non-asian branch of SimFox' pixel torture chamber

[Pat]

Simfox what can one say but OMG WOW!!!!!!

[freedo50]

Wow, awesome model, but I think the window reflections are too busy - they draw the attention away from the model and onto the reflected images. Just a personal feeling.

Fred

[bat]

Yes, excellent model there! Wonderful work!

[SimFox]

Well, reflexions here are as integral part of the final thing as modeling. In modern architecture the properties of the materials are often strongest expressive point.
However, this time I did actually reduced reflectivity of the glass to the minimum (just tinted uncoated glass).

here are results:



and night views as a bonus:

[iamgoingtoeatyou]

OMG!!!!!! THOSE NIGHTLIGHTS!!!!!! 

*falls off chair*

[Pat]

OMG OMG Simfox WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Shadow Assassin]

That's a beauty.

If I were a skyscraper, I'd be all over it. 



Anyway, what's with the wacky base? Any particular reason for doing that?

[Andreas]

Well, reflexions here are as integral part of the final thing as modeling. In modern architecture the properties of the materials are often strongest expressive point.

This is true for RL, however, the game usually has far reflective "glass". But your latest approach looks excellent so far. The night shots are truly fantastic, it really looks like you can count the number of offices behind the windows.

[rooker1]

IMO, this second one looks alot better.  And your night lights are amazing.  Great work.
Robin 

[Heblem]

ORALES!!!  that building its sooo impressive!
whats the reflection texture youre using? the night lights looks perfect but the day preview makes it something odd with it, no sure what about, but anyway doesn't matter

keep those great buildings coming 

edit: as for day render maybe you could use lees saturation, and maybe some more opacity... but again not sure 

[SimFox]

Bashnja na Naberezhnoj C is pretty much completed. It has been exported and now just moding is let to do:









This is a version with bated lot. I did it because of the design I had in mind - it would be impossible to recreate it in LOT Editor, particularly lighting effects.

I think I did pretty decent job on matching lighting  and hue of the game, both day:

and night:


however, not everything peachy. if you look closely at the edge of the lot there is odd shadow. it is there, I'm sure, because the lot extends below 0 level. LODs however are starting from 0. And it looks fine in the Lot Editor. But in game these weird shadows appear. Does anyone know how to deal with them?

[callagrafx]

It's because you've BATed the base...but LODs set at z=0 are correct otherwise you'd have the underside showing.  Not sure there's a render solution, but a quick solution would be to add either fences or walls around the LOT to hide the join 

[SimFox]

Well that too, but I meant no the "joint" thingie... but that sort of "shadow" it is on the sidewalk outside the lot, I don't think adding somethin to the lot will fix it, however I'll try...

[callagrafx]

It almost looks like a drop shadow.  Does the mesh extend below the ground plane but the LODs sit on ground zero?  If they don't, try extending them down, it may get rid of the part that the game is trying to create a shadow for.

[SimFox]

yeah, that thing...

Yes mesh does extends below 0, - the poll bits do...
If I extend LODs bellow ground level, I think then it (the part bellow ground) will show up in game, and it shouldn't really.
I remember  this problem has been sighted already. And if I remember correctly some solution had been found... I just don't remember where and by whom...
Also there some "underground" buildings. Some Japanese and also PEG, if memory serves me right has some underground plaza or shopping center or something along these lines. And those do look fine in game.

[jeronij]

I think it is the building foundation that is showing up. You can make a quick one (a box will do the job) with a matching colour (with the model's ground) and test it  

You can also try setting the MaxSlopeAllowedBeforeBuildingFoundation lot property to a value higher than 0.

[callagrafx]

yeah, that thing...

Yes mesh does extends below 0, - the poll bits do...
If I extend LODs bellow ground level, I think then it (the part bellow ground) will show up in game, and it shouldn't really.
I remember  this problem has been sighted already. And if I remember correctly some solution had been found... I just don't remember where and by whom...
Also there some "underground" buildings. Some Japanese and also PEG, if memory serves me right has some underground plaza or shopping center or something along these lines. And those do look fine in game.

Sorry, I re-read my post and it sounded like I was saying to extend the LODs...but what I meant was extend the base.     The underground plazas were Deadwoods and I think he simply had a LOD at z=0 extending up, with the mesh below the ground plane to give the impression of depth.

[SimFox]

Sorry, I re-read my post and it sounded like I was saying to extend the LODs...but what I meant was extend the base.     The underground plazas were Deadwoods and I think he simply had a LOD at z=0 extending up, with the mesh below the ground plane to give the impression of depth.

Hm, I'm even more confused now... First of all The base is already extending below the ground (0) that is exactly what causing this issue. How extending it farther will fix this?

After tinkering with the issue I came to these conclusions:
The nature of the problem is that although the 3sd (anagram of 3ds??), which is basically LOD, exists only above the ground and is textured with images from the render and seen as a structure in game. But the actual render includes also below ground parts. Not seen as such they are still used by the game to create "shadow" so they extend in the direction opposite to normal shadow in the game. It seems that this is inevitable process - just game mechanics are written this way. To fix it one must simply remove all the the imagery that extends bellow the ground and out of the lot. Or, to be exact mask it. Cause I believe it is a mask that is used for shadow creation. It is simple skewed and stretches some...

Some time ago we - me and JasonCW tried to fix know issue with discrepancy of the shadow direction between BAT and the game - i believe it is a biggest blunder of the graphics team of the developer. We have found the properties that are responsible for the position of the sun in game. "Sun" could be raised or lowered over the horizon  altering the length of the shadow. It could be mover around the center of the "world" as well. That would change the direction of the shadow. But here comes problem. Shadow direction is not dependent on that value. I guess it was first approach of making shows in game - real 3d approach, that later was changed for 2d approach, but the property remained in the DAT as vestige of sorts.
To fix that shadow issue it is necessary to find property that controls the skew factor. So far it wasn't found, or at least I'm not aware of such a discovery.
So if anyone by the chance knows of such let me know.

[autoVino]

As far as I understand from experimenting with shadows, you are correct.  Shadows, I think (and am 90% sure), come from the fsh alpha files that are perpendicular to the current view.  The alpha is distorted and skewed so that it lands on the ground.  There are some exemplar files in the simcity DAT that can edit/distort this and edit the shadow, which is a mask on the ground that makes the ground look darker.  I have seen the ability to lengthen the shadows and to shorten them by moving the sun, but not to change their direction... which is logical based on how they are derived.

Moving a sun, in the real world, will change how a shadow looks like off of a building, not just by simple distortions such as skewness and rotation, but it will change the shape.  This is because as the sun moves, some parts of the building open up and become more passable for the light and some close up for the light (tell me if this doesn't make sense, I'll try to explain better).  This requires full 3d information to calculate how the light will pass and not pass through the model.  The game cannot do that.  It is limited to a simple alpha map and it cannot accurately change/distort the shadows to match the building.  Here is a crude example:
How the game will calculate shadows, approx. (top view)

How the lighting rig will calculate shadows, approx. (top view)

How the game will calculate shadows, skewing and rotating them, to attempt to match the lighting rig shadow, approx (top view)

Because you don't have true 3d information in the s3d file (only a limited lod with 4 views slapped on), no amount of skewing or rotating will be able to correctly show the shadows.  And this is only 90% sure, because that is how sure I am that the shadows are calculated this way (using the fsh alpha files from an adjacent view).  Hope that makes sense for my skepticism in fixing the shadow problem in the game (thought the game directly).

But a fix for your problem, Sim Fox, would just to not let the fsh files extend beyond the lod (or below the lod), like you said, this is what is most likely causing your problem.

btw, thank god for the new spell checker :-p

[Pat]

LoL Auto I know gotta love the new spell checker and Simfox I love this ingame thank you so very much!!!