The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[T Wrecks 10,210]

*Dusts off that old Queen song*

Thud, thud, thud

Another jaw hits the desk...

[nofunk 1,933]

That fire escape is SICK!!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Well, I hope these windows work out better...

And on the back wall, to me it looks a little plain, any suggestions as to what I should add? Or should I add anything at all?

Will be standing by. Hopefully next week isn't too busy. Got another project going on for one of my classes.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Other than the tiling brick part, it looks fine. That part of the building is short enough that if anything grows next to it, it will be covered up. Plus, in the back views, the tower and fire escape and mechanical penthouses attract the attention.

[spa 970]

Those windows look much better! Not so in your face and much more vague. Not to make your life miserable or anything but the only problem with them now is that they're the exact same window. Maybe streatch the texture across all three? 

One other thing, the old style advertising looks nice and to me would work perfectly on a different bat or in another place, but I think it looks out of place where it is. The problem here is the walls that they're on don't match the lower part of the building. The style to the lower section around the tower that faces the street looks to me to be something that was built relatively recently whereas the two back walls of the lower section have old brown brick and faded advertising. The two don't fit. It's up to you of course, but I would go with a consistent concrete wall (like in the indented area on the back) all the way around and I would spice it up with some billboard/poster style advertising or some grafitti. I just think the old and new don't match.

I don't mean to be a pain I have just taken an interest in this one and am throwing out what strikes me

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK then... Let's try all this on for size:

First we have a rare find. I actually tracked down a pic from before the neighboring Executive Building (the one with the big WaMu signs on it) went up. I think this was taken in the early 50's or late 40's. The Exec went up in the late 50's. You can see a small section of Jackson Tower back wall!

I believe those little wings were original to the building. In every old photo I have seen of Jackson Tower, they're in there.

Here's the back with concrete. Yeah I know, tiling issues, but I just wanted everyone to get a look at what concrete would look like. I may go with that OR I could go with a painted white brick, almost cinderblocky-looking texture. Judging from the old photo, I think something white could work.

Last, but not least, now that window texture's been stretched:

I feel we're getting closer and closer to a finished product here. Spa, don't worry about making my life harder or anything. I asked for opinions, and everyone chimes in with exactly the right advice that I am looking for. I really don't play SC4 anymore, so mauch as design stuff for it now. You all are going to be using it and playing with this stuff in-game, so I really appreciate the input! its more fun to BAT than to play right now. I'm sure I'll even out sometime, as there have been times where I just like to exclusively play SC4.

OK enough. Time to do all the week's cooking.... (another interest of mine nobody has yet known about here!)

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I think I'm deep in love with that building. You really got the Midas touch, sparky - whatever you try becomes gold. This latest building is no exception. If there's anything left that should be changed before wrapping this one up for release, then I don't see it.

[1ajs 49]

holy crap i stop comeing for a while and come back to find this beuty keep up the good work sparky

[ardecila 125]

Sparky - how about doing the big JOURNAL-HOURS marquee sign as an optional prop? Marquee signs were common in the old days, even for buildings that weren't theatres.  Restaurants, menswear shops, department stores, and even ice cream parlors had them.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Ardecila: I could do the giant sign, but I am not certain about what it exactly looked like, especially what colors it was painted and the color of the neon when it lit up. Also I am not certain on the wording on it. Below "HOURS" is more writing that, on other shots I have found of it, is completely unreadable. Also, I want to make this building the way it is now.

But I must say, back in the day, that sign must have been something to see with all the other ones that lined Broadway! Just about all are gone now, but the city is trying to revive the old "Neon Alley", and some new signs are going up. Can't wait to see what comes of this. Maybe one day, Jackson Tower will get its sign back.

I think that I have found the FINAL back wall. I've been toying around with a lot of ideas, and found this one to be my favorite. It works well with the faded ads, adds some contrast and interest, no tiling issues, and the gradient rocks!

May I now consider texturing done? I am starting to move onto the lighting phase. I would have shown y'all that but GMax bugged out on me and I have to do all the lighting over. I think I'll get to that by Thursday...

[Sim shady 12]

i thought u already finished nitelighting this? o well, yea, your done texturing

[KingTitan 6]

That look incredible....and yes...the fire escape is a wonderful touch...i love it.

[spa 970]

I think that's a winner. No more complaints from my corner

[allez l'om 1]

waouuuuuuuuuu i love this clock building!!!!!!! I will download it when you will post it!!!!!!! in wich city this building is located?

[Andreas Roth 629]

Now that looks sweet! It might have been a lot trial & error, but it definitely payed off.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

The new wall looks great. The only thing I have to say about it is that some of the geometry seems to not be aligned well.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Jason, what specificly are you referring to? The lower lfet corner? Will fix that ASAP. Anything else?

[Jasoncw 11,949]

The lower left corner, but also how the wall meets with the facade. It looks like it's not flush (the wall sticks out further from the facade). If you were looking head on at the facade, it looks like the common wall would be sticking out to the left.

[KingTitan 6]

Thats a gutter Jason....LOL Just kidding. Im not seeing what u mean? I think it's perfect....But then again....what do I know......I'm a horrible BATTER....that's why you will never see my work posted. LOL.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I just wanted to show some new screens detailing the geometry issues Jason raised:

Here, I fixed the corner. No more "gutter"!

As for the sides, compare this real pic with the nearly same perspective screenshot in GMax:

The facade ends and a bit of the side sticks out on the ends. Perhaps I ought to fill it with a skinny filler object that matches the facade texture?

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Yeah, I'd just make a box that goes there, and that also has some depth that goes into the common wall as well, to finish that area off.

[Fledgeling 1]

Omigosh how have i not seen this yet! Wow... Its going in my cities for sure. I love it!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK two MAJOR updates to show today! Hope everyone likes 'em, and I'll be watching for comments all day to see how I should further tweak this thing. Everyone's been a great help in getting Jackson Tower lookin' good. Trial and error is the name of the game, as usual folks!

OK, The common wall/facade joints are now installed.

And, Sim Shady, That first nite pic I posted was far from my vision for lighting this thing up. I have done better, but it still has a little tweaking that needs to be done. Feast your eyes on this!

And there are more nite_windows in there, they just turned out too dim after I put the spots, directs, and omnis in. It may just be the nitelite map that I am using, or it may be a lighting rig thing, but for some reason, the nite light textures end up being drown out by the lighting objects. I'll play around with the nite window intensities. (BTW< that screen was taken last nite before I added the corner joints to the common wall).

Also on the to-do list is to test out the high-quality export that I sent through last nite in-game. Maybe some scaling on the vertical axis, and fix some LOD issues by centering the scene. Oops!

I'll be awaitin'

[topcliff 1]

Looks good dude. Can't wait to download it. I think Art Deco is your calling.

[nofunk 1,933]

It looks great! I love all the lighting details around the building.

Are you going to scale this up vertically at all? The windows look a little chunky.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Yeah, the nitemaps are separate (and not actually lights anyway), so they can easily be overrun.  The nitemaps are just a texture that is composited into the final image, so they don't get brighter when other lights are shined on them.  It's still looking good though.  Maybe you could lower the intensity of the actual lights a little, and then add a little bit of yellow.  And also maybe add a few smaller omnis around for more ambient light (right now it's looking harsh in some places).  It's looking good though.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Topcliff: This building's style is really called "Beaux Arts". There is a sort of blur between this style and Art Deco, but Jackson Tower is too early an example to be considered in that definetion. It is considered pure Beaux Arts. Check out the Terminal Sales Building in a Google image search, that's a better example of "Beaux-deco" (the transitionary phase as I term it).

NoFunk: Yeah I am going to bump it up on the vertical axis. It looks a little short in-game. I'll have to post some screens here soon of that. When I put JtPortland's Fox Tower next to it (like it is in real life), it looks tiny! However, the Fox does dwarf the Jackson Tower, just the right amount is what I am after....

Jason: How do you like the common wall/facade joints? I'm not exactly sure where I should add more omnis. I could bathe the entire building in light-at night it often looks like you're staring directly into the sun. Well, if you're nearsighted (like me) or have a nice slow shutter speed it does....

[bbfan02 23]

Your doing well with the progress of the building. Looking forward to the release.

-bbfan02-

[Jasoncw 11,949]

In real life the "joint" is the same material I think, so you could just use the same texture.  What you have now is fine though.

About the omnis, I mean to copy the ones you already have, and move them off center, so that the light is a bit softer.  You'd be lowering the intensities of all of the lights to correct for the additional omnis.

[hamsterTK 93]

I noticed the great northern ad on the side...I'll have to put this near my train station

Anyways, if it gets to be too much of an issue what do the christmas lights look like without the floodlights there?