The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I'll have to figure out the real-life lot size for HPP. Al I know is that it's more long than it is wide, and bigger than a standard downtown lot. Since it sits at the end of Lloyd Center, it's probably quite wide...

Some more progress on the Portland Building:

I managed to get all the flag-equipped versions modded. But the Bureau of Bureaucracy version is the one that I'm having a bit of a fit with.

I've used Raphaelninja's blank functional lots mod to get it to work. Maxis didn't make the Plugin Editor and LE capable of making the reward lots, so this was the best I could do without a heavy crash course in full-bore modding. The lot doesn't replace the standard BoB, so you'll be able to have 2 at once. That version actually shows up in the rewards menu too.

Unfortuneately I can not get the query to show it as The Portland Building or get the menu description and name changed over from the standard BoB blurb. Not even in Ilive Reader can I change that info. But you can still go in and type in a new name if you query it.

So...

I'm going to move on to making the flagless lots and get everything functional. You may be stuck with having to manually rename the BoB version once you plop it down, unless someone watching here can offer some help. Will watch for any solutions for this problem, but I am intent upon releasing this sometime tomorrow evening once the flagless versions are all done and tested out. That way, I can definetly enjoy my well-earned Chinese food

[sparkythepenguin 90]

The Portland Building has now been released!

Get it on the STEX here!

Now on to the Hatfield Courthouse after a short break.... It should be easier with the lessons I learned with the Portland Building. Then we have the top 10 tallest buildings in Portland BAT'ed!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I went out on a walk through northwest and downtown Portland today. I managed to get a few pics. Today was quite a gloomy day, so sorry about the lighting. They say it is going to snow tomorrow!



This is the Tudor Arms Apartments near PGE Park (they're north of Burnside). I am quite enthralled with the design of this gem.




St. Mary's Cathedral is the base for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland. It is across the street from the Tudor Arms.



Moving to the east across I-405, I snapped this pic of the new Brewery Blocks development. The multi-block area was formerly the Henry Weinhard brewery until 2000. Now it has high-rise office, retail, and condo space.



While crossing the 405, I snapped a section of a portion of the downtown skyline. The more major buildings peek out over the older buildings and churches. On the left is a better view of the Terminal Sales Building.



In the Brewery Blocks, I took a look up 11th Avenue into the Pearl District. The Portland Streetcar's pulling up, with the Gregory Lofts above it. I wish that the Fremont Bridge would have shown up better-it sort of blends in with the sky on gloomy days.



After a quick trip into Powell's City of Books, I snapped a picture looking down Burnside Street at Big Pink: The US Bancorp Tower. My first ever BAT has a special place in my heart.



I stopped taking pics because the night was setting in, but I can never resist the appeal of 1000 Broadway! They changed the lanterns at the dome's base to red and green lights for the Hollidays. To the left is the Roosevelt Hotel. Notice Congress Center and the Hatfield Courthouse peeking out from behind... Sneaky structures they are!

Well will start up the Hatfield again. May work more on it tonite! Two days til my B-day... Snow and the Portland Building released, what more could I ask for!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Date: 12/1/2005 1:02:56 AM
Author: sparkythepenguin
This is the Tudor Arms Apartments near PGE Park (they're north of Burnside).

quote>
It might not even surprise anyone, but at a first glance I actually read PEG park and tried to remember if I had downloaded it already or not...

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I found the PGE Park attempt. It's by SCBA and here: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=Lot&Str=pge%20park%20in%20portland . I think it may be an assembled lot prop/BAT hybrid.

It's independent of this project. It needs work, but I see promise. I wrote a little comment on there and I think I'll PM SCBA asking him to try again, and to join us with the full backing of our project.

OK here's a shot of the Hatfield. New roof junk added!



This monster chokes up the computer just to preview. I estimate it takes about 15 minutes or so to preview it at zoom 4, low quality. I'm thinking the textures are OK. Just need to add lighting, finishing touches, etc..

Comments would help to see where to go next.

[SYM Productions 7]

ARGH I've been having trouble posting on your thread for a while Sparky... that's why I haven't been around... anyways for some reason I can't comment on your building, so I'll do it here...

Uh... let's rate this by re-creation accuracy ok?  So I'll give you a 10 for accuracy, nothing more said...

 

BTW... nice-looking courts...  and great pics!  I'm loving Portland even more now...

 

- CDI_spy

[SYM Productions 7]

hey sparky, your building is a marvel, thank the architect for me, and thank yourself for making such an accurate recreation, man, can't wait for you to upload the building on the STEX, star performer for shure!

- Yatagan_L

 

[vidioman 21]

It looks great, but those brick textures look a little bit offscale on the bottom there. Other than that, it's great. Can'tw ati to see night lighting on it.

good work!

[bixel 1,228]

Date: 11/28/2005 4:29:22 AM Author: T Wrecks May I make a suggestion concerning the Holladay building? Having seen it in all its glory (and boy, did you do another great job, bixel!) the thought of squishing this building is a bit painful. While it's perfectly possible to make that lot size growable, 11x4 is not really an ideal lot size... So here's my suggestion: - The ploppable version(s) should remain as they are, because the building looks great and perfectly to scale. - As for the growable, it would look a bit odd to have several buildings with that inscription on top anyway. So why not get rid of the secondary buildings to the right, render a version with only the main structure, remove the letters and use the result as a growable building that looks generic enough to be anything you want it to be?* EDIT: Of course, it would still be possible to offer the 11x4 growable version in addition to the more generic and all-purpose simplified version. _______________ *(Not to mention that if there were several colour variants or versions with different heights and the entrence was a prop, I could whip up a whole armada of ~8x8 mega lots that would look great as dense medium-wealth residential projects! )

quote>

Great Idea as always T Wrecks, thats just what I will do. Sparky: And yeah that particular Lot is very wide, sorry I haven't posted any updates recently, I've been working on other stuff. Also, one of these days I'll get some better pic of the Fontaine, someone mentioned that it should be done and I absolutely agree. Its a cool building, kinda reminds me of the Jetsons for some odd reason dunno why.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

@SYM Productions: Thanks for the comments guys! Sorry you're having trouble with posting CDI_Spy. Is it on this thread or on the STEX comments that the problem exists?

@Vidioman: I took a look at the Hatfield again and have reduced the base brick tiling by half. I found that this looks much better. Thanks for bringing that up-and I'll show you and everyone else a screen sometime soon to show the change.

@Bixel: I'm going to go into Terraserver or something and photoshop a comparrison between the HPP's lot and a standard downtown lot. Also I should compare the results of that to JtPortland's version of the Lloyd Center for more reference. That will hopefully go a long way to standardizing that part of town for the Portland recreation.

And yeah, the Fontaine has a weird je ne sais quai about it that is very Jetsons-like. Perhaps its the 1960's-styling or the weird lettering on the top. Sorta space-agey or something.

And n/p on any delays, real life comes first and foremost!

Sort of on a break here, real life is getting pretty tough right now for me. But I will try to have more progress on some of the minor things I've managed to do on the Hatfield soon.

[kaji 0]

sorry ive neglected you sparky i'll promise i'll post more =) downloaded youre building its looking really nice in the spot i saved for it.. cant wait to see an update on hatfield.. its my fav building youve done so far =)

~kaji

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks Kaji! Hope you have another spot for the Hatfield saved.

Tonight I decided to make some pot stickers (Chinese dumplings), and put a preview through of the Hatfield at Zoom 5 while cooking 'em up. Nonetheless, an interesting excuse to do some BAT and satisfy my Chinese food addiction.

This way, we all can see what everything looks like close-in. Some things I did look great, and there are a few things that I am going to change, detailed below:



The roof looks fine, and I'll add some planter boxes under the overhang, as there is in real life. I think the roof textures may need some work though. But before I do that...



... I have to fix the smaller grid of mullions (windoe seperations) inside the glass. I had forgot to make the window textures transparrent on the first run thru. Now you can see them because I made it transparrent. Unfortuneately, I have to move each web of muls closer to the glass so they show up better. The ones on the lower base will be fixed up, but those on the tower probably won't show up no matter what I do, so I'll get rid of them and save some time in previewing and exporting.



Here's the base again, now that I reduced the stonework's tiling. This looks better now.

So aside from the improvements that I have laid out above, anything else needing to be done with textures? I'd like to get the rooftop garden in, flags added, and finalize texturing before I move into lighting this up.

[diablo_del_bano 3]

i like it. i looks a little similar to the portland building. were they built at the same time, or are they near each other and made to look like each other?

[SYM Productions 7]

HOLY WOW!  I love the close up view... I finally noticed and can really appreciate the little details and textures... I hadn't noticed that empty overhang... so cool!  And the sunk-in roof junk... discreet yet phenominal!  5 thumbs!   

 

- CDI_spy

[sparkythepenguin 90]

@diablo: The Hatfield was completed in the late '90's/early 2000's. The Portland Building in the '80's. Although they are in the same area (caddy-corner across the Lonsdale Square), I'd say that the Hatfield is more brutalist/ultra modernist and the Portland Building didn't influence it in a major way. If anything the Portland Building reflects aspects of the beaux arts and brutualist architecture all ready present (as a whole) in downtown Portland at the time it was constructed. Other buildings from the '80's merged brutualist/modernist sensibilities with a muted post-modern influence which manifested in the Justice Center. Nobody wanted a monstrosity like the Portland Building, but it did have it's merits.

@ SYM Productions Tomorrow I hope to go up into the Portland City Grill on the US Bancorp Tower's 30th Floor. This way, I can get some good daylight photos of the Governor Hotel form above and a good panorama of downtown (minus the Bancorp/Big Pink) like you have from Fort Garry 3. Glad you like the Hatfield.

Just need to know if everything looks good texture-wise on the Hatfield and then I can move on to adding some minor detailing, flags, and getting this thing lit up.

I ran a preview through without the minor muls/seps on the tower section. It went much faster than I expected! Unfortuneately for all unfamiliar with this building in real life, the effecets at night won't show the interior mullions/seps that exist, but I am more focused on of these details come out in the day, zoom 5 shots. I'll have all the details worked out within the next 2 weeks or so I hope. But I have to omit the details that won't show up in the day renders. Besides at night (I've seen it lit up many times), you can't tell that the muls/seps are there from the ground anyway..

Will show more progress when I have some. This week has been a mess, with tons to do... If only someone paid me to BAT lol Still There are more deserving of payment than I...

[choco1 4]

Very, very beautiful building. It is very nicely designed! And it also looks very real. You have a great BAT here! Keep it up, I look forward to more!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK as promised, some panoramas from the 30th Floor of the US Bancorp Tower that I took yesterday!

Sorry that they don't propperly line up at the seams...



Rose Quarter, Lloyd District, Steel and Burnside Bridges, and inner Southeast Portland:



Downtown with Morrison, Hawthorne, and Marquam Bridges:



Sorry that I couldn't get anything out of the restruant side, especially Union Station and the Pearl District, as the Portland City Grill's lounge is only open without reservations. They really don't like people going over to that side without reservations.

More progress on the way! Will have something later when I am more fully awake.

[SYM Productions 7]

It's a pleasure to post our 400th post in this fantastic project thread, Sparky!  Your pics of the last few days give me a really good idea of what Portland is like... a beautiful city!   So awesomely cool man... it almost looks like Winnipeg!

 

- CDI_spy

 

P.S. 400th post!  ...

[jtportland 184]

the Hatfield is looking great! now the hard part of texturing, metal isn't easy to pull off.

as for your panorama's, you should use autostitch, its a free program that automatly stitches your pics together, get it here:

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

[Koybashi 1]

Just wanted to say hello, recently joined this community and was very pleased to find a Portland project still on-going. I don't live in Portland but love the city and try to go as much as time will allow( I live on the coast, Cannon Beach)...I enjoy the clubs located around the pearl district and my hobbies include dodging bullets at Club H20 and going to the Loyd Center (big city life always thrills us small town folk). I have some modeling experience with Rhino and would love to start modeling some buildings, I don't know how much of my Rhino knowledge is transferable to gmax but I'm going to assume that I can easily transfer all my basic modeling skills...I'll start messing around with it tonight.

The models so far are all exceptional peices of work and they truly add great character to any Sim City

 

SparkythePenguin you have mad modeling skills =) My hat is off to your dedication and love that you put into your buildings even when you were flying solo, thank you for keeping this project alive.

 

Jtportland even though you don't seem to be actively making portland buildings atm I'd like to thank you for the outstanding work you have done so far, I hope to see some more buildings done by you in the near future.

 

If I left somebody out, you can vote to have me flogged Thank you all for all your hard work, hopefully I will add my own submissions to the project in the near future if time and patience allows

 

Laterz

[diablo_del_bano 3]

do any of portland's tall buildings let you go to the upper floors just to look out the windows? cause in columbus, you can go to the top of the rhodes tower and look out the windows in the hallways. you get an excelent view of the city. but then again, it is a state office building, and those are usualy open to the public for the most part. just wondering.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Well, I've been trying to play around with lighting the Hatfield up. The weird curvy thing in front (I callit the chimney is flood lit at night, and I'm not sure if that looks good or not. Ugh.. But that's what has been going with it lately. Well at least everyone can see it now and tell me if the spotlights should stay, I should start them over, or be modify them:



(By the way, that's default beige nite textured windows. I plan on using a little more warmer beige with details if I can get that to work. This is just a test to see what it'd look like and this night lighting is highly subject to change!)

@Jtportland Thanks for the link to the photo stitcher. I'll have to get it after I install the new hard drive on this computer. I barely have any space on this anymore! I'm OK with the textures so far, but if ya got any suggestions for changes, I'm all ears.

@SYM Productions Congrats on your 400th post! I'll go exploring some of the outside of downtown areas sometime and see what turns up in my photos. I really should haul my butt over to the Lloyd District and into the Pearl District and get some stuff there.

@Koybashi If you'd like to start something up and join the project, feel free and I'll add ya in! The more, the merrier!

Rhino is a good start-off for getting used to BAT. I personally think its easier to model stuff, but then my strongest point is modeling. You have to move the model into GMax/BAT to light and texture it. That can get complicated, but if you want tips, I can help you. I do suggest that you get familiar with BAT, as Rhino-to-BAT transfers sometimes end up making the export and previewing take a REALLY REALLY long time. Doing all or as much of the modeling possible in BAT really speeds things up later on in the process.

Let me know in a PM or here if you need anything, and I'll do as much as I can to help out.

You left out Bixel. I'll let him decide how to punish you

@diablo_del_bano Portland isn't really a good place to go looking for public observation decks. My guess as to why is that they probably figure that there's nothing to see here. *shrug*

The only places I know of to see anything from up on high are:

US Bancorp Tower: Portland City Grill on the 30th floor. Lounge looks over downtown (and food is pretty decently priced at happy hour, drinks are still spendy). If you are under 21, you'll have to get reservations for the restruant side. And that only looks out over the north and eastside.

Hatfield Courthouse: I've heard that they have an O-deck, but I'm not sure. If they do, you'll have to go through tons of security to get to it. I've just never had the time to go in there and check it out.

The Hilton: If you're over 21, there's a bar named Alexanders on top (kinda spendy!). It only looks out to the west, but you can get a good eye-level view of the top floors of the Fox Tower, and if you crane your neck, 1000 Broadway.

I've also, from time to time, ran into friends that have apartments or condos near downtown with awesome views. Our many Parking garages, if high up enough, are a favorite pic place for me, as you can get ome good street shots, and pics of the Portland Streetcar and MAX in some places.

Well, I'll go in and post some stuff elsewhere, and get started on trying to light this beast up...

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK Today's progress takes us a little closer to a finished product. Unless there are any objections, the window lighting scheme (with corner windows at the same intensities!) and spot lighting for the front are done in my book.

Day, zoom 5:



The mullions (window seperators) on the base are more prominent. Now those windows don't look like just solid blocks.

Night zoom 5:



Kept the chimney's spots and lit up the entry with omnis. Tweaked the nite windows as well.

Still to do:

1. The roof textures were eaten during the preview, but they're there. And I don't really like them. Going to play around with them a bit.

2. The garden beneath the overhang needs to be added in. It's just basicly some trees in planters from what I can tell. You may not be able to see much of it, due to the SC4 camera angles, but some of the trees poke through the open areas. I feel it's a detail that should not be omitted.

3. I think that I may not add flags to this. From my experience with the Portland Building, exporting and modding one version was bad enough. Doing it all a second time for the same building made me nearly loose what shreds of sanity I have left. Still mulling this one over.

4. The ground plane is just temporary and will need to be replaced.

That's all for now! As always, all constructive criticism is needed and appreciated. Be brutal if nessescary!

[diablo_del_bano 3]

it looks great. but its now very lit up. is that the way it is in real life? cause it just looks dark

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I'm guessing the night scene looks too dark, since I just ran it by a friend of mine here and he said the same. I tried a few different night window textures, before finding that only one looked decent.

I pulled out the Portland Building's night texture set, which is a warm yellow, and he said it looked quite a bit more bright and vibrant. Thanks Diablo, you may have just helped me finalize the night window textures!

I thought this looked so nice that I had to show you all views from each angle at zoom 4. Compare these with the default beige above:









The real building has a very yellowish glow to it's windows at night. The slits along the sides of the tower are lit up too, but aren't really bright in comparrison to the glass-faced sections. Some of the light seems a little bright for my taste in a few places, but it's easy to fix.

[SYM Productions 7]

WEEEEEEEE! i'm giddy with excitement! can't blieve its almost done, can't wait for it to come out! man, i hope my hotel turns out that way! (on SYM Productions fictional projects thread (sorry if i'm advertising on your thread sparky )) but man, this thing is awsome, really hope the gardens get a little screen space on the game good luck on all your other projects too!

- Yatagan_L

[ricb 19]

Looks nice, I've been in the Hatfield Courthouse a few times, as I was involved in some diabilities act lawsuits. You get a really good view from the top floor number 16. That's right it is 16 stories tall officially. Each floor is about equal to two tho, because of the lofty vaultlike courtrooms. None of the courtrooms abut exterior walls. Court staff and judicial chambers have exterior vwindows and are the lower half windows for each floor. The windows on the upper half of each floor feed natural light thru specially designed shafts into the courtrooms. Thus the illusion of thirtytwo stories. They had a big hoodo to celebrate the opening. Cause I was on the board of a non-profit that did legal work in disabilities rights cases, I actually got an invite. They gave a lot of tours and talked a lot about the design. One more little item. Just outside the main entrance is a fountain with the following quote from Jefferson, The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. A buddy of mine sent out calendars a couple of years ago with a picture of himself and his significant other standing next to the inscription. In the picture they're both waving.

[bixel 1,228]

Hatfield is looking real nice Sparky, I have to say its one of my favorite buildings in Portland because its so weird, and in real life it kinda sometimes reminds me of Blade Runner. Sorry guys I haven't been able to work on the HPP (Holiday Park Plaza), though its nearly 80% complete hehe, I have a special project I am trying to get done by Christmas, and hopefully it will be released by then, however I just got a new job and I'm getting up at 7:30 each morning and I don't get home till 7:00pm, so sometimes Im just sooo tired. But anyway I hope to get it done soon.

 

I'm in no mood for punishing anybody heheh, but I welcome all newcomers to the project, if you dont already have gmax I suggest getting while its up (is it still avaliable?). If not PM me I think I have the install.exe somewhere, download philliopo's tutorial even though you already have some skills, cause there are certain scaling properties and export stuff you need to know.

[mcarch 15]

sparkythepenguin:  I have a question about one of your previous buildings - Portland Plaza Condominimums - I am using the Grow Res$$ one, and I can't seem to get it to grow.  I have had the building in game since it has come out, and Ive never been able to see it.  Im just wondering if there might be something wrong?  I have all the requirements and demand, it just hasn't grown for me.  Am I missing something?

[diablo_del_bano 3]

i'm not sure if its realistic, but some lights on the curved part of the roof would look neat. maybe just under the curved roof aimed at the lower wall. some roof lights around the holes would brighten it up a bit too. looks good, i saw some pictures on the internet and the building looks accurite. i cant find any night shots though. oh well. it looks like a neat building.