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Chris's Boat Yard and Atelier

Started by C.Scott, September 04, 2015, 12:47:53 PM

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C.Scott

I need some help from the community with getting the waterline correctly placed for these ships and boats.
Before rendering in gmax I make sure the vessels are just slightly above the upper Red waterline of these
vessels, but yet in the LE they are always sitting on there keels.





Thanks, Chris

                                                                 
CS

Simcoug

I'm so glad to see you still around!  :)
As for the problem you are having, I'm going to guess that it may be a LOD issue... but I'm sure some of the resident BAT experts around here will be more helpful.  Can't wait to see these ready for release. 
If you need any help in the lotting department, I'm happy to pitch in.

romualdillo

#2
First of all, the boats look great!!!

Secondly, I think is a LOD issue too, although I have no experience with marine bats, but I think you have at least three options:

- Remove everything under the water line. It's the easiest option.

- Make custom LODs that fit the vessels' forms better. If the LOD is bigger than the boat, everything under the it will be rendered as part of the LOD's texture, and will show up.

- Divide the models and render the parts separately. The LOD of the upper part can be a simple box, but the LOD of the lower part must fit the model (You can even render the complete model again with the lower LOD, the shadows will look better). Here you will find how to do multiple models props, by c.p..

I hope it helps, here you will find masters that will tell you what to do much better than me.

Now a (small) critic  :): I find the textures too clean and plain for my taste, but the models are fantastic!!!


belfastsocrates

My goodness, those boats are beautiful!

Unfortunately I can't assist with the problem but I hope you can resolve it as I'd love to use these in game. Lovely work
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C.Scott

#5
Thanks Everyone for the kind words. I'm not the original creator of these models, but the original creators will be given full credit when the ships and boats are released. They mostly came form the Sketchup Warehouse and all of them needed quite a bit of remodeling to make them completely 3D. I also did the Texturing. Not all texture you see will be the final ones for these bats.

I don't have a clue about creating custom LODs for these bats and I've look on the usual sites, here and Sim- tropolis and others for tutorials, But couldn't really understand how to go about creating LODs in gmax. I'm more than willing to turn these bats over to a member of the community to finish creating custom LOD's for them.

CS

romualdillo

You can make the custom LODs in Sketchup (if you work with it, as me), and then export them to gmax. You only have to noun them as LOD3, LOD4 and LOD5.

If the models are done in Sketchup I'll be pleased to take care of them if you like.  :laugh:

vortext

Great to see you're still working on these boats! Hopefully you, or someone else, can fix the LODs. But if not, I definitely hope you will release them nonetheless!  :thumbsup:
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bombardiere

At one time I tried to make a boat and same thing happen to me. I think I know what I did wrong, but I haven't had time to retry to see if I am right. I don't know if you have same issue.

In which format your models are?

Pat

Best of luck in fixing the LOD problem and love the boats, cant wait to get my paws on them!

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reddonquixote

The ships are amazing.

Not sure about your waterline issue, but I seem to recall over on Simtrop, Droric was making an oil bouy and was having trouble with getting the water level right... Page 3 seems to deal with the issue, including some links to other tutorials, maybe have a look at these...

http://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/60066-drorics-bats/?page=3

Hope that helps.

Great models  :thumbsup:
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carlfatal

I canĀ“t help with the LOD problems, but I definately love your boats and ships. And like vortext said, I also would love to see them released, solved or not. These ships would look awesome at the historical harbour quai.  &apls

C.Scott

#12
I've been busy creating waterline versions of the ships and boats models from Sketchup.








It's going to take me a wile to write readme and put the files into zips with the other projects I'm working on.
CS

mgb204

Great to see you persevered with this project, that's a fantastic selection of boats you've got there, such things are sorely missing until now.

A few of the textures could do with a little weathering and perhaps toning down some of the colours. You've got the basics in place for some really top-notch content, just a little work on the textures could really make these shine. Have a look here for some good tips on SC4 BAT textures. Right now everything is just solid colours, which don't fit the game palette too well at all. Really not trying to be negative, I just feel these models are so close to greatness that they deserve just a little attention to make them all they can be. Even though I couldn't find much use for such props, I'd be willing to help you out with textures.

vortext

Oh wow, great work indeed!!  :o &apls

I agree the texturing would stand to benefit from a little rouging up, however, I realize that'd be more work for you still and would be happy with a release as is as well. Either way, +1 for keeping at it!  :thumbsup:
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C.Scott

#15
I've been hitting a roadblock on suitable ship textures that are free to use and for the hull especially.



As you can see this is a problem for others has well.
If anyone in the community would like to create textures for these ships I would welcome it.
CS

Simcoug

I don't BAT, but from reading through many BAT threads I think textures tend to be the trickiest part of the whole BAT process.  I love how these boats look, and I'm glad you were able to get the water line to look right.  mgb204 is a wizard with SC4 textures, so if you are looking to get some help with that aspect, I'd take him up on his offer  :thumbsup:

mgb204

Quote from: Simcoug on December 08, 2015, 08:25:34 AM
I don't BAT, but from reading through many BAT threads I think textures tend to be the trickiest part of the whole BAT process.  I love how these boats look, and I'm glad you were able to get the water line to look right.  mgb204 is a wizard with SC4 textures, so if you are looking to get some help with that aspect, I'd take him up on his offer  :thumbsup:

I don't know about wizard, I muddle my way through with technical knowledge, I'm no artist. Anyhow, I've sent you a PM C.Scott.

c.p.

There's a great collection of ships here.  I'm especially looking forward to the riverboat/steamboat and the sailing ships. :thumbsup:

vester

#19
Looks like great collection of ships.


One point, I would make. Try to some variation to the textures, so the green is not just one solid block of green, but changes just a bit.
It will make them looks a bit more like RL.

How I will go about this would be to take the textures into Photoshop.

Start by adding a layer.
Filter -> Render -> Clouds

Set the blending mode*) to Multiply. (Darken darker area, leave lighter area)
Turn the brightness down some, until a good result is achived.
Maybe turn the opacity down

Maybe adding another layer of the same kind, but with the blending mode set to divide and the brightness turn up.

Here is an example I just did while writing this post:


*) In Gimp I think its called Layer Mode.