Nofunk's BAT Thread

[Fledgeling 1]

Its sunday (weekend) and the Park Apt.s will be released sometime today! The anticipation is killing me. Christmas comes early! Feel like a kid about to open a present.

[6459978. 106]

Wow! I hadn't seen the latest update! Looking phenomenal! The textures, the modelling, everything is perfect in my opinion.

[nofunk 1,933]

JOHN K. KING USED & RARE BOOKS RELEASED!

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17460

In 1971, John King established his first used bookstore in the Michigan Theatre building in downtown Detroit. Twelve years later and bursting at the seams with books, John bought the old Advance Glove factory at 901 W. Lafayette. Since then, John King Used & Rare Books has expanded to occupy all four floors plus the basement of the old factory (John makes his home in a corner of the 4th floor) as well as the Otis Elevator building next door! Today, John King Books is a Detroit landmark and is frequented by everyone from local sports stars and politicos to celebrities like Jay Leno and magicians Penn & Teller. This is a faithful re-creation of the actual building: the only liberties taken have been with the lot design.

A very special thank you goes out to Jasoncw for custom menu icons and technical advice, and JBSimio for the custom queries. Thanks to T Wrecks for his comprehensive and incredibly clear Modding School instructions! I would not have been able to mod these without them. And of course, thanks to everyone who has given me such valuable feedback in my BAT thread!

---

UPDATE

Boy, have I been M.I.A. lately or what? I'll let you in on a secret: it's because I also moonlight as a ninja!

I'm sorry to disappoint with the Park Apartments -- I know I had said they would be released already. Unfortunately, I have run into some modding complications. Namely, the custom menu icon is not visible for the ploppable and actually appears to overlap another menu item. Also, the landmark version appears to crash the game upon query. I am not sure what is causing these problems, since I also completely modded John King Books on my own and had no trouble!

Needless to say, I will be re-modding the ploppables. I promise you, though, the Park Apartments will be available very soon!

The McNamara Federal Building will also be coming to a STEX near you relatively soon.

I had begun working again on the Cadillac Tower, modeling the roof and elevator penthouse, but the gmax file got corrupted! Don't worry -- the tower itself is OK -- I had started a new gmax session because the current one was lagging too much. But the work I had done on the roof is lost. (At least it certainly appears that way.) I realize I have taken forever on this project, but I assure you, it will see the light of day eventually!

And, as if I don't have enough projects going right now, I have begun a new building! I am not prepared to reveal it yet, but I will tell you that it was built in the late 1800s and is fairly massive (it will likely sit on a 4x7 lot). It is not located in Detroit (!!) but like Detroit, the city in which it is located was also once a capitol. (But perhaps it was a national capitol at one time!)

I hope everyone is doing well!

[Fledgeling 1]

Glad to hear it. I greatly appreciated your message and i sorry i didnt get back to you- finals is a very busy week for me. I hope you got those problems sorted out? It seems so. Good for you. And im not just saying that because it gets me new toys to play with . I must say that i am very impressed with the building and with the feedback quality you provide- absoluty top notch. Your first building was superb, but as a said before, your getting so much better. Thank you! McNamara Federal Building is something i really want to see, because simtropolis lacks many good brutalist buildings.

[ardecila 124]

Oh, cool! I love NY buildings!

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Whoa that looks deprived, i could use that when i get to the poor bit of my City (i have plans)

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work and details

[lrfox 2]

John Kings books is awesome in game. it looks great. sorry to hear about the modding trouble w/ parks apts. i guess we'll all have to be patient while you work out the kinks. keep it up.

[nofunk 1,933]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you all like John King Books!

So here is the problem with Park Apts. The ploppable and landmark lots both have custom menu icons, so you can distinguish them in the landmarks menu. I go into LEProp and add the icons; I also change the little blurb that will show up. I did this for John King Books too, and if you have tried them in your game already you'll see they are just fine. Simple, right?

Wrong. When I go to plop the Park Apts in my city, this I what I see:

The Park Apts LM and ploppable have somehow become transposed over the Ellington Tower and Roy Thompson Hall! In order to use Park Apts in-game, you have to click on one of those. At the bottom you can see two empty spaces where the icons should be -- somehow the actual buttons to plop the Ellington Tower and Roy Thompson Hall have been transposed over those blanks.

What in the world is going on?!

If anybody has some advice I would be eager to hear it. I know I should post this in the Modding forums, but I know a lot you who frequent my thread are also knowledgeable in this area.

I will probably just go ahead and re-mod ALL the Park Apts plugins (there are six!) once I'm done being frustrated. But it would still be good to know what causes this so I can avoid it in the future.

On the bright side, after re-modding the ploppable CO§§ shows jobs (before it showed 0/0) and the landmark no longer crashes the game! Here's to progress, I guess!

[Andreas Roth 607]

Gathering from your posting, your menu is fine until you plop one of those Park Apts lots in your city? Or do you mean it looks like that after changing the Park Apts menu icons? A menu looking like that is usually either missing the PNG graphics from one or more lots, or the IDs in the Building Exemplar files are wrong. If you changed some icons with LEProp, open the files again and check if the icons are really there. Always remember to hit "apply" whenever you change something, before hitting "Save DAT". And please do this with every step, not after editing more than one item, such as icon and menu description.

[marc 13]

Originally posted by: Andreas Roth  A menu looking like that is usually either missing the PNG graphics from one or more lots, or the IDs in the Building Exemplar files are wrong. If you changed some icons with LEProp, open the files again and check if the icons are really there. Always remember to hit "apply" whenever you change something, before hitting "Save DAT". And please do this with every step, not after editing more than one item, such as icon and menu description.quote>

Andreas is right... I remember making custom lot icons for lots without them a while back with the LEProp. I thought I changed the icons, but in SC4, the lots in question were transposed over the icons of other buildings and there were blank spots in the menu.

Reopening the lots in question in LEProp, reloading the custom icons, applying the changes and saving fixed the problem for me.

[nofunk 1,933]

Andreas Roth & marcszar: Thank you both for the advice. Seriously. That was exactly what the problem was. I did not realize how important it is to apply each modification you make in LEProp before making another.

Luckily, I caught your comments before I deleted everything but the models and started modding from scratch, so it only took a few minutes to make the corrections.

UPDATE

Park Apartments & the Park Avenue Building will really, really be releasing soon now! The problems I was experiencing with them have been fixed, and they now function properly in the game!

It is way past my bed time, but I figured I'd post a few teaser shots of the buildings. As if I haven't already teased you guys enough! I am really pleased with how this BAT blends with the game and with other custom content from masters in this style, like Jasoncw and Don Miguel (both with BATs pictured here):

[jacqulina 162]

excellent work you are doing,the details are fantastic

[spa 968]

Those are gorgeous. I can't wait to see them on the stex.

[Andreas Roth 607]

Wow, this is breathtaking! I'm glad that you sorted out the glitch; LEProp seems to be a bit stubborn at times, but generally speaking, it comes in very handy.

[nofunk 1,933]

jacqulina: Thank you! How would you like a beautiful stone water tower for Paradise Falls?

spa: Thanks, bud. Don't worry, they will be on the STEX within the next few days.

Andreas Roth: Thank you very much! I'm very proud of this BAT. Yeah, stubborn or not, I'm not sure what I'd do without LEProp.

UPDATE

So... Park Apartments are in the final stages of modding and testing -- they are off to JBSimio to get custom queries! Once he sends them back, they'll be up on the STEX!

I decided to revisit one of my very first BAT projects on here: the Ypsilanti, Michigan Water Tower. Some of you may know the local landmark by a more colorful nickname -- that shall remain nameless in this thread!! -- but no one can deny that it really is a beautiful old building.

I have gotten virtually all of the modeling done on it now, with the exception of a very special surprise (if I can get it to work), but here is a preview of it, sans textures:

There are a few antennas on the roof, but they don't show up well against the black background.

[Fledgeling 1]

AH with his team of monkeys, it wont be long now.

Edit: forgot to comment on that new-err i mean old building. Its unique. Nice modeling. Looking good. 

Nother edit: I forgot to mention that the water tower variety in the game is severely limited, so this wil definatly add variety to the selection.

[Fledgeling 1]

why do i always get double posts? My post count must be 1/6 doubles...

[ardecila 124]

*snickers*

[JBSimio 152]

Originally posted by: ardecila *snickers*quote>

 

  So much fun...

The team of monkeys finished their work on Park Apartments late last night.  Hopefully they sent it back to the right place and Nofunk gets it!

JB

[nofunk 1,933]

PARK APARTMENTS & PARK AVE BUILDING RELEASED!

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17472

The Park Avenue Building stands at the corner of Adams and Park Avenues in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Constructed in 1923, it once housed the offices of local workers' unions. Next to it stands the Park Apartments, a 14-story low-rent tower. The two are not a natural pairing, but years of demolition have left them alone together on the west side of Grand Circus Park.

The Park Avenue Building is currently abandoned, but there are plans for renovation. Unfortunately, like so many good plans in the City of Detroit, there is no guarantee that they will come to fruition and this beautiful building will be saved. This is a faithful re-creation of the actual buildings. The only exceptions to this are the props used to decorate the lots, and the interior walls of the free-standing, growable versions of each building.

[lrfox 2]

Wow... glad it's released... i'm downloading it immediately. nice work on the park apts, and the new building. I'm not a local, but it doesn't take much imagination to figure out what a nickname for that may be. In anycase it looks nice and will variety to the game.

[nofunk 1,933]

UPDATE

First off, I want to thank everyone for the amazing comments and ratings you have given me for the Park Avenue Building & Park Apartments. I never expected it would be so well-received! That was really awesome and made my day -- thank you all!

On to an update. I haven't felt overly inspired to BAT lately, but in spite of this I have gotten some significant work done on the Ypsilanti Water Tower. At this point the wall and roof textures are not exactly how I would like them to be, but I will let you guys be the judge. What do you think? (Especially those of you familiar with the structure!)

I put the string of lights around the base of the catwalk, but I'm not sure they show up as well as they should. Would making them smaller and then cloning another set and rotating them into place between the existing ones improve things? Or will I end up losing what light detail I already have there?

Also, I am debating whether or not to model the base. In real life it stands elevated a few feet above the streets around it, and there are a few steps going up to the door. I prefer not to BAT ground, but if I need to I can.

All in all, I think it looks OK.

Also: I need to figure out how to mod seasonal props...

EDIT: In real life, the shingles and stones are much smaller, but they end up looking pretty grainy in BAT, so I exaggerated them. I think that might be part of the reason I'm not real pleased with them, but I'm not sure how to fix it, either.

[jacqulina 162]

hi my friend i would love to have a stone water tower please it would fit very well in paradise falls thankyou so much,excellent work you are doing

[Jasoncw 11,840]

ok good.  For the nitelites, you can either make them slightly bigger, or you can clone and rotate the ones you already have.  Or maybe even both.

Something looks "off" with the texturing, and I don't know what.  First, I'd try to increase contrast on the stone texture, and try making the color more pink (right now I think it might be too yellowy or green).

The roof shingle scaling turned out pretty good.  It looks great except for the top shingle or two, but considering how stretced that part gets it might not be possible to get it perfect.

I think you were right to make the details bigger.

[JBSimio 152]

The shingles came out really well! The wall texture seems to have a bit too much yellow in it, but I may not be remembering correctly. For the string of lights, are they just nite maps or do you have actual spots of some sort shining on them in some way? If they're nite maps (and if I understand you correctly) then I think by making them any smaller you'll lose what you already have. I think they might be small enough that you could clone and rotate a second set without changing the size, though. Can't help you with seasonal props just yet... but it's something I'm learning right now, so maybe soon if you still need it by then!

JB

[Fledgeling 1]

Yeh grainy would not be good on this bat- the texture sizes look fine.

[nofunk 1,933]

Happy Holidays from Michigan! (Which, unlike this picture that I took a few years ago, is not at all snowy right now.)

Or, if you don't celebrate a holiday, Happy December 25th!

I hope all of you have a warm and peaceful holiday season!

QUICK UPDATE

Modeling is finished on the water tower, but I am not loving the textures at all. Here is another preview for you, after I further tweaked the textures, but they still aren't right. I think the main problem with the stone is that it looks too flat, but I'm not sure how to give it more definition. I have cranked up the contrast so many times -- I think that I just need a better stone texture.

In other news, I started planning out the base of the Federal Building. I'm not sure the angled version will be welcome, though. I know angled buildings/lots are in short supply, but this would be huge! At this point we are looking at a 7x6x4 angled area in the game. Is that huge?! It seems huge. But that is already scaling down a bit. I'm sketching it out now on paper; later I will scan it and post it for you guys to look at.

[wolverine 12]

Nice work Nofunk. I live about 5 miles down Washtenaw Ave from the Ypsi*****. I can't help but laugh everytime I see it.   I feel bad for JasonCW cause he might be able to see this landmark from his dorm room window.

In all seriousness though. Great textures and modeling.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I can't see it from my dorm room, but it stands strong in the glorious morning sun on my way to class.

For the texture, move the the stone layer to the top, and set it to multiply or overlay.