The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[jtportland 184]

thanks, subedei, crazy, dudy, portlandexpos04 and tuna!

i might, or might not do a base on this building, if you look at the shorter part of this buildings roof, you'll it's lit up a little bit, this is because of the way i am lighting this building, so if i make another one at the bottom it would be way too bright. but we'll see, depending on how much i want to put into this building! haha, i will try to do an overhang though, that'll look nice.

so sparky, what's up with the portland plaza? hehe anythin new?

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Well, I got Portland Plaza rendered and looked at it in-game! Looks good, so if commentary here on this thread is positive, I'll post it on the STEX tomorrow. I'm headed out the dorr pretty soon, so I can only show ya the screens in-game right now:

Zoom 4 views:





Zoom 5 view (Crap, got resized by photobucket):



PacWest is looking good! If everyone likes the good ol' Norelco Building, I'll get back to 1000 Broadway again.

CrazyArchitect: You sure know your building nicknames! I thought I was the only one keeping up on those. Ever read An Architectural Guidebook to Portland by Bart King? That's where I learned that's what PortPlaz is called.

Oh here's a few other Portland building nicknames, for those not in the know:

One Pacific Square: R2D2
1000 Broadway: Ban Roll-on Building
KOIN Center: the Mechanical Pencil
Standard Insurance Center Garage: Boogie-Woogie Building
Standard Insurance Center sculpture: Three Groins in a Fountain
US Bancorp Tower: Big Pink
PacWest Center: the Ice Cube
Downtown Nordstrom: thr Fort
Hatfield Courthouse: The Schick Razor Building
Bank of America Center: Scotch Tape Building
ODS Tower: Odious Tower
200 Market: Black Box

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

Edit: welcome to page 9! Have a good Elex Day! Post if you want me to releas it as-is! Just gotta figure out if or if not residential plops can be made or not. If not, it'll just be a growable-only R$$ or R$$$ choice.

[Billy_bob55 8]

it looks pretty.

the way the lot is 'lifted' makes it look 'offlot', but at the same time it looks great

nicely done

[subedei 3]

Looks good so far. Keep up the great work.

 

 

Subedei

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks guys, but there may be a problem that forces me to re-render:



The center spandrels (wall peices between windows) and center windows look tooo tiled. I'll have to tweak the contrast on the textures and re-render, unless everyone thinks this is OK. It only bothers me a little, and only is really visible on zoom 5.

A note about the lot: It's a raised concrete Podium, which houses the first floor of the building, the entry to the underground parking, and keeps all the riff-raff out of the pool area.

The city didn't like the base, since it didn't fit into the then-under discussion Downtown Master Plan (which now calls for mandatory ground-level space on all new or renovated buildings). Unfortuneately, City Councilman Frank Ivancie (whom isn't seen as a promoter of livability in Portland history), headed the department that green-lighted building plans* approved it. Nice building, bad base. I hope one day they re-do it and do this building some justice.

*Note: Portland has a council-management system of government. In other words, the mayor is only ceremonial, with the same powers as a city councilman. Each city council member heads a department of the city and votes in council to enact laws. The Mayor's sole executive power is to assign which council member and his/herself run what department. Heading certain departments used to wield quite a bit of power in city planning until the late 1970's.

OK, I have really got to go now, the partys start in an hour and must catch the MAX!

Please let me know about the Portland Plaza and keep the comments coming! We really reall appreciate them.

[crazyarchitect 7]

Well Sparky, I learned my names from Emporis, that's how I found out all of that of Portland, and nice job on the Portland plaza, but to me ,it looks like it came out of SC3K for some reason, but still looks pretty cool

[jtportland 184]

hey sparky, the texures look OK, but with a weird shaped building like that, it would be hard to get the textures just right, did you try using 'cylinder' other than box in the UVM map?

sorry i for the lack of updates and posts, i have been crazy busy MOVING (yes again) but this time to a permanent residence in south seattle. so it may take a few days (maybe a week?) before i get back into the swing of things BAT-wize.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I think that I'll re-do the texturing on Portland Plaza. I did some work on 1000 Broadway while awaiting feedback on Portland Plaza and will show that progress in this post.

@ JtPortland: Great to hear that you're getting a better place! Bellevue is quite a nasty commute into Seattle no matter what mode. Sounds like an improvement to me! I'm wrapping up some stuff from the election, but I'll hold down the fort here til you return.

@ Crazyarchitect: Cool, Emporis (I originally knew it as skyscrapers.com) is a great asset and resource. It's too bad they don't have more info and that it went to a limited-feature pay system. Still I like it.

Here's another nickname: I've heard the Marriott Hotel on Front Avenue called the Mutated clamshell.

I'll go and re-texture the UVW maps. I need each face textured this time. I fudged up and tried to group everything together and apply a face UVW map to it. I'll just apply a UVW map to each wall section this time. Hopefully the cylindrical map can apply the texture to each face instead of stretching it out. As for the silvery ones, I'm going to tweak the contrast on them so that diagonal line doesn't show up in zoom 5. It's now bothering me enough to warrant changing it.

Here's 1000 Broadway progress. I filled in the rounded windows, added the corner lanterns on top, and got it ready for adding the dome. Still need to add the concrete abutments to the side of the round section on the roof.



This picture is at zoom 5, but zoomed out in the renderer. BAT on my computer loves to make huge zoom 5 shots and it would have been too big to show here if I decided to post that. The mullions show up really good in zooms 4 and 5 when I preview it and it is properly zoomed in-render.

[subedei 3]

Looking good. I like the mid-rise buildings you all have been coming out with lately. Keep up the great work.  

 

 

 

Subedei

[crazyarchitect 7]

coolness, looking great, and that's a new nickname for me

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks guys! I've expanded upon that and got a good model of most of the dome now! I had to drop into Rhino3d to make it, but it is worth it. I thought it would be hard to make it, however it took me only 3 tries to get it!



This is a shot at Zoom 5, fully zoomed (provided if Photobucket didn't re-size it).

After all, how could this building be the Ban Roll-on Building without the dome?

Still needed:

The Concrete things around the dome's base
Roof junk for under the dome (I'll see if it's visible at this angle)
The metal skirt around the bottom of the dome
That structure on the roof that looks like an open-aired boxy floor
The base of the building
The parking garage on the other half of the real-life lot
some kind of base for a stand-alone 2x4 version

[crazyarchitect 7]

looking great cool looking dome

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks Crazyarchitect!

I just decided what is going to happen after the Portland Plaza and 1000 Broadway projects are done. I am periodicly working on two sidelined BAT projects, and I will fully resume them after my current projects are released.

I will try to completely finish Waddle's up, then get Union Station into high gear. I may also work on some simpler stuff when I feel like it, but those two will be the main focus. After those, maybe I'll do some MAX stations and TriMet trains and buses to have someone mod into the game. This is just to clear things up and show you all what my priorities are at this moment.

[jtportland 184]

looks great sparky! the dome looks PERFECT!

just to let you all know, i've been making the real portland in simcity! it would look a lot more realistic if i was able to make diagnal bridges! grr, but it still looks pretty good i think...

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

nice jt! i like how u have the offramp into the NW industrial district off 405 and the Fremont bridge!

Also the suspension/brooklyn bridge thing... i usually use the other 'green' bridge option in sim city for hawthorne, but yeah yours is looking good!

BTW, have u guys thought about doing the CHinese gardens or the Chinatown gate? I am working on the PDC/PDOT project down in that neighborhood and those would be great to add to the BAT list.

[jtportland 184]

thanks portlandexpos04!

we are very lucky to have a steal arch bridge in simcity! since it looks much like the Fremont bridge. also you are right about the hawthorne bridge, i tried chaing it to that one earlier but it wouln't work, but i figured it out, so it has been replaced by the green one now.

also, while i was drawing out the grid, i noticed that the grid i have compaired to the freeways was way too small! so i made it bigger.

you know, there are many chinese gardens already made, i have one that will work great for the portland one! but not too sure about the chinatown gate... i'd have to search for something that looks like it, or i'll make my own.

what is the PDC/PDOT project? if you have pics feel free to post'em here

expect a Portland CJ sometime soon!

[subedei 3]

Looking good. I will add this one to my Portland collection.  

 

 

Subedei

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Cool Jt! But you're missing one of the bridges.

It goes in this order (I'll leave the ones outside your screen shot in brackets):

Willamette:

(St Johns-suspension)
(Burlington Northern R.R. Bridge # 5.1-Vertival Lift)
Fremont Bridge-tied arch, 2 decks
Broadway Bridge- Rall-type bascule drawbridge
Steel Bridge- Vertical lift, 2 telescoping decks
Burnside Bridge- Chicago-style bascule draw
Morrison Bridge - Chicago-style bascule draw
Hawthorne Bridge - Vertical Lift
Marquam Bridge- Warren Truss, 2 decks
(Ross Island- under-deck arch)
(Sellwood - under-deck truss)
I know all the rest of the bridges to Wilsonville if your region extends down that far..

Columbia:

(Burlington Northern RR # 8.1- Swing span)
(Interstate Bridge- twin vertical lift spans)
(Glen Jackson Bridge- segmented Concrete deck)


Also, did anyone know that the NW Industrial off-ramp (actually Yeon Avenue's connection to I-405) was supposed to be a freeway? It was to be I-505, a short stretch of freeway through NW Portland that would have replaced St. Helens Road. Opposition from neighborhoods in NW killed it.

Also, on the east side of it, the Fremont Bridge has another 3-way interchange. Which is actually an incomplete stack interchange. It has a couple of complete ramps to Emanuel Hospital which were supposed to be the start of the Prescott Freeway.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Oh and in case you've never seen it, this is Portland's best bridge: The St. Johns! The Golden Gate of the north!



If anyone ever figured out how to put bridges in-game from BAT, this is the first Portland bridge I'd do.

[jtportland 184]

hmm, i guess i have missed a bridge lol, i had made some major updates since this picture from last night, so i spread the bridges out some more, freemont is almost at the top of the city now haha. i did this cus i counted the city blocks between the bridges, to make it more accurate.

i will post more pics of the new city when i start the new city journal. today is moving day! so i might be out for a few days.

if i catch a long ehough break today, you'll see some updates

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Well, have a good moving day JT. Best of luck to ya in your new location.

Here's some goodies for when you check in again, and for all you loyal fans out there:

1000 Broadway's roof, aside from texturing and the roof crap, is now complete. The building has topped out!





Also, I made sure to check out the nightlighting as well. The dome lights up in real life. I may crank up it's intensity a tiny bit. At night, it sort of glows not too faint, but not really bright either. The squared-off sections haven't been nite-lit yet.

I just whipped this out this morning. I'm quite happy with it.

Now to work down to the base, adding some minor the details to the tower.

[jtportland 184]

nice job sparky! night lighting for the dome looks great!

and you were right, i did miss a bridge! lol, i fixed that aswell.

i made pioneer courthouse square!



and i have only placed portland landmarks, still havn't started playing the game yet





no time to start a CJ now, i will wheni have more time! haha

[subedei 3]

Your Portland recreation is looking good so far. Keep up the great work.

 

 

 

Subedei

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Hey, that looks really realistic! As the buildings fill in, it'll look even more so. make sure to clear a nice big space in there for Union Station! Give me a few months and it'll be in there...

Oh, you just can not have Portland without light rail! Until I can get to making MAX trains and stations, here's a link to add surface light rail (it runs on regular rail tracks and doesn't have the overhead wires yet).

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=54161

Somewhere in the thread is a link to the file, which'll go right into you plugins folder. I've tried it out and it's pretty good! Now if only I could get everything I'm working on done and put MAX trains in it...

Edit: just noticed this: The one-way streets around Pioneer Square. If you're shooting for really, really realism, Broadway (between Nordys and Pioneer Sq.) needs to be one-way and heading south. 6th goes north (between the vcourthouse and the Square), and Fifth goes south, etc... you get the picture. And Burnside should be a 4-lane avenue.

As for east-west streets Yamhill goes east and Morrison goes west. Meier and Frank is across Morrison from the courthouse, not next to the Square.

Sorry for the nit-picking, Otherwise everything is perfect! Love the Park Blocks!

[SpartanBadger 4]

I can't believe how fast you guys are turning out these buildings, they look awesome! I would really love to visit Portland after seeing all of these buildings, they are really cool! Great job guys, everything looks awesome, and I am really excited to see more of 1000 Broadway, good luck!

[crazyarchitect 7]

WOW, so much stuff is going on here, it's so awesome, a new CJ 1000 Broadway, it's alll so great!!!!!!

[Pisces07 0]

Holy cow! These buildings are amazing! And coming out very fast! I have a question though: Were the stores added to the Fox Tower? Like Banana Republic and such?

[Superstar 69]

Wow! awesome recreation!!! you should start a CJ about it, would be great, and maybe add some story or something.....lol

[crazyarchitect 7]

JT is starting a CJ on Portland

[Sabretooth78 808]

Cool idea with the BAT-city layout.  I've thought a few times of doing that with my Buffalo projects but my progress is so slow.  But at the rate you guys are whipping stuff out, you'll be BATing the suburbs by Christmas!

 

-Chris