Easy Spline Modeling in BAT

[Couchpotato]

Spline Modeling in BAT

Back in dinosaur time when we first started to create items in BAT, Maxis told us that splines were the preferred way to model.    They also told us that you never texture your building until it completely finished.   I don't always follow the latter, but it's good advice.

The spline method of modeling is a good one as it offers great flexibility in making complicated creations.  And it's easier.   

Getting started:   Open BAT and on the right side of your screen you see this array of buttons.   The circle button brings up standard primitives and the next button opens splines.   Splines are simply two dimensional shapes that become three dimensional when modified.    In this tutorial, we're going to create an entire building using nothing but a rectangle and a few modifiers.
   

  BAT opens with the unit grid sizes set correctly but you need to scroll in each window so the grid shows 1 not 16.   You can find this information at the bottom of the screen (circled).   Then push the first spinner so it shows 2.5.   This will enable snaps so your cursor will stick to the grid corners. 

Pick the rectangle option, drag a box shape in the window.   This is the front of your building.   


Next, draw a four grid high rectangle for the door and three two grid high rectangles for windows. 

[Couchpotato]

At the top of your screen is a menu line, pick Modifiers, open it and choose Edit Spline.   Anytime you see an arrow on the right side, it means there is a sub-menu below with more options.   We need to move the door spline because spline lines can never touch or cross.   They won't render properly if they do.   



Just click on the Edit Spline option to apply it to your model.    With the spline modifier open, choose the spline.   This will select the entire door frame so we can move it up a fraction.   Use the move tool (next to arrow) found at the top of your screen.   With the outside rectangle selected, click on the attach button and touch the inside rectangles.    All these separate rectangles are now joined into one object.  Deselect the Attach button. 



Go back to the Modifier option at the top of your screen and choose Mesh Editing, Extrude.
The Parameter window will open, choose .4 for the depth of your wall.   This will allow room for doors, window frames and window panes to fit below the outer wall so a viewer sees depth.   





The door is created by drawing a simple rectangle in the door opening and applying an extrude modifier of .1 or .2.   To make a window frame, draw a rectangle in the opening and apply a spline modifier.   With that rectangle selected, choose the Outline option and type in .1.   Now apply the extrude modifier to this frame.   To make the glass for the window, drag in a rectangle and extrude to a depth of .01.  (or drag in a plane for the window glass).   

Select your window frame and glass, hold down the shift key and drag towards the other openings.   This will copy those items to the other windows.   Your front wall is basically finished. 









 

[Couchpotato]

Features that make spline modeling easier.   

You often need to select separate items while modifying and it can be difficult as they're just lines in the beginning.   Naming each item as you create it is very important so you can use the select option instead of your cursor.   Use this select window to pick individual object or hold down the CTRL key and select several items.   



The side wall is created using splines like the front wall.   



Often a modeled element, like windows, walls, etc., can be copied to save time.   This is done my selecting the original, holding down the shift key and moving the item. 



This wall is duplicated by the shift/move and then rotate so the same wall is outside on both views.   

Another very useful feature is the freeze option.   Select the items you want to protect, right click to bring up the freeze window. 



The Roof:    In the top view, drag a spline rectangle to fit the building.   Extrude it to around .2 and raise it near the top of your building.   



Texture Time

First:   UVW maps are the instructions that define the dimensions of your object for gmax textures.   Your objects aren't just flat one dimensional things but that's how textures will be applied without these instructions.    The door here is mapped as a box with a Z alignment.   These alignments tell gmax the direction of your texture.   A column would wrap a texture around the object, etc.   You will need to map every single item in your scene.   



There are seven mapping options, dimensions to fit the size correctly and tiling option.   The Alignment allows the texture to face different directions. 



Most Batters use Bitmap images for their textures.   To apply these, open the Material Editor using this icon or hitting the letter M.   Choose New and then Standard to access your bitmap library. 



The Material Editor has lots of options including the little box by Diffuse for your bitmap image. 
Large books are written just on the options for texturing but I'm going to keep this really simple.   



Click on that little box by diffuse and it opens a window where you choose what bitmap you want to apply.   You'll have to scroll through some directories to find these bitmaps so keep things organized.   It will make life much easier in the future.   Choose your image here and select open.  With your image selected, hit the apply button and the little checkered box.   The front wall now has paint.





Every time you reach an item that requires a new texture, you have to start the process of picking a bitmap over again.   Once you pick your bitmap, a secondary Material Editor window will open.   Use the black 'Go to Parent' arrow to get back to your primary editor window.   



When assigning texture, keep in mind how light bounces off an object, if it does.   Walls are traditionally flat but windows have lots of shine.   Use the Specular and Glassiness spinners to create shine.    Here's I've used the glass texture that comes with BAT.   



Gmax's Material Editor stores all your textures by Scene.   You can retrieve these by opening the scene and clicking on the texture you need.   You access this Navigator by clicking on the red/yellow/blue balls in the editor.



Couldn't finish this lesson without a fun item that will jazz up buildings.  Text in gmax is a spline and can manipulated with modifiers.    Open the text option under splines, type in your message and extrude.   

[Couchpotato]

place holder

[thingfishs]

This is looking great Lynn , there is a real need for more straightforward BAT tutorials. Everyone gets pushed towards the BAT Essentials tutes which, while very good and comprehensive, are a bit much for some beginners. For me I gave up half way through them but fortunately found some simpler ones that got me in the door.
I look forward to the next two parts, I've already learnt plenty from this - I didn't know about enabling snaps, sounds useful.

[Couchpotato]

This is looking great Lynn , there is a real need for more straightforward BAT tutorials. Everyone gets pushed towards the BAT Essentials tutes which, while very good and comprehensive, are a bit much for some beginners. For me I gave up half way through them but fortunately found some simpler ones that got me in the door.
I look forward to the next two parts, I've already learnt plenty from this - I didn't know about enabling snaps, sounds useful.

Hiya... was hoping you'd read this.   Please let me know what it's missing.   I'm hoping more players will start Batting.   
The snaps are very handy and can be set to snap to various parts of an object.    And don't give up... it's really easy once you do it a few times.   Just start with a simple wall. 

[Evillions8]

That's so easy that a caveman can do it.   

Anyway, nice tutorial for the newcomers.  I wish I can start BATing again, but I quit playing SC4 but not posting and other junk.

[cogeo]

I'm using a slightly modifed technique to get rid of the small stripe under the door duct (it doesn't always look good, and it's hard to texture):

- Instead of moving the door rectangle up a little, just attach it as is.
- Then, in the Edit Spline modifier, go to the "Segment" selection mode, and select and delete the lower door and wall segments (this leaves the shape incomplete/open).
- Go to the "Vertex" selection mode, and connect the wall and door vertices (this closes the shape, finally).

Not a big deal, just wanted to make BATters aware of the option.

[Nijomi]

If you uncheck the start new shape option you do not need to use attach, as you create one object with all the shapes you make.

[smstevenms]

Again, I'm stumped! Where you descibe making the wall and attaching all rectangles (door and windows) I get a different graphic look - I'm seeing the color of the door & windows instead of transparency. When I click "Attach" located in Geometry (only place I see "Attach"), I can't select anything (door, windows, or wall) untill I deselect "Attach"!

I adjusted the door, applied the Modifer - Patch/Spline Editing, Edit Spline. I wasn't sure in your discription either about what items to select the spline edit for, just the door or all objects, so I choose all.
Please help! Thx
This first image is just to show you what I'm seeing
This Second and third just show the next steps that you explain. I feel some step was not mentioned or I'm missing the point.

[cogeo]

I see the Edit Spline modifier is in italics, which means that you have applied the modifier to a set, rather than a single object. Take the following steps:
- Create the wall, the door and the windows (rectangles).
- Select the wall rectangle (only) and apply an Edit Spline modifier (or convert it to Editable Spline).
- In the Geometry pane click Attach Mult and select all windows and the door. Alternatively you can click Attach, and select (pick) the other objects one by one. You don't need to have the "Spline" selection mode highlighted, you can have the "Edit Spline" highlighted.

Also try the technique I described in my post above.

[smstevenms]

I see the Edit Spline modifier is in italics, which means that you have applied the modifier to a set, rather than a single object. Take the following steps:
- Create the wall, the door and the windows (rectangles).
- Select the wall rectangle (only) and apply an Edit Spline modifier (or convert it to Editable Spline).
- In the Geometry pane click Attach Mult and select all windows and the door. Alternatively you can click Attach, and select (pick) the other objects one by one. You don't need to have the "Spline" selection mode highlighted, you can have the "Edit Spline" highlighted.

Also try the technique I described in my post above.

Thank you for responding. Now when I'm to use the Modifer/Spline edit am I selecting the wall or door? Because this is where I get lost, I assumed I first select the door and move it up. So do I select the wall next, to be spline edited?, then follow the instruction you've provided?

EDIT: As I tried to try a few things I got this to work but this site was hanging up so I couldn't reply. I noticed that one issue I was having was having to many objects with the spline edit properties. Now my object looks like the one displayed here. thx again.   :thumbsup:


NEW:Second Question Now I'm on the section about appling the "Outline" to the window. I've created the rectangle for the wind, applied the spline edit, and selected the outline. The extrude modifier is already at .1, when I do the extrude I don't see the 2 different colors only the one for the window. I also don't see the word Pane in the box as illistrated? Can you help? Thx.

[cogeo]

Basically Couchpotato suggests using the spline/attach/extrude method for making window frames (exactly what you have done to create the wall and the door/window ducts). I'm using a different technique (which I find easier too):
- Create a spline (rectanglular, or any other shape) for the window frame
- Go to the "Mesh Settings" pane (or "panel" or "group" if you prefer  ) and check "Generate Mapping Coords" and "Display Mesh". Then set "Thickness" to the desired value.
- This won't be visible in the exported BAT though, you also need to add an Edit Mesh modifier to make it visible.

The above method creates a "rounded" frame, which does reflect light, so you need to set your material options (Speculars and Glossiness) carefully. If you want a rectangular window frame, it has to be slightly modified:
- On top of the Edit Mesh modifier add a Smooth modifier (Menu->Modifiers->Mesh Editing->Smooth). Do not change anything here.
- Go down to the Mesh Settings pane and set Sides to 4 and Angle to 45 (degrees).

Please note though that due to BAT's low resolution, such "details" are barely visible; most often they are completely lost.

[smstevenms]

Thanks for the advice cogeo, thankfully with enough trail & error I figured it out. Your alternative method seems more complicated, or more to learn lol.
My new problem is building to the scale that's realistic in size. When I go to replace pz3x3ParkGreens3 in Lot Editor with my building, the building is super small (almost less than a 1x1). I attempted to use the "Uniform Scale" tool to enlarge (using gmax), I zoomed out from "Grid=1" to "Grid=16", selected all items, then used Uniform Scale tool.  I deleted other file I created for SC4 and reapplied steps as before. All I could see was a corner of my building (enlarged but not full, like a cropping of part of building).

Can you help with this? Thx.

PS: My goal is to make city buildings, skyscrapers, and warehouses. Size does matter in this case.