mipro Barry Sanders Project

[Jazzmaster 716]

Looks stunning! Even the smallest of buildings can look brilliant in the best of hands.

[gutterclub 2,729]

It's delightful, I love the little small buildings that you really have to pay attention to to see all the details.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, I love the courtyard! I also like how there's some space left for a tiny alley in the back of the building.

Just one question about the walkways in the courtyard: Seeing how the individual paving stones are rather irregular, aren't the borders of the walkways a bit too strict and perfectly rectilinear?

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Looks really great but the edges of the roof look strange somehow.

(I hope you don't hold this against me cause I'm not a good batter at all)

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Deleco & Ion_Cannon: Thanks!

IDS2: It's good to know that they're doing something that would make you hear about them somewhere. The trees aren't from an external tree-generator sort of program, but they are pre-made. There are some free trees on Autodesk Seek (just google it), and elsewhere scattered around the internet. There are also ones that cost money. For SimCity they don't need to be as high quality as you might think. For those there I only have a green material and a brown material for the leaves and bark, no opacity maps (so the leaves are just little rectangles), but at SimCity's scale that's ok.

For the bushes I modeled the rough shapes, applied a turbosmooth modifier, then applied a noise modifier. The flowers are little cubes, with a multi-sub map to randomize the colors.

Aaron Graham: Thanks!

Yoshiisland & Gutterclub: Thanks! Yeah, on smaller buildings it's so much easier to focus and get all the details in.

T Wrecks: In real life the stones themselves are more orthogonal than I have them, but when I was painting them in, I didn't have any round edged squarish brushes in photoshop so I made them rounder.

Skyscraper241: Do you mean the area where the flat roof and the pitched roof meet?

[Francis90b 748]

It's looking good !

Why there is a door in one of the backyard's walls? Did it connect it with the block's middle alley?

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I don't know if all of those archway things were originally doors that were later bricked in, or if they were originally bricked in and that one had a door added. But in real life the parking lot is where the door is, so that's why they added it.

[madhatter106 3,931]

This building is chock-full of great little details that make the BAT sing...yay details!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Day is finished and exported!!

Unfortunately I forgot that I modeled it to its real life dimensions, the front being about 18 meters wide. So I had to scale it to fit on the 16 meter wide lot.

Night is going to be really simple, so I probably won't update about night.

[Girafe 1,729]

looks really nice Jason

[_marsh_ 1,118]

How can such an ugly brick industrial-esque building be made to look so beautiful?

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

How can such an ugly brick industrial-esque building be made to look so beautiful?

Because it was made by Jason!

[Seraf 1,239]

It looks really nice. Especially the backyard looks interesting in contrast with coarse brick wall

[Simfan34 11]

It looks really nice. Especially the backyard looks interesting in contrast with coarse brick wall

It's nice to see the little buildings start to fill in. Perhaps I should start playing again.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Thanks guys!

So I've done a bit more work on 1001 Woodward and I've exported the day. This was mainly just a test export, to see how it looked in the game, and to see how the lotting might be. It was also to explore the potential overhang lot. In real life the building sits on a lot which is roughly triangular (in other words on one side there is a diagonal avenue, Michigan Avenue). So I made an overhang lot and experimented plopping it with FAR roads. I'll post more about that later though. But anyway this isn't the final render, I'll be re-rendering it soon after doing some more tweaking.

Since the pavers in RL are darker around that building and because the building itself is so dark, I was thinking of using the low wealth pavers. I haven't started to think of props for the plaza yet.

This is basically my experimentation so far. I tried putting it around roundabouts and it sort of fit but it was still kind of awkward. I'm not that great with all the road stuff though so maybe other people would be able to make better use of an overhang version than I can. But below is basically what the plaza looks like in real life except the road is an avenue.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Looking great, can't wait to see it released..will there be 2 versions, overhanging and a basic lot?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, tbh overhanging lots don't make much sense for growable buildings IMO - you never know where they might pop up, you don't have full control. If this was my BAT, I'd probably go for a regular growable lot and an overhanging ploppable lot. Those who want to plop the regular version can do so using buggi's Extra Cheats DLL. As for the lot texture, this might be a case where a dependency might in fact do the trick.

[Jazzmaster 716]

I second what the others have said; and overhanging lot that's ploppable and a growable square lot are the best routes to go. This of course, can all but customized by the user (I don't do custom lots regularly but I do them when I feel necessary ).

Otherwise, it's great to see this nearing completion. I knew you hadn't forgotten about it, but it's nice to see that it's about finalized.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I'll start looking at dependencies for the base texture. I almost always use that white maxis paver texture so this is foreign territory for me, lol

Also, I thought it went without saying, but the standard version will be the 3x4 lot, with grow and plop versions. The overhang would be an additional plop lot.

I'm wondering about the building's orientation though. Right now the front of the building is the wall to wall side. But maybe I should do another version with the plaza being the front?

[Francis90b 748]

Yeah, i think that making a version of it with the plaza in the front would be a good idea for the growable version.

[Jack_wilds 550]

Yeah, i think that making a version of it with the plaza in the front would be a good idea for the growable version.

...yes, a plaza for one of the lots... and I am also glad that this is nearing completion; anticipating a stex release soon -as well... its looking good over all

[Ceafus 88 1,906]

wow this looks great! i cant wait for it to be done!

[LivingInThePast 364]

Man oh man, even though I only went to Ann Arbor over a year ago, Detroit area still manages to catch my interest.

A few things:

1. In addition to Meijer, the first Kmart is in Garden City, Michigan. It looks like a rather unassuming "Big Kmart" today, but I've heard there's original S.S. Kresge wood flooring beneath those tiles.

2. How's Wolverine doing? I look at that unfinished J.L. Hudson department store and wonder if it will ever get finished.

3. Have you ever seen Grosse Pointe Village? It's an awesome little area with street-front businesses, and successful ones at that! There's even an in-line Kroger.

[wolverine 12]

2. How's Wolverine doing? I look at that unfinished J.L. Hudson department store and wonder if it will ever get finished.

Oh I'm still alive. And so is Hudsons. You know that building is crazy.

I began working on it just when I was about to start architecture school in Ann Arbor in 2005.

- sat unfinished -

Picked it up again in summer of 2007

Graduated from architecture, hudsons sits unfinished

Began grad school, 2 years pass. Towards the end I start doing major modeling.

- sat unfinished -

Move to Chicago. 2 years later, I complete the modeling of the building....at least exactly a year ago was about the last time I did a ton of work on it.

It's amazing how things have changed over 8 years, and yet this model never gets finished! I swear you could have built 3 of the real thing in the time its taken me!!

The good news...or bad news...is that I have 3 months of cold Chicago winters ahead. Whatever will I do....? I guess it's time to get working on this again.

I also have started on a Chicago BAT, my own apartment building that my landlord was so nice to hand over elevations and CAD drawings for....obviously this won't be a BSP I anticipate finishing this in 2025.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Ann Arbor eh? I wanted to study architecture at that University at one point. I'll probably end up doing it in my own state though since it's a lot less costly, but we'll see.

But moving to Chicago is another dream of mine...you sir, have gained some healthy envy from me. That apartment looks great though, but you do know the world is ending next year right? Better get crackin'...

[LivingInThePast 364]

Man oh man, even though I only went to Ann Arbor over a year ago, Detroit area still manages to catch my interest.

A few things:

1. In addition to Meijer, the first Kmart is in Garden City, Michigan. It looks like a rather unassuming "Big Kmart" today, but I've heard there's original S.S. Kresge wood flooring beneath those tiles.

2. How's Wolverine doing? I look at that unfinished J.L. Hudson department store and wonder if it will ever get finished.

3. Have you ever seen Grosse Pointe Village? It's an awesome little area with street-front businesses, and successful ones at that! There's even an in-line Kroger.

Did not mean to imply that the first Meijer was in Garden City, but this is Michigan: both Kmart and Meijer were founded in the state.

[nofunk 1,933]

So, I have nothing project-related to report, but... in the U.S. today we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, in honor of the civil rights leader.

Did you know that the first place he gave his "I Have a Dream" speech was Detroit in 1963? This video has some neat shots of the city from back then, starting with a dramatic view up Woodward Avenue!

Hope everyone is doing well!

  Edited January 17, 2012 by nofunk  

[Francis90b 748]

Wow, i didn't know that today it was Martin Luther King's day, or that he held his first "i have a dream" speech in Detroit...thank you for posting this!

[Waterclaw 80]

Click here to browse BSP projects on the STEX. 

This doesn't work anymore, probably from the site update still. Could someone fix it? It would be really convenient

[PBGV103 729]

I hate to be the buzz kill here, but MLK's I Have a Dream speech was delivered in Washington DC on August 28, 1963. He did, however, also lead a march in Detroit. Apparently he used the phrase "I have a dream" in a speech at the Detroit march as well.