Ferox's BATs

[rooker1]

I think it looks fantastic and would make a great train station with offices above.  Great work.
Robin 

[Andreas]

Feroxx, you can easily make this a regular railway station, with the usual transit switch properties, but without any railway textures (and TE) on the lot. Underground railway puzzle pieces have been included into the NAM since more than a year, but virtually nobody is using them because every railway station that is released features visible TE'd railway textures along the platforms. This could be a chance to dig them out ouf their oblivion finally.

[Sheep49]

Feroxx, I love your BATs! They look so Polish. It's always nice to find someone from your country or/and city who is the living legend in terms of BATting W2W buildings! 

Keep up the good work!/Pracuj tak dalej!
Piotr

[art128]

I like the big building very nice  and the little is very good too 

[Feroxx]

Andreas I'm not sure but NAM underground rail has street texture ? So i can't use it under normal city development.

Staton is almost done:

[Andreas]

The underground rail pieces have a regular road texture. Other pieces could be made if necessary, though - the NAM Team just didn't do so because the relatively low popularity so far. Having a great station like this one, plus the proper publicity here or elsewere could change that.

[vester]

This is really coming together very well. 

[cogeo]

Hmmm, let me the bad guy here! 

The model is very good, but I think there are some issues with the textures:
- The walls are bright white, and even if the real building you're modelling is that white, in SC4 it should be darker (in the viewport it should look light gray rather than white). Especially if plopped next to Maxis buildings, this will look out of place (too bright), as Maxis buildings are too "dull" compared to reality. I'm afraid a white that's so bright would be an eyesore, in SC4 environment. It's also a basic design principle that big items use pale/softer textures, while small items use bright/saturated textures.
- The contrast between the wall and the roof textures is too high. If the wall textures are darkened, this effect will be reduced.
- Many items on the roof textures are unrealistically oversized: the "panels" - in all cases, the "cracks" (or "seams"?) on the central/tallest sector, and the "stains" (weathering effects). The panels are different sized too.
- Roof textures, though depicting similar (or same?) materials are different colour: some have a brownish tint, some others greenish, while some are just gray. Also some are weathered, some others not. The weathering effect is too strong I think.

When I first saw this I said "wow", but then immediately I said "Hmm... somethingn isn't right here".
Don't let this great model be distroyed by poor texturing.

[SimFox]

Cogeo:
I very strongly disagree on the point of building being to "bright" or too white.
First of all keep in mind that now you see it against black background. It will make it appear "brighter" or lighter than in game. So for this very reason black is a wrong background color. some gray of about 30-40% should be much more accurate.
Second, this common talk about being too bright next to games building, kind of SC4 mantra. somebody started and then many repeat, often without giving it much though, or observation. When one say that he/she should mention what building exactly!
I took a liberty to make a little collage to demonstrate how this building of Ferrox fairs against "dull" and "dark" buildings of SC4:



I rest my case!

But there is one issue I do agree with Cogeo. Textures of roof are all over the place. The biggest problem is that they are very obviously of completely different scale and are like a quilt made from totally different pieces with totally different life stories.

But there is another, imho, even bigger problem - default lighting is totally inadequate for the building of such a complex shape resulting in odd and unsightly banding on the walls and corners. Particularly look at the inner walls of the "courtyard"...
If you do it in Max you should give a serious thought to new lighting setup

[Jasoncw]

Yeah, I think the value of the walls are fine, the color is what should be changed.  There should be more peach or purple or blue or some other color.  You can see what kinds of colors would be appropriate in SimFox's image, or any screenshot from the game.  You can use the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to see exactly what the color is.

[art128]

excellent progress 

[rooker1]

I personelly like the colour of the building.  There is a real building down town Toronto with a very similiar brick colour, almost like a tile of some sort.

I also hope that you take Andreas' suggesttion.  I would love to see this building turned into a rail station with under ground rail.  It would be the first I believe as Andreas is suggestting. 
  Awesome looking model!
Robin 

[cogeo]

One moment, what we see in the pics is a render preview? Then it's OK. I thought it was the viewport.

[Feroxx]

I also don't like those roof textures, especially one on the tallest sector looks weard, but i cant find something better So I would be grateful for some good textures  (asphalt and tar paper).
Only texture on the office part of station IMO look good, i try only make this texture larger so tar paper fragments should have more realistic size.

Im my opinon walls has good colors, original building was even brighter.

Unfortunately i cant render this in 3dsmax, I can't make it work, and i can't install program to import gmax model to 3ds :/ But i like this grey color in small and deep courtyards

Thanx for comments and constructive criticism

[SimFox]

What is nature of you problem with 3ds Max. "I can't make it work" is a bit vague... May be I can help PM me with details (Max version, installation folder, version of BatFor Max you're using)

[Feroxx]

I think my biggest problem is Net Framewroks I cant install it and when i run 3dsmax (2008 - 32 bit version) i recive about 10 errors so i try to run BAT4max when i reinstal windows in near future i hope

[Simpson]

This is a superb work Feroxx,great work. I love all of your Bat 

[cogeo]

So I would be grateful for some good textures  (asphalt and tar paper).

I'm afraid you can't find a suitable texture for the roof, so you will have to make it yourself, or else take another texture and "doctor" it.

If you search at textures sites you will find a lot of asphalt and tar paper textures (and these are really good), but they usually depict a quite small area, so if you use them in such a big building they will look unrealistically enlarged. Eg splotches would be some 10 meters big, which doesn't look realistic. Or, if you tile them you will get an awful pattern.

As far as I know, for best results the "resolution" should be some 10 pixels per meter, eg for a 50x20 surface the texture should preferably be 500x200 pixels. In general textures look OK if resolution is between 6 and 12 pixels per meter. A lower resolution can cause "pixelation" effects, while a higher one a "blurring" effect, with details getting lost.

So making the texture yourself might be the way to go. There are some effects in Photoshop or PaintShopPro, like the "noise" effects, that can be used.

[Fatsuhono]

Feroxx! These BATs are wonderful! Wow, the enormity of your latest BAT, it is simply oustanding! I can't waits for more!

[Feroxx]

Here are the new pictures