CAL's BAT Cave

[xxdita]

Um... Should there really be the parking vent underneath the pool? I'm not sure why I didn't notice this before.

[callagrafx]

Um... Should there really be the parking vent underneath the pool? I'm not sure why I didn't notice this before.

oops, me neither.  I shall rectify 

[Andreas]

Well, it could stay due to the symmetry - the swimming pool water treatment facility needs venting as well.

[xxdita]

True, but that area would be closed off from the parking structure, with probably only a maintenence entrance. I'd leave the vent in place at the back (or side?) of the building in the pool area, but directly underneath I'd think would need to be more secure, to keep guests away from the pool chemicals and such.

[callagrafx]

I'm gonna put a small structure in front, with locked doors and maybe a very large wall mounted fan (I have a few of those  ) to hide my mistake 

[TheTeaCat]

Some excellent additions there with the "dressing" Lee 

I dunno why once my eye spotted the weird shadows in that area it kept zoning in on it all the time. 

A quick question, How do the sims get out of the pool without steps or ladder? A small diving board perhaps?

This is looking better and better Lee, cant wait for it to be released

Regards
Derry

[hydra]

Thats one big place but looking great.

[SimFox]

Interesting structure!

May I ask, what do you render it with? I see sharp, defined shadows from "sun" so it most probably not the default rig. Then again the shadow side looks a bit odd and two adjacent surfaces of the same material look entirely different in terms of both luminance and hue.

[callagrafx]

Simfox: It's rendered with the standard BAT lighting rig, only modification I did was to change the light shadows to raytraced rather than shadow map, using Mental ray set to it's highest. The shadows look plausible for the game, although its the only time I use targeted directs for modelling, all other (paid) work is illuminated by photometric lighting.  I've just got my copy of Max 2008 so will be playing with the lighting options it gives you now...I'm loving the photographic exposure controls.  I still need to figure Vray settings though, not used it a great deal and don't have much time to "play"...Could you point me to some good reference sites/books etc?

[SimFox]

hm... now I'm confused even more: you use default rig(with changed shadow type) right? What then do you set to the highest in MR??

Yeah! mr Photographic Exposure is a grate stuff! I'd go as far as saying it is better then Physical Camera in V-ray. Well, with one exception. the white balance control, or to be precise it's UI in mr Photographic exposer control. It only allows for K temperature but not a hue shift. Funnily enough all that functionality is there. It just not realised in UI. I know from the horses mouth, so to say of a discussion about the issue at Autodesk. People involved with UI development defended their position by saying that they recreate Pro camera controls. Apparently they themselves have very limited experience with said cameras or they would know that apart from white balance set in K there is always hue shift. But I think some clever blocks from German MR forum made own camera shader that has all the additional features available in the MR itself.
Another new feature in 2008 is Light portal!! Man, is it great or is it great!! With it's introduction MR is finally able to take on V-ray in interior renderings. It's funny to see how old guard is "fighting the change" On one forum people were comparing V-ray vs Mr on set scene. And some just insist on having tons of interior lights with day scene. Lights that are absolutely pointless, unrealistic and there in the first place because in the time scene was set it was the only way to get it to render in acceptable quality. Now they are obsolete. Still some  insist they have to be taken into account!

As for MR vs V-ray... well it is a battle of the giants... Very difficult to call winner. Superb results could be achieved in either. in some circumstances either can have some speed edge. People say that in animation MR is a better performer. Personally i don't have any experience with that. In many cases V-ray may have some speed advantage over MR, but I wouldn't say a huge one. Also I like lighting model in MR better. I think it looks more real while V-ray looks more precessed more CG like - overly smooth. Of course you can tinker with it and get it look "real" but with MR this comes straight out of box. I'm sure in both case it a simply case of default settings. and shows nothing more then some sort of philosophical differences between developers.

As for V-ray stuff. Well it was and still is a king of the hill in arch_vis (particularly interior works) and there are tons of tutorials floating around.
I would recommend to take a look at these:

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/cni01.html
http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/dvds/cni02.html
http://gnomonology.com/tutorial/62

information in those is spread across the time plain but principles are solid and presentation is VERY god!

also you definitely should get acquainted with this fantastic resource for V-ray materials:

http://www.vray-materials.de/

as for the application to the BAT V-ray has couple of issues:
It's sun/Sky model works best through it's own proprietary Physical Camera. It is a great cam, but unfortunately it hasn't got the the ortho mode.
With standard cameras white balance settings are unavailable as V-ray doesn't play house with MAX exposure controls. This problem may be, like always bypassed with some tinkering with lights. Also all the speed gains are available with V-ray own set of GI features which are again are incompatible with BAT scripts. Particularly knowing your adherence to the game "rules" and "perceptions" this may be difficult. Although this very thing would allows for effortless truNite export. Still some tinkering, although on a small scale, with the scripts would be required.
Biggest limitation though, the thing that pushed me to MR for BAT and in the end made it my render of choice for everything else (what an irony), is that way V-ray calculates the image. It is STRICTLY from camera view. Although FG in MR is sort of works this way it linkage is more lose. V-ray on the other hand is enforcing clipping. Or to be precise it simply wouldn't calculate anything outside of camera clipping plains regardless if they are turned on or off.

With BAT that means limitation of the size of the models that could be exported. if it too tall or too wide it may be chopped off.

You can have very accurate preview of this phenomenon if you turn clipping in camera settings.

I have to stress that this would come into play only with VERY large models.
I came across it only when I been working win Andisart of his model of BurjDubai. Basically with normal skyscraper proportions e.g. tower with cross section of 60x60780x60 you should be quite safe up to the heights of about 560-600m.
Among strong point of V-.ray is un-doubtfully it's Light cache! It is very fast and excellent way to bounce light into all sort of narrow spots! FG can not compete with this one. MR GI photons sort of can, but the problem with them is that mr Sky ONLY works with FG. So you have to rely on it to carry the light. And as you probably know any extra FG bounce is quite pricey in terms of time. Light cache is like photons - almost endless bounces almost free! Just take a look at the render times in the shots above!

[callagrafx]

Having bashed my head against a brick wall with render errors (mostly memory, so I need to do some pruning) with Waterside, I got a bit fed up with BAT...until I started playing Demon Days on my ipod again...So, for all you Gorillaz fans, I present, Feel Good Inc.

Graffiti by Banksy, posters by me.  This is a stage 14 CO$$ sitting on a 3x3 LOT, so it will require CAM.  There will also be a plop with jobs for you non-CAMers.  Will update with ingames once I export.  Alternatively I could do it as a prison, as that's how it's perceived in the video.

[jayo]

Looks freaky  Nice stuff there 

[toxicpiano]

Nice! I think a prison would be appropriate.

[zero7]

That's a very nicely textured ... er ... whatever it is.  In fact it's probably the tallest and best whatever it is I've seen for SC4   

[callagrafx]

It's an homage to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01C4RPEinM4

[Couchpotato]

Well, I would have guessed it was President Bush's economic think-tank board room.   
Perhaps some smoke drifting from the top would complete that perception. 

[Adept2Rock]

I like i like your flat!!So beautifu!

[zero7]

It's an homage to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01C4RPEinM4

Ah, that explains it.  Gorillaz music I know and love, but I've never been a music videos person.

[mightygoose]

nice cal very nice i have a use for that hideous beauty

[callagrafx]

Here's the BAT ingame as a prison, with room for 12,000 inmates