SimHoTToDDy BATs

[Jazzmaster 716]

Even those BATs you showed from quite a while back are pretty damn good...that second pic you showed is almost perfect imo

Awesome work though, cheers!

[Delecto 941]

All the credit is for you. In addition, you helped me more than I did, so thank you and congratulations!

[art128 4,618]

Like pingangster said, no need to thank us, but Thanks you for sharing with us those goos creation, also congrats for your year of BATing Todd ! (it will be one year for me too in February ! ) Hope to see more of your works.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Thanks everyone I'm just glad you like this stuff, some of it looks terrible in my eyes, but I guess its just me!

Speaking of more of my works, it is high time I return to Pripiat!

There are too many variations of these to mention (mostly color differences and "stacked" so to speak), so I'll be doing a few different ones. Glenni bugged me about a "clean" version, but I'm not sure if I'll get around to that given how many I'm planning already. We shall see, Glen, we shall see. 

-Todd

[Delecto 941]

Excellent, I just find that the white wall is too much cracked, but I know that you like that.

it's a re-creation?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

I'm slowly removing the cracks of those maps, they were made for a much smaller faces so the cracks didn't stick out as much then. I lost the .psd with all the original layers so taking them off has been a little more arduous.

And yes, it is a recreation Lots of lovely color variations too.

To give you an idea of their number (they compose a good % of the buildings in the city) here is the google map.

[art128 4,618]

Nice recreation, Todd, the details are really well done !

[delija21 295]

Well that's just great...when i finnaly find a building i wold like to make you are allready makin it ....anyway great work....looking really good

[Evillions 552]

You have all these great BATs at are finished... Why never release them?

[simcity4fan12 13]

That's a wonderful BAT! It reminds me of the style of apartment buildings in Battery Park City in New York. Compared to the one in the photo, do you think yours looks a little bit stretched? Not that it looks bad, your doing very great work. Do you have any photos of the other variations yet?

[Larks2242 251]

Cool looks just like the real thing!!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Delija: I'm sorry I beat you to it, you know there are still plenty other buildings in Pripiat to choose from. I would love to have some help, especially from a fellow block fiend Nice to see you around by the way!

Evillions: The only ones that aren't exported are the rowhouses, one of the Pripiat buildings, plus Iodent (which hardly counts, its ready to go). Everything else is with the honorable Mr. Jasoncw for lotting (what a nice guy!). I tend to wait on exporting on some projects just to to the effort involved (the 20+ rowhouses come to mind), but I'll get around to them at one point or another.

simcity4fan: I thought the same exact thing after I was done modeling this, I made the floors the standard height, and took the other dimensions from Google earth. My Polish associates tell me that 4m might even be too short! The difference is the perspective, that particular shot shows the building at its absolute widest and gives no other indication to its depth. I duplicated the same effect with one of my renders, its just a trick of the eye! Oh, and here are the other variations:

I also went back and started playing with this classic, back from when I could count my projects on one hand!

My modeling skills were very poor at the time, so this is a bear to work with now. I'm debating whether or not I even want to go though the trouble of night lighting it or if I'll even send it to Jason when I am done with it.

I'm getting closer to having enough Buildings made to begin laying out Pripiat in SC4. I might go back to the long block and make the shorter 75m and 50m versions off of the original. I might have to make a map of what I have done so far

[art128 4,618]

Great work, Todd. As usual is look fantastic ! The variations on the tower are very nice, even if I don't really love the two at the bottom. Looks too clean for my personal taste.

Also, good work with the corner block, looks excellent ! Oh BTW, I've been flying (with Google earth) around Pripiat, and there's some interesting building to do... I'll maybe try the abandoned swimming pool... Maybe two version of it, an abandoned one and a "clean" one ... ?

Take care,

-Arthur.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Arthur, Let me know if you really want to make that or if you start the pool, its on my to-do list as it is but I won't steal your thunder if you already made plans.

Anyway, someone has to compete with Delija 

(click)

Might make a few more. There are 2, 3, and 4 "stacked" versions plus I might do some diagonals if patients permits.

[simcity4fan12 13]

I think diagonals would look great, and be useful. They look great! I think you should finish the one you showed(in your Oct. 25 post). It looks great yet you say your modeling on it is poor. Either I'm not seeing something or it's fine the way it is.

[io_bg 249]

Looking great! These will look good in any commie city (I'll have to start making such ones xD)

[art128 4,618]

Nicely done ! It looks great in game, both in dayview and nightview !

About the pool.. well, i think I'll find more Prypiat building to do, but later, as I have to finish all-my-unfinished-projects.. That mean you can do it !

Anyway, nice work !

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work

[delija21 295]

Wow mate...that look awesome, really great work...would love to see stacked version so just keep them comming

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

This is getting to be a scary number of buildings. I'm starting to feel bad about having anyone else LOT them. I just wish I could do a better job at it... There is still a bunch more I need for my personal recreation of Pripiat, but I think I'll keep them to myself for the time being (4-stacks, 2-stacks, and different methods of attachments, not to mention all the long block variations). Jezze I think I went in over my head (bring it on )!

Not sure how to release something like this^, if at all.

Fortunately, What I have done thus far makes up the bulk of the architecture of the city. Still lots to do though.

[Francis90b 748]

Very interesting variations! I'm not an user of commieblocks in game, but thinking about the people who uses them i'd suggest you to release them as well! (anyway they will need to be LOTed even if you will be the one who uses them,right?) Oh, and if the lots on the first pic were made by you, i think it would just take a little amount of trees and bushes to make them look right

[gutterclub 2,729]

I'm in love with those tower blocks, they would fit in perfectly in a UK style City even though they are a recreation. I'd love to see them released

[SimFox 802]

your Pripjat is looking more like cheery Chinese residential suburb... :-) it is sooo pink!

Why don't you export Dark Night version! I'd really like to use those!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Some remarks on lotting from someone who has made a lot or two in his life:

1) There is no need to create separate lots for two building versions that share one and the same footprint. Either you design the lot once and use copy & paste, or, if the buildings are identical in terms of occupant number and stats, you make them a family that shares a common lot. Saves a bunch of work.

2) Many people will appreciate the diagonal blocks. They can be used as overhanging plops, too. Simply try to make their base square disappear as far as possible. The surroundings can be designed using all sorts of NAM ped malls and park lots, including [shameless self-promotion] my set of diagonal filler lots [/shameless self-promotion]. Leave it to the players' imagination, you will be amazed how creatively some of them will master the challenge!

3) Put one or two diagonal blocks on an oversized lot, and you can easily provide them as growables. They will be easy to grow at such particular specs (think about 5x5 to 7x7 (just how big are these?), Euro tileset only, medium density only) and can be used without drawbacks.

[psander5 197]

I think they look cheery too, but I don't mind that particularly. I don't build 'commie' cities and these, in their current form would look great in my western influenced cities! I can't find many pictures of the city before the disaster, so I don't really know how clean and pretty Pripiat was, but these buildings look like quite pleasant utilitarian places to live.

The diagonal versions would be great to release, but would need some extra thought to how they'd be integrated. Of course, they can only be eyecandy, but there's the problem with 'lotting'. Diagonal Commercials are ok because you can plop filler tiles of paving around them, but residentials usually have some kind of garden involved. I suppose you could make a series of 1x1 filler lots to be plopped in a way to manually compose a diagonal lot in game, but that's a project in itself, and you indicate that you don't like to lot so it might not be for you. The other option would be to model an overhanging lot with the building. It would be difficult to get them to blend in with your other, conventionally lotted buildings though. That would add a lot of work to the model as well, and as you say, you've got a scary number of buildings already!

They look superb though. I can't wait, and look forward to seeing you finish your recreation of Pripiat. Judging by your hard work in modelling, it will be a good 'un... It might also mean we can get our hands on the full set too!

[nofunk 1,933]

Todd: I think all the variations are fantastic! And I think those are already pretty good starts to the lots. They need more, of course, but they also don't need to be mindblowing. I think everyone will really appreciate these!

I also second everything T Wrecks said.

T Wrecks: Is there a tutorial on how to make families? I need to for an upcoming set of BATs I'm working on, but couldn't find anything on the Omnibus. (Although maybe I didn't look hard enough?)

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Francis: Glad you like them! Those lots were just something to put them on. I am proud of myself that I finally figured out how to overlap overlay textures (when and how I want them to that is xD)

gutterclub: Yeah, these towers especially look like they could have been build just about anywhere.

Simfox, I actually took an arguably more subtle approach based on my reference pictures. Of course IRL they are more of a yellowy beige then pink, but you know how much the game likes pink. These actually turned out a lot more "white" then most pictures would let on . Anyway, I probably will go back and make some dark night versions, I just want to finish with this batch of buildings and lots first.

T-Wrecks: 1) Indeed, I am incredibly lazy and would never do something like that I might make a family though, seems even more reasonable then 4+ duplicate lots.

2) I know people would like them, I just need to figure out how to make it look good with the filler pieces. I actually use your diagonal fillers (although I change the base texture to the Euro-sidewalk one). I am one of those guys who "master the challenge", that's actually how I prefer to 'lot' things, tiny foot print lot with few props, then fill in the rest with 1x1s and plopable flora (Just look at my CJ). Getting something to look nice otherwise (ie. in LE) is not my specialty though. I make extremely simple lots, but I compensate by making them small, and in large numbers XD

3) That is going to be a nightmare for me, but it is something I would love to see if someone else were making these. The buildings (long blocks) are ~100m long, they fit snugly on a 1x7 (like the one in the batch I uploaded), so the diagonals would need a 5x5 lot... lol.

Psander5: The city was clean, beautiful, and very new (a whole microdistrict was still under construction when the disaster happened). There are a lot of pre-disaster photos, just very few in color. It was one of those ideal communist cities; the stories from people who lived there all say that it was the nicest place they had ever lived (but then most people don't have their entire lives ripped away in one day). As far as lotting goes, as soon as I find a suitable diagonal overlay for a path, it should be smooth sailing, of course finding one I like is the issue Modeling the base was something I though about... and then forgot immediately, lol. Nothing that is there IRL cannot be replicated more easily in LE to be honest, matching it up in game is just as troublesome.

Nofunk, there is one in the SC4PIM guide (I was reading / using it last night, good stuff, although the lotting process will take some getting used to).

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2260

[mightygoose 92]

your "bear" is my personal favourite of the set...

[art128 4,618]

Nice Todd, the diagonals blocks will be useful for my city...

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: nofunk

T Wrecks: Is there a tutorial on how to make families? I need to for an upcoming set of BATs I'm working on, but couldn't find anything on the Omnibus. (Although maybe I didn't look hard enough?)

quote>

Well, if you are more or less familiar with iLive's Reader, then making a building or prop family is, in fact, very easy.

1) You need to create the .sc4desc files for all models - as usual

2) You need a reserved ID for the family you are about to create. There's a maintained index to prevent duplicates and conflicts. (I have had a range reserved for me a long time ago, and there's still plenty of room, so I'll be happy to provide you with some family IDs from my pool, because IMHO it makes more sense to take better advantage of an existing range than to open and manage yet another one.)

3) Open each desc file and add a new property "Building/Prop Family" (Right-click in right half of the screen, select "New propery" or "Add property", then pick "Building/Prop Family" and select "Apply"). You should see a new line which contains that new property.

4) Double-click the line to enter the family ID manually (e.g. "0x12345678") and make sure the number of Reps matches the default number that's mentioned in the Edit window (IIRC, it needs to be "1", not "0"!).

Repeat these four steps for all BATs that are to be part of the family you are creating, and you are done.