^I'd use the word "excruciating" instead of "amazing" but your compliment is appreciated. I've got big changes coming in the next few weeks.
First, the towers won't stick out like sore thumbs like they do now. I found a steal of a deal on a textured 3D model of the entire island of Manhattan. Only downside is that this has pushed my 3 year old laptop (which I do all the work on), which was just at its limits with just the detail on the WTC, beyond its limits. So I ordered new RAM to hopefully allow me to handle the WTC, all the improvements I'm planning for it, and the whole borough at full resolution.
As for the Manhattan model, from what I can tell it's from the same source as what Google now uses in Google Earth. It's not 100% friendly with 3DS Max, but I think I can optimize it enough to work alright. Right now, I've got all the textures (the images that cover the sides of the building's 3D mesh to give it detail) at 50% scale, so when things get up and running they'll look less blurry than they do now. I'm also not using any of the ground textures, which are REALLY hi-res (one 4x4 block area is 4096x4096 pixels), but will when I think my comp can handle it. So keep in mind that everything will eventually look like this:
This knocks off a lot from my to-do list. So, I'm down to updating 3WTC (which will be next), the Memorial exterior, and the PATH hub and I'll be done for now. I'd have liked to do the underground areas, but there simply isn't enough information out there at this time.
From ESB (Test render of new background model)
Dusk
Winter-ish effect
Infinity
Dawn
Low noon in winter.
The water is screwed up, the ground is blank, it will all be gone in a week. Still, F#####g awesome if you ask me.
Prev
Hybrid Mode