Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...

[T Wrecks 10,210]

It's looking good, but I think it could use some colour. Maybe texturing the balconies in a different colour than the rest would be an option?

[madhatter106 3,931]

Yeah the balconies were the slightest variation of the base texture - I think they were 10% lighter. But in the render, the difference was barely negligible, so I upped the brightness on them, and it's improved a good deal just in that. Here is Slade with the lighting effects...

I think these past six little guys might be ready for rendering and all the tedious other stuff that follows...

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I love the way you create rooms behind the windows. Kepp it up.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looking cool man. Everything is perfect as always, keep of the perfectness.

[Shy Dude 149]

Those are some nice BATs, some of them have a smooth cartoony vibe I cant really explain though. I think the textures are too soft on those buildings and parts of others, maybe up the contrast.

By the way, do you have a tutorial for how you make such interesting interiors at night? Is it just a textured ground texture or are things actually modeled on it? Looks very good.

[colco2121 55]

Nice BATs! However, I want to see rooftop junk of some sort.

[zahrul3 472]

Those are some nice BATs, some of them have a smooth cartoony vibe I cant really explain though. I think the textures are too soft on those buildings and parts of others, maybe up the contrast.

By the way, do you have a tutorial for how you make such interesting interiors at night? Is it just a textured ground texture or are things actually modeled on it? Looks very good.

If you have an SC4D forums account(the LEX have a different system), in the Tutorials under the BAT Tutorials sub-entry, there is a BAT-Lighting tutorial entry and inside, there is "JBSimio on Nightlighting" tutorial that is incredibly helpful.

The ground planes are some random picture actually, he said it to me in his PM.

[Jack_wilds 550]

I like the progress so far, on this latest pack... its promising addition to any 'sims' world... antipating a stex release soonish...

[Silur 3,308]

Fantastic night lights !!!

[simlink 1,098]

Really like what you have going here, these office buildings will be a nice addition to the game. Like the night lighting especially, it is really neat seeing the rooms beyond the glass.

[madhatter106 3,931]

Thanks, all. Rendered, lotted, queried. Now on to the testing...in the meantime, here's the logic behind the naming conventions on this pack...

• The Davenport Building - Brothers Ira and William Davenport were 19th century showmen and magicians who became celebrated for their "spirit box" trick, in which they were both tied together and sealed inside a small cabinet containing musical instruments, after which they were able to produce a number of ghostly sounds from them. Upon the opening of the cabinet, the two would be found with their knotted bindings intact.
  
• Cook, Crookes & King, Ltd. - Esteemed scientist Sir William Crookes was the most outspoken supporter of Florence Cook, a young medium whose seances were known to manifest a ghostly presence which called herself "Katie King." King's strong resemblance to Cook can be seen in several photographs which Crookes took to document what he purported to be actual spirit contact from the other world.
  
• Fox Financial Partners - considered by many to be the founders of Spiritualism, Margaret and Kate Fox were young girls who allegedly could communicate with the dead through a system of rappings. The two became famous mediums, though both fell into poverty in their later lives; Margaret later made a famous confession before a packed audience that the entire phenomena was a hoax, the rappings being created by the cracking of the girls' toe joints.
  
• Debar & Home, Esq. - Ann O'Delia Diss Debar was one of many aliases used by fraudulent medium and swindler Laura Horos. A famous medium in the early years of Spiritualism, Daniel Dunglas Home was best known for his levitation tricks and his penchant for flashy jewelry.
  
• Palladino Design - An illiterate peasant girl born in Naples, Eusapia Palladino became a celebrated medium throughout Europe, duping many educated researchers with her series of tricks. Table levitation was her strong suit, and when she was often discovered to be using subterfuge or trickery, she would proclaim "all mediums use tricks. All."
  
• Slade Global Corp - Dr. Henry Slade was a medium who specialized in slate writing, where spirits supposedly left messages in chalk on specially designed slates during seances. He was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to three months' hard labor in England.
  

I would have included external links to these, but for some reason I can't seem to find the mechanism in this new version of Simtropolis....

  Edited May 23, 2012 by madhatter106  

[zahrul3 472]

Thanks, all. Rendered, lotted, queried. Now on to the testing...in the meantime, here's the logic behind the naming conventions on this pack...

• The Davenport Building - Brothers Ira and William Davenport were 19th century showmen and magicians who became celebrated for their "spirit box" trick, in which they were both tied together and sealed inside a small cabinet containing musical instruments, after which they were able to produce a number of ghostly sounds from them. Upon the opening of the cabinet, the two would be found with their knotted bindings intact.
  
• Cook, Crookes & King, Ltd. - Esteemed scientist Sir William Crookes was the most outspoken supporter of Florence Cook, a young medium whose seances were known to manifest a ghostly presence which called herself "Katie King." King's strong resemblance to Cook can be seen in several photographs which Crookes took to document what he purported to be actual spirit contact from the other world.
  
• Fox Financial Partners - considered by many to be the founders of Spiritualism, Margaret and Kate Fox were young girls who allegedly could communicate with the dead through a system of rappings. The two became famous mediums, though both fell into poverty in their later lives; Margaret later made a famous confession before a packed audience that the entire phenomena was a hoax, the rappings being created by the cracking of the girls' toe joints.
  
• Debar & Home, Esq. - Ann O'Delia Diss Debar was one of many aliases used by fraudulent medium and swindler Laura Horos. Daniel Dunglas Home was a famous medium in the early years of Spiritualism, best known for his levitation tricks and his penchant for flashy jewelry.
  
• Palladino Design - An illiterate peasant girl born in Naples, Eusapia Palladino became a celebrated medium throughout Europe, duping many educated researchers with her series of tricks. Table levitation was her strong suit, and when she was often discovered to be using subterfuge or trickery, she would proclaim "all mediums use tricks. All."
  
• Slade Global Corp - Dr. Henry Slade was a medium who specialized in slate writing, where spirits supposedly left messages in chalk on specially designed slates during seances. He was later convicted of fraud and sentenced to three months' hard labor in England.
  

I would have included external links to these, but for some reason I can't seem to find the mechanism in this new version of Simtropolis....

Just highlight the text you want to link, press the link button, enter the address and there you go!

[madhatter106 3,931]

Just highlight the text you want to link, press the link button, enter the address and there you go!

Unfortunately, I've been unable to get it to do that on the first (and often second) attempt. No rhyme or reason to it...anyways, it's done now...

[madhatter106 3,931]

Here's one I stumbled across on the computer, which was originally slated for the second midrise pack. I sidelined it because I run both hot and cold on it; sometimes I like it and other times I don't think it's worth continuing. The texturing bugs me a bit. It's based off architectural renderings of a real commercial building I found somewhere online.

It's going to be an architecture firm of some sort. I think...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks fantastic buddy man.

[benno2005 112]

that building looks great

[Gn_leugim 858]

I like them

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I really like the architecture of that building. The diagonal roof makes it look really modern although the wall texture makes it look industrial. But I don't know if the charis and the table are a bit oversized.

[Ceafus 88 1,906]

Woo, this one is a beauty, nice work.

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Looks like a worthy addition to me.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Looks fantastic if you ask me! I think it would be great to continue.

[benvoliothefirst 36]

MadHat, I've said it before, but I just want to reiterate what a huge, HUGE contribution you've made to my enjoyment of SimCity. I agree completely with all of your theories about BATs, and when/if I ever get around to creating any, I will use your theories as the basis of my work. I've been away from the site for a good long while now, and the absolute best birthday present I could have gotten upon my return was to find four new packs of MatHatBats waiting for me. Please please continue to do the fantastic work we all love you for.

I've rated and commented on all your latest releases. Thanks again!

[madhatter106 3,931]

Thanks, all. Especially benvoliothefirst - glad you enjoy seeing my contributions pop up in your cities. Makes it all worthwhile for me in the end; happy belated birthday, too!

There's a few still-unreleased midrises that will be getting some modifications, as previously posted in the thread. No doubt the architects place will be included with them. Still trying to figure out the thrust and direction of the next pack. In the meantime, I've been digging through the works of JBSimio over at Devotion, which inspired this next one...

It's certainly taller than the other buildings in the prior packs, but still falls into the midrise category. I think perhaps the next selection/pack will include ones around this height; I may chop off a few columns of windows and make this one rectangular rather than square for variation (I'm finding that a lot of the prior ones are outright square, and I want to vary it up a bit). As it is, it's just a hair (less than .5 of a meter) over fitting on a 2x2 lot...some squashing, skewing, scaling, and squishing will be in order...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

I like this one, your making larger buildings!!!

[madhatter106 3,931]

Aaron Graham - well, they're going to be slightly bigger than the others. But not by too much....

Here's the narrow version - I kinda like this one a bit better...it still needs its ground floor details, doors, etc.

[cogeo 960]

What building style is this exactly, New York or Chicago?

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Still looking good.

Looks like it can be a Chicago style, but it can be New York too. To me Chicago & New York style are so much a like in a way not all the way a like.

  Edited June 8, 2012 by Aaron Graham  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Carefull, once you start going big with these, you'll find that you can't stop!

Seriously though, these two are looking great! I'd love to see another pack of these.

[madhatter106 3,931]

cogeo - if you're referring to tile set, I hadn't given it any thought...I'm just in the BATting/texturing stage. Though I don't think I've ever edited or modded my stuff to exclude any tile sets.

Aaron Graham - thanks!

Sgt. Pepper - thanks; though I will probably release only the narrower version, as I'm trying to get away from the "perfect square box" syndrome that some of my prior buildings have in the midrise uploads. I'm sure there's lots of office buildings still left in me, both CO$$ and CO$$$, so there's at least another big mega-pack to come. I enjoy making them, and (for me) you can never get enough variety when it comes to office buildings.

Nothing to show just yet, but a question - is there anywhere out there a compilation of the standard Maxis building LOD sizes? It's something I wish the SC4Tool had, and in the past I've dug through the various .dat files using the Reader to pull the information from there. Just curious if someone has already compiled said information, so I don't have to go digging - there are a couple of buildings I'd like to BAT some stuff to compete with some of the Maxis ones. Just wondering if someone has already farmed that information out and compiled it elsewhere...

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I wouldn't know these things, I never even use this SC4 Tool, or ever got a chance to. But I'm sure someone more knowledgable than me will post something soon.

I like that narrow version, well of course I like both of them. Buildings of that size, like the narrow one, are always welcome. I can never get enough.