Metarvo steps up to BAT

[metarvo]

Battlecat: Thanks for the compliment.    I don't know where Maxis got their powerlines from, but I've never seen any quite like them.

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thank you for the compliment. 

FrankU: I'm glad you like them. 

SimNation: Thanks for the kind words.    Yes, I do plan to include transformers in the set.

Altanore:  Thank you for the compliment.    Actually, these poles are not HD.  The concrete bases have a texture that I found on a free texture site, and the pole structures, isolators, and wires just use plain GMax colors.

DCMetro2834:  Thanks for the compliment. 




I have started on the menu icons.  Some of them are shown in this pic, which also includes a new feature.  Each pole rotation will have at least two wire spans.  For the orthogonal poles shown here, the wire spans will be 64m (4 tiles) and 80m (5 tiles).  The different wire spans are good for road crossings, as a pole and a road can't occupy the same tile.  The diagonal and fractional poles will also have alternate wire spans.

[DCMetro2834]

Very nice menus icons, easy to read!

[Pat]

ooo I like the icons there Metarvo and the poles too!!!

[canyonjumper]

Looking great, Metarvo! The icons are looking very nice!

                 -Jordan

[Aaron Graham]

WOW!!! these power lines are looking great. Great Job on them.

[metarvo]

DCMetro2834: Thank you for the compliment.  I want the icons to convey useful information.

Pat: Thanks for the kind words.  Anything that makes the poles easier to place goes a long way, IMHO.

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks for the compliment.  Since there will probably be a lot of poles in this set, I want the menu navigation to be as painless as possible.

Aaron Graham: Thank you for the kind words.  I've redone this set many times, and I'm finally starting to be satisfied with it.



Now, here's the problem.  When I render the wires, particularly the fractional angled ones, I get this:



Notice that the wires appear broken on one side.  I suspect this is a problem with the model, rather than the BAT tool itself, because it happens consistently with this model and other fractional angled ones.  At first, I thought that the wires were too dark, but the problem persisted when I changed the color to white just to test my hypothesis.  Does anyone know why this might be happening?  I've searched through the BAT threads, and I haven't found a solution yet, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

By the way, the wires are set to have 4 sides with a thickness of 0.01.  The default color is RGB (96,96,96).

[Plokoon111]

This is deff. really great! There can never be to many power lines. Your doing a truly good job! What you should try to do if your up to it is do electric transmission lines on top of railroad lines. On the east coaster around PA, they have a lot of them.

Ideas: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thebluecomet.com/pcBristol.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thebluecomet.com/pctrenphil.html&usg=__advo5ldgLdok9e8XKXMHP2UMR0U=&h=511&w=800&sz=63&hl=en&start=16&sig2=dZOK3aVrqz3RXOkG0K80Nw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=PMmXdTDJF3uNDM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBristol%2BPA%2Brailroad%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=iCS6S-TgCIP88AbgqbWVCQ

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thebluecomet.com/pcBristol.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thebluecomet.com/pctrenphil.html&usg=__advo5ldgLdok9e8XKXMHP2UMR0U=&h=511&w=800&sz=63&hl=en&start=16&sig2=dZOK3aVrqz3RXOkG0K80Nw&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=PMmXdTDJF3uNDM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBristol%2BPA%2Brailroad%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=iCS6S-TgCIP88AbgqbWVCQ

[Fluggi]

Hey, really nice Poles 
But, what about a Mod which replaces the original Maxis poles with yours?
I don't know, but I think Pegasus made a Mod like that, maybe it would be better than putting them on Lots as you do it.

Yes, it would be a little bit more work, but the result would be awesome.

[metarvo]

Plokoon111: Thanks for the compliment! I guess I'm not too familiar with these kinds of power lines.  I might take a closer look at them sometime, though.

Fluggi: Thanks for the kind words. I've tried and failed at an experiment with draggable power lines, but I do plan to revisit it when the time is right.  The two main problems would be the base and the wires, which are most likely coded in the .exe and therefore cannot be changed.



Since I have returned to playing SC4, I have consequently begun to develop that desire to BAT.  Here's a preview of a transformer I'm working on:



I don't have too much to show right now, but I'm planning to get back on this very soon.

EDIT: I've officially restarted the project with PIM-X, which is helping me to get the work done much faster.  To my surprise and absolute delight, the New Properties XML introduced a Power Eye Candy category, which I suppose best suits the power poles I plan to insert into the game.

EDIT 2: I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Finally, I may be able to complete the first phase of this project.  A HDD crash a few months ago back caused me to lose my BATs (again!), so I rebuilt each and every one of them from scratch.  They might not be exactly the same, but they're based on the previous models.  Here are three more development pics.


Here is a straight segment, 18.4-degree turn, and a 45-degree turn.  Buildings and Maxis power lines are included for scale representation.


Here are the 71.6-degree and 90-degree turns.  These are based on RL power lines, so the 45-degree and 90-degree turns are built on single-circuit pole pairs rather than double-circuit poles.  This means that these turns will take up more space, but these power lines are normally built with right-of-way areas anyway.


15m slope pieces will also be included for the orthogonal, diagonal, and 18.4 fractional straight segments.  15m is the only slope included at this time, and I chose it because it can be considered a default slope in SC4.  Dead-end structures are also included to mark the beginning or end of a line.  Unfortunately, the transformers are not ready yet and will be included later.

After I finish tying up some loose ends, the first phase will be completed.

EDIT 3:

It's released! [off-site linkie]

EDIT 4:



P3 Phase II will include a set of wood power poles.  For the most part, Phase II will mirror Phase I as far as wirespan lengths, angles, and turns are concerned.  Just as I completely overhauled Phase I's metal poles prior to its release, I am going to redo the wood ones as well.  The new ones will be much smaller to resemble RL measurements.  A house and a metal power line have been included for scale reference, and I have also turned the grid on.  As illustrated in this picture, the two types of lines are often built right next to each other, which is analogous to a Road being widened to an Avenue (or probably a MAVE-6) in SC4.  When more electricity is needed, the electric companies attempt to locate new lines where they will least interfere with land use.  If the land's already being used for a power line right-of-way, it makes a prime target for the construction of a new line.

[Fluggi]

Nice to see you continue working on them.
But I think you misunderstood me:
I now that the Wires are located in the .exe, but the Poles aren't. Pegasus and fukuda used this for a mod which replaces the red-white Maxis poles by silver ones.

Here (click me) is the one made by Pegasus, the Screenshots taken in this post are made with this mod.
And here (click) is one I just found when I searched for Pegasus' mod, it is made by fukuda.
I think I will download it now and use it instead of Pegasus' mod 


As you can see, they are draggable, they just replaced the Maxis poles. The wires are exactly the same as without the mod.


Here you can see that Pegasus forgot one diagonal end pole.

So maybe you could look how they did this and copy the method 

[Highrise99]

Looks really good!  So you plop the poles and power lines?

[metarvo]

Fluggi: Well, I don't really have a firm grasp on the creation of draggable power lines yet.  To my understanding, Pegasus edited the Maxis pole to remove the red stripes.  Mine are entirely different models, so I don't know if that method would work for me.  I remember reading that Fukuda included a custom override of some sort with the set to replace the Maxis power poles with custom models.  While this might work for me, I would have two choices.  First, I could simply use Fukuda's override.  However, it is not my file, and therefore I couldn't get away with including it in any release.  Second, I could try to build my own override, but I really don't know how to do that yet.

Even if I could somehow replace the Maxis poles, though, there would still be the issue that my poles as they are simply wouldn't match up with the wires or the bases, which aren't going anywhere it seems.    There would still be the issue that the Maxis power lines have four wires, instead of the six that mine have.  The poles would have to be redone to work, which would go outside the scope of this project.  Still, I might have a go at it if I knew that I could actually get these poles into the game as replacements for the Maxis draggables.  I appreciate the input.

Highrise99: Thanks for the compliment! Yes, you plop the poles just like parks or any other plopped building.  Most of the poles come with overhanging wires.  Instructions are provided in the in-game descriptions to assist with connecting the wires, and the preview that appears as you are preparing to build them may help as well.  The wires overhang and don't add onto the size of the lot (typically 1x1 for Phase I's metal poles but larger for ending poles and some turning poles), which allows
roads, rails, and other networks to run under the wires, while saving valuable building space.  Really, anything can be built underneath the wires, but you probably wouldn't want anything too tall under them.   Oh, and there are unwired poles, too, which can be used to fill in gaps between wired poles or as a set in its own right for those who don't want to deal with the wires, which do not conform to slopes.  The exceptions to this limitation are the 15m slope pieces that are designed to be used exclusively on 15m slopes.




P3 Phase II is designed to accomplish two goals.  It will incorporate substations with transformers into the project, and it will introduce smaller wood 138 kV power lines.  Here is a substation that transitions one of Phase I's 345 kV metal lines to a group of Phase II's 138 kV lines.


Here is a Zoom 5 view from a different angle.  In compliance with my current BAT policy, I will be making the substations available in each of the four standard angles: 0° orthogonal, 45° diagonal, 18.435° fractional, and -18.435° fractional.  I also will look at making substations that transition the Maxis power lines to each other as well as to my custom power lines.


Here are the 18.435° and 45° turning poles for the new wood set.


Here is the 71.565° turning pole.


Here is the 90° turning pole.

It will probably be some time before I have everything ready, especially with some RL on the horizon, but as always, I appreciate your comments.

[TiFlo]

I really like the yellow tubes surrounding the poles' retaining cables. They add a lot to the overall sharpness of your power lines. 

[Girafe]

Very nice progress Metarvo, good work on these items 

[louistsw]

  wow

Will 138kV power line support climb slope?

And it will have the Converter with maxis pole in future or not?

[djvandrake]

Very impressive work Metarvo. 

[SimNation]

The Substations look fantastic! I have been hoping for so long that someone would make ones in which they connected to the actual powerlines.Outside a japanese one (which has no diagonal poles) anyway.Looking great cannot wait to see how the rest comes out.

[tulane633]

Like the style of pylons - i don't BAT myself at the moment as i am utterly overwhelmed by the BAT!! Have you thought of perhaps having lines linking lamposts as they often do in many parts of the US? Will try and find a pic of these first. Keep up the work

[canyonjumper]

Looking great metarvo! This will be a must have when its released

            -Jordan

[Buzzit]

ah man this is fantastic work!
really what a great job!

i'm a pylon enthusiast myself! i'm totally amazed by the fact you made 'cornerpylons' this is accually the first time i see such detail in a game!

i would really wanna give it a try myself!
the first time you tryed it was it hard? or is it fairly easy to try?