New canals? Surely you can't be serious?

[io_bg]

Fantastic work, Cal. As FrankU suggested, diagonal pieces would be a great addition.

[GrizzlyBuilder]

Stunning as usual.  Continue please!

[Fresh Prince of SC4D]

What real canals did you base them on?

[blade2k5]

I don't use canals, but if I did, these would be the ones I'd use.  Out of all the canal sets I've seen over the years, this set by far is the best looking I've seen.

[callagrafx]

Fantastic work, Cal. As FrankU suggested, diagonal pieces would be a great addition.

I thought about diagonals, I played about some but had a complete nightmare with the LODs....Because of the game grid, for every straight piece, you need a land and water filler.  For any sort of building to go near them, the land fillers have to overhang, and it's a real mare.  Add in junction/transition pieces and it becomes a whole new ball game.... one I've lost the ball for 

[wes.janson]

These look AMAZING. Like Blade2k5, I don't much use canals, but these are too good not to give a try.


BTW, Nice Pratchett quote in your personal text area!

[cubby420]

Beautiful canal pieces! Can't wait to play around with them.

[manchou]

Wow! This canal is awesome, I love them, very good job, there're perfect 

[vester]

Lee, you just keeps doing fantastic works.

These looks awesome. 

[FrankU]

Well, it's not to disappoint you, but Oppie made some very useful diagonal pieces in his canals.... Can't you steal his (her?) ideas?
Of course I have no idea how much work it is....., 'cause I don't BAT at all.

Anyway, I too look forward to your pieces.
Maybe it would be nice to make some special TE'd bridges. The bridges you can make with the left, right and center pieces are versatile, but not so beautiful. Just another thought to rob you from your spare time...

[Sciurus]

Mein Gott! I want them now
Those canals are beautiful, really!!

Guillaume

[callagrafx]

Something for the canals...

[Diggis]

I thought that first one was an exemplar photo... 

[Girafe]

   Awesome Callagrafx !!!

Textures are always impressive and I like the logo BSC at the front of the house  ^^


ps : the material do you attached, it's for which version of 3dsmax because with 3dsmax 2010 I can't open it 

[daeley]

I thought that first one was an exemplar photo... 

yeah, took me a second or two to realize it's not a real photo!

[SimFox]

I think those look good!
The tiling "problem" in my mind is non-existent, really... But one thing that may be tried is to make bump denser/smaller size (say under1m). Not sure but it may confuse the eye more.

This time around water has far more accurate look, particularly in regards of reflections which this time are darker than the reflected surface and that's good.

However there may be a little room for improvement.
First of all I feel that the shadows are way too deep. They really go almost into the black holes. So little gamma adjustment to the textures may be beneficial like here:



Same darkness objections go to the Boat house

another little bit is with bridge modules. You may want to extend "ground" a bit further to chop off sky reflection that shows up under the bridge:



On a bit separate note, you can arrange procedural texture to show certain feature in a certain place... Just change "Coordinates source" to UVW system from World and you can move it... On the other hand as I had said in the beginning I don't see any problem with it.

Same "too black hole like" objections go to the boat house... or to be precise to it's roof. It just doesn't look realistic. That something is exposed to the open sky like that and has brightness value of 4... I know it is suppose to be black... But there is no such thing as total black in the world, really. And this roof IS. You may want to hive it some reflection, since everything in the world has some. It will help with the black hole look.



You also really need more definition in the shadows.

Also the fence here is just too black next the ground that is too white...
It a bit ruins what is otherwise beautiful model

And the last thing... may be a bit different IES profile for the lights at the top part of the building... With less lens effect. I think it would be more in line with not to modern feel of the building.

I notice you've started to see the point for separation of day and night scenes... 

PS
Girafe:

Mat Library opens fine in Max 2010... You have first to unzip it,
then in Mat Editor click on Get Material button
select Browse from -> Mtl Library
File -> Open...

and there it will be Ocean Mat...
On the other hand you don't need to bother with any of this as it is, after all a standard procedural map that comes with Max anyway. Just click on Diffuse map button and select from the list Ocean(Lume) and you're done... (naturally you would need to adjust wave size to something more realistic for a canal...

However, for a canal manually making similar map may be a bit more advantageous as you would have more control over the bump...

All that said, i think water, as is, is absolutely fine!

[callagrafx]

First of all I feel that the shadows are way too deep. They really go almost into the black holes.

It's your light rig    The deep shadows are caused by the depth of the water...it's 3m below ground.  These renders are HD previews, the final models are SD so a lot of the detailing disappears unfortunately, but the overall effect works OK.

Same "too black hole like" objections go to the boat house... or to be precise to it's roof. It just doesn't look realistic. That something is exposed to the open sky like that and has brightness value of 4... I know it is suppose to be black... But there is no such thing as total black in the world, really. And this roof IS. You may want to hive it some reflection, since everything in the world has some. It will help with the black hole look.

That's actually a bitmap, but yes I will need to alter it's settings to lighten it up...

You also really need more definition in the shadows.

Again, your lightrig    The texture is bitmapped but I may add some ambient occlusion to enhance definition, but again this is an HD render, in game that sort of subtlety just isn't there...

Also the fence here is just too black next the ground that is too white...
It a bit ruins what is otherwise beautiful model

On the list to fix...

I notice you've started to see the point for separation of day and night scenes... 

Didn't have much of a choice, as I'm using Max 2009 Design.... However having two separate scenes is a bit of a pain as if I adjust on one, I need to replicate on the other.  Any chance you could fix the script so any lights that are switched off remain off?

@Girafe:  It was a material library for Max 2009 Design... it should open in 2010.

[art128]

Those are some sweet canals, Call ! I really love the sculling club and the water texture ! Will you make some boats and barges to go with it ?

[Indisguise]

wondering if it possible too, add an easter egg, that would shows maybe a rowing crew or maybe even a race down the cannals by the club  ?  Oxford vs Cambridge type thing, stroke stroke stroke.


These particular ones seem a tad bit low to allow barges or ferry traffic on them though.

[SimFox]

It's your light rig   

It's you material setup 

You may want to lighten, like gamma 1.2 bitmaps in Photoshop, or right there in Max (does Max2009 have color correction map?). As for the definition in the shadows - it is NEVER any lighting, but FG settings, or it's interpolation and approximation to be precise. Just try to go for brute forcer FG instead and you'll see the difference. And yes, AO is the answer, more like a must if you don't want to spend forever waiting for accurate FG and has been ever since Arch&Design materials came to be. Another way, better still imho, may be actual editing bitmap you're using for the wall. Presuming you are prepared to UNWRAP it. It may give better look that just AO. And given that wall is rather simple you may consider that. Something along the lines you made at the bottom of the walls - it will certainly look far-far better than any automatic AO.

Didn't have much of a choice, as I'm using Max 2009 Design....

Oh no, you do!
You can perfectly continue the old way if you wish. TruNite work flow is absolutely optional. It has always been.
All the parts that produced original night renders are still there and fully functional. However how are you planing to recreate that open/closed door effect?
Still I didn't create it just as you suggest sometimes cause I don't know better. There are clear advantages (workflow, functionality as well as quality related) to such a method and they are the reason I've decided to go that way.

However having two separate scenes is a bit of a pain as if I adjust on one, I need to replicate on the other.

Come again! Are you saying what I think you're saying that you after altering something in one scene go and actually REDO the same thing in another? Or am I missing something?

Any chance you could fix the script so any lights that are switched off remain off?

Well this is a part of all the version of Bat4Max sc v3 included. And it is a CORE of the single scene scheme you like. So, what is there to fix? So,  removing it will lock anyone into TruNite export. Then you'll REALLY have no choice, the choice you do have now.

At any rate this should absolutely be NON issue. Could you, for instance, show when it is actually visible? May be I'm missing something, but as far as I can tell even if they are on it wouldn't matter a bit. NO night light should ever be visible in day view because of enormous difference in brightness of the natural lighting in the scene.

Here is an illustration of this point. This is a night scene (It is JasonsCWs model I have set Mats and lighting for):



and here is same exact scene - same NIGHT scene but with day environmental lighting turned on.



As you can see well as you CAN NOT see any of the lights despite that fact that they are all still on. Sun and Day sky are sooo much brighter and day exposure is adjusted to them that no artificial light would really be noticeable - just like in real life...