non-asian branch of SimFox' pixel torture chamber

[Serkanner]

Its an awesome piece of modeling and I will put some pressure on Ripplejet that when he receives the model he will make some haste getting it ready for the CAM ... 

[thundercrack83]

Oooh, "Red" looks great, SimFox! The night shots look spectacular! I can't wait to see more!

[jeronij]

Again a number one  ¡¡¡

I was wondering all the nice things I could do reading some nice tutorials about making these beuties ...  ....   

[RippleJet]

But I hope it will all be done tonight/tomorrow so I could ship it to RippleJet for Modding and CAMeLoting :-)

I'm looking forward to it and it will be my pleasure!

[SimFox]

I'm sincerely apologize that I'm behind the schedule (in a best tradition of all construction project  - what left is to invent the way to be over the budget in CG).
But here it is the final night render of RED.




I've decided to leave the "grid" on a roof top as without it it looks a bit "shapeless" but I have made it less apparent, softer as to mimic dirt accumulation at the places of the edges of the panels under the foil or what ever is that they put on roof... Also I've decided to do Lobby with Night maps same as windows. Only roof patio uses "lights" and even those are made with same technique and lights are light emitting geometry to give realistic soft area shading.

But that isn NOT all i would like to show you and ask your opinion on:
Here is my new "old" pet project that I would call TruNite for the luck of better term and for descriptiveness of it.
I'm to be honest sick and tired of DayNight of SimCity (like in old movies when they film night scene during day time with very strong filter on the lens. It looks dark but it doesn't look a bit like night.
So to bring SimCity from 50's b movies to the modern world and still keep it compatible with all the old stuff I've devised little alteration to night lighting scheme.
Building on the left is default "night" appearance of SC4 and one on the right is done with TruNite:

[RippleJet]

I think Gizmo's latest mod, the Day-Night Mod v1.0 is what you need, SimFox!

Download here: http://gizmo.lunarpages.com/index.php?action=downloads&d=Effect+Mods

You need to register to get in: http://gizmo.lunarpages.com/

[SimFox]

that NightDay mode is a great thing that I was looking for for quite a while!
But... and there is always "but" - it is totally different thing than TruNite.
Gizmo's mod is Game level Effect mod. It wouldn't affect bats or maxis building the way TruNite does.
Nite is done in game via simple overlay, that is controlled by 3 numbers - values for R (red) G (green) and B (blue) one location of those is found you can make you night what ever you like green, red or bright yellow. But that is just an overlay uniformly affecting everything it covers. Well about uniformity that is a little bit trick Based on the mixing mode it tend to affect different brightness level somewhat differently, but still it's effect is global. Besides BATs, building Props are ready images so nothing WITHIN them will be affected only tho whole thing. So if I use same allegory I used earlier about night in a game being day with a filter on this mod from Gizmo is simply putting darker filter on Camera.
TruNite works in a very different way - int alters the BAT itself, if you llok at the image you should notice that there crucial difference is not that it is just darker but completelly different nature of shadows. What TruNite does it actually turns day into the night by removing SUN from the scene. Then standard Night procedure (overlay) darkens the sky and voilá you have something much more passable as night.
The drawbacks (and there are always those) is that the way it will be integrated into the game will make it independent from mods like Gizmos and also make it incompatible with sunset/dawn in the game - but buildings would look MUCH better at night! So this is really the question of a trade-off...

[RippleJet]

The drawbacks (and there are always those) is that the way it will be integrated into the game will make it independent from mods like Gizmos and also make it incompatible with sunset/dawn in the game - but buildings would look MUCH better at night! So this is really the question of a trade-off...

Those drawbacks are pretty serious though...
In other words, TrueNite should have been integrated in the BAT from its release.

[SimFox]

nope... it's integration into BAT is actually totally irrelevant. the issue is how the night is made in game. past the actual process of building making.
So I see TruNite as an option, for those who don't do much sunrises/sets it could significantly improve the way their cities look at night (with lights on) bringing it couple of steps up the realism ladder.
Besides the core of TruNite is also a key to get night reflections and other effects.

Me myself I would definitely choose TruNite as the difference it makes espectilaly for complex buildings with a lot of reflective surfaces is dramatic to say the least. and the briefer moment of dusk dawn is too fleeting to be concerned about. At any rate there are so many inconsistencies and discrepancies in the game and people don't seem to notice them, i believe same will be with TruNite ones after some body of buildings with it be available.

[Andreas]

Well, I guess we can't change the way how the light is "made" in the game, can we? We can adjust the parameters and make the general lighting darker, but we can't change the method how the game creates the night mode. Anyway, TruNite or not, the finished model looks great, and your explanation about the roof panels sounds feasible. It definitely looks a lot better than before.

[jeronij]

I think that as long as you clearly explain how the nightlights work with this system ( and the drawbacks that you mentioned), it is up to the user to use it or not. If you go for realism ( and I know you go for it) dont worry about this. Just satisfy yourself  



Btw, I really like the model, with Truenite or without it 

[SimFox]

Jeronji:
actually youknow what?? you are sort of the father of this model!!
I've started it as an illustration for some techniques I use after we spoke (in PM) about some issues with snapping etc..
I've looked around what would be fitting shape for such a tutorial of sorts and this building came to my attention...
Now after it will be released (I plan to export it this night). I'll make that tutorial, promise!
Andreas:
Thank YOU for the advise with grid, it really was to sharp and artificial as it was...
BTW here are comparisons of TruNite on other 2 sides of the tower:

South:

East:

West:

BTW post color swatches of the colors you would like to see this tower in besides this GreyWhiteRed combo

[M4346]

This is a beauty!  The CAM will do her justice... *nudge-nudge, wink-wink* 

It is really incredibly beautiful and totally awesome!     

[Madeira aka Constantina]

its wonderful and it resembles most of todays buildings in urban housing.

[jeronij]

Jeronji:
actually youknow what?? you are sort of the father of this model!!
I've started it as an illustration for some techniques I use after we spoke (in PM) about some issues with snapping etc..
I've looked around what would be fitting shape for such a tutorial of sorts and this building came to my attention...
Now after it will be released (I plan to export it this night). I'll make that tutorial, promise!

These are most excellent news  . And I feel really proud of my unknown son   

[zero7]

nope... it's integration into BAT is actually totally irrelevant. the issue is how the night is made in game. past the actual process of building making.
So I see TruNite as an option, for those who don't do much sunrises/sets it could significantly improve the way their cities look at night (with lights on) bringing it couple of steps up the realism ladder.
Besides the core of TruNite is also a key to get night reflections and other effects.

TruNite is definitely a great improvement on the normal tinted day version.  As far as sunrises and sunsets in game are concerned, the people who would be most concerned are likely to be those making MDs, but I suspect even most of those would be willing to sacrifice sunrise/sunset for better night scenes.

Looking forward to seeing 'Red' released and to your TruNite tutorial. 

[SimFox]

 
my first attempt to export the RED had failed.... I just left it to export over the night Monday night and ... well it didn't at all... I mean it hasn't even started Error code 6 with notice in script window error occurred somewhere - very descriptive!! after poking around yesterday I've found the reason but still the limitations and inconsistencies of the BAT export scrip are getting to my nerve... Something has to be done to it to bring it up to date. All the garbage inherited from GMAX days should be scraped and all process streamlined and separated in two parts - rendering of views and slicing them. This first part should be simple batch render procedure. this would eliminate 95% of all export errors. and would give the possibility of editing the resulting images pre slicing - that opens huge array of new possibilities.
Of course there is always "manual" export option - rendering each view separately and manually aligning them with LOD exports and then slicing...
Anywho...
I'll be exporting the building tonight
And here are couple of mug shots of real RED taken couple of days ago by BOLIK:




bump, bump

here are first in-game views:

south

east

north

west


these are "basic" with few things disabled as to render faster I wanted to see if the changes I've made are working (see above my export problems)
And they do.
Besides I guess this one will be suitable for moding, and later new rendered model could be simply coupled with other files, right?
I think it looks pretty decent in game. Not to bright no too dark, also color palette wise it fits in, (IMHO) size is also seems to be fitting the environment.
Actually with the final render it will become a tad brighter, not too much just a bit... Do you think it has a room for it?

[mightygoose]

looks great, yeah you can tell its a draft render..about the model file it depends... you would have to change the replacement model files name to the exact of the original. thats not too difficult but ive never tried it before..

[SimFox]

mighty, can you tell exactly how you can see that this is "draft"?

[RippleJet]

It fits very well in game!

Besides I guess this one will be suitable for moding, and later new rendered model could be simply coupled with other files, right?

True, there is no problem in replacing an early model with a later one.
Compared to the effort of getting it rendered, the modding will be a piece of cake.

Whenever you want to see a basic CAMeLot of it, just send me the model file (final or not).