CHICAGO: 2010 future vision 3D model - Page 8

JACKinBeantown · #**141** Posted **Feb 22, 2006, 3:33 PM**

How about a few fluffy white clouds instead of the drizzly, gloomy sky? Or is that more difficult than I assume?

STR · #**142** Posted **Feb 22, 2006, 7:48 PM**

It's really more of a matter of finding a good texture. I'll see what I can come up with and post the best. Y'all can pick the one you like most, or post a link to your own preference.

Okay, after a long time searching, I came up with the following textures. Because there's several, I won't have to limit myself to one sky all the time. I can use a dawn sky to fit with dawn lighting, etc.

http://www.elysiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24738

1ajs · #**143** Posted **Feb 22, 2006, 9:07 PM**

wow this sure amazing blows my mind away....

so how many megs/gigs does this take up now?

STR · #**144** Posted **Feb 22, 2006, 9:28 PM**

About 20-some MB for the model and 10-20MB more for textures. Like all 3D models, there's a lot of redundancy in the coding, so the model zips up to ~8MB. Like I said earlier, the bulk of my previous experience was making game mods, so I optimize and reduce bulk by nature.

Patrick · #**145** Posted **Feb 22, 2006, 11:01 PM**

Wow! (again)

I don't know much about the Chicago Boom right now, but the city is going too look great in the future!

I had no idea the One Museum Park was that far from Downtown.

The Trump International Area's new skyline looks great.

SevenSevenThree · #**146** Posted **Feb 22, 2006, 11:19 PM**

^ One Musem Park is still in downtown. At least by my standards.

And to get a complete view on the Chicago boom, if youre interested, check in the City Compilation section and look on the first page of the Chicago Boom Rundown.

Wild Onion Mike · #**147** Posted **Feb 22, 2006, 11:30 PM**

^^^You said it. "Wow."

The pic showing Central Station's impact on the skyline truely demonstrates the enormous changes occuring in Chicago. I never, never, never thought I'd see that kind of development in that location. This is really healthy for the city.

STR, Its been said a million times already, but thatnks for the pics. Everybody on this forum has dreamed about having a real model of the skyline. These virtual models are the closest we can get. Thanks!

Adam186 · #**148** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 3:14 AM**

Wow, only in Chicago can you make a 734 foot building look small, even from that distance.

STR, my source hasn't come through yet in providing those floorplans, but what you have done with what you had it looks great. Could you take shot of the view from that building towards the skyline. That would be a great shot. Thanks.

Some guy over at SSC is promising to upload pics of the prelim. model of AQUA (Gang) Building along with the basic floorplans. We'll see if he comes through tonite.

Adam186 · #**149** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 3:33 AM**

He came through...Here's AQUA:

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingofdurians

Aqua study model - plexi-glass and cardboard
currently 83 floors

Due to the request of the poster I will not display the preliminary floorplans

JACKinBeantown · #**150** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 4:59 PM**

STR, if you can use all those skies interchangeably for the same price, I say interchange them intermittently. Looking forward to the next step.

STR · #**151** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 7:39 PM**

Okay people, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that I've got the sky working and it looks unbelievable, as you'll see in a minute. The bad news is that my web PC at home is down for a while. I'm looking at a total wipe. This PC does not have anything to do with the model. The model and all associated files are on my workstation/gaming PC, which is going as strong as ever. This basically means that I'll be able to work on the model, but won't be able to post updates every day like I have been.

Anyway, on to the pics. Unlike before, where the basic sky map was posted on the backround, almost like a cheap photoshop, the new sky is what's called a sky dome, which is a sphere with a sky mapped on the inside. This means, that when you look a different direction, the sky will look different. This is best exemplified in pics 3 & 4, which are taken at the same time (lighting wise) with the same sky, but the sky looks totally different in the two directions. As requested, I've also rendered more hi-res shots, but the close ups will generally remain 8x6 to make mistakes and omissions less obvious. :p

Pano time (one of my first attempts, so you'll see a few problems that were fixed in the shots below):

The second pic is me wanting to show of AT&T, I put a lot of work into it, but never released any good pics of it. The last one is more a demonstration that the sky doesn't look wierd when looking up at a steep angle. For those that built my Sears paper model, you'll probably notice something very obvious about the tower.

STR · #**152** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 8:12 PM**

I have no idea how the hell I'm going to capture Aqua

JACKinBeantown · #**153** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 8:24 PM**

That's funny. The new panos look great.

JACKinBeantown · #**154** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 8:32 PM**

I think this one is my favorite.

STR · #**155** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 8:46 PM**

I liked #2, if you look closely, you can see the shadow of Fordham Spire being cast on Leo Burnett in the north Loop.

JACKinBeantown · #**156** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 10:30 PM**

That's really cool about the sky dome and the lighting effects from different angles. Does the program automatically adjust the lighting for the time of day given the sky you use, or do you have to set it yourself?

Hey, here's something you could easily do to add a bit more reality... add some areas of brown dirt and a few trees in the park by the water. If there are some baseball fields, maybe add those too.

Rivernorth · #**157** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 10:31 PM**

i love the pano from the lake with the setting sun. look at the shadow effects on FS! unbelievable.

great work STR!

STR · #**158** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 10:38 PM**

There's a lighting rig that will set the position of the sun to the hour, minute, day and even year (not sure why they have a year setting, but oh well) I want for any location I choose. When you look at a pic, that's the exact shadows you'll see on June 6 (or whatever day the default is) in Chicago. It's accurate enough I could actually do shadow studies with the model.

After I pick the lighting I just adjust the skydome to fit the lighting, I then do a preview render (usually 10-20% of the final size. eg. 320x160), when everything looks right I select the final size, hit render, and go off to do something else while it renders. Render time, after being reduced to a minute or two earlier this week (down from 15 plus last week), has gone back up to 10 minutes due to added features. The ultra-hi res pics I make for Budman (who bought a unit in Waterview) average 15-30 minutes now, so there's a lot of free time when doing this.

EDIT: I usually don't point out huge mistakes on my part, but if you look at the huge 32x8 pano, you can see the bottom of the sky dome. I lowered the whole thing by ~500 feet so that'll be the last time you see it, at least in a shot like that.

Patrick · #**159** Posted **Feb 23, 2006, 10:58 PM**

Wow, Wow, WOW!!!

This is incredible!

1ajs · #**160** Posted **Feb 24, 2006, 12:52 AM**

the year seting is there for plp that whant it beleave me you whant to be able to make you thing look as real as posible... thats all its for but plp use it