Chicago BAT Project

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Well I always thougt your creations were supposed to be RL-ish and not made for the game above all.

[darn42 1,268]

The modeling and materials themselves are, but the ground plane I would never ever use outside of Simcity anyways. I always make some modifications for the game. Like any sort of brick that I make for simcity has exaggerated grout that looks terrible up close.

 

 

Btw guys, I fixed the main hvacs a little. They were already modeled pretty close to rl, but I just added some motion blur to the blades and edited materials a little bit to look better.

Also, the foliage materials are much different.

 

[SimCoug 5,972]

The trees and shrubs look great  

 

Which reminds me - I know Reddon was thinking about releasing a 'prop pack' containing a number of random props that he has modeled over the years - what about a darn42 prop pack?  Those shrubs and trees would be a great addition for us LE nuts 

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I'm wondering: What you used for the trees? Any Plug-in, and special modifier or simply using some tricks to get where you want?

[darn42 1,268]

Its a script called "Atree3d" it's free at scriptspot.com Its limited in what it can do a lot of the time, and it can glitch. But given time it makes really good stuff.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The motion blur for the blades is a good idea.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Dat roof junk. Motion blur for the fan blades, eh? Now that's taking it to a new level... Trees look a lot better, too - I think we have a winner here.

[weixc812 509]

I think hard but come up with nothing that can improve what we've already got here. IMO, the day scene is almost ready now. Can't wait to see its nightlight...it must be dream-like scenery at night!

[Sabretooth78 808]

Did you accomplish the motion blur in your photo editing software or is there a procedural way to doing it?

 

I really like the way your glass came out.  My Key Center project has some similar walls, and I never would have though of doing it the way you did, but it makes perfect sense.

[darn42 1,268]

The motion blur is simple and procedural, and if you do it right it barely effects anything else. You can look up how to do it in more detail, but basically you just animate the fan blades rotating. Select all of the objects in your scene besides them and uncheck "enable motion blur" in their object properties rollout. Then turn on motion blur and choose your desired amount. I used 10 frames as my shutter speed.

 

edit: motion blur is under the "renderer" tab in the render setup dialog box.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

I love love the motion blur, I have thought about it myself but I make mostly old school buildings. I still feel the foliage is to dark, I do see they look better but to dark to me, maybe the picture can help. Remember Sim City 4 daylight is 12 non clear skyies.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8858619,-87.6353805,3a,75y,306.68h,98.12t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1stZr9QYtRzEd5KVc8gTRH6A!2e0

[darn42 1,268]

Aaron: You are right the trees in the reference are a lot brighter than the trees I have, but I didn't like how they looked when they were that vibrant in the previews.

 

- - - - - - -

 

And the night view rough draft.

The trees in the first 2 got wonked up by something.

 

[weixc812 509]

I suppose the glass is too reflective...and I wonder why "NUVEEN" is not lit up.    Is it so in reality, darn?

Besides, everything looks great and the base part is especially wonderful.

[tonyr 926]

The glass is definitely too reflective.   Fix that and you'll have a winner,IMO!

[KonstantinII 1,106]

No, don't listen to them. The reflectivity is PERFECT! Shiny glass is better! It should look so shiny and sparkly at night, almost like a diamond! Keep it as it is.

[Huston 5,798]

I'm actually gonna have to concur with everyone else. Although it's probably not reflectivity per se, but the brightness of the reflections (I'm not sure if that makes sense since I'm still not fully aware of all the components of the material editor). Besides that, this building is the epitomy for perfection

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Yes, I also have the feeling that the ambient reflections are overpowering everything else and totally dominate the scene. The actual lights from inside the building look superb if you take a closer look, but they are drowning in a sea of reflected light.

[Sabretooth78 808]

I would tend to agree with the consensus.  In particular, the reflected light in the first preview looks a little too symmetrical as well.  Maybe that's unavoidable given the curved facade as it relates to the "ground bowl"?

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I wouldn't say it's the strength of the reflectivity. I guess there are two things which make it look a bit weird. 

 

1. The scattering of the reflected stuff is too wide. Normally, buildings like that would have some fixpoint the reflection is based on. A wide scattering causes the illusion that there is no actual object the reflectivity is based on. 

 

2. This leads to the scond point. There has to be an object the reflectivity can "play" with. Since there does not seem to be a real object, it more appears like there was some sort of lightning show going on there. Try some kind of skyline or stuff to be reflected to avoid such a randomness.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

idk if people consider my night squigglies to have gotten it "right" (and most of the time I'm not so sure about it, so I tone down the reflections so it doesn't matter as much if they're not right), but what I've found is that if there's too big of an area of reflected light then it kind of looks weird and like the building is glowing (like if someone used maxisnite instead of darknite or something) and doesn't mix well with the lit up windows. The natural inclination is to then make the squigglies darker to compensate, but then the result is unusually dim reflections that just don't look quite right. So I think instead, it's best to have the self illuminated ground texture be black (so no "ambient" light), with small spots of bright light. I think SimFox got it right with his.

[darn42 1,268]

Quick update with a z4:

 

 

Thoughts?

 

Jason: I just read this reply as I'm leaving. It makes sense though, but I can't think about it much atm.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Looking amazing!!! 

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Looks good and ready for posting on the STEX.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wow! I'd take this one as is, and if you'd like to call it finished now, I wouldn't mind at all. However, if you're willing to give Jason's idea a spin as soon as you have some time on your hands, I'd certainly like to see what you can come up with. How does everybody feel about the Nuveen sign? My first reaction was "Whoa, now that's super bright!", but now I'm not quite sure... the illumination does seem strong to me, though.

[Sabretooth78 808]

The sign does seem a little overexposed.  As for the squiggles, it's a matter of taste.  I get a weird "the matrix" vibe when I look at it, but that's just me - and I'm not in any position to judge a BATs fitness for the STEX.

[darn42 1,268]

It's the glare effect that is too strong. The sign itself will appear just as bright (maybe a little less) as its going to be in the final product but it's going to look a lot less bright. Right now it's dominating the whole building, which isn't good.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I really like the bright sparkly reflections. They can be explained as coming from a holographic billboards on neighboring buildings. This building fits in perfectly with a city of lights that never sleeps at night. Great job! If you could release a version with more brighter reflections, please.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

What references are you using to match this effect? It doesn't look like anything I've seen before in RL... Granted , we don't normally experience seeing buildings from this angle. I think I'd be more convinced if you had any reference from RL that looks like this (i.e. Any building, doesn't need to be this one)

 

It's not going to match anything else in the game at night if that's a consideration at all?

 

Z4 reveals a very distinctive fog effect around the building, indicating as you have already identified, the glare is way too strong. I note you have gone for more of a corona effect rather than streaks, I like it

 

Here's two references I could find, again from a ground angle though:

 

 

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

I think the reflections are perfect! Minding the fact that if seen from the "SC4-angle", a lot of streetlights would be reflected. I don't think the nightlights coming from inside the building are bright enough, though. At night, it would kind of "disappear". 

[TCD 123]

The nightlights look really good; I especially love the plaza. I can't wait to see the glare and reflection toned down a bit, I think they are a bit distracting and should be nice and subtle.