Reddonquixote's BAT thread

[ilikehotdogsalot 308]

That looks fantastic, I think the water already looks really realistic!

[Cool_Z 1,547]

You really do a beautiful job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Xander Dax 310]

WOW looks amazing, i would defiantly use your canal pieces.

looking forward to your other projects as well, by the way how goes Q1? that looked Amazing.

[__A 792]

That just looks stunning! I think the opaque water suits the Yarra exactly since it is murky..

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Amazing! 

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks for those comments everyone. Much appreciated!

 

Here's a small update:

I've finished all the textures (except for the outdoor tables & umbrellas, not sure if they will stay yet. They do add some sense of scale into the scene though...)

Added a large scale displacement map into the water to gives it a bit more movement without being too busy.

I added a wet line on the rocky riverbank side to give the impression of water splashing up the sides. I think this helps alleviate some of that abrupt edge it had before.

I've replaced all the trees - juries still out...

Probably least favourite texture is the road surface on the side bridge. I'll wait until I can see it in game before I play with it anymore.

 

Now just need to finish off the Spencer Street end with the Bridge, and the Helipad converted tower thing.

 

Let me know what you think so far

 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Only thing I don't like here are the repetition of textures on the right and the repetition of the trees on the same side. 

 

The rest is perfect for me. 

[Xander Dax 310]

Looks bloody amazing mate

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks Coolz... yes you're right on both counts. The texture along the side I didn't think we would see as much of it so I wasn't overly concerned with it, but from this angle its quite noticeable, so will fix that.

 

In terms of the trees, again you're right, but I had to make the trees a little differently to normal so I guess I'm looking for validation of the model and textures before I make variations.

 

Just by way of background - I make my trees in treed[d] and import them, but I had erroneously thought the leaves lost their mapping when I converted to Arch & Design materials, so I always left at the default standard materials. Standard materials uses opacity maps instead of cutouts. I was previously using 3DS Max 2010, which seemed to render opacity maps ok, but 2012 can't seem to do it. Takes about 4-6 hours for one tree, which is just ridiculous of course. Converting to Arch & Design with cut outs (I thought) created mapping issues, but I eventually worked out its back face culling on the textures, not mapping issues. Once I switched that off, the materials applied correctly and they render in just minutes. Maybe that's useful for anyone else using Tree[d]

 

Anyway, if these tree models look ok, I'll make more variations.

 

Thanks Xander - back to your earlier question about Q1... It was delayed because the Darknite render took 3 days to export, and I still have to do the maxis night render and I haven't been willing to be without my PC for another 3 days. Good news is I've recently upgraded to a newer machine, so I can render Q1 on the old machine and still keep working on this one.. so, hopefully be ready soon

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Just by way of background - I make my trees in treed[d] and import them

 

Now you have me VERY interested  ... what is treed[d] ? An external tree generator ? A 3DS plugin ? Does it take long to render (like the trees that I import from vue d'esprit and have a huge polygon count and slow renders to a crawl if you allow Global Illumination on them ?   )

 

Edit : found it... it looks nice, I will give it a try. 

[__A 792]

That's so pretty <3

[MTT9 187]

Nice! Hope you can make this into a canal set. Even if not, this looks great

[NYM1980 3]

You have renewed my interest in Sim City 4 again!  I hadn't realized the community was so very much alive still!  Nothing seems to be able to replace or out do Sim City 4!

[ausa07 66]

What would be nice is if you could make "bridge skins". So you drag a road and then you can plop a overhanging lot which then changes the look of the bridge to your one. Just an idea.

 

Although I think the idea of having a bridge skin of these fantastic looking bridges (which I would love to have in my cities)... I think reddonquixote already has a long enough list of BATs to make lol.  However, if it's something quick and easy and he has the time to make some fantastic bridges for our use I won't complain 

Anyways.... In regards to your BATs reddonquixote I have nominated you for a Trixie    Best of luck and keep up the good work!

Oh... and personally I hope you will get to a select few Melbourne buildings before you ever call it quits!! (Southern Cross, Etihad Stadium, Crown Casino... *cough cough*) 

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Here's the first section about 95% complete, in-game so we can see how it should start to look. Obviously a few textures need fixing up, and some pieces of the model need a bit of a tidy up. And the buildings are just there for example until I make the casino complex properly.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, I need to do something about the tree shadows that fall off the lot

 

Thanks for those nice comments. Evan, I'm not thinking about retirement just yet. you'll squeeze a few more BATs out of me

[AndisArt 2,066]

Very pretty!

What tree models are you using if I may ask?

[Cool_Z 1,547]

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Just popped out for a few minutes to see what's happening at White Night.. OMG hundreds of thousands of people have converged on Federation Square .. too much for me    Flinders Street Station looked pretty though

 

Andisart..! Thought you disappeared. I made the trees using Tree[d]

[Scaley McSlither 1,714]

RDQ, you just keep outdoing yourself. Your work has raised the bar to a new level altogether! White Night looks awesome; I'd far prefer that celebration to the white nights we suffer with in Canada. LOL!

 

@Andisart - great to see you around again! Hoping to see your project reach completion one day too!

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Wooow! It's so perfect *--*

[__A 792]

Wow that looks so amazing! I don't know anything about the shadows though >_<

 

White Night was awesome! went from the start to around 11pm and I didn't even get to see everything.. 

 

EDIT: Are the trees actually taller than the Crown fire pillar thingos? It looks like the tree could catch fire but maybe that's just the perspective from the game

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Redonquixote, that other BATs projects you were doing, you will continue them?

 

Editing, I realized now that I broke the rule of 2 posts on the forum.

Sorry =/

If any moderator can delete this message and add it to my last I would appreciate it.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Don't worry, the 2 post rule is for forum games (so that a small number of people don't dominate/spam the games), not for normal discussions like this.

[Jack_wilds 550]

its pretty neat the stuff you are doing...     sidewalk lurker standing by for further progress

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks Jack, Mike, Mystic & Schriefer (the double posting fiend )

 

Mystic, yeah I noticed that about the trees as well lol. Ultimately I guess the pillars aren't actually going to produce fire (or could they.... ??? .. might be cool, I've never batted fire before I wonder if its hard to do...) In any case I was going for aesthetic rather than practical... I might revisit it though

 

Schriefer, actually I was just about to post an update on older projects - but generally yes, I will finish them all eventually.

 

So, an update:

• Grand Hyatt - 100% exported.
• Melbourne Star Observation Wheel - 100% exported
• Q1 - Maxis Night currently @ 30% then ready for upload

 

fyi - I figure I have no more special modding abilities than anyone else, probably less in fact, definitely less than zero interest , so going forward I will only be releasing my BATs as non-functional landmarks    Assuming I get over my STEX-phobia they might be up this weekend

[Xander Dax 310]

If you don't want to modd your creations you could always consider asking another user to do that part for you mayby?.

Loving your work.

[weixc812 509]

I agree with Xander Dax. Although I prefer landmark lots to functional lots, I'm still willing to offer any help about making functional lots if needed. There must be lots of forum members who have the same mind too.

[__A 792]

If it did have fire that would be really... wow O_O Glad to hear that the Star is ready, I can't wait to use it in my city!

 

(Oh, btw its mystic)

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Just popped out for a few minutes to see what's happening at White Night.. OMG hundreds of thousands of people have converged on Federation Square .. too much for me    Flinders Street Station looked pretty though

 

Andisart..! Thought you disappeared. I made the trees using Tree[d]

Oh man... I went in to White Night and standing room on the train all the way from Nunawading, crowds were intense!

Also what's with the bold text?

[jdenm8 362]

Looking good so far. I still think the bridges (Especially the Tram ones) should be implemented as real ones though.
 
The bold text is because a bold tag wasn't closed properly. It appears to be in the end of evanalmighty's signature.