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[Rott 2,351]

Actually I don't think it will be an issue, I can just size the sides to 15.9 and build windows etc normally since the axis should be the same on a symmetrical building...

[Rott 2,351]

Something new, this one I don't know what to do, exported the lot and when I opened lot editor it wasn't aligned properly, I thought realigning the building to 0 XY was supposed to correct that but its still happening, what am I doing wrong here: 

[rsc204 21,806]

Looks like your render may not be properly centred, if it is a full 16x16m building it should work. 

[20huskies 4,693]

My guess @Rott is you extruded from sides from the same side when it was copied such as the left and right wall from the start of the extrusion on say, the left, then centered the mid width of the extrusion.  But the position is relative to the start of the extrusion.  In your case it would center at -8 and +7, assuming 1m extrusion.

[rsc204 21,806]

22 minutes ago, 20huskies said:

My guess @Rott is you extruded from sides from the same side when it was copied such as the left and right wall from the start of the extrusion on say, the left, then centered the mid width of the extrusion.  But the position is relative to the start of the extrusion.  In your case it would center at -8 and +7, assuming 1m extrusion.

That does seem to fit with the right wall (screenshot), which seems to be off the lot itself.

It's an easy trap to fall into, I prefer to model the Front and Back walls first, so I know for sure the overall width. Then with them in place, I'll create the sides and can be sure I've got everything properly aligned. But it is something to consider, Duplicating Objects is a lot quicker, but you have to learn to think about the 3D space everything occupies. This becomes much more natural once you've a bit of experience modelling.

[RRetail 7,906]

Personally, I don't use the extrusion tool on walls unless I absolutely need too. I tend to take a modular approach by making sections of a wall and then move on. 

[mattb325 28,880]

17 hours ago, Rott said:

Something new, this one I don't know what to do, exported the lot and when I opened lot editor it wasn't aligned properly, I thought realigning the building to 0 XY was supposed to correct that but its still happening, what am I doing wrong here: 

Realigning the building will recenter the model, but not the LODs (which is what you are seeing here in the lot editor).

To fix these centering issues, in the top view of the Bat, select all elements with the mouse and group them. Then type in 0,0 in the XY boxes. (Which it sounds like you've done)

Then, in the Utilities panel (the panel you use to preview and export) click the Parameters rollout and then the 'Re-fit LODs button'.

Export again. It should fix the issue. If not, don't worry, you don't need to start again, just open a new blank scene in the BAT and import your model into the blank scene. This is done by File -> Merge, and then select everything except the LODs, Thumnail Camera and the TB2 Camera handle. That will definitely correct the issue.

When I first started doing W2W buildings, I used to make a little centered rectangle in the top view that was in multiples of 16m, that way I could very easily see if my models were exceeding that bounding box (which I deleted prior to rendering)

[Rott 2,351]

Some good suggestions, I forgot to mention the building isn't 100% symmetrical, I made cutaway sections for the entrances in the front that I suspect might have thrown off the calibration as well, but thanks to you guys I have it aligned properly.

Now I just need to work on the nightlighting and roof texture, thought it looked fine until I put it in game next to some other custom lots and now realize it needs a lot of work, will have to flesh out that door frame to start...

[AP 3,587]

Hi everyone,

I have an issue with the zone that BAT places my building on. I set up my building in the positive area of y around the x-axis:

When i export this building and try to integrate in a lot, it is somehow shiftet (roughly one tile) from where the LotEditor claims it is:

I tried moving my building down the y-axis in BAT and export it again, but it seems like the rendering zone does not shift (camera Z5 shows the building just on the edge) and parts of the building get cut off now:

Can anyone explain to me how to position the building that is crated in BAT in the center of the lot that is created for it, or how to adjust the area thet Gmax uses to export the file?

Thanks very much!

[mattb325 28,880]

Hello AP. The building must be centred on the XY axis for it to show up correctly (ie the intersection of the two heaviest lines in the grid)

To do this, in the TOP viewport, select everything, then group it. Then in the X and Y boxes at the bottom of the screen, type 0 and 0.

Refit the LODs and then it will work.

[AP 3,587]

Hi mattb325,

thanks for the quick reply (your stuff is waesome by the way!)

I adjusted my building to be centered in GMAX, but now only half of it is rendered, that is what i tried to express in the 1st post.

It seems to me that Camera Z5 (left window in screenshot above) is what GMAX determins as the "area" that is rendered (and i do not know how to adjust this camera z5) (?!) as you can see my building is now at the edge of that camera angle and i assume that is why my building is cut off:

 

[mattb325 28,880]

If you don't refit the LODs, the scene uses the original LOD boxes (which were in the wrong position to start with, so it cuts your model away). Press the refit LODs button in the export area to correct the problem

 

[AP 3,587]

YES, that was it, excellent!

Thank you so much! I am very new to this, but I am relatively skilled with autocad and inventor so it is kinda oldschool fun playing with GMAX! I just don't know all the secrets yet.

Here is my first own building

[mattb325 28,880]

Excellent, I'm glad it worked. It's always good to see new batters to help keep the game fresh 

[AP 3,587]

haha, you will definitely see lots more questions from my side... but this community is very refreshing!

Cheers!

 

______________________________________S O L V E D_______________________________________________________

[Barroco Hispano 26,671]

In almost all the BATs that I export this problem happens to me. It seems that BAT4 GMAX expects BAT4MAX to generate a smaller image but instead generates a larger one. I don't know if the problem is from BAT4MAX or BAT4GMAX...

Before insert FSHs:

After insert FSHs:

This is what the other view looks like.

This problem occurs more frequently in FSHs "300, 310, 320, 330", "200 ,210, 220, 230" and "100, 110, 120, 130".

 

[mattb325 28,880]

It's a BAT for Max problem that plagues me all of the time. Every 3rd or 4th model I make has this issue.

It mostly happens whenever there are smaller objects to be rendered. I've quoted the fix from the front page FAQ

On 1/28/2018 at 9:23 AM, Jasoncw said:

MY BAT IS DISTORTED

Open the .SC4Model file in ilive's Reader, and select the offending .S3D file. Then select the Vert tab. The u values and/or the v values, both of which should range between 0 and 1, are off. In this example, the v values needed to be doubled. Due to some kind of export error they were only half the number they should be. For example, the first v value in the list, 0.085938, needed to be doubled to 0.171876.

Since the values apparently tend to be either doubled or halved by the bug and typically all of the values (u or v) are affected, the easiest way to narrow down the problem is to try and change either the u or the v values by doubling or halving roughly and checking in the viewport whether the S3D starts to look better. Once you have a suspicion which values are off and whether they are too small or too big, you can simply select another view without saving your modifications, go back to the affected S3D and enter the exact numbers. Do not forget to select "Apply" once you are finished and save the corrected model file!

It's easier to slightly change the LODs (to hope that the new LOD geometry does not trigger the bug), and then re-export. 

In the field I quoted, there is an external link (called 'this example') make sure you click that to see what they're talking about so you can fix it in the reader.

[Barroco Hispano 26,671]

I had to find a new way to do it because sometimes my lods have so many vertices that I am lazy to fix them manually. 

1. Go to the folder where BAT4MAX saves the outputfiles and find the folder for your model.

In my case

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\gamepacks\BAT\Outputfiles\NAME OF YOUR BAT

2. Find the folder that contains the corrupted view, in my case it is "30210":

3. Open photoshop and

(DO THE SAME WITH THE ALPHA CHANNEL)

After clicking ok the FSH should look like this 

4. Then go to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\gamepacks\BAT and click on the .bat file that has the name of your BAT.

This file is responsible for converting the .bmp files into .fsh

5. Go to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\gamepacks\BAT\Outputfiles\NAME OF YOUR BAT and find the .bat file then click (It will insert the FSHs again in the .SCModel)  

6.

With this method you don't have to re-export anything or manually change the position of the vertices.

[Zephyrus22 109]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your willingness to help out us newbies! I am starting at the very beginning and have a question pertaining specifically to 3ds Max 2015 and BAT4Max.

Several years ago, when I took my first foray into BATing, I was able to legally obtain a copy of 3ds Max 2015, and this is the version that I have access to and want to use.

I was looking at the BAT4Max thread, and it says that versions newer than 2012 or so have some compatibility issues and need a few tweaks in order to properly work. I looked through the thread and did not see anything related to setting up this particular version to be compatible with BAT4Max; however, I did see a comment that said the 2015 version was problematic with compatibility issues.

As someone who is completely new to the world of 3D modeling, I'm curious how I should proceed. Should I go through the tutorials using 2015 with BAT4Max without making any adjustments? Should I play it safe and stick with BAT/GMAX instead? Are there any other resources related to this topic that will help me to set up the program properly? I just want to make sure I'm starting in the right place so that I can focus on following the tutorials instead of debugging the program.

At this point, I have not yet installed BAT4Max and haven't tried using the program in its "default" settings.

Thank you, and sorry if this has been asked before - I tried to search but didn't find what I was looking for.

EDIT: Maybe I should have looked a little harder before posting - I see now that there are some screenshots of settings in the previously linked thread, and found this thread too which seems to have a lot of valuable information. I will read through those.

EDIT 2: OK, here's an actual issue - I downloaded BAT4Max from Simtropolis and tried to install it per the instruction on the BAT4Max thread, however the instructions are in another language (Mandarin? Can't tell). Is this normal? I'm not sure how to proceed...

 

[Zephyrus22 109]

Sorry for the double-post, but I have another question. For now I decided to just focus on GMAX/BAT since I am having trouble with 3ds Max. I am following this tutorial and am at this step:

However, when I right-click nothing happens. I've tried several different selection tools but I cannot get the black menu screen to pop up as shown above. Does anyone know what I am missing, or if there is a secondary way of hiding the selected wall?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Figured it out - on the sidebar in BAT, click on Display -> Hide Selected and it will hide the front wall as is being asked in the above step.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

@Zephyrus22 The thread you're in right now replaces those other threads. There are instructions for getting set up in the first post here.

The menu you get when you right click in the middle of a viewport is called the quad menu, and it's actually a pretty important menu. Unfortunately I have no idea why that wouldn't be working, but as long as it works in 3ds max, where you'll be doing all the actual modeling, then you should be fine.

[Zephyrus22 109]

@Jasoncw Thanks - I followed the instructions in the first post up to Step 11, but I can't "follow the on-screen instructions" in 3ds Max because they appear to be in Mandarin, and there was too much text for Google Translate to help with. I'm not sure if there's multiple versions based on language, but the one I downloaded was this one. The rest of the 3ds Max program is in English, so I'm not sure why the BAT4Max script would be in another language.

Regarding my second post, I managed to figure it out with some trial and error. I still can't right-click but I found other buttons to allow me to do the same actions, and it's probably better for me to get more familiar with where buttons are in BAT anyway.

For now I think I'll just focus on learning the basics of modeling in GMAX, and try 3ds Max again once I have the basics down.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I think you "opened" the script instead of "run" it. Go try again but "Run Script".

The mandarin is not the instructions, it's gobbledygook because it's trying to display information in the file but the file isn't the kind of script that is normally opened there so it's misinterpreting the file as garbage. The .mzp is a special type of file which contains many scripts as well as an installer, but it isn't a script itself. 

[Zephyrus22 109]

Thanks, I think you're right. I just tried again and did not get the popup text, but it did give me a runtime error. I will take another look at it later and see if I can figure it out.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

So whenever there is a problem involving BAT4Max or scripts or anything, most of the time you need to close max completely and restart it. Otherwise idk what to do about an error like that.

[Rott 2,351]

Got a weird one here, my building has these columns on the front with a fancy design:

 

 

And it looked fine in the preview:

 

The problem, when the building shows up in game, the columns have no texture:

 

They have UVW mapping on them so why this is going on is beyond me...

[mattb325 28,880]

On 1/28/2018 at 10:09 AM, Jasoncw said:

I am well familiar with the disappearing textures. It seems to be some sort of memory bug in Gmax, perhaps part of a stripped down capacity do deal with too many textures or with textures of large sizes, for it is as if the texture needs to be reloaded into memory.

The solution that works for me is done just before previewing and rendering and starts by going through each material in the Material List. I have noticed that for me, the rubik's cube blue button for each material in the Material Editor that determines whether a selected material is shown on the model in the viewport gets out of whack. When the button is correctly activated, it looks pressed down and the material is properly shown. Occassionally, the button on its own apparently pops back to the "off" position, even though the material is still displayed on the model in the viewport, suggesting a program incongruity has happened. Theoretically, having the button displaying the material shouldn't affect the render, but for some reason here it does. Go through every material, and push on this button several times until its on/off setting again correctly synchronizes with the material actually being shown on and off in the viewport.

I am not sure, but the Reload button on each material may do the same thing, but I have gotten into the habit of the rubik's cube button, as it was the button most obviously working wrong.

This should be done each time you run previews or renders, but usually immediate subsequent runs in the same session work alright. Doing any following changes to materials, their parameters, or the model may or may not make you go through the button pushing process again. No amount of saving before or after each temporary fix will save that fix. There is probably a rationale to the pattern of which materials start disappearing first, but I haven't figured it out, and temporarily fixing just one problem material alone usually just causes another random material (or even all the other unfixed materials) to disappear instead, so you should do everyone of them all at one time and straight down the list.

@Rott. It is an annoying, but quite random bug in gmax (don't worry, 3dsmax and other modelling programs have their fair share of bugs). I've quoted the relevant fix above to get your maps to show on the final model.

[20huskies 4,693]

For me, this also happens with lighting.  For some reason if I zoom out all the way so that everything, including the LODs, are in the viewport I don’t have a problem anymore. I have no idea why that works but it seems to for me, in case you want a pretty fast way to correct it.  I’d be curious if it works for you, too.

[Rott 2,351]

Thanks for the reply, it turns out it was something different that I overlooked by not applying a map to the column behind the texture face I placed on it...

HOWEVER... when I went over that quoted post I realized I had over 40 textures when I looked in the Material Navigator, which I have never actually looked at before, and many of the textures I wasn't using. So in future I will save before applying a texture just so I don't have all those excess unused materials to avoid the disappearing texture glitch mentioned there. So thanks for this!

[AP 3,587]

Hi everyone,

my model seems to get missshaped while rendering, even though my rendering preview in gmax looks perfectly fine. Has enyone ever come across that and knows how to fix it? Help would be greatly appreciated.

Original Model:

Output: