Sta Fee - 3D city [Archive] - SkyscraperPage Forum

Pingyao

Sep 24, 2009, 3:15 PM

Sta Fee - 3D city

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/497/finalmap02.jpg

Some maybe aware I had a thread on SSC forums called San Christoph, which was a city, now retired. It was just too labour intensive and so I have set about building a new city, but in a different kind of way. I also thought I should share it on SSP forums as well.

Sta Fee was an old city I sketched about 5 years ago (the name came from a dream I had - seriously). However being the nerdy city designer that i am, I actually detailed it and did a map, although thats now lost. So this is all in my head basically. Sta Fee is sited on a river and is a sprawling urban landscape with skyscrapers, smoke stacks, factories etc and a historic core. It dosen't have the pretty-ness of San Christoph, but hey I'm a sucker for gritty smoggy skylines.

Here are some of my original sketches.

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/7890/98787440.jpg
Urban jungle view looking south towards the city centre.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7066/28738906.jpg
The river looking east towards city centre.

http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/3959/66020911.jpg
Main commercial heart looking north across the river, these buildings you can see in the distance in the previous sketches.

So far I have been experimenting with the modelling and commencing work on the first section. I am using google earth images to create a road layout, which is then applied to a 1km square plane. All the building will be extruded up from this plane. Once thats complete I can plonk the next plane in beside it with an applied texture and gradually build up the city. I am planning this city to be 20km x 20km which means I'll have to make 400 planes, but still - try not to think about that yet. Heres a quick render showing the first 1km plane with the twin bridges being modelled.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/5098/82650895.jpg

More will follow as and when theres progress:)

toyota74

Sep 24, 2009, 5:13 PM

Your last city was cool and im sure this
will be too:)

Mocholate

Sep 25, 2009, 7:57 AM

:haha: i saw you online yesterday and was hoping this was happening:D

Which programs are you using ?

Pingyao

Sep 25, 2009, 8:47 AM

I use Cinema4D http://www.maxon.net/. Its a great 3D and animation package, although my last city tested it to the limit in terms of detail, which was the main reason I retired it. Hopefully this time I can build something larger, but with less overall file size by using textures instead of polygons.

Flamesrule

Sep 25, 2009, 10:37 AM

oh great!! a new fourmer!I roam aroungd SSC and saw the city.Nice job!This one I hope will do the same1

Lets give SSP a spark!!

Pingyao

Sep 25, 2009, 2:40 PM

Completed the 'twin bridges'. The unusual arrangement with one bridge offset to the other at an angle across the river is one of the cities key landmarks and is an obvious point of reference on a map of the city. Both bridges carry a 6 lane highway and are crucial transportation links between the commercial northern side and historic southern side.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/8413/31183766.jpg

Flamesrule

Sep 25, 2009, 3:39 PM

So how big is sta Fee?Nice bridges!

Pingyao

Sep 25, 2009, 3:49 PM

So how big is sta Fee?Nice bridges!

At present it is 1km square. I'm modelling a 1000m x 1000m plane, although the river cuts out the middle portion.

Pingyao

Sep 26, 2009, 8:57 AM

Low impact former industrial area along the waterfront has been added. This area is apt for regeneration, maybe in the future.

I'm not sure where Sta Fee is located yet, I'm guessing the States somewhere.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/3594/83984887.jpg

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/4126/51159547.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3720/12339429.jpg

toyota74

Sep 26, 2009, 9:00 AM

excellent ,let the city begin mr.p:)

huggkruka

Sep 26, 2009, 10:15 AM

That looks great! I really love the shot of the two bridges and the motorway overpass. Those buildings are great quality too, I'm guessing you have a good camera and take texture pics? It looks better than Google Earth quality.

Pingyao

Sep 26, 2009, 11:49 AM

Those buildings are great quality too, I'm guessing you have a good camera and take texture pics? It looks better than Google Earth quality.

Funnily enough i don't take my own photo's. I started too, but it takes so long to do. I mainly find textures through trawling around in the photo threads on SSP & SSC forums, swiping an image and tweaking it in photoshop. This is still time consuming, although so far I've got 400 different facade textures in my own library.

treras93

Sep 26, 2009, 4:46 PM

Well although it sucks to see San Christoph end... this is amazing!

Great idea to make the streets a texture. That save millions of faces and polygons. Buildings and the bridges look great too.

From the looks of this city wont have terrain near that of SA?

Pingyao

Sep 28, 2009, 1:41 PM

A little more done.

Experiments with trees, same principle as the trees I used in San Christoph, but i have now discovered a faster way of constructing them - won't bore you with the details.

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/3417/75221981.jpg

First batch of buildings under way. UAM tower is the cities tallest 255ft to roof, 334ft to tip.

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6360/46159294.jpg

verticalextropy

Sep 28, 2009, 2:27 PM

I just logged in to congratulate pingyao,
Those hand-drawings are fantastic, I strongly recommend you don't stop hand drawing.

The latter 3d models are quiet cool, and I'm glad to see a port, but for your own sake don't stop drawing by hand.

cheers,

PD: Hi, everybody I'll come back when I've got something cool to show off for City-R

Flamesrule

Sep 28, 2009, 7:55 PM

I agree you shouldn't of stopped drawing.They are fantastic!!!

The first buildings are awsome!Will that be your tallest for the city?

Pingyao

Sep 28, 2009, 10:21 PM

I agree you shouldn't of stopped drawing.They are fantastic!!!

The first buildings are awsome!Will that be your tallest for the city?

Thanks guys for your encouraging comments about the sketches. I'll have to post some more when I've done them. The UAM tower is the tallest so far, but it will become lost once Sta Fee grows in size and height, so no it will not be the tallest. Anyways its a pretty crappy 1970's eyesore of a building, I could hardly allow that pink turd to be the cities tallest!:haha:

nevets2001uk

Sep 29, 2009, 9:25 AM

Pingyao

Sep 29, 2009, 10:42 AM

It's already looking very good. I'm just thinking about starting my first city after recently finding sketchup and it's inspirational to see what can be achieved. I'm worried I may have detailed my models too much and should perhaps think about texturing more instead but I'm not really sure where to begin as most of my attempts don't look too good with photo textures.

I don't use sketchup, i use cinema4D. I know sketchup runs into memory problems and lags like hell when your model gets too detailed. Cinema 4D is better for that, but eventually even that has problems. I'm trying to use textures more than polygonal detail to limit such problems. Patrick's Staunton also employs textures, which probably explains how he's managed to avoid these problems so far. A lot of people don't like applying textures and prefer to model facades and details, but I don't have a problem with them. Plus you can make a much larger model.

The southern bank is now completed.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8183/76353015.jpg

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/443/89656612.jpg

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/8499/21235008.jpg

I have now started work on the north bank which will eventually make up the cities main commercial area - Los Madras. Not much to look at, at the moment.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/4678/24569346.jpg

ertiikus

Sep 29, 2009, 11:10 AM

it is an honour to witness a start of an ownage

Pingyao

Sep 30, 2009, 8:02 AM

'nevets2001uk' asked how i go about creating a building and the level of detail used. Here's a brief explanation.

I start with the area I'm going to build on and start slicing it with the knife tool, creating the outline of the building\/.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/6728/95839243.jpg

Then I extrude the outline of the building up from the plane\/.

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7066/16334275.jpg

I apply a texture to the facade\/.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/8577/87322632.jpg

Continue extruding the building up as I texture it, making sure everything is to scale. In this instance this portion is 1 floor lower, so i use the texture as a guide to it roof height\/.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/1699/41735054.jpg

Add details like services on the roof\/.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/8503/77963025.jpg

And the final building finished. The whole thing probably took about 10-15mins\/.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/7523/81618292.jpg

nevets2001uk

Sep 30, 2009, 8:21 AM

Thanks Pingyao. Great information and very interesting to see how you go about you work. I suspect that before I can build big cities I need to do some work on collecting and editing textures.

Pingyao

Sep 30, 2009, 8:50 AM

Yes, collecting textures can be a full time job in itself. I've now got 400+ facade textures, each with their overall height to make it easier to sort (you can see them in the materials pane in the screenshots above). Just start with a single street and work up from there.

Pingyao

Oct 1, 2009, 4:54 PM

North bank now 50% done.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1886/17076590.jpg

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/1497/41867003.jpg

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/1958/91276983.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/4220/93843020.jpg

Flamesrule

Oct 1, 2009, 7:21 PM

Really nice!Really like the North Bank!!!

Is cimea4d(spelling)hard to use?

nevets2001uk

Oct 2, 2009, 7:38 AM

This is looking really great. Impressive work.

Pingyao

Oct 2, 2009, 8:32 AM

Is cimea4d(spelling)hard to use?

Cinema4d was the first 3d software i ever used. I got a free version with a 3D magazine about 5-6years ago. I basically taught myself how to use it and made this-[youtube]ZUWVzhl8lBQ[youtube] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUWVzhl8lBQ)

Apparently its easier to learn than some other pro packages, although for what i use it for does not require a huge amount of knowledge. It is huge software and can do stuff I wouldn't know how to.

verticalextropy

Oct 4, 2009, 6:56 PM

Cinema4d was the first 3d software i ever used. I got a free version with a 3D magazine about 5-6years ago. I basically taught myself how to use it and made this-[youtube]ZUWVzhl8lBQ[youtube] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUWVzhl8lBQ)

Apparently its easier to learn than some other pro packages, although for what i use it for does not require a huge amount of knowledge. It is huge software and can do stuff I wouldn't know how to.

I don't use sketchup, i use cinema4D. I know sketchup runs into memory problems and lags like hell when your model gets too detailed. Cinema 4D is better for that, but eventually even that has problems. I'm trying to use textures more than polygonal detail to limit such problems. Patrick's Staunton also employs textures, which probably explains how he's managed to avoid these problems so far. A lot of people don't like applying textures and prefer to model facades and details, but I don't have a problem with them. Plus you can make a much larger model.

Pingyao your city's looking even better.

So just to be clear, you're saying, or are we concluding, that Cinema4d handles better textures and allows for, low-poly bigger cities?

I guess my question is: What actual advantage offers Cinema to Sketchup+Render?

Have you ever tried importing a skp to cinema?

Is it as easy to use? For example in Sketchup we've got useful ruby plug-ins, from the least complicated (mirror) to tensile structures, etc.

Pingyao

Oct 4, 2009, 9:56 PM

Pingyao your city's looking even better.

So just to be clear, you're saying, or are we concluding, that Cinema4d handles better textures and allows for, low-poly bigger cities?

I guess my question is: What actual advantage offers Cinema to Sketchup+Render?

Have you ever tried importing a skp to cinema?

Is it as easy to use? For example in Sketchup we've got useful ruby plug-ins, from the least complicated (mirror) to tensile structures, etc.

Sketchup is just that, a 3d tool to 'sketch up' a design. Its probably quicker and easier to model a detailed building in sketchup...but once that detailed building becomes twenty detailed buildings, so sketchup has trouble, its just not a program designed to handle masses of detail. Cinema 4D is, and in my last two cities I had tonnes of detail, but I reached a limit there as well, and so now I'm looking at ways of building an even bigger city with a texture detailed as opposed to polygon detailed approach.

I'm not sure how sketchup works or its various plugins, but C4D is easy to use for me, but then again this is my third city, so I kind of know my way around now, however as I mentioned its a massive program and I only know a fraction of what it can do. I have never tried to open a skp file in C4D.

Pingyao

Oct 5, 2009, 1:19 PM

Most of the first plane has now been finished.

The northbank of the Sta Fee river has been completed along with one of the cities trendiest bars the StaBar. Right on the river frontage this oh so cool spot has fast become the cities hippest place see and be seen. The neighbouring 'Sails' restaurant is also a grerat spot for an evening meal.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/10/23669831.jpg

The tallest buildings so far in the city are the twin ComSat Towers 87m 292ft, built in 1985.

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/672/51096680.jpg

The northbank seen from the southern bank, Herbert gardens in the foreground. Map will follow soon.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/981/11156570.jpg

Trantor

Oct 5, 2009, 2:42 PM

Pingyao

Oct 5, 2009, 3:18 PM

one of the important things to remember about Pingyao´s textures is that they are not simple bitmap textures... notice they have proper reflection maps too, which is very important to make a proper city... have the glass reflecting but not the bricks, hehe.

Pyngiao, any other maps you use on the textures? Do they have bump, specular, etc?

btw, would you like to share those awesome trees in the last picture?

Thanks, yes the textures do use different channels. I have made separate textures for the reflection channels so just the glass reflects. The same basic idea is used for the trees too, with an alpha channel to cut out the background of the trees. I have used bump noise channel on the water, although I don't bother on the facades.

Check out http://free-textures.got3d.com/natural/free-tree-textures/ a cool texture resource with bags of trees.

Trantor

Oct 5, 2009, 6:50 PM

Thanks Pingyao, but that bags of trees dont have the alpha channel map... meaning... they are not transparent... and I find it very difficult to create alpha channels for such complex objects.

Wouldnt you be willing to share your READY MADE tree texture? :D

Pingyao

Oct 5, 2009, 10:29 PM

Links for trees and alpha channels...

http://yfrog.com/5rtree06j
http://yfrog.com/2ptree06alphaj
http://yfrog.com/0etreeacj
http://yfrog.com/0ltreeaalphaj
http://yfrog.com/5ktreebdj
http://yfrog.com/0etreebalphaj

nevets2001uk

Oct 6, 2009, 2:20 PM

Thanks, yes the textures do use different channels. I have made separate textures for the reflection channels so just the glass reflects. The same basic idea is used for the trees too, with an alpha channel to cut out the background of the trees. I have used bump noise channel on the water, although I don't bother on the facades.

This is a great idea and something that I now plan to implement in my own city. I've been mulling over the use of the detailed models and think you're right that SU will die long before I get a complete city. Therefore I plan to combine some higher detail models alongside much simpler texture based ones such as you're using. One thing that concerned me was lack of reflection etc but I've just done a quick test using your reflection map approach and it's worked a treat. I may even make some bump/normal maps to detail the textures further

Pingyao

Oct 6, 2009, 3:21 PM

The first map is done. This is the completed 1km square section. I'll update all future maps on the first post of this thread.

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2508/map01r.jpg

Pingyao

Oct 8, 2009, 3:32 PM

Plane 2

After completing the first 1km square plane, i've now begun plane no 2, directly south of the first one. This area will focus around one of the main civic and community based zones, currently under construction. At least one third of the plane will be taken up with the green lung, which is Maberley Park, a popular escape for 'StaFeeans' on those notoriously hot summer days that the city enjoys.

Heres a view of the lake in Maberley park taken from the lakeside cafe.

[/http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/8098/60183210.jpg

The civic centre is partly housed in the beautiful 41m art deco building on South Wilmington Avenue, built in 1932. Directly behind is the small Links Park, choc'a'bloc full of civil servants on a week day lunchtime.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7990/74372395.jpg

Flamesrule

Oct 8, 2009, 7:47 PM

Wait so did you finish downtown and going up uptown or are you still doing the dontown?Need to update the map!

Pingyao

Oct 9, 2009, 8:13 AM

Wait so did you finish downtown and going up uptown or are you still doing the dontown?Need to update the map!

I am working on the next section directly below the map (to the south), although its not my intention to update the map until this section is finished. I suppose this part is downtown, although i hadn't really thought of it like that. Hmm maybe I should do an overview sketch showing what I'm planning...give me a day or so to put that together....

Pingyao

Oct 12, 2009, 10:37 PM

Small update - gradually moving south.

Here's a view of Links Park with Civic Centre too the right.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8439/60828767.jpg

The Searle Parker Convention centre was built in 1991 and provides one of the largest purpose built convention and exhibition spaces in Sta Fee. It contains nearly 60,000 sq ms (645,000 sq ft) of usuable floor space on 7 floors (2 sublevels). The centre is also used for community events, business conferences, wedding receptions, religious and cultural events and political conferences.

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/3920/19805730.jpg

Flamesrule

Oct 12, 2009, 10:49 PM

Nice.So how tall is the UAM tower?

The detail in the city is awsome!

nevets2001uk

Oct 13, 2009, 7:34 AM

Pingyao

Oct 13, 2009, 8:03 AM

Looking great. I love the park view.

Can I ask, are your street textures from Google Earht direct and based on a real city layout or are you stitching sections together to make your own layout? I'm starting to think I may need to employ a similar approach on my city.

I am kinda using the stitch together approach, but its pretty time consuming, so I might fall back on actual city layouts. However I still have things like the river, docks and ring roads all outlined so I need to work within those. What I do is use the measuring tool in google earth and take a screen shot of a portion of road. Then in Photoshop I apply that to a 1000x1000 pixel resolution file, which will become the 1km square plane in the city. There are parts of LA, Houston and Phoenix in Sta Fee.

As I build up the city I have to lay the completed plane next to the neighbouring plane in photoshop to make sure the roads connect. The reason I'm doing this is from experience once you get high res textures, i.e 2000x2000 pixels, in cinema4D it starts to run into memory errors. By keeping the layout of the city as 1000x1000 planes I keep the overall texture sizes lower and hopefully can avoid memory errors. Plus I can concentrate on building 1km square sections at a time and then just paste them all together purely for rendering. This keeps my workflow smoother.

Hope that makes sense or I'm probably just rambling...

nevets2001uk

Oct 13, 2009, 8:17 AM

That makes perfect sense, thanks. I was thinking of a similar approach although possibly with hand made road textures as tiles but that may end up being as time consuming as laying it out in SU.

Pingyao

Oct 14, 2009, 8:45 AM

Maxwells shopping centre was completed in 1972 and is still one of the largest malls in central Sta Fee. In 1998 it had a 20 million dollar refurb. Above the mall is the 78m (256ft) Maxwell Tower, office space (same height as UAM tower, joint tallest south of the river). Maxwells joins onto the Searle Parker Convention centre next door. The shopping centre forms the western limit to Sta Fee's man retail strip, Park Avenue.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3899/12570222.jpg

ertiikus

Oct 14, 2009, 9:15 AM

if this city was real i would definetly come visit it

Pingyao

Oct 15, 2009, 2:25 PM

It takes so long to build a 1km square section. If I'm ever gonna finish this city I'm gonna have to simplify this somewhat, maybe just make the buildings less detailed and grey in the suburbs. Anyway more of Sta Fee's downtown, a few empty plots have been filled up.

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/8183/84213730.jpg

This view from the bridges looking back south.

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4935/74701819hf.jpg

ertiikus

Oct 16, 2009, 10:33 AM

i think for the suburbs you should just use colors

huggkruka

Oct 16, 2009, 11:21 AM

Weeell, the burbs doesn't need that many unique buildings anyway. A realistic suburb is cookie cutter houses and some strip malls here and there, copy paste really. As long as you get a good satellite pic for background, I think you could get away with very little actual variation.

Still, you're really moving fast, and the result is incredible.

Pingyao

Oct 16, 2009, 12:05 PM

Thanks for comments. Yeah a simpler technique is definitely needed, I agree with your idea Huggruka, that way i can concentrate on the city centre more - less time on the 'boring burbs'. Thing is for a truly big city feel i need to build the suburbs in some from, I'm just not looking forward to that part.

Just built Park Avenue Multiplex, a 12 screen cinema and retail complex opposite from Maxwells shopping centre.

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/6460/49286298.jpg

Flamesrule

Oct 16, 2009, 10:08 PM

The city is bigger than I imanaging.Anyway one of the best cities on here!Good building too.

Pingyao

Oct 20, 2009, 9:54 AM

War memorial...Built on a man-made hill 50ft above the surrounding parkland of Maberley Park. The war memorial commemorates those that fought in the world wars and most recently in the Gulf. The memorial is a peaceful and reflective spot in the middle of Sta Fee's urban environment.

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5136/13946953.jpg

Pingyao

Oct 21, 2009, 1:34 PM

Plane 2 I am nearing completion of plane 2, this 1km square section immediately south of the first plane has taken me ages, but there is quite a lot of detail and i will probably have to simplify somewhat the next section if this city is to grow. It is however starting to look pretty large (ok 2 square km's ain't massive i know) and I'm pleased with the overall effect.

Here is a view showing Sta Fee Memorial Hospital on the far left. It is a respected training hospital and one of the cities largest. It also has the busiest A&E department. The hospital is housed in mass of interconnecting multistorey slabs rising to 73m (240ft), built in 1973.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/6310/29copy.jpg

Immediately next to the hospital is the blue glass facade of the Carisbrook Tower, built in 1991 a commercial address rising to 87m (285ft), Sta Fee's tallest structure so far.

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/8773/18187708.jpg

This final view is taken above the Northbank looking south.

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9082/32999986.jpg

nevets2001uk

Oct 21, 2009, 4:28 PM

This is looking stunning. I wish mine was coming on as well but I just haven't found the time.

Flamesrule

Oct 21, 2009, 8:55 PM

Woah thats huge in the air!Are you doing suburbs?

Pingyao

Oct 21, 2009, 9:39 PM

I'll probably have to post an overview of what I'm planning. I'm not working on the 'burbs' yet, although they will help to give the city that realistic sprawl that I'm looking to achieve.

huggkruka

Oct 22, 2009, 6:18 AM

Pingyao

Oct 22, 2009, 10:25 PM

That looks amazing. It reminds me of one of the screens from SC, where you simply couldn't tell it was a 3D model. If you can keep this level of detail that would be great, but you decide. I guess it's hard to find the balance between what looks nice and the time it takes to create it!

Thanks for the comments. It is hard to find a balance, usually i end up detailing stuff too much, like spending ages on lamp posts when the reality is you don't see them.

Plane 2 is done...phew, so I've added to the map http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=173867

A bonus shot from behind Maberley Park, with the war memorial and hospital in shot.

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7828/62424279.jpg

Now for plane number 3....

Patrick

Oct 23, 2009, 1:07 AM

Omg, i'm a huge fan of your cities, I check here everyday for updates :tup:

Pingyao

Oct 23, 2009, 3:50 PM

Omg, i'm a huge fan of your cities, I check here everyday for updates :tup:

Thx Pat, that means a lot from the king of Staunton :)

Pingyao

Nov 4, 2009, 4:40 PM

A little progress has been made, now on plane number 3. This is the next section east along the riverfront.

Detail showing the rear of the Bristol Hotel, one of Sta Fee's poshest \/.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/2829/34bv.jpg

More recent view, the previous render portion is towards the middle/top of this image. I've now added some more churches and older buildings in front \/.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/7056/65404522.jpg

ertiikus

Nov 7, 2009, 12:22 PM

nice

huggkruka

Nov 7, 2009, 2:50 PM

This city is just amazing. If I could find the time I'd be sketching a city up right now, but school is really stressful. Great inspiration anyway!

Flamesrule

Nov 8, 2009, 12:47 PM

This is amazing. Can you give a overhead shot?

Patrick

Nov 8, 2009, 5:55 PM

This city is just incredible, all the detail, each building had it's own story & style, amazing effort :tup:

Pingyao

Nov 9, 2009, 12:54 AM

Thanks guys for all your comments.

Expect to see a revised map soon. I may do an overhead/birds-eye perspective too.

Continuing to make progress on plane3, now on the northbank which contains the first part of the main commercial area known as Los Madres. This area will eventually contain the cities tallest buildings and relates to the original sketches on page1 showing the 3 pyramid topped towers. At the moment I have completed the current tallest and second tallest. The EON centre (left) at 100m (328ft) built in 1989 and Muhama Tower right at 98m (321ft) built in 1986 \/.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/4051/61082013.jpg

Overview of the northbank portion of Plane3. The roads above are on another palne and will be developed at some point in the future. This area will probably contain a lot of the cities main highrise buildings.

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/1250/68310136.jpg

Pingyao

Nov 10, 2009, 12:53 AM

Map updated - plane3 complete http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=173867

Pingyao

Nov 16, 2009, 6:44 PM

Not much of an update I'm afraid. I've made a little headway on Plane4, which is south of Plane3 and comprises part of the historical core of Sta Fee around the cathedral and one of the main retail areas.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4744/85472418.jpg

RLS_rls

Nov 17, 2009, 12:56 PM

These are incredible! If I squint just a bit they look real!

Pingyao

Nov 19, 2009, 12:45 PM

Thx Evilon Doomm, yeah there's more detail in there than i can actually show or do justice too. I think it must be my obsessive compulsive disorder at work trying to detail every fricking lamppost lol.

Sta Fee Cathedral - the main spire of Sta Fee Cathedral known as St Georges tower tops out at 93m (305ft). Built between 1890 and 1902 it is the cities main place of worship and remains Sta Fee's largest church.

Heres a view of the cathedral with the neo-classical Metropolitan Library building in the foreground.

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/4397/50632398.jpg

Pingyao

Nov 19, 2009, 4:34 PM

Just rendered another view showing the cathedral and rooftops of the older portion of town. This view is looking due west towards where the city began a few months back.

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/4674/67984775.jpg

huggkruka

Nov 19, 2009, 6:12 PM

Very, very nice.

Austin55

Nov 20, 2009, 12:25 AM

Its so Awesome, and then I see the ground textures and its soooo Dissapointing becuase evreything else looks so damn good.

Pingyao

Nov 20, 2009, 8:44 AM

Ground textures are a compromise. At close up they aren't great i admit, but from a distance i think i get away with it. Problem is i reach a limit with cinema4D in terms of the size of texture i can use, basically about 1000x1000pixels. I think its due to my files having so many textures i always get memory problems with textures larger than this.

As the planes are 1km square it works out at 1 metre to 1 pixel, so it looks fuzzy close up, but fine on the map (1st post). I could have gone for 500m square planes giving me more detail, but also more ground textures to make and so much more work, so yeah - bit of a compromise.

toyota74

Nov 20, 2009, 7:44 PM

Has this city have a particular place in the world ,looks
like a mix of american/europe...will there be some asian
influences??..........really like all the lowrise with the
scattered highrise look:)

Pingyao

Nov 20, 2009, 10:54 PM

Not sure of its location. Originally I was thinking of Latin America as Sta Fee kinda sounds like it has Spanish/Portuguese origins. However a lot of it is modelled on European and North American architecture so theres the conumdrum...personally I reckon it should remain somewhere vague, sort of in the ether...

Vellu

Nov 22, 2009, 8:47 AM

Amazing work, Pingyao! :worship: Yeah, the ground textures don't look in street level shots, but this city is made for mind blowing aerials! Your cities are a huge inspiration for me. :tup:

Pingyao

Nov 23, 2009, 9:52 AM

Few new shots...First view from next to the twin bridges looking toward the Hotel Bristol and Central Sta Fee.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/605/17502955.jpg

This view is from Northbank Pier looking back toward the Central.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1307/78507877.jpg

verticalextropy

Nov 25, 2009, 8:14 AM

WOW.

So goddamn realistic. Every scene, such a perfect proportion of old and new buildings. The last pcis looks like a token German city while this one looks like Santiago de Chile or other modern Latin American city:
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/7056/65404522.jpg

I know some has to do with the SW you're using, but damn, I have to give you credit. I still remember that Sony city you began in that perfect Peninsula in Pakistan.

Pingyao

Nov 25, 2009, 1:45 PM

WOW.

So goddamn realistic. Every scene, such a perfect proportion of old and new buildings. The last pcis looks like a token German city while this one looks like Santiago de Chile or other modern Latin American city:

I know some has to do with the SW you're using, but damn, I have to give you credit. I still remember that Sony city you began in that perfect Peninsula in Pakistan.

Thanks for the enthusiastic post. Yes that was my city 2 cities ago 'Chrisheem'. Now long since buried.

An update.

A view above Centenary square. This was one of the cities first purpose built public spaces completed at the end of the 18th century when Sta Fee was little more than a collection of homesteads and churches. In 1834 the square was enclosed by a classical facade and a 33m (108ft) column erected. The square is one of the most popular people watching spots with cafes under the colonnade and classical music concerts during the summer evenings.

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/3541/46536777.jpg

BoiseAirport

Nov 25, 2009, 10:34 PM

I completely echo verticalextropy's statements. I'm sorry I don't post more here, but honestly I check this forum very frequently just to see if there are any updates to this amazing city. I really think you are doing an utterly fantastic job, and I never cease to be absolutely WOWed by your hard work and renderings. I'm talking serious jaw-dropped out loud "WOW"-age. :)

Fantastic work on this, I can't wait to see more! :)

Flamesrule

Nov 26, 2009, 1:29 PM

Very nice work! I can't wait what this city will become!

Pingyao

Nov 27, 2009, 2:30 PM

Thks Flamesrule & thatkidfromBoise for your encouraging comments:) . I've been slowly continuing to build plane4, which is focussing around predominantly midrise zoning with a scattering of highrises (70-90m, not exactly high) and older period buildings. It takes a bloody long time to fill a 1km square plane, but I'm getting there.

Heres a view of the 'Chancellors House' this is where the head of state resides. I've yet to build a parliament building which I'm planning on doing at some stage and it will probably be on Plane5 (next stage) immediately next to this one. I'll update the map once plane4 is done so members can better grasp the overall picture.

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/5996/30968834.jpg

These other 2 views are general shots of plane4, the cathedral is an obvious landmark in both.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/5289/26286803.jpg

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7236/22634949.jpg

toyota74

Nov 27, 2009, 8:04 PM

That last image looks like a different city,its so different
looking at different angles.Im just wonder how long it takes
to do lets say a midrise...or can you do a building in a
matter of minutes?:)

Pingyao

Nov 27, 2009, 8:14 PM

An average 'Midrise' may take 5-10 mins. Firstly I decide on what the building will be, find the appropriate texture (all my facade textures are assigned a height reference) model the block, apply texture and maybe add roof details.

Yeah the peculiar thing is i don't even know myself what the city will look like until i render it as I model only a small section at a time and then combine them altogether for the renders.

toyota74

Nov 27, 2009, 10:56 PM

I like that its an 'everything' city:)

Vellu

Nov 28, 2009, 8:11 AM

The huge size is one of the things that makes this city so real. And you're still on plane 4 (or plane 5). If you ever complete all the 400 planes, this city will be something unbelievable! Not to say that this isn't already amazing!

Pingyao

Nov 28, 2009, 10:09 AM

Thks Vellu. Yep I'm 85% the way through plane4. Once thats complete the city will be 4km square. It don't sound much, but its already visually quite big.

Flamesrule

Nov 28, 2009, 8:52 PM

Very nice as always.Like the pics you are showing us.

Pingyao

Dec 1, 2009, 11:52 PM

Few more views around Planes 2 and 4 (South side of river).

First one is near Park Avenue Multiplex with South Wilmington Av in centre of shot. The area the other side of the avenue is all new building and not as yet on the map. The tall building towards the right is Commonwealth house 85m (279ft) built in 1974, currently the second tallest building on the southbank after the Carisbrook Tower.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5844/66316710.jpg

This view with the Metropolitan Library on the right, is looking due north towards the river. The blue building on the right in the distance is 70 Collins St. The tallest so far in Sta Fee at 145m (476ft) built in 1993. I've not shown this area too much as its a thin slice at the moment, but this is to become the Los Madres area, the main commercial heart of Sta Fee.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8176/15739481.jpg