Reddonquixote's BAT thread

[Jasoncw 11,840]

 

Since doing my Gardener Center BAT I've had thoughts about mirrored glass and since so many people have been making mirrored glass lately I figured I'd post something about it.

 

So in this example the material is very simple. 

 

It has a reflectivity and glossiness of 1.  If you wanted to you could lower the reflectivity to maybe .9 or .8 but start off with 1 and if you're trying to tweak the material look other places before coming back to change the reflectivity.

 

The diffuse color isn't black.  The way this material is being made is it's a reflective opaque object.  And even though the material has a reflectivity of 1, the 1 is just a multiplier of the reflectivity controlled by the brdf (so the actual reflectivity at any given spot is controlled by the viewing angle, and then if you want that reflectivity to be cut in half, you would change the reflectivity to .5).  So anyway, this color will be visible.  In most cases you'd want a very dark grey but not black.  And I haven't experimented with this yet but I think you could put in a bitmap (a more traditional glass texture) for this to add a little bit of detail to the mix.  But worry about that later and first just get a good dark grey.

 

The IOR was 22 because 22 is a big number that's easy to type, and the BRDF is set to use the IOR. 

 

The bump map is the same as in my gardener center tutorial, except simpler.  There's only one bulge bitmap and there's 5 different noise maps.

 

 

The main difference is that the reflectivity color is set to a dark blue color.  In this case the saturation is .2 and the value is .15, and the hue is blue.  The reflectivity color influences the color of the reflections, so if you want the reflections to be pink instead of their natural color you'd make this color pink.  In this case we want it to be dark blue.  If you wanted a gold mirrored facade you would make this a dark yellow.

 

This greatly simplifies the ground plane.  In this example I literally just used a random screenshot from the game, without any changes.  The ground plane has a little blue tint to it because it's reflecting the sky.  So in general avoid making changes to the ground plane's color or brightness.  If you think the reflections should be darker or a different color, try figuring it out with the material.

 

But there are a few features of the reflection that are worth noting.  First, is that the ground plane is not distorted in any way.  This is important because the bump maps on the glass should be distorting the reflections in a very characteristic way.  The best place to see this is in the upper left corner of the BAT where you can clearly see the building being reflected.  Looking at it, we know what it is reflecting is something with straight lines, and the distortions we see are very specific to the characteristics of that kind of glass.  If the ground plane is distorted too, then that distortion mixes with the distortion from the bump map the end result is something that is "distorted" but not in the way you would expect when seeing something reflected in glass.

 

And then the other thing to note is that I added that cube of maxis pavers into the facade so that you can see how BATed elements don't stick out. 

 

And something else to point out is that the screenshot from the game is scaled so that it's at about the same scale as the BAT itself.  In general (this is something very specific to each BAT), you want the rough size and shape of what's being reflected in the glass to be roughly the same size and shape as things that it will be next to in the game.  Ideally, the big features on your facade will be about the size of buildings in the game, and the small features on the facade will be about the size of things like windows or cars or trees and stuff like that.  Basically if you have a building with small tight shapes being reflected in the glass, and you plop it in a neighborhood of buildings featuring big broad shapes, the reflections won't look as natural.

[gutterclub 2,729]

This sort of glass reminds me of the glass that Cockatoo uses, which always looks great in game..I do like this type of glass as much as the super realistic versions that have been on display recently!

 

Thanks for sharing Jason, something I am going to look at and try and incorporate in a new BAT

[T Wrecks 10,209]

It's amazing to see how far the modeled cube - as the only real 3D object that's reflected in the glass - blends in with the ground plane! I think that helps a lot to prevent the building from standing out in game because the parts where it reflects part of itself don't clash against the parts where it doesn't actually reflect its surroundings, just the image on the ground plane.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks Jason, that's given me some really good insights into the Diffuse and Reflectivity settings for Glass materials. Using a combination of Darn's idea of using strong square bump maps and illuminated ground plane, with dark diffuse map and dark reflections, this is what I've come up with.

 

I've posted a Bing image for comparison as well. I could probably go bluer with the glass, but I'm not unhappy with the way it is now, I think the only thing its needs now is blinds and I think I'm done.. keen to hear what anyone else thinks?

 

 

[Xander Dax 310]

your work is brilliant as always mate

[darn42 1,268]

Damn, that's nice. You are so close with it I think. Just bump up the ior higher, the reflections still need just a bit more strength; I see quite a bit of the interior, and that is discoloring the reflections more than you want.

[Ion_Cannon 677]

I think that glass looks pretty damn good now. I would like to see that render photoshopped into SC4 though for comparison.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Yes, sooooooo much better!!!!

[kellydale2003 2,276]

Looks a lot better!

 

I was going to write a quick tutorial for you, but looks like Jasoncw beat me to it! :b

 

 

But a great model! Personally I can't wait to download this!

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Looking great!

[Delecto 941]

Way better IMO, reflection look much more natural now!

[MTT9 187]

Looks much better now

[libellibicus 396]

This is looking damn fine. The glass is way better now. I particularly like the Antenna Forest.

[scotty222 549]

WOW the glass looks amazing now

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I've added blinds now, and desaturated the interior per Darn's point that its showing through too much. I didn't change the IOR it was already pretty high, and I think it looks ok now.

 

I also replaced the textured grid glass on the atrium with a modeled structure instead. One thing I need to do though is reduce the reflectivity of the textures around the base, they are too shiny.

 

I've posted some in game shots as Ion_Cannon suggested. I think the base fits in well, but thought the towers may have been too dark, so I placed in a setting with the Columbia Seafirst and John Hancock Centres. I think it seems to be ok- but would be good to get opinions from anyone that plays the game whether they think it looks ok? Thanks

 

 

[Xander Dax 310]

Looks great mate...though correct me if i am wrong (and this could just be me) but dosen't rialto have more of a blue tinge to its colour?

[Charlie_Zane 963]

It looks great! Just right!

[Gn_leugim 853]

looks great. it's this kind of building that sometimes makes me wonder if we aren't taking realism on SC4 a bit too far XD

[IL. 1,043]

Those are some very good high quality BATs

When can we download them ?  

[libellibicus 396]

Just perfect. Can,wait to d/l this on

[darn42 1,268]

Man, that looks just so beautiful... The glass looks just too perfect. The square bumps really give it that barely tangible boost to realism. Great Job!

[Darknono35 3,137]

Look like just perfect really nice

[Delecto 941]

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks for those comments... here's the first night render.. thoughts please?

 

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Amazing as always!

[darn42 1,268]

Looks really good but I feel like its quite a bit too much lit up. Almost the entire building has windows lit up... Doesn't really make sense. Otherwise the nightlights look fantastic, though it might be worth looking into kellydales new displacement map method to see how much longer that takes. That seems to get very very good results.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks really good, I have to agree with Darn with the amount of lights on the building glowing.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks guys, yeah I was thinking the same thing too... that's easy fixed

 

I was going to try the displacement method Kellydale came up with another time, I agree it looks great!

 

Looks great mate...though correct me if i am wrong (and this could just be me) but dosen't rialto have more of a blue tinge to its colour?

Yeah... this has me wondering as well... Rialto is iconic blue, to have it not be that blue almost feels like its not the Rialto, but images from this angle generally show reflecting more black than blue. (Well, technically it is blue, but its just so dark it looks almost black)... it kind of comes back to that reality vs. illusion thing again. I might try lightening it just a bit because it is bothering me slightly as well.

[Xander Dax 310]

Thanks guys, yeah I was thinking the same thing too... that's easy fixed

 

I was going to try the displacement method Kellydale came up with another time, I agree it looks great!

 

Looks great mate...though correct me if i am wrong (and this could just be me) but dosen't rialto have more of a blue tinge to its colour?

Yeah... this has me wondering as well... Rialto is iconic blue, to have it not be that blue almost feels like its not the Rialto, but images from this angle generally show reflecting more black than blue. (Well, technically it is blue, but its just so dark it looks almost black)... it kind of comes back to that reality vs. illusion thing again. I might try lightening it just a bit because it is bothering me slightly as well.

Whew good to know im not bonkers then

[MTT9 187]

Looks amazing! Once you take the amount of lite windows down a bit, it will be perfect