Nofunk's BAT Thread

[delija21 295]

Great start...nice details as allways

[Francis90b 748]

This is already looking wonderful!

Is it a BSP project?

[nofunk 1,933]

Wow! I haven't posted in my BAT thread since Thanksgiving?! I guess it's time for an update!

Let me begin by saying THANK YOU!!!! to everyone who nominated me for a Trixie! It means a lot to me that my work is so appreciated; and it motivates me to create even more great  BATs for you guys! So thank you!

Next, when I last updated, I was working on this:

For the record it is not a BSP project. In fact, it is a small apartment building in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. I plan to finish it, but as is often the case with me, I've gotten sidetracked onto some other things!

Tonight I uploaded the Detroit Film Exchange Building to the STEX. This project was for the BSP and I posted updates for this exclusively in the BSP thread. You can download it here: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=23219

But now for something new! And small! But new!

         

I humbly present a Milwaukee style apartment building! Many of the larger residential streets in Milwaukee are lined with different variations of this simple, boxy apartment building.

My plan is to make two to three types of these apartment buildings, and then a handful of texture variations for each type, for a total of 10-15 different apartment buildings! I'll then organize them into prop families and make a handful of lots; the hope being to offer a number of different lot and model combinations to help diversify the apartment building stock in the game.

The basic model is done, but I need to make another model or two, and then I need to make a bunch of different roof and wall textures for them! Regardless, this should be a relatively quick project.

I know it's small, but do you all like it?!

[ky72x 13]

Those apartments are exactly what we need! There just aren't enough modern complexes to go around. Having all of the texture variations is a simple but very useful idea.

[allez l'om 1]

These apartments looks so fantastic.

[Vlasky 1,803]

Apartments will be welcome for transition form suburbs to high density area. Great, and already looks finished.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Oh yes, I like them! We really need more apartment buildings! Skyscrapers have been done to death, and there is also a good choice of single-family homes and W2W buildings these days. Small commercials are covered as well, but residential apartments and highrises and dirty industry are somewhat underrepresented. 

[Jack_wilds 550]

I like the MI apartment bidgs as they are also around the Fox Valley... it may be 'small' but I hope it ain't under 'scaled' for the game as a bat was made some time ago and it was done very well in composition and textures but it wound up being 'squashed' a 3-story structure that appeared shorter than some 2-story bldgs... I could name the bldg I'm thinking of but it may not be a tactful thing to do...

however then composition, models, texture plans sound promising... any thought on the lotting? perhaps a set could be urbanized, -little green space and another set could be park-ish -more green space, in appearance using cycle-dogs trees similar to his houses and tenements...

Jack

[nofunk 1,933]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you like them! I think they'll really add a lot to the game, especially because they should blend well into low density R$$ neighborhoods.

I started working on some color combinations tonight, and here's what I've come up with:

[sEAhAwk fAn121 0]

Love your BAT's nofunk! They are a very integral part of my cities!

Keep up the awesome work man!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Lovely! I might go see what they look like in the game's color pallet. They look brilliant now, I'm afraid they will need to be tinted to fit in though.

[WillG_75 19]

I'm really linking those. Small apartments and duplexes like those seem to be missing from SC4. At least good ones.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

...and yet again I find myself thinking about a multi-building lot... 2, 3, or 4 of these little architectural wallflowers arranged around a little driveway, with some gardens around and a few parking spaces... I have no idea how these buildings appear in RL, so my imagination might be too European in this respect, but anyway this is something I'd probably do for my own plugins folder, no matter how these buildings are provided.  Just thought I'd mention that.

Great progress, and I like the subtle variations! How about red brick, by the way?

[Renedius 25]

great my friend

[Francis90b 748]

Those small apartments are pretty nice indeed ! I agree with TWrecks on a "red brick" version...plus, i'd like to ask for a "kingsley arms orange" one . How's going with the Chicago apartments? Logan square is a very nice neighborhood, i'd really like to see something from there !

[nofunk 1,933]

sEAhAwk fAn121, WillG_75, Renedius: Thanks, guys!

SimHoTToDDy: Thanks! Did you get a chance to check the colors? I haven't yet and would be curious to hear what you found!

T Wrecks: Thanks! You know, in Milwaukee they mostly just line the major residential streets, box after box, in a row. But I think they'd work great on the lots you've described. I've got a few lot ideas in mind, but I think for my upload I'm going to stay true to their linear orientation. However, maybe one of these days, you know, you could find a little bit of time to relot and release some mega lots with them.

Francis90b: Thank you! You and T Wrecks are in luck: I've never seen one of these in red brick before, but today browsing around Milwaukee on Google Maps I came across one! So there will indeed be a red brick version!

Nothing new to update tonight; just been working on fine-tuning the textures, and changing a few things on each version to make them more unique.

Hope everyone's doing well!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Actually I thought everything looked pretty good. The walls on the lightest brick variants looked a little washed out (especially the one with the lighter beige/brown roof), but I don't think that is really an issue if that is the type of brick you are going for.

I was pleasantly surprised, they blended in rather well. Just goes to show how much the previews can fool you!

[madhatter106 3,903]

Originally posted by: T Wrecks

We really need more apartment buildings! Skyscrapers have been done to death, and there is also a good choice of single-family homes and W2W buildings these days.quote>

I agree - if I ever make it down the road to doing residentials, it would be to fill that desperate gap for small apartment buildings.  These look like a great start to that much-needed category.

Small commercials are covered as well, but residential apartments and highrises and dirty industry are somewhat underrepresented. quote>

One can never have enough small commercials. 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

@Nolan: Whoa, thanks for that aerial photograph. It never ceases to amaze me just how griddy American cities can be. For you, that's something normal, and it shows how strongly SimCity is focused on the "American Way of Building". 

For me, who has never been to the States, it's somehow the other way round: I see some SimCities and think about how to break the grid - and then somebody posts an aerial shot from some American suburb, and it looks to me as if they had modeled it after an in-game screenshot!

All those small shops are a perfect example: It was only after seeing a real-life photograph from an American town that I understood why Maxis made them that way.

Anyway, I can imagine making some new lots for these buildings, if and when I find the time. However, it's probably not going to happen anytime soon, because the normal lots will do just fine for the American style, and I'm currently focused on filling my region with lots of agricultural stuff, dirty/manufacturing industry, some small commercials, and an occasional town with Chicago/New York W2W stuff. Modern styles will come at a much later point, and I reckon that my motivation to mod and lot modern buildings will be rather low before I reach that point, because obviously the old-style US stuff has priority for me these days.

Good to hear that there will be a red brick version as well! If this were a European building, even yellow and white bricks would work, but of course it's not, so the choice you are offering will be enough.

@madhatter106: Hahaha, I almost expected that reaction!  However, my folder for small commercial stuff is filled rather well - I think I have about 75-80 buildings in that department. That's even more than skyscrapers, but only because I have become reeeeallly picky. Anyway, this is not supposed to mean that I couldn't imagine some more small shops from you!

[psander5 195]

I like these little flats! They certainly do fill a gap. I agree with T Wrecks' sentiments regarding the lotting, but then I'm a European too, and I've never been to America. If you could find the time I think it would be good to export some angled versions to enable such grid-breaking lotting to be done, even if you make your lots as ortho.

Either that, or maybe a European BATer should step up and make an equivalent set! I might add some more buildings to my growing to-do list

I usually conform to Maxis' way of building though in the end. It's easier than fighting the grid, so I will surely use your excellent looking apartment buildings and their shipped lots, in my cities.

[j3shafer 0]

I was just curious if you're Carew Tower project was still in progress.

[nofunk 1,933]

T Wrecks: Well, I still hope you find a little motivation left over when you're done with all of that! You make the best lots! But if not, maybe I'll make a couple. We'll see.

Yellow bricks! What's interesting is that most of these are cream/white colored bricks, due to the stone in nearby quarries. In fact, one of Milwaukee's nicknames is "Cream City" due to all of the cream-colored brick and stone in the city's buildings.

psander5: Thanks! And don't worry, I was planning on putting some of these on an angle (in a corner lot, for instance).

j3shafer: Oh yeah! You've got a good memory. I still have all the files for it, and I do intend to finish it one of these days. The problem is I keep getting inspired to do other things, so Carew Tower keeps getting put on hold.

Still tweaking textures on the Milwaukee apartments, and plan to make the medium and large models soon, but here's another little something new for you to sink your teeth into!

It's going to be a little (2x2 or 2x3) CS building, either $$ or $$$. I'm trying to figure out how to make it less boxy. I could put a penthouse on the roof, but a building this short may not actually have one. Or maybe I could cut a notch out of the back. Any ideas?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Cutting a notch out of the back is the best way to go IMO (you could always add a small penthouse/stair tower or even just some fire escapes to the back if that's not enough).

This should make a great little "main street" building, from small towns to urban midrises. Another style I'd like to work on some day (just add it to the list )

[Odainsaker 2,134]

Another cool building.  Amusingly, this one, given its proportions, makes me again instantly think of a local building back here in San Antonio, the old Washer Building / Morris Hotel, which may offer you ideas for the back of your new project.

Here is the Washer Building, built 1907:

The building today as the Morris Hotel, or now the Morris on Main Plaza Apartments:

I kinda miss the center pediment, but omigosh, it almost looks like it did the same shape of ornament above the bay windows that you did above your windows!

The rear:

It's hard to see, but I recall the space above the red base was reworked as a fairly pleasant small terrace patio with Riverwalk view.

From above with the building at bottom right of photo:

As we can see, it is really a stubby, L-shaped corner building with a notch, for which I can only guess the notch was a narrow light court.  We also see a penthouse additon with further mechanical block.  This is an outdated photograph, as the work in Main Plaza / Plaza de Las Islas has finally been finished, and renovations of the Morris Hotel turned the gritty roof here into a stylishly paved rooftop entertainment terrace billing itself as The Penthouse at Main Plaza:

Too bad when I was last there doing jury duty at the nearby courthouse complex, the building was being renovated, and I was standing under the hotel's corner marquee sign waiting for a ride completely oblivious to the building behind me.

It's actually a charming building...I think I have a BAT candidate of my own...there are just not enough hours in a day and too few weekends in a week.

Hope all this building-love was helpful, and I can't wait to see the new BATs ingame.

[nofunk 1,933]

SimiHoTToDDy: Great advice... and I took it! Thanks!

Odainsaker: Thank you! What a charming little building! Although I can't say that I love some of the modifications. I wish they had left the pediment and the clerestory windows above the first floor. That brown/orange band does the building no favors.

Still, it's a gem, and you gave me inspiration on how to handle the back of my little commercial building! (Maybe I modeled it too closely?)

    

For the back, I closely mimicked the back of the Washer Building. I added some canopied walkways, one into the first floor, and another going upstairs, imagining employees (or residents if this was mixed use) using these back entrances instead of the front. Finally, there's a little kiosk where a parking attendant would sit... since the back will have a surface lot.

Originally this was meant to be a mid-block building, but after thinking about it more, I imagined that maybe this was a mid-block building but the building on the east was demolished, leaving the blank wall (the wall facing you in the image on the right). Of course, this still could be place mid-block and would look good (although it might look strange to have a parking kiosk back there lol). In any case, I think it's turning out well.

[Francis90b 748]

Interesting previews ! Can't say i'm fully convinced by your idea of the parking kiosk, though.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well, even if it ended up as a mid-block building, if it was 3 tiles deep, we could still zone the rest of the block with buildings that are 2 tiles deep and connect the parking lot with some downloaded or self-made filler lots. For example, I have made a small package of filler parking lots/driveways for personal use, and I have really come to like the possibilities such a package offers. LOD-wise (i.e. with regard to the lot design), the parking kiosk might be more convenient and flexible if rendered as a separate prop.

[mightygoose 92]

if rendered as a eparate prop then there is also the option of a non kiosk version

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Wow, what an improvement

I love the parking lot idea, but I'm with T Wrecks on the LODs, it would probably be easier to lot everything as separate props. How long is the west wall? Even if there are buildings flanking this one, its always possible that there is room for an alley behind the line of buildings. Of course you could always make a more utility-looking version for that. You are bringing up a lot of possibilities!

[nofunk 1,933]

Thanks guys!

I think making the kiosk a prop is a really good idea. That way if you don't want it, you can just take the prop out and it won't show up. (It wouldn't show a brown box, right? Only if it were the main model file, right?) I haven't made a prop in years!

This will be on a 2x3, and there will be half a tile of room behind the deepest part of the building (the west wall Todd is referring to), so there will be an alley.

The reason I'm putting so much thought into this, is because I plan on using it in a city I'll be making (which I also hope to turn into a CJ at some point)! I just hope this also works for a broader audience too.