^13's BAT Lounge

[Ace3 1,209]

Hello, and welcome to my BAT thread. I am a newcomer to the Building Architect Tool, however I hope to one day become a better custom content creator. I have a decent knowledge now of how to navigate through iLives Reader, SC4 Plug-in Manager, and the Lot-Editor, but am a newcomer when it comes to using the BAT.

Anyways, after a bit of reading on my Sunday Afternoon, I have created my first BAT and I suppose I am decently proud of it. It is a modular Terminal Piece based off of the terminal design of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.

Not too shabby right? I plan to add more roof junk and all (as well as do the nightlighting ), so it is far from finished. Maybe I will release a modular pack if it looks better after a while. Anyways, this is cheers to many more

  Edited May 21, 2012 by 10000000000000  

[zahrul3 471]

Welcome to the world of BATters!

You have gaps in modelling(missing airstairs for turboprops, etc), some mismatched terminal-gate connection, and textures where there are supposed to be details. Keep in mind that a BAT, even a modular one, is not a 16*16*y box, but one that has details, even if its simple(SWAP is an example)

Roof junk, if you take a look at ACE-VLT terminals, are kept to a minimum(but still there), and generally there is a filter prop where the roof junk are located.

Windows should be transparent as well, with nightlighting placed inside the model to give it that transparent look, as were using gMAX.

Don't forget that, the more complete the set is the better it is, so;

- Several terminal props(entrance, main terminal, etc)

- Concourse endpieces.

- Terminal-to-concourse pieces

- Concourse pieces(you have that already)

[Evillions 552]

To add on what zahrul3 said, you need to make a set for something like this. Since this is a modular airport, you need to create the basic pieces (I.E. corners, variations of any type of piece, transitions to ACE terminals, etc.).

Also, you do not need to make a box for any type of detail. Use the spline / extrude method because you can create a more detailed facade of your terminal.

[Ace3 1,209]

Thanks guys, I'll keep working on it.

Two questions,

What is the standard method for nightlighting a BAT? I've looked through the Omnibus tutorials, and found them hard to comprehend, so please do not link me to them. A simple list of steps would be very helpful though.

Why do my BATs dissappear at Zoom 0 (region view)? I noticed the BAT doesn't render Zoom 0 during the export process. Is there a problem, or something that must be done after the export to keep this from occuring?

Please reply, and thanks to all that do.

Edit:

So here is where I am at:

I made a quick BAT to test nightlighting and set it on a standard lot.

This is what it looks like during the day:

And then in the night....

Anyone else had this problem?

And this is the BAT dissappearing at Zoom 0

  Edited June 12, 2012 by 10000000000000  

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wild guess #1: You defined your BAT as a prop?

Wild guess #2: You forgot to set the property IsGroundModel (=collision sensitive, casts shadows) to "true"?* Shadows in your game must be on because the streetlights do cast shadows.

Wild guess #3: You forgot to set the appearance zoom flag of your prop to "1,2,3,4,5", which is why it disappears at zoom 1 (default for props is "2,3,4,5" to ease the strain on your computer)?

__________

*not sure if that was the property that determines whether a prop casts a shadow or not. Anyway, there is one that does. I'm not at my PC atm...

[harishna 847]

I think before going into lighting you need to understand how to BAT there are two ways two create the lights once is too use "lights" that illuminate the scene or the second is to apply a self illuminate material. The later is usually simpler and less demading method that is often used to simulate the interior of houses or offices. You can apply a map to the self illumination option, this an image that shold have colour variations. This will cause the material to illuminate according to the colours of the image, light colours will look brighter and the opposite for dark colours. BATers tend to model windows so the image is a pplied to panel inside the model, so that gives the appearence that the lights in the room are on.

  Edited June 12, 2012 by harishna  

[Ace3 1,209]

@T Wrecks: WG1=True, WG2=True, WG3=True

I've never noticed those properties in the Plugin Manager, thank you! The zooms work fine now.

@Harishna: I understand that perfectly, thanks for the explanation.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

@T Wrecks: WG1=True, WG2=True, WG3=True

Whee, triple combo!

I've never noticed those properties in the Plugin Manager, thank you! The zooms work fine now.

Seriously though, I'm glad to hear it was just a matter of some properties. I guess some mess-up in your gmax installation would have been a lot harder to fix. I'll be following this thread!

[The Avatar 1,088]

I'm a newcomer to the BAT too, buddy; except in my case, I'm still on the tutorial.

Good luck!

[Ace3 1,209]

Thanks Charles! It's not too hard once you get the interface down , best of luck to you as well!

Hey guys! Long time no see . So I was getting back into BATting, and I learned several new things. One is that the reason

my BATs weren't rendering nightlights is because I was using the prefix "Nitelite_" instead of "nitelite_" :\. So the capital "N" messed

up the entire thing, how frustrating...

But thanks to Ernst, I was able to fix that. I also came out with this Terminal set for my airports.

And I was finally able to render nightlights properly:

So now I've gained a little bit more experience with the basics

I have one question however:

How does one create a shape like this?

  Edited July 25, 2012 by 10000000000000  

[Evillions 552]

Use splines to create that curved shape and keep in mind of scaling.

[Ace3 1,209]

Alright Guys, I'd been having a bit more success with BAT, and then this really weird problem happened.

 

So I'm in BAT working on the building, and it's rendering just fine:

 

 

Exports fine: 

 

 

And then I do what I usually do in plugin manager, drag the model to the prop section, set zooms to 1,2,3,4,5, and make it a "Ground Model". But, when I open up Lot Editor a few seconds later:

 

 

Zoom 5 and Zoom 4 are screwed up from all angles:

 

 

Yet somehow Zooms 1,2, and 3 work fine?

 

 

 

Any help? I tried refitting the LOD's to no avail.

 

P.s: I think I found a similiar problem over here: 

Can someone explain how to merge one scene into a new one?

[AndisArt 2,066]

Well, firstly your model should be centered in the middle of the scene. At the moment it looks like it's on a tile off the center. Try to center it above the 0, 0 point (x/y).

 

To merge into another scene select all your geometry, go to "File" and then "Save Selected". This will only save the selection you made.

Now close and restart Gmax (dont just create a new scene), go to "File" and then "Merge" and select the file you saved before.

In the popup Merge window now select your geometry on the left side, either by selecting individual objects in the list or just by clicking "All".

Click OK and you're done. This might very well fix the problem. Gmax is know for this bug...

[Ace3 1,209]

Thanks Andisart! It worked!

[Forthwall 1,118]

Nice work ace, looking great

[Ace3 1,209]

Thanks Shub!

So I wanted to unveil my new and upcoming project:

 

 

 

 

Important Pictures of the Structure for Modeling:

 

 

This picture is of the Central Platform, which is dotted with radio beacons, satellites, and antennas.

 

 

The next is of the mast, which has 7 disks (The top 6 light up Magenta at night.)

 

 

The base is a small rectangular building (I couldn't find any pictures of it sadly):

 

So basically that's the structure I'm beginning to work on. Here's some preliminary shots of my work:

 

The main column:

 

\\\

 

The Central Observation deck:

 

 

If you have any words of advice, that'd be very helpful. I still have to:

 

-BAT the building at the base of the structure

-Add different antennas ,satellites, etc. to the Central Platform

-BAT the mast

 

I hope to release it on the STEX when complete

[Forthwall 1,118]

:OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOx10

Epic ace

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wow, this is looking nice so far! It's been a while since we've seen the last telecommunications tower BAT. Everything I see so far is looking good. As far as the base and other details are concerned, I can take a look and see if I find something. Apart from that, maybe someone from the German community at www.simforum.de can help. I could ask over there if you want.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Pretty promising!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well, have you checked the obvious yet, such as Google Street View? Furthermore, I recommend the Bird's Eye view in Bing Maps - unfortunately I don't know how to link to a particular view.

[Ace3 1,209]

That's actually very helpful! Thanks T Wrecks! 

 

I did some more work on the mast this week:

 

 

 

Nightlighting, and then wires, sattelites and roof junk for the mast are what I plan for the next update...

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

HERE you got a link. Just click to bird's eye view! I like you progress. You can be happy that there are so many pics available giving you a good view to the upper parts of the tower! 

 

Also, you get some awesome pictures here!

 

And you get some general information here!

 

Hope this helped a bit 

 

Now please finish working on the part you showed in the preview. It'd make organisation easier!

[Ace3 1,209]

Well guys, this tower is far from complete, but I just wanted to reassure those of you that have helped me thus far that I haven't given up on trying to give back to the community. I still plan to do roof junk and base, so bare with me for now

 

 

I've scrapped my previous GMAX projects since I've switched to 3DsMax (2010)+BAT4Max and am finding it MUCH better. Faster rendering, less crashes, and more detailed modeling without as much lag. What you see above is about 4 hours work (I didn't understand reflections until quite recently since I was in GMAX), with many hours still to go. Perhaps some of you recognize this structure?

[Ace3 1,209]

Hate to double post, but here's an update anyways...

 

[Susaji 523]

.Looks Great

[RepublicMaster 428]

Looking good Ace! I think the GM logo could be brighter though.

[Darknono35 3,137]

Great I think your glass need more work, more reflections but good job so far !!

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Good start. NOW FINISH HIM!

[Ace3 1,209]

@Hazani Pratama: Thanks

@RepublicMaster: Thanks Will. I'll make sure to brighten it.

@Darknono35: Glad to see you here. Thanks for the tip, I'll see if I can find a different Ground Plane Texture to use for the reflections and if I can add some more noise perhaps.

@SkyscraperTowerBuilding: Thanks. I definitely plan to finish this one. I've put in too much work already to quit now

 

So I've decided to model the roof separately and then merge it into main model. I'm really pushing for as much detail as possible here, and literally every little detail is being painstakingly modeled

 

 

This is my progress so far.

 

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

I'm impressed! I love it!