Mass Effect:The Milky Way BAT Project | Satellite Dish

[Huston 5,800]

Huston, your work is great. There definitely need to be a few improvements. I'll tell you.

 

1 -Make the individual windows with variable amounts of transparnecy. Don't make all the windows have the same transparency settings. That's so 20th century! So you see here, in the future, windows are gonna be made out of what's called a "smart glass". It's not really glass at all, but a transparent nanotech material made with microscopic chips or sensors inserted in it. The individual chips are so small that you can't see them without a microscope. Yet they perform an important function. In the future, there would be a little slider on the wall, next to the window. By moving the slider all the way up to one side, a message is sent wirelessly (at roughly the speed of light) from the slider into the chips, that makes the chips turn to one side, and the glass becomes completely opaque. By moving the slider to the opposite side, the window becomes completely transparent , so transparent in fact, that you would be fooled into thinking that there's no window at all. It would look like just a gaping hole in the wall. And of cource, you could set the slider to a varying degree of tansparency between the two extreemes. All performed by tiny nanochips that you can't see with the naked eye.

 

 

2 -You need to put some futuristic furniture behind the windows! Not just any furniture. Especially the top section, I can clearly see that the rooms are vacant. You need to put some life into them.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=657&q=futuristic+room&oq=futuristic+room&gs_l=img.3..0l5j0i5l2j0i24l3.763.3359.0.3856.15.11.0.4.4.0.89.858.11.11.0.msedr...0...1ac.1.61.img..0.15.873.g2WfcYQFxFs

 

I'll help you with that. Send me a message if you are interested.

 

Nice ideas. And while I would try to apply them, It's a bit difficult when I'm hoping to be able to do this before I get around to starting university (about March). I still have several BATs to go, but I thought something like this with a uniform glass texture would be okay. It's a bit tedious when you have to get around to selecting thousands of windows. Unfortunately, to my dismay, plugins have been working as great as I would've liked. Furniture-wise, while very nice to look at, is a bit strenuous to render; especially on a BAT in this scale. My laptop may be upgraded but it does still have limits. It could probably render it (taking several hours, may be even a day or two), but that would seriously impede progress on my City Journal

 

It's just a bit impractical on this size of a BAT. The nano-tech windows would be a nice touch, but I'm sort of keeping to a schedule before I run short out of time.

 

Although I think I could compensate by using blinds and color them in such a way that makes them blur. I'll see what I can do.

[OmniBLACK 48]

roof junk is looking awesome. really enjoy the redish tint along side the building.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

Can you give us an update on the status of your other projects? Like Reddonquixote did? Sorry if I'm pushy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Huston 5,800]

Sure, I'll try compiling them and state whether or not they're abandoned.

 

(that last pic though is of the current Vancouver Project, one of the rooftops of my apartments )

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I thought the last one was a full vertical farm.

[Reddonquixote 4,339]

Phffft.. like you need help with roof junk.. looks amazing

[Huston 5,800]

Phffft.. like you need help with roof junk.. looks amazing

 

They're not that great But I appreciate your saying that.

 

QUESTION - I'm using Fassadeblind's random blind generator, and I'm having trouble with it. When I reload a BAT I've used the plugin with, the blinds that were there seem to not appear. They just end up being empty, black outlined boxes. Am I missing something here or are they botched?

 

+ a I finished the BAT completely. With the addition of blinds which do not appear in this preview. Also, that massive triangular block does not dig into the bldg in the final render:

 

 

Roof Junk kinda looks nice in metallic form I am rendering this tower as we speak. It'll be an overnight job or a little longer.

 

Anyway, as per request by KonstantinII, here's a review of all my BATs, indicating whether they're abandoned or not...

 

= One thing to note is how it works here on the ME:TMW BAT project is that these BATs are made when I have a necessity for them (on my CJ). So it varies and projects can be abandoned as quick as they were posted. So this BAT thread is rather dynamic.

Key

ABANDONED

WIP - Long Term

WIP - Short Term

UNSURE

READY/UNRELEASED

NO CHANCE OF RELEASE

 

 

Nos Astra Tower 1

ABANDONED - Purely because it's outdated and not on par with the projects I have now. I'm refreshing my Illium portion of the ME:TMW BAT project like I've shown you in my CJ and in pages before.

 

 

M35 Mako and Eletania's Prothean Ruin

READY/UNRELEASED - It's been sitting in my plugins folder since the Eletania update on ME:TMW. I've contemplated on releasing but I'm not sure if I am. It's mostly private use models.

 

 

Temporary Shelters

WIP - Long Term - It's a little odd to put this under a long-term WIP situation, but I'm not abandoning these small models. They'll be refurbished a bit but I don't know when I'll get back to them.

 

 

Eden Prime Arcology

ABANDONED - It's terrible modelled. There are polys in the wrong places, holes in the BAT, weird little things and is basically impossible for me to work with. It's officially botched and I'm thinking of just redoing the entire thing, so in a way, not completely abandoned. But the above model is.

 

 

Mass Effect Ships

READY/UNRELEASED - I need to render them all but I'm still contemplating release. The Alliance fighter however (the uppermost model dispalyed) has been released on the STEX, and is under the which I updated a while back. They're HD quality props but have to be lotted by users personally.

 

 

Korlus Habitation Constructs

UNSURE - May be? May be not? I usually have to have a need for these. They're were going to be for an update I was making of a planet called Korlus, but that didn't go through and my plans for Korlus are a little later on. I don't normally just make them out of the blue. This isn't the Random Project

 

 

Makeshift Refugee Camp Clusters

WIP - Long Term - Like I said, I usually need usage for them in my CJ. I might go back to make a refugee update on ME:TMW, but having done one as the most recent episode, it won't be a while until I get back to doing these.

 

 

Nos Astra Towers

WIP - Long Term - This being a sub-project of ME:TMW, there's going to be a long-term amount of work input on Illium's towers. I'm actually gonna need to fix this model since Schriefer pointed out a few features on Sketchup I'd previously had not known about, or had overlooked. Not abandoned, in short

 

Human Lunar Garrison Stations

WIP - Long Term - I'll try get back to them. But I have my hands full as you can see with My CJs, Vancouver BAT project, Rio 2016 Project, TRP BATs and all these other things. It's insane. So when I feel like I can get around to it again, I'll try fixing the issues I had with these (Night renders screwed up but the Day renders we're prefectly fine) and try release'em. I already released one of'em a while back if you guys can remember

 

 

Kanaze Prothean Ruin

ABANDONED - The episode I'm working on is still a planning stage thing. This BAT was made in a whim and I don't think I'll be keeping this version. Also abandoned.

 

 

Nos Astra City Base

WIP - Long Term - Likewise with my Nos Astra Towers, it's a long-term WIP. They'll pick up speed when I decide to do another Illium related episode. There's a few ready with the towers, but no nightlights. Not sure if I'll release them though.

 

 

Alliance V-TOL Air Hanger

WIP - Long Term - There's no current necessity for this (in my CJ anyway), so progress will be even slower than a snail's pace.

 

 

Vancouver-British Columbian Systems Alliance War Memorial

READY/UNRELEASED - They're ready (but they don't look exactly like these in the finals). I just don't wanna release them for some reason. Especially considering that I haven't even had the chance to use them myself yet

 

 

Martian [Environmentally Sealed] Colony Facility

ABANDONED - Don't wanna work on this particular model anymore.

 

 

Asteroids/Space Rocks/Giagantic Dirty Boulders of Ice and Rock floating out in the Abyss of Space

READY/UNRELEASED - Someone call out! Holler! Say if you want these asteroid models! Otherwise, they're staying locked in my plugin vault!

 

 

Batarian High-Rise

ABANDONED - No motivation. Plus I have a different vision for Khar'shan's Cities.

 

 

Batarian Slum - Khar'shan

READY/UNRELEASED - The BAT in the center is (brown slum) is ready to be shipped of at anytime. Quality isn't exactly up to scratch with my currrent BATs because at the time, I was limited by computing power (thanks HP Pavilion dv6, but I guess it's run its course ). If anyone wants it, call out and I'll have it released ASAP.

 

 

2186 Vancouver Mini-Project Towers

WIP - Short Term - This is currently my most active project. I have heavy focus on these skyscraper currently and I'm even trying to create seawalls but I suck at making seawalls (some input and tips would be appreciated). Release? I'll be releasing them, yes

 

 

Elcor Colony Tower

UNSURE - Dunno. This thing could go either way. Unless I have a necessity I guess (which I half-heartedly do since I'm planning on making an episode revolving around an elcor colony). But I'm not sure about this model specifically.

 

 

London City Conduit Access Point / Voglos Mass Relay

NO CHANCE OF RELEASE - HANDS OFF!!!

 

If you've seen other projects I have that haven't been mentioned in this thread at all, being that you've seen it on my City Journal, don't hesitate to ask about it. But usually, if it's in my CJ, and it's not mentioned at all here, it's unlikely I'll ever release them.

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Wonderul big update showing how their status are

All of them are awesome! It's a shame this last one not be released, looks amazing.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Am I right you just used floorplans to create a shadow effect and then just used blinds? 

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I understand that the spaceships are ready yes? May I use them for my project? I want to create a series of lots for a RMIP campatible futuristic airport/spaceport pack. I will work on it in February, as soon as I finish my holograms. May I use your models?

 

The temporary shelters and refugee camps would go well together I think.

 

It would be good to upload the Batarian slum to STEX. Makes a nice cyberpunk city.

 

Good job on your latest project. The towers are good. Roof junks looks really nice in metallic form.

[jmsepe 2,039]

Wow nice list. I am looking forward to see some of those high rise buildings and also that mid rise air base which doesn't really look like an air base.

[Huston 5,800]

Thanks guys

 

So if anyone wants a glimpse of the final rendering, here it is. Btw, I seamed to have had the wrong side of the blinds in one of my renders, so one side of the top section appear as missing blinds (normals not facing the outside). I really don't want to have to re-render this though unfortunately. It was bad enough during my two attempts at rendering.  One overnight render failed when it notified me the next morning that the comp. ran out of memory. Then I had to monitor the render for 6 hours, just to make sure it didn't run out of memory a second time. The render of this had my CPU usage consistently between 97.9% and 100%. Meanwhile, available memory shot up from 41% (just looking at the BAT) to around 55% at its peak. So...yeah...rendering again is kind of out of the question. I have to many BATs to do and things are starting to creep up on me so time is of the esscence

 

I've dubbed the tower Pemberton Waterfront Offices. It's after the street it's on in North Vancouver's harbor area (which in Mass Effect, is practically overhauled and redeveloped as a comm/res development area. Shiny towers and all that

 

I'd more or less say this insanely tall skyscraper was a success. I'm gonna be in a heap of trouble when I start doing the night renders...it's gonna be lagfest trying to add photometric lights on the exteriors

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Wow, this gonna be insane indeed and I'll definitely download it

Brace yourself, the lag in the rendering is coming

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Beautiful building! Looks very Eureka inspired, which is fab!

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

You only add this blind method on the upper part

[9gruntsand1hammer 3,198]

The building looks great. It looks to be 100 floors tall.

[Huston 5,800]

You only add this blind method on the upper part

 

For some reason, they don't show up as well. This could be attributed to the fact that I wrongly determined which side was a visible normal (some of them were facing the wrong way, hence them ''disappearing'', and also that the glass on the floors lower than the topper tend to be somewhat darker and a little more reflective. So either of those really, but it's mostly likely that the normals weren't in the right direction. I didn't mean for them to disappear though lol. But rendering previews took over 40 minutes to do, and waiting that long was a stretch really. (I might just be leaving these towers as "take it or leave it" downloads)

[Reddonquixote 4,339]

How tall is it in metres? Don't forget there's a cap on how tall the BAT can be for exporting. Gmax won't cope and you'll get the dreaded Error Code 6.

 

Savage Phoenix worked the maximum height out to be 600m tall. Hopefully you haven't fallen into the disheartening trap of making something you can't export. If it's too tall you can try a method of exporting in sections but I suspect this will lead to unattractive seams in your BAT when composited in the Lot Editor. I hope it works it looks great

[Mister Giggles 310]

There are several bats that are composed of multiple segments and function and look perfectly fine in game:

 

 

The top half of this one is a prop, for instance. The Al Burj on SC4devotion is comprised of 3 segments.

 

So, no, I don't believe having to render the building in pieces will lead to any substantive issues. I just want to head off any discouragement!

[KonstantinII 1,106]

2.ch.net.simplayer's Coruscant BAT's towers come in sections, then they are stacked in the lot editor.

 

[Huston 5,800]

Guys, no need to dispute on how this was rendered If you guys want to know how it all went down, then what you need to know is:

 

> I never really measured the height prior to importing it on 3ds Max (and while I tried to measure the height in Max, the measuring tool wouldn't budge )

 

> I came out lucky somehow w/o measuring it, because GMax allowed the export w/o any hitch or glitch.

 

> It is not rendered individually (I hate doing that). It's a BAT rendered onto one, single LOD. And while taller than your average BAT, it did render

 

> Measurements from Sketchup with the 33% increase in BAT height taken into account in Max, results in a height of approximately 524 meters in total, + an approximate 10 to 20 meters extra from the addition of a spire. So all in all, It's about 544 meters, +/- 10-20 meters. So, I guess I narrowly skimmed GMax's render limit . It wouldn't have been too hard to edit the file to reduce its height and number of floors, but it sure would've been a downer.

 

> This BAT will probably the tallest BAT I ever make at all. I was going to render a Reaper Capital Ship, but being that they're 2 km tall, I might just photoshop them instead

 

So, in short, the BAT rendered, it's one LOD, no random seams and no real hitch if you discount the fact that some of the blinds ended up missing due to the normals of the blinds having faced the wrong direction.

[Finnbhennach 161]

Hurray :kitty: And to the collection of goodies it goes... Keep up the great work

[Huston 5,800]

RENDERED.

 

Here's a pic, and now I'm moving on to the next BATs (looking to finish some of my condo models)

 

 

(these are one of those situations where the Pemberton is taller if you include the spire. You be the judge ) I feel like I should've added a glass canopy over the lobby entrance. Wasn't really too concerned about the lower floors really...

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

 

You only add this blind method on the upper part

 

For some reason, they don't show up as well. This could be attributed to the fact that I wrongly determined which side was a visible normal (some of them were facing the wrong way, hence them ''disappearing'', and also that the glass on the floors lower than the topper tend to be somewhat darker and a little more reflective. So either of those really, but it's mostly likely that the normals weren't in the right direction. I didn't mean for them to disappear though lol. But rendering previews took over 40 minutes to do, and waiting that long was a stretch really. (I might just be leaving these towers as "take it or leave it" downloads)

 

 

Well, it rather looks like there is no transparency at all. Have you checked your refraction tab?

[tonyr 926]

PWP instant dl! 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Loving it!! 

[jmsepe 2,039]

Wait, that condo is that a recreation or not? Anyway, someone should stop telling himself that he is an amateur. 

[KonstantinII 1,106]

Night Lights?

[Huston 5,800]

 

 

You only add this blind method on the upper part

 

For some reason, they don't show up as well. This could be attributed to the fact that I wrongly determined which side was a visible normal (some of them were facing the wrong way, hence them ''disappearing'', and also that the glass on the floors lower than the topper tend to be somewhat darker and a little more reflective. So either of those really, but it's mostly likely that the normals weren't in the right direction. I didn't mean for them to disappear though lol. But rendering previews took over 40 minutes to do, and waiting that long was a stretch really. (I might just be leaving these towers as "take it or leave it" downloads)

 

 

Well, it rather looks like there is no transparency at all. Have you checked your refraction tab?

 

 

Yeah....well...I kinda cheated here since I bumped up the refraction tab to make the interior less visible (with the lack of furniture, it looks weird). Then with such a long and perilous render time, I chanced the possibility that some of the normals on the blinds would face the wrong way, and the refraction index would probably mask that issue On top of that, I'm not actually too sure why it's so dark, the glass refraction of the lower floors or exactly the same as the top ones. It might just be the fact that I had more window frames covering the windows. You technically can see through them (I can, at least because I know how transparent I made it). Reflectivity is quite high too, so incombination, it makes for a very near opaque set of windows.

 

 

Wait, that condo is that a recreation or not? Anyway, someone should stop telling himself that he is an amateur. 

 

Not a recreation since this tower technically doesn't exist And I'm still feeling like a so-so BATer. I can't help it

 

 

Night Lights?

 

Nightlight are low-priority right now. They'll only take a couple of minutes to apply in general, by rendering time is substantial (especially if I'm considering to render both dark/maxis nites which will exceed 12 hours of rendering) and I need to try finishing up more buildings first, before I tackle nightlighting.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Looks great, it'll definitely make a great addition to be the tallest building in any large city.