Nealos101's BAT Projects

[Cali]

overall, a really nice looking casino

[Naryanna]

Hi! Looked here for first time and I like what I see. The day pic looks fanthastic. The night... ok, that light did hurt my eyes and I believe I got a little headache. I find it a bit to bright. What if you would try to mix diferent colours of light for the night, lets say green and blue or something, to add a varity to it?
But anyhow, you are doing good. 

[wouanagaine]

I second Cali, nice architecture, and the night lights will be interesting when finished
But I find that the shadowed part of the daylight version is very very dark. Looks like there is no ambient at all and it hide the details you've put in. In the last Day Detail pic, I can't almost see the windows on the shadowed part.
Or maybe it is just my monitor or my eyes ( getting older every day )

[Nealos101]

barbyw

Thanks, Nealos. They are much better. I look forward to seeing your lot for this.

Your welcome... It is your arena really after all barby, I too look forward to seeing the lot for this, and (If you did all those BSC lots?) I worship yours, so for you to be satisfied with my own quality then I would hit the roof and dance around like those code checkers in the Matrix-Revolutions.

Yoder7652

I assume on the nightlighting, you are going to ease up on the brightness of the spots? I think the day shot looks good and has nice detail. I look forward to the casino.

Duuude... Wait till you see what I have NOW...

Cali

overall, a really nice looking casino

If you were continuing on from what yoder said cool, thanks for the comment my friend!

Naryanna

Hi! Looked here for first time and I like what I see. The day pic looks fanthastic. The night... ok, that light did hurt my eyes and I believe I got a little headache. I find it a bit to bright. What if you would try to mix diferent colours of light for the night, lets say green and blue or something, to add a varity to it?
But anyhow, you are doing good. 

I agree - The day pic is incredible just with the windowed reflections... I thank everyone that took part in helping me get to that quality and state. The night view on the recent post I have to admit hurt my eyes too, but like I said to Yoder, wait till you see what I have...

Mixing colours? That would and did conflict with the overall impression IMO, but blue... ?

wouanagaine

I second Cali, nice architecture, and the night lights will be interesting when finished
But I find that the shadowed part of the daylight version is very very dark. Looks like there is no ambient at all and it hide the details you've put in. In the last Day Detail pic, I can't almost see the windows on the shadowed part.
Or maybe it is just my monitor or my eyes ( getting older every day  )

The Architecture is astounding and it was wonderful to re-create, the shadowed part is meant to be dark... But I think it is your monitor that is doing it becuase it isn't that dark... But thanks for the feedback - Really do appreciate it.

And it can't be your age... lol

Well ladies and gents; I have a few things to show you since:

a) Yoder mentioned omni's and I was dying to try thier effect...
b) The original BAT had target spots...
c) Naryanna mentioned blue...
d) I wanted to try the original Green...

Well; let's show you guys the results and the development; Which picture/effect do you guys like the most, becuase I am having trouble deciding on which one to choose out of two of them...


1: Target Green - This is the original effect...


2: Target Blue - The Blue tint on this is amazing...

I then thought... Wait a second; What about omni's... ?


3: Omni Green - This one made me fall in love with Omni's, but the following pictures made me devote myself entirely to them...


4: Omni Blue - This is another that made my heart flutter... That blue is soooo me...

But then I saw the oddities in the pictures, so I investigated and discovered that there were too many Omni's conflicting with each other, so I decided to take the next step and delete a few strategically-placed ones that were interfering...


5: Omni Green (Final) - The Original Colour with a brand new effect...


6: Omni Blue (Final) - New effect, new colour...

If you haven't sort of guessed already, but the ones I was trying to decide was Number 6 and number 5 hands down... I loved them both, but eventually I thought and thought and decided that the Blue is my colour, and this is a spanking new way to show the SC4 fans out there that Nealos101 is back and he is armed with a new style!!!

Thoughts? Favourites?

Nealos101

[Cali]

im definitly hooked on the #6, it adds a certain awe to this casino, wonderful nightlighting

[Bobbo]

I have to agree with Cali - I like the light effect and color on #6 as well - though you are doing a superb job! 

[Nealos101]

Cali

im definitly hooked on the #6, it adds a certain awe to this casino, wonderful nightlighting

Yep - I have to admit it made the Casino look like a real Casino, thanks for the feedback!

Bobbo

I have to agree with Cali - I like the light effect and color on #6 as well - though you are doing a superb job!

Thank you - It's nice to have a good comment from the STEX gods like BSC and yourself 

Oh and if that wasn't enough, try to chew yourselves into these...


Day Final - Tocheth me noteth; This is completeth...


Night Finalish - Notice the windows? They are just right - If I made them any brighter they'd stick out too much... Notice also the little errors lol.


Night Detail - HOOOAH!

I'd say (Except for those rejected windows) that this part of the Casino is complete and ready to be renderrred...

Nealos101

[Yoder7652]

hey nealos, I agree about the blue, it looks good...I do notice the random windows emitting some light and I think that is a nice subtle touch. I might bring back the intensity of the blue nightlighting...but just a shade so the bottom doesn't go radioactive on you  The nice thing about omnis is that it doesn't take too many to create a nice effect....good work! So is your plan to render the hotel and casino sections seperately and then put them together in lot editor? I look forward to your next moves, this is really a dramatic improvement over your first model...kudos!

[Nealos101]

Yoder7652

hey nealos, I agree about the blue, it looks good...I do notice the random windows emitting some light and I think that is a nice subtle touch. I might bring back the intensity of the blue nightlighting...but just a shade so the bottom doesn't go radioactive on you

lolol!! I don't know... Will have to see how it does later on

The nice thing about omnis is that it doesn't take too many to create a nice effect....good work!

Ain't that the truth... Thanks again for the idea - It looks so much better since Version 1; this piece alone kicks that n00bish model's butt... But still - One must remember one's past and how he got here...

So is your plan to render the hotel and casino sections seperately and then put them together in lot editor?

Yeah man! I learnt that the hard way with Georgetown, Georgetown - The thing was so big it wouldn't render properly lol. It would make rendering quicker too if I do it that way, and I was thinking of getting some extra props done too so that I don't have to rely on everyone else so much... But still some things up on the LEX and STEX will come in handy; but hopefully I won't over-use them

I look forward to your next moves, this is really a dramatic improvement over your first model...kudos!

Me too... Was thinking of getting the small props out of the way first before takling the foundation/casino piece... Will post some pictures up here when I have something worth looking at lol.

Thanks again freind!

Nealos101

[wouanagaine]

Wow, the blue night light is stunning. But I'm not sure about the clouds reflections by night. I agree that it gives a very interesting effect to the light however.

And you were right, on my home computer, the dark part is not that dark, so much for my age

[callagrafx]

As a nightlighting freak, the blue is working for me...although Yoder's right about the base going all neon like.  That's the downside to omni, it's circular light so there has to be some point of high intensity..although you could use a series of 3, going up the building with differing intensities, one on the bottom set bright but not too high, middle mid level brightness ( ) and top low level...that way you can control the gradation of light.

Also, the scale of sunloungers on the staggered roof looks way off..this is a massive building and the people look huge...they should be 2/3 the height of the windows IMO....Otherwise a great piece of work.

[Yoder7652]

yeah I too have been thinking more about the clouds in the glass reflection for the nightime shot. I think that the clouds add alot to the daytime shot, but don't really make sense in the nighttime. Here is a thought...(and maybe some lot editor/modder folk can speak up here), but maybe the best solution is two models...one for the daytime that has the cloud texture window...and another that has a window tint like your first attempt (something dark) that could be used with the nightlighting and then since both are already props, have them timed to switch places between night and day. The downside is that this drastically increases the size of the building since you load both versions of the building into the game. I'm not sure of another solution or a way that Gmax can switch the textures of something depending on the day/nightime. Any thoughts from other batters for solutions.

Nealos, doing this strategy would be fairly simple on your end. Just render this once with the cloud texture and then render it again only replacing the glass texture with something that doesn't have the clouds in the map editor.

[Nealos101]

wouanagaine

Wow, the blue night light is stunning. But I'm not sure about the clouds reflections by night. I agree that it gives a very interesting effect to the light however.

And you were right, on my home computer, the dark part is not that dark, so much for my age

Hmm... Those clouds do seem odd... I may tweak with the Omni's parameters and see what I can dig up...

Age is never an issue here; level playing field and unlimited possibilities...

callagrafx

As a nightlighting freak, the blue is working for me...although Yoder's right about the base going all neon like.  That's the downside to omni, it's circular light so there has to be some point of high intensity..although you could use a series of 3, going up the building with differing intensities, one on the bottom set bright but not too high, middle mid level brightness () and top low level...that way you can control the gradation of light.

The base is technically not even on there - I am planning to make a base for the main ground model to stick this one to so that A) I can put some light produce on and B) Lower the rendering times lol. That worry should be fine, like I said to yoder I shall worry about that closer to release date...

Also, the scale of sunloungers on the staggered roof looks way off..this is a massive building and the people look huge...they should be 2/3 the height of the windows IMO....Otherwise a great piece of work.

I've been thinking about those... Maybe a smaller touch to them would make that whole stepping thing better? Will fiddle with that too while I'm at it.

Yoder7652

yeah I too have been thinking more about the clouds in the glass reflection for the nightime shot. I think that the clouds add alot to the daytime shot, but don't really make sense in the nighttime. Here is a thought...(and maybe some lot editor/modder folk can speak up here), but maybe the best solution is two models...one for the daytime that has the cloud texture window...and another that has a window tint like your first attempt (something dark) that could be used with the nightlighting and then since both are already props, have them timed to switch places between night and day. The downside is that this drastically increases the size of the building since you load both versions of the building into the game. I'm not sure of another solution or a way that Gmax can switch the textures of something depending on the day/nightime. Any thoughts from other batters for solutions.

That would be the last solution (The two model thingy), was hoping to keep the file smallish, but not too worried about that.  I am going to play around with the Omni parameters and see if I can get a solution there, if not it may look like that.

Nealos, doing this strategy would be fairly simple on your end. Just render this once with the cloud texture and then render it again only replacing the glass texture with something that doesn't have the clouds in the map editor.

Yeeep... Just remind me to name the files accordingly... Have a habit for that lol

Nealos101

[Cali]

oh yeah! now im hooked...it's perfection at it's finest

[Naryanna]

WOW!  And oh, sweet! You did it in blue!!! Ok, this is something I will definetly download (btw. my favorite colour is blue, then green, then orange etc... donno why I am telling that, lol). The improvement in lightning is definetly a great one and the inprovement from a start to now is stunningly amazing. Definetly and absolutly love this one! 

[Bobbo]

I have to agree Nealos - awesome job!   

[joelevan]

I step away for a bit and you develop brilliance! Color #6 is a great way to go! It TOTALLY fits! I agree on the scale of the props. I thought that before, but didn't say anything as I was thinking about the building. I would like to see some more light work on the signs at the top, but I need to see how the blue turns out first. I'll stop here until I see a new rendering. This thing freakin' ROCKS. This is SO Vegas! Money!!!

Joel

[Nealos101]

Cali

oh yeah! now im hooked...it's perfection at it's finest

Thanks... But don't forget if it wasn't for yours or anyone's feedback... Would have been 1/2 that quality.

Naryanna

WOW! And oh, sweet! You did it in blue!!! Ok, this is something I will definetly download (btw. my favorite colour is blue, then green, then orange etc... donno why I am telling that, lol). The improvement in lightning is definetly a great one and the inprovement from a start to now is stunningly amazing. Definetly and absolutly love this one!

Again thank you... I only chose this colour becuase I love blue too... It's soooooo awesome I had to use it.  There shall be space for green and orange in other Casinos to come lol...

Bobbo

I have to agree Nealos - awesome job!

Thank you, and hopefully you'll see that in San Portello next to one of your service stations...

joelevan

I step away for a bit and you develop brilliance! Color #6 is a great way to go! It TOTALLY fits! I agree on the scale of the props. I thought that before, but didn't say anything as I was thinking about the building. I would like to see some more light work on the signs at the top, but I need to see how the blue turns out first. I'll stop here until I see a new rendering. This thing freakin' ROCKS. This is SO Vegas! Money!!!

This is the beginning of a deamon... A set of deamons... A real skyline fit for Vegas... Well; Ventura... lol. I've sorted out the props and have those renders... ... ...


Final Day Picture - The Props have been scaled down on par request... Well, I noticed that the sims could barely fit through those doors!! lol


Final Night Picture - Fixed? It looks like in order to get rid of the clouds we'll have to make two of them as props, and fix it how yoder mentioned... Unfortunatly those little signs in the middles arn't having the abient lighting too well so we'll have to leave them like that I'm awaid...

That should be it for that monster? I think... Now for the props and of course... The lower building...

Nealos101

[kimcar]

  Hi Nealos , i really like the new texture you done for your Great Casino.  Me too i found the number 6 the best. Great detail you put on too. Keep going that look very impresive.

[jmyers2043]

Just a couple comments about this particular picture
The UV map of all the angular walls look stretched. And a bit fake as a result. You may consider re mapping those specific sections or using a different texture. But I'm not sure what would suite at the moment.   The other arrow points to a 'black' thing. What is the architectural purpose for the part of the building as well.

The cloud (reflection in the windows) is a good idea but is going to be difficult for you I think. There is definitely cloud repetition between the hotel towers.

Why not try for a smaller version? We all know that Maxis scale is not very consistent so why is there a need for 'realism' as far as the MGM Grand? One thing is certain. Good texturing takes on a whole new importance when the buildings grow large. And yours is certainly huge. What is the footprint of the Casino?

I like the balconies and the chase lounge chairs. Also your use of some people props enjoying the desert sun. I'm looking at the gray balcony floor and wonder if the MGM really has cement floors. More likely some type of terra cotta Mediterranean tile? How about some potted plants on the balconies as well. I'm thinking that you need a wider variety of color and some green wouldn't go amiss. Besides, we all like a bit of eye candy.
All for now.