Mass Effect:The Milky Way BAT Project | Satellite Dish

[Huston 5,798]

 

Hey everyone, I've recently decided to take up BATing, focusing mostly on creating BATs that are more futuristic in design and Science Fiction themed. As for this moment, I'm also basing the BATs more on the game Mass Effect, taking structures developed in the game to use in my City Journal to replicate game locations, and hopefully, when developed could be released on the STEX for others to use.

 

Firstly, I'm going to begin BATing buildings from the Mass Effect game locale of Illium's Nos Astra. I found the buildings in this city interestingly beautiful and intriuging.

 

 

 

I'd appreciate it greatly if some professional BATers, and anyone else could give me some personal opinions and tips on BATing. Anything suggested will help me greatly!

 

________________________________________________________________________________

 

This will be the official thread for my ME:TMW BAT project and will release updates I make on BATs that I'm developing.

Criticisms, tips and anything else in-between would be much appreciated as I'm totally new and an amateur. But I can learn pretty quickly at these kind of things, so hopefully I can add to the lacking list of futuristic BATs!

 

________________________________________________________________________________

 

-- Links --

COMPLETED AND RELEASED BATs & Lots - AVAILABLE ON THE STEX and SC4D's LEX

-----------------------------------------------

 

[Susaji 523]

Nice Start!

[dubaidude303 1,119]

Sweet!!

[KonstantinII 1,106]

Yes! Mwahaha! I am actually new to BATing too and I like future technology so we have some things in common. Maybe we should BAT futuristic stuff together and share ideas like a collaboration. I won't be able to make my own BAT until probably in a week or two because I'm so busy now. Could you suggest what tools do you need for BATing? Yes I know you kneed gmax and lot editor but where do I get those and how do I use them?

[libellibicus 396]

Check out the Omnibus.  There you will find all you need to know about BATting, tutorials, advice, ideas etc.

[Huston 5,798]

 

 

This is a sample structure, sort of a draft of what some buildings I'll BAT will look like. This is, as stated once, an inspiration of the buildings used in Mass Effect 2's Nos Astra, Illium. I've started out quite simple in design, but I'll add some detail to it further in its development. Keep in mind, this still a draft and I'm still wondering if this is worthy to persue.

 

I used Google Sketcup Pro 8.0 to design this, and took me a little over an hour to draft the basic structure of the top portion of the building, being the tower. I'm also wondering if texturing the building on the GMAX BAT program would work on Google Sketchup Pro imports. If it is possible, I'd need some guidance and clarifcation on it. If not, then I'm probably taking a step back in making a higher quality BAT in terms of the quality and clarity of the BAT's textures. Would using Google Sketchup Pro to texture the BAT affect the quality of the textures or not? And should I persue using Google Sketchup for future BATs or use the BAT tool primarily instead?

 

Nightlighting: Can it be done on the GMAX BAT tool with Google Sketchup imports?

 

And any opinions regarding the building would be appreciated. But this is only a draft, so there's not much to show other than the basic build of the tower Gotta lotta questions to ask, and some answers would be awesome to have!

 

Btw the quality of the render might not be so great cause I miniaturized the tower in Google Sketchup to allow the GMAX BAT to render it quicker since I'm only showing the basic structure

[felano 90]

and yeah i will totally support you! i guess its a start to combine our CJ storyline n setting with similiar architecture style! 

[Bipin 3,402]

Always happy to see another futuristic BATer and another one who uses Sketchup to join the scene. You get double points in my books!

[darn42 1,268]

I'd suggest getting 3ds max like Bipin has, especially since you are doing futuristic architecture. The material and rendering solutions in gmax are very very limited, especially compared to max. You won't be able to do any sort of reflections or realistic transparencies without it, and those are among what make futuristic stuff convincing.

 

If you are still a student, and possibly even if you aren't, you can get a student copy of 3ds max 2013 and soon 2014 for free. Just see the sticky.

[dubaidude303 1,119]

Can't wait for all your projects!! I love futuristic buildings

[shinkansen1 84]

Following topic! Hoping to see plenty of purple neon on some buildings!

[AndisArt 2,066]

Lovely! Always great to see more futuristic stuff!

[Huston 5,798]

I'd suggest getting 3ds max like Bipin has, especially since you are doing futuristic architecture. The material and rendering solutions in gmax are very very limited, especially compared to max. You won't be able to do any sort of reflections or realistic transparencies without it, and those are among what make futuristic stuff convincing.

 

If you are still a student, and possibly even if you aren't, you can get a student copy of 3ds max 2013 and soon 2014 for free. Just see the sticky.

 

I've only managed to be able to get the trial, which was 30 days, barely enought time for me to grasp the basics and begin working on a BAT let alone finishing. :/ I'll probably try to get it a little later, but for now Google Sketchup might just do the trick 'til I can get 3ds Max.

 

 

 

Now I've been playing around with Google Sketchup again and opened up the BAT I'm working on as a first project. I mucked around a little so I didn't have as much done as I would've wanted, but I still wanted to show my progress to make sure I was still doing alright, and any pointers would be great to have. I managed to get the door and set of windows done and I'll probably lighten the window a little cause it's looking a little too dark. The textures are a little bland, but I'll work on it to make sure they look more presentable. The base of the building is also pretty plainly designed but I'm also working on that too, could've probably added some components to it if I focused a little more hehe. With a little photoshopping on the texutres and some luck, I could mimic reflections which can typically be done in better and in high quality through 3ds Max.

 

Really, this is just to see if the design looks good and if the textures left plain are alright, but I guess it's too plain to leave it alone like that.

[dubaidude303 1,119]

That's gonna be one sweet building! Looks great so far! 

[Forthwall 1,118]

If you are a student of a school, which I know you are, you can get the free students edition at : students.autodesk.com

Good luck, and good job!

[KonstantinII 1,106]

Say what program do you use?

[libellibicus 396]

I think he uses Sketchup

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

You should't start with texturing yet. Make sure everything model-related is done! 

[Huston 5,798]

 

PROBLEM!!! D:

 

 

Okay, now I've decided to go for something I've always wanted, but couldn't find. The original "colonial" prefabs from Mass Effect. This here is an image of "Benning" and the prefabs the city contains. They're like elegant futuristic cargo homes

 

Well...

 

I made this model on Google Sketch up with a bunch of fancy fine details on the Prefab. It took me 2-3 hours to do this. But when I came to rendering the BAT for a preview to see how it would look in the game so far...

 

 

The entire front section of the building was transparent!

 

I couldn't figure out why this was happening and was hoping someone could give me a heads up on why this is happening and what I can do to possibly fix it? It could be the walls are too thin for the BAT render to recognize but I'm not sure how that would happen if I made sure they were the same width and thicker if necessary. Just a little distraught at my work not coming out the way I wanted it to

 

Any resolutions or why it could be acting like this?

[Bipin 3,402]

Normally I'd ask if you're using .skp imports or not, but I see you are using GMAX, so that's out of the question. Unfortunately, if you want to use Sketchup models, you have to use 3ds Max. It looks like you imported with a .obj file or similar, which is typically what causes the problems you are seeing. In any case, here's a video for what to do if you ever do get 3ds Max:

 

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I think he uses Sketchup

Where can I get this program for free without obligation?

[libellibicus 396]

Sketch up is a free software. Just Google it.

[Huston 5,798]

Thanks everyone, and Bipin thanks for the tutorial

 

Luckily, I've stumbled on the reason as to why the walls and floor went transparent in the render. For some reason, there was some kind of identification problem and I had to re-do the walls over, which didn't require much work luckily, and the renders work fine now

 

 

Okay, so I've sorta been busy with school and all, and haven't had much time BATing except for the occassional rush to model a few things. And for those who know that I can't stick to one thing (though the prefab I'm making is still on my list of things to do now that I know what's wrong) but I've quickly worked on something for the last 4 hours. It's kinda supposed to be a secret project which I would release on my City Journal but ehh, what the heck. I'm supposed to also release this on the STEX, but of course, it's not done yet. Modeled from a Mass Effect reference, here is the Priority: Mars mission Research Facility.

 

 

First time I looked at this, it was just too awesome not to make.

 

 

So far it's looking to be similar to the actual one from the game...Hope it turns out well

 

Any thoughts?

 

- Huston

[dubaidude303 1,119]

Cool!!! That's epic

[KonstantinII 1,106]

We always need more stuff for Sim Mars.

[Huston 5,798]

 

Right now, I'm kinda wanting 3DSmax to use to BAT these buildings, only problem is that I messed up the installation...now I can't install the program and...ehhhh.

 

But anyways, I made a little progress, just wanted to show how the Prefab should look like verse the ordeal I had trying to get this thing to work

 

 

So like it says above, I fixed the walls so they actually appeared in the render, added a roof and some roof junk (the prefab won't need a lot of it really). Unfortunately, I've only done one side, so this side is so far complete. I'll need to touch the details on the other sides of the BAT at the same time, somehow make the details on the front more noticable, but that'll probably come down to how I texture it. Again texturing it right is a little bit of an ordeal itself cause I'm using the crappy Sketchup Texturing tool

 

Ahhh 3DSmax would be good right about now

 

 

But I've also had some success with some "quick one day projects" that I devised. I spent no more than about half day to about 16 hours on these BATs. If you read my City Journal, then you've probably seen these in action on SimCity 4. They're unlikely to be released but I'll hopefully try to complete some of them Though as far as complete goes, the building on the bottom right corner is finished, just lacking the nightlighting to complement it. I still need to learn how to add the nightlighting so I'll see what happens to it soon enough.

 

Still noobing through the BAT making process...haha

 

 

Thoughts?

Any suggestions and criticisms are welcome!
 

[Terring 6,473]

Noobing? Those buildings are awesome and can't wait to have them in my collection

[Huston 5,798]

Quick update.....

 

This is what the BAT is supposed to look somewhat like, the reference is of Eden Prime's Prefabs:

 

This is what I managed to create: (missing nightlighting and sc4bat-gmax has such poor render quality )

 

It's modest looking, especially for a first BAT I guess? These are supposed to be stackable in Lot Editor, so you can get a bunch of combinations that are similar to the placement in the actual Mass Effect game

 

 

- Huston

[Terring 6,473]

[Huston 5,798]

 

 

After handing my BAT model to Bipin, he gave my simple but quite modest BAT model from Google Sketchup a significant 'uplift'. It's going to have some added reflections and a HQ render, better than what GMAX could provide. Hopefully you'll be as excited as I am when this is done.

 

A huge thanks to Bipin for helping me with the BAT texturing and nightlighting.

 

Thoughts?