seanwen

Sorry everyone, more problems ... All four screens went to hell when I imported one of my .3ds models. I've tried zooming to extents and everything ... Help?

OK I installed everything successfully, I think. Although, during installation, one of the messages in the string read something to the effect of, "your version of 3dsMax is not compatible with night lights." Or it might have read "not compatible with night windows," or something of that nature. Forgive me, I didn't give it much thought when it appeared. Will this cause problems later? And also ... about how tall is a floor-to-floor measurement in SimCity4? I read somewhere on this forum that the height of a sim is about 3 meters tall in the game, which in my perspective, is about twice the height of an average person, which I assumed was somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.6 meters tall. But when I rendered everything and imported it into the game, that last model I made was impossibly gigantic. I'm used to creating models with the standard measurement of 12ft per floor, which comprises of 8ft of clearance and 4ft of crap (mechanical and structural systems) including the floor slab. This translates to about 3.5 or 4 meters per floor, with 2.5 meters of clearance, I'm assuming? Sorry. American. I hate U.S. Imperial also, but what am I suppose to do about it ...

Haha OK. How do I safely remove the older software and all of the related files / registry keys? And can I download BAT4Max here somewhere?

I've put a hold on the New Museum project to work on transforming some of my studio projects into BATs. This is the first of these experiments: I still can't figure out night lighting in this software, so I haven't bothered much to do it. I might just upgrade to 3ds Max after one more project and hopefully skip over some of these issues. This project was meant to be a large community center, but the program is relatively ambiguous, as it wasn't the primary focus for the proposal. Anyways, comments, as always, are appreciated. And if you have any answers related to the previous project, that would be great also

Haha OK then. I remember seeing an option to make something double-sided, but I can't remember where that dialog box was located. Could someone tell me? Thanksssss

Hahah thanks. But in all honesty, I'm not really using Gmax for very much at all. I did all of the modelling for that project in Rhino, then simply imported the 3ds file. It translates almost all of the information that I apply using VRay, so most of the image-mapped textures and materials, mapping size and proportion, and material qualities are preserved. But I will definitely look into upgrading once I've got my bearings straight. To be honest, if I had my way, I would render directly out of Rhino ... Anyways, by some miracle, the custom content lighting seems to work now. I thought I'd repatch the files, just for the hell of it, and voila! The lights on my downloaded content turned on in the game, and the omnilights rendered in the previews ... sort of. Only the skylights work? Seriously? And there's some light leaking out from the corners, if you can tell. I checked my model though, all of my seams are tight. Thanks a lot, everyone!

I have applied both the game updates and the Gmax updates. No lighting works, even with downloaded content. Personally, I don't mind terribly if it doesn't quite work in the game at this point, as I imagine that this might be a compatibility issue with Windows 7. I'm certain that all of the updates were applied successfully. However, (after figuring out the difference between lighting windows using parameters and by installing omni- or target- lights), I find that the omni lights and target lights do not work in the gmax rendering preview. I've applied a myriad of naming conventions and systems to it, from nitelite_omni to niteliteomni to light_omni etc. etc., and nothing seems to work. I felt that this might be more effective, as I was told that only the omni- and target lights will shine through translucent materials. Input is appreciated. And thanks for all your help so far. My project appears like this at this point: I updated some of the texture files and completed work on the mechanical systems in the uppermost box.

This is where I've gotten so far in the project. I believe I've fixed the window problem, but this only seems to work in the preview. When I actually export a rendering and upload it in the Lot Editor, the windows still do not show up. After exporting it to the game, plopping it, and changing the view to nighttime, the windows remain dark. I have enabled the lighting on the windows, and I've realized why some of them do not light in the preview - they are behind the exterior mesh, which the rendering process does not have the capacity to interpret the way I had imagined. Anyways, all of the appropriate omnilights are installed into the interior of the building as well, and I stil see no results in the game, which is odd, since the preview renderings all show lighting, even if there are no omnilights present.

OK I see what you mean. I haven't exported it to the Lot Editor yet, but I'm assuming the rendering takes place in reference to the cartesian origin of the model space, so when I rendered it with the model off center, the model appeared in the Lot Editor off center. Did I assume correctly? I also figured out what was wrong with the windows. The material's opacity was too low, so the windows didn't show up in the daytime view. However, for the evening render, I find that a lit window will not show through an transparent object in front of it. Is there a way to make a non-emitting translucent surface transparent to a lit window behind it? Also, if there a way to turn off shadow casting for a particular object or element? Thanks a lot for your help, harishna.

Forgive me, I don't know what an LOD is. And how do I move the cameras?

Hi everyone. I'm rather new to this BAT stuff. I've played SC4 for a couple years now, but never brought myself to attempt the BAT tools. My first project is sort of a hit-and-miss, some things worked and some things didn't. I chose to try to model the New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC by SANAA. Even as an architecture student, the amount of frustration this process generates seems to make Rhino and Microstation look like a walk in the park. Anyways, enough with the small talk. I have some questions. First off, I work mostly in external programs, but rely heavily on the fact that gmax can import .3ds and .dxf file formats to generate my models. It's just personal opinion, but I find gmax's workflow somewhat unweildy. However, when I import most of my .3ds files, the perspective screen just goes to hell. The three elevations work fine, but the model disappears from the perspective screen, and no amount of zooming in or out or to extents solves the problem. Honestly, this isn't much of a problem, as my models are mostly finished when I import them to gmax. But it would be nice to be able to see the model in perspective when I select the windows to light. Which brings me to the next issue. To simplify the process of lighting the windows, especially for this project, as the windows are covered by a layer of aluminum mesh, I import the windows first, select them all and light them, then import the rest of the model and run the render. When I render the windows independetly, it mostly checks out: But when I import the rest of the model and render, a lot of the windows just disappear from the daytime view, and some holes result in the nighttime view. If anything, it seems as if the windows are entirely absent in the daytime view. Well regardless of this, I decided, as this is my first project, I might as well see this process through to the end. So I export the rendering to the plug-in manager and open it in the Lot Editor as a landmark. Of course, the windows are still failing but now I notice something else: the building doesn't sit on the lot properly. It's way off-center, and as I chose a smaller lot, as this is an urban NYC building, I can't seem to move it around to an ideal position. And of course, the top of the building was chopped off. I imported this into the game, and it appeared exactly like this. To top things off, the lights didn't work when I toggled the game time to evening. Sorry for the long-winded post. If you would like for me to describe to you what did work, I would be glad to. Otherwise, advice, suggestions, solutions, tips, would all be appreciated. As a side note: Windows 7 64-bit ATI Radeon HD 4250 And yes, I am one of the lucky ones. My game works on Windows 7. All updates, including the BAT patch, have been applied. Thank you all.