Reddonquixote's BAT thread

[RepublicMaster 428]

Roof looks great!

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Hey, not sure if anyone can help... I just realised my 3DS model is 60MB file size, and worked out its because of these ball things I modelled. I applied an optimise modifier and managed to get it down to 32MB, then ended up just deleting them and its now 25MB... but now I have a couple of questions...

1) Does the model size even matter or does the export process take care of it somehow? (e.g. The Eureka Tower 3DS model was about 25MB but was only about 8MB when exported)

2) What does make a file size big? Is it the textures used, the complexity of the model, or complexity of the rendering.. or...?

3) Is there a way to model small details like these ball things without increasing file size so significantly?

4) Is there a thread somewhere already on this topic maybe?

Thanks!

[paulvmontfort 616]

filesize doesn't matter that much. But if you want to know, it is mostly increased by the number of individual objects and polygon count. It might increase your render time but the final filesize of the sc4model is only caused by the size of your BAT. I.E. the larger the BAT, the bigger the renders are, the more images are stored in the sc4model which increases filesize. I wouldn't worry about the filesize that much though. If you want to decrease it however, you can make all the geometry that is the same instances of eachother

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

ah ok.. so instances don't count as additional poly count? That's good to know.. I tend not to use instances though because I'm always worried if I want to change something on one section later it changes all the instances when I don't want it to... usually without realising until I suddenly realise later... hey what happened to that bit there?!! LOL. The array tool always catches me out too!

Thanks for your help on this, this is good to know

[InCommandOfCars 22]

Looks absolutely stunning!!! Can't wait to put it in my recreation of Melbourne.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Sorry its taken so long since my last post... I started texturing the model and it was pretty much a mess so I started the tower again from scratch.. then I hated the base so I re-did that as well... so here is the latest version - still untextured lol..

[muxcomee 35]

Stunning- 100 times better than the first version. Base looks good too but I love that church thing, Nice touch. Good work

[Susaji 523]

Awesome!!!!!!!

[Bastet69008 1,102]

That's awesome ! This is what I love about Melbourne and Sydney, that mix of old and modern architecture. This model is definitely unique. The antenna looks really good, though it is still an early stage. Congrats mate ! Keep up the good work !

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Here's my first textured version of the tower. As you can see the glass hasn't worked at all

I thought I'd post in case anyone has any good pointers for me... the only photo references I can find the glass is flat blue or grey. I was hoping to give it a bit more interest than that. Now just looks like a swimming pool in every window lol.

By the way thanks for all the encouraging comments so far

[RepublicMaster 428]

Apart from the glass the other textures are looking great! Loving this bat. You have amazing skills considering this is only your third BAT!

[gutterclub 2,729]

Wow, gotta love Melbourne! Great job, but yes, definately need to work on the glass...it definately needs to be darker and less blue

[darn42 1,268]

Looks great so far. The 2 things I can say at this point.

1) your circular and round objects have some very noticeable corners. Chamfer those out; no one likes to see corners on a circle.

2)It looks like you're using the 3ds max procedural tiles at the top. Make sure to add some color variation to each tile, and add the tiles map you're using into the bump section of your material. This will make them look much better.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks!!

Gutterclub - darker and less blue (and a couple of other tweaks) seems to have done the trick! I think the glass is looking pretty good now.

Darn42 - great tip about chamfering the corners, I was wondering how I was going to fix those rails without having to remake them. (I don't know how "very" noticeable they are though lol, apart from the rails I hadn't noticed any others.. I did fix some of the rounding on those circular vent things and I added a cap ring to the outer edge of the large satellite dish.. but I really had to look to spot those.. any others I missed?

re the tiles, not sure what procedural tiles are? Its just a tile texture I found online and edited in photoshop. I did add a slightly creamy colouration based on your suggestion, or did you mean each tile should be slightly different? Good pickup on the bump map too.. I did have one but the setting was really low. I think its looking better now.

Apart from some more details to add to the roofs later, I think the tower is pretty much done. I'll move onto the base now then the church should be fun. I might have to think about rendering in sections I don't think my poor machine will cope!

Oh, I worked out why my renders have been so big, I was using HD setting.. these should be more like in-game views.

[muxcomee 35]

Its looking really good now, but do you think that the brown colour should be a bit lighter? Just a tad?

[darn42 1,268]

Oh nvm then. It looked very similar to what 3ds max can produce in the software. The circular sections are looking much better btw. It was mainly the vents, the tracks, and the satellite dish.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

OMG!!!! you modeling is looking good.

I still think the glass need more work to it.

I would love to know the name of the real building.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

It's 120 Collins Street... and if you have some suggestions for improving the glass I love to hear them. I'm a bit stuck with it...

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Its looking really good now, but do you think that the brown colour should be a bit lighter? Just a tad?

.. not sure.. maybe? Here's some colour swatches from different photos across the top row and the model texture colour along the bottom row. I used the one on the left as my main reference but the other three are all lighter. I could give it a go and see what it looks like

[IL. 1,043]

Cool, I assume the textures are not all done right? Like the sattelite dish?

Really nice model btw

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Yes, the satellite dish is textured even though it looks like it isn't. I think I need to make it more reflective...

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Latest update...

1. Lightened the stonework

2. Made each of those roof tiles a slightly different colour

3. Made the vent texture more pronounced

4. Made the satellites texture more reflective

5. Endless tweaking with the glass... I think I like it...

6. Roof is a little bit lighter as well

Although I like the lighter textures I'm starting to worry its looking a bit washed-out. Hopefully the colours when I do the base will even it out a bit.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Looking good, but you might be right about washed out, you def need to have a difference between the two stone textures as there is a noticeable difference in real life, i'd make the main stone a bit darker. Windows are looking better..if you are ever unsure of how its looking just photoshop the render into the screen shot and see how it looks

[Za 164]

I'm liking the roof and façade textures in their lightened state. I really enjoy the work on the antenna as well.

Only thing I can find to work on [potentially] is that the edges of the stonework on the setback at the top look slightly blurred. It's really only noticeable if you stop and look for a while, so I certainly wouldn't mind if it stayed this way.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Gutterclub, I agree the stonework needs more differentiation in the two tones, but not sure about going darker with the main stone - I don't think I'll make any more changes like that until I have put all the pieces together and see how they look as a whole.

Za, not sure where exactly you're looking, but if its where I think you mean, that's actually a wire fence there hence why it looks a bit fuzzy. Not sure how to fix that really...

Here's a close-up of the Church I have been working on. Lots of flaws up close, mostly (hopefully) won't be visible at normal scale. I'll post a normal zoom 5 shortly.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Here's the three main models put together, base obviously still not started. I don't actually mind how the colour of the tower is looking against the others now... the colours used in first facade I did looks terrible (and ignore the roof that was the old version I just used here to test). So much work to do!

[Vlasky 1,803]

This all looks very impressive, but textures need adjustments, I'd say they need to be desaturated (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Like church, general impression is simply - yellow. Slight adjustments are needed. You can check this by photoshopping your building onto an in-game shot. But very impressive job I must say! Looking forward to seeing it fully developed.

[gutterclub 2,729]

I agree, the church needs some desaturation and is also looking a little squat, might need to be stretched across Z axis a bit...otherwise the whole complex is pretty special and the tower is looking great.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Here's an actual in-game render... I don't know.. looks ok to me... I still think the best thing to do is get all the textures on then assess as a whole piece what's working and not working...

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Update: I've just put the models onto the textured base and guess what... the yellow on the church definitely needed desaturating, and the stonework on the tower needed darkening... you guys have good eyes for this stuff!!