http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150721/business/150729847
So needless to say, my timing couldn't be better. Mike Clancy was kind enough to take a bunch of photos all the way around the building since he lives much closer than I do. The entrance looks pretty much the same, but then other parts are pretty worn (missing wood panels, worn wood.. people dumping tires, doors, and a tv in the back of the building)
My hope was to automatically convert photos to 3d using various software packages, but the software is nothing short of frustrating. I've decided this software is great for complicated surfacing (humans, terrain), but for something like a building with fairly simple geometry I'm going to just model it from scratch. I'm going to start by laying out the building in 2d using google maps, then extrude the ground, then a footprint of the area as a foundation, then model the interior, then put up walls, then a roof. I'm going to model it as if I was building an architect foamboard model. Built in layers so you can deconstruct it if needed. One thing about modeling the real world, you have to have a cutoff. When you play GTA, you don't actually see everything at once. They have a fade perimeter (meaning you only see say a couple hundred feet from your view). The rest is blurred out, or they add a haze. This improves load time, FPS, etc. To top it off, GTA is always on an island. That way you just have infinite water, and if you try going out too far you'll get bored before you reach the end (probably why our universe is so big). So my idea to tackle this is only model the parking lot, and the rest of the area will essentially be a cylinder with texture mapping representing everything around it (I'll eventually need to take photos facing away from the building). That way you have a panoramic background that makes you feel like you're in a real world. Granted you'll be able to walk up to it like a wall. It's not unlike in the end of the movie Truman show when he takes the boat out as far as he can go, and he hits the end.
