ak-ak-adak

CycleDogg, Thanks for your reply. The problem for me is, once I changed the anti-alias type to Catmull-Rom, or another type, my model would no longer show up in Lot Editor. So, I don't know what's happening with the model after rendering with the changed anti-alias settings, but it's just not happening for me. It's too bad. Because of the problem I've had with rendering in Max, I decided to shelve the models I've been working on.

kd5rax, I believe you're looking for these? Let me know if you want some indoor pics.

I beleive I found the problem I have with my model not appearing in the lot editor. Two of the four views bmp images in zoom 3 are 63 x 32 in size. They are supposed to be square, aren't they? If so, is this a bug? Here's a pic of 2 of the 4 bmp's: I created a 64 x64 black box in PSP then pasted the bmp into it, making sure to align both tops of the defective 64 x 32 files & the created 64 x 64 box. That didn't work. I believe I need to tinker with the TGI & fsh files too. Any help/advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

CycleDogg, Thank u for your reply. The problem I've encountered when I experimented with the the anti-alias in the raytracer settings tools is that my model no longer appears in the lot editor after rendering. A complete blank. I checked to see if the fsh files had the model views & they did. This is a serious stumper for me @ the moment. I'd appreciate if anyone using 3D Max could post their render settings. Thanks.

I'm having a problem getting a sharper more detailed rendering from 3D Max. If u notice the pics below, the building I'm test rendering is blur & not very detailed, and it has been rendered using 3D MAx's default render settings. I tried tinkering with the render settings but, after rendering, the building simply didn't appear in the Lot Editor. Does anyone know how I could increase the quality/sharpness? Thanks.

aothe, When u import the LODs from gmax, make sure that, when prompted to save Save it. This will ensure that the proper name is @ the beginning of those numbers/letters that make up the file name in the Sim plugin folder in docs & settings. Then go to your simcity4 plugin in docs & settings, hightlight the name, right-click for copy then paste that name in 3D max for rendering.

Ralph, Thanks. As I mentioned, the render was just a test. The model is untextured. That's why it looks the way it does. Now I have to fool around with the lighting, etc. I have a ways to go b4 I get this puppy is on the STEX. Oh, b4 I forget, the LOD export was done in draft mode. I can live with that cause the alternative is not workable, unguaranteed results after rendering in gmax for...ever! Dusk, it's encouraging to have a swift render time. Render experiments & nightliting checks can be made without spending 20 years to life redering in gmax. Notice that the render time is for a 12 x 12 lot! That means that I can begin some of the projects I've been planning, such as shopping centers with their parking lots & not the parking textures that Maxis has made available in the Lot editor, stadiums (US football/baseball). Here's an untextured Neighborhood Wal Mart that I began when the BAT first came out. This is the first render (test) of this 11 X 8 lot. It took about 2 minutes to render, about 8 minutes to export the LODs from gmax. There is a set of architectural/engineering drawings for the new ST Louis Cardinals baseball stadium available on the net. It costs $55 US to purchase, so I might do that too.

FINALLY!! I tested the my Houston arena model, untextured, no lighting, in 3D Max & Gmax successfully. In Gmax, the LOD exporting took about 14 minutes. In 3D Max, the rendering took about 5 minutes. I then made the model into a prop to see if it would turn up in the Lot Editor. It did! The lot ended up being about 12 x 12 sim tiles. The time it took to render a 12 x 12 lot is very encouraging.

Thanks for your time & help Ralphael. I am logged in as me account. It's the only one, other than mail that exists in the user accounts section in control panel. If the plugin model name wasn't correct, I would not have been able to export for rendering in 3D Max. There would have been an error message. I'm going to quit for tonight. If I can't solve the problem this week, I will throw in the towel or the gmax toilet paper. Thanks to everyone for their help.

Ralphael, I know it's all my fault. BOOHOOO!! with a few s without answers. To answer your question, no, but my loggin user name is the same as the path I entered in the proper .ini file. My 3ds models from b4 have also been erased. I statred from scratch. The models I load into 3D Max are located on a backup drive, so they haven't been touched or altered in conjunction with gmax/3D Max during the reformat. What I do is load these models then save them on my OS drive as 3D MAx & 3ds files.

Caliban, I opened the arena & the Wendy's model in the iLive reader & noticed that all of the fsh files are black. In 3dsmax's Outputfiles folder the various output bmp folders show the various pics, they look pretty good. I placed the models in 3D Max the same way I did last night, b4 I reformated my HD. The Wendy's maodel turned out OK last night. Today, same positioning, different output. Raphael, I did wait for the LODs export from gmax. They took 14 minutes. That was the good news. As per instructed: In my 3dsmax.ini file, the is PlugCFG=C:\3dsmax6\gamepacks\BAT In my BATFORMAX.ini, TempPath=C:\3dsmax4\gamepacks\BAT\Temp\ DestPath=C:\3dsmax4\gamepacks\BAT\OutputFiles\ SC4PluginPath=C:\Documents and Settings\me\My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\ DELTREE.EXE is in the bat folder.

Here's an update: First of all, I had to reformat my HD & reinstall the programs. Good news, the Houston arena took 14 minutes to export all the LODs from gmax. Thanks for the info on this thread Vlakhaas. I waited for any changes to take place& they happened. Bad news, Once the arena was rendered in 3D Max, I placed the SC4Model file in the prop section of the Plug-in Manager. Then I opened the Lot editor, sized a lot to 14X14, retrieved the arena prop & placed it on the lot, but it doesn't even show on the lot. It's blank. I even re-did my Wendy's model & placed it in the Lot editor & the same thing happened, a complete blank. See below. Anyone have a solution? Could it be due to the model placement in 3D Max? Thanks guys.

Rapahel, The arena is almost an exact size as the actual arena in Houston, since I used actual arch drawings as reference. Oh well. Caliban, I even tried exporting in draft mode & it still froze @ 13% & it showed a not responding in the Windows Task Manager. Ralphy, I'll give it try.

Ralphael, Nothing worked. I refited the LODS and exported the 3ds file again. My virtual memory is set @ the following for 1gig RAM : Initial size = 1536, Max size = 3072. What about if I increased my ram to 2 gig? I could either buy another 512mb of 2100 RAM or buy a 2 gig stick, although the former is the cheaper avenue & would increae my ram to 1.5mb. Is the problem with gmax program itself?

Raphael, I tested my Houston arena model. When I imported the LODs in gmax then tried to export, it would freeze @ 13%. That's disapointing. Is there a solution to this freeze @ 13% problem? The LOD cube (or whatever u call the cube that represents the drawings's volume) is rather large. Would further development of the 3D MaxBat towards complete independence from gmax fix this problem for larger models?