Small City

[4th Floor]

Please make the curves, especially that one on the hill, smoother...
Otherwise nice ideas you have.

[Simulator]

Originally Posted by 4th Floor

Please make the curves, especially that one on the hill, smoother...

Actually, the GTA series have similar corners. How many polies would they use if it were to be extra smooth? I am just trying to use as little polies as possible so it can be big.

A small update. Sort of completed the hill.

Regards, Simulator

[multimediaman]

it's all about raising the bar man... gta is below the bar. Raise the bar and make something that rivals gran turismo 4 for the graphics!

a good rule of thumb though is to have a certain amount of edges per feet depending on how fast you travel the road, how long the curve lasts, and how sharp the turn is.

if you're on a curve to be taken at 40 mph, and the curve's total degree's change is 40°, and the total distance through the curve is 300 feet. I would estimate a column of faces for the straight road on each side, and there would be 3 columns of faces for a gta3/vc look and feel, 5 for a gta sa look and feel, and 10 for a gran turismo look and feel.

generally gran turismo 3 has a fairly constant rate of around every 100 feet there is a nother column of faces across the road, unless they're in a turn, then it's usually 1 column every 50 feet, or something like that... if you get my drift... hopefully this didn't loose you too badly

[Simulator]

Thanks, all the corners that have been rotated (hill corners) have been rotated at 10 to 15 degrees.

Regards, Simulator

[The_Transporter]

wow nice work. but if its for gta well , this is just the beginning

[multimediaman]

hmm... I'm not sure if that means you understand... anyway, thought this visualization would help. it's a comparison from gta3 on the left, gta sa/ gran turismo 1/2 in the middle, and gran turismo 3/4 on the right.... the excessive number of faces in the gt3/4 road are there because the engine seems to render better when the faces resemble more of a square than a rectangle or something along those lines....

but yeah, in the first image there is the curve shown, with a row of faces every 40 feet or so... it would be more feet per face row, perhaps a row of faces every 150 feet or so on the straight road segments, but they're not shown...

the second image has a row of faces every 18 feet or so on the curve shown... it would be more feet per face row, perhaps a row of faces every 100 feet or so on the straight road segments, but they're not shown...

the third image has a row of faces every 6 feet or so on the curve shown... it would be more feet per face row, perhaps a row of faces every 30 feet or so on the straight road segments, but they're not shown...

anyway, yeah

-edit-

... how about I attach the image? ops:

[Simulator]

I do understand you multimediaman. It's just that I want to create something that can animate with. I have never made high poly things before. That's your opinion it should be higher poly.

Anyway, here is another progress shot. I have added a beach(goes further than the shot), added more river length, and another bridge.

Regards, Simulator

PS: It is not for GTA

[Simulator]

Another little update. Removed the corners on the hill. It is now a straight piece of road.

Regards, Simulator

Looks cool so far man. Good job

[multimediaman]

you said earlier about not caring too much for gmax's interface... well, my biggest reason you should use gmax for this, if it'll output to something zmodeler can recognize, is the special tools.

I sense the road construction is giving you trouble, as you start out with hills, but say you flatten them out after adding the roads or whatever. Well, possibly the coolest thing about 3dsmax or gmax, or higher-end tools, which may or may not be in zmodeler, are lofts. in 3dsmax, you simply draw the path of the road you want in the TOP view, with an editable spline. You can put in hills or whatever you want just by moving the points of the spline around. Then, when the path is correct, just make a spline that is the width of the road in the FRONT view, if you're using a single texture that defines the entire road's width.


now just change the create mode to compound objects, select your path you made in the TOP view, then click Loft, to create a loft object. click the "get shape" button, and it automatically creates a road-like object. apply your road material to it, change the parameters of the loft, so it doesn't have a bunch of extra faces, and it automatically updates.

but the best feature is this: you can define how many times you want the mapping to repeat lengthwise and widthwise. Just type in a number and it figures the mapping out. Potential road creation in under 3 minutes once you get the hang of creating the path in the top view, and the shape in the front view. ... if you don't use those views, the loft will screw up. also, depending on the direction you create the shape in the front view, you may have to hit flip normals on the loft object.

then another nice little advantage of max stuff is that you can use 3d snap to ensure that the edges of the grass and curbs all line up properly with the roads.

when you get enough experience the appropriate methods in max, you'll find yourself able to create what you have here in a single day, *maybe* two, provided you have the building models and textures already built

-edit-

that's also how I made those roads in that one post... they were 3 completely different looking models, but they only took about 5 minutes total to make....

[Simulator]

Thanks multimediaman, I'll give it a try. tried lofting before but it turned out horrible(lines everywhere, road inside road. You get my drift?) Anyway, I'll make good use of your comments.

*EDIT*
I didn't mention not caring about GMax's interface, I said I don't really know it inside out with all the features of it. (Not in a bad way)

Regards, Simulator