, just like your post. So, please tell me which problem is unsolved because the camera and self-illumination problem status is solved.

[zahrul3 471]

is it still really bright or has it toned down a bit?

what about making another model and render it, so I could know if its you or the GMAX that's wrong.

[paulvmontfort 616]

have you been fiddling with the light setup yourself? (adding lights and stuff) Normally you don't have to worry about these things as gmax creates all the necessary stuff itself whenever you press the preview button.

[jason leo 485]

I already finish my research and find the problem. The texture of the building is just too bright even when i change the color into black and the self-illumination is 0. Maybe it just too late for me to fix it, but for now, this experience is a lesson for me, and i just start a newer project that still very far from finish. I don't know, maybe it will take a lot of time for me to finish it ( this project is quite big). This time, i use another texture which isn't so bright, more realistic and surely it will be better than my second BAT. For me the conclusion is i still need more practice and improve my BAT skill. I will tell my new project as fast as possible.