hkabat-forum-threads EastAsia Fundamentalist BAT Faction

[2ch.net simplayer 186]

East Asia Fundamentalist BAT Faction 

WE WILL NOT BOW TO DEFAULT MAXIS STYLE OF SIMCITY !

Very many people including myself, have been quite discontent over the predominantly western style that simcity adopts. It is quite sad that there is nearly zero Asia-based CJ's around. (Sultanate of Joro is the only Asia-based CJ that I know.) The reason is very clear - because there is an obvious shortage of Asian buildings and props, especially PROPS. How many of you have missed the bright neon billboards, chaotic and narrow streets, street signs, noodle stands, lanterns, hanging banners, dragon statue, pagoda, rows of bicycles, laundry hanging over narrow streets etcetcetc....... Those things are nearly completely absent. My earlier creation, ZHONGHUA ZUTAO is just a beginning. I am not making a Chinatown, but an Asian City.

Anybody can join this movement on this thread, provided that you swear two things: 
1. BAT something that will make somebody shout "ASIA!" or "CHINA!", "KOREA!" "JAPAN!", whatever country east of longitude E90
2. PURSUE Asian-ness and never think about whether it is usable in game or not.

One thing that might be useful to keep in mind is that there are quite a lot of people already doing shiny skyscrapers and residential blocks. To be unique, it is advisble to try something else.


OK, that was a quick introduction. My first project as a formal member of HK/Asia BAT team will soon follow.

[2ch.net simplayer 186]

The first of my project is proposed by somebody in my homebase 2ch. "Tambo" - Japanese rice fields. I am going to BAT other things that goes with this, and will make it possible to reproduce Japanese and Korean countrysides on SimCity.

[SimFox 804]

OMG!!!!

Fantastic! Both idea and execution as well, the look of the paddy under water is fantastic... only one potential drawback - how would it look when tiled often enough... Did you use a photo for texture?? May be some generic, procedural texture will be less repetitive??

[bixel 1,228]

Awesome! A sure winner.

[HONG KONG 74]

Outstanding message and exactly what I was still missing here. The asiatic world was formed not here up to now(the modern excluded). I hope that your term fundamentalism for "only" genuine asiatic architecture except modern trend will never be misunderstood here. Let's build asia

[DuskTrooper 316]

Fundamentalist BAT team, eh? Everyone face Hong Kong, and bow...NOW!

[paulvmontfort 617]

It loos great but I have one suggestion: The field with the water, can you make it a bit more transparent, I can imagine that it would look pretty transparent if you look at a field like that from above.

[SimFox 804]

And to add to paulvmontforts comment - may be a little ripple effect on a surface

[villagemayor 0]

Wow I have been waiting for rice fields for a very long time. But one question. If the land is not flat (undulations in the landscape), how can you have a rice field with water? Never mind technicalities, great work and a great idea!!

[bixel 1,228]

rice fields have to be flat inorder for the rice to grow, so I am assuming these will make the land flat during plop or grow. BTW Great idea 2ch.netsimplayer!!!

[Skyfire2275 23]

The rice fields look nice! It will definitely change the look of farming land in SC4! Make it more asian, but that's the point, isn't it?

Keep up the good work.

[tankmank 853]

this idea sounds great kep up the work

And mabie you could do some tea fields

[2ch.net simplayer 186]

As I am back from travel, I am starting the main work. Here's the current plan of this "Nippon Den'en" tileset. 

1 is a 12x8 LOT with a small hill, torii and Jinja (shinto shrine) in the middle, 2 and 3 are rice paddies with passage, 4 and 5 are just rice paddies, 6,7,8 and 9 are modular passages, 10 is a triangular rice paddy  (in case somebody uses diagonal roads) and 11 is also a rice paddy, but slightly smaller.  2,3,4 and 5 together, should reduce repetitiveness. I am currently on 1

[bixel 1,228]

Wow! Sounds like a plan! I am excitied.

[2ch.net simplayer 186]

The first version of paddy "1" is done.

hmm.... I hope I'm getting something out of this. Probably I need more of bush.

EDIT: ...........oh no, NO! Those palm trees should not be there!!!

[toxicpiano 125]

despite the teething problems, it looks fantastic!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Originally posted by: 2ch.net simplayer ...........oh no, NO! Those palm trees should not be there!!!quote>

Take the prop families 77 and 78 instead - these are without palms by default. Then again, wouldn't there be palms between rice fields e.g. in Vietnam etc.?

[Imprezza05 1]

no i don't think there are many palm trees in most of asia but they are usually in the countries further south like the philippines where it is hotter

i don't really know tho because philippines is the only place i've been to in asia

[2ch.net simplayer 186]

Originally posted by: T Wrecks

Originally posted by: 2ch.net simplayer ...........oh no, NO! Those palm trees should not be there!!!

 

quote>

Take the prop families 77 and 78 instead - these are without palms by default. Then again, wouldn't there be palms between rice fields e.g. in Vietnam etc.?quote>

 

Since this is a Japanese Rice paddy, Palm trees should not be there.  In south east asia like Vietnam,  they grow long-grain rice twice a year and the construction of rice paddies is different for this reason.   Ideally, I should have deciduous trees that changes color from time to time

Btw, what's a prop family? I'm not a LOTer so I have on idea on those...

[T Wrecks 10,210]

A prop family is basically a whole set of similar props, which are all assigned to one group ("family"). You add a prop family just like a regular prop, the only difference being that you don't click on "Add Item" in the LE, but on "Add Family".

When you scroll through the list of available families, you will see which props are included in the family.

Now the purpose of a prop family is that the lot will show one randomly selected prop from that family at every location where you placed the family. This makes sure that no two lots look entirely the same. It's like rolling the dice every time a lot is plopped or grows...

If you want seasonal trees, there are some by CouchPotato (MJB) in his prop packs #4 and #5, and IIRC, Cycledogg hs published his wonderful trees as props as well, and he even included some seasonal variiations.

You place seasonal tree props by putting four variations (spring, summer, autumn, winter) all over another at the exact same location, and rotated in the exact same direction. What makes the "seasonal" bit work is that the props are time-dependent: The spring prop will only show e.g. from March 15 to July 15, and then it will disappear - however, on the same day, the summer prop will appear and take over, and so on...

[SimFox 804]

I could try to create those trees for you! Just tell me what are you looking for - shapes etc. or give me pictures and I'll try to make them - for all four seasons.

Btw don’t palms also grow in numbers on Okinawa?

EDIT:

T Wrecks: would it be possible to create new prop family? or are we limited to those built in the game?

[jacqulina 162]

great so far nice work

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Originally posted by: SimFox

T Wrecks: would it be possible to create new prop family? or are we limited to those built in the game?

quote>

Not only is it possible, it has also been done by several people already (including me). The only drawback to using prop or building families is that those require a unique IID, otherwise there will be conflicts.

Another method to get the same effect is what Ardecila calls "adhoc prop families". This is achieved by identifying a prop IID in the LE by hovering the mouse hover it, looking for its IID in the lot config exemplar, and simply appending the additional IIDs of any other props you want to appear randomly there as part of a "family" - another method I have already applied sometimes during the MAPP project. The disadvantage is that it's a bit more work, but the advantage is that it's more flexible and not as vulnerable to possible IID conflicts.

[SimFox 804]

That is absolutely great!!

I saw somewhere that if you want to use seasonal props they can not be part of family since you need particular prop in particular time. Is that right? Another thing about Prop Families - I remember reading (about buildings though) that members of the family must be of same size. I assume itis important for buildings since they are about to appear on redesigned lots. But is there any limitation on things like trees??

[2ch.net simplayer 186]

The kind of tree missing from SC is..... Japanese/Chinese pine trees!

This is the top want for now....

 

http://www.math.sjtu.edu.cn/teacher/wuts/photoes%5C???02.JPG

Modeling of such object needs "particles", but that feature is found on 3dmax and not on BAT.... so, beyond my capability. Can Simfox take this up? Fortunately, pine tree is evergreen, so no need to worry about the seasonal effect!

EDIT: Damn, all Chinese characters turn into ?'s and the link therefore doesn't work... 

FURTHER EDIT:

Btw, was this building ever came to be known in Simtropolis? I made this last year.

Japanese evening cram-school, "Yoyogi Seminar"

[Shinnie02 17]

I'm with you all the way with the asian buildings!! I'm korean so I am thinking of BATting some Korean buildings. The Asian building movement shall move in

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Originally posted by: SimFox

That is absolutely great!!

I saw somewhere that if you want to use seasonal props they can not be part of family since you need particular prop in particular time. Is that right? Another thing about Prop Families - I remember reading (about buildings though) that members of the family must be of same size. I assume itis important for buildings since they are about to appear on redesigned lots. But is there any limitation on things like trees??

quote>

The first thing you mention is right - let's imagine you have tree models 1-5, selected randomly. In addition to this, all models are seasonal, so there are four season versions of each tree. If you slapped all four versions into the same prop family, a fall tree might be selected when the lot is placed in spring - an empty spot would be the result. And in fall, all of a sudden a tree would pop up.

So let's try fixing that by making a prop family for all 5 spring trees, another one for the 5 summer trees, etc. Now you plop the lot, the simulator rolls the dice, and decides to show e.g. tree #4 in the spring version. So far, so good. Now when the seasons change, however, the summer prop family (which has been there, but invisible so far) springs into action (haw, haw) - and it displays one of the 5 summer tree models. Which one? It might be #4 if we are lucky. However, there's no way to tell.

So all in all, seasonal and prop family exclude each other, unfortunately.

Concerning size limitation, I doubt that there is a technical limitation. Even so, it could be overcome easily: The occupant size can be manipulated in the prop desc. In fact, Maxis did that with their default trees: Their crowns are much wider than a dirt circle they are planted in, yet still the prop box of the dirt circle is bigger than that of a tree.

I also doubt that such a possible limitation would be restricted to e.g. buildings, but not affect other types of props. How would the game know? We could give a prop any item name we want...

I imagine that this size requirement was mentioned because if you group props of radically different size, the result might look stupid, depending on which prop is selected. Let's say you want to place a little bush next to a building wall, but you are already inside the LOD of the building. Now a bush would still look ok, but anything higher would be buried under the LOD. Exactly that could happen with a prop family that contains wildly mixed flora.

In case of a tree of an open field, however, I don't see why there would be a limitation - as long as the lot is big enough, of course.

[hamsterTK 93]

Japanese evening cram-school, "Yoyogi Seminar"quote>

eewww damn im glad i didnt grow up in japan

just curious, will you be making some rice fields that are not grouped together or have some shrine thing?

anyways, this is awesome. in the US rice paddies are somewhat common along the coastal plain. me and my dad go goose/duck hunting and set up a blind in dry cut rice fields because thats what the birds like to eat

[SimFox 804]

Yep! Exactly - particle systems... That is the technical side of those tries on the base of my residential tower. There are many ways to generate those - scripts, plug-ins, by hand. I'll see what I could cook-up!

Question - what should be the size of such a tree? To be hones when I was in China I haven't really seen any... but I was mostly in cities and didn't venture out to the wild.

It looks somewhat similar to pine trees one sees in Spain - those tend to be rather small though - not like those giants found in Russia and Scandinavia.

[Skyfire2275 23]

Originally posted by: Shinnie02 I'm with you all the way with the asian buildings!! I'm korean so I am thinking of BATting some Korean buildings. The Asian building movement shall move inquote>

The more asian buildings, the merrier.

@ 2ch.net simplayer: I have seen that building before, but I don't think it was on ST. And those trees would look cool in game.