Reddonquixote

Hello everyone, You might recall this fictional building BAT from a few years ago... I never expected to release it but after taking on board some of the feedback, I have now: Fixed up the water Fixed the width of the floors Replaced all the trees and plants ... and is now up on the STEX. Still not perfect but I hope you like it https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/32185-rdq-venus-arcology/ Thanks for the nice comments since my last upload. PS. (I see the STEX troll has made a reappearance on the Forums. Hopefully he has learned to play nice now).

There, that's uploaded now, finally Let me know if any issues. Thanks SimCoug & Matt. Luckily I got 2017 up and running normally with BAT4Max with a small tweak to the script and works normally now . Thanks IDS2. Yep, just normal self illumination on the windows. Thanks JWS.. too, too kind, but thanks! Melbourne BATs are actually on hold for a while...

Thanks very much everyone Jason - that's an interesting idea, I never thought of doing that before, I can imagine there's probably lots of cool uses for that trick. Thanks Well, here's some night lights. It was an ordeal though, seems like 3DS Max 2017 isn't compatible with Bat4Max, I somehow managed to fudge the script for day cameras (don't ask me how.. it was pure fluke!), but I couldn't get night cameras to work at all. I ended up taking an old night scene and importing the model in, and that seems to work for the rendering at least. I still need to see if the export works. I fear soon these things will stop being compatible so much that we can't work around them anymore. That will be a sad day. Anyway, here they are:

Thanks for all those comments, they are very helpful. I've actually spent more time on this BAT than originally intended, but seeing as I've spent the time already I may as well try to make it somewhat good. I've darkened the reflections in the granite so they aren't as bright and crisp, and changed the base material so the pattern is more even. I think I've improved the pool tiles so they aren't so repetitive, and while I could probably do a better job of the water itself, that's really as much time as I want to spend on it. I've placed furniture on the balconies, it was looking a bit soulless left bare, and not really much work to be honest, so good suggestion, thanks! Lastly, I did a bit more work on the glass, it was a bit too transparent before. Futsal! Well there you go. Seeing as no one knows what it is I've left the centre as a rectangle, but there are basketball hoops at each end. And good news, the gamma fix worked and I can successfully export BATs now. (Thanks Droric, where ever you are ) Unless any burning objections, I'm going to work on the nightlights, then get back to my own projects

Hi Fantozzi! Yes, thanks for that.. I agree about the dark grey granite. I deliberately made the pattern more visible to accentuate the speckle in the stone, but you're right, I didn't notice it looks a bit repetitive on the highly reflective angle. Speaking of which, I also made the dark granite highly polished as it is in RL, but again, I've overdone it on some angles. I didn't notice the pool tiles either until you mentioned it. Thanks for your feedback, its very helpful I will fix! Oh, btw I'm pretty sure the court is basketball, but I don't really know sports very well.

Hi everyone, its been quite a while since I last logged in, time flies I actually logged in to download Droric's gamma fix off the STEX and thought I'd share something while I'm here - Bastet asked me to finish off a BAT he started, its a residential apartment block from Brazil. If you get a chance let me know what you think. I should have it up on the STEX once I've done the nightlights (and worked out how to export non-albino BATs)

Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to recreate the financial district of NYC, there's something very alluring about the southern tip of the Manhattan skyline, but: 1) Contrary to popular myth, I don't have a sweatshop and there's only one of me 2) The financial district is notoriously difficult to recreate in SC4. Not ruling it out, but I still have a few things I need to finish for Melbourne, not least of which is a WiP list as long as my arm... Toothless Stitch, too late! .. but thanks The Statue of Liberty is now available for download, but seeing as its Easter you will need to go on a Easter Egg hunt... let's just say its somewhere where the trolls can't get at it Thanks everyone for your help and support getting this finished

I agree with you both .. and here it is. (Only the current version though, there was an interesting anecdote on wikipedia about the very early lighting: "When the torch was illuminated on the evening of the statue's dedication, it produced only a faint gleam, barely visible from Manhattan. The United States Lighthouse Board took over the Statue of Liberty in 1887 and pledged to install equipment to enhance the torch's effect; in spite of its efforts, the statue remained virtually invisible at night." Much better Ps... Vlasky, thanks, maybe one day. I'm going back to Melbourne BATs for a little bit - I have something on the verge of release in fact. (Good news for anyone who's had enough of Statues... they aren't exactly the most useful versatile BATs to make )

Vlasky - thanks for your help with the pictures, they were very useful. Hotwheeler -Thanks! Yep, the grungy overlay has been applied to both versions of the model. Cmdp - Thanks but nah, this was my only foray in NYC BATing.. for now anyway Toothless Stitch... Hmmmm... Look, you actually have a lot of valuable things to say. Maybe you just need to work on delivery a bit Well... here's the last update, unless anyone has anything to add.. Its not too late! Please don't make fun of my terraforming skills . Check out that beautiful Maxis water too ...

Ah, great photo Seraf! I wonder how they took that? Hot Air Balloon, or Airship maybe... And yes, much better copper colour, thanks! I had to desaturate it it a lot, but looks much better. She was starting to look like an Oscar Here she is on a grassy mound instead of the terraces. Thoughts? Edit: Ps: Oh yes, it will be an overhanging prop Mushy.

Thanks everyone Seraf.. thanks for those observations. No, its not painful at all... no point doing all that work on the statue and then not adding circles to the sides of the doors! Besides, there's a few more things I picked up on the base that needed fixing as well. Looking at the door, why it looked squashed - It seems at some point I moved something around and sunk the inner pedestal into the terrace, but also moved it off-centre. I've fixed that up now. I've increased the height of the parapet on the upper terrace. It was very short for some reason. I also detected from Vlasky's images there's an entrance door at the North-West side of the star-base. Looking then at Bing, I saw there are three doors on the side of the staircase on the first terrace. I've added all these in now. I haven't added those ugly gantry stairs on. I think this will detract from the overall aesthetic. Here's the updated base looking at the North-West side. Seraf, not sure what you mean by 'older version'? I had always thought about making a version in the original copper when she was first built, but I don't think you meant that old? If it requires substantial modeling changes, unlikely, but let me know anyway Anyway.. here's the shiny copper (HD) version, how she would have looked back in 1886 Anybody have any interest in a version like this?

I don't know the mechanics of it well enough to know what's wrong with it, all I can tell is it looks completely unrealistic. In this clip, (~40secs in) the buildings are reflecting tops of a distant city skyline... at ground level. It should be reflecting the street and the buildings opposite, not a distant city skyline, including the sky! Is that the reflection map? I don't know... Is it fixable with a mod?.. I'd be surprised... I'm assuming you can vary the height of the camera so you can look both down on buildings from the sky and up at the buildings from ground level? Both perspectives will have completely different reflections, sky will reflect the ground and the ground will reflect the sky. How can a reflection map ever be versatile enough to accommodate both perspectives, and look realistic? Anyway... lots of very clever people have come up with lots of amazing ways to make SC4 look realistic.. maybe this is fixable too

The specular in game gives some fake reflection (of a pic made of buildings and buildings... and some sky if you look upwards). Pure white gives you only that pic, moving as the camera moves. Going down from 100% white gives you a mix of that specular and the diffuse, but lower than 80 will create artifacts on the borders if the polygons affected are not using an uniform specular level. (Yeah it sounds silly...). Any idea if this is likely to ever be fixable via a mod? This is a bit of a deal breaker for me. I came across this YouTube clip where the reflections are quite prominent as the camera flies through the scene... doesn't look good at all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rDVu07VXl0