bapqapmoc's BATs

[bapqapmoc 18]

Hello!

 

I have been working on a model of the One New York Plaza on Sketchup.

This is my first 3d model and it's been fun doing it. I was surprised by how easy it was to learn the basic functions on Sketchup.

Except for the first floor surrounding area, in which I made some changes, the rest of it is pretty close to the real building.

Here are some pictures:

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I never used 3DS before, so, for me, applying textures with Sketchup would be easier.

I exported the model to 3DS 2015, with BAT4Max v.5 installed, but haven't been able to use the Preview tool. It just crashes midway the rendering and a "Unknown system exception" box appears. 

The images above are from the regular 3DS rendering.

 

Being new to all this, I'm open to advice. Hope you guys like what I've done so far.

[matias93 7,535]

Wow, this looks great, particularly for a first try! I guess that @JP Schriefer and @Jasoncw would be able to help you with the technicalities

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

You're doing a wonderful job for a first attempt, I'm impressed

3ds crashes when doing previews usually because the user didn't run it as administrator. If that's your case, close the program, right click on 3ds icon and Run as administrator.

Since you're using the 2015 version, you should read at least the informations on the bottom of the first post on BAT4Max thread. Newer versions need some simple manual settings and you can find them there to make your models with a good image quality.

[korver 27,686]

Off to a great start!

[bapqapmoc 18]

On ‎30‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 9:57 PM, JP Schriefer said:

You're doing a wonderful job for a first attempt, I'm impressed

3ds crashes when doing previews usually because the user didn't run it as administrator. If that's your case, close the program, right click on 3ds icon and Run as administrator.

Since you're using the 2015 version, you should read at least the informations on the bottom of the first post on BAT4Max thread. Newer versions need some simple manual settings and you can find them there to make your models with a good image quality.

Thanks. You were right, I wasn't running 3ds as administrator.

After I selected NVIDIA mental ray as the renderer and made the Sampling Mode and Skylight Mode manual adjustments I ended up with this preview:

Spoiler

It looks a little "grainy" to me, I don't know.

I'm also not sure about the illumination. Maybe the Gamma fix is necessary.

 

With that said, I'd like to make a proposition, if anyone is interested.

First, let me say that none of this is part of my profession (I'm a lawyer, actually), so all the knowledge involved is pretty useless for my regular life.

I see myself as a newfound hobbyist modeler.

 

When I started this, my plan was to create New York buildings (I can dream wit há recreation, right?) and, considering the significant work that is involved, I thought about concentrating on buildings that are big enough to stand out in the game, but also with simpler shapes.

After concluding the One New York Plaza, I planned to model buildings like the 111 Wall Street, 2 New York Plaza, 55 Water Street, One Penn Plaza, the XYZ buildings and others.

Bigger projects would be Citigroup Center, MetLife Building, the original WTC complex.

Pretty ambitious, I know, but this would be a long term hobby.

  

The problem is, I don't think I have enough time, right now, to learn all the nuances of the texturing part and deliver a high quality work.

Since I really liked the modelling part, maybe I should stick to it. I've been way more motivated to make new models than to texture and export this one to the game.

I don't want to sound lazy or anything, I'm just being honest.

So, if someone is interested in texturing this model and exporting it, I would be very grateful.

I don't know how this would work out. There is a "3ds models" category on the STEX. Maybe I could upload it there.

Any thoughts?

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

It's very grainy indeed. The Sampling Mode thing is supposed to fix exactly this problem, so that's weird. Can you send an image from your render setups?

You have some very nice models in mind, that's exciting! I don't know if you're into the BAT threads around, but just to inform you, Reddonquixote is also doing some of these buildings as you can see right here, maybe you guys can join forces

Citigroup Center and Metlife Building exist on STEX, but they're like 13 years old and a new version made on 3ds Max with some effects would be very welcome IMO. The towers from WTC were also made, but not the whole complex.

I'm looking forward to your projects!

 

[rsc204 21,869]

Firstly it's a good thing that you recognise this is some ways. Far too many great works end up unused on a hard drive somewhere. Releasing the model at least gives it a chance that one-day someone will finish it up, rather than it going to waste.

With that said however, you do need to consider that texturing and adding lighting is typically the most work in respect of modelling. As a result, there aren't a whole load of takers for such tasks, because those that can, are usually making their own models based on what they want to see in-game. Ideally, you'd be better off if you can find someone who's interested in texturing things, but not such a good modeller, that also wanted to see NY buildings for SC4. In the past, such collaborations have often worked to the benefit of all, but the community is not as active as once it was sadly.

It's worth considering also that if you are going to re-distribute such models, exporting them in .3DS format, rather than just saving the file, would make it vastly more compatible. Since a file saved in say 3DS max 2014, won't work with earlier versions at all. In some cases, older versions files also don't work with newer ones too. But .3DS is a more generic type of save file and would make it far more likely others could successfully work with your models.

[IDS2 3,453]

Very nice model! It shows great attention to detail - the roof area especially looks good. 

I think JP Schriefer is onto something with regards to the sampling needing to be increased, as right now the preview you posted looks like it's in the middle of final gather.

Have you worked at all with texturing/nightlighting? While it is a lot of work (and I agree with you about the modeling being the most fun part), I think you may find it valuable to go through the entire process at least once just to see what it's like. I personally find nightlighting really fun, and seeing your whole model come together with a good set of textures can be really satisfying.

Of course, if you feel like doing all that would kill your motivation to create models, then just do what you enjoy

[Jasoncw 12,060]

I clicked on the full size version of your render and I noticed that it's gigantic. When you do a zoom 5 preview render it will look the same and be the same size as it would be in the game. I'm guessing what happened is when you imported it from sketchup to 3ds max you didn't select the correct scaling option. Units and unit conversion can be confusing. Try importing it into 3ds max again, but watch out for things about units. After you've imported the model you can confirm the scale by looking at the lower right hand corner of the screen where it says "Grid = X" and that tells you how big the grid boxes in the viewports are. You can also go to Create>Standard Primitives>Box and make a box, and you can compare the dimensions of your box to what you expect the dimensions of your building to be. 

The reason your renders were crashing and why your current render quality isn't good is because your image is just so massive that your computer can't handle it. Once your building is the correct size renders will go waaaay faster and the render quality will look better too. The lighting problem might even be because of the size too (but if it's not I know what the problem is). 

Sketchup is easier to use in some ways but imo it takes more expertise in order to use. For example right now you have to learn the export/import settings to make sure that the scale is correct. The workflow for texturing a BAT in sketchup has a lot of back and forth between the two programs and learning different settings. Texturing in max (but modeling in sketchup) requires learning the right export/import settings to make the model convenient for texturing, but the texturing itself is more straightforward. Doing the whole BAT in 3ds max requires the least amount of knowledge and has the most flexible and straightforward workflow. You're obviously good at modeling so I don't think it would be hard for you relearn it in max. 

So my personal advice would be to open max, check that BAT4Max seems to be set up correctly, and then make a little BAT from start to finish. Just like a goofy little 3 story building or something. It doesn't have to be good, or even really look like a building, just something that you can learn how to do some basic modeling and texturing. Basically what I mean is spending a day or two to get to know the max-only workflow so that you can compare it with your sketchup experience. Whatever questions or guidance you want I'd be happy to help. You're right that it's a longterm hobby (and like you, 99.999% of us are hobbyists and not professionals), so doing something like this early on is worthwhile. 

Either way, you've already modeled this building and you'll at least want to figure out the scale stuff so that you can see what you've actually made (one of the things I like least about the sketchup workflow is you're working completely in the dark until you can do a preview render). 

About doing only models, I don't have anything to add, but best wishes whatever you decide.