OffshoreTacos

I've found that you don't need Sketchup Pro if you have 3ds Max. In the free version of Sketchup, export to Google Earth format. Change the .kmz extension of the exported file to .zip. Unzip it, and you'll get a .dae file. This file is in the Collada format. 3ds Max can import it using a free plugin.

Thank you, Odainsaker. From the sound of it, I will, more likely than not, have to live with the seams. That's fine by me. I have a new and rather weird problem. I've had great luck with Bat4Max 2.5 so far. I'd even done a successful export of Wallace Distribution. But now, when I do my DAT FSH Insert and look at the file in the Reader, all the S3D files show the LODs as pure white boxes. The FSH files appear fine in the reader; it's just the S3Ds that are wrong. Has anyone seen this before?

I ended up making a landmark with C$ Capacity Satisfied at 100,000. I tested it in an empty region, and here's what happened. The R$ demand skyrocketed, predictably enough. Within a few years, the city's population hit 40,000. But then, R$ demand started a slow decline, while C$ demand went through the roof. I built many more parks and even a minor league stadium, but to no avail. Plopping another of the same landmark had no further effect on R$ demand. So, it seems that R$ demand is being limited by some factor, but I can't figure out what it is. Any ideas? Could it have to do with the Commercial caps at all?

You're right on both counts, Todd. It looks way too shiny in that render, but it's so small in-game that you can't tell. I'm currently working on modding the building so that it creates very high, steady demand for R$. The idea is to have a landmark that will help me quickly build up R$ hi-rise complexes. I'll release it in that form, as well as a CS$. The building is 14m x 14m, so I'm going to try to figure out how to add it to the CS$ 14x14 cohort. I'm having one problem. In-game, the model has unsightly seams at certain zooms and rotations. I know this is a common problem, but I haven't heard of how to fix it. Any thoughts?

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A side project: Once I make a final decision on my custom light rigs, I'll render Wallace Distribution, lot it, and put it up on the STEX.

Well, the Lot Editor doesn't allow for growables beyond a footprint of 6x6 tiles. Try to enter any number, it will revert to 6.quote> Oh, ok. I did encounter that rather strange problem making Stein Logistics. I went into iLive and set the lot size manually (in every place I could find the size, which was several). That took care of it. I hope that's all I needed to do. It works ingame as far as I can tell. Thanks for the compliments, Todd! Your work is great. I'm going to try and learn a thing or two from your textures. And although you say you have trouble with your roof junk, I think yours looks better than mine.

Like TV-VCR said, your BATs look like they come from a highly experienced 3d artist. Were you modeling before you got into BAT? Anyhow, your rooftops look great. I especially like the junk on top of the utility sheds--very detailed and dense. I've been searching high and low lately for photos of hi-rise rooftops. Do you have good reference photos, or do you just wing it? The windows are quite realistic. Are the frames modeled, or is it a texture?

Thanks T Wrecks and Jasoncw! Jason, in autoVino's BAT thread, you said: You might need to get fancy modding done if it's going to be a growable over 6x6.quote> Why is that? Stein Logistics is on a 6x7 lot, and I didn't do anything unusual modding-wise, but it works properly. Do you know what might make something require fancy modding?

I had the exact same problem. It was because I applied the patches in the wrong order. I restored the original file from my CD, then re-ran the patches in the correct order. The patches didn't report any errors that time. The correct order for the patches is listed in the Omnibus tutorial on night lighting for BATs.

Thank you, Andreas and Geronimo. Although I've been using the techniques you describe, I'm looking for a more reliable way to cause low-wealth highrises to grow. Unless I set the middle class tax rate ridiculously high, I get a lot of R$$ condos where I don't want them. Hence my desire for a lot that specifically attracts R$. From what I can gather, park effect increases desirability for all R wealth levels and can't be used selectively. But, I have noticed a property in certain buildings called "demand created," and it appears that it can be tuned for specific wealth levels. I realize that this isn't a local effect, but it still could be useful for my purposes. I'm imagining a ploppable that has a strong park effect and creates astronomical demand for R$. If you plop it amongst undeveloped, high-density residential, two things should happen. The desirability for all R wealth levels in the area should go up, and citywide demand for R$ should go off the charts. Even if there's strong R$$ demand, the much higher R$ demand would cause only R$ high-rises to be built on your undeveloped land. Then, you could mark them all as historical and demolish the modded lot. R$ demand would surely bottom out then, and you'd probably see some abandonement (which might actually be realistic). But at least you'd have permanent R$ high-rises, and they might eventually fill up again as the city grows. What sort of ploppable could have these two properties (park effect and demand created)? If there's no type of building or lot that could have both, then what kind can just have demand created? (After all, it's easy enough to raise desirability just by building parks, schools, hospitals, etc.)

I use a custom rig for night, but I deliberately tuned it to match the Maxis stuff. I'm thinking about increasing the size of the "moon" light, thereby softening the shadows. The Maxis moon shadows are just too strong, in my opinion. But I haven't done it yet because I wanted to play it safe and make it match. Although Wallace Distribution isn't the ideal showcase, raytracers like Vray and MR can do wonders for night lighting. I can't find the thread now, but someone was doing some beautiful neon using the Vray Light Material, which allows you to make light-emitting objects of any shape. As for daytime, I use the default rig, but I add a couple twists. First, GI is turned on, meaning that the light bounces. This obviously brightens the picture, so I have to darken my textures to compensate. Second, I use an invisible ground plane. It doesn't appear in the renderings, but it reflects light for GI purposes. This is the "real" raytracing that one can fake with Photoshop, as described on the Omnibus. The light reflected by the ground plane creates the brightness gradient on walls. I've been mulling over further improvements to the lighting, but I haven't decided on anything yet. I'm pretty conservative about it, because I want my buildings to match. LOD5 is for zoom 5, and would be more detailed than LOD3quote> By that do you mean, the geometry of the LOD itself--i.e. the polygons as drawn by the game, which have the renderings projected onto them--might sometimes be more complex at the higher zoom levels? I realize that the higher zoom levels get a higher-resolution rendering projected onto them. But I didn't know that the LODs were ever anything other than rectangular prisms, or that their geometry could change depending on the zoom level. Is that what you mean?

You can easily make a shell that follows the footprint of the building, and then there will be no problem with props.quote> So LOD shells don't need to be rectangular prisms? That's new to me, and very encouraging. If I'm going to be making my own, rather than just hitting "refit LODs," I'll need to understand them a little better. I understand what LODs are for and how the renderings get mapped onto them. But can anyone tell me why there are three?

You can easily make a shell that follows the footprint of the building, and then there will be no problem with props.quote> So LOD shells don't need to be rectangular prisms? That's new to me, and very encouraging. If I'm going to be making my own, rather than just hitting "refit LODs," I'll need to understand them a little better. I understand what LODs are for and how the renderings get mapped onto them. But can anyone tell me why there are three?

autoVino, this relates to your post on the last page. Sorry for the delayed response. A problem that I do have, which is what I think may be the culprit, is that there are many instances where a glass material touches a solid black material.quote> I think you're right about that. I don't use MR, but often with raytracing, coincident surfaces are treated as special cases. In other words, when two faces are flush against one another, the renderer might treat it entirely differently than if they were separated. If you ever try to render a glass of water, you'll run into these issues. A workaround is to create a tiny gap between the surfaces. This sometimes leads to results that are not physically correct, but it can eliminate some weirdness. The cooling tower is beautiful. I love all the fans. I like the subtlety of the texture on the main body. And the detail inside is really impressive.