hkabat-forum-threads Hong Kong / Asia BAT team

[paulvmontfort 617]

well, if you want to know, I put the floor heights to 4 as well and. the rest I compare to the floor height and work on with that. When the building is finished i scale it to the actual size. But with 4 the building is usually too high. And yeah, I use the metric grids. I put them to 0,01 and major lines every 10.

[HONG KONG 74]

This thread is my favorite!

I would support you gladly with more than only with photos. I provide you very gladly with my lots.

I'm also available as a tester. I love reproductions of genuine buildings from Hong Kong, but you should be open for buildings from other asiatic cities. Most know unfortunately only the most well-known buildings from Asia(Taipei101,Bank of China,Petronas,ifc), but since the 90's there develope many new ones. Be open for all and keep your great work up!

[Fantail 0]

I'll help if i can too.

[bixel 1,228]

I've decided to see what I can do about Paulvmontfort's Pacific Place, here are some of the additions I made to the model.

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//PP.jpg align=baseline>

[ramvid01 0]

wow guys amazing work, its been a long time since i commented, but i see you guys have produced some really high quality stuff keep up the good work.

[paulvmontfort 617]

Bixel. that looks cool, i'm glad you're willing to help me finish it

[Fantail 0]

I'm just glad that it will get finished.

[bixel 1,228]

I've added some detail, and reworked some of the textures. Right now I'm wrestling wih the custom LODs so it can export.

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//PP2.jpg align=baseline>

[toxicpiano 125]

awesome!

[HONG KONG 74]

Cool, you finish Pacific Place. The clouds of your texture reflect exactly as in the photo. All towers appear in blue, only One Pacific Place isn't blue but green. Can you change that?

[bixel 1,228]

Great picture!!! Yes I will change it. No problem, I'm doing a test render right now with the custom LODs, basically everything depends on gmax able to export the LODs, the regular render is easy. So cross your fingers.

[Edit] This is the thing that worries me. I've created some very lowpoly custom LODS so that we are able to place props and flora on and around Pacifc Place. In the parameters rollout in BAT, it says there are LODs in the scene already, and that is a good sign. However when I try to export the LODs it seems to create a new one. I don't know why, here's a pic.

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//PPex.jpg align=baseline>

 

#1 is the new box its creating. Its really large and if it is using it as a LOD it will mess up the look of the building in the game.

#2 is the custom LODs I made for Pacific Place. These are the LODs it is supposed to export.

 

[Edit#2] Hrmm. Export failed. Error #18. I think the problem has something to do with the creation of that box. I do not know why it wants to create it. There is something very strange about Paulvmontfort's geometry in the 3DMax scene and I think this might be the root of the problem. When the geometry is selected it shows a bounding box much greater than the actual geometry. Typically the bounding box surrounds the geometry close to the edges, however the bounding box of Paul's geometry is almost double its size and is off center. Some of this weird information is attached to the LODs, so when it exports it creates that huge box, ruining the process.

[paulvmontfort 617]

my gmax renders also appear to generate the extra box shaped lods around my models, however, they don't effect the final result. You might want to try this: select everything, group it. Select mesh edit in the modifier tab. Go verticies and remove all isolated verticies. It might work. Or else i blame the problem to the scaling i did on the modell.

[Superstar 69]

Wow! That last pic is really an impressive one, how many polys is all that?

[paulvmontfort 617]

Date: 1/10/2006 7:31:26 AM Author: Superstar Wow! That last pic is really an impressive one, how many polys is all that?

quote>

you'll be suprised that it only has between 100,000 and 200,000 polys

[mcarch 15]

Drop Dead Gorgous!

[bixel 1,228]

True. Paulvmontfort is pretty concervative with his polys, he has a talent for creating a detailed building from a simple rectangle! Paul: I'll try your suggestion. If that doesn't work I will replicate parts of geometry that have strange bounding box issues, I can usually tell which patrs have the irregularities by checking the umv mapping scale. For example, if there is a peice that s 120x300x80 yet the umv coordinates are 67833x112000x9121212. I am actually seeing quite a lot of this in the scene. I think I will reduce everything to meshes, click on the create mapping coordinate box, and re-umv map everything.

[toxicpiano 125]

Date: 1/10/2006 4:27:24 PM Author: bixel True. Paulvmontfort is pretty concervative with his polys, he has a talent for creating a detailed building from a simple rectangle! Paul: I'll try your suggestion. If that doesn't work I will replicate parts of geometry that have strange bounding box issues, I can usually tell which patrs have the irregularities by checking the umv mapping scale. For example, if there is a peice that s 120x300x80 yet the umv coordinates are 67833x112000x9121212. I am actually seeing quite a lot of this in the scene. I think I will reduce everything to meshes, click on the create mapping coordinate box, and re-umv map everything.

quote>

dont forget to make a backup of the original! (im sure youve already done that.

[sharkbait16 0]

Oh, some excellent work here guys.  That complex is turning out nicely.

[Fantail 0]

Date: 1/10/2006 4:27:24 PM
Author: bixel
True. Paulvmontfort is pretty concervative with his polys, he has a talent for creating a detailed building from a simple rectangle! Paul: I'll try your suggestion. If that doesn't work I will replicate parts of geometry that have strange bounding box issues, I can usually tell which patrs have the irregularities by checking the umv mapping scale. For example, if there is a peice that s 120x300x80 yet the umv coordinates are 67833x112000x9121212. I am actually seeing quite a lot of this in the scene. I think I will reduce everything to meshes, click on the create mapping coordinate box, and re-umv map everything.

quote>

To tell you the truth, i don't know what the heck you are talking about.

it's like another language.

[jesselong 0]

Seems there's many representative Hong Kong buildings on the Hong Kong Island. Keep them up and I'll give full support. But I need 2 Hong Kong buildings that is a bit famous that I need to plop in my city journal, Hong Kong. One is the gold coast and another is hill grove. <-- I'm not making a request. Just take a look and see if you're interesrted in it. I think you'll like the Gold Coast more.

Some links:

Gold Coast hotel: http://www.goldcoasthotel.com.hk/en/home.html

Hill Grove (

[paulvmontfort 617]

Here's a picture of the HSBC at night. hopefully, T Wrecks will finish it soon

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//PvM_HSBC_night.JPG align=baseline>

 

BTW, Jesselong, those hotels look pretty cool, i might look into them

[mcarch 15]

*Drools*  I hope so too!  Um, you might want to mop that floor now! 

[bixel 1,228]

Surprise!!

 

 

Now just to finish the foundation, and add some more goodies and lights.

[Fantail 0]

What a great surprise. great work to both of you, i'm amazed by the details of the buildings.

[jesselong 0]

The Arch is GREAT!!! I can't wait to put in my CJ. Is there a ploppable version for the Arch?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

There will be one when I'm done with it, jesselong. So far there has been a plop and/or landmark version for all HK BATs I modded, and this won't change.

bixel, those screenshots are mouth-watering! Looks like you're outdoing yourself again - incredible!

[paulvmontfort 617]

bixel: the arch is coming along very well. I'm saving a spot in my city to let it grow somewere

T wrecks: When i loaded the new HSBC model in my city, i noticed to building was rotated but the LODs weren't. Is this a problem you can fix, or do i need to rerender it?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Hmmm... I'm not sure what you mean. I reckon I gotta try your latest model on a test lot to see for myself. As long as the building is centered inside the LOD, it shouldn't matter much. If the LOD behaves in any way that makes it impossible e.g. to place props next to the building, all I can do is avoid the problem. I can't really fix anything about the LOD at Lot Editor stage... I'll post again in 3-6 hours (@ work atm) and let you know what's up.

[paulvmontfort 617]

you'll see what i mean when you take a look at the new model.

Anyway, I figured out a way to do neon lights myself because the methods in the other thread i opened didn't help. I now simply made a targeted light projecting an image of the neons on the building. here's the effect:

 

http://paul.vanmontfort.net/PvM_the_Centre.bmp align=baseline>

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Sweet!

As for HSBC, you were right: When I tried the model, I saw what you meant. And yes, I'm afraid this is really a problem that needs to be addressed, particularly since there are some graphical glitches in addition to the messed-up LOD. See this pic (the bit towards the right, currently highlighted in green):



Guess you can't be lucky all the time...