jdreece

Windows 7 Professional (SP1) Intel Core i7 @ 3.4GHz RAM @ 16GB 64-bit OS AMD Radeon HD 7770 Just loaded SC4 Deluxe on the system and the screen flickers during start-up, at the region map, and in city. Any thoughts? I already tried to go through the imagecfg process with no luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated - I have searched the threads so excuse me if I missed a post on this!!! Jason

BMA Tower Condominium Shell - 19 stories After the better part of two weeks now, I find myself having grasped enough information to be dangerous to the BAT community.....I have embarked on my second BAT turning a blind eye to those early days of BAT number 1 fraught with error & enlightenment. I will be working on the roof a bit more but wanted to post a thumb for comment. Yes the building is white (Google BMA Tower Kansas City) so I may need to adjust the "pink" tone a bit. Glass will be black - working on a reflective black glass. This will fit a 2x3 lot (might go 3x3 to include a plaza?) But alas - I am off to the races with what I hope to be the first of many.

OK - so the last thing I am doing is running a few quick test renders in SketchUp with some monochrome materials before exporting the model for work in 3ds. The intent is to see if I have any overlapping geometry before exporting as I can only imagine the hurdle that would cause me since I would be very inefficient in MAX to make any needed changes. I will not export with any materials except the default material when finished. I did mess around in 3ds last night for about 4 hours and found the material application process will be a challenge for me, but alas - should be worth it in the end. I am curious what time it takes to model something like this in 3ds from those that are proficient? Would like to know how it stacks up against the time it takes in SketchUp. I would also like to know how much detail is too much (although I may argue you can never have enough in SketchUp to be honest - every little detail counts). A quick test render in 3ds yields that we pretty much lose alot of detail that is modeled in to the object. Something I can remember for next time once I learn the material mapping process in 3ds. quick question? what would be a normal poly count for a model? I am over 200K and have no idea where this may stack up against a 3ds model of the same building. Just looking for any help out there on this as it may affect how I need to model future BATS. Also - how are people doing window shades.....are they actually modeling in a shade and applying a material OR is there some other way to create the effect in 3ds?

I agree with MTT9 on stretching. Vertical scaling by 133% may give it more presence - a landmark necessity! Nice!

love it. Very Gaudi-ish....have not heard of the architect named in the original post, but I will be looking it up! I absolutely love the facade with the logo wall art stuff! it look swell worn and realistic.

If you are not currently modeling with any specific software and your goal is to produce BATS for SC4 then I would not recommend SketchUp. I am pretty efficient in SU and have used it for years which is a curse in some ways, but I use it because I am an architect and create presentations of my design work. SU works perfect for what I do......so I am trying to learn the ropes along with you for MAX for materials as I have been told (and I inherently already know just hate to admit it...) that MAX is really the only way to go for material application. If I was not a SU junky I would be modeling everything in MAX! learning curve just too great for me to be frank...unless I can start picking things up as I work with it on materials. Keep after it! You will eventually get the hang of things and no doubt do some great stuff. just have to be patient

time to move on to the 2-story base.....I will come back and pick up the remaining roof details at the end before going into MAX for materials. thanks Cool Z - I can model quickly and fairly detailed in SketchUp......the transfer to MAX for materials will be a different story - guaranteed! @madhatter106 - I have quite a few pics as well which was why I figured tackling this one may be a first "back in the saddle" type project - I'm just hoping the materials part goes well!!! this will prob be the last update until everything is finished and ready to export - enjoy

rooftop update and development of top two floors continues - need to fix my floating exhaust vents.....windows next.....good thing I don't know materials in 3ds max yet or i would be wanting to try and get ahead of myself

revived some partial files and saved a bit of time.....update on the penthouse level. The main floor template is about complete as well which will be about a 10 minute walk in the park to copy down to the base level. will try to wrap up the model this weekend. Need to dig through some tutorials on materials in 3ds Max as well - fortunately i have a fairly large library of materials from Dosch Design that should be able to start with and hopefully go from there. So far the tests from SketchUp to 3ds Max have gone flawlessly. The model is based on the Union Carbide Building in Kansas City. An old office building converted to condos in the late 2000's and still under construction. Makes for quite a bit of roof top stuff to include.

never tried that - will give it a shot - Thx!

the moment you realize your file is nowhere to be found on your computer.....after 12 hours of modeling.......

lol - welcome back! and I thought I was gone a long time....ok I was too I think the glass looks good as well. throw a fire hydrant or something on the sidewalk for it to reflect or a manhole cover or a newspaper stand/box.....

back at it - I hate that I let this fall off my plate for WAY too long, but is what it is. Still a SketchUp junkie but downloaded 3dMax, so we'll see if I can blend the programs better than last time. Going to model in SketchUp but transfer over into Max for materials hopefully.....here's my test project - a 12 story art deco - here's the start on the penthouse floor...

awesome work as usual! hang in there!

Question Bipin? Have you found a convenient way to set up your SketchUp File so that when you export/import surfaces from SketchUp are independent meshes? Is it best to group items or build components that are the same material OR just model everything as an independent surface? I have been finding that sometimes BAT4MAX crashes when i try to import a model from SketchUP - I believe it has to do with how groups or components are set up but have not finalized the theory yet. I model everything as groups and components to help with layering when I build models - kind of a habit for modeling efficiency. Maybe just explode everything before I export? Would love a tutorial on materials. I see you go to 3DMax for materials but what about using just GMAX with the BAT4MAX tool? just curious. Maybe I just need to buckle down and download the 3DMAX student version...... Thanks!

no I'm not sure but until I get all the freaking options figured out and how everything works (lol), SU works for me at the moment.....I understand the difference, but there is a learning curve to get through and these first few projects are an attempt to figure the parts and pieces out. Max just has too many buttons......

Yes - currently working on the New York Life building in downtown Kansas City, MO. (although that one will be a corner lot) The latest BAT post was a discovery in working with reflections. I have struggled to get them being new to 3dmax, but I have spent a little time with a few tutorials to get a little further along. Part of my hurdle has been understanding the transition between SketchUp and max - now that I have a fairly good grasp on it, I hope to start kicking out a few ideas and see which ones may merit development for an upload to STEX. I will be texturing everything in SU with the exception of glass - that will happen in 3dmax. I will still need to figure out the Lot editor......but that's for another day.

project number two........finally I am having some progress on getting black glass reflections! any suggestions for how to top this out?

ready for plaza develoment.......glass is still a work in progress, but I will get there! Can't seem to pull off the black with a reflection.......tutorial illudes me

full tower view.......

For SketchUp users interested in how materials transfer to 3dmax. Screen shot shows materials as they appear in both SU and 3dmax. Note that what you see is fairly close to what you get. Disclaimer - I am using SU 8 Pro and 3dmax 2013 (trial version - working on the student version....) Process: SketchUp 1. Build model as a series of groups that you will apply different materials to. In this example I left everything on Layer 0. 2. Apply materials to model. Modify as needed for texture to be mapped correctly. 3. Save model as SU file. No need to export to .3ds file. 3dmax 1. Import "non-native file format" - go find your SU model. 2. When dialogue box opens - select "Skip Hidden Objects and Front/Back Materials as double sided" only (thank you Bipin for this!) 3. Your SU model will open with materials essentially glued to the model. 4. 3dmax will import your model in the same groups you created it with. It appears it tags them in the order you create them so keeping a log will be helpful if you choose to make further material modifications in 3dmax. 5. Set up your Rig for Day and preview away. I am still digging away at this as a newb on the BAT front and I certainly look forward to working on modeling a building to upload to STEX, but I want to make sure I understand the process as best I can before I go that far. I think Sketch Up can be used effectively if we can understand what happens between the two programs better. I am still at a loss on the previous post - probably how my model is set up in SU and not a max issue at all. I wanted to post and let SU users know that you do NOT need a pro copy to export as a .3ds file if you are using 3dmax 2013 (not sure on earlier versions). Thanks to everyone who has taken time to msg me back or reply in this thread as there have been quite a few who have been very helpful in getting me this far in a little over a week. Probably time for me to start my own BAT thread and stop posting updates here so that this thread stays reserved for the more technical stuff.

ok - switched over to 3dmax.....ugghhh - can anyone shed light on how to resolve this triangulation mess? none of it shows up in the model. Is there an easy fix for this? Any help would be appreciated - I tried scouring the threads to see if anyone else has had the issue, but to be honest after 2 hours of searching....i'm kind of at a loss. I find it odd that some textures like the parapet cap are fine, but the brick is all over the place screwed up.

A wee bit more progress. I have searched just about every thread I can find on the "shadows" issue and it appears that there is no way to control the render output in Gmax (someone please correct me if I am wrong!!!), so that being said, it appears this is a significant hurdle for SU users trying to go straight to Gmax. Looks like I will need to export for use by 3dmax first and then bring into Gmax. I guess the question I have is just how much more definition can I realistically expect, and is this more of an issue of working between the two programs understanding the limits of Gmax and the final in-game views? I guess I don't see the model/BAT as too cartoonish, but will defer to those who wish to post comments about it. I have enjoyed trying to resolve the issues between SU and Gmax, but reality presents itself here......is it worth progressing with a few midrise structures for use by others? Thoughts welcome!

I changed the Shadow Settings in light lister global settings to raytraced. I am no expert on what looks "normal" for in-game mode obviously, but if you wouldn't mind checking the updated image to say better/worse I will continue to tweak from there. You guys have a much better eye on these details than I have being new to the BAT scene. on the lot size - the plan is a lower building area to the right that will fill out the lot - just have not modeled part 2 yet.

small SU BAT update - spent some time focusing on textures for the small bldg originally posted. base is stone and mid is brick. reworked the glass - in SU I am having to abandon my material editor that I would typically use for glass and objects that would normally have reflections - the materials do not transfer to Gmax AND it's a serious pain to try and modify in Gmax after importing due to how SU treats faces as triangles during exporting, so I will resort to the old fashion technique of using images to achieve the reflection look......this is a bldg for a w2w 1x2 lot. critique away!!! Update - image 1 redone to try an resolve shadows issue......I would say better, but still not capturing as much detail depth as I had hoped......modify - render - modify - render - modify - render - modify - render. The cycle has become obsessive - lol!