SimFox's Pixel Torture Chamber

[jeronij]

BTW I did go around Beijing Silver Tower and had been very disappointed... the side that I couldn't have found any pictures of is absolutely blank... It just an wall with no opening s of any kind on it...

Excellent news ¡¡¡¡. It fits my modelling skills perfectly      ¡¡¡

Nice to see you back and I hope you'll find some time to model something nice   

[Sim Shady]

Wow looks impressive!  That foilage down the avenue in one of the pictures is really cool.  Sounds like you did not experience any trouble from those bad storms China has been having

[SimFox]

Wow looks impressive!  That foilage down the avenue in one of the pictures is really cool.  Sounds like you did not experience any trouble from those bad storms China has been having

I've left before they hit country...

[SimFox]

OK, good falk!
I've got some time on my hands now and am planning to get back to bating...
I've made some additions to OSS (One SilverSea). Actually they are large the  one may initially think.

Central Towers were redone as I've decided to clean up the model. Materials were re-vamped as well as rendering settings.
Also Base is getting populated bit by bit.



I've also finally found solution to pesky AA (Anti-aliasing, not Alcoholics Anonymous) problem with MR. Sadly it doesn't leave quite as much room for maneuver as does V-Ray, but still...



But there is still a LOT of modeling work left to be done. It is a huge building and to do justice to the detail at Zoom5 will require a lot.

[spartanB292]

  All hail the Great and mighty Fox  !!! Now where's that stupid bow icon??

[rooker1]

That looks awesome.  I love these huge LOTs.  I really like what you have done with the base as well.  Outstanding work.

Robin 

[RebaLynnTS]

would love to know how you did the water.

[jeronij]

Really nice pictures . The model looks better and better. It really makes me want to launch the MAX and modell something   

[callagrafx]

would love to know how you did the water.

A simple way is a reflective material with a procedural bump map, then let Max's physics do the rest.

[Pat]

   WoW Simfox that is stunning work!!!

[JoeST]

that is indeed pixel torture LOL... amazing, simply stunning, You are definatly one of the greater BATers around

Joe

[SimFox]

thank you, thank you , thank you!

As saying goes - pride before fall. Next day after posting these pictures here and boosting of the solutions found I open the scene and... ta-dah! getting message that MAX can not open the file! And of course I don't have any reserve copies (I mean with latest additions) and all the autobackup files have been overwritten by other files I was working on...
What it means is that I would have to go through tedious process of remodeling all the stuff I've done last time. And what have proven even more complicated finding the colors and lighting settings I used.

Yesterday I've spent 2 hours trying to get right shades of brown... with only moderate success...

But that's life. OSS will be built!

RebaLynnTS:

well Callagrafx had partially answered your question.
I want to add just few points.
Depending on your needs water could be transparent/translucent say when you make a pool or fountain where you want to see bottom or solid for instance in case of lake.
Also Water could be modeled to be a simple plain  with say noise map in bump slot to give ripple impression, or volume  - say box.
Second option offer some visual advantages. For instance like in this case water doesn't need (and generally shouldn't have) diffuse color also it doesn't have a solid refraction color (that is tinting anything beyond the plain water). In stead there is that color depends on the depth of object. So if you look closely at the sides of the pool you'll notice that transition.
Of course one must ask is there actual need for this, especially at this scale. The answer is personal and perhaps more NO than YES. But still why not. Also I've learned on personal experience it is worth ones while to do thing right, correct. It will be easier later on to fake thins when needed...

To cut long story short. This water is in the end renderer specific (in this case specific to Mental Ray v 3.5 and later) and wouldn't work with others (except Final Render).
Effect though could be rather easily replicated in any raytracer render (eg NOT scanline).

If there is an interest in such a materials I could may be have a little collection made later on.

[RebaLynnTS]

All I have to work with is GMax, and I am a long way from knowing what all it can and can-not do.

[callagrafx]

All I have to work with is GMax, and I am a long way from knowing what all it can and can-not do.

Quite simply, it cannot bump map or raytrace, so any water you'd want to do would have to be a bitmap texture like these:





Here's a load of them:

http://www.vterrain.org/Water/textures.html

[RebaLynnTS]

Thank you for the link. Maybe if I get my book published, I'll make enough money to buy a decent modeling program

[SimFox]

RebaLynnTS:
BTW there is absolutely free and quite decent modelling program called Blender

Take a look here:

http://www.blender.org/

It has wide set of tools with all the current standard features of any 3d package. Also it is constantly evolving and has large community around it so the help and advise could be easily found if needed. It is absolutely cross-platform (Windows/MacOS/Linux) and can export on formats which GMAX, for instance can accept. In fact one guy on Simtropolis did managed to produce one model in Blender and export it in GMAX. There were some problems but I'm absolutely sure that they all are solvable. Of course many see GMAX limitations mostly in the speed and functionality of it's renderer, but I believe that it is impaired even more in terms of modeling tool set. So Blender eve as a modeling stage could be a big improvement.

[RebaLynnTS]

Thank you for the link. I will check it out.

[SimFox]

it has been a while. But I haven't gave up on my Asian projects, just they keep get reshuffled all the time...

but here are couple I've started this weekend. they modest size mean that they are likely to be released rather soon...

[CasperVg]

I'm not really a fan of the colour of the above one, but that's your choice. The lower one, on the other hand, looks really great.

[M4346]

I on the other hand LOVE colour of the first one, and the second one is also very beautiful! But I like the first one more.