SimCity 3000 BAT project

[madhatter106 3,903]

7 hours ago, Huston said:

I suppose I could always render two versions when the time comes. Gotta fix my gmax though,  it keeps botching the zoom 4 and 5 renders

Also hopefully, once the roof junk's on it, you won't notice the podium dimension differences too much

I rather like the "podium" being a little wider/longer when this building is translated into gmax.  I gives the opportunity to drop in a couple extra HVAC and roofjunk tidbit details.
The window texturing is great, especially for gmax.

[coolsim1 104]

Just curious if people are actually taking more recommendations for this project?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

14 hours ago, madhatter106 said:

I rather like the "podium" being a little wider/longer when this building is translated into gmax. 

I must confess that I also think the slightly altered shape looks somewhat more natural. I noticed the difference and thought I'd mention it, but it's really fine with me.

[Diego Del Llano 5,206]

[blade2k5 1,523]

56 minutes ago, Diego Del Llano said:

Always look forward to anything new you release.  I have so many of your creations I lost count and this familiar old building will be a great addition to any metropolitan city.  Count me as one of your many fans.  

[Hanson784 165]

Great work Diego! 500 Fifth Avenue is looking fantastic  Can't wait to see it in the game.

[BossDragon 220]

On 4/17/2018 at 10:25 PM, coolsim1 said:

Just curious if people are actually taking more recommendations for this project?

I hope so. The spaceport would be nice:

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Jeez, I had all forgotten it looked like this! I wonder if that would qualify as Googie architecture. At the very least, the space rocket probably will.

[BossDragon 220]

On 5/11/2018 at 6:41 AM, T Wrecks said:

Jeez, I had all forgotten it looked like this! I wonder if that would qualify as Googie architecture. At the very least, the space rocket probably will.

Honestly, I didn’t even know SC3000 HAD a spaceport until I checked.

[leonv93 817]

Big fan of this project.Working on recreation of Palazzo Apartments. Would appreciate some pointers on texturing in 3ds max. 

[edwardjeria 503]

azome, 

2 hours ago, leonv93 said:

Gran admirador de este proyecto. Trabajando en la recreación de Palazzo Apartments. Agradecería algunos consejos sobre texturización en 3ds max. 

AZOME!!!! You do not know how I expected someone to marry those apartments. great job

[Jasoncw 11,840]

On 5/18/2018 at 8:57 AM, leonv93 said:

Big fan of this project.Working on recreation of Palazzo Apartments. Would appreciate some pointers on texturing in 3ds max.

That looks great!!

You can get feedback about it if you post preview renders of your texturing. I can also answer any questions but you'd need to be more specific.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

On 18.5.2018 at 2:57 PM, leonv93 said:

Big fan of this project.Working on recreation of Palazzo Apartments. Would appreciate some pointers on texturing in 3ds max. 

Usually, people's first posts go like "hi, I just registered here, cool community ....", this first post offers some nice variety. 

Serieouy though, impressive first work. What do you need pointers on?

[leonv93 817]

On 5/20/2018 at 12:47 AM, Jasoncw said:

That looks great!!

You can get feedback about it if you post preview renders of your texturing. I can also answer any questions but you'd need to be more specific.

Thanks for the feedback! This project has been on the back burner for some time. I'd like to push it out as my one contribution to a community which I used to use a lot (now I mainly come here to see  the amazing stuff people make) unfortunately I don't have too much time to work on it these days but I'm gonna try and finish this one. Anyhow when you guys texture models do you typically break them up into pieces or attach everything and texture at once. The model is laggy and unfolding the whole thing as a UVW kills my computer. Right now what is slowing me down is how complicated the model is and I think hiding certain pieces tends to speed things up. I use 3ds max 2017 which I think makes texturing more complicated -its sometimes hard to even get the texture to be visible (texturing on gmax was very easy)

Another issue is the model uses the bend modifier - but if I texture the unattached model before using this modifier I think the textures are gonna be warped. Any feedback is greatly appreciated

 

 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I've never uvw unwrapped a BAT in my life. I break the building down into objects based on their material and uvw needs. So for example usually all of the brick on my building will be attached and will have a big uvw box map on it. Earlier on in the process my objects are broken down according to how I model them.

The bend modifier will also bend the object's mapping. So if you make a cylinder for example, make sure it has a uvw map, and then add a bend modifier on top of that, the mapping should follow the bend. If you don't want the mapping the follow the bend, then put it after the bend modifier.

[nycsc4 5,250]

On 5/18/2018 at 7:57 AM, leonv93 said:

Big fan of this project.Working on recreation of Palazzo Apartments. Would appreciate some pointers on texturing in 3ds max. 

Good god, I want this and I want it NOW!  Well done!

[leonv93 817]

With some textures in place. Roof needs improvement as well. Any tips on making transparent windows or reflective windows?

 

[nycsc4 5,250]

8 hours ago, leonv93 said:

With some textures in place. Roof needs improvement as well. Any tips on making transparent windows or reflective windows?

 

I know this is a re-creation thread for SC3000 buildings and while I don't have a lot of experience with that game, I'm assuming this is pretty close to the 3000 in game colors? Either way, to be honest I'm not all that fond of the color scheme.  The building you're working on is a copy of the historic Old Post Office in New York City.  It was unfortunately torn down many, many years ago.  As were many similar buildings in Boston, Cincinnati, and other cities.  However, two of the original architect's (Alfred B. Mullett) similar buildings are still standing.  One is the Old Post Office in St. Louis, Missouri, the other is the Executive Office Building in DC.

I don't know what the rules are for this little project.  If the models need only to be the same design or whether or not the 3000 color scheme is required.  If you're looking for a more realistic look (like what the building would have looked like in NYC originally), I'd start here:

Tried to get a couple images that really showed the roof.

Below are a few images of the real life examples:

St. Louis, Missouri:


New York City (the building you're working on):


And the EEOB in Washington DC (which does have some greenish copper on top):

 

Good luck!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

@leonv93 Do you need help getting BAT4Max set up? It's better to post preview renders than screenshots of the viewports.

@nycsc4 Since this is a SC3K recreation it should have the green roof of the SC3K building (there's a picture of the SC3K building earlier in the thread if you want to see). Anyone is free to recreate any building, even if it was also the inspiration for a Maxis building, but in that case it would just be a normal recreation and not a SC3K recreation. In some cases it would be possible to make separate SC3K and non-SC3K versions.

[mrjader 0]

wow like mơ ước

[leonv93 817]

thanks everyone for the feedback!

I'm not sure what bat4max is

Also any quick guides for creating window transparency/opacity? Cant seem to get opacity working on 3dsmax

[matias93 7,535]

27 minutes ago, leonv93 said:

thanks everyone for the feedback!

I'm not sure what bat4max is

Also any quick guides for creating window transparency/opacity? Cant seem to get opacity working on 3dsmax

It's a plugin for 3DSmax that facilitates the creation of outputs compatible with Simcity 4. You still need the Building Architect Tool (BAT) to get your models into the game. You can find it here:

As BAT4Max has stopped being actively developed, there are some later fixes to make it work with newer versions of 3DSmax; the one not included on the previous link is this one https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=17967.msg522510#msg522510 which is only relevant for 3DSmax 2017.

Sadly, 3DSmax 2018 discarded the Mental Ray rendering engine completely, and BAT4Max depended on it, so that specific version isn't compatible (yet?).

About transparency and glass-like texturing, all that is documented about that is done for Mental Ray. Jason made a handful of tutorials that include glass texturing for night and day, you can check them here:

 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

There's also a "getting started guide" here which has instructions for getting everything installed and set up.

 

[leonv93 817]

On 6/2/2018 at 12:16 PM, Jasoncw said:

 

 

Thank you all! This has been incredibly helpful. Work will continue

 

[MorningMusume 94]

Is there any further information? I can’t wait to build them in my city.

[Photovoltaic Array 97]

How is progress coming along on everything? I'm still excited for the buildings that will come! 

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

@nycsc4 if you're looking for a RL example of weathered copper roofs then I'd suggest looking at Belfast. The likes of Belfast City Hall or the Scottish Provident Building as they have a copper dome and the green colour is subtle and not too 'loud'. 

 

Belfast City Hall

 

[nycsc4 5,250]

7 hours ago, Belfastsocrates said:

@nycsc4 if you're looking for a RL example of weathered copper roofs then I'd suggest looking at Belfast. The likes of Belfast City Hall or the Scottish Provident Building as they have a copper dome and the green colour is subtle and not too 'loud'. 

 

Belfast City Hall

 

That's a neat building, but I'm not looking for anything like that.  I'm not a BATer (at least not a very good one) and am not participating in this project.  I was just pointing out some similar buildings to one someone else is working on.  Unfortunately at the time I didn't realize BATers had to stick with the original 3000 colors, which on the building in question is a rather regrettable choice.

Thanks anyway!

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

Sorry, tagged the wrong person in my

post! 

[nycsc4 5,250]

Hate to bump an old thread, but I was just looking though the Maxis References thread and was curious if there was any behind the scenes work going on here?