DebussyMan Showcase

[Schulmanator]

Woo hoo! Though this thread is of special interest EVERY month! 

[DebussyMan]

Thank you all!... What an honor to be in the OSITM! 

Here's a little something I've been tickling on... my attempt to make a Bridge. (Hope it all goes well and it won't be as hard as it looks  )



I do have a few questions.

1.- Must I have repeat pieces?
2.- Can the repeat pieces be limited to 1 repetition?... my intent is to divide the bridge in 3, but that woud mean the center pieces wuould be a piece of the arch so it won't look good if repeated.

[xannepan]

The model looks fantastic (as usual ;-). Just some advice on the model: later you have to make tight fitting LODS, at least for the parts that have a chance to go under water level, i.e. everything below road surface level. You may have to compromise of the level of detail. In case you didn't know:  You also need to model the full bridge supports all the way downward, if not then the game's ugly standard support columns will show. (both issues depend on the actual height the bridge is build in game, ie height of the water shore)

Now to your questions:
1. In principle I'd say you can use invisible repeat pieces. However, in that case you might encounter some difficulties n the game (blank gaps) depending on if bridge length is an even or odd number. I do recommend to work with a repeat pieces. Looking at your model I think it shouldn't be to difficult to create a repeat piece from part of it.
2.I am not sure about this one... I know there is a lott you can do with RUL files, but that has always been an area I tried to avoid. NOt sure you need to deal with that issue. Again judging from your model I'd say it would be fairly easy to make the 3 bridge pieces from these. If I have some time later today I will draw the outlines of the 3 pieces in your picture.

BTW in my answer I am assuming you are not going to add more details to the model

[DebussyMan]

Thanks for your answer...

See... this is how I want to divide it:



If I make it smaller (the support with half the arch 16m) it will bee too small, and if I make it larger (32m) it will be too large  . 

BTW in my answer I am assuming you are not going to add more details to the model

It's still missing the statues :

[xannepan]

Ah i see... There will be some issues here related to your repeat piece.. Without rul files you cannot prevent that in the game you will have 2 repeat pieces between two center pieces or a center piece and an end piece. I used a trick here. You can have overhanging support and end pieces. So I'd recommend to 'extend' the center and end piece model by 8m such that when place nex to each other with one tile in between them, the arc is closed.

Next thing you would have to do is tweak your repeat pieces in such way that every curvature from the arc is gone... Basically only use straight (horizontal) lines here. The reason you need to do that is because there are two situations you will encounted in game:
1. One repeat piece between the end/center pieces (situation as in your picture)
2. Two (or more) repeat pieces between the end/center pieces.

Now here is the trick how you can deal with this: the length of the repeat piece will have to be exactly 16m, but you can make the width of the repeat piece model slighlty smaller then the width of the end and center piece.

That way in case of situation 1, the repeat piece will be covered by the overhanging parts end/ center pieces and the bridge arc will look perfect. In case of situation 2 the curvature will be lost off course (fundamental issue) but the repeat piece will nicely bridge the "gap" with only a minor glitch because you used a slightly smaller width.

I hope you understand what I mean... Difficult to explain in words.

[DebussyMan]

After a quick test I found no problems with it the way I planed... 



err... on certain lenghts I do get this little gothic arch.. but I think it looks rather nice.. If there's no easy way around it I can live with it. 

[nbvc]

Great work.

[xannepan]

you have to play a bit with the parameters in the supportinterval etc properties to avoid this

I have quicky photoshoped a picture with a suggestion for end, repeat and center(support) piece models

The red arrow indicate which part of the repeat piece should be modelled such that the overhanging parts of the end/support piece cover it

[FrankU]

Hi Debussyman,

Congratulations with your OSITM award! And good luck with the bridge.

[Girafe]

Congrats for the OSITM and nice project you began 

[carlfatal]

Congratulation on the OSITM! 
i often lurked into Your thread before but as i´m no BATist, i only can say that i really like Your work. I don´t know how much of Your BATs lay in my current downloads folder, it´s filled alone with Your framework houses and a lot of churches. And i never played this game without minimum a good handful of them. 


BTW: i appreciate to give BATting and lotting threads a place in the OSITM. Both programs are essential parts of the game itself, so we were and are playing with the BAT and the LE. Customizing is what we do - we can´t live without. So to light up BAT- and lot-artists and their "studios" do only approach the game from a different but very interesting and important angle. Thanks for this. 
Greetz, Carl

[Battlecat]

Congratulations on the OSITM! 

The bridge looks lovely already!

[vortext]

Congrats on becoming OSITM. 

The bridge is looking fine already, can't wait to see it textured and outfitted with the statues. Do you plan to make a street bridge version as well? I hope so 

Also, Warren mentioned these terraces are yours. Can I expect to see these on the LEX anytime or get hold of them otherwise ? They'll make a nice addition to my city (what else, right?  ).

[rooker1]

A huge congrats to you and your phenomenal work and getting it in the spot light. As Schulmanator already said above....your work is of special interest every month.
Congrats again.
Robin

[DebussyMan]

Thanks to all!

Xannepan: now I see what you mean. I'll give it a try.

For now I'm playing with the values to get the bridge right. But I don't fully understand how it works. For example, when I increase the SupportInterval value it puts more supports pieces next to each other. If I lower down to 1 it still puts at least 2 support pieces together on certain lenghts, as well as a start piece and support piece together. What do I have to modify to get more repeat pieces next to each other? 

[DebussyMan]

The texturing is done. Still have to make the start piece and figure out the values I have to modify to make it work.



One more question: ¿How do I make my own bridge? Right now I'm just using the tutorial file. I just have to change the ID to a new one or do I have to do something else? also, who do I contact to get my own ID range?

[xannepan]

For the IDs you may contact threestooges.

Also have a look at the bridge engineering department in the forums. Lot's of info and tutorials there about modding etc.

I,ll have to dive into how the different parameters actually worked... Forgot about the details :S

[rooker1]

I believe Matt (threestooges) or Alex (Tarkus) are the best people to ask.  Try PMing them both asking the question.
BTW, Great work!!

Robin

[DebussyMan]

Thank you both, I've sent Matt a PM.

For now I've got it to work the way I want it:

[xannepan]

Congratulations! Well done.

If I may give one more suggestion, you may want to extend the supports below the water level :-)

Question: did you render this is bat(gmax) or in 3ds max? I see some jagged edges (may be gmax or just jpeg compression, i can't tell). In any case, if you didn't know or do it already: you can use 3ds max for bridges. Just render the LODS in gmax with the correct TGI IDs and then select model name and render it in 3ds max as you would do with any other building.

How does it look if the bridge width is one more tile wider then in your image? Did you manage to have the repeat piece show up correcly?

-alex