ardecila

Okay - another problem. I tried rendering a small thing. It worked perfectly, and outputted all the proper bmps. The problem is, the batch file spits out corrupt FSHs. I figured out that FSHTool had problems with the space in "Program Files", so I edited the batch file to point to a copied version of the Outputfiles directory, copied to C:\dl\Outputfiles. So there are no spaces for FSHTool to mess up on, but it still puts out corrupt FSHs. Any help here? Maybe I should try relocating Max to C:/3dsMax8. It could help greatly, seeing from what SimFox has said earlier. Also, at this point, I could convert all the output BMPs to FSHs with FiSHMan, manually. It would take a very long time, but it would accomplish the goal.

Try lowering the saturation of the glass - that'll go a long way toward realism. Also - I believe the HSRP station was rendered using Max, which supports reflections, falloffs, and other advanced stuff like that.

yea, it does matter... but you can get all the deals (for computers, too!) if you enroll into a community college course.

Hmm.. For windows in Max, I just use the built-in window plugin. You can make double-hung windows, transoms, casements, french, etc. You can also make doors and staircases. Both are incredibly useful plugins for batting. I tried copying the plugin files to the gmax folder (gmax and Max use the same filetype for plugins) but it did not work - gmax rejected them. Sweeping IS a lifesaver - it's like lofting without all the weirdness and time-consumption. sorchin - you can get a perpetual student license of Max for somewhere around $300. Still expensive, but well worth it.

Is there any way to make night previews in Max? I need to do the nightlighting on a building. Also - I might need someone with a working copy to render for me. It is a relatively small building (3x3, maybe 80m tall). I would like to use the sun-sky-ground system if possible. Anybody who can do it, please PM me. I may or may not render it myself - depends if I can get it to work.

There's a typo - you spelled "Anfeild". Sorry - typos are okay on the forums, but not as part of the BAT!!

wolverine: Is the architecture job simply an internship, or a full job? I'd assume the former, but you never know. Have you graduated yet, or are you doing some sort of co-op study? BTW - are you ever on AIM or MSN or something? I'm seriously considering a career in architecture, and I want to have a chat with someone currently in schooling.

GoaSkin - I returned from my vacation, and I am now spending time trying to get the MAXBAT to work so I can render the tunnel.

No, it's not a T. He's simply referring to a X rather than a +. This interchange has not been made yet, sorry. Until then, there is a cloverleaf that you can use.

Alright - despite a dismal-looking few weeks out of NDEX, I have been here, silently modding the next several lots. Every one of them requires specialized modding and so they take lots of time. I apologize for not getting these out sooner, but the modding I've been doing has been difficult, compounded by a load of books that I must read before the coming school year. The end result will be worth it, I assure you. Now, I am going to leave on my annual summer vacation, for 2 weeks and possibly more (but no more than 3 weeks). After I return from this vacation, I expect to do spit-and-polish modding on these big projects. Then I will release them ASAP, so they do not hang over into the school year, when my available time will diminish. Thanks for your understanding. To all NDEX members - if you need me while I am gone, please send a PM to, or IM, Greyveil. I will have access to AIM at several points in my trip, and Greyveil is the only NDEX member I know who uses AIM regularly. He can relay messages to me if it is needed.

wolverine: Did it! I didn't know you were coming here, maybe we could've met up for coffee or something. http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=FAB061567E2F460E It's in .max and .3ds format. The .max only works with versions 7 and 8, so if you can't use it, try the .3ds.

I convert from gmax to 3ds all the time - never had a problem. Two catches, though: 1, you lose texturing, and 2, I leave on Sunday for 3 weeks.

Andreas: Oh, that error. I didn't know what the cause of it was, but I assumed it had something to do with the formatting of the PNG. Thanks for clearing this up. WeirdOne: I cannot control the placement of the subway foundation. Maxis designed the subway foundation to appear on their 1x1 subway station only. It was not designed for larger-sized lots, and there is nothing I can do to change the location. Traffic flow concerns - We were lucky that the tunnels maintained their direction coming out of the lots, but there is nothing I can do to control routing underground. The subway tool is very limited, and many aspects of it are controlled by the game. If I could, I'd reconfigure it so that subway trains could not transfer at 4-way crossings (you'd have to build transfer tracks). This is what happens on the railroad network. But alas, there is no way (that I know of) to control subway rules. What you can do, though, is seperate your directional subway tubes by 1 tile. This way, when you lay out your track, the directional tubes will not intersect. I will fix the fixable bugs (query and Mac property bug) and send the updated files to blahdy to re-up.

Please tell me you don't have Max 8 - it's horrible - plugins don't work, and neither does the MaxBAT. I had to install 7.

Andreas - the double images, I'm not sure. I'm good at figuring out stuff, but I'd only done a custom query once before. The images that Maxis uses for its queries are also doubled like this, so I followed suit. I examined the Maxis UI files and found that they only used one of the two (they used the one whose GID was NOT 0x1abe787d). But, having encountered problems with queries before, I decided to follow Maxis' example. What do you mean when you say that the background image is tiled? Did I make the dimensions larger than I should have? As for the buses and freight trucks going through the tunnel - I'm not sure freight trucks can be converted to subway. Subway carries commuters (who can also take cars) so they are compatible. I do not believe freight trucks can be converted to anything except freight rail, or vice versa. I originally tested the buses, but I had undesirable effects (large numbers of buses would spew from the end). The problem with multifunction lots like this is that, once you convert both bus AND autos to subway, when the people come out of the subway, how do they know whether to take the bus or hop in a car to continue moving? In my testing, they usually preferred buses, so these lots ended up converting most of the cars going into the tunnel into buses on the way out. I'm not sure why, but maybe the buses offered a quicker way from the tunnel boat to the industry. Bus traffic on highways is kind of unrealistic anyway, since buses are very large and they go short distances, making regular stops. However - I've been pondering this for about an hour, and I think it could work - a BRT tunnel boat. BRT is bus rapid transit - that is, dedicated bus lanes, which are seperated from the main road. blahdy could model this, or I could simply use the Marrast models, since those are set up for roads, which are bidirectional. This way, bus traffic could be integrated into people's underground tunnels. EDIT - 1600 posts, w00t!

pquarles - nice to meet another Chicagoan on the boards. One thing you could do is set the "# of Automata/Vehicles" setting to medium or low, and see if that solves the problem. If not, a special mod may be in order, both to replace the track checkers with pickup trucks, or to remove the track checkers altogether.

Yes, Andreas - for some reason, when capacity was set to 20000, sims would not use the tunnels. Don't ask why, I couldn't tell you. As for the highway texture being too light - I like it that way. It eases the transition between the Maxis highways and blahdy's concrete. Now, for some more modeling development. Maybe some of you will recongize this, but it's our newest addition to the Big Dig/Tunnel system. If enough people like this, I may do the Manhattan-side vent for the Holland Tunnel.

Hmm... somehow, I think "Uberdig" is an oxymoron. Maybe not. These lots appear in the Misc. Transit Menu, at Item Order #93.

GoaSkin - if Morifari's model has a rotation, all you have to do is rotate the IIDs of the 20 S3Ds making up the model file. So the IID for the North rotation now points to the East rotation, the East to the South, the South to the West, and the West to the North.

I have DSL and I'm lucky to maintain 36Kbps on downloads. Pages load very fast, though. "Possibilities" - I just meant whether you would support or oppose such a thing. Unfortunately, I can only think of three people who are good at type-21 exemplar-ing, and they're all fantastically busy. I've fiddled with type-21s myself (I made the original Street Tree Modd), but I could never figure out how the patterns worked, so I just stumbled in the dark until I got something that I liked.