non-asian branch of SimFox' pixel torture chamber

[6underground]

any updates, since it's mid-december and all?   

[SimFox]

I was busy with work after I've form China plus battling with bleeding HDD in my Powerbook that had died on me during the flight back home... and took with it about 30+ Gb of photos from Central Kingdom among which much reference material I planned to use..

Taking it all into account I think I wouldn't have any real updates till early January... :-(

[6underground]

awww no  , i hope you have better luck in the near future.

[Une_ame]

Take all the time you need but come back with new awesome BAT like the one you show us before .

[mmorales2]

Hellllooooo? Any more updates? Please, we need updates. LOL. Oh, how is the Russia Tower coming along?

[aNdi]

awesome work 
the details in your models are really.... breath taking somehow

[tankmank]

Long time no update, well i love your BATs, you allways put a lot of care and attention into them and i love your moscow residential BATs the most as they allow me to make the kinds of Euro inspired estates seen in china like this:

[SimFox]

Yeah, long time... didn't have time to do any bating lately...
However, today i managed to get some work on Ukraina done. It is almost done in terms of modeling.

[Girafe]

So nice Simfox

congratulation

any news about FT ??

[Une_ame]

Now, I can die....................

[SimFox]

Girafe,
lately I had virtually no time to do some bating... But I do intent to finish it as well. Main issue with it at the moment is the design of the base. There seems to be some lat alterrations planned. Also the design of the central spire. All the renderings were showing it to be steel and glass structure from bottom to the top of elevator shaft. yet now it is being built (and already at the hight of about 250m) and it is a concrete tube... so, go figure... But Towers are basically done (apart form making interior under that huge glass domes)

Une_Ame, please, don't...

[joelyboy911]

That is one intense building!

[Girafe]

@ Simfox

Yes, it's very long to see what they will do with the central column. And i admit it's difficult to plan what they are doing with the cladding in this part of the building and I think we must wait still few months before seeing everything. In an other side they have announced that they don't build russia tower what do you also do with your model ??

Only City of Capitals will be ended before 2010 and the towers topped out till 300m, have you plan to BAT them ?

thanks for your answer

[SimFox]

Situation with Russia Tower is unclear... As market conditions will improve, I'm sure someone will pick this project up. The name, both of the tower itself and the architect makes it a very meaningful prestige project, and City of Moscow have plenty of ways to make it happens. My model had run into problem with the base design and the fact that I've foolishly been making it in Max2k9. It's Mental Ray is not compatible with current versions of Bat4Max. I have plans to re-write export script in such a way as to fix that but it is still just a project.
Another problem is that buildings of such size aren't my personal playing style... this does affect the final stage of the project. But I think I'll return to it at some point. Now everyone eagerly expecting CitiesXL. But following the news about that game I have my serious doubts about it being something to replace the SimCity4 which had virtually became "open-source/standard" game. I don't think MC will want that. They seem to built their revenue around selling "extras". This makes doubt that they will really open it to modifying and user created custom content. And without such game like this will be good for few months...

Federation is proceeding, albeit slowly, I mean real thing. I think they have (after the paranoia following 9/11) made the structural integrity such a priority that building is very difficult and time consuming to construct. I saw on Discovery Chanel documentary about it recently. They said it has at least 3 and some parts as many as 4 layer structural security measures. Much of the design is first ever, so naturally things are subjects to constant delays.

[mmorales2]

Wow Fox!!! The Ukraina is looking and I can't wait for downloading. Do you plan on making the other ones just like it:  Triumph Palace, Moscow State University , Building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment , Ministry of Foreign Affairs , Kudrinskaya Square, Hotel Leningradskaya , Red Gate Square. They all have that castle feel and would look great in any city. oh, by the way keep up the good work.

[SimFox]

I was thinking of Kudrinskaja and Ministry of Foreign affairs.
Triumph and University are just too huge. Not sure they even could be batted in one piece. Plus Triumph isn't strictly speaking in the same league...
Kotelnicheskaja, although a splendid example, is of a bit odd (for game) shape.

[SimFox]

For a long time I din't have much time to spend on BATing, but now I have had a break and here are some results:

First of all the "quickie" #1:

Chiao Tian Men (gateway to heaven):

 

you can download NON-CAM version from Simtropolis: http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=21945

CAMpatible version could be ready quite quickly, but apparently there is ether some very big backlog in LEX candidacy or some else...  As my last two submissions are already couple of months with no reply...


And here is a new "quickie"

South:


East:


North:


West:


I've posted all four elevations as I wold like to hear opinion on the ground level of the building. I'm also looking for an advise on the gray of the roof top structural elements. Is it too gray? does it need some color through in?


Idea behind quickies was to make a faster process of making bats both in terms of the actual modeling/texturing as well as export. For instance this latest "quickie" takes only 30 min to export (day only). This is many many times less then some of my comparable (in size) previous buildings.

This latest "offering" is also a testbed for a new BAT4Max that has finally solved compatibility issue with the latest versions of MentalRay. Model is rendered and successfully exported from Max2010 Design

[SimGoober]

Interesting building. Has several eye catching features... One of which is a bit confusing.

The roof.  At first glance, it is a "wow". Lots of details, and depth.  Could use a little variation in the darkness like water collecting or such), but the grey color works. But it seems to have a lot of depth, expecially on the sides facing away from you. But on the sides facing you (in any elevation), it seems like it is only a meter or so tall, and suspended over a deck of some sort.  The far side almost looks there would be a lattice of sorts going down to cover a mech area, but the "front" looks like there is nothing there.  May just be an optical illusion.

The glass texture you use is very nive, if a bit busy. Stands out a bit from other buildings in game. Not really a bad thing, but just stands out to me.

The base could use "something".  Though I cannot put my finger on it. Maybe a few signs, or canvis awnings?

There are two small flat roofs (base and top of the shaft) which are flat grey.  I am assuming these are not done yet, but just in case they missed your attention....

[Leodido]

Very nice work SimFox

[SimFox]

SimGoober:
I must confess that this is a recreation of a building in Tokyo. And I tried to follow what is there in the original.
The roof is like.

here some pics of it:
Roof:


Building itself:


Base:


As for base... as you could see it hasn't really got anything more than that in real thing either. And I kind of liked it for it's austerity (typically Japanese) especially pared with the busy construction of the roof.