Cockatoo's BAT Thread

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, I love the overall configuration of the lot and the roof junk!

However, I agree that the building has a slightly cartoonish tone to it. Maybe toning down contrasts and saturation a notch or two might help?

[gutterclub 2,743]

Cockatoo, would love it if you could give us a tutorial on your glass techniques or share some insigfht into how you do it..you among a few other consistantly make the best glass buildings around that both look realistic yet fit perfectly in game?!

Lookin' great, we need more Aussie scrapers

[Bastet69008 1,102]

Simply awesome! Love it! Keep up the good work

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Really nice model, like the roof junk much, my only concern is the glass, it is a little too light blue and looks cartoonish, as Harishna said, otherthan i like very much everything else.

[Francis90b 748]

I have to agree with the opinions that were expressed about the glass, about it being too "cartoonish"...but on the other hand, i do believe that the night lighting is perfect as it is.

It's a nice building IRL; and the BAT is coming along very well.

[Girafe 1,729]

well done,

I am not totally satisfied with the trees:

- some are too white / yellow

- increase your density by checking the return black option

for the pool, if I well remember you could find something there http://www.mrmaterials.com/

[Jack_wilds 550]

Really liking the 'camelco' building progress, particularly the window pane/ wall facade and texture work... as for reflecting pool texture it seems to me Jasoncw had a decent texture he used for one of his reflecting ponds...

Then, as for the Emerald, I luv the model, if bixel would want to fudge with it -ok, he'd be better at it, but I wouldn't as its good to enjoy as is... thanks for the offer though,

Jack

[gutterclub 2,743]

The night looks great, wouldnt mind some enviroment night map sort of thing a.k.a "red squiggles"..

[Jasoncw 12,060]

I think I'd make the bump noise bigger for the glass, in some areas the distortions look more like ripples than bulges.

I really like the base area, except that I probably wouldn't BAT the ground, I'd probably use the grey low wealth paver texture in the lot editor.

I think the roof area in general is too dark and saturated.

It's looking good.

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Alright, I'll see what I can do about the glass. I actually quite like it tbh, but yes I agree that it could do with a bit of tweaking. The night lighting is still very much a work in progress. As for the pool, I did try the arch and design materials, but they all came out totally transparent. Anyone got some good tips?

The trees, I did remember to check the return back option, that seems to be as solid as they'll go. They're supposed to be Australian trees though... more brown and less dense than you might find elsewhere.

Is there any reason for not BATing the ground? I like to make textures that suit the BAT better than the game ones.

[Cockatoo 2,262]

I'll probably turn down the glare for the final thing.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great, I love the night lights.

[wallacet 336]

The roof junk, as well as the lights, are spectacular. I shall be downloading this

[Jazzmaster 716]

I actually like the ground BATed like that. It's more of a 'custom' fit to the BAT, and I think using them over the lot editor textures gives less of the impression that the BAT is just 'there'.

Looks great overall, I agree on the glass but everything else looks brilliant.

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Almost done... the texture on the back is only temporary, I'll make a nice one tomorrow.

[gutterclub 2,743]

Love it bro, night lights are great..have a space for this bad boy along side some of your other great creations!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Almost done, eh? Let's see...

Glass: Overall colour/brightness/hue looks much better to me, although I still think it has a slight cartoonish note to it. I can't really put my finger on it, though. It might as well just be me... Maybe if the bump/distortion map was a bit "stronger"? I dunno...

Lot: I'm wondering about "sidewalk compatibility" a bit... guess it will look great with a concrete sidewalk mod, but should still be ok with Maxis default, since Maxis-style pavement is repeated on the lot.

Flora:

Night lights: Maybe a tad too warm/green for an office building (it IS an office building, right?), but in terms of distribution, glare etc. definitely . The lamps on the ground might look better if they actually illuminated some ground, though, instead of just sprinkling some bright dots over a pitch-black background.

Rooftops: Once again beautiful roof junk! The roof on the main tower convinces me 100%, the one on the lower building not quite. I think you could tone down both contrast and saturation a bit.

All in all, everything I mention here is "complaining" on a really, really high level - the BAT is gorgeous, there's no doubt about that. I'd download and use it as it is. Then again, you are also on a really, really high level, so maybe you find one or two suggestions useful.

[Ceafus 88 1,929]

Looks good, although some of the nightlights look to green, other than that, good work.

[Liberater444 11]

I agree with T Wrecks on the glass texture comment: it does look slightly cartoonish, almost as if you made it on SketchUp, although the nightlights look beautiful.

The lamps, I agree, could also use some ground-lighting. All in all this is a great BAT that I look forward to using in the (near) future!

[Jasoncw 12,060]

For the BATed ground, the in-game shadows won't be cast on it. Since the ground is just grey concrete anyway you could use one of the grey concrete ground textures, or the low wealth pavers.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Absolutky great!

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Glass: I've tried and tested it to the best of my ability, but this was the best I was able to get. It's basically the same glass I always use, admittedly with a few changes here and there, but you guys are still using cartoonish to describe it.

Let's do some troubleshooting then... glass as far as I'm concerned has five elements that you need to get right: hue, saturation, lightness, reflection and distortion.

This is what I'm aiming for... and this is what we have.

If I had to compare the two, I would say that my glass has roughly the right hue and saturation keeping in mind that SC4 tends to yellow things up a bit. In the photo the glass appears to be darker overall, but that's because bar the very top, it's reflecting a very shadowy environment. My glass is reflecting a consistently lit ground plane without any massive shadows, so I also think the lightness is fairly close to where it should be. Maybe I could play around a bit with a bit of a gradient effect to simulate a slightly shadowy ground... I'll see how it looks. The reflections on my glass appear to be roughly the same size as photo, although in the photo they’re more pronounced. I could possibly increase the reflectivity. The distortion is all wrong in my glass, it's rippled where it should be bludging and it isn't anywhere near as sharp as it should be. I've never really been able to work out how to fully control a bump map though. I'll have to look around and see what I can come up with to fix this distortion problem.

Lot: The lot I am okay with. It I were to use base textures instead of BATing the ground, there'd only be a small area where game shadows could be cast before being cut off by the BATed elevated section anyway. I can live with it how it is.

Lighting: The lighting is quite similar to the RL building, just ramped up a notch or two in the brightness department. The colours are fine. If you guys can't see the lamp illumination, turn up your monitors!

Lower Rooftop: The texture there is basically grey scale so the saturation is already close to zero. Now that I look at it again though, I don't like the roof junk there... I'll sort it out.

So I'll give the glass one last shot, alter the roof on the lower building and replace the texture on the back of the tower. Any last suggestions?

[Jack_wilds 550]

I like it... don't know how to tweak it any better...

[Ceafus 88 1,929]

Looks perfect.

[Hamish 1,370]

I think the reflections are fine, hue, color, everything is fine with the glass, except for those black boarders around the windows, its them which is making it look cartoony.

See this for an example:

Black boarders make it look like a cartoon, but having flush edges makes it look real.

Sketch up places these black lines on its edges too, which in turn makes most of its models also look cartoony.

I know that the lines are for the window framing, so you can't eliminate them, but you can try making them a medium grey or something less intense. When I look at your building, all Im seeing is those window fames, they need to blend in with everything else so when I do go and look at the building I see the building as a whole, not just the window frames.

Everything else looks good to me, the base is really nice

[harishna 847]

I am surprised on how fast you work, this building look fantastic, as all your work!

I think Hamish hit the nail, changing the frames could do the trick, I also think that the comalco sign could use a more sober tone of red, and for the lower roof why don't you try something closer to brown as in the real life building? BTW what material are you using for the water it looks nice, but maybe a bit too reflective and I'll make the ripples a bit smaller...

[gutterclub 2,743]

I think making the glass a little more reflective and the black mullions, not really sure what you can do here, maybe bring them to life a bit, extude them a tiny bit more?? I think its looking great now anyway so its a minor suggestion..

[Cockatoo 2,262]

Am I done yet?

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Cookatoo, your one the best bater of 2011.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Phew... where do I start... you know, by the last post before this update, I started to feel sorry for bothering you so much. It's clear that you put much thought and work into the building, and there I go again...

Now that I see this last update, though, I feel relieved, because it is really another huge step forward! As far as I am concerned, it's the final step, too. Changing the window frames (thanks Hamish for stepping in!) did the trick, and the tweaks on the glass also worked. The roof of the side buildings doesn't have those pitch-black outlines any more, which makes it much calmer and more realistic IMO.

Ok, if the night windows look like this, I'll just shut my pie hole. And as far as the illumination of those lamps is concerned, on THIS monitor it actually does look good. Guess the monitor on which I viewed the pictures the last time was too dark.

To put it in a nutshell: release, release, release! Wheee!