Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...

[trar 336]

Hell of a present.

[madhatter106 3,931]

Well I have been attempting to upload these to the STEX for the past hour, but it hasn't worked.  It keeps preventing me from attaching it in either IE or Firefox; instea of listing the file uploaded or attached, it just showed a dash and two periods. 

 

The last time I attempted, I noticed that it looked like a truncated message, so I highlighted it and even though I could barely read it, I pasted it into a .txt file to read it, and I've apparently been blocked from uploading it, including a CloudFlare Ray ID and a message to email admins with that info.

 

I've updated my Flash player, restarted, but can't figure it out...so I guess now I ave to delay and send this to someone here...ugh...

[Huston 5,800]

That's been happening to me too. Took me an hour just to get it uploaded. The best way to counteract it (seems to be blocking for some reason) is to use the advanced attachment option that lets you upload several files at once. It seems to upload properly that way. Been doing that ever since it started failing to upload a couple of weeks ago.

[madhatter106 3,931]

Yeah, thanks Huston. 
That workaround did the trick. 
They're up on the STEX finally...!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

I'm checking right now!!!!

[Jack_wilds 550]

a big THX mad hatter...

worth the wait now  

... well done 5/5...

[tonyr 926]

Thanks for those Vol 5 midrise buildings! 5/5 

[trar 336]

Excellent work. You're probably my favorite BATer, for the descriptions of your buildings, your lack of dependencies and the fact that you make damn good stuff of a kind we don't see much of.

[madhatter106 3,931]

In the effort to combat the glut of 3x2 office buildings that seem to plague our downtown commercial business districts, I've been turning my thoughts toward that task.  I have kicked a few around in my fleeting moments of free time, but this little fellow is the first to make it through the majority of modelling and texturing.  

 

 

There are a few more 2x2 ones for me to finish...mostly ones that I didn't want to tackle the nightlighting...

[Huston 5,800]

Neat BAT. Could use more mid-rises like these, since they're not something that come around a lot these days

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Now that is a nice low-rise! Definitely need more of these, amazing work as always Madhatter!  

[madhatter106 3,931]

This is one inspired in part by a more modern building whose pic I had sitting in my swipe file.  It's missing some details and added flare, but I got stuck in a texturing jag for it.  There's something a bit off about it; can't quite pin it down.  (Working on my clunky home laptop, the colors seem off even though they're recycled textures from previous BATs.)

 

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful work on the two office buildings!!!! 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Looks good.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Just saw the m growing yesterday, awesome!

[benvoliothefirst 36]

I just wanted to let you know that after a total reinstall of Windows (7) on my hope laptop, I was inspired to reinstall SimCity 4 so that I could update my plugins folder with all your wonderful creations, madhatter! The new buildings remind me of something out of the Archer spy cartoon. I mean that as the highest compliment! Keep your beautiful buildings coming!

[trar 336]

Both are looking good.

[madhatter106 3,931]

A little diversion from the offices - I BATted some competition for Maxi's Mini Mart.  In honor of the STEX's 100,000,000th upload, I present to you Minnie's Maxi Mart...now up on the STEX!

 

 

 

 

 

Also thanks to SimCoug for the interview questions and allowing me to be a part of the 100,000,000 download jubilee; it was great to share some thoughts about BATting and the ST community.

[tonyr 926]

Thanks for sharing!

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Great job!

[BossDragon 220]

Love your work!

 

Any plans for another low-wealth commerical shop set?

[trar 336]

Looks good. Thanks to you, there's much more C$ shops to go around, and you have my thanks for doing something I don't see many others do.

[madhatter106 3,931]

So little free time to BAT.  Had a few hours to finally work in some details and textures on this one.  Partly inspired by a dumpy little office building in my swipe file.  Not looking forward to the nightlights...

[SimCoug 5,976]

Wonderful!  Always glad to see activity on this thread

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Not looking forward, what's the matter?

[madhatter106 3,931]

Nightlighting is a bother in gmax...lots of trial and error, lots of preview rendering and not getting it right after a lot of "at bats," no pun intended.  The modeling stage and texturing stage are usually pretty smooth, but things really stall at nightlights for me.  I wish nightmaps looked better in-game, as they're a helluva lot easier and faster to do...

Some more shapes - my other problem is starting lots of stuff and not getting it finished...

And here's one that went really fast, like lightning, to get to this state.  Still needs some love and some details...

 

[SimCoug 5,976]

Like any hobby, the part that feels like 'work' is never fun.   I really like the shape of the top right building - it has a neat classic feel to it.  

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Does believing in the power of gmax help? Anyway, you know I like your style.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, that last one (and fast one) looks great! Is it also based on a real building, or did you make that one up? Also, I second SimCoug: that top right one has that classic feel and would make a great addition to the older tilesets. Always a pleasure to see new WIP pictures posted here!

[madhatter106 3,931]

Toothless Stitch - is the power of gmax like the power of Greyskull?  

SimCoug - yeah, the upper right shape is neat, it has a great old style classic feel.  Though the modeling was easy, the texturing has proven to be laborious.  Plus dropping in the details has taken a bunch of time.  It's based off a building I found online, though i took some liberties with the color scheme and ground floor.  Here it is with some detail work done, but far from finished...

TWrecks - the last, fast one is indeed a copy of a reference in my swipe file.  I tweaked the ground floor a little bit, and added a little "marquee" for the entrance, but the rest of its humdrum boring nature is a direct inspiration.