Reddonquixote's BAT thread

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks!

 

Flinders Street Station - will take up 7x28 , the actual lot sizes are smaller though (7x3 & 1x25)

Federation Square - I have reserved 7x13 for the rectangular lot, and I'm considering a companion piece to shore up the side of the Yarra River but I haven't given any real thought to that yet. It will be a separate piece though.

 

Maybe a quick update on Flinders Street Station: apart from fixing the height of the platforms the model is probably ready for export. I still need to make the pieces where the tracks come out on the other side of Federation square and the piece where it transitions underground for that matter, but that won't be anything fancy because it won't be seen in game. Not too far away hopefully!

[jwsteele 77]

Thanks Reddon!

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions.. here's the latest update on 530 Collins Street. I've also started on nightlights, but not ready to show yet. Let me know what you think

 

[Darknono35 3,138]

Great so far  .

I don't know if you're ready to begin the nightlight immediatly  . I'm not sure about the stones of the base of the building, maybe it should be more clear, in my opinion. And the roof texture over the main entrance is strange.

But now, your windows are perfect for me, and I really like the inside of the lobby, so beautiful many detailed, it's one of your best BAT

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks for your help Darknono.

I agree with you about the stonework I'm finding that texture most difficult, I wasn't sure about above the entrance either but will definitely change it. I just needed some other opinions, wasn't sure

Ps I can work on other textures as well as night lights... I don't know where that strange rule came from that you can't do night lights until everything else is done, as long as the model is finished I can't see any harm with it?

[elavery 1,013]

I will be interested to see how you alter the stonework.  I am not sure what is wrong with it but something just doesn't look right.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

What I like about your Bats is your work on the ground floors. They simply look spectacular.

 

One question, have you read my last comment, because I feel like you still didn't really change anything about the glass?

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

One question, have you read my last comment, because I feel like you still didn't really change anything about the glass?

 

Hi Skyscraper, apologies, yes, I did read your last post and I did make some changes, but no, I did not change the glass.

 

• Concerning the texture, I would add some more noise - I did this, albeit it was not a very successful result. Per the most recent comments above I am still working on the stone texture.
• and maybe also would < ? > the ground plane -  Not sure what you meant to say here, but its actually no good telling me what to do without explaining the problem you think needs solving. e.g. I can "change" the ground plane, if that's what you're trying to say, but what would I change it to? (Incidentally, I really like this ground plane, so I won't be changing it)
• Also, you should change the IOR stuff. Is the reflection index set manually or automatically? Its set manually. Again, what's wrong with it that it needs changing? Sure I can change it, what should I change it to? Up/ down/lots/little are my options.. whats the outcome I'm looking for?
• The glass of the side facade looks still to light. The building is casting a shadow on the side so the glass should be darker like everything else in the scene. - Not sure I agree. The glass does what the glass does. Its 'lightness' is a product of its reflectivity. Reflective surfaces in a darkened setting will always reflect more light than the non-reflective surfaces. I wouldn't expect the glass on the darkened side of the building to be as dark as the non-reflective surfaces that are in shadow. Not saying you're wrong, but it looks ok to me and your reasoning doesn't make sense to me.
• Another thing is the roof texture... the texture looks strechted - agreed and fixed
• The roof looks pretty unfinished - This was a comment about the modelling, I agree it looked a bit bare but I fixed this with texturing, not modelling. The tower roof doesn't have anything on it other than that pyramidal box thing with the anteanna-crown on top, so thats all I modelled. I have used more interesting textures up there instead.
• especially how the antenna looks.  - agreed and fixed
• I hope you will make everything look as good as your previous BAT's. - tbh this comment bugged me a bit. Maybe it came out wrong, but I don't intend for any of my BATs to be lesser quality than my previous BATs, and really, this comment sounds like you don't think it is as good, and when its only half finished.. It sounds a bit like you have an expectation that I only post pictures of my BATs once they are perfect, and not show any progress or get other's input to help make it better?

But that said... I honestly do appreciate your comments and you can see I do make changes based on some of the comments you provide. Apologies I didn't directly acknowledge it

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

How about this stone texture... Its the first one I used except I increased the contrast, made it more pink and bumped up the reflectivity. I could possibly lower the saturation but I think its not too bad...

 

[Jasoncw 11,841]

imo the individual blocks of stone should be modeled/textured.

 

An easy way to do that is to use quick slice to model all the lines, and then apply a material with the following set up:

 

Composite Material:

  Base Material:

     Arch & Design material:

        diffuse slot:  multi/sub map, with stone variations (and correspondingly, randomize the ids of the stone polygons)

  Mat 1:

     Standard material:  (one of the few times you'd ever use it)

         at the top rollout, check the "Wire" checkbox.  this will make it so that edges are rendered as lines.

         make the diffuse color black

         in the "extended parameters" rollout you can change the thickness of the lines.

 

Basically, the arch & design material is the stone material without lines.  The standard material will render only the edges so from that you get the lines that define the borders of the stone pieces.  And then the composite material is used to combine them.

 

 

Off the top of my head there are only 3 downsides to this method:

 

1:  In the viewport only the wire material will be visible which makes things confusing looking.

2.  Edges that are on the corner of the wall will also have dark lines.

3.  All edges will be turned into visible lines, which means if your surface is curved or requires extra geometry, you can't use this method.  The geometry of the facade needs to correspond exactly to the pattern on the facade.

 

The upside to this method is that it's a lot easier to use snaps and quickslice to draw lines in max than it is to uvw unwrap and draw the lines in photoshop.  You get perfect line placement.  It also makes it very easy to randomize the individual pieces of stone with the multisub map.

 

The lines might be too subtle to use this as a good example, but the limestone for was done with this method.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

imo the individual blocks of stone should be modeled/textured.

 

Yes, I completely agree! It was poor planning when I made the model that I didn't allow for the grooves in the stone to be modelled. I've tried texturing them but I've had two problems, the first one being the lines barely showed up, the second one being I wasn't able to line the texture up correctly where I need the lines to be. You did mention UVW Unwrap, I didn't actually try that! I might still give it a go first, provided I can get the textured lines to show up. Failing that, I should be able to remake the stone facade quite easily, but with provision for the grooves this time.

 

Unfortunately I don't think I can use the method you described above. I've got what you described I shouldn't have - lots of other lines that don't correspond to the stone work. In fact, that was the first thing I checked for, because I was just going to select those lines, chamfer and extrude them, but they are all in the wrong spots

 

Thanks for describing this technique though, I can think of lots of times in the past where this would have been handy to know, I'm sure it will come in handy again!

[gutterclub 2,729]

Glass is superb..really like it.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks Gutterclub... I hereby award you your 800th reputation point

[Charlie_Zane 963]

I haven't posted here in a while, I am amazed as to how much you have done! I cannot wait for the Australian Stock Exchange building, it looks amazing!  Eager to put it in one of my cities! 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

No offense, but am I the only one who thinks that the Australian Stock Exchange building is fugly? I mean, the BAT is shaping up to become another superb model, no doubt about that. The building itself, though...

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Thanks for you answer, reddon!

 

1. Yes, it should be change!

 

2. That was absolutely no offense. I rarely comment in Bat threads recently because of RL problems (my grandpa is about to die). And if I comment, I rarely try to giveconstructive comments as I know my techniques might not be good enough to help those people out (including you). And this also might be the reason that I'm saying "you should change" and not "you should change to". If there's is something I'm not satisfied with I play around and maybe also use some tuts. Although I always try to teach myself what this and that is doing I never manage to figure out what exactly has to be changed to get ... result. I'm experimenting with parameters until I get what I got in my head. So I cannot teach YOU what to do, what to change, what looks good and bad, but when I get feedback, it's generally more useful to get something like "you should change ..." than "i like it". and btw, there are a couple of betters batters around here who can give you more useful feedback thatn I can. 

And no, I didn't want to say that this looks ugly.

[Xander Dax 310]

No offense, but am I the only one who thinks that the Australian Stock Exchange building is fugly? I mean, the BAT is shaping up to become another superb model, no doubt about that. The building itself, though...

Couldn't agree more....fugly, fugly, fugly.

But the BAT itself? AMAZING.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Steady guys... It doesn't make me feel much better that you think I'm doing a great job of making something ugly

[Roger51 381]

I am in love with that glass!!!! wow you are doing an awesome job on this BAT, can't wait to have it  

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Steady guys... It doesn't make me feel much better that you think I'm doing a great job of making something ugly

No worries - we need ugly stuff, too. It's important. What city is complete without at least a few buildings with an exceptionally high "what were they thinking..." factor? It helps to break a too clean and sterile look. Making something ugly beautiful to behold is kind of an art in itself: "It's hideous, but it's so good!".

 

Besides, it is not as ugly as some of Dubai's spectacular abominations. It's just the kind of Western-world, not-too-fancy everyday ugliness, an element that belongs in any corresponding city to make it feel truly authentic.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Exactly, some of the abonomations here in Auckland put this building to shame, but they exist and they are natural and that is what makes a City a City.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Still not as ugly as the Gas and Fuel building was.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Well, seeing as you all like ugly so much, here's my definition of ugly... but lets face it.. its all in the eye of the beholder

 

 

Ps. Only preliminary textures so far.. quite a ways to go with this yet

[Darknono35 3,138]

Great start so far 

I'll follow this building for the windows and the textures 

[shinkansen1 84]

"Eye of the beholder" is correct. I love buildings in this architectural style!

[Sloonei 25]

The building's looking good. It's gonna fit well in my city when it's released!

[urielgarcia 344]

I had already signed out when I saw your thread and had to sign in again just to say - I love the Optus Building!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wow...I love it.

 

Merari

[__A 792]

Back from my holiday and I'm really in love with those glass textures of 530 Collins... <333

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Good modelling as always. Don't like the entrance thought!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well, here we are again: What don't you like about the entrance? Is there some modeling/texturing flaw? Is it not true to the original?