How to model a bridge for SC4

[surdanis]

ugh, i can't figure out to hide objects so i can make lod's like in your tutorial!!!

help, plz.

j

[jeronij]

surdanis,

select the object
right click on it
in the menu, cick "hide selected"

when you want to unhide, right click somewhere in the working area and click "unhide all"

I hope this helps

[surdanis]

hrm, i figured out how to hide and unhide objects but now i'm stuck on what you meant when you said to make more lod's for the repeatable and middle sections of the bridge. do i make lod's for each tile or just one tile of each portion?

[jeronij]

start/end , repeat and center pieces must go into the game as separated pieces. You must render them separately. So you need a LOD for each piece.

Once you have the scene with the completed bridge:
Start a new scene for the start piece, merge the complete model, center the start/end piece to 0,0 and make the LODs only for the start piece. (first model)
Open a second empty scene for the repeat piece, merge the complete model, center the repeat piece to 0,0 and LOD the repeat piece. (second model)
Do the same for the center piece (third model)

You should end with four different scenes:
1 with the complete bridge without LODs ( this will not be rendered)
1 with the start/end piece with LODs ( this will be rendered)  - the piece (not the bridge) must be centered at X0,Y0
1 with the repeat piece with LODs ( this will be rendered)  - the piece (not the bridge) must be centered at X0,Y0
1 with the center piece with LODs ( this will be rendered)  - the piece (not the bridge) must be centered at X0,Y0

I hope this helps you to better understand to process 

[surdanis]

aye yai yai!

so confusing

ok, ok, i actually think i rendered the darn thing, but... when i go to file properties, your tut shows a different set of values and stuff under the custom tab. how am i supposed to edit those values if they don't even show up? i'm lost.

[jeronij]

dont worry  ¡¡¡

take a break and try again later with new energies 

[willvette]

what about Suspension bridges?  i mean do we have to make the Suspension cables and wires or is it already in the game? 

[jeronij]

The suspension cables are added by the game, so you can avoid them    - however, if you want, you can customize them. They are created by a semi-transparent texture, which can be modified externally. I know Fukuda made this once, so it is doable 

[cleaner475]

thanks for this but it will tsake me years to figure out lol

[Madeira aka Constantina]

nice work 

[cameron1991]

I'm trying to make my own bridge, but I have a few questions.

With the LODs do I have to have the light poles in the same LOD as the road piece? and would the area around the poles have to be skintight?

Heres a picture of the bridge, its an attempted recreation of a bridge in my hometown.


Also when it is finished would you be able to light it please? Im not very experienced with making lights and getting them to light up the right objects 

Finally, could you also point out any problems you can see with the model so I can fix them (There are probably 100s of them  )

[jeronij]

Hello cameron,  great to see some new projects  ¡¡¡

There is something wrong with the scale in that bridge.... well, perhaps not with the bridge but with the lights. I'd swear that they are out of scale.... I think they should be thinner and shorter.... the placement is right. One each 8 meters.

There is a missing piece, the repeat piece, unless the support must show in every tile.

About the central piece, maybe the pylons are too thin. A little bit wider would look more realistic... I think 

I'd also work a bit more with the start/end piece... perharps some charmfer on those straigh edges.....

Anyway, once the model is polished and finished, I would think about making the ligths as separate props, so they could be used by more people. I can give you a had with that 

I hope my suggestions helps you to go ahead with your model 

[cameron1991]

Thanks for your helpful tips Jeronij!

Ive made some changes to the bridge,
Ive added a repeat piece and changed the start/end piece although im not really sure I like the result, so ill probably change it again unless people like it.
Anyway, heres some pictures of the bridge

An overview


A view down the middle of the bridge


And lastly, a side view


I think I may make just 1 light every 16 metres, because IMO its starting to look a bit cluttered...
Anyway what do you think? Anything else I should do to improve it?

Also I have one question about rendering, if I set the antialiasing on my graphics card to full, would it affect the quality of the final render?

Thanks for your help
Cameron.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Edit

Ive textured the bridge, so heres a picture of it
Ive used a rusty texture on the light-artwork because in RL they were made to look rusty (they cant really be rusty because the bridge is only a few years old..)

I need to replace the concrete texture on the deck and the sidewalls because IMO they just don't fit very well and they too closely match the texture on the streetlights.

[cameron1991]

well its been more than a month now so id better show some progress 
Ive gotten rid of the central light poles and half of the side ones in favor of it looking more like the RL bridge and for the support piece ive put the light pole ontop of the support pillar just like in RL. If that doesnt make any sense to you, then maybe these pictures will lol 

A tiny preview render


And 2 closeups of the bridge



Im also looking for more concrete textures as these ones look too bright in the preview renders, could anyone recommend any good ones?

[jeronij]

Hello again cameron,

nice to see some progress 

You can find many excellent textures here:  http://www.mayang.com/textures/
You can also create your own following this basic tutorial here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4.0

Some quick thought on the model 

You should think about leaving some space for the sidewalks ?¿
You could add some marks and details to the start/end piece and the pylon one?¿
The columns are too thin now. Perhaps they are like the RL bridge, but they look odd from the SC4 perspective. When I make a bridge based on a RL one, I dont fear to add my own details, and make it more SC4 eye-candy 
You should pay attention to the joints between the pieces. In the port view you can see the deck texture showing on the side of the bridge. Also you should play a bit with the UVmap for the road texture, and make it a little bit oversized and move it a bit, so you don't see those white lines between the pieces.
You can also make a test render, and put the model in a lot just to see how it fits in the game, the scale, the overall look, etc...

Wow, I just wanted to make a brief check  .... I hope my suggestions do help you to improve the model. This is a basic bridge, and once the pieces are correctly rendered it can be modded in half an hour 

[swat-medic]

Im not getting the option for the Model ID after modeling.  What may have caused it?

[threestooges]

When you say you "aren't getting the option for the model ID" I assume you are referring to step 4 of Jeronij's tutorial. I've modelled a few bridges and I'll tell you, the process he shows must be followed pretty darn exactly. The first thing I would suggest that you try:

-make sure that you have exported the basic box model. The model ID option won't be available to edit until something has been exported and had a model number assigned to it. This is why you use a simple object (to keep the render time as short as possible). Once you have exported that simple shape, the model ID should show up automatically in the file properties menu.

If this doesn't solve the problem, please let me know and I'll see if i can find another thing to try. Also, if this doesn't take care fo the problem, could you post a screenshot of where you encounter the problem? It makes diagnosis easier. Hope this helps. Best of luck to you on this.
-Matt

[asmcrazy]

Ok i have supports and everything modeled, but I'm having trouble making night lights. They don't show up in render preview...is this normal? Or is there some sort of secret to making the lights work?

[choco]

if my understanding is correct, nightlights dont work on bridges.  you can put the lights in later via T21 exemplar, but it can't be modeled in the BAT.

[PaulvMontfort]

if my understanding is correct, nightlights dont work on bridges.  you can put the lights in later via T21 exemplar, but it can't be modeled in the BAT.

That is untrue. I modelled a bridge with working lights.

@ asmcrazy: I think it depends on what type of light you use. If you do not use lights such as omni's and spots and such, no nightrender is rendered because the other type of lighting (the one which makes certain objects glow (most common in batting buildings)) is a special mask which doesn't need a separete render.

Sorry if I'm a bit confusing, my English isn't always the best with these explanations