BATs Currently in Progress

[simcity4fan12 13]

I felt like sharing one of my BATs I'm making for NYBT here. This was the original St. Nicholas Greek Church that stood in front of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. It's still in the works. I'm adding small details still...

[BlackDragonAJ89 21]

^Looks good so far...

[simcity4fan12 13]

Thank you so are your houses. We need ALOT of those on the STEX. Can't wait till they are finished.

[BlackDragonAJ89 21]

Hey, you're welcome.

Well, if I can figure out how to get my textures set up, get the props (basically just fences, billboard signs, signs, and a few lamp posts, since I'm going to use either downloadable trees from the STEX or the Maxis trees and flora), they should be up. By the way, I got more progress on them, and have some more made up that were either quick to make or just "palette swapped".

Now if you're wondering, the little house and little shop on the corner are low wealth, while everything else is middle wealth. I've got the project split into 5 parts:

Cheapo: All low income residential and commercial service buildings.

Generic Class: Those 5 houses in the middle are that section. Basically your "theme park version of America" type buildings.

Trinity: The blue buildings, all of which will follow a modern design. Right now, it's just got a palette swap, but I'm trying to plan out how to design some of the building parts so that it looks believable.

Legendary: All the purple buildings are this. Again, just palette swapped, but it's going to be based on NYC style architecture.

Corrupted: The black ones; I'm going for Victorian/European on this one, as well as to scare people. =P

Anyway, as soon as I can get all the other little houses done (as well as some other little stores, offices, farms, factories, and some government things), I'll probably start uploading them to the STEX. I will slowly work my way up to giving large office buildings and apartments too.

However, I'm kind of tempted to go back and de-toon some of the textures or else just try to darken them, plus I need to add porch lights. If you're wondering why the commercial buildings have so much roof space, it's room for signs and billboards.

I probably should start my own thread... =/

[ODST_27 1]

Bixel: Amazing work, yet again. I have no idea how you crank out buildings so fast! Mine's taken me like 2 days, and I'm like 25% done, lol.

This building is just the first of some buildings that I'm working on that will eventually be in one pack.

Here's a link to the building I'm modeling it off of: http://www.db.uth.tmc.edu/UTDB_eflash/images/DBRB_New_Bldg_Image.JPG

[Jasoncw 11,840]

They're, eh, very colorful, lol. It actually reminds me of an 1980's video games, especially when you said palette swap, and with the red lines you used in the image. You should definitely go back and edit the textures. It's fine that they have the colors that they have, but there's ways of doing colors like that so that they fit into the game.

Yeah, you should start your own thread

[LE0 5]

Nice houses there

[Jasoncw 11,840]

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Also, looking good so far ODST_27

[JakeMD 107]

I'll try my hand at some asian pencil towers! 

[BlackDragonAJ89 21]

Nice Work OSDT_27; It looks good so far.

And Medic's tower is looking good too, considering the other works I've seen by the guy.

As for me, yeah, I need to see how I can make the textures a little more "real" and not too toony. I'll see what I can do in Photoshop since MS paint isn't all that powerful.

And speaking of 80s and games, I'm a gaming freak, so there's going to be lots of buildings and shout outs from Mario, Pokemon, Starfox, Earthbound, Metal Gear, and Spyro (and speaking of Earthbound, that's where I got some ideas from for building some of the houses from)...

Yeah, I probably should start my own thread after I get things to look better.

[SimFox 802]

Swat, it isn't really a pencil tower no more....

It would be if you removed at least one of the "rays" or may be even two. this is more or less typical HK or south China residential, albeit a smaller one (I speak xy dimensions here).

Such smaller building are normally found in the already built-up areas where just smaller footprint could be realized. Alos fro same reason lower floors (sometimes as much as 10) would be occupied by shops, restaurants, offices of residents common areas, like gm etc (depending on the wealth level of the crowd).

Buildings in HK tend to be more carved up... as generally units are much smaller than in Major Mainland cities. Also to compensate of much higher construction costs as well as land price the construction itself is often is more "economical" for the all other then top luxury class. To put it another way there is much higher proportion of what could be considered luxury in major mainland cities then in HK.

Anyway, you are to a good start here!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Originally posted by: BlackDragonAJ89

As for me, yeah, I need to see how I can make the textures a little more "real" and not too toony. I'll see what I can do in Photoshop since MS paint isn't all that powerful.quote>

In one of the tutorials in my signature, there's a bit about a "cityscape backdrop" or something like that, which talks about using screenshots from the game.  This will make judging textures much faster, and the tools in photoshop (the color eyedropper, etc.) let you 'analyze' your texture easily.  There are other good tips in there too.

Other than that, the main thing is just observing what looks wrong, and then changing it in the texture.  Your textures are obviously way too saturated, so the first thing to do would be to desaturate them in Photoshop.  As you hone in what your texture should be, the needed tweaks become more subtle and hard for you to detect, and at that point someone here can help.

And speaking of 80s and games, I'm a gaming freak, so there's going to be lots of buildings and shout outs from Mario, Pokemon, Starfox, Earthbound, Metal Gear, and Spyro (and speaking of Earthbound, that's where I got some ideas from for building some of the houses from)...quote>

Earthbound (and all of the Mother series) is by far one of my top favorite games, I'm glad to see someone else who liked it. 

[BlackDragonAJ89 21]

Well, I went back and did some tinkering in PS, in which I desaturated all the textures (except for some of them, but their not in major use yet) and added some "ruffage" (used the filters to add some texture) to them. Some colors still need more tweaking, but the results have come out better, especially for the darker buildings. I'm going to display one more teaser here before I start my own thread.

Anyway, I made another building (it's the Flynn's Mini Mart), and I'm showing you some of my base textures to see what you guys think. Anyway, I'll post more in my own little thread... =/

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!!

[Jazzmaster 716]

[Liberater444 11]

man! how do you do this stuff? i honestly have no idea how to do ANY of this...

great work guys...cant wait for the finals!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Ey, Gmax and the BAT are free and there are tons of tutorials and people who would love to help out another member in their quest for BAT glory (myself included ).

Anyway, looking good guys. Modeling is pretty good, its just the textures that need to be refined and perfected. It may take a while  to figure out how to make the one that will really work, but it get easier with time and is an incredibly useful skill.

Best of luck,

-Todd

[Evillions 552]

Originally posted by: SimHoTToDDy

Ey, Gmax and the BAT are free and there are tons of tutorials and people who would love to help out another member in their quest for BAT glory (myself included ). quote>

You already have BAT glory! I've seen your airport termial at your CJ and some others at your BAT therad. Why never release them?! I want them so badly!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

What I meant was, I am included in the people willing to help. I appreciate the compliment though I am really lacking in the LOT & MOD department so Jasoncw and Nofunk were gracious enough to help me out with my buildings, so they take a little longer to finish.

[Gn_leugim 853]

I ve restarted with my castle.. texturing

[bixel 1,223]

now that is one cute castle -- CUTE!!

[marcoheutink 70]

Ye I love the castle! Good job on the crumbling wall inside the compound!

[SimFox 802]

This is a sweet castle! One little suggestion, if I may...

About the road leading to/from the gate. You see it is a bit deformed at the bottom.. This is understandable, yet not terribly pretty to look at nor terribly realistic either. But it is not very easy to get it to work right. So I would suggest a little "cheat" to get around the issue - just model a sort of bridge that would make this road into a straig line. This way road looks fine and you can keep your terrain unaffected...

Anyway this is just a passing thought...

[CSGdesign 27]

Well I am a huge fan of some of the really big and glorious stuff uploaded here, and I'll hopefully be able to add some of my own in time.

But since I'm building for my current city, and since it's only in it's infancy without even a single high-density zone yet (400k citizens across about 34 largest possible city size tiles I think, with a total of 100 to use)... well it means that at this point in time I'd be building it for nothing.

So my stuff is still all small and "community" based.

The latest one is a small community school house, which will most likely be a 1x2 or possible a 2x2 lot.

The geometry is done - a total of 4 hours work.

The mapping is next and should take probably about the same amount of time.

Then the custom textures for the parade ground and lot tiles.

Then the CJ story entry.

Then the upload.

Here's the current geometry, sitting on a 1x1 tile for scale.

If I can figure out BAT4Max I'll be exporting it with night-lighting but that involves problem-solving and to be honest I'm tired of problem solving for awhile so I'm focusing on creativity instead to refresh my batteries.

Since it's a school and isn't manned at night I can probably get away with not having night lights anyway, but let's face it - they look cool.

The main inspiration is the following images, plus a couple of others:

Comments welcome.

EDIT: I was actually considering asking someone that has BAT4Max working if they would mind rendering the model for me and then I'll lot it up?  The Geometry and lights and everything would be fully setup...?  Just an idea.

[BlackDragonAJ89 21]

Well, I don't know how to use BAT4Max, even though I have Max and such, so sorry about that one. =/ I'm just using the BAT for GMAX doing all of my buildings.

But I must say your school is very impressive; it will work out great for those who build country towns and farm towns most certainly.

Here's a little building I just got done yesterday; Double Decker:

Daytime Front:

Nighttime Back Porch:

A bit more for modern styles. I'm working on another two story modern house that I'm basing on two different houses that are in my town.

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

People have been requeting a diagonal version of the station that i made, so i rendered it out along with a plaza:

I made it be the smallest size that could have roads comptley surronding the lot, but i figured out that the roads have to be one tile closer in order for the lot to contact them.  So the actual version will have a smaller plaza.

Also, since there is no road under it this time, the supports show though the bottom. I am going to put something below the station but i dont know what at this point, as long as it closes off the bottom and hides the support that appears in the middle.

One more thing that is bothering me is the shadows. It seems that the games shadow angle makes the entire building look dark becuse it is always in shadow.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yoshi: Is that Joseph's model? He probably has something worthwhile to say about that building if you're not already in contact with him.

CSGdesign: The model looks great, and all of the roofs and shapes and things will look beautiful once you get BAT4Max set up. I'm looking forward to what else you do.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Yoshi: Is that Joseph's model? He probably has something worthwhile to say about that building if you're not already in contact with himquote>

This is actually my model...I got a good start on it before realizing Joseph was doing the same thing so idk if I should keep modeling it after the same building...or do something a little different...or maybe both, hmm

[CSGdesign 27]

I ran out of time so I only got to spend 2 and a half hours on mapping tonight, but I got most of it done.

Mapped community school house:

I'll light it up tomorrow including night-lights, and then I'll have a few personal things to take care of (daughter's first birthday party) and then soon afterwards I'll release this bad boy.  The architecture should fit into most european cityscapes, and even some asian ones perhaps?  I've tried to make it as unassuming as possible to increase the potential use of it.

[madhatter106 3,903]

CSGdesign - I really like the modelling. I'd suggest darking the roof textures, as there are really bright "high" highlights in them.

[Francis90b 748]

CSG design:Nice model indeed !

I second what madhatter said, you should darken a bit your roof texture.Also, have you already textured the windows?