hkabat-forum-threads SimFox Construction & Research

[SimFox 804]

Sky: well, here it is… The full height of the building doesn’t fit into 800x600 rule box, btw why such a limitation??

This is my best approximation of Zoom5 view (quite accurate if I may say so myself…

 

Gardening is still in it’s very preliminary stage.

Edit:

BTW, to break monotony of the windows and not being comfortable with textures yet and not sure how to combine them (textures) with proper glass material I've decided to model curtains. Actually it isn’t all that difficult or time consuming, at least for this model.
It looks a bit crappy… may be moving them away from glass will improve the appearance as there will be more defined shadows from window frames…

What do you, guys, think?

[____----____ 37]

AWESOME!!!

[choco1 4]

Wow, the details on that building is stunning! Those trees are so pretty!

Keep up this awesome work!

[Skyfire2275 23]

Looks good... although I might suggest a bit more uniformity with the curtains. Instead of varying the shapes/sizes as much as you did, instead vary that less and vary the colour of the curtains more. And the plants look great... even though I hate palms trees (nothing against yours, they look good) because I never build tropical cities. Can you possibly do a version without?

[paulvmontfort 617]

it looks very cool, but you have to tell me how you get that flora!

[bixel 1,228]

I got a couple of textures to give ye for the windows...you can use em or make new ones out of them. Just pm me your email...if I don't already have it I need zzzzzzzz lol.

[dmscopio 225]

Cool! How do you model those flora?do you use a Maxscript to generate them?Anyway, that looks awsome. The curtains seem a bit wired IMO, maybe reduce the variation or darken them with help. I am sure you will find a way to improve it. Good luck with it.

[mightygoose 92]

man that is awesome

[bixel 1,228]

Yup that flora looks too damn realistic. To be honest it will not mix well with default Maxis stuff....looks like I am going to have to re-render all my buildings with the new flora update ARRGGG!!! Thanks alot Simfox, 1st your new render techniques and now this...I can't keep up!!

[mcarch 15]

*droolz* Um, someone might wanna clean this up!

[SimFox 804]

Every one: thank you, you’re too kind.

 

I’ll write a bit more on flora later, and more after I’ll finnish and upload this building. I’m to prone (as may of you know already) to go deep into tech woods. Often it gets best of me and I’m getting somewhat lost mysef… So all tech details will be revealed later. For now I just say that canopy (leaves) are basically swarm of polygons and as such could be generated in many ways. For instance by Folliage generator in MAX (there I would recommend Banyan tree, or any tree generating plugin or script – there are too many to list here now. Then you have to edit it to make more in scale and resolution with SimCity, and apply right materials as well.

 

Bixel: I’m afraid you’re RIGHT!!! Well as almost always… anyway, I also think that as it is now it would stand out too much in the city. I’ll try to do complete export and see just how bad it will be. But I’m not saying it is a final. It will be tweaked to blend better. What I want to achieve – to make it more realistic that flora available today not completely off the scale. In a way it is difficult to see what are the current standards. Many trees released and even whole plugins (like sumptuous Colombia river) are taking the game away from realism in bizarre mix of pseudorealism and complete cartoon, mostly due to colors and materials used and absolute ignorance of scale. So ia away it’s difficult to maneuver in such a place. But I’ll see what I can do and how I can screw the game.

 

BTW, I know that palms are hated by many, but tell me none the less do you find these to be offensively off the scale? It is difficult to judge and I would say somewhat pointless to follow real world dimensions in every aspect of the simcity. So purely on your perceptions, is it wrong to have palm tree with leaves soo huge that they could be see for almost space?

[bixel 1,228]

I love palms.. so there T Wrecks!! Nyah nyah,nyah nyaaah nyahhh!

[SimFox 804]

Long period of migrating to the new system is over and I can start BATing again. Unfortunately there were casualties of this process – One Peking Road few latest versions were accidentally deleted. For this time of change I couldn’t really do any big project but I’ve been experimenting with few ideas and now I’ll be putting them to use. I will rebuild my old unfinished projects and will be doing new ones. The latest is Metro Harbor View residential complex in Kowloon (Hong Kong)

The entire complex consists of 10 48 floor tall towers sitting on common base with landscape garden, swimming pools and two club houses on it. The entire complex will be about 15x5 game squares in size. I may also make two parts so that it would be of more manageable size. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

And here is thumbnail and a link to the big picture. I’m not exactly sure of the size but I think it is larger then what it will appear in game. The real size will be somewhere in-between of this and of the size of smaller picture above.  Actually the second picture – North View should be very close to in-game Zoom5 view. Beware pictures are  1600x1600 pixels  1Mb 1000x1600 pixels  447Kb

[SURUMI 2]

YES ! Looks awesome, Simfox.

If you wan't to split the complex, I guess, the best splitting point could be between tower 3 and tower 4, because there is something like an entrance to an underground parking garage.

[bixel 1,228]

Oh dear you modeled the insides walls completely!!! I cant believe it I almost never do that....but towers themselves look incredible...very nicely done...of course the hardest part will be the foundation...good luck and drink lots of coffee!!! This is going to rock!

[SimFox 804]

Bixel: Oh yes, oh goodness gracious me!! Well, as you've said the inside modeling isn't much trouble... I've made it as I was thinking of experimenting with light later on and to see how would it work with new glass. It is also sort of anthropological study - those spaces are sooo tiny!!! I can't believe people could be stuffed in such a space! Bedrrooms like this over here would be called closets! But in HK as long as bed could be stuffed in it is a bedroom! Tower modeling isn't all that difficult, that's true and I'm actually looking forward for the base - would be necessary experience so I could make my fictional tower base more believable. One problem... I actually do not have any pictures of either the base or even the towers... the only pic in that PDF Surumi d is tiny and luck any detail... So I have no clue what color scheme is used in the building, what sort of frames are in the windows, although I suspect that art is pretty standard. But still... If anyone will come across the photos of the complex I would very appreciate if he/she let me know, cause at the moment this is my best picture:

BTW, there is one sweet garden next to the complex... I may try to recreate that as well.

Surumi: Yep I'll look into it. I will try to make complex as one piece. It gonna be challenge, btw, only this 3 towers take about 1 gb of memory during the render. and on 32bit setup 3Gb is maximum system can give to single application. This may become a problem when all the bits and pieces are put together. It will require some creative approach

[SURUMI 2]

@Simfox

Ask bixel, he don't want to split his mammouth too.

Here's a link of the Henderson group, the owner of Metro Harbour View I+II. Hopefully it will help a little.

http://www.hld.com/eng/prop/sales/residential_kln.htm

Damn ! I had viewed the pages now, floor plans and other stuff is shown, but no pics.

I think, you have two options: Sending an e-mail to the company and request for pics, or give your fantasy a try.

[GMT 389]

these highrises are cool, although too detailed... the interior i mean, with every room modelled. I'd suggest focusing on the visible parts only. makes the final file easier to handle.

anyway.

the exterior is wonderfully done. great eye for it.

the renderings given look awesome!

waiting for the release

[bixel 1,228]

Well...I think you are going to have to split it...just like me. As for pics I have been searching everywhere...where is MetroHourbview located? Tsueng Kwan O? sometimes I inadvertedly get pics of towers by searching for location instead...as for the base I am just going off from the podium drawing same as yourself...though I have a few pics of the base..you may want to sort of copy me a little to get ideas if you can. But I confess I am going to have to split it as much as I do not want to Maxis has a LOT size crime bug and it would ruin the general harmony of the city.

[SURUMI 2]

@bixel: Metro Harbour View is located at West Kowloon.

[SimFox 804]

Does this infamous crime bug affect every kind of LOT or some are exempt from it?? What about Parks? And what is a lot size that is "critical"? I think this idea of making Landmark version of the entire complex and then splitting it to individual tower level to make growables realy good one.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

The crime bug is triggered by lot size alone and not sensitive to what kind of a lot it is. Just check your crime map and look out for bigger lots like e.g. the Country Club, the airport, the Air Force Base, the University... In my early SC4 playing days, it happened to me more than once that I plopped a Country Club somewhere and expected land value to rise... then I wondered why I kept hearing gunshots when I was in the area... and then I had a look at the crime map and realized what was wrong.

This also happened to me when I was using a wonderful beach set and plopped together huge beaches. Then I zoned, and I expected to get a wonderful waterfront: First the beaches, then a nice boulevard, and then ritzy high-rises... not! Crime was deep orange all over the waterfront area, and even three or four police departments weren't enough. I never got a decent skyline there.

The vulnerability starts at about 6x6 and rises with the lot size. One bigger lot normally isn't that bad, but several of them can already cause problems. For example, once I had a University (plus two police stations) and two of SimGoober's superb shopping centres across the street, both 6x6. One was medium-wealth, the other one high-wealth. The high-wealth shop always looked black because it was occupied by less than 50% of its normal occupants due to crime. I tried plopping 14 (!) police kiosks along its back wall and a small police precinct nearby, but to no avail. Then I bulldozed it and had it replaced by some buildings with smaller footprints of e.g. 3x2, 3x3, 1x2, 2x2 etc. The problem was gone, although the same area was occupied by the same zone type, only in finer splits.

[SURUMI 2]

Hm. Your CrimeShieldTM technology doesn't work ?

[Andreas Roth 629]

Originally posted by: SURUMI Hm. Your CrimeShieldTM technology doesn't work ?quote>

 
We ran a few tests, and it did work quite well, but just after publishing, T Wrecks found a serious bug. The lot acted like a police station (or a private security service, if you want) and reduced crime quite nicely, but without a budget slider, the officers went on strike some day. The game isn't really designed for buildings with multiple functions, so I guess we have to stick to the old-fashioned way...

[SURUMI 2]

Originally posted by: Andreas Roth

 but without a budget slider, the officers went on strike some day. The game isn't really designed for buildings with multiple functions, so I guess we have to stick to the old-fashioned way...

quote>

 

*lol*

Sorry, but this sounds funny ( I know, it isn't ).

Hm. Too bad.

Question: Here at the STEX are some modified police stations who can cover (for example) a whole city. Does it work, if you place them nearby such huge lots ?

[bixel 1,228]

Dear lord that is very funny. So do you think it would crash if the slider properties were added?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Probably not - you could theoretically mod it as a police station and set the radius to a few tiles, but the police coverage strength to a decent value. Modding out the dispatchable cars and any police helicopter is no problem, either. That's basically what I already did.

However, getting a query that shows more than just the police budget slider, and getting the building to show up in the landmarks menu instead of in the police menu might turn out to be a pain in certain body regions.

To answer your question, SURUMI: There are several factors that determine the effect of a police station, among others center strength, outer strength, radius, car dispatches, and center and outer effect strength as well as radius for the cars.

Since the crime bug persists in areas that are under what I would consider to be normal police coverage for a major city (e.g. next to one deluxe precinct and inside the effect radius of two more large or deluxe precincts), it would probably also persist if you had a police station with normal effect strength and whatever radius right next to the building. Incresing effect strength would make the police station a cheat, and anyway I don't think it's a good solution to surround a large residential complex by many police stations - not only is it unrealistic, but it also ruins your skyline and downtown building density.

[bixel 1,228]

I totally agree...besides you said you surrounded your mall with 14 police stations to no avail anyway...maybe there is some way to make a crime mod that lowers overall crime moderately...it could be a middle of the road solution.

[SURUMI 2]

@T Wrecks: Thank you for you answer. It's cristal clear, I would never jammed the surroundings of such lots with so much police stations. Therefore the question, if one of the superstrength police stations will reduce the crime.

[SimFox 804]

Oh, bugger…

Well I guess ploppables could be made so that entire complex could be assembled from parts and it would still look as if it is one piece. But in order for this to look right precision in placement would be paramount. I remember I’ve read some where that it is possible to place buildings/props on the LOT with just this great precision. If so, large structures could be rendered sliced and “wrong” bits made invisible to the camera, as much as I understand they would still cast shadows and be seen in reflections and even refractions. This solution, naturally, would quite a bit of planning right from the start. Also, does anyone know what are the margins required for the structure to fit say on 1x1 or 2x2 lot? I remember when I was experimenting with something I made 32x32x32 cube and when rendered Lot editor wouldn’t allow to place in on 2x2 lot. It simply wouldn’t show in the list of buildings available for such a lot When I increase lot size to 3x3 then it would show up… but it was a 32x32x32 cube!! Is there a way around this? May be altering some numerical value somewhere will fool Lot Editor into thinking that the structure of different size then it actually is?

UPDATE
BTW, being too chicken to start tackling the base of the complex I was playing around with materials… As much as I understand tiling is all the rage in HK. Everything from lowly council flats to the luxurious condos costing millions all are tiled (exterior walls that is). Tiles (unless totally mat) do sort of simmer when light hit them at certain angle (basically this is a reflection) so I was trying to recreate this effect with my material for the towers wall. Here is what I came up with – take a look and tell me what do you think? BTW I've also changed a bit GLASS material, now as yiou can see reflections are distorted as (well in imitation off) in real glass would be...
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