Petahhhhhh's BAT Thread

[petahhhhhh 76]

Hi Simtropolis!

 

I've been on this site for awhile but haven't made any of my own content until now. I just finished my very first BAT and while I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, I am hoping for some criticism so I can make future BATs even better!

 

 

For some context, the building was inspired by the ones in Halo 3: ODST, as in the picture below:

 

 

Eventually I'd like to make enough BATs in this style to be able to re-create the whole city, but of course that's a massive undertaking.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[KonstantinII 1,106]

WOW futuristic BAT's!!!   I like futuristic buildings and plugins! This is probably the year for futuristic BAT's because we have already two people making futuristic stuff, Bipin and Huston. Also I would like to know how to create future BAT's in 3ds max. How did you model that skyscraper? It looks nice! Maybe I can help you with this project. Also please take some time to look at our futuristic group forums here in Simtropolis.  https://community.simtropolis.com/groups/73-new-horizons/

When you are finished with new buildings please upload them and post them to this article.  https://community.simtropolis.com/topic/55039-list-of-futuristic-buildings/

[Huston 5,796]

That's a great BAT that you've created! The model looks really well done, though on IMO, the textures could use a little attention. I'm only beginning to BAT myself, but from what I've seen around the BAT discussions, one of the keys to a good BAT is to make fine texture that looks realistic and not too flat

 

But other than that, it's amazing. Have any pictures of it during the day?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I was just about to ask on what grounds you guys even comment because I can't see jack in that all-dark picture. How would anyone judge textures based on a DarkNite scene?

 

All I can see is that the general shape looks like the inspiration you were going for, and that it seems to be a pretty awesome model you present us here as your first BAT! Well, that, and your night lights... the roof light looks good, and the lettering is top notch! However, some window lights might look good. The lobby in turn may be illuminated a tad too brightly. There also seem to be some light leaks near the base where pure white light shines through what I'd assume to be solid building parts - you may have some one-sided geometry with inverted faces there, or actual gaps.

 

And now let's have a day pic!

[petahhhhhh 76]

Thanks for the comments guys! Here's a daytime picture.

 

 

I guess I should mention that I had to render in low quality - I'm doing this all on a laptop, so even doing that took a little under an hour to do. I'm going to go back and redo the lights and fix the texture on the base of the building (for some reason it turned gray before I rendered it and I didn't catch it).

[Jasoncw 11,839]

So far so good. 

 

I think there are two things that you should work on:

 

The glass - You'll want to make a texture for it (in photoshop or gimp) that both gives the impression of an interior and of reflections.  This will probably end up being the most time consuming part of the bat but otherwise the curtain wall just looks like flat blue.

 

The concrete (or whatever the material is) - You'll need to texture in some lines of some kind to break the surface up into smaller pieces.  In real life surfaces that large can't be continuous.  For one, to make a single piece of anything that large would be very difficult, but aside from that, buildings grow and shrink as they change temperature (from the sun), and so there needs to be joints of some kind or else the facade cracks and falls apart.  Those are the reasons why things aren't so big but for the casual viewer it boils down to it not looking realistic.

[petahhhhhh 76]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

So far so good. 

 

I think there are two things that you should work on:

 

The glass - You'll want to make a texture for it (in photoshop or gimp) that both gives the impression of an interior and of reflections.  This will probably end up being the most time consuming part of the bat but otherwise the curtain wall just looks like flat blue.

 

The concrete (or whatever the material is) - You'll need to texture in some lines of some kind to break the surface up into smaller pieces.  In real life surfaces that large can't be continuous.  For one, to make a single piece of anything that large would be very difficult, but aside from that, buildings grow and shrink as they change temperature (from the sun), and so there needs to be joints of some kind or else the facade cracks and falls apart.  Those are the reasons why things aren't so big but for the casual viewer it boils down to it not looking realistic.

 

I agree with you on the comment about the concrete. I'll post a picture after I've fixed that part. As far as the comment about the windows - I'm a little hesitant to make a reflective window right now because in its original context, the building's windows have more of a dull appearance, even during the day. I think I'll be a little more inclined to do it once (if) I start modeling buildings from the Tanaga District (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Tanaga) or the city center, since they appear a little more reflective.

 

 

 

 

In the mean time, I did make a small bus stop/gazebo for a roundabout, and hopefully can figure out how to make it overhang so that it fits. Here's a picture:

 

 

I think I need to add more to the little grass planters, but nothing I tried really looks very good. Suggestions?

[KonstantinII 1,106]

 

 

In the mean time, I did make a small bus stop/gazebo for a roundabout, and hopefully can figure out how to make it overhang so that it fits.

 

Render it and make it a prop. Open the lot editor. Set the lot size 2x2. Search for the prop in the menu. Put it in the middle. Set the lot size back to 1x1. Done!

[petahhhhhh 76]

KonstantinII, I tried that, but the nightlights didn't end up working Is that a property of props?

[Huston 5,796]

No, it shouldn't be. Props should be able to maintain their nightlighting. I mean, lots of BATs are often props and they're still able to maintain their nightlighting despite their properties. It might've just been bugged or something. Always worth a look and may be try re-rendering if it's really necessary.

 

Btw, great roundabout prop

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Remember to adjust the properties correctly when you use the Plugin Manager to create your prop .sc4desc! Props have a property called "Night lights" or similar. This must be set to "true" for the prop to light up at night. People tend to forget that.

 

If in doubt, make it a building (landmark is easiest) and put it on a test lot. Start up the game, plop your building. Make sure it is powered and switch to night view. Let the game run for a few SimMonths. If your building lights up, then the model itself must be OK; this means you messed up somewhere when turning it into a prop. If the model doesn't light up when used as building, either, then there is some flaw that needs to fixed in 3dsmax / gmax.

[Delecto 941]

There is also another problem. If a prop is located too close to the edge of the Lot, nightlighting doesn't work. I'm not sure there is a solution to this problem, perhaps by reducing the "occupancy model size" or something like that?!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Yes, you could do that to a building as well. Looks stupid for growables because the size of the construction scaffolding is determined by the building dimensions in the "Occupant Size" property and not by the outline of the visible structure, but for ploppables it's no problem.

 

As for the problem with props near the edge of the lot not lighting up properly, I think the criterion might be the question how far the centre/origin of the prop is away from the edge and not how far the prop overlaps the edge of the lot. Since in case of your roundabout filler I assume the origin of the prop to sit smack-dab in the centre of the lot, I don't think this problem applies here. It cannot hurt to check, though.

[petahhhhhh 76]

Thanks everyone! I've got a few more questions before I try to continue here though.

1. Can I edit the coordinates of something in the Lot Editor? I thought I remembered having something like that a while ago, but I could be mistaken.

2. Is there a good tutorial anywhere for making an overhanging building model? It might be useful in the future even if I end up not using it here.

3. (Somewhat unrelated) For those of you who have BAT experience with skyscrapers, how long does it usually take to export in high quality? I know there are a lot of variables, so there's probably not a good answer, but I'm curious. I've re-worked a few things on my tower model and am hoping to put it on the STEX at some point, but when a low-quality render takes 48 minutes, I want to have a a good estimate before I try a high-quality one.

 

Thanks!

 

EDIT: One more thing: I just downloaded a palm tree model from turbosquid and put it in one of the grass planters, and I think it adds a lot to the scene. Would this be an issue if I decide to upload my BAT to the STEX?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

1. Not in the LE. However, you can use cogeo's Model Tweaker to offset a model.

2. See above. However, this is really more of a tweak/workaround than good practice. Ideally, you'd make the model off-center in max, and then render.

 

As for your last question, that depends on the license, I'd guess. I'm not familiar with Turbosquid, so I don't really know if there is one license for all models, or if users can decide under which license they want to distribute their model.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

1. Not in the LE. However, you can use cogeo's Model Tweaker to offset a model.

I

Actually I would like to point out there are exceptions to that! If the model is programed to be a prop in SC4Plugin Manager it can be put to overhang the lot. Lot Editor only recognizes props which are within the lot boundaries. If you make a lot temporarily bigger you can insert the prop model and shrink the lot back to it's intended size, as I posted earlier. Some of Bixel's overhanging mega lots were made this way. If the model is programmed to be a building in SC4Plugin Manager and try to make it overhang, the Lot Editor won't save the lot.

[petahhhhhh 76]

Finally ready for my first posts to the STEX! Here's a picture of the final products.

 

I'm pretty happy with the results here! Thanks for all of the tips everyone! I ended up making them into props, which I think works just fine. The one thing I wish I could change is the black outline around the bottom steps. I figured it wouldn't happen because this is a HQ export, but I guess I was wrong. I'm leaning towards re-doing the whole thing in 3ds Max, but since this is a laptop and I don't have access to a better computer (at least until late December), I don't want to have to wait for years while the thing exports. Maybe I'll do some experimenting with that tonight.

 

Anyways, the next step is releasing the Sinoviet Tower! I'm half-considering doing that in Max too, but we'll see. I don't think it would be a terrible amount of work to redesign, but the main roadblock is render time.

 

Edit: Nevermind, 3ds Max is too slow. I tried to render a simple untextured 2x2 plane, and that took 5 minutes

 

Edit 2: I'm going to do a slight redesign before I release it. I'm going to make the steps a little shorter to make it more like the original, and to hopefully get rid of the black outline issue.

[petahhhhhh 76]

Fixed it!

[Darknono35 3,137]

Great work

[Delecto 941]

Great work!

 

What version of Max are you trying to use?

Have you Bat4Max5 installed and working?

[petahhhhhh 76]

Great work!

 

What version of Max are you trying to use?

Have you Bat4Max5 installed and working?

Thanks!

I've got 3ds Max 2012 and I do have Bat4Max5 installed and working. I wasn't sure if the newer versions of Max would work with Bat4Max, so I just figured I'd get 2012. Either way, I'm a freshman college student, so I can get any of the other ones for free if that might help.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

It's good.

[petahhhhhh 76]

 

Does anyone know why this keeps happening when I render my models? The texture appears fine in the viewports, and usually if i re-render it works fine, but occasionally, they'll just randomly turn grey. It's EXTREMELY frustrating to deal with.

 

Edit: I think I figured it out. It turned out to be a material naming issue when I merged two files.

[petahhhhhh 76]

Hey guys! I finished it, for now. I'm going to put this building on hold for a while while I take some time deciding how I'm going to model and texture all of these New Mombasa buildings (What materials, what shoud the base look like, where should the logos go, what to do with rooftops), and use this one as more of a prototype. For now, here's a night picture.

 

Fortunately, because all of the buildings in the Business Sector have a very similar appearance, I think they'll take a lot less time from start to finish because I have a better idea of what I'm doing now. I've got a new one coming soon, so I'll be posting my progress as I go!

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I'd really like to see futuristic mombasa style wall to wall buildings. You can make them about the same height as these

[petahhhhhh 76]

I'd really like to see futuristic mombasa style wall to wall buildings. You can make them about the same height as these

Good idea! I'll probably be doing some Old Mombasa buildings (like in Halo 2) after I make more progress on New Mombasa, using things like this for inspiration:

[edwardjeria 503]

I like your project

is innovative and attractive

by the way welcome to simtropolis

[KonstantinII 1,106]

Maybe you can make halo cars as props to put on your parking lots such as genet. Just a suggestion.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Oh... so you made the main night lights by modeling compartments inside the building and actually lighting these up from the inside?

[petahhhhhh 76]

Oh... so you made the main night lights by modeling compartments inside the building and actually lighting these up from the inside?

Yeah. I prefer the look of this to everything else I tried, but I'm going to have to figure something else out for the larger buildings of the project.