Burj Khalifa

[Fantozzi 4,067]

Hm. Frankly spoken, the building itself looks a bit flat, missing some contrast, structure, reflections ... not shure ... or maybe some stronger bumpmap?

On the other hand it looks really that flat from distance:

Just like silver tubes.

But maybe it becomes more vivid with light/colour/reflection changing from bottom to top?

A building that tall maybe needs a darker, blue base and becomes more silver and brighter towards the top? Or even a slight yellow-orange line on the side where sunlight hits it?

There's always a brighter and a darker side.

It maybe to mimic depth of field on such a big building - and the top, high in the air is just a little bit fadeing?

Just a thought.

[EDIT]

But sorry - you've wrote, that's an old model. I'm late. As always. Should change my avatar into 'Charlie Brown'.

[AndisArt 2,066]

Update on the back side:

EDIT:  image updated with better details on the bus and couch area

[AndisArt 2,066]

Overview shot showing the immensity of the height (tower model old). Note: this is perspective view and not ingame angle

 

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Poor in-game perspective, can't handle Burj Khalifa's size

[MushyMushy 3,617]

Looks really good! The only thing I see in the picture with the buses that looks off to me is it looks like the grey bus is modeled at a noticeably larger scale.

Overall this is gonna shape up to be a seriously amazing release!

[AndisArt 2,066]

1 hour ago, MushyMushy said:

Looks really good! The only thing I see in the picture with the buses that looks off to me is it looks like the grey bus is modeled at a noticeably larger scale.

Overall this is gonna shape up to be a seriously amazing release!

Thank you :-) well it's on purpose actually, the dark grey one is a large coach, the other one a regular public transport bus. But maybe if it looks like that it doesnt matter and I should resacle.

But then, when I compare it to the tennis field width... Looks like the grey coach should be the size of the bus and then maybe the bus can be smaller.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

The BAT of the Year, yes or of course?

[jmsepe 2,038]

Holy cow, this is gorgeous! 

[_Michael 2,681]

I'm looking forward to seeing this released!

[Fantozzi 4,067]

37 minutes ago, JP Schriefer said:

The BAT of the Year, yes or of course?

Still not shure. But what about: foundation of the century?

(I just imagine how I have to plan my entire citytile - networks etc. - just to plop this finally in the middle of it all - bamm, there you have it, sims, now take that!)

[airman15 4,111]

This is one of the best projects I have seen in a long time! Seriously, when this gets uploaded, I will use it to replace the Burj Khalifa I am already using (I think that one was published c. 2007?)

But there's something I am very curious about- how heavy will to be in terms of in-game rendering and size in the plugins folder? This level of detail is magnificent, but i'm a little concerned seeing as the laptop i'm using now lags with heavy mods.

Regardless, I am anxiously looking forward to the final release of this diamond!

[AndisArt 2,066]

Just now, Fantozzi said:

Still not shure. But what about: foundation of the century?

(I just imagine how I have to plan my entire citytile - networks etc. - just to plop this finally in the middle of it all - bamm, there you have it, sims, now take that!)

hehe, cool, looking forward to see the BAT in everyone's game!

btw the lot size is 20x21!!! so make some room, sweep sweep...

1 minute ago, airman15 said:

This is one of the best projects I have seen in a long time! Seriously, when this gets uploaded, I will use it to replace the Burj Khalifa I am already using (I think that one was published c. 2007?)

But there's something I am very curious about- how heavy will to be in terms of in-game rendering and size in the plugins folder? This level of detail is magnificent, but i'm a little concerned seeing as the laptop i'm using now lags with heavy mods.

Regardless, I am anxiously looking forward to the final release of this diamond!

thanks for the kind words and your excitement :-) well there is no worry actually about performance at all. See the level of detail in the 3D scene will not affect the game since all will be rendered on flat surfaces and be displayed like that ingame. So the LOD itself will not be that complicated and therefore use up system resources or weigh down on the old game engine. Actually there will be three LODs used, two boxes for the base, and one custom LOD for the tower. The size will be I assume around 18 MB total. That is the only thing that could affect performance, but I dont know how much SC4 is affected by plugin folder size. I assume not much since lots of people have tons of files in their plugins folder.

[rsc204 21,808]

2 hours ago, airman15 said:

But there's something I am very curious about- how heavy will to be in terms of in-game rendering and size in the plugins folder?

I know this was pretty much answered already, but in essence it's the LODs that dictate performance, not the model for the most part. So for example, my little convenience store I released recently has very complex LODs to accommodate the signage, without LOD collisions. Coupled to the fact that as a growable building, it can appear many times in one city. It's highly probable using such a model would be much more resource intensive, than having just a single gigantic and highly detailed model of this size in your city.

[MushyMushy 3,617]

Yeah the main negative impact of lots of plugins is loading times for the game. I think in-game performance is usually not affected by the graphics too much (unless you have a lot of the tile developed or have covered your whole tile in HD trees or something) and is mostly affected by the limits of your CPU clock speed since this game has so many calculations that it eventually bogs down any processor once your city gets big enough.

Also the fact that the file will be ~18MB isn't really a big deal because your loading times would suffer much, much more if your plugins folder had 18,000 1kB files versus a single 18MB file. Indexing lots of small files takes longer, which is why DATpacking is popular.

[airman15 4,111]

I know BATs get simplified when rendered, it's just that as my laptop isn't the most powerful machine out there. On huge lots and overtly detailed tiles panning over becomes a -little- less smooth and it happens even with MMP's and the tree models used for the flora pack installed. If I just stick to simpler cities on small tiles it isn't as big of a deal aside from loading times.

I hope in time I can upgrade to a rig that can handle a more demanding load. 18mb and 21x20 tiles was the answer I was looking for.

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

Absolutely fantastic! This is going to be a truly epic release. I'm so thrilled to see you back and active

 

[AndisArt 2,066]

On 10/28/2016 at 1:52 PM, Belfastsocrates said:

Absolutely fantastic! This is going to be a truly epic release. I'm so thrilled to see you back and active

 

thank you, very kind  

tbh I'm also excited about it just as you are, almost like I wasnt the one making it lol

I mean, the process of creating is fascinating, how it happens

[elavery 1,013]

This will be the greatest BAT ever I imagine, the simple fact that this thread is like 10 years old is amazing in itself.

[Yohane Architects 127]

On 10/18/2007 at 2:13 PM, Omnika said:

I havent been here for a while, and coming back, i'm still inspired by the tremendous work put into this thing... especially with Andisart's work on the base of the tower - it is simply astounding . I've moved on from SC3KU BAP since the last time I posted, and went on to SC3URK-ing... although I dont have fancy softwares like 3dsmax I have been using googlesketchup...

 

And so this is my version of the Burj Dubai for SimCity 3000 Unlimited:

 

 

My version of the base however sucks in comparison to Andisarts so I might work on that too ;D

I'd love to have this in my city.

I can see allot of effort put into this because multi building isn't easy.

If only you uploaded it here.

Your base isn't bad, just add Streetlights.

[Nevermore2797 112]

How's the progress of the Burj Khalifa? It's been like 2 years?

[AndisArt 2,066]

On 4.2.2019 at 3:15 AM, Nevermore2797 said:

How's the progress of the Burj Khalifa? It's been like 2 years?

Frankly not much progress was made during the last year. I had hit some serious issues with the file, some weird stuff with the scaling issues suddenly occuring and messing up renders and viewport and other stuff. While trying to fix this I also lost all the progress I had made on the back side of the base (last update).

So that killed my motivation and it looked like the end of the project for a while because it seemed unfixable. Only recently was I able to fix the issue (fingers crossed it stays that way) and I'm reworking the bus station side.

Not much to show atm. Working on getting rid of the stairs completely atm, they just dont look right.

    

[elavery 1,013]

One day this will be finished and it will be the greatest BAT of all time. 

[AndisArt 2,066]

Ok time for an update:  I reconstructed the backside progress that was lost previously. Actually I like it better the way it looks in the 2nd round now.

In the above pic you can also see the previous state of the round garage plaza in the top area.

I completely reworked this area now (still work in progress; tower is old/placeholder):

 

All in all it's a funny experience to work on the project. The base geometry is from back when I started out learning how to 3D model in 2005, other parts are from when I was starting out to work professionally with 3D and now my workflow is again different after having a few years of professional experience. So the project is kind of a potpouri in terms of quality of modelling, poly count efficency, organization of scene etc. It's definitely not optimal to work like this but it's also interesting to see how my skills have evolved over time.

[Bastet69008 1,102]

2 minutes ago, AndisArt said:

Ok time for an update:  I reconstructed the backside progress that was lost previously. Actually I like it better the way it looks in the 2nd round now.

In the above pic you can also see the previous state of the round garage plaza in the top area.

I completely reworked this area now (still work in progress; tower is old/placeholder):

 

All in all it's a funny experience to work on the project. The base geometry is from back when I started out learning how to 3D model in 2005, other parts are from when I was starting out to work professionally with 3D and now I my workflow is again different after having a few years of professional experience. So the project is kind of a potpouri in terms of quality of modelling, poly count efficency, organization of scene etc. It's definitely not optimal to work like this but it's also interesting to see how my skills have evolved over time.

The entrance to the underground car park is amazing! I wouldn't say no to a separate version for roundabouts and parks

The attention to detail is incredible! Great work!

[elavery 1,013]

Incredible.

[AndisArt 2,066]

9 hours ago, Bastet69008 said:

The entrance to the underground car park is amazing! I wouldn't say no to a separate version for roundabouts and parks

The attention to detail is incredible! Great work!

Thanks! For a roundabout, wouldnt it have to fit a specific road mod like something out of the Network Addon mod? And how do you mean for parks?

[The British Sausage 5,449]

Very, very impressive model work!

The only question is whether there are any Transit Enabled tiles to help smoothly fit this lot into a city...

[AndisArt 2,066]

2 hours ago, The British Sausage said:

Very, very impressive model work!

The only question is whether there are any Transit Enabled tiles to help smoothly fit this lot into a city...

Haha I wish that was the only question left for this project

But to answer your question: there will be around 4 transit-enabled road connections to the lot, these are mainly the side access points. The main traffic  ramp is very broad and can't be connected ingame so up to now the plan has been to have the main ramp overlapping the lot to connect to the road this way. I might change that though, not sure yet. Would help to know if it's possible to transit-enable avenues? Maybe the main ramp could be connected as an avenue. That would still be much less broad than it originally should be, but maybe it looks better this way.

[IL. 1,043]

Amazing work! The amount of details and concentration on that one is super.

Just one question, how much RAM do you have? I have 16 Gb RAM and if I put that many trees and cars the scene will freeze, is there a trick to that or you just have lots of RAM?

[AndisArt 2,066]

2 hours ago, IL. said:

Amazing work! The amount of details and concentration on that one is super.

Just one question, how much RAM do you have? I have 16 Gb RAM and if I put that many trees and cars the scene will freeze, is there a trick to that or you just have lots of RAM?

Thank you

I would say it depends on poly count. I also have 16GB RAM (with an i5-4690 CPU) and dont get freezes with a scene as above, while I do get strong lag when I unhide the complete scene (which is considerably more than in the images above). If your trees are fully modelled and the cars high-poly I think it's difficult to have that many in a scene without lag/freeze. The cars and trees I use are simple geometry and (relatively) low poly. Actually I'm just now in the process of going through the whole scene to optimize all models for better poly count. Since the project is that old and a lot of it stems from a time when I didnt know better a lot of the models can be optimized. All polygons on not visible side can be removed, poly and line iterations reduced etc.

In the process of cleaning up the file I also have to completely replace some of the trees and bushes because they are fully modelled... Like the small brighter green tree in the images, a single tree of those has 5.000 polys, way too much for a scene like that. So I created a replacement that uses only 350 polygons. The overall count of the scene was 18 million, and we are not near the finish line. So rendering was already failing when I didnt hide a significant part of the scene. I'm already down to 13million now and I expect to be able to go down another 5 million with optimization.

Another thing is I run 3dsmax from an SSD drive, maybe that helps too with performance?

And creating instances when copying is good practise, I was told this is good for performance too but I'm not sure if for viewport or only rendering performance.

--- EDIT: Had to correct the poly number I specified for the tree models ---