Removing the back faces could help but it may not be the most efficient use of your time. Layers are the way to go however, the benefits are far greater then going around deleting back faces. Thats not to say that you shouldn't do it, just pick the right thing to spend your time on. Oh and 12gb of RAM is absurd so you should be fine.

Yeah thats a lot by SU standards. What I normally do is group the similar thing together. My first one I almost always do is Deco. I throw everything that isn't needed and is just to make things look nice into that. It's sorta hard to explain but you can "layer" everything into the layers (sorry if I just confused you). I mean that you can make the outside one group and then within that group have the interior. You could then make a layer that hides only the exterior. This way when you move the exterior the inside will come with you. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the best way to explain it but... Layers are just a fast way to hide stuff and it still comes with the computational benefits of just running a normal hide command.

That's pretty awesome! The blog showed the interior but can we get some close ups here? Seeing your skill I would assume you know but if you have everything in groups/components you can and should put stuff in layers. It'll help you keep your frame rate up and make it easier to model. I have a model with over 274000 polys and with everything properly layered I run like I was modeling with only a few thousand. Nice job!

That's pretty awesome! The blog showed the interior but can we get some close ups here? Seeing your skill I would assume you know but if you have everything in groups/components you can and should put stuff in layers. It'll help you keep your frame rate up and make it easier to model. I have a model with over 274000 polys and with everything properly layered I run like I was modeling with only a few thousand. Nice job!

I've been working on this model for a little while now and though I'd share the progress I've made so far. This city has been inspired by my love of Final Fantasy's (XII in particular) architectural design and various art styles. My favorite city from FFXII, Rabanastre, has always captured me in it's design and so I've always found my self trying to make models like it. This model I started using only one image as a reference.

This is the image that influenced the model:

While the model differs in many ways it helped me get started. Here is what I have so far and more is hopefully coming. I'm sorry I forgot to lower the image resolution =(

Zoomed out shot of the whole model (kinda hectic)

Zoomed shot of the side

A side building

Back of the building just shown

The Heart Building as I call it right now (entirely inadvertent when I made it)

Iso view of the Heart Building

Early stages of the walkways (hopefully I get to improve them)

Just another view of the catwalks and the back of a building

The top of the building that supports the ring

Top view of the model without all the clutter

Shows the different elevations not quite as apparent with all the grates

So that is all I have so far and by my standards its okay but I need outside comments. Also I'd like to throw a question in there. How should I as a 15 year old go about pursuing a career in 3D (hopefully games but 3D in general). I use SketchUp in combination with Maya through the student program but I have no idea where to really go with all the things I am learning. Again sorry about the image size... Thanks!

That is soooo cool, nice job! If you don't mind me asking, what rendering program are you using? Again because it needs to be said again, nice job!

I looked up OpenSpace3D and that is a really nice package. However I didn't see any terrain editing systems in place for OpenSpace. Unity is a solid engine with great terrain tools but its aimed at mobile systems. You would have an easy time of getting up on the web (if you wanted it to be a browser based application) but Unity might not be able to handle the large amount of different models. Lastly I found out that ScaleFormGFX ships with UDK. If you have access to FlashPro or something like it you have your UI problem solved right then and there.

I'm sorry but in no way do I want to seem disrespectful. Is this a boat? It's really cool I must admit. Nice render too!

First I want to say nice project. I'm not completely sure if this problem got resolved as I didn't read all 130 posts or what ever but I do have a possible solution to your interactive element. Note I said possible as it would take work but would solve it quite well. I would suggest using UDK. This would provide many advantages. You would instantly have the ability to walk through the streets of Rome. Now I'll start with the ground up, the terrain seems to very important to you. UDK has one of the most powerful terrain sculpting systems out there and the best part is it can use height maps. You could literally get a picture of the topology of the area you want, throw it into Photoshop (or anything really) and then paint white onto the high places and then paint black on the low places. Save it as a .TGA import it into UDK's terrain editor and there you go. Next would be your ability to run detailed maps at a high frame rate. Using level streaming you could calculate portions of Rome rather then the whole thing. It works just like music streaming actually. You could also use occlusion culling to further optimize your speed. On top of that you've got one of if not the top lighting system in the world at your finger tips. You also have a UI builder that works quite well. Now I really don't what this to sound to much like a commercial but UDK is free. If that is the direction you chose to go I would be glad to help with the UDK portion once I get my new computer. I hope I didn't blow you away with detail or anything but I could see really good things come out with this using UDK. I hope this helps!

Thanks! I'm not completely sure if I'm gonna paint these ones or make them in Maya then texture there. This is purely concept right now. I'm totally excited about the abilities we get from the static meshes in Unreal it'll let us run something like this with total ease.

A further update. Though not shown in the picture this model is on a purvama or a floating island. This structure is right on the edge of the island and the water is pouring off the edge. Still a lot I want to change and add but this is a lot better then the first picture as I look back. Any ideas for the bridges to the right and left that go over the water would be really nice, I always have trouble with them.

Thanks!