Valiko87

Looks similar to a post you'd see on the official site...

I don't imagine that the Grand Traverse Resort would be too hard to BAT, building-wise. It's pretty much 10 stories of glass with a slanted roof. When it warms up a little, I might take the ferry out to Mackinac Island and snap some photos of the Grand Hotel. I think it may be a bit beyond my own personal BAT-ing level, but the photos would help out whomever was willing to tackle to the hotel itself.

I know most of the attention on this thread is dedicated to Detroit (as it should be), but I was wondering if anyone would be interested in some BATs from the northern part of the state? Since I've been living up here for a while, I thought I could take a crack at one of the forts in Mackinaw or on the island (Mackinaw City's about a 20 minute drive from my house), or even just a few of the generic fudge shoppes that spam the small towns up here. So, if anyone thinks there's anything in the north worth BATing, I'm willing to take a crack at it. I've been practicing with the BAT for a while now =)

So, using the overhanging prop method, would one be able to accomplish the following: If, say, I've created a custom Suspension Bridge model...if I were to make it an overhanging prop, with a little screwing around with bridge height and such, could I conceivably plop this massive prop on top of a normal Maxis bridge (ie, something like the level bridge, it obviously wouldn't work for a suspension or cantilevered)? If so, I may have finally found a way to make the Ambassador Bridge workable in-game, at least by appearance...

In answer to your bit about the bridge being 4 tiles long, Jason: The bridge actually isn't 4 long, it's four wide (from cable to cable) at the moment, so it has two center tiles to match the highway, and then the other two for the cables and suspension towers. I have no idea how many tiles long it is at the moment, I need to get around to figuring just how long it needs to be so as to nearest match the length of the actual Ambassador. The somewhat circular layout of some of the streets downtown is going to be hard to do in SC, with its grid-based system...I imagine Circus Park is going to look a bit odd in-game, but I'm sure the minds on this project will be able to figure out how to make it workable. Any idea when the Free Press Building will be on the STEX?

Gotta go with Andreas and T Wrecks here...it looks great, and you should render it. My lust to have it in-game is nearly incontainable. Also, if anyone's interested, I've pretty much got the Ambassador model finished...need to texture it. I wanted to grab direct photos from the bridge, but I don't think I'm going to get a chance to head to the D this month, so I'll have to figure something out. I'm kinda worried that I might have to entirely re-make it...I've been following a couple threads on custom bridges, and it sounds like if you want a custom draggable bridge, you have to render it in 1 x 2 or 1 x 4 sections for every piece of roadway =\

That building is an abomination -.o There are some modern-style buildings I can stand, but that is certainly not one of them...and yes, I think it is entirely possible to still build in the architectural styles of yesterday. Something like the second building you've shown would have looked far better. Nothing on that building contributes any sort of rythm or flow to the design . It's there in parts, but there's always some feature ready to step in and screw up whatever flow it had going. I think Louisville is entirely right about modern architects being scared to build with stone...with the cost of a lot of these new (and usually ugly) buildings, it would be entirely possible to build a stone structure, and it would likely end up looking far better.

The Free Press building is looking really great, Jason. I agree with the majority of the other opinions that the roof discolorating should either be made into much smaller squares or blended better, but your main building looks great, the coloring is especially good. Hopefully you can get back to BATing soon, I'm excited with how close the building looks to release, model-wise.

I'd say a mix between the two would be best, as the real building is a bit lighter than your BAT. You've done a really good job modeling it, though. I was just thinking, I know I don't have the skill to create it, but do you think any of you on the BSP team would be able to BAT the Spirit of Detroit? I'd rather see the skyscrapers first, but the sculpture would definitely be a nice inclusion. Hard to model, however.