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Bombardiere's London, British and Other BATs

Started by bombardiere, February 15, 2016, 10:08:43 AM

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bombardiere

Hello

As this seems to be a London week in the SC4Devotion, it is a good opportunity to open my BAT thread.

I have been active in the Simtropolis and uploaded a small number British inspired BATs. I haven't used a 3D program before and I have had very limited skills with paint programs. So all this has been a huge learning experience for me.

I have improved with every building I have made, but I still have a lot to learn. I am no master batter and my aim is to offer filler buildings.

Anyway to honour the London theme, I offer a preview of what I am working with currently. A row of Georgian Townhouses.

Those of you who know me from the Simtropolis, know that I have a perverse affection for all things Georgian.  ;D Don't ask me why.  ::) For some reason I like those simple lines. Not to mention that the symmetry and simplicity make easier to BAT.

This one is a residential row with cornershops. It is based on a real buildings from London, Clerkenwell Close, in Clerkenwell.   

During the autumn I switched to 3DS MAX 2014 and this is my first Max project. So  Dark Night  lighting is on the do list. And this will include the customs foundations, naturally. However, I have problems. For some reason 2014 version do not well in my computer. I can't get sharp render with the normal setting. I need to set the quality extra high to get sharp render and then it literally take hours to render even a small building. Thus I don't know when I am able to upload the final product.

This fuzzyness can be seen on the Corner Pub model. The row itself is quite sharp render, but it took me some time to do it.




Swordmaster

Beautiful! You folks make this look so easy but it sure isn't.


Cheers
Willy

Vizoria

These buildings look wonderful! Stupid question really, but they will be W2W right?

belfastsocrates

That Georgian brick row is absolutely gorgeous
A unique nation fusing technological prowess and unparalleled grandeur

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination" - Oscar Wilde

mgb204

Assuming I can render the files in 2011, worst case scenario, I'm willing to render them for you if it helps. In the meantime I urge anyone with the know-how of 2014's quirks to get in touch, I would hate to see your motivation stifled by a problem I'm sure others have had and solved.

Great to see some more buildings, corner pieces are really useful, great to see some new content from you as always.  :thumbsup:

mattb325

The models are lovely.

I posted this on Simtropolis, but I'll also post here for Batters who may not visit ST. On the weekend my 3yr license for 3DS 2013 expired, so I upgraded to 2014. It is certainly less compatible with Bat4Max than 2013.

These are the steps I take each time I create a new scene:

• Set the grids & snaps
• Click 'Let there be light' under utilities and set the sky and the day rig (this is to ensure the Arch and Design materials are available in the Material Editor)
• Click on the Rendering Tab -> Render Set Up -> Renderer and set the Sampling Mode to "Classic / Raytraced"
• Then, while still in the Render Set Up -> Global Illumination and select "Skylight illumination from Final Gather (FG)" button

It still leaves a faint grey outline around models once exported, which happens on a lot of 3DS-made bats, but at least the blurriness is resolved.

reddonquixote

A warm welcome to you and your BAT thread  ;D

The BATs look amazing, they are too good to be called 'fillers' :thumbsup:

Regarding the fuzziness, not sure if I can help really, I use 2012. Just a couple of thoughts:
- When you say you have set the 'quality extra high', do you mean the Sampling Quality?
- Have you tried changing the filter type?
- Perhaps post a screenshot of your settings if possible?

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.

FrankU


art128

Just as Matt said. Since 3dsmax 2014 Autodesk switched the default sampling method, which makes SC4 Renders blurry and ultimately have a white grey outline. Unfortunately there is no way to change that definitely, but each time you're going to preview or render, you'll have to check the sampling method because it reverts back after a render.

I made this picture when I explained to Noahclem over skype how to resolve it. It shows what Matt said about the sampling method but also how to effectively reduce the outline by playing around with the environment map. Credit goes to Jasoncw over at ST who's the first person to explain to me when I had render problems too.

click for full size
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

vester

Nice bat.


What you could do is set up a scene with all the settings that Art described.
Then every time you start a new bat, you open up that scene and a save it with a new name.


Art: Have just saved your image.

romualdillo

Welcome bombardiere!! Those buildings look fantastic!  :thumbsup:

eugenelavery


bombardiere

#12
Thank you everyone for your kind words.

Yes, these are W2W. I cannot see a Georgian townhouse row in any other way :)  The row is 2x1, and with additional props hopefully 2x2 yard version. The corner is 1x1 and I have an extension ready for an 1x2 option. The idea is to offer commercial corners also as a plop options.

My render settings are exactly as in Art's picture including Global illumation, with an exception of  mr Physical sky colour. At this point the grey line is least of my worries.

RDQ. "Quality" I meant "samples per pixel"

I have read the advices given to other 2014 users, but for some reason those do not work on my computer.

My English is not good enough to describe it all and I don't know technical terms. However, some kind of strange voodoo magic is in work in my 2014.

No matter what I do, my first render or preview is always fuzzy. Classical setting or not. However I have developed a strange ritual. I do first a SD render. It will be fuzzy. Next I go through all rotations,  S E N W. Then I do all zoom levels, 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 . I need to let the viewport to focus and wait few moments. Then I can do a HD preview. I may need to repeat this process a few times and perhaps reset the camera and LODs, but suddenly I get a sharp preview. And when get a sharp preview, then I can do a sharp render.

Honestly this does not make any sense and I know that someone 3DS MAX guru will explain that what I did describe is not possible.

I haven't been able to isolate that what is here that triggers the sharp render, so until then I must stick with my strange ritual. It is frustating as I may need to repeat the process, but at least I don't have to wait two hours for my old computer to finish the rendering with extra high quality.

I attach a picture of my settings. Here you can see two sharp previews, but equally the same setting can cause, and usually do, a fuzzy rendering.

This is very frustrating say the least.

Girafe

I will forward you a scene which was created under 3dsmax 2012 with already day light set up.

Try 2 things:
1Render the scene as it is to see what kind of render you obtain
2You will just merge in this scene only your objects ( Don t merge sky, camera, ...). Don t click day. You should be able to render directly by clicking any direction.
The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

bombardiere


noahclem

Great to see you start up a bat thread over here; welcome :)  The projects look excellent and should make a very nice contribution English city building possibilities. I quite like the way the 2-tile long row houses are split into 5 units instead of 4 (or 2) since it downplays the presence of SC4's grid system. Custom foundations/slope tolerance adds an important detail that will add to the usefulness of these models and of course I'm very happy that you're planning dark night renders now that you've switched to 3DS Max.

Regarding 3DS Max 2014, I've been trying to start using it as well and certainly can share some of your frustration. My only idea was to suggest what Arthur already suggested to me--poor guy has had to deal with my cries for 3DS Max help incessantly in the last week or so :D  I hope you're able to figure things out  :thumbsup:

Girafe

#16
Just came back from travelling.

Try this https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19293845/Scene3dsmax2012.rar

EDIT: with my comments

The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

bombardiere

Girafe I appreciate your help, but sadly not a success.

I tried to open your file, but it gave me error.

The Scene XRef file: "E:\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\gamepacks\BAT\scenes\CamLightRigs\TB2_CameraLightRig.max" can not be found

After looking for non existing camera it tried to find some texture again from drive E. I connected it with my 2014 camera on dirve c. Then your scene wanted some texture and I skipped it. However no object appear and it gave a render error for nonexisting textures.After my building file, 3DS MAX gave up and didn't want to preview anything.

About the texture. Now that you mentioned, the roof is slightly purple. It is more purple in the jpg picture than in the render and I need to check it in the game. However I reduced the red a little bit. And yes I am aware of the repetition on the roof. I am also working at the windows.

The roof ledge and the steps are textured, but yes I agree, those kind of clean or uniform. I added some dirt and grime.


Girafe

Could you post a screenshot of the problem when you try to open
The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

bombardiere

#19
Sorry Girafe, I think I was hasty. Errors attached. Textures may not matter? I can skip those. And I may have caused the object error.

Your scene is empty, but that is supposed be so? I can see the cameras.

So I merged my BAT to the scene. I did automatic LODs, but not day setting. I am honestly puzzled, but yes, I did severial trials and constantly got sharp previews.  &apls I need to test more.

However, I don't get it. Your settings are almost same than mine. Expect you have marked "Lock samples" and bucket width is slightly higher. And that is not the issue as I tested one of my scene with "Lock samples" and I got fuzzy.

I don't get it. It must be my camera, not render settings, but what might be wrong with the camera? (or light?)