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Reddonquixote's Melbourne BAT Thread

Started by reddonquixote, April 05, 2015, 05:52:46 PM

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reddonquixote

Hi everyone, welcome to my Melbourne BAT thread here at SC4D.

In anticipation of the amazing tram network being made by Noahchlem over at the Noro Cooperative, I'm going to be working on some detailed recreations of Melbourne CBD, starting with Collins Street.

This project will include -
1) Revamps of some of my existing BATs, attempting to fix issues with scale, textures, modding and getting more consistency with the night lighting.
2) Making new BATs, of course. There's still a lot of buildings I haven't made before.
3) A prop set, for recreating Melbourne's sidewalks.

I'm toying with HD versions as well. I want to be able to zoom into the street scene, but we'll have to wait and see if that's viable.

So, to kick it off, I'm starting back where I started with my very first BAT, cnr. Collins and King Street, Rialto Towers (yep, I'm having another crack at it! I was never happy with the 2nd version I made.)

Some nightclubs and strip clubs down the side of King Street (HD - and eventually to be rendered separately for release with the prop pack, including diagonal versions) :



Rialto Towers:





Please let me know what you think so far :)
Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.

metarvo

Nice work!  :thumbsup:  Of course, the inclusion of HVAC and the like on the roofs is a must, and you have included it.  The reflections on the Rialto windows are a nice little touch, too.
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

noahclem

Wow, that looks absolutely incredible  &apls   The full lot with the tower turned out great with the much larger and much smaller buildings meshing together very nicely and somehow that cleverly-placed tree adds a lot to the overall feel. Having both HD and diagonal versions of beautifully detailed buildings like these would be really, really useful. It would fill a niche that essentially hasn't been serviced yet and I think would contribute a lot. I'll be curious to see if your experiment with HD works out ;)

A very warm welcome to SC4D for you! I'm really looking forward to what's to come in this thread :)

art128

Welcome to SC4D, Reddon. Great seeing you there.
Rialto Towers were already looking excellent, i'm sure the new version will be even better. :)

Though, you know it's kind of a curse for custom content creators. Once you've done something you like, you realize you could have done it even better.
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

vortext

First thing I thought was 'please make those small buildings diagonal!', then I actually read and was relieved.  :D  :thumbsup:

However with 'rendered separately' do you mean separate from the highrise, or seperate from each other as well? I'd love to see the York Butter Factory stand alone, to be used as actual ID Factory.

The Rialto towers are impressive and the tree is very nice indeed. Ever thought about making seasonal tree props?   :)
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Bipin

I'm glad to see you over here Reddonquixote! Excellent work, keep it up.  :thumbsup:

romualdillo

Welcome reddonquixote!!! That's a great presentation card, I'm overwhelmed with all the details... The only thing I can have in mind is... it shiiiines!! &blush

vester

Welcome reddonquixote !


....and of to a great start.

The red roof is a bit.... hope its a temporary texture.
Maybe add a gradient to the wall textures.
What graphic programs are you using ?

Hope you export each house seperate.

reddonquixote

Thankyou for that very warm welcome everyone.

Vortext - Correct, each building will be rendered separately from one another. Yeah, I'd like to make more trees eventually :)
Vester - Hmmm... not sure about gradients. I think that's a trick used in Gmax to fake ray tracing, shouldn't be necessary with 3DS Max, but I have added some procedural grime to the wall textures, think that helps? I use Photoshop, but more commonly these days I use 3DS Max instead of Photoshop.
Art - yes, curse indeed! haha...
Bipin - Ah, is this where you've been hiding? I hope you're still making amazing BATs :)

Thanks everyone else  ;D

Here's a couple more updates...

The Terraces with procedural grime added:



And some nightlights:



I'm still working on the Tower and base night lights, pretty close though :)



Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.

Simcoug

I love these  :thumbsup:

The York Butter Factory will definitely find a home in New SorGun  ;D

vester

#10
Even Lee / Callafrafx did the gradient in Max. He works with Max everyday.

There are two ways of doing this.

Photoshop:
Add a New Adjustment Layers / Hue/Saturation (Layer menu)
Then add a alpha channels a fill it with a gradient.

Max:
Make a composite material (instead of a standard)
Then add a layer so there is two.
In one you have the normal version of the texture.
In the other you have a darker version of it, adding a gradient to the alpha channel.
The darker version can be made in PhotoShop (which can be seen in max) or darken in max (which only can be seen in the renders).

You can darken in max using the roll out Output, check Enable Color Map and drag down one or both point on the curve.

The composite materials is a good way to remove repetition in the materials, adding grunge and dirt with a few new layers.

EDIT: Here is an old example picture of a compisite material:

By see the tiling to 4x6 and have the others textures set to 1x1, a lot of repetitions if not all is removed.
At the top right you can see the output settings. If I remember right the alpha on Layer 4 is a bit higher than 1x1, but can't remember what (not important as such).

Here is another example of a material:

weixc812

#11
Aha, finally you're here. Welcome, reddon!

I wonder why you leave Simtropolis as Bipin did. Is it just because you're a serious player? (just kidding, for this place is "the home for the serious player")  ;D
 
No doubt you're a master of BATting. But seriously, I hope you could concentrate a little bit more on mid-rise buildings. Buildings of this kind are still in great need(if you post a poll or anything you'll get proof).

Also if you could consider making diagonal versions for some BATs, we'll be benefited a lot. Though you know I'm shamed to have you work an extra time to render those diagonal versions.  $%Grinno$%
Welcome to ALFERRID(UPDATE 5-District C)
And my other pics at SimCityChina:click here

romualdillo

You've done an excellent work with the textures. Grime makes everything look realistic.  :D

Neo

Yes!! Nice changes to Rialto Towers so far, the textures of the roof parapets in version 3 I noticed were a bright white. It gave it kind of an untextured, par-baked appearance.

noahclem

Terraces are looking beautiful! Outstanding work  &apls

art128

I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

reddonquixote

Thanks everyone!

Vester - Thanks! Great tips. I've never used composite maps before, this will definitely come in handy  :thumbsup:
Neo - Yeah, I agree. Hopefully this time I'll get the textures looking much better.
Weixc - Nice to see you thanks for saying hi :)

Here's some more nightlights. There's a bit of glare and streaking happening, but these tend to dissipate in the game render. I'll see how they come out before I tweak some more if necessary. I still need to work on the day glass. Diagonal facing glass is the hardest to do, but its very far from where it needs to be at the moment. After that should be pretty close to ready :)



Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know.

vester

#17
Love the light. Great bat.  :thumbsup:


May I suggest a Copenhagen high rise, one that is still being constructed.
Copenhagen Towers:



Would love to see the curved line on the facade lighten up.
(Not that they are going to be in RL)




romualdillo


noahclem