Chicago BAT Project

[darn42 1,268]

Scaling

So the general consensus is 133%, the convincing factor for me is that it's what everybody else did. My main concern is I don't know why that's the precedent. I understand the people scaling part of it a little bit, but I think it just makes buildings look weirder in general. When I look downwards on something, I shouldn't expect to see an undistorted near side, it just looks unnatural to my eye to have something that I am simultaneous viewing the dimensions of one view and the angle of another. I will definitely scale it up somewhat, but I hate how it looks with 133%.

 

Gamma

That makes a lot of sense, Cockatoo. There is no "use system default" anymore, but "automatic" in the export dialogue. I have a picture of it earlier.

As for manually adjusting the gamma, I will definitely do that, thanks for the directory, btw Progress soon. If I ever learn max scripting, which I hope to sometime, I'll try and work on the solution in Max.

[Cockatoo 2,256]

I've never scaled any of my buildings. Some people do, other's don't. There's no overriding argument (IMHO) either way. For interest sake, the reason I don't is because most if not all HKABT buildings aren't and I wanted my buildings to match them.

 

100% can look too squashed in the same way that 133 can look too stretched. 133 is technically accurate if you want your proportions to appear 1:1 with the isometric projection. But like Jason says, perception has a lot to do with it too. Do 1:1 proportions even look right from the SC4 perspective? You could argue that either way. Floor heights also play and not all buildings are the same and not everybody models in the same way.

 

The short of it is that there is no consensus.

 

But it's advisable to just pick either 100 or 133.33 and stick with it across all of your BATs. Personally, I think it looked better at 100 (yeah, sorry guys, but I do).

[Francis90b 748]

(wrote this, then thought it was useless at the point where things went, then changed my mind again)

 

133% comes in part from "traditional wisdom", and in part from experiments.

 

The reason why you perceive 133% scaled objects as "stretched" has nothing to do with the height factor itself - in fact, 133% would give you 1:1 widht and height on the BAT's front side (whatever is the front side on any of the four possible directions).

 

The problem is that in order for things to appear exactly "correct" in SC4 projection you would also need to scale a bit up the "depht" of things (whatever is the depht on any of the four possible directions) - something you can't do.

 

And given you can't do this, you will never have a cube looking like a cube, even if you were using some intermediate scaling factor between 100 and 133%.

 

 

So, one would need to consider what's the most important thing - 133% allows you to have no squashing (and a fairly correct representation) of dimensions within the "front" side of your BAT, some intermediate factor might try adressing the perception of the overall mass at the expense of any dimensions and proportions within all of the sides of a BAT, 100% would give you a realistic depiction on how things would actually look like if someone IRL was to put himself at the same angle as the one used in SC4 - then of course you will see squashed things, pretty much like things do appear slightly squashed in Google or Bing 45 degrees aerial views.

 

FYI look there:http://www.significant-bits.com/a-laymans-guide-to-projection-in-videogames

[Hamish 1,369]

...Personally, I think it looked better at 100 (yeah, sorry guys, but I do).

 

I thought it did too

 

But, how does it look when placed in SC4? I think that will give the definitive answer.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Ah, along with the HD or not HD debate, this seems to get raised over and over..end of the day, if you model to RL proportions, then scale up by 133% you will have a perfect 1:1 building that looks the correct height..as Cockatoo says though, it's all about perception...but personally, when it comes to a taller building (smaller and midrise it doesn't matter as much in my opinon but i'd still scale up) i'd rather it look slightly (when dealing with 133% it's never going to be majorly) overscaled, than for it to look underscaled and underwhelming compared to it's surrounding buildings...especially when its a RL building and people have a comparision and perception as to how it should be, we may think it looks too stumpy.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

So now, a huge Thank You to Cockatoo for helping solving my Export problem.

And I finally could manage to take an in-game shot D:

It doesn't look that bad as I thought it would,

[paulvmontfort 616]

I agree with cockatoo all the way. I never used 133% scaling in any of my bats. It just looks too stretched (like your model as well, skyscraper) and that is far more important than having a 100% accurate representation in my opinion. Due to the shear size of the stuff I usually model, they don't look as squashed in 100% and i therefor don't scale them. The squashing is more pronounced in smaller bats like my Eindhoven collection. For that reason I've been scaling them to 120% which gets rid of the squashing but at the same time doesn't stretch them too much. I don't care it's against the standard, it just looks better.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I've looked more at the building and I think it looks correct at 133%.  I think it does come down to perception, because when the building is photographed it's almost always from across the river looking at its most broad side.  And because the top of the building is set back, when you're looking at it from below, the curved part of the building covers up the last few floors (the straight part).

 

In this photo it comes across as more vertical, and even still, the top few floors are being covered up, so it's still not as tall looking as it could be.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kramerdesignstudio/7370526268/  To me it comes off so much more vertically in that photo it makes your BAT look too stumpy, not too tall. 

 

These ones it looks more vertical too.  http://www.kpf.com/code/js/video-js/poster_wacker.jpg  http://blueprintchicago.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/333a.jpg

[Darknono35 3,137]

Your building looks great in the game view skyscraper241   your work has finally payed

Can't wait to see it in my downtown boy

[Jack_wilds 550]

the ontario center looks great...    its also better than anticipated, did not know how the slope would look in game...

 

as for the scale debate... whatever make it look best in game ... its a horse a piece, so place the numbers on the wall, blindfold and then throw a dart ...

[KonstantinII 1,106]

[Jasoncw 11,840]

 

 

The problem is that we think that 2 users aren't ebough to found a BAT team.

True. Remember these two blokes bixel and paulvmontfort with their HKABT - total failure, not a single useful BAT. A misery.

 

 

No you're wrong. The hong kong buildings are very useful for me because they are models for future city.  That's the problem with you trolls and critics,

you just don't have the morality to respect and appreciate nice BAT's and you couldn't do better.

 

 

First, responding to a post like that by personally attacking someone is not appropriate.

 

Second, T Wrecks was being sarcastic, to demonstrate that 2 members is enough to start a good BAT team. 

 

Third, T Wrecks was the one who lotted and modded most of those HKABT BATs.

 

Fourth, you're responding to posts that are almost exactly a year old...

[Cockatoo 2,256]

 

 

The problem is that we think that 2 users aren't ebough to found a BAT team.

 

True. Remember these two blokes bixel and paulvmontfort with their HKABT - total failure, not a single useful BAT. A misery.

 

No you're wrong. The hong kong buildings are very useful for me because they are models for future city.  That's the problem with you trolls and critics,

you just don't have the morality to respect and appreciate nice BAT's and you couldn't do better.

 

You have misunderstood T Wrecks' post. He was being sarcastic. This means that he said the opposite of what he actually meant. People sometime do this to add humor to a post, or to convey a message. T Wrecks is actually the person who has modded and lotted almost every BAT produced to date by Bixel and Paul. So, by insulting their works, by extension, he is insulting himself. That's your first flag that he's being sarcastic. Secondly, as a highly respected member of the community, it's highly unlikely that he would ever insult another BATer in such a fashion. That's your second flag. You need to learn to recognise these things...

 

Also, while it's true that T Wrecks doesn't BAT himself, the second part of your response was unnecessarily rude. You don't have the right to talk to people like that, at all, even if you are confused by what they've said.

[weixc812 509]

Alright, let's come back to the point.

I sincerely wish darn will appear again and the wacker building will be properly exported soon. Don't wanna see it on "the ones that never made it to STEX" one day...

[Gn_leugim 853]

that would be a shame

[darn42 1,268]

Forgot to mention that I was going on vacation spent 4 weeks in Italy, Switzerland and Portugal. I'm working on finishing these BATs but as I have mentioned before, I am having trouble exporting from 2014 and fixing the problem is over my head. I downloaded 2013 again and tried opening the files but there's a lot of screwed up stuff in the models themselves, lots of missing vertices and polygons :s Until someone can come up with a way to export without the gamma issues, I'm not sure what I can do to export.

[Darknono35 3,137]

I'm waiting your building since a long time

Good vacation in Europe Darn, enjoy 

[weixc812 509]

Yep, hope someone would solve the problem...

Have a good vacation, Darn

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Surprise, surprise!

 

Onterie Center is available NOW!

 

 

Thanks to everybody who supported me and beared with me!

 

Enjoy!

[weixc812 509]

Surprise, surprise!

 

Onterie Center is available NOW!

 

 

Thanks to everybody who supported me and beared with me!

 

Enjoy!

Thank you so much for sharing!!!

[Darknono35 3,137]

Thanks for this present Skyscraper, glad to have this building in my plugins folder now

Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work  .

 

What's your next project  ?

[libellibicus 396]

Chuffed to finally get hold of Onterie Centre.  Nice one.....cheers mate

[jwsteele 77]

So now, a huge Thank You to Cockatoo for helping solving my Export problem.

And I finally could manage to take an in-game shot D:

It doesn't look that bad as I thought it would,

Your BAT is amazing, looks great in game!  Quick ignorant question, what is the blue building next to it?  Is that already released, or coming up?

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

 

So now, a huge Thank You to Cockatoo for helping solving my Export problem.

And I finally could manage to take an in-game shot D:

It doesn't look that bad as I thought it would,

Your BAT is amazing, looks great in game!  Quick ignorant question, what is the blue building next to it?  Is that already released, or coming up?

 

 

It's the Baker Building by SimGoober!

[Darknono35 3,137]

Hi all, I haven't done other buildings from Chicago since the CNA Plaza. Here an other project already begun .

Someone can recognize him ?

 

It's an small building of 101,5 meters located in the south Loop, an small curtain wall designed by Naess & Murphy 

 

[libellibicus 396]

Roof texture is just right.  The glass looks very well executed too.  Great work.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

This massively reminds me of a building I was about to start with! Nice joy so far

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Now look at that guy... walks nonchalantly into this thread and, as if he was saying "oh, by the way...", presents a finished BAT that just makes your jaw drop.

 

I love these bland mid-rise boxes! Once again, I can only push my favourite topic, the BATted ground. I see there are chairs & tables, so the question is: How big is the footprint of the building? Will it fill the entire lot? If not, lotting will be a pain...

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Lovely "bland" international style building you have here

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

OMG!!!! I love that damn roof!!!!!

 

Your getting better, I see this building is showing that Darknono is updating and upgrading his talent to the next bar.