The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[crazyarchitect 7]

Wow, so much has been done with this thread, I may not post that much anymore, but I will continue to follow and praise all of your achievements, wherever they may go

[jayo 44]

Originally posted by: sparkythepenguin Update for 2/6/08:

jayo: I'm happy that you would be willing to lot these monsters, but I have that under control at this time. If, after the release people don't like my lotting job, is it OK to call upon you? BTW, You are always free to lot these BATs any way you wish foryour own use anytime. quote>

Yeh sure   Nice work on these

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Good news on the upcoming 7 BATs:

Asturianu informs me that the Spanish versions are working well. I had to correct some spelling errors though, but the Spanish end is OK.

Now the files all have moved to Andreas over in Germany. He'll check and see if the German versions work well and do some final modding adjustments over the next few days.

While all this is going on, I have whipped up the readme files and now get to sit back and wait. Its kind of weird after all this work to not have something major to do. But it comes at a good time as I need to reorganize this project. Also I have been putting off a surgery that I have been needing to schedule. Nothing major to worry about, but I might be out for a while because there is bit of pain involved during the recovery phase. That'll require some pretty strong medications that'll keep me pretty out of it over those six weeks. I won't get into the details of all that, but the good news is that it is not cancer like I thought it was.

Anyways, all that I need to really do on the upcoming BATs is to whip up the installers for them and upload them.

I will be moving this thread to its new home as soon as the big batch o'BAT's is uploaded. I will be collecting feedback/addressing technical issues that may arise about them on the new thread. Also, I'm going to re-link whatever else is out there on the STEX to it. It won't be fancy right from the get-go, but it will as I find time and/or coherence to work on it.

Some ideas for the future after these 7 BATS are kicking around. I am probably most likely to revisit my original work, starting with the oldest, the US Bancorp Tower. Everything uploaded previous to the Hatfield Courthouse is a candidate for some updating of some sort.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Before you get started redoing anything, we need to get your 3ds Max working right. It's a shame it hasn't been, since these latest BATs would be even better rendered with it. All of your BATs post re-organization can be rendered with 3ds Max.

Can you show us a screenshot of SimPortland? It would be fun to see, and would also help visualize what is made and what needs to be made.

[Sim shady 12]

Yikes! I hope the surgery goes well! recover quickly!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks SimShady. I ought to be OK.   I'll probably do it next month.

While we while away the time left until this thread moves, I'd like to say that even though I may not post each time, I do pop in and check periodically what is being said. So don't worry if it looks like things fall upon deaf ears (blind eyes i guess in this case), I am monitoring things.

So Jason, I have seen what you have suggested. I've just hit my final straw trying to model in GMAX, so yep I am switching over to 3ds Max now. I figured out how to convert everything that I am currently or have worked on over to the Max program, and right now that is the big project as of late.

Before that, I was doing a little reworking of the US Bancorp Tower, my first BAT. Time really is a good measure of how better you have become. I can't imagine how I made that thing in the first place- I did it all in splines and surfaces, not 3d extruded objects! Also I didn't atrtach anything to anything else after collapsing them to meshes, so there was a ton of clutter. Poor JtPortland, I feel so bad for him now because I asked him to help me render and texture it. It must have been a total nightmare!

So I first rebuilt it in GMAX and found some things that I missed when modeling the first time. But GMax kept throwing errors right and left (the 3dsimp.cpp crash was among them), so I finally decided to go with 3ds Max. So now I have to rebuild the entire thing (yet again!) because the conversion process screws up some meshes. This makes version 6 of the US Bancorp Tower since its inception in my original basic Rhino3d model.

I am a little apprehensive about BAT4MAX. I haven't put it in yet, as I am trying to convert everything over. I have tried to understand the readme, but to no avail. Jason, could you help with a good guide? I am in need of not the Idiot's Guide to BAT4MAX, but the Concused Head Trauma Patient's Guide to Using BAT4MAX. I don't care what the program does, just need to know what the heck to do (and things NOT to do) to get a finished BAT in simple step-by-step terms.

SC4Portland: I took a look at PDXSC4 a couple of days ago. There is such a mess whenever I actually go into SC4 and play that there's stuff that isn't showing up. My version of NAM was very outdated and throwing graphics errors too. My Plugins folder is like a Superfund site, so I'm rebuilding my plugins folder and game from scratch and organizing as I go. One good thing is that our Portland stuff worked and I did plop all the new stuff in, just to see some real-life streetcorners. Its becoming quite an impressive collection!

I threw out my old plugins folder (after carefully removing things I couldn;t find on the STEX anymore), but I am almost done with building my new plugins directory. When I am done, I will post some Portland screenies for you. Thanks to Andreas' wonderful startup tool, things will be easier on my PC when playing SC.

I really would like to get back to playing SC4 again, as I do need some built-up testing beds for upcoming BATs. Whenever I get around to it, first thing will be to rebuild SimPortland.

Oh and good news! It appears the next attempt at a SC game will be released in 2011. Plenty of time to do even more stuff! Hopefully it won't be a dud like SCS....

Probably not topical for this area of the forums, but would anyone like me to post some more pictures of Portland, its environs, and the NW in general? I have tons of pics that I have taken that I haven't really ever showed off.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I guess the best thing to do would be to backup the files it wants you to edit, and then just start at step one and go from there.  Here is what is actually going on (with the exporting).  Understanding this might help you make sense of the installation.  There is also some stuff which might be helpful in the BAT Mega FAQ.

You are making a .SC4Model file, and then replacing the .FSH files with ones created by 3ds Max:

1.  BAT building in 3ds Max.  Make LODs.

2.  Export LODs as .3DS file.

3.  Import .3DS file (the LODs) into Gmax.

4.  Export LODs to create .SC4Model file.

5.  Copy and paste .SC4Model file name into the export box in 3ds Max.

6.  Render the building in 3ds Max.

7.  Build .FSH files (you click a button, which runs a program, which makes .FSH files out of the files 3ds Max exported.  This can also be done manually very easily).

8.  Replace old .FSH files with new .FSH files (you click a button.  This can also be done manually very easily).

Everything else to know is just details.  The documentation BAT4Max comes with the details.  For the installation of BAT4Max, you're just editing some files, and the readme tells you exactly what to do.  I remember that the instructions weren't written as well as they could have been (it took me a month to get it set up and sort out the errors), so I'll see if I can write something up for you.

But you can actually do the first 4 steps without having BAT4Max set up, so in the meantime,  BAT away.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK Jason, I would like this thread closed whenever you can. We'll archive everything here.

Please see the new home thread of this project:

The Portland & Oregon BAT Team: Chapter 2

Thanks everyone for the good times, and we hope to see you there!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Thread closed!

I also set it to not archive, so that it will always be accessible.

[mikelust1977 0]

I would like to see the Owens Illinois Glass Factory off 205 and Sandy Blvd in NE portland. The one with the curved wrench style roof

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Hey, a four-year bump! This must be good for the Top Ten.

But seriously: mikelust, this thread has been dead for a long, long time. Bringing up such threads is generally frowned upon (unless you are the guy who makes the stuff in there) because it clutters up the forum and pushes down really active and recent threads without adding anything of general interest. Btw, it was only due to the recent forum update that this thread was unlocked at all.

If you want to request a building to be made for SimCity, we have an official BAT request thread in the STEX sub-forum (make sure you read the first post!).

On a more positive note, Sparky recently showed up here again, but that's also a while ago now, and he's gone back into hiding... I hope he'll come back for good.