SimHoTToDDy BATs

[Francis90b 748]

So when they were built they were surrounded by farmland?

Pretty hard to imagine, especially if looking at many similar buildings in Philly!

Well,  they will be a very welcome addition to the grand avenues of mt city, could already see them being overwhelmed by a giant rattling EL line (i'm thinking about Kensington, heheh...)

Could I ask if you still think about making a green one? A teal version (maybe white ground floor and teal bow window) would be great as well!

Oh, and thank you for making some corner versions as well!

Sometimes it's really hard to find the right building to cover up corners, but these will be of a great help!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Well these aren't in Philly proper, they are about 10 mile SE in NJ along my route to work. The main concentration of buildings would, naturally, be along the main arteries but you would hit undeveloped or farm land pretty quickly as you traveled away from those roads. The difference between these and the Philadelphia row-homes is that these were primarily shops, with a 2nd unit on the top floor (usually residential), while the majority of the row houses in Philly are strictly residential.

I'll probably make one like you described, it doesn't take very long and I really don't have any planned. I would like to stick to a traditional color scheme, earth tones and such like olive drab and dark brown etc., but some colorful curve balls would never hurt. Hell, I have already made a minty looking one

[Crackdtoothgrin 0]

In a small town about ten minutes away from where I did most of my growing up, there are a small concentration of buildings like these. It's like an oasis of tiny industrial buildings and 'puiblic works' buildings, that are almost entirely surrounded by miles of farmland once the six of seven blocks of city fade out. At one point, it had almost  100,000  (an estimate) people living in it, mostly in a strip of tents called "Tent City" near the outskirts of town, and the area was connected with a cluster of other small local cities near the city itself back in the late 1800's, to support the regional gas field before that all went bust. Today it has less than 600 people, but many buildings like this remain. So, these particular units interest me.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Glad you like them. I love little places like that myself, 100k to 600 is a huge change though.

I finished all 16 non-corner versions, including nightlights, so I just have to make another 10 or 12 (only!!!) corners and this project will be behind me

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

WOW!!! these look great.

[Jasoncw 11,841]

uh oh! Are they really going to be right up against the lot edge? That means they won't line up with most of the w2w BATs already out there.

Also, the TruNite looks dark (unless it's a DarkNite export).

Anyway, they're looking really nice. There's a lot of great details in the variation.

[Roger51 381]

Those look amazing, well done for getting them done!!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Thanks guys

Jason: Oh no, that just a test lot. I'm going to be putting them on a 2x2 (6 per lot so that the mirrored ends match up), I just haven't made the families or a real lot. I was thinking the night was too dark, I'll have to check some things because that was maxis night and not dark night. I swear this last reformat screwed with things more then normal! Adding night views is easy enough, getting all 16 model files to work properly on short notice was the challenge.

[madhatter106 3,903]

I want, I want, I want, I want, I want!!!!

These look fantastic, I'm so glad you've returned to these to see them through. Texturing and lighting are fantastic.

[Francis90b 748]

Wow !

They're looking really wonderful!

Are you going to, let's say, make one of the 3 on the lot as a building and the other two as random props?

That would be a way to achieve infinite variations !

If anything it seems like they will work with both darknite and trunite settings !

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

I'll get back to the rowhouses eventually. The night scene was wonky and I lost interest trying to fix it. Worst case scenario they look a little odd at night. In the mean time...

Anyone remember this?

I decided to go back and bring it up to snuff with my other Pripiat models. It was missing a few details, had a few things that would not actually be there, plus the old scanline export was ugly.

I'm also asking around for anyone who may want to LOT my numerous unreleased Pripiat buildings that I have accumulated over quite some time. Mostly these, but a few others included (around a dozen in total):

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I really love these! I would lot 'em for ya but I'm not really the best lotter, nor am I that organized when it comes to dependencies. Is That one in the first pic a remake of that dark grey building from Pripiat you released on the STEX? The one with the Soviet Crest on top?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

you mean this one?

(darnk night HD)

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Yea that one! I have that building. The crest was spectacular then, looks even better now!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

I'm actually about to export this, imagine that!

Any thoughts about the nightlights before I finish this off? (Dark night)

And yes, I'll make a maxis night version too, also one without the crest.

[SimFox 802]

Here are just couple of things that comes to mind...

1. use ONLY photometric lights (where actual lights are used)

2. thing on roof reminds more nucelar explosion rather then simple tech lighting- Tone it down, play with light temperature. Try some of the photometric web profiles for those roof lights - Right now the area of illumination both too big and it ends too abruptly.

3. Set sel-il mat of crest to light scene. from something so big the absolutely be some light on the roof right in front of it. In such a darkness it looks like something you have slapped on top of render in Photoshop.

4. Light by the entrances... try to move it closer to the wall so that it will significantly fall off by the time it reaches the edge of the model - wouldn't be such a harsh transition in game (with lot)

5. there is something quite funky goes on with escape stairs. Take another look at it.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

1, 2, &4. That might be the issue I am having, I didn't replace the old lights form my max 2009 scanline scene. They are not cooperating at all.

3. That's the first thing I do turn on when I make a night material. I can never get it to show very well, however. I might just have to boost the reflectivity of the surrounding materials to get some reaction from them. It is always a hassle getting something nice out of the "environment" that my self illuminating materials are in. It is as if the light were decaying to fast on a spot. :\

5. I'm clueless myself about this. I was wondering if someone else would notice. Even if a spot happened to be over shooting, how would they hit the underside of the stairs (and the are none pointing up), why would they all be lit uniformly?

I'll try some things out and see what happens.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Well, the tower block has had its issues corrected, and has been exported (4 versions, with/without crest in dark/maxis night)

Moving on to a VERY old model of mine (my 3rd model actually). 2 years later and after 3 versions of 3dsmax, I think I made some improvements.

I have about 13 (16 if you count all of the tower blocks) models that are LOT ready, 3 need to have night scenes inserted, but all in good time. This one just needs some nightlights, but that should not take too long.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

It is so beautiful! I love how it turned out. I need some good housing blocks for my city.

[Glenni 1,444]

Mmmm, sexy communism

[metasmurf 705]

Last one looks stunning. Is that a supermarket on the bottom floor? No, its a parking garage, right?

[SimFox 802]

Hm... I'm a bit confused... which one id which? I mean which one is old and which one is new versions.

I assume that one with the grey bg is a newer, right? It looks great, love the side entrance in what ever fine service establishment that is in that annex as well as phone booths, or are those fine socialist suicide booths?

Yet I think you went a tab over board with sharpness of it all... To the point it stat to look like a miniature model. You know some slight blurriness helps to create sense of scale. Not in the model itself (I mean you should still use same filter, but may be calm down textures a bit. both roof one (and also a tad less contrast) and the walls of the building - particularly seams look a bit to sharp and too dark.

Anyway these are the minor issues!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Suicide booths?

According to testimonials I have read, of all the cities for people to go in the USSR, Pripiat was the place to be. It wasn't the gray communist hell hole that everyone would assume it to be, in fact it was quite the opposite.

As for the model itself, you would be correct in saying the one with the gray background it newer. The heinous inaccuracies and disproportions of that miserable scanline version must be much clearer to me than to you folks (too much time looking at references!) If how crisp and sharp it looks is the only problem you have with this, then I think I did alright! I can adjust those with little to no remorse.

On the other hand, something I'm not quite as happy with. Maybe its just my inexperience getting the sort of effect I want on the roof, maybe its just me. Not exactly happy with the windows either, but that also might just be me.

EDIT: forgot to make some things reflective so that the glow from self illumination will show up. New render!

Yes, that sign is in the day version too, I just didn't have any working Cyrillic fonts working at the time.

[Jasoncw 11,841]

The new version is a big improvement over the old one. It's hard to believe it's already been 2 years!

And that's a lot of .SC4Models you're exporting!!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Originally posted by: Jasoncw

And that's a lot of .SC4Models you're exporting!!quote>

Well, most of them were from a few months ago, I'm only just now adding the night scenes in some of them (took a brake from Fisher Body 21). To be honest I don't want any more unreleased models sitting on my HD giving me guilt.

You aren't crazy enough to help me lot some of them are you?

[Jasoncw 11,841]

Well, that wouldn't help any.  You'd still feel guilt over having unreleased BATs, plus I would have guilt over having a bunch of unfinished lots on my HD. 

[Glenni 1,444]

Here's a lot i made for Todd's three Stack Pripiat block, after some discussing and analysing images i got this as a result, not stricly based on Pripiat's layout, but based on landscaping from the USSR in general.

[SimFox 802]

these are incredibly pink. So they look more Chinese than Soviet...

Very nice LOTing, Glenni, Very nice indeed!

[nofunk 1,933]

That lotting looks great, Glenni!

[nofunk 1,933]

That lotting looks great, Glenni!