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Barry Sanders Project to Reopen Soon!

wolverine

By wolverine
in Michigan

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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WHAT IS THE BSP?

The Barry Sanders Project is run by a team dedicated to producing 3D models of landmark buildings and monuments across the state of Michigan to be patched into the popular simulation game SimCity 4 and Rush Hour. Most of our projects are dedicated toward Detroit. In the upcoming months, major buildings such as the Renaissance Center and Ford Field will be included in the game. Currently our projects and models are hosted on a site that is accessed by nearly 50,000 members. This project will no doubt familiarize the gaming population with Detroit's architecture.

The project originally started as the Michigan/Detroit B.A.T. project with about 14 buildings on our project list. Since the project thread at Simtropolis.com was started, that list has grown to well over a 100 buildings. As interest grew, the project was renamed to the Barry Sanders Project for reasons I do not remember. However, the models created will serve somewhat as a tribute to Barry Sanders and his outstanding career as a NFL Detroit Lion and examplery character as a professional athlete.

As the thread became overcrowded with updates and models, the need for a website became apparent. Last April, the BSP launched its official website that was unfortunately never completely finished because of busy schedules over the summer. Despite our website sitting in limbo, members continued to whip out projects that gained a lot of popularity.

The time has come to finally revive the website along with several improvements that will make visitors' experiences more enjoyable. People who own a copy of the game will be able to download the models into their city directly from our website. If they do not own a copy of the game, they will be able to download the raw models of the buildings which they may use for other applications (with author permissions).

A release of the website is expected this December with all updated models and progress notes.

If you own a copy of SimCity 4, and are interested in this project, the BSP needs you! You do not have to live in Michigan or even the United States. We also do not require you to be skilled at 3D modeling. Your input or comments are enough to be a fully appreciated member. If you would like to join. Simply register at simtropolis.com and drop a post in our project thread.

Hope to see you there!

- Wolverine

The Barry Sanders Project

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  • 3 weeks later...

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baldy Whistle-Stop

baldy

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True story ...... The name Barry Sanders Project was selected just incase we decided to retire this project with out warning! This is such an ambitious project and at the onset, there weren't very many of us and none of us knew how to use the BAT. So it was sort of our way out. Luckily, though, we have grown and learned how to use the BAT. Now if I could just figure out how to get the textures to work properly and have some more time.........

Many thanks to Wolverine and all the hard work he has put in to creating this website.

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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I actually downloaded the BAT. For once I finally got it to work! Now if I could just figure out how to use it....

It would be nice if the BAT worked like Revit, Autocad, or some other program that I actually know how to use. lol.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Actually, Gmax is easier to use than AutoCAD The tools that do all the complex stuff are just a lot easier to access and use than AutoCAD. AutoCAD is more fussy and you have to use a lot of submenus and long strings of commands for something that looks so trivial on your drawing. You can import one of your drawings into GMax ifyou wish. You will have to turn the .dwg file into a 3ds file, which I am positive you can do. Gmax Can read 3ds files if I'm not mistaken. But you can't get it to read a revit file very well, as Revit reads things as walls windows and doors instead of lines, splines, and arcs. Actually, importing a .dwg file into Revit is fairly useless, since you can't really do anything with it!

Also remember that the B.A.T. is technically Gmax, an Autodesk product. AutoCAD and Gmax are practically cousins.

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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I suppose it would be easier to just learn Gmax then. LOL. I can learn Gmax in my spare time...like I have any of that! It's to the point now where I am more interested in learning how to make the buildings than I am in actually playing the game. Tomorrow night I am actually going to attempt to use the BAT again after I get back from Detroit...unless I go to detroit Sunday....

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Allan Metropolis

Allan

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The project is still very much alive. Comerica Tower is the closest skyscraper to being done. I am working on the Statler Hotel, but to be perfectly honest, I have not touched the BAT in almost a month now. All of us are pretty busy with school and work right now. Things will pick up later. The BSP thread can be found at the following link:

http://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.as...ageNo=49&num=30

When not discussing the BSP we tend to ramble about whatever is happening in the city at the time. BTW, in case you are wondering, my other photos from Broderick Tower can be found here. I just finished going through them tonight. A thread with descriptions will happen sometime during the next week.

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Allan Metropolis

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I guess I forgot to reply. Thanks, for all the info. I actually read that whole thread for the most part :o.

And I don't think you missed any possible shots from the Broderick either, LOL.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You read almost all 50 pages?! LOL. I have a hard time keeping up with the new posts sometimes, let alone all the old ones. Fortunately I have been with the project since page one. My only problem is that I had to reregister...so much for my June 2003 registration date!

I have explored all 193,000 square feet of Broderick Tower. I have been in every single room on every single floor. It took four visits (about 16 hours) to see it all, but I will go back again in a few weeks. I really want to see a good sunset from the top. My Broderick Tower thread will be posted on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how much work I have to do this week.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Just to give you a bit of an update on the project, I have renewed another year on our servers, so I'm hoping to get a lot of work done on the project when I'm done with college.

With badly's help, we have found excellent ways to texture our buildings and make them appear more realistic. One such example is the Kales building, which I wish I had a picture of the model. As for me, I'm still working on the Dime and Ford Field. Hopefully, I will be able to tackle the Penobscot, Hudsons, and the Compuware Building this summer. We also have a member working on the Cadillac Tower, which I believe is done with the modeling phase and needs texturing. Other proejcts being worked on are the State Theater, Comerica Tower, and of course Allan's Statler. Baldy's 150 Jefferson building is pending but is near completion. We are still looking for members to take on Merchant's row, The Broderick Tower, and possibly the Fox. We also are looking for members to do a few buildings in Flint and the Citizens Bank building in Saginaw (very difficult). We already have a few finished projects, however, they are not landmark buildings, but still significant. They will be available for download on the website this summer.

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baldy Whistle-Stop

baldy

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Thanks for the update Wolverine!

Who is that badly guy you have doing textures?!? LOL!

You don't need to be able to be good at, or even use g-max to help out. We were kind of making "team" buildings so to speak. Meaning that some one would do the model, some one make textures, some one place it on a lot, custom queries, ect. to help things speed up. Even photos are beneficial, not only for creating the models, but I have been using real building photos to create textures.

Personally, I have never used the lot editor and have had problems getting it to work on both my computers, so I gave up. So if someone wants to get good at it, that would help to. We'll probably need beta testers for the buildings, so you'll only need SC4 to help out. My point is that there is a lot of areas to help out if you want.

I haven't touched my 150 west jefferson project in probably almost a year, so it's up for grab to any willing to finish it. I might try to work on it again if I have time since its just needs a roof, entrance, and the parking garge. I would like to get the Kales building from the person working on it because he had come a long way and he just disappeared.

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baldy Whistle-Stop

baldy

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you guys advertise this on any of the Sim City based websites yet?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, check out our thread at www.simtropolis.com it's in the custom content forum under BAT open discussion. Somewhere down the list you will see a thread called "Barry Sanders Project" If you intend to look through it all, set aside a large chunck of time as it is currently at 51 pages!

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Well, I couldn't resist myself, and started BATting again since I had time this weekend. I just started using 3D Studio Max instead of Gmax...and holy schitt! It's incredibly fast. It doesn't stall or freeze or take forever to move stuff when you have lots of polygons. The renderings are about 30 times faster than Gmax, since I only had to wait 3 seconds for Ford Field to render in high quality mode. The only problem is, I still have to use Gmax to export to SimCity. But that's alright. I really haven't understood the texturing process in 3ds yet. However, I think baldy could do a better job at that :D

rbdetsport, I guess I really don't understand what you mean by being a beta tester. It's easier for me to test it myself and see flaws nearly instantly where I would have to upload it to the internet for you to download, and then wait for your response when you have time. From time to time, I will upload unfinished models for everyone to try out anyway, and you can feel free to make comments to improve the model.

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wolverine Town

wolverine

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Here are some updates on Hudson's Department store. I still need to put windows on the Woodward side of the building as well as floors. But after that I will be able to start on facade detail and texturing. I might need some of your help ebaldy

hudsons1.jpg

hudsons2.jpg

hudsons3.jpg

hudsons4.jpg

hudsons5.jpg

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