The View From SimCity

I've thought about modeling stadiums for SimCity4 ever since the BAT plugin for gmax came available. I started with a smaller soccer stadium, but that didn't really pan out for me. Then there have been the smaller minor league stadiums I've tried, just to fit into a certain spot in the city. But again, nothing really happened from those.

But then there was a year long break and I came back to it. And so went the idea of actually going all out and modeling Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Sure, it sounds crazy, but I've always liked the stadium, and I've been inspired by other people's works. So I figured I'd give it a shot.

Now, a disclaimer, if you will. This is a model of OPaCY, yes, but it's not going to be completely accurate. There seems to be a dearth of blueprints of OPaCY on the web, and this means measurements and details are come by through flickr and random people's random shots. I'll try and get as accurate as I can, but nothing is 100%. But hopefully the differences are so small as to make them unnoticeable once the whole thing is take together.

I hope to make this rather detailed in that any view from anywhere does not necessarily show blank spaces. For those of you that play SimCity, and especially for those of you that model buildings for SimCity, there are a couple of limitations. The most limiting of them being the fact that it is not 3d. There are four cameras each with 5 zooms and those are the only views of buildings you are allowed to have. This leaves the undersides of overhangs unseen in game, therefore making it pointless to model them and use polygons.

However, I'm not just making this for SimCity4, I'm making this because I want to make this and it shall help me with modeling in general. Therefore there will be no 'blank' spaces of emptiness just because it can't be seen in game. Who knows, I might be able to use it in SimCity 5....

The other limitation is the 'night' sky. It really isn't night, per se, it's just less light. And not much less light either. This makes it difficult to really appreciate the night lighting that can be done. Lights have to be made a bit brighter than normal to show through the darkened sunlight, and it really hampers the subtle lighting on buildings. That's not to say it can't be done, there are quite a few great buildings out there for SC4 that have great lighting. I'm just saying it'll be a new experience for me.

And now a note on the model. I'm starting in certain areas and working my way around, as opposed to trying to do the whole thing at once. So far I've started at center field and am working my way around. But this may pose a problem as I've completed the scoreboard and it seems to be rather poly-heavy. And texture heavy. I might have to render pieces individually and then place them all together on a lot. But that's getting way ahead of myself. I'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

And here is Oriole Park at Camden Yards, in modeled form. This would be a zoom 5 preview. I like how the ground plane (Google Maps) and the bare Warehouse actually look decent with what I've modeled. It also reminds me of how much I need to do. *sigh*


Day and Night SimCity4 zoom 5 shots. Click for larger image.

And then a view from home plate of the Esskay Out of Town Scoreboard. I understand that it doesn't look like this, but I like Old Bay better.