Burj Khalifa

[autoVino 26]

Well for the gmax qustion, I think there's a section in the script that protects against huge models.  But this is for ridiculously huge models, but I'm not too sure if it exists.

If there is such a section and it would be removed (and if you used a powerful enough computer) then any sized lod should be possible.  It's zoom five that takes the longest to do, this is where are the important calculations go, the rest of it is cake.

For your second question, a quick and dirty trick would be right click on the object, opbject properties, uncheck cast shadow.

[SimFox 802]

AutoVino: have you seen that part of the script? I mean what part of the script do you suspect of this limiting safeguard?? Because this building is pretty huge as is... To get LODs for tower alone to render I had to do some "creative" modeling and then some dances with a dram around my PC while GMAX would export them. I've noticed that as soone as memory consumption of GMAX goes above about 300MB (I don't remember the exact number anymore) it hangs and export fails with error code 6.

[AndisArt 2,066]

Oh is it that simple... lol. Thanks

Lies there maybe a chance to change gmax? Maybe to increase this 300 MB limit somehow?

Tennis plaza is done, the big plaza in the back is already in the works (this is the LAST part of the base, yippie!)

[mightygoose 92]

ok the latest design for the top...

these are quite large photos so i will link them...

[linkie]

[linkie]

[linkie]

[linkie]

the last one shows you the highly reflective nature of the cladding as well as the bump map solution required for realism. i hope these are enough but i can find some more with a little digging. the current thread is 298 pages long, with 5500+ posts and 747000+ views...

[autoVino 26]

Simfox:  Yeah.

in ModelNames.ms

 fn TextureOutputIDStr texIndex:0 =

 (

  local highSwizzle = 0

  -- awful kludge to be able to handle more than 16 textures per view

  -- sharing the second digit between rot & the high bit of the texture index

  local digit2 = (texIndex as integer)/16

  texIndex = (mod texIndex 16) as integer

  if (digit2 > 3) then

  (

   DoMessage ("This building is huge! It's just not going to work!")

  )

  else

  (

   highSwizzle = digit2 * 4

  )

  

  return guidStr =  (ModelID())           +

        ((zoom-1) as string)        +

        (bit.intAsHex (highSwizzle + (rot-1)))  +

        (bit.intAsHex texIndex)

 )quote>

But there's something that tells me it's a really bad idea to mess with it... I think it's because of id troubles... I mean only 16 for one zoom and rotation, right?

also, this line has a tendancy (or at least on my computer) to cause an error 6.

andisart

As for incrreasing the 300mb limit, I'm not sure.  I think that I remember seeing somewhere in 3ds max that you can set/ghange the memory limit, but that's 3ds max...

[AndisArt 2,066]

@mightygoose: Thanks, I didn't have a high res pic of that render. That will help.

@autovino: I tried to uncheck the "cast shadows" option but it resulted in the map not being rendered at all... Any ideas why that happened?

[shibbard 0]

Well, I just got back into Sim City after a few year hiatus and stumbled across this thread and all I have to say is wow. The Burj Dubai has always been one of my favorite buildings with its sheer elegance but I've never seen a model done so expertly. Needless to say I will be following this thread rather closely until its release.

Keep up the good work.

[shaneo2727 0]

hey i haven't followed this much and i just came to here but i didn't see if there is a download link for this great model (i saw some pics) and if so what page. If not hope it's done soon as this is a great idea

[MayorTim 16]

Originally posted by: shaneo2727 hey i haven't followed this much and i just came to here but i didn't see if there is a download link for this great model (i saw some pics) and if so what page. If not hope it's done soon as this is a great idea

quote>

Andi isn't done with it yet, but when he is, it will be released to the STEX. I doubt he will release the model itself, so just wait for the finished BAT in a few months.

[ligersrock2487 0]

Simply Amazing. Words cant describe it. Should have sent a poet.

andisart, do you think this will be done by Christmas?

[JDRCRASH 53]

^ ^ ^

It may, but as Andisart said, it won't be released till 2009.

This is one of those Models that is so significant, superb and a fairly intricate, you will want it to be nearly perfect.

[ligersrock2487 0]

I thought he meant, that 2009 is when the Burj Dubai will be opened. He said, he wanted to release it (the BAT) before the BD opened.

[steve187 0]

jeeeeeeeeeeeeeah this is really amazing, but skyscraers is realy good too, but i think this would be much better, good luck andisart.

bitte beeil dich !!

[steve187 0]

the thread needs a top

[gamenomad 0]

Where we can have the Millenium tower? Your project is fantastic

[AndisArt 2,066]

@shibbard: Thank you  

@ligersrock2487: Thank you, it might be, might not *smile  Who knows..

I still havn't found a solution for the tennis fence, it has an alpha map applied, it casts a full shadow. When I untick "cast shadow" in the properties, it doesn't render at all. Any ideas?

Update: 

Tennis plaza (done) and back area + back plaza (both in development) 

[MayorTim 16]

From the bottom picture, it doesn't look like the fences cast very much of a shadow at all. Perhaps just leave them be and move on?

Also, I'm worried that the cement textures are a little too clean looking - are those the final textures, or are you going to change them?

[SimRabbit 48]

incredible and very detailed!!

[SimFox 802]

It cast the full shadow cause your lights (the one in the default rig) use shadow maps. As far as I know only ray-traced shadows can see the "open" space in the cut-out mask.

 At any rate it is totally redundant, the shadow of you mesh would be invisible at this zoom anyway, you can ignore it. Actually not only the shadow but the mesh itself. it is way below the resolution at that zoom level. One way to fake it would be to use semi-transparent material and use it partial transparency to indicate that there is something there. Also you can set it to generate "transparent" shadow. This should work in MAX even in then shadow maps are used.

[autoVino 26]

looks great!

Too add to what SimFox said, use the ies light rig (if it works in your version of max) otherwise maybe go into the lighting rig files and change the shadow type to ray traced for the main sun light.  This may make it a tad slower.

Also, if you uncheck the cast shadow option, no shadows are cast, or are you saying that the tennis court net doesn't render at all?

[bixel 1,223]

I did some tennis fences in some of mine - its just a gray tented translucent box (75%) - seems to look good.

[AndisArt 2,066]

Thanks 4 your comments. I don't know what happened but it now works with "cast shadows" turned off, maybe because I turned it into a poly (rectangle with UVW before). Anyway, I also decreased the tiling of the net-texture and here is a zoom 5 shoot. I think that looks fine:

@MayorTim: textures be finalized (if necessary) at rendering stage, depends how it's gonna be rendered

[SimFox 802]

yep, it looks convincing

[JDRCRASH 53]

^ ^ ^

Yesiree, its awesome! ^__^

[MayorTim 16]

Originally posted by: andisart

@MayorTim: textures be finalized (if necessary) at rendering stage, depends how it's gonna be renderedquote>

I think they look excellent for a model - I'm just worried that in the game, they are going to look like just that - a model, and won't fit in with anything else. I'm refering to the dark gray cement.

But if you think its going to look good, I'll roll with it, as you obviously know what your doing.

[Sky Guy 163]

Wow this is very good, I can't wait for it also, this thing is HUGE! Keep up the good work

[ligersrock2487 0]

This is fantastic. I don't think I've seen a BAT this good.  Not even that World Trade Center one. How big will the finished product be? As big as the Safeco Field BAT? 

p.s. I love the 1 Andis Plaza. It would definetly be a hotel I would stay in!

[AndisArt 2,066]

@SkyGyu: Thank you

@ligersrock2487: Thank you. The final lot size is 21 (front) x 20 tiles

[autoVino 26]

aye, you're gonna need a super computer for that... I'm having trouble rendering a 10by10 tile that isn't too tall...

But actually now I'v come to think that the game can work with more than 16 texture slabs per view, If I'm not mistaken it's more like 256 texture slab limit per view, but after 16 it becomes an "awful kludge to be able to handle more than 16 textures per view"... greatly because of meomry limitations in gmax (causing a crash) and id limitations in simcity, but I have been able to make lods that have tons of texture slabs on them, it just took many hours to render the lods themselves.

I wish you luck with this...

[AndisArt 2,066]

Well, it still has to be proven that this will actually make it into the game :-D