ianpaschal

Originally posted by: SimFox Scipio:I think MR likes Bump just fine...quote> Oh well, it doesn't matter. I was not achieving the results I was looking for with them, so I tried something else. Originally posted by: SimFox I'm just a bit confused over the normal maps.As far as i understand their value is to "bake in" the geometry information for interaction with lights without getting the mode heavy with actual polygons. It is used mostly in games for that reason. And it is normally made from hi-poly model. Doing so in case of BAT or for that matter any still/fixed imagery is a bit conterprouctive - you can always default to you original Hi Poly and get better results.quote> Of course and I felt for the longest time like my model was sort of a half-ass job because I didn't actually model that stuff, but to be really honest, it was like modeling individual bricks. Somewhere you have to draw the line and I really was not going to spend hours modeling that ornamentation. Originally posted by: SimFox Deriving them from photo is,however a sort of hack, isn't it? If I understand the process correct too many assumptions have to be made about location of light source, isn't it so? But that just a thoughs. For reason mentioned above I, personally never used Normal maps.quote> If you make them from a model (3ds max or Melody) than NO assumptions are made about light since they're generating 3d data from a 3d object. You can see this if you use a normal map on an object in a scene then move around an omni light. The idea is that it still reacts accurately to light. In my case the normal map responds to the sunlight. Generating them from a photo is somewhat cheating however if you think about it, its an impressive technology. If there is enough sunlight in the photo you can actually see how light should behave; exactly what a normal map is designed to do. The normal map I created for my ornaments is by no means an exact replica of the ornamentation in the photo however I think it's close enough that it doesn't matter, at least for SC4.

I don't know. You ask it! It didn't appear and I suspected that was because like the Skylight, mr Sky ignored things like Bump maps and Reflection maps (not reflections from material, just reflection maps). Besides, normal mapping is vastly superior to bump mapping

Jayo: I will, but right now my buildings are real size so I'm slowly working this lot out so it fits the grid. eventually it will be a 4x2: Once I get a few more buildings made this week (I'm on break, whohooo) then I will make like 3 different arrangements that fit that layout so that they're usable. Right now however they have sizes like 5.6 and 5.4 and 3.7 meters wide so I need to combine some to fit a tile properly. I'm also working on a prop back as well though. Includes some things like pedestrian only street markers. They're like little 1 meter poles across the entrance to pedestrian mall tiles so only people can go on them and no cars, as well as terrace cafe props and french fry stands. Simfox: Of course! There's several ways. You can do it within 3ds Max by using render to texture. I cannot remember the exact steps but I figured it out, it wasn't too difficult. You have to do something along with selecting the object, setting an envelope size for what detail to include in the normal maps then rendering the normal maps to fit a low poly version. I also found the niftiest tools from nVidia. Here are the links to them. They're free and legal, so no worries, but the download links were a pain to find on nVidia's site so I'm saving you some trouble: Melody: Download Melody is a something that you can import a high poly model and a low poly model and it will create normal maps for it. This isn't very useful for simcity though. It was useless for me for this project because not having to make a high detail version of that ornamentation was the whole point. I can be very nifty for some game design projects if you're into that though. Photoshop Plugins: Download This is the good stuff. You install this thing and then in photoshop you have your texture and you then click Filter > nVidia Tools > Normal Map Filter and you can generate normal maps out of your texture based on the lighting in the texture. In this way I used the lighting in my photo of the ornamentation to get a normal map of those swirls and things that I used on the model since Mental Ray doesn't like Bump maps. I'm thinking now I will have to go make normal maps of all my brick walls! Hope these help.

Jason: Nailed the sucker with a normal map Simfox: Holy s h i t! That is stunning. Screw the censor, a bat as impressive as that deserves strong language.

Okay, here are my best results without actually modeling everything. I'm not totally happy with it, it doesn't look as thin and ornate as it should, but what do you guys think?

I meet my match in 3ds Max: TIME FOR SURFACE MODELING OMG WEEEEE!!!!

It may be worth giving other people your supposedly sound lot and seeing if it works in their game. Then you can determine if it's your city you're testing with or if it's your lot.

I understand the concept. Mostly what I meant was that wasn't at all the problem. While gamma correction may fix washed out textures, it screwed up my renderings immensely and when I stopped using gamma correction that problem was gone. Furthermore, the washed out textures had nothing to do with the gamma I found. I'm not totally sure what the problem was but I tested (through various experiments and control groups) that gamma was not it. I changed how I did some things and it works well now. Gamma correction is not in the solution however. Thanks for your help though.

Originally posted by: ardecila US Bank Tower, Milwaukee's tallest building? I guess I have an advantage over most forumers, living only 90 miles southwest of Milw. Fun fact - from the top of Chicago Spire, once it is completed, US Bank Tower will be visible (factoring in the earth's curvature). People have done calculations to prove it.quote> Have they thought about atmospheric perspective?

Originally posted by: patriots_1228 the cones are bigger in height then the cars?quote> n o o b they're jumbo sized no but seriously jayo, they look good but they could stand to be about 1/4 the size or something

nog eentje!!! So then I was like, "Shoot me now..." Then he was like, "Why Jan?" And then I was like, "Cause this is gonna be a ***** to model." Observe the forthcoming pain (and death by poly count):

Yeah, at first I thought this was in England but the Sarnia/Detroit was the tip off. By the way, how do you BAT the stretch from Sarnia to Detroit? There's a lake/river in the way

shottssssssss: Nearly done I think

Since that one building I was doing is almost done, at the request of Fledder I'm making another "Dirty Dutch" version of that rowhouse

Check my comment in the BATs in Prog. Thread. The gamma correction is imo a bunch of crap. I'm under the impression that all it does is create problems because I found that it: A. Created additional problems when I tried to save renders B. Did not fix any washed out textures (Like simfox said it would) C. Allowed for perfect renders when not adjusted.

I think you'll notice that zoom 5 is the closest you can zoom in and still have clean images. Zoom 6 is quite pixely. I believe the closest you can zoom in a render is z5 and when you zoom to z6 in game, you're imply looking at z5 close up.

Originally posted by: Somebody maybe you could do a RHW/SAM draggble addition too, if that is even possible for this sort of thing.quote> I'm 90%, maybe 98% sure, that that's not possible. That's the main reason why things like raised avenue in NAM are not draggable, those things must be done with puzzle pieces dropped. The reason things like GLR and SAM work is that they are dragable textures, not models. Dragable models, oh man, that would be quite difficult to program even outside of Simcity, because the geometry would have to change.

Nice work. I would still make the textures EVEN darker, but that's just my style You're are dirty enough imo to look realistic.

Originally posted by: autoVino (gamma correction = off?... that is it looks darker here than it was in the renderer)quote> Very nice render mate. As for the lighting, how did you set up your daylight? It looks more like an overcast day than sunlight. For the gamma, Simfox's gamma correction is, in my opinion, a load of crap. Last night I finally got mr worked out down to the basics and saved a sunlight render preset. As it turns out, gamma correction had absolutely nothing to do with my washed out texture problem and all it did was screw up all my renders and make them too dark when I saved them. If I were you, I'd ditch the gamma correction. I can also give you my mental ray render preset if you want, see if that works. For me now I can render well with mental ray without screwing up my gamma.

Originally posted by: crazyyaya upgrading to Pro is in a couple good hundred dollars.quote> AHAHAHHAHA What a joke. What on earth are they selling for several hundred dollars free things like GMax or Blender can't? (3ds Max's awesomeness excuses its $3500 price tag)

Hey burro, I have a bit of a request if you're interested. They're not soviet, but they're huge and ugly and I would say you're just the man for the job: TEHOMGCRAPPY BIJLERMEER!!! The Bijlermeer used to have quite a reputation as a desolate, crime-ridden high-rise housing project but it's slowly coming back from some new business in the area. In 1995 20,000 crimes were reported from the project. That's quite a lot i think.

the holy crap amazing japanese castle? WEEEEE! I win! You might want to check the corners of the lower walls. There looks like some holes in the texture.

Ohnoz. More done:

I would say the red trim needs to be darker and all the textures could be a bit dirtier. The ground is kind of open and not dirty enough and the roofs look brand new, which they should, but only for the first 5 minutes after being built. You can fix this by using the Color Burn version of the paint brush in Photoshop.

Originally posted by: Simfan34 The building in the pictures? quote> BING BING BING!