Cockatoo

It looks great in the thumbnails, but in full screen, I think that level of tilt shift would make you feel sick after a while... a bit like wearing glasses if you don't need them. In some screenshots the roads look nice and smooth, in others not enough interpolation or something. Hope they can sort that. The trees also look really odd, I think they should aim for the same level of quality we saw in CXL there. On the plus side, it looks like they're starting to get the right idea when it comes to the colours i.e. toning it down a bit.

Old ST pictures... fun. Here are some of the ones I have lying around. Yeah, I used to take a screen-cap every time one of my uploads made it to the front page. By coincidence there's some Trixie-artwork in there too. And speaking of rejected artwork... my attempt at making a Trixie banner from 2008:

If by chance there are any here in the United States who do actually own these assault weapons, I'd like to know... what do you actually use them for? Is it for protection, do you feel unsafe in your homes/ communities? Is it for sport, are you a member of a shooting club? Do you use them for hunting? If for any of these reasons you own one, I still fail to see the actual need for this class of weapon. I'm not sure of the specifics, but surely no body needs to kill 10 people, to shoot 10 deer or to fire at 10 clay targets in the blink of an eye. I just can't get my head around that one. I can understand collectors wanting to have them just for the sake of collecting, but then again, as a collector, he wouldn't want to use it, rather just to have it on display. So it'd make sense to have it rendered unusable just from a safety perspective. So then, as with cars, tools, computers, bikes, anything guys like to own... is it just a case of “mine is bigger than yours”? As for the 'underground' argument raised by hym, here's my take on that. Regardless of a countries gun laws, whether they be as free as those in the US or as restricted as in other parts of the world, a percentage of crims will always be able to access them through the underground market. But these aren't exactly the type of crims who hold up petrol (gas) stations for $22.50 and a pack of smokes. They're most likely going to be hardcore gang members. And those types (at least where I live) almost always restrict their violence to themselves, rarely involving civilians or anyone who hasn't given them reason to involve them. In a country with very restrictive gun laws, casual criminals, someone nut-job planning to... or anyone unknown to the underworld for that matter, I believe would find it difficult to access the underground weapons market.

Didn't really feel like I was getting anywhere with the bridge scene so I started a new one. Still lots to do... extra prizes for anyone who can tell me what the buildings in the BG are. The lighting in this scene is incredibly complex and is only going to get more so. VRay gives you the ability to turn geometry into actual lights. This is because the VRay light material (self illuminating material) kinda sucks in comparison. So all those lights inside the buildings are real lights. But still I'm getting some splotchy areas I'll need to fix...

Here in Australia we have some of the most restrictive firearm laws in the world, laws which enjoy the support of both major political parties and about 85% of the general population. Guns are incredibly hard to come by and you need to jump through a lot of hoops to get one. There is no such a thing as a dedicated 'gun store'. Essentially, guns are owned by just four groups: the police, the hardcore crims (gangs), some farmers and a small population of heavily regulated sport shooters/ hunters. Gangs only shoot at police or at other gangs and police only shoot when in danger. The concept of carrying a gun for protection in urban areas is unheard of in the general population. Civilian gun-related deaths are extremely uncommon. We still experience violent crime, but a massacre (via any means, not just a gun) is probably a once in a 50-100 year event. In my opinion, and a lot of you will disagree with me, there is only two differences between Australia and America when it comes to this issue. The first, quite obviously, is gun culture. We're both developed, westernised nations, otherwise culturally very similar. We both experience crime, we both experience mental illness. But in the States, a gun culture exists, a culture that idolises the devices themselves, glorifies their use through the mass media, and, through continual lobbying, keeps them readily available to the general public. And this nut job's mom. In Australia, well she would be called 'mum' for a start, but more importantly, she wouldn’t have a gun ready and for the taking by her mentally ill son. This would be because owning one would be culturally inappropriate but more importantly, completely unnecessary. The second difference is patriotism surrounding a constitution. From what I can gather, most Americans are quite patriotic toward their constitution, and even to an American in support of some degree of gun control, the idea of 'violating the constitution' is a very socially unacceptable idea at any level. In Australia we are, arguably, more open to allowing high level change of this nature. To summarise my thoughts: gun culture + patriotically based reluctance to regulate = high level of accessibility and knowledge of firearms to general population (X) mental illness + X = this. When I step back remove the variables, I can only come to the awnser that guns are the problem. Regulation is the only solution, but I understand this is so much easier said than done in a country like America. Additionally, in response to the use of the word 'freedom' earlier in this thread. I'm glad I have the 'freedom' (yes, it’s a culturally loaded word) to enjoy my life without the presence of devices specifically designed to take it away. I don't enjoy the 'freedom' of being able to take another's life at a whim, which I'm also glad for. And hell, I can still shoot at bits of clay or wild pigs if I really want to... but I don't. edit: sorry if this post doesn't follow the discussion well, these are just my thoughts of the moment.

One of the coolest BAT's I've ever seen... amazing job on this.

"B, but,. but our constitution this, our forefathers that! Guns don't kill people, people kill people!" It's become clear that America really needs to take a step back and correct its archaic gun laws as well as the attitudes that sustain them. Edit: sorry Meg, feel free to move.

My two cents: this is all a little too overly PC, isn't it? If for some reason you're not happy picking male or female... well you can always just opt to not fill it in. It's just a switch on a forum after all... If the real intention here is to simply to raise the issue though (as the title implies), it'd be better to have a thread in off-topic.

Reminds me of the SimCity 2000 box art... but even that was less colourful and garish. Even if I disregard everything else we've heard about the game, the good and the bad, and put aside all my personal biases... I just couldn't bring myself purchase a game that looked like that. Sorry Maxis, really you're lost me on this one...

Interesting. A lot of effort... but a really interesting result. You'll need to do a tutorial to show everybody exactly how it's done.

Yeah... I wouldn't use real lights to do the interiors... at least for the sections that aren't the lobby anyway. They're too hard to control and you'll soon find your problems compounding - I mean can see you're already having problems with leaking light. Whether or not that's an easy fix I can't say... but problems like that are just don't happen when using the alternative. Self-illuminating textures are what most BATers use, IMO they give equal to better results with far less effort and are much easier to manipulate and control. You'll need to shoop together some bright looking stuff and play around with it until you get a nice result for your texture. Here's one I use sometimes, just a starting point though, you'll need to customise to suit your building. Also see if you haven’t already.

This BAT is very SimFox-esque... reminds me a lot of his later stuff. The glass is absolutely perfect as far as I can tell. Maybe some subtle edge shading on the roof and roof equipment... to make it seem a little dirtier? IDK I'm struggling to find things to critique with this, it's really brilliant.

For the bell: Spline > Lathe > Shell > Edit Poly if you need it > Smooth. For the hole in the glass wall, I'd just create the shape (attach inner circle to outer glass shape) and extrude it. The middle part will automatically be 'cut out'. Boolean is unnecessary in this situation. If you want to go the all quads route, do something like what Darn said, although it will take longer.

Never used it before, but I just tried and it works fine on my Win7 SP1 x64 PC with nothing configured out of the norm. No idea why this wouldn't run for you then... couldn't be anything to do with your windows edition could it? Tried reinstalling?

Just texture letters onto your box (or colours or something) that correspond to the four directions.

Excellent. Render the 3 LODs plus a box standing in for the building (same size as the LODs) out of Max as per normal. When you get to this message... stop! But do not close Max, leave it running. Go to your output files directory and start editing the bitmap files. Use the original image with the grey background for this and chop/ resize as appropriate so it fits perfectly onto the boxes. Then do the same with the alphas using the black and white image I've given you. After that, return to Max and complete the export. This should insert everything into your model. If you've done it all correctly, you should have a fully functioning SC4model. If not, you'll have to identify any problems and return to your output files to correct it. Obviously don't start from scratch if this happens (if probably will), copy your output files to another location and work on them separately before repeating the process. If you want to do nightlights, this'll require some more complex work in Photoshop, but if you think you can manage that you should now have the knowledge to do it.

Yeah, I’d make it a simple box. But I would try to make it as snug as possible, just to avoid problems down the track.

Nah... I don't remodel it. I want to see if you can do this, I'm interested now. You shouldn't need to use any tools other than 3dsMax and Photoshop. I've made you an alpha from the original image, which yields the result shown below. The antialiasing isn't perfect, but it's good enough IMO. That's probably one of the most difficult things out of the way. First figure out the LOD size (just guess, preview and check against the image until you get close enough) and then I'll tell you how to do the rest.

No, select your C:\...\My Documents\SimCity 4\ Plugins folder. The same place you install custom content to. If you select the program files plugins folder, you'll run into more problems.

If you can pull it off, I wouldn't have a problem with you uploading them to the STEX for public download. If SimFox doesn't like the idea (and I don't know why he wouldn't) he can drop by and let us know... although somehow I can't see that happening. Aaron: unfortunately, due to the game's projection angles, I don't think that would work. But even if it could, it'd also reduce the quality of the renders through being rendered 'twice'.

Right click 3dsMax on your desktop > run as administrator. Then try to install BAT4Max again.