Mntoes - UK housing project

[mntoes 271]

^^^  Thanks so glad you like it

Update

At last the pack is finished an i'ts uploaded to the stex. Phew.... glad that's done and wrapped-up.







Thanks to Dannibee for the sugestion (and his everlasting patience)

Time to work on some more old neglected Bats to try and finish them.

Regards

Mntoes

[Jack_wilds 550]

...patience is a valuable virtue that is savored in good time... that is good things come to him -her, who waits, the lots turned out very good

[mntoes 271]

Thanks Jack,  Very true

[mightygoose 92]

are the latest ones HD?

[Dannibee 138]

Thank you so much! I could never begin to imagine that you would do this many to such high detail! These beauties will be going straight into my CJ. Thanks once again!

[mntoes 271]

Dannibee  You are most welcome. I don't  like doing things by halves, if I make a house I now prefer to make a few in the same style. Can.t wait to see them in you CJ.

Mightygoose  I have not done any of  these in HD. I consideed it but did not think there would be much demand. I might release some of the props later in a HD bundle,

Thanks again

Mntoes

[Gn_leugim 858]

Well, As I just leaned, HD is bad for big things

[mntoes 271]

The next houding project will be A "Justice Close" Housing pack.

I first showed this one way back on page 8 I think but I have done nothing with it since. I decided to dust-it-off and try to finish the pack rather than start anything new.  I have been experimenting with the lighting  a bit to try and improve my nightlighting. This is the basic layout for lot one:-

And the nighttime shots:-

Font:-

Back:-

Not too sure about the lighting yet but at the moment it seems to be the best I can acheive given the limitations of Gmax.

Regards

Mntoes

[Jack_wilds 550]

mmmm, promising...

[Dannibee 138]

Looking good!

[zero7 68]

The day version of the houses look superb. You should be able to do much better with the night lighting, though, even in gmax. What approach are you taking to the nightlights?

[mntoes 271]

Thanks Jack & Dannibee.

 

Zero 7

   I'm using on omni light reflecting through a texture with an alpha map. I can't seem to get a better result than that shown. Do you have a better solution? Night lighting is one of my weakneses and I really would like to improve it. I know I could do better as you say even with Gmax.

Thanks

 

Mntoes.

[zero7 68]

Originally posted by: mntoes

  

Zero 7

   I'm using on omni light reflecting through a texture with an alpha map. I can't seem to get a better result than that shown. Do you have a better solution? Night lighting is one of my weakneses and I really would like to improve it. I know I could do better as you say even with Gmax.

Thanks

 

Mntoes.quote>

I've sent a PM. Will help if I can.

[zero7 68]

I fired up gmax  and put together a simple test building - the first time I've actually modelled anything in gmax for years.

Upstairs windows have been done as maxis glass texture with opacity = 70.  This shows the pattern during the day and goes transparent when lit in the night version.

Downstairs I've used what I think is the technique you've used.  So the texture has a picture of curtains on and has an opacity map to keep the net curtains semi-transparent and the main curtains solid.

Images are HD rendered for clarity.

 

The lighting is a single omni on each floor with the following settings:

You should set inverse square decay on an omni used as a real light rather than a lighting effect (inverse square is the real-world decay for a light source).  'Start' is the distance from the light that the decay will kick in - together with the light's multiplier it will give you control of how bright the light appear and how much light will spill out beyond the windows.

The window texture and opacity mask I've used are:

This is all a fairly crude and needs tuning to get the balance of day and night textures right, but I hope it'll help you solve your nighlighting problems.

If you are happy manipulating things with reader, there's a technique available that allows you to do a gmax equivalent of the two stage TruNite render used by BAT4Max.  From what I've seen of how it is working, it is the best option currently available to gmax users.

www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm

Technique is described towards the bottom of the page.

[mntoes 271]

Zero 7 Thanks for such a comprehensive explanation. This has given me plenty to experiment with. Can't appreciate youe help enough. Cheers Mntoes

[mntoes 271]

Update

 Ok, I have been experimenting with the lighting method explained by Zero 7 .   Not sure if i'm quite there yet but I'm pleased withe the improvement so far.

Back

Front

 I hope the improvements show, it's taken a while to get this far.

Regard

Mntoes  

[Dannibee 138]

Looks heaps better! I like the light coming out the doors at the back!

[zero7 68]

And mntoes said let there be light ... and lo. there was light!

That's looking much better. Glad to of been able to help; even if you're not totally happy with the version you've shown it should only be a matter of tweaking the values now.

[mntoes 271]

[glazert 89]

It is good to see that you have works in progress after a gap.

[rsc204 21,868]

Hey, great to see you are still creating - boy is there a chronic shortage of UK buildings for SC4 - look forward to hopefully getting some new ones, these look great .

[cmdp123789 710]

OH GOD YES! indeed, for some reason there is basically no UK progress anywhere. I know that I shouldnt post this in here, but Ive been requesting for months the St Paul Cathdral, from London, and it seems that there is no interest at all... Such a beautiful building..

 

Anyways I like seeing a UK batter again.. maybe you could do some Residential fillers.. you know for more dense areas like london or Manchester.. those nice wall 2 wall Paris looking buildings, but of course their british version..

 

I remember the good ol days.. when euro and american buildings were abundant, and people would focus on different styles... today all we get are some from Australia.. with a little luck something from NYC and then.. well thats it... haha I havent seen a new building from Hong Kong in years.. =P

[mntoes 271]

Lol St Paul's is a bit ambitious for my skills. Post a picture of the "Residential fillers" and I may just Bat one for you but I won't promise anything. Like many other batters I normally don't take requests (unless I'm in a good mood... :kitty: )

 

BTW have you started your UK journal yet?

 

Has anyone worked out what W.I.P 3 & 4 are?. (clue...they might make it yet!) They just need lotting and they are complete.

[jacqulina 162]

great work love them

[__A 792]

Wow, they look awesome! I'd love to use them in my cities, it'll fit right in

[Bombardiere 591]

Hello

 

Great that you are back with some new buildings. I really liked your buildings. I hope that you do these as HD.

 

And hopefully you can do some historic town buldings. I am playing London / English style city and I am looking historic type buildings. In fact I have just begun making my first models and I will open soon a BAT thread myself.

[cmdp123789 710]

Well.. I meant buildings like the one it says WIP in the picture you posted, the last one.. you know.. fillers for the more urbanised parts of the city.. like London or Birmingham. I would like to see you trying some w2w british buildings.. there are almost non.

 

I was lucky enough to get my hands on something that only 3 people currently have.. and yes, I already started my London recreation.. thats why Im so interested in seeing some w2w, and St Paul Cathedral =)

 

[__A 792]

Ooooh! The Docklands seem to be looking fine! Can't wait to see it progress

[Bombardiere 591]

Hello Mntoes. Thanks for uploading Justice Close houses. I really like these small building. These have real character. And of course, very English. Too modern for my current city builds, but most likely I have future uses.

 

I prefer HD version. May be it is just me, but HD textures looks better that SD even in Zoom 5. I heard that some prefer SD versions, but I don't see much differences. May be it is more obvious with tall skycrapers. However, I feel that brick texture (that is if that is intended to be brick) is too big. HD zoom shows how huge the bricks are. Ok ,I understand that SC4 need exaggeration, but the bricks could be slightly smaller. But it is not very noticeable in the game.

 

I can see that you created building with Maxis plug-in. I think that the occupancy is slightly too high. Again SC4 needs overdoing, but to me 14 to 18 $$ residents for a such small house is too much. Off course it is so easy to me run stats trough PIM-X, so this is no issue.

 

I hope this doesn't sound too negative. And I look forward for your other projects. Hopefully is historic too.

[mntoes 271]

Hi

 

No problem, feedback is always welcome. To be honest I only added the HD pack at the last minute as I saw the demand for them. ( I should have re-visited the textures for the HD version as they do show up sharper. something to consider next time)  A refinement of the resident numbers is something again I will need to consider as I placed the building on  a standard Maxis lot with a similar size building.  I've never used Pim-x, have to give it a try as I always struggle with stats. (can you tell I prefer batting to lotting?)

 

Good luck with your own Bat workings.

 

Regards

 

Mike