The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[tommiej 0]

looking good!! like what i'm seeing. like the roof texturing

[Krio 626]

It was a compliment, I like this building very much.

[cammo2003 20]

The textures don't (for the most part) sit right with me. Granted, though, that it's a hard one to texture.

The "garden", however, looks *perfect*. As does the nightlighting.

Like Jason, I really do think there needs to be at least *some* blue in the window colour - I think it'd give the thing some life in-game The windows to be fair probably won't ever look right because of the fact they're so reflective, so I won't be too harsh on that point... Also, the horizontal trim around the windows is far too noticeable - in fact, it doesn't look like there's any on the top of the windows, except right at the top of the building.

This must be near torture to texture.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Really quickly, I went thru the wall textures and re-did them. I used the real pics that I linked to from Emporis to find a sort-of compromise between the vivid and faded colors. Plus I added a tiny bit more blue to the lighter colored textures. I think it made a difference, thanks Jason!

It's not too hard to texture this, it was a pain to model it though... Each of the panels in the wall were seperate objects that I joined together by color as a single mesh. I thought ahead on this one b/c texturing gets really tough if you have to find *every* little object needing that color. I only do this for things that don't need a seperate and detailed texture.

Oh, don't get upset about the skylite windows, the texture is there but GMax isn't remembering to render them for some weird reason. Also this is just a low-quality render.

Still need to slightly "dirty up" the roof. Having been in a good spot to see one of the roofs, they are gravel, so I don't know exactly how they will look yet...

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Yeah, I think it looks better too.

Maybe the blocks on the roof could be a little more grey though? Right now it seems like they stick out a lot. .6678992 (??) has a similar roof on the university building he was working on, so you can look to that for a guide.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

School's taking a beating on me. But I still persist! I managed to implement your other comments Jason. I think your suggestions are paying off.

Here's close-ups of the roofs:

[sparkythepenguin 90]

School's taking a beating on me. But I still persist! I managed to implement your other comments Jason. I think your suggestions are paying off.

Here's close-ups of the roofs:

Zoom 4

Added:

-Tinted all window textures toward a bluish hue.

-New gravel texture-not too dirty, but looks more gravelly

-Added a new texture to the little roof path tiles. A little greyer in some spots, light in others.

OK hope this is up to the standards everyone is hoping for and dreaming of. Only a small minor problem that will be immediately fixed exists (deleted an old texture and forgot it was on another set of objects). Other than that, Shall I run the final export?

[josefmayor 8]

Amazing!!!!!!!! This is increadible!

[Gecko_2006 1]

That roof texture is still bugging me. Give it a little grunge and desaturate it. Make it look worn from city pollution and such. It looks absolutely pristine.

[Andreas Roth 629]

Although the red roof is relatively flat, the texture could use a small gradient. This will fix the "too pristine" look. The new gravel and path tiles texture looks excellent, though.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Echo: Are you referring to the gravel roofs or the tile roofs?

[Sim shady 12]

looks great, i like the improved textures

[Gecko_2006 1]

I was referring to the tile roof, but now that I think about it, the idea would hold fast to both.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Got caught up on all my schoolwork yesterday. I have a couple of tests at PSU this week, so that's a relief. Been working out the texturing issues today, so here's shots of zooms 1-5 with a new tiled texture and an even gravelly texture!

Zooms 1-4:

Zoom 5. (almost 800x600, but wanted to show you the full effect):

If this isn't the final product, it's pretty darn near close to that! So how's it look? Thanks for all the imput!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I have to say, the improvements have made a big difference.  It's looking great.

Just make sure to fix all of your textures.  Don't forget about the red mullions on the bottom awnings, and the top curved area.

For the gradient, make sure your blending mode isn't set to "normal".  Instead of looking like light, it looks like dust, because it covers up the details underneath.  Set it to overlay or multiply, and it will look much better.

Other than that, I don't think I have anything else to say.  I think this is your best BAT yet.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Jason, what do you mean by "fix all [my] textures"? Just need that all cleared up. I never use "normal" on my layers. The tile and gravel roofs were made using "soft light" and setting the opacity down. It escapes me the exact percentage that I used, but it looked real good-so it stayed!

If this is my best BAT, you were a big part of helping make it so! Thanks again Jason!

[cammo2003 20]

I can't quite put into words how much better that looks now. In particular the window reflections really help to convey the high reflectivity that the building according to the pictures I've seen has. They're also just subtle enough to not stand out, which is good, because reflections that stand out look bad in SC.

Also, I think you've added just the right amount of blue tint - don't change it.

I'm not quite sure *where* I'll put this one, but it looks like a good building to include somewhere in one of my CBDs.

[Andreas Roth 629]

Nice work! The changes might be rather subtle, but they add a lot of depth to the building.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I meant make sure you replace them all.  You said you accidentally deleted one of your textures.  But it turns out you just said one.  I also noticed the funny green color of the pots, and how the mullions have a not-as-good red color (too saturated, imo).  Yeah, try using overlay or multiply for the roof instead.  I think if you tweak these three things, it will be ready to export.  Should only take a minute each.

lol, well thanks for seriously considering my advice!  I give a lot of suggestions to people but most of them aren't taken.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Sorry to ask another question, but which roof Jason? The tile or gravel ones? 

I'm always needing advice, and I'm glad to incorporate it into my BATs. After all, I'm not the only persion that's going to use them!

Nice to see you on here again Andreas!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Oh, the red roof.

[realdimension 6]

Very nice recreation! It looks realistic!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

2 out of 3 done so far. Can't get to the tile roof yet, got an early class with a quiz today!

How's this look now?

[Jasoncw 11,949]

A lot better.

[Sim shady 12]

man this has progressed extremely well Its looking great

[T Wrecks 10,210]

IT's already been a good BAT to begin with, but the continuous progress here is really amazing. I'm beginning to wonder just how much better it can get... o_O

[sparkythepenguin 90]

All righty then, let's try this....

Which one looks better? Can these be improved? Should I just use what I had before??? I'm leaning toward the overlay version.

Would have posted earlier, but had to catch up on some sleep! School is running me ragged.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

hmmm, either one could be used. It still looks "dusty" to me, so I don't know. I'd cut the opacity down from 1/2 to 1/3 of what you have now though.

For the other roof, see what it looks like when you apply a gaussian blur of .5 or 1 pixel. The noise is really intense compared to how blended the rest of the building is.

[Sim shady 12]

i see what jason is saying, but dang that is looking good

[GMoney702 0]

It's looking mighty fine but a couple of the overlaying textures seem to be just a bit dull. I think it's the pinkish/redish texture around the windows.