Threestooges and the BAT

[Pat]

alright Matt I'm ready when ever you are on that building....  The support base on the rail bridge looks absolute frackin sweeeeeeet!!!!!!!!!!!

[threestooges]

Replies:
-FrankU: I haven't officially decided on the pillar spacing, but it looks like it will be somewhere in that range. I want to make sure it's possible to have a pillar-free bridge over a canyon, but still give it some look of realism over longer spans. I've been working on some footings for the bridge and you'll see them below.

-Heblem: There is a small angle in the roof, but jpeg compression makes it a bit blurry. It looks a bit better in the game. Right now, it is (I think) with the NAM team and should be released with the next NAM. If you think it could be improved, I'll look into changing it a bit, but I want to avoid the big pitch that the game covered bridge has. Thanks for the comment, and your honesty. I am still learning this stuff, so any input is good.

-Pat: It will be a little while with the building (especially now with finals, papers, etc coming up). In front of it is the rail bridge, but that's about it. It's actually that office building from a little while ago. Textures are the main thing I'm working with, and I still need to figure out how to get the windows right. As far as the support goes, I'm not too sure about the textures, but I'm glad you like it so far (to put it lightly).

One of the biggest comments I've been receiving is the floating bridge/lack of footings. Something I've been meaning to work on, but never finding the right style/textures. I think I'm finally getting there though. Two questions I have now: how's the footing looking so far, and should there be cross bracing on it?



Stangely, though it looks angled and whatnot, everything on it is at a 90 degree to everything else. Why it looks like this is beyond me, but either way, thoughts are welcome.
-Matt

[FrankU]

Oh, great footing!
Never thought of someting like this.
And yes: there should be some cross bracings, because without diagonals you have no stability.

[City Builder]

Looking at that footing however it would appear to me that the rocks have been concreted into place and the wooden trusses on the outside isn't to contain the rocks but rather more of a decoration system, so diagnoal bars wouldn't be needed in my opinion.  Even with cross bracking those individual rocks are going to come tumbling our of the brace work unless they are held in there by concrete or some other forum of adhesion in which case adding diagnal trusses to it might maike it look over bearing.  Remembering this is a game sometimes beauty has to come over reality, and what might now work in reality can be made to look and work beautifully in non reality (games.)

Just my opinion and the short of it is, I like them the way that they are now and adding any further bracing to them in my opinion is going overboard.

[bat]

Wonderful work on the rail bridge there so far! And great work on the other bats from you, threestooges!

[Pat]

Matt I like that alot wiht the wood supports and the rock pillars!!!

[threestooges]

As promised, with the release of the new NAM (and of course with the help of Jeronij) there is now a certain new bridge available on our LEX. It's available here. Hope you enjoy it, and I hope to add a few more in the coming months (most likely after finals are over).
-Matt

[threestooges]

I'm not usually one to double post, but it has been some time since my last one. Now that law school has finsihed for the summer and the summer employment has not yet begun, I have actually had free time (kind of a strange feeling) and as a result, have made some progress on the Howe Truss Bridge. The bridge footings are in place and, pending the adjustment of some LOD issues, this should be ready to go fairly soon.



Let me know what you think.
-Matt

[Tarkus]

I think that most certainly merited a double post.  That is an absolutely fantastic looking bridge you have there!   I especially like the bridge footings. 

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Pat]

OMG Matt that is just wicked!!!

[BigSlark]

Matt,

That's an amazing looking bridge, I'm looking forward to playing with it.

Cheers,
Kevin

[Chrisadams3997]

Just poked my head in here, and I've got to say that that bridge looks great.  The modelling and texturing are excellent , so keep up the good work Matt.

Chris

[threestooges]

Replies:
-FrankU: I see what you were saying about the need for support, but City Builder had a point with the concrete look to them. Considering the style of bridge, you could say the concrete was added to bring it up to modern code, and if used in an historic capacity, that it was just built that way. I just kind of liked the way it looked without the cross bars to be honest. Thanks for the comment and I hope to hear more from you.

-City Builder: I think the rocks could hold their place under their own weight, but you are right about concrete helping. To play off of what I said to FrankU above, it looked pretty good without the cross bars, and the rest of the bridge is busy enough that I didn't want to detract from it too much.

-bat: Thank you very much. Aside from the stuff I've made for 3RR, I think the only stuff that has been released (or is in the process) are bridges so far. I do have some other stuff planned though. Hope to see you around here again.

-Pat (x2): Thanks for both comments, I think it turned out pretty well and it's in Jeronij's hands right now. If all goes well and no major issues are found, I hope this will be on the LEX soon.

-Alex (Tarkus): Coming from a transit guy like you, that is a compliment. I have a new one in the works right now (as you will see below).

-Kevin (BigSlark): If all goes well, it might be released soon enough. Thanks for the compliment.

-Chris (Chrisadams3997): I'll keep it going, and I hope you'll do the same. Your rural stuff, as I have said before is quite well done. I'll be keeping an eye out for its official release.

The Howe Truss is being tested right now, so hopefully there will be good news on it, in the meantime however, I have started work on (wait for it) another bridge. This one will also be for rail and possibly for another project as well. I'm planning two versions of it: the step one shown here, and one with a more gradual arc. They will be wooden bridges. Let me know what you think.

[Pat]

OMG WOW Matt that is simply stunning Job there!!!!  I will get you pics of some more bridges when I take anther trip to my mothers house (Wausau, WI) and a friend of mine (Rockford, IL)

[threestooges]

-Pat: Thank you very much. I'll take whatever pics/inspiration I can get; and speaking of pics, Let me know what you think of a certain one (especially) below.

Two pics for this update. One of the bridge I'm working on, and the other of the MDK Memorial Building. All thoughts and criticisms are welcome on these. I still need to finish up the floor textures in the MDK building, but aisde from that, it might be getting there.





-Matt

[Pat]

Matt Im speachless!!! WOW!!!!!!!

[threestooges]

Repiles:
-Pat: Thanks. I hope you make some good use of the MDK Building, and I hope to see some developments on it when you have some.

I really need to keep this place updated more regularly, but I have something I'm toying with from the BAT Request Thread. There was a request for palm trees with lights. I don't remember any such props, and no one else had chimed in either, so I decided to try to make some (there are other lit trees, so why not palms?). Comments, as always, are welcomed.



-Matt

[Chrisadams3997]

From a distance they aren't bad, but up close the leaves look too squarish.  Also the way that the overlapping is visible close to the center looks a bit unnatural.  But it's definitely getting there.  I'm presuming(sorry if I'm wrong) that the leaves are squares with an oppacity map used to produce most of the leaf.  Instead, use splines to produce an actual leaf shape and make an oppacity map to just dirty up the fringes of it(so it's not perfectly rounded and too defined).  You can even turn the spline into a patch object, propagate it's surface(to get more vertices), and apply a bend modifier too it to make it not entirely flat, though I don't know just how much impact that will have in the end.

The trunk is fine, and the lights look cool however .  Keep it up.

Chris

[threestooges]

Chris: The leaves are actully extruded splines (but of a very basic shape). I wasn't sure how much detail would transfer to the game, but you are right; a more defined leaf shape would improve it. I should have use a bend function on them too (did it for the trunk) but I thought it would work with a simple rotation... oh well, nothing that can't be easily changed. I'll see what I can do about an opacity map too (textures have never been my strong point, but then what better way to learn?). I'm not entirely sure what you mean by turning it into a 'patch object' but I'll look into it to see what I can find. Thanks for the advice. It is greatly appreciated.
-Matt

[City Builder]

I agree, the trunks look good but the leaves have something to be desired.  I might be exceptionally harsh on this since I spend about $2k a year having all the palm trees on our property here in the desert trimmed up each year.

I don't know what kind of detail you can get into with them, or want to get into, but it would be great to finally see some Palm Trees that are shaggy palms.  Shaggy palms are palm trees that are not trimmed up, but rather the palm frongs that die, lay down on the trunk, and sort of look like a brown hoola skirt at the base of the live green branches.  I don't know if anybody else has attempted this, but it's the au-natural look around here for homeowners that don't wish to pay to have the palm trees trimmed up each year.