BAT Projects - SimGoober

[hogmeister 7]

Over here in the UK its standard practice for a new supermarket to include a petrol station on site, run by the supermarket and branded as the supermarket, has been for years now, it makes them good money. People tend to fill up on groceries and then fill up their car on the way out. The supermarket prices, because they are using land that would otherwise just have been a few more parking spaces is usually cheaper than the oil company garages by a few pence a litre, and when it cost almost eighty pence a litre anyway, (government tax is actually about 300%, yes 300% on petrol) every penny maters. The supermarkets are now some of the biggest petrol retailers in the country and even tend to buy their petrol by the sea tanker load on the Rotterdam spot market.

[fire47251 0]

Kroger here in Indiana has gas stations in front of them too.

[Simguyuk 0]

Wow, columbus tower is great! It looks like it would be good in a city centre area.

[kassarc16 4]

Yeah, they started it awhile back, dunno how long ago,. They sell it for 3 cents cheaper than the posted price to club members, which at mine makes it cheaper than any of the other gas stations. They use it go draw customers since I heard they take a loss selling it like that.

[n74704 21]

dude, you rock.  i saw the embassy suites in the BEX and i had to look very closely at it to see if it was real or not.  i mean, you just have the talent to do things like this.  its excellent.

 

one thing that i feel i should point out though.  on almost all of your rooftops in your models, you use a very dark roof texture.  i personally think its too dark for the SC4 scene and it sticks out like a sore thumb.  may i suggest you try a lighter roofing material?

 

 

this is nice and light with a spatter of rust.  it'll age the roofs of the buildings very nicely.

 

this is a nice medium color - dark grayish.  this could be used on newer roofs.

 

you got an amazing talent.  this is the only thing that i think you should consider.

[SimGoober 2,351]

Thanks for the textures!  That IS one area i have not been happy with.  I am always looking for more.  I have been to numerous sites, and found lots of good stuff, but true architectual stuff is hard to locate.  I've been through the Textures thread, and I think I've been to every site listed.  I have photoshop, but am not very proficient with it.  I'm learning, but it's one more program to learn.  Right now my quest is for realistic siding materials.  I have stucco in a few shades (all very light), but want some variety.  I know there is a way to chang the colors in photoshop (at least I think you can), but it's beyond me for now.  I can create a basic texturized color, but the results haven't been perfect.  Roofing and siding were my primary holes, now one is patched!

[n74704 21]

you need more?  i'd be glad to help.

 

i have white stucco, dark brown, dark green, lime green, pink, peach and dark peach.

 

i have some red-ish raised stonework, regular stonework and blue-ish raised stone.

 

i have all brick styles imaginable.  just tell me what you need and i'll provide.

[SimGoober 2,351]

(drooling)

More textures!  I'm feeling like a junkie!  I could use just about any shade of stucco, and maybe a couple of the stonework.  I have a bunch of bricks myself.  That seems to be the one texture I found in abundance. If they are small files, you could post them here, or email them to me at SimGoober@cox.net

 

Thanks a bunch!

[n74704 21]

let me go whip up some more colors for you.

 

did you get the bricks from the one website?  thats where my supply came from.

 

i'll have them in a few minutes.

[n74704 21]

i doubt you'll use all of these, but here they are anyway.  they are all color variations of themselves.

 

this is the original, but i rarely use it becuase of the color differences in it.

 

 

and for stonework

 

hope this helps you out a bit.  if you need anymore colors, don't be afraid to ask.

[SimGoober 2,351]

WOW!  Thanks a bunch.  It appears you have editing the colors down pat.  Is this an easy process, or rather involved?  I don't have any other specific colors in mind, but for future use I love knowledge....

[n74704 21]

what program are you running?

 

if you have Photoshop, i do this:

 

open up the pic, and select the entire thing.

create a new layer with the pic still selected.

go to the fill button and choose the color.

fill the new layer with that color.

save as jpeg.

[RobledoRessainance 36]

I can see the texture you used for my building. Thanks a lot for the textures (even though this is not my thread) but they're very useful. I've changed colors with Irfan View, in case someone doesn't have Photoshop.

[DuskTrooper 314]

Cool!  thanks for the textures, N!

[SimGoober 2,351]

Here's the latest update on Columbus One...

I've got some tweaking to do, the lighting is argueing with me...  This is from a low quality export, which took about 8 hours....

I'm working from hotels the next few days, so will have slow progress.  Since it takes so long for this to render, I'm putting it on hold until I am home again.  Should take about another week to finish it.

In the mean time, I had a request for a Safeway a few posts back, and I have my eye on the hotel across the street....

 

[DuskTrooper 314]

OOh, I like the stores on the base of that thing!  Would it be possible for you  to seperate the stores and release it as a seperate building?

[cat person 2]

Looking good Simgoober.

You said that the rendering took 8 hours and i am wondering what are your pc specs.

[sepsis 17]

[bEGINQUOTE]

4/30/2004 7:24:58 AM[/quoteDATE]

DuskTrooper[/quoteAUTHOR]

OOh, I like the stores on the base of that thing! Would it be possible for you to seperate the stores and release it as a seperate building?

[/quoteMESSAGE][/bEGINQUOTE]

..i second that request..beautiful stores!!!..

[kassarc16 4]

Very nice, keep up the good work.

[Caliban 2]

When editing with photoshop you can do just about anything colour wise using a combination of blending modes and adjustment levels. It also means you can save a layered version of the image so any parameter can be tweaked in seconds.

[SimGoober 2,351]

Date:4/30/2004 7:24:58 AM
Author:DuskTrooper

OOh, I like the stores on the base of that thing!  Would it be possible for you  to seperate the stores and release it as a seperate building?

quote>

I may just do that. It might be easier to render in smaller chunks, then release them as props built on this lot... I'm getting ideas here... This might take a little longer, as none of the base buildings have other sides.  I'll work on it next week.

I'm working off my laptop.  It's a Dell, 2.0 GHZ, 512 M RAM.  It's a company computer, so I can't add memory.  I have an equivilent (slightly lower) PC at home, which I can transfer models to to render.  It's a little slower than this one, but it can run without interference.  Of course, I need to be home to use it...

[Jhipolito 27]

I'm really enjoying your work!

Keep up the good work

[SimGoober 2,351]

Here's a couple projects i worked on from the road this week.  First is the hotel I was at.  I didn't realize how MUCH it resembled a basic box until i modeled it...

 

{ummm... i inserted the pic, and it is above the SimTrop header on my screen!}

 

ok... back on this screen... wonder how that happened....

Also, by request:

I hate the roof textures... I think I'll just do a solid color.  Tried numerous times to get the flat part to match the curved and resemble a tin roof...

Here's some night shots of the signs:

 

 

[Caliban 2]

You've been doing great work on all your new building

In what way are you having problems with that tin roof texture (other than the fact I think you either need a new texture or better tiling)?

[SimGoober 2,351]

you nailed the texture problem.  The roof is in two sections, front and rear.  I tried a few textures, and didn't some up with any I really liked.  If  I tried to match the tiling up, the curve on the front half made them difficult to line up.  The picture (a page or two back) that I based this on had a solid color I think, though the angle is wrong to know for sure.  I am thinking I'll do that next.

 

The Courtyard is actually done.  I have rendered it twice, but both times got zoom levels corrupted with other building pieces.  I have a few cleaning up tricks to try, and I'll try attempt 3 tonight.

[Mexicanboy13r 12]

WOW.......Now thats tight!.....More hotels!

Simgoober thats tight!

 

Safeway is lookin good to!....I wonder if the safeway will have parking?

[Sabretooth78 808]

That's some incredible looking stuff you got going on here... Keep it up!

 

-Chris

[+Guest]

Awesome SimGoober, thats Trixie award winning work you got there.

[Caliban 2]

Couple of questions,
How is the roof made and when is the mapping applied in the stack?

Also, I'm not sure if ths the right type of roof but have you tried the texture I made for mrbisonm?

Metal Roof Pack

They tile well but the repeat is too obvious for large stretches (I made them fast) I would use them as a base and add more dirt variation if I was planning to do a large roof section.

EDIT: Link now works

[DuskTrooper 314]

Well, the file wont open or save.