JP Schriefer's BATs

[JP Schriefer]

Vizoria: thanks to Matias, and I love w2w buildings

praiodan: thank you! Those are very nice as well

kbieniu7 thank you

reddonquixote: thank you! They are SD - at least for now. I've some ideas to the roof I intend to try next time I deal with the models to see if it works. It's great to see you around again

Well, this one is not new, I started doing it almost 1 year ago, but I was frustrated after the first previews and I realize that it was the most bizarre preview I had ever done. I don't know if it's because the building doesn't have many colourations, or because of its staggering, it does not look good for the game for me. However today I saw a photo from Central Park where this building appeared and I was excited again. Maybe if I add a lot of plants on the balconies it will cause a certain contrast and it will look good.

The Hampshire House

[praiodan]

Model-wise this is very well done so far and to me it already will be a classic addition to the NYC tileset  Maybe you could add further visual interest and contrast with lanterns on the balconies' walls or add some darker and/or brownish spots to the copper roof texture (especially around the chimneys), a bit like I did it with my Oslo Slottet. From the few details visible on Google Earth I'd also suggest ventilation on the small top patios and there also seems to be a "column" of air conditioning units on the right back face of the building.



What's with the blind sides? Will you leave them so it will be purely w2w useable (as it also stands in RL)?

[reddonquixote]

I'd like to know how you have configured your render settings to make the renders so crisp like that. Is it slow?

I'm gradually tweaking mine, trying to find the right balance of crispness without slowing down too much. I've just upgraded to 2017 version but finding the native settings a bit grainy. If you can share yours that would be great 

The Hampshire House is looking good 

Ps. I'm still around.. working on something quietly in the background. Hopefully ready to share something soon...

[Vizoria]

Keep on going with these NYC W2W buildings: corner and orthogonal. They look great!

[JP Schriefer]

praiodan: thank you! Yeah I plan to do what you said, I think the only way to make this building less weird on SC4 angles is to add lots of details, so there a lot of work to this one yet. About the blind sides, my first intention is to do it like in RL, but maybe I can add some windows there as well in case people doesn't like to use it only as W2W. 

reddonquixote: thank you! 
Yay it's great to know you have something to us. Of course I wasn't thinking you left us forever but you know, when someone doesn't appear for a while I'm always like 'oh my God I hope they will be back' D:
As far as I know 3ds Max and BAT4Max aren't completely compatible since the 2014 version. You have to set some configurations manually every time you start a new BAT. To 'fix' mine in 2015 version the only thing I have to do is go to the Render Setup, and in the Renderer tab I change the Sampling Mod from Unified/Raytraced to Classic/Raytraced. Then in the Global Illumination tab I change it from Skylight Illumination from IBL to Skylight Illumination from Final Gather (FG).
Those two changes are enough to my renders be with a good quality and it doesn't take too long. These from the Hampshire house were like 3,5 min each.
The thing is I don't know if 2016 and 2017 versions have other problems to be fixed.
Also, in the newer versions, you'll notice a whitish/greyish line around the buildings after export it due to the background colour. To disguise this problem I change the ground colour value to 0,029 and it usually works.
I'm not able to do pics from the configs at the moment, but if you wish I can do it later.

Vizoria: thank you, Vizoria! 

[praiodan]

Also, in the new versions the after the export you'll notice a whitish/greyish line around the buildings due to the background colour. To disguise this problem I change the ground colour value to 0,029.

In ran into this problem as well when I picked up the 2014 version for rendering the Staatsbibliothek and the Geschossbau (attempted the latter also with Max9, since it's the original version I created the model with) and it happened no matter which rendering options or program version or BAT script I chose. I then decided to manually edit the FSH's alpha channels of the rendered .SC4Model which back then seemed to be the lesser evil to fight for me.  But thanks for the idea with the ground colour, this indeed might do the trick and is something I haven't tried yet, since it in fact seems to be the BAT scripts having their problems of creating sharper alpha channels along the model edges and therefore the alpha channels get fuzzy and ground colour lines around the rendered model will be visible. At least under certain circumstances I wasn't able to further investigate yet.

[Shark7]

I am really liking The Hampshire House.  Looking forward to the release.   

[reddonquixote]

in the Renderer tab I change the Sampling Mod from Unified/Raytraced to Classic/Raytraced. Then in the Global Illumination tab I change it from Skylight Illumination from IBL to Skylight Illumination from Final Gather (FG).

Works magnificently.. thanks so much for that! These changes don't increase the render time at all either. I wasn't even looking at these settings so thanks heaps for the tips 

I haven't tried exporting anything yet so will be interesting to see how it goes 

[c.p.]

The Hampshire House renderings look great to me, so far. Maybe adding a little grime like praiodan said and some plants, etc on the balconies would improve it.

Also, in the newer versions, you'll notice a whitish/greyish line around the buildings after export it due to the background colour. To disguise this problem I change the ground colour value to 0,029 and it usually works.

In ran into this problem as well when I picked up the 2014 version for rendering the Staatsbibliothek and the Geschossbau (attempted the latter also with Max9, since it's the original version I created the model with) and it happened no matter which rendering options or program version or BAT script I chose. I then decided to manually edit the FSH's alpha channels of the rendered .SC4Model which back then seemed to be the lesser evil to fight for me.  But thanks for the idea with the ground colour, this indeed might do the trick and is something I haven't tried yet, since it in fact seems to be the BAT scripts having their problems of creating sharper alpha channels along the model edges and therefore the alpha channels get fuzzy and ground colour lines around the rendered model will be visible. At least under certain circumstances I wasn't able to further investigate yet.

My very old version of 3dsmax has an option Customize->Preference Settings->Rendering->Don't Anitalias against background.  If checked, this eliminates the problem of the background color appearing at the edges of the building, so you don't have to do any work messing with the alpha settings after rendering.  I don't know if newer versions still have this option available, but if so, it might be something worth trying.

[praiodan]

My very old version of 3dsmax has an option Customize->Preference Settings->Rendering->Don't Anitalias against background.  If checked, this eliminates the problem of the background color appearing at the edges of the building, so you don't have to do any work messing with the alpha settings after rendering.  I don't know if newer versions still have this option available, but if so, it might be something worth trying.

I just had a look and at least up to the 2014 version this check box is still available as you suggested. I will try working with that for future works. 

(Sorry Schriefer for hijacking your thread a little.  )

[JP Schriefer]

praiodan: it's ok, don't worry about that, it's an important discussion to the community improve BATs. I checked here as well, looks like all the newer versions still have this option.

Shark7: thank you very much

reddonquixote: it's great to know, now I want 15 new BATs from you tomorrow! Nah just kidding 
I believe Jasoncw was the first one to notice this problem and gave me this awesome settings, so all credits go to him.

c.p.: this is awesome! I didn't test it yet, but I'm really excited about this suggestion from you, I'll test it as soon as possible. Thank you very much!!
Oh and like I said above, this option is still available to the newer versions.

[noahclem]

Really cool projects    Hampshire House looks great; reminds me a bit of some towers in Milwaukee and Detroit with the roof. W2W smaller ones look very nice as well--and HD would be great if you're considering it 

[JP Schriefer]

noahclem: thank you very much! Actually when I started to look for a building way ago, I was in the doubt between doing the Hampshire House or the Chicago Board of Trade Building, but I end up choosing the first one because the one from Chicago has a very weird annex '-'
Regarding to the Santiago buildings, I'll think about do it as HD. The only "problem" with this is that I'm lazy to be rendering so many buildings, after all they will also be diagonal. It means that I'll have to render the buildings 144 times to this pack (12 day versions + 12 MaxisNite + 12 DarkNite, the same with diagonal, the same with HD and diagonal HD). Oh my God that's the first time I think about it, I'm depressed now

The three commercial buildings from Cidade Jardim Corporate Center are now on STEx. Remembering that Simmer2 will still release a lot with the three buildings based on the real life one with some of his custom content. What I can say at the moment is that it's getting wonderful 

I'm happy with these buildings because they made me break 2 records. I'm now the BATter who made the most Brazillian buildings (13), surpassing Suico (11) - may he be resting in peace. The other is a personal record of most uploads in a year. In 2014 I uploaded two files, in 2015 five, in 2016 seven and we are in april 2017 and I released eight 

Here you go to the new files:

Park Tower: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3512

Capital Building: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3513

Continental Tower: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3514

[matias93]

Regarding to the Santiago buildings, I'll think about do it as HD. The only "problem" with this is that I'm lazy to be rendering so many buildings, after all they will also be diagonal. It means that I'll have to render the buildings 144 times to this pack (12 day versions + 12 MaxisNite + 12 DarkNite, the same with diagonal, the same with HD and diagonal HD). Oh my God that's the first time I think about it, I'm depressed now

Wow, that really sounds overkill  . When I proposed the idea of diagonal buildings, it was thinking on only two or three models, so it sounded much less daunting... Maybe you can reduce the rendering toll by not doing the SD version; yes, that would disminish the rendering time less than discarding the HD, but is the most redundant part of the process...

[Edvarz]

Already rated and downloaded the three buildings, it was a nice surprise to come home after work and see them pop up in the STEX and LEX. And congratulations on being the #1 brazilian BATer! Keep it up! 

I hadn't seen the Santiago buildings, absolutely love them and support the modular approach, they could be made into functional rewards to form an all-in-one civic complex: bureau of bureaucracy, courthouse, etcetera. I assume they are government buildings IRL? Maybe Matias could tell us better. If you'd like, I offer my modding services for it

[reddonquixote]

Nice work JP 

You want me to make 15 new BATs and you only make 3??  Double standard I think 

Must be Christmas already 

[matias93]

Already rated and downloaded the three buildings, it was a nice surprise to come home after work and see them pop up in the STEX and LEX. And congratulations on being the #1 brazilian BATer! Keep it up! 

I hadn't seen the Santiago buildings, absolutely love them and support the modular approach, they could be made into functional rewards to form an all-in-one civic complex: bureau of bureaucracy, courthouse, etcetera. I assume they are government buildings IRL? Maybe Matias could tell us better. If you'd like, I offer my modding services for it

Clockwise from the western entrance of the Alameda:

   
• Social Prevision Service
• Ministry of Agriculture
• General treasury of the republic
• General comptroller of the republic
• Various offices of the following ministries: interior, social development, general secretariat of the presidency, general secretariat of government.
• Foreigner's office
• Ministry of Hacienda (didn't find a translation, is the main economic government office) (not modelled)
• Ministry of Foreign relations (not modelled) (former Hotel Carrera)
• Headquarters of La Nación, State newspaper (not modelled)
• National Directorate of Work (not modelled)
• Several private offices (not modelled)
• National Health Fund (not modelled)
• Central Bank (not modelled)
• State Railway Company
• Internal Revenue Service
• Ministry of Justice (not modelled)
• Quartermaster of the Metropolitan Region (not modelled)
• Ministry of Public Works
• Antonio Varas Theatre
• Headquarters of the State Bank (partially modelled)
• Buildings of the National Defense (the both big ones with the street passing)

As you can see, we don't live on a centralised country. But to mention that the farthest ministry is 5 blocks away.

[Vizoria]

Brilliant stuff!

[JP Schriefer]

matias93: I think it will worth in the end

Edvarz: thank you very much! Your modding services are very welcome

reddonquixote: thank you! You are doing more than 15 D:

Vizzoria: thank you!

I'm doing an old train station from my city. It was demolished in 1921 so I think it would be nice to reconstruct it to SC4.
I'll export the model in HD and SD. The modelling part is almost done now - I'm studying how the windows really looked - and I think this building is very fun to do. BTW there's also a little European station on the JP's infinite projects backstage

[Krasner]

Oh, great ! The central clocktower curiously reminds me this famous neo-gothic belgian castle : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_Miranda

Which is sadly, about to be destroyed (or maybe, only dismounted, so it could be re-build somewhere else)