Cockatoo's BAT Thread

[tankmank 853]

c0ckatoo-210893

your work is progressing fabulsly i really like it

[Insane Child of Bodom 1]

Nce job with the Chinese buildings and 7/11 ads!

Great job with these new nodels,but what will the top be?

plants,tennis or something else...

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Sorry SimFox, I'm still just a beginner, what are smoothing groups? And where is the clear all button and what consequences could occur if I don't fix this?

Thanks tankmank and Insane Child of Bodom- the roof will be mostly Hong Kong style roof junk but a little garden of a tennis court isn't a bad idea...

Anyway the front wall textured:

EDIT:  The left wall- If I decide to make this Wall to wall then this is almost done.

 

[Sim shady 12]

looks great

[SimFox 804]

Smoothing groups is one way to achieve smooth surface out of set of straight planes in 3D. For instance when you make cylinder its sides appear to be smooth even when you close enough (or it has so little subdivisions) that you see those straight segments on the top. Sometimes, however program will get confused (normally when you do some poly modeling but not only) and will thing that two adjusted planes should make such a smooth surface while there should be a sharp bend. to remedy this you should go to face subobject (in either editable mesh or poly) scroll down to Polygon Properties and in Smoothing Groups there will be that Clear All button.

Texturing wise, although grudge is great and much underused in BATing, I'm afraid in your case it is overused. I mean it is like cooking with ONLY spices. There should be some base. Also there is somethig rather strange is going on with structural elements and proportions. It look more like just accidental collection of primitives jumbled together. None of the elements gives any clear visual cue to as what it is is and how big it is. Of course it is your building it your right to make the way you feel right but I just though to put my 2 ct. into it...

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Okay, this is gonna be wall to wall on the back but the rest will be detailed as per normal. Almost done with this- Added all the rest of the walls and the roof... and what HK building can be complete without some oversized TV antenna and a 7Eleven sign can it?

Thanks for the explanation and Tips Simfox- I think I know what I did wrong with the smoothing groups but I haven’t fixed it yet. I think now that it's got the roof junk it puts the building into perspective a little more.

 

[Sim shady 12]

man you are doing a great job on this

[autoVino 26]

looking great!
even though this is going to be w2w, the roof textures hit that back wall to harshly, that is it doesn't look convincing.  Only thing that's really buggin me, but when in use it should look fine 
:-p

[tankmank 853]

looking good a bit bland mabie add some things on the balconies and perhaps some more signage

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Okay, I've got the model done now and I'd like to show you it in the game BUT there is something bugging me that I must do first. The actual building fits onto a 2x3 lot just nicely but because of the overhanging sings the Lot Editor will only allow me to place it on a 3x3 lot. For it to be a functional wall to wall I have to have it on a 2x3 lot.

Now I think I read somewhere that I need to convert my building to a prop but I have no idea how to do that or if that will even work! How do I get around this problem?!

[bixel 1,229]

OK here's what you do. Make a small box about 10x10x10 and export that called HKbuildingdummy.model use the Plugin Manager make a desc file out of it - on whatever its need grow cs$$ for example. Make the actual building model a prop, lights = true, query as main building = true, previewable = true, zoom 1,2,3,4,5. The little box will be covered up by the prop. Voila!

[jacqulina 162]

great work and details

[rct3twins 14]

oh man, this is great. when the pack is releases, I can finally make a decent chinatown! (ASIAN CITY BLOCKPACK IS NOT ENOUGH YOU KNOW!!!)

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Thanks Bixel, couldn't get it to work- Did what you said but the LE still wouldn't let me put the prop on the 2x3 lot. Doesn't matter though- HONG KONG's gonna do it for me

Anyway here's the finished model with my sucky night lighting (still a step up from my last attempt though...)

EDIT:  Sent off to HONG KONG for modding along with Lucky Dragon Chinese Medicinal Herbs. That's 25% of the pack done and ready for release...!

[tankmank 853]

looking fabulous i like it alot

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Here's your first look at the next HK Street pack residential...

Chung Fook Luk Terrace. No reason for the name, I just made it up...

Anyways here's the front wall along with the street shop front- Will be a residential though.

[tankmank 853]

very gritty i love it

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Sorry Bixel- I couldn't help giving it a go...

This was just for fun though- something I made to entertain me for a few hours improving my lotting skills.

[flame1396 9]

Love the gritty. You overdid the lot there though...

[bixel 1,229]

OH MAI GAWD!!!!! Can you please upload that and any more you are thinking of doing? Call it the C0ckatoo Lot Makeover or something. Holy crap Bixel wants

[autoVino 26]

Oh baby!  that is a very detailed lot, your lotting skills are beyond awesome!

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Originally posted by: bixel OH MAI GAWD!!!!! Can you please upload that and any more you are thinking of doing? Call it the C0ckatoo Lot Makeover or something. Holy crap Bixel wantsquote>

Lol, you want C0ckatoo to upload? Sure I'll upload it if you want (Just have to fix the palm trees and test it in game).

And flame1396, you think it's overdone? EVERYTHING in Hong Kong is overdone man! It's supposed to have a crowded feel.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

It's fascinating to see how differently people use the same tools. If I had made the lot, I guarantee it would have looked radically different, even if I had fully exploited all dependency packages available, which I normally don't do. It's clearly visible, though, that you have a knack for interesting arrangements that go far beyond anything standard and uninspired. I must admit that the result doesn't really hit my personal taste, but I really like what you achieved and how you did it. Hats off! And of course, you got a point when you say that everything's overdone in HK.

Now I gotta look at a few details and see if I can shamelessly copy some detail arrangements I like.

*sigh*... If only I had more time, then I could showcase a totally different lot version just for the giggles. Not better than yours, I highly doubt that. Just different. Might be fun to see.

Anyway, you should continue making lots as well, at least whenever you feel like it. It would be a shame to waste so much talent by watching TV or anything else whenever you don't feel like BATting. Awesome work!

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Wow, thanks T-Wrecks! I really surprised to get such a great comment from you! *Looks at long list of Trixies* Ah- Most creative lotter. This is only about my 5th or 6th serious attempt at using the lot editor...

Okay, haven’t really felt like BATing over the past week. Been updating CJ's instead. All I've really had time to do is add some air-conditioners. What about the bright yellow and orange texture? Dose it look horrible or realistic, I've seen a few buildings in Hong Kong painted this way before.

(Sorry for the low quality render too, I didn't have time but you can still see the main details)

[Sim shady 12]

it looks pretty good, but the air conditioners feel oversized

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Oh, never mind those Trixies... in case of at least half of them, I'm not sure why they chose me to get them in the first place.  I feel that I've never really made anything genuinely new, only some recombinations of things that were already known, and a few decent lots, I guess. All in all, not that much to write home about, actually...

Anyway, the last time I got out my hedge clippers and remade a larger HK lot, I took bixel's Victoria Towers and turned them into this:

Three dependencies in total, the first being the BSC Mega Textures Pack Vol01, not surprisingly. The second one is SG's Mega Prop Pack Vol01,  equally widely used. The third one contained those nifty diagonal textures I used quite heavily on this lot, the SFBT Essentials package.

It also shows how boring my style is compared to your wild, bustling HK madness.

[lerist 2]

T-Wrecks, your work on the Victoria Towers makes me feel that  it's too bad it's not out on the STEX. The current lot is quite, well, empty, and should definetily be replaced by this.

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Oh T wrecks, dude that's awesome! I was actually planing to re-make this lot for Bixel someday but looks like you beat me to it, although I may still do it anyway, as you said might be fun to see.

I really hope you upload that too!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I just saw a PM from bixel, who seems to like it as well.

The problem is, I did something evil. For personal use (I don't use the CAM for practical reasons related to my PC and building style), I made growable lots for the individual towers and merely assembled this lot as a landmark lot. (For my taste, all three towers as a non-CAMeLot would have a ridiculous capacity due to the inherent growth restrictions.)

Of course, I could convert it back into a residential, but I made it new from scratch and didn't follow bixel's approach of making stuff like 4x13 lots that are good to grow and don't split up. Hence the lot would be hard to grow. As a landmark, 10x4 or 4x10 doesn't make a difference, hence I chose this approach. For a growable, however, it does make a difference. I dunno if anyone would want it anyway.

In any case, I'm currently busy with other stuff, but once I'm done, some more ST uploads might be the result if I find the time. Making/Translating all that documentation takes its toll as well, that's the main problem...

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Just playing around with some new textures. Trying to make this look as realistic as possible.

If I made the air-conditioners any smaller they would look tiny in SC4. They're 1m high x 1m wide x 2m long... I've seen bigger.