SimHoTToDDy BATs

[Kryptowhite 9]

Wow! Your building textures are spectacular. I like the variety of styles. I am in agreement with you on the "squares" that you see on the tower wall. I think you need to tone those down, like you suggested. You called them "repeated areas".

[Jasoncw 11,841]

Looking good! I agree with nofunk that the nitelites might be a little too saturated. For the new version, I think it's good that you can see the prefab system, but in some parts the texture looks repetitive.

The warehouse is coming along well. Try making the brick pattern in the texture smaller. Also, right now the warehouse is missing that special something and you'll need to somehow find that special something. It's missing something but I don't know what.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Thanks everyone! I adjusted the projects and Production Steel as you kind folks suggested, but something in Detroit caught my eye and I couldn't resist.

Thre must be something wrong with me for picking someting that looks so god-aweful. I'm aimed at the Large one on the left, but I might go ahead and make that warehouse next to it eventually.

Here is what I have so far (no textures!!!). North and west views, south and east are essentially all windows, so I didn't bother. I obviously have to get the smaller stuff to the right, but I want to see what you think!

The water tower's height is not really far fetched, but it looks odd. I'm going to bring the tank down more by shortening the base a bit I think. I also have to decide what I'm going to do with the W2W leftover on the right side... I think I'll just repeat the windows that are on the front next to the cargo door.

I'll probably finish off the other things when I finish modeling this one, its just so much fun

-Todd

[Jasoncw 11,841]

ahh! Looking good!

For the common wall, you should probably just use the brick texture and have it be blank. That's what I would do anyway.

Do you have any photos, or does Google Street View cover that area? Right now the proportions seem off (the windows seem like they should be shorter than they are now), but it's hard to tell on Local Live. It also seems like the concrete accents should be a little taller.

It's really nice seeing it all cleaned up. You can see how these American industrial structures were inspirational to the European Modernists.

[Francis90b 748]

Beautiful, i really appreciate your new industrial BATs.I agree that windows are a bit too large, but everything else is perfect.Try to model the building on the right as well.

[jacqulina 162]

great,fantastic  work

[Gn_leugim 858]

I have to say that it looks nice Todd nice choice

[yoshimitsu31 2]

What is the building with the USSR crest? Did you ever finish and upload it?

[art128 4,618]

That's looking great there Todd!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Thanks guys!

Jason, after looking at my references (Local live and Google street view double team, I was surprised how much of the city is covered actually) I realized that I miscalculated the height of the windows by about 10%, squishing the horizontal divisions by about half a meter. I think fixing that should balance it out nicely. The bare wall should be interesting, I could use some fanciful brickwork outlining the frame, which might add some interest, but only time will tell(depending on how much space is left on the lot, I might even toss in the warehouse )

yoshimitsu31: Well, its finished, LOTed, and currently being moded by a very busy man finishing grad school... aka Nofunk. So you might have to wait a bit longer, but it is coming shortly I can assure you.

Edit: apparently I'm a Mogul now

[Gn_leugim 858]

a mogul with a tank.. humm.. ruuunnnn 

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Mogul with Tanks? Hmm, I think I like this after all 

Anyway, started making changes and it really makes a difference. Thanks for sugesting it folks.

[Gn_leugim 858]

looking forward to see more development

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

All these little walls are giving me headaches, but we are on home streatch now. Too bad I'll have to make a lot of this last stuff up because I can't see it in Google street view ( damn trees!!!)

I had to guess on the windows on the righthand section, but I think they came out al right.

---

I'm finding it hard not to wonder off and stare at the Packard plant though, some of the details are just too stunning. I perticularly like the corners on this building. Reminds me of unfinished buisness with Battersea.

Note to self: one thing at a time... (...or two, or three, or...)

-Todd

[Francis90b 748]

You left me speechless .I really appreciate that you're going to do the right part of the building, and surely the Packard plant will worth the time you will put in it...only beware about not becoming too busy.

Unfortunately in my country we haven't much of this, but here is a famous example:

[Gn_leugim 858]

small building ^^ your work looks good Todd

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Is the test track really on the roof? That's awesome...

Anyhoo, I exported a few versions of Frederick Douglass projects. Took me a while to figure out trunite exports, but it is easy enough now. Even fixing the common .fsh errors are pretty simple a this point. (PNG warning, click for full size)

Don't mind the lack of shadows, I made a few of them props so I could get them all on one lot. Is there a way to make those props have shadows?

Also finished the major modeling on this still-to-be-named factory. I'm thinking of Calling it Miller st. Mfg or something along those lines( thats the street its on), there are no real indications as to its name or function. The reflections on these are really fun

Still some details to make when I stumble across them in my far and few between reference photos, but anything that I can't see, I'll just make up Textures will follow in due time. I might work on my CJ for a few days before I dive back into this one (but don't quote me on that SBU lurkers, you know who you are!!!).

Production steel is ready to go, but Jason raised a point that it is still missing something (something that no once can seem to pin down that is), so any pointers in that area would be very helpful. I know you generally would take it one way or the other, but that something is keeping me from exporting for the time being

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work

[Francis90b 748]

I can't really wait to see that textured.I think it looks superb, and hope you will find the way to make it even better.

The building i've posted is one of the biggest factories that FIAT (the italian automoblie-maker) built in what can be conisidered the "italian detroit", the city of Turin.It is called the "lingotto" and it is widely famous as a turin landmark and as a jewel of italian industrial architecture.The factory was built between 1916 and 1930 (though it was inaugurated in 1922) and it was very modern at ithat time.Many elements in it's facade foreshadowed the italian rationalism, that may be considered as an italian version of the moderne architecture .A test track was located on the top of the building.This was quite unusual but was due to the car production system within the factory.In fact, production started in the ground floors and went up to the roof.

In 1982 FIAT decided to close this plant because it became outdated.An architectural competition was held to decide how to re-use the plant and Renzo Piano won it.The building was eventually converted into a public space with a convention center, concert halls, a theater and an hotel.It even hosted the speed skating venue of the Turin 2006 winter olympics.

Here is some more pics just in case you've found this building interesting:

[art128 4,618]

Looking great there Todd, excellent work on that factory my friend.

[nofunk 1,933]

Todd, you should let me know when you need reference shots. I'm in Detroit three days a week and could probably help you out.

The Miller Street factory looks fantastic, by the way! Are you going to add the two-story addition on the side? Also, how did you get the factory windows to look so good? Did you model them or is it a texture? I've been working on an old factory of my own lately, but I can't seem to get the mullions or the inset windows to look show up well. How thick are your mullions?

[SimFox 802]

that industrial does look great!!!

BTW for the residential tower I would recommend you to make your background darker and switch AA against it off to get rid of that bright outline...

[Jasoncw 11,841]

For Douglas, none of them are actually arranged diagonally. In the composition, there is a normal one, and then a mirrored one (mirrored across the short axis). Then some of those are rotated 90 degrees (which of course doesn't require any new .SC4Models).

There's also a fenced off mechanical area on the ground next to the towers (just like the lobby part), but I don't know if that is original or if it was added when mechanical systems were added. These could be done by modeling one or two, and then rendering them and making them props, or they could be modeled into the .SC4Model. The first method allows for more variation, but would require more work, while the second method would take less work, but in a multi-tower lot might make the mechanical equipment look repetitive.

For Production Steel, I think the building itself isn't very special, which is why yours isn't either. Try adding some roof junk, and then also try bricking in some of the windows after all. But for the bricked in windows, I don't think they should be super dirty or anything, though they may use a different or slightly different color of brick.

Everything's looking great!

[spa 970]

Hey Todd,

Missed the last few updates. I like the new factory building. It's pretty generic for dieing rust belt industries. The open windows and water tower are a nice touch and I like the different sections on the back. One thing, don't get too caught up in the reflection. There is no right way to do these things, but my own preference is for minimal reflections. Too often, with the fancy max tools, it's easy to do a reflection and call it a day, but I think that's a fairly lazy way to go. Strong reflections don't work very well in Sim City because virtually no other buildings have anything reflected on them. It's also impossible to account for what else might be built nearby in the game that should be reflected. When batters get caught up in reflections, they also tend to forget about making other colour variations to their glass which makes for pretty boring windows, reflections or not. Anyway, that's a little more than just two cents At the end of the day, it's your choice. My own preference is for the more vague glass along the lines of what Jasoncw does.

Oh and if memory serves, if you want your props to cast shadows you need to turn the property ground model to true in the prop desc. It doesn't solve all shadow problems as props won't cast shadows on buildings or other props and vice versa. I ran into problems a month or two back when I tried to make my Knightsbridge rowhouse set as a mix of props and buildings.

The one on the left is a building and the middle and left ones are props. The best thing to do if you want to have multiple buildings on one lot would be to have one instance serve as a building and locate everything so that shadow issues don't arise. Unfortunately, these are the cards maxis dealt us.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Lol, I appreciate the input about the reflections, bet they are only there because they are default materials with just a diffuse color I haven't even started the window textures and the reflections from the textured walls and roves have already dulled the reflections into vague shapes. Thanks for answering my shadow question too, I havn't played with the different tools outside LE, BAT, and a little bit of PIM.

I should get back to other folks while I'm here....

Francis90b: Thanks a lot buddy, it's already looking better with just some prliminary textures on it. Its great to hear that they saved the FIAT factory, it may not be viable as a factory but it's size and aesthetics are quite remarkable. It might be a long shot to try to make the main building, but that smaller section looks like it could be a really fun project.

Nofunk: I should definitely take you up on that, there are a few spots that look interesting, but aren't in street view. For this one though, you might be able to help if you could get on the roof so I could make sense of what is going on with the side, although a shot of the back from Selkirk street might help to, a damn tree is always in the way. I was contemplating making the small adjoining warehouse. In fact, I could probably scale it to fit as a W2W with this factory and some other little warehouses I have my eye on (including production steel). As for the mullions, I went smaller than I usually do on these windows with a width of .05m and the window depth of .05m as well (I used to go twice that at .1m each). For the wider section (around where it opens) I have the width up a little bit at .075m. Its a though call getting them to show up and to show depth with out overdoing it, part of what makes it work is the contrast too, the more they stick out ( contrast wise) the thinner and more realistic you can make them.

SimFox: Glad to hear from you! Yeah I noticed the outline as soon as I put it in game, all that came to mind was "damnit!" I flipped though environment and render settings but couldn't find that switch, any pointers where it is (max 2008)?

Jason: there may not be any diagonals in Frederick Douglass, but Jeffries Projects (which are identical save a few apparent improvements here and there) have two. I also though it would be fun and add more variety for SC4 outside a direct recreation. About the mecanical junk on the ground, I was going to use some seperate props as the arrangement is a bit arbitrary IRL, one of the towers looks like it has two of them as well. Making up some details to add to Production steel is probably the best way to fix it up, but if all else fails, it will just be a generic industrial building

Started texturing, nothing outstanding to report otherwise. I just though I should make a fuss over all the constructive comments this time around!

-Todd

[JakeMD 107]

Just took a peak back in here, and i'm very impressed. I love the reflections on the factory.. makes it look so clean

[Francis90b 748]

Generally speaking i like a lot these kind of architecture, and i'm glad that we have some of this as well.I may consider to do something similar in the future...

[Odainsaker 2,135]

I've been trying to think about Production Steel, which is very well done, but also suffers from indeed being a huge anonymous industrial building.  It seems to easily fade to the background.

I can't say exactly what that je ne sais quoi element might be that that we can add, but I suppose it doesn't hurt to throw out possibilities.

Looking at the aerial, perhaps the current rooftop machinery could be whitened or brightened, so that they distinctly contrast with the grimy roof, similar to how the white trim of the sign contrasts against the brick walls.

Brightening suggests sparkling...and maybe some physical sparkle can come from adding little eyeball-interest touches, say, am exterior ladder on the shorter side to reach the roof, some random electrical conduits on the short extrior wall, or even some exterior industrial lamps near the entrances.  A lot of this may also come from props, but it is all those little things that makes it looked occupied, in way similar to how the intricate water tower is really clinching the new factory.

Occupation suggests another possibility...we have a long series of giant windows lighting a work floor, so perhaps this might be a fun BAT to make transparent glass so as to add intricate machinery inside.  This may require some thickening of the wall columns to give them more interesting depth when seen through the glass, and, of course, there is always the quirk of making glass both transparent while still having a surface and even in places reflecting back light.  But, this might get us away from the monotone shed by letting us partly see into the box.

I don't know, just throwing ideas...maybe if we throw enough, the right one will stick, hehe.

[danielcote 9]

Wow you've got some great projects going on. I like the packing plant it reminds me of one that used to be in edmonton (burns meats) until it was torn down in 1974 leaving only a field acouple of bricks laying about, foundations and a lone brick chimney stack as a dead reminder of what was and what could have been.

[Francis90b 748]

I think that you should continue working on Production steel.Anonymous buildings like this are as much needed as spectacular ones.And you did a great work on it, it would be a pity to give it up right now.As for suggestions, i agree with odainsaker's ones.Let's see how you can give a magic touch to a generic building like this!