Renaissance Center, Detroit, MI

[Skyfire]

I am currently BATting the Renaissance Center (RenCen) in Detroit Michigan. So, I decided to start this thread to (hopefully) get some feedback about my progress. Also, if anyone has any pics they took themselves, feel free to post a link. This first post will be used to indicate my progress, which I will update... as I make progress.

So, what do I plan on doing? I am going to try to re-create the Ren Cen as accurately as I can, while allowing for changes that are needed for it to work in the SC4 environment. For example, the real building is on a slight incline. It rises about 5 metres over it's ~200m base. I will be adapting this so it is flat as this is much better for SC4. Also, some of the vertical heights may be slightly emphasized to make it fit in more with other SC4 buildings.

I am going to BAT the main part of the complex: the Marriott, 4 surrounding towers and the base. I will not be BATting the People Mover station, the overhead walkways, or the two towers next to the main part of the complex. Any of these may be done later, but are not part of my initial plan. So far it seems that the complex will be on a 14x14 lot or something of that magnitude.

I plan on making the Marriott and the sounding towers and individual buildings as well. They will hopefully be modded as growables, ploppables and landmarks. The entire complex, however, will only be a ploppable or landmark. I don't think a 14x14 growable with 8000 jobs would be terribly useful. However, I hear the BSC is working on this aspect of modding.

Oh, I should also mention that I don't have MAX and am stuck using gmax... which will restrict the quality of the texturing that I can achieve.



Current Progress: 10%

Done:
- basic model of the Marriott
- surrounding towers textured, but the textures need improvement... also, details must be added
- atrium has been started

To Do: Still way to much to name here.



Click on pics to see larger image.

Here's a current pic of the Marriott:


Mariott

Still a lot to do as you can see... no textures yet...

Here's a current pic of one of the 4 surrounding towers... They are all the same, or almost the same and only differ in slight details, which I have not added yet. I have textured it as a preliminary thing, but I need to improve the textures... they are not very good yet. Especially the grass... The tiling is obvious... I think I forgot to UVW map it or something. The cylindrical part is also to blue at the top.


100 RenCen

When I put it all together to just get an idea of the sizes involved, it looks something like this... No the final version will not have this box-like base! :p


Complex - Roughed out

I just did this to see how everything goes together with the dimensions that I have determined. I drew the base as a box for the purpose of illustration. The base is 12.5x12.5 SC4 tiles... meaning it will be on a 13x13 or 14x14 lot... probably 14x14. (I know that this render below is terrible quality, and I have some weird shadows going on, but I know what caused this... oops!)

And finally, I have started BATting the atrium part of the base which is going to be the hardest part of this model.


Atrium

So, as far as further progress goes, I hope to be able to release the above tower as a stand alone (I will make some kind of podium for it). I will also be working on the Mariott and releasing it as a standalone. Once those are done, all that I will need to finish is the base and put everything together. It will probably still be a month or two until it is complete.

[HabLeUrG]

thanks for making this better  there was a BAT of this building in sim city exchange but too simple, yours looks 1,000 times better  keep it up

[Frankie]

That's a mighty fine start    You are actually killing two birds with one stone here, the main building is an exact copy of the Westin of Atlanta, GA...if you so desired you could render the middle one seperately to create it also..  anyways, keep up the good work!

[thundercrack83]

Great start, Skyfire! Can't wait to see more development!

[JBSimio]

Great to see this project is still happening.  I remember you starting it a while back, but then it kind of faded into the land of What-happened-to-that-idea?  (Terrible name for a country, if you ask me...)  I'll be very interested to watch the atrium develop.  What you have so far looks great!   

@Frankie:  I don't believe the two buildings are exact copies of each other.  They were designed by the same person, and certainly have a LOT of similarities, but I'm fairly sure there are a number of differences.  Then again... I've been wrong more than once before.  I've also only been to Atlanta once, and that was more to drive through on my way elsewhere... so I could very well be mistaken.

[Andreas]

Well, see for yourself:

Renaissance Center: http://cache.jalopnik.com/cars/assets/resources/2006/10/Detroit_GM_Renaissance_Center-3.jpg

Westin Peachtree Plaza: http://www.skyscraperpicture.com/atlanta17.jpg

A lot of similarities indeed. Dusktrooper's Warriott Grissom Place Hotel obviously was ispired by this building as well, though it's not an exact copy. Anyway, the Westin Peachtree Plaza was my favorite landmark in SC3000, so it would be great to see it in SC4 as well. That said, let me also say that your start on the Renaissance Center looks very promising indeed! I'm looking forward to the growable mega lot, which would fit in the upcoming BSC mod perfectly.