SimHoTToDDy BATs

[SimFox 802]

I also think that lighting is too dim... Saturation could also be reduced and may be moved more into yellow rather than red. Greenish tones are more typical for Asia. As in European commieblocks these types of lights are never really used.

Flooring for the shopping parts could be like that. but again oversaturation coupled with way to dim lighting are the problem. Shops are normally very brightly light. Plus the effect Jason spoke of - we're looking from dark outside to light interior. Either your "outsides have to be MUCH darker, or insides MUCH brighter.

Video card would do absolutely nothing to help rendering - it is entirely the domain of the CPU. Also itis TOTALLY scalable process meaning

[Odainsaker 2,135]

Tiles...shops...*smacks head*...the whole time, I've been misreading it as an attached dormitory cafeteria, hehe.  It's not so obvious until the night shot, but I wonder what can be placed in that broad space to show inhabitation.  I wonder if we can get a stylish Cyrillic sign for "café-zakusochnaya."

Though, like others have mentioned, the colors in the lights may be too saturated, I do like the idea, and it gives me a great opportunity to show off this postcard with a similar mentality for the color doubters:

This is the old Kyoto Station, a concrete utilitarian structure from 1952 which has now been replaced by Hiroshi Hara's modern wonderland station.  Hmm, you know what, this is very BATtable, and even the period cars are cool!

Looking at whitish blue lights along the station ground floor... I wonder how a similar gleaming nightlighting would look around your shops.  No, dormitory cafeteria...it's definitely a dormitory cafeteria, hehe!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Joint1: I see what you mean, I suppose its just how bright that one spot is in comparison with the rest? But, it is Christmas, maybe someone decided to deep vat fry a turkey inside O_o I think it is ok as far as brightness goes, but I think the overpowering orange can be adjusted a bit.

Jason: Ooops... Well that just proves how critical I am of my work... lol.

nihonkaranws: probably a way-too-complicated method for what I'm trying to accomplish. I make the floors of the interior with different textures and then shine lights on them. to get that to be visible, I use night libraries to show my window textures with low opacity thus allowing the bright interior to be seen. I just didn't like the results I was getting with some of the other methods, so I tried something different. I think it works out nicely and lets me control how each window looks, its just a lot to keep track of. I wouldn't recommend doing it for large buildings though lol!

Simfox: Yeah, the brightness is something that is easily taken care of, the desaturation thing is a bit more tedious, but I'm working on it. I'm not using colored lights as much as I am using textures that are being lit. I would imagine that someone has a green carpet, which is the concept behind this whole method. I'll see how things come out after I fix the desaturation and brightness (if they are that distracting I'll change them), but I think they are going to stay for the most part. The redness I will work on though, that is far more overpowering then some of the other hues in there. Thanks for clarifying the rendering thing though, I was wondering about things like that. Perhaps I should invest in better CPU next time around. I am slowly replacing all my hardware and this year was the video card =P

Odainsaker: Haha! Well It might be a cafeteria, I really can't tell from the pictures I have (isn't that the problem with dead cities?). you did remind me to put some lettering on top of this thing though, I wish I could make out what it says in this pic. As I said before, my lights aren't different colors, the floors are. But that station is a cool thing (especially for the 50s), the cars are defiantly a plus! The whiter lighting is something I might actually try, the yellowy thing isn't working for me. Even still... LONG LIVE COLOR!

Thanks everyone, I'll show you what I have once I get the saturation issue under control...

...But, for those who asked, both here and in chat, I did a version with out the shop at the base. I might clean this one up texture wise later for those who don't want a hideous commie block. And as far as I can tell from photographic reference, the entrances are this discrete.

edit: I don't know what happened to the red texture up top, but it is showing up VERY dark ( I haven't changed anything). I'll double check my UVW maps because it appears to be showing a different part of the texture than was there originally (check the pics yourself).

[Francis90b 748]

For your red texture i think that the top front part between the two set of terraces is ok and you should turn your red into "washed red".

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

I fixed it, the vertical part got stretched out so that it showed areas it wasn't supposed to. It should look the same as the day pics on the previous page. That "washed out" look is kinds the way the rest is, although not quite so light.

[Odainsaker 2,135]

Aww, shucks, seeing from the real world picture again, maybe not a cafeteria.  I doubt a bouncing bodies aerobic gymnasium would be allowed to front the People's Plaza either, though the windows are large enough for it, hehe.   While the top signage actually patriotically says "Long Live Lenin" and "Long Live the Party," unfortunately, I also can't clearly make out the lower sign...it kinda looks like "Rai-Duga," which could be a compounding of "paradise arc," but "raduga" with one less letter would be a simplier way of writing "rainbow," and that name with that meaning even under a regional variation in spelling makes no obvious sense.  Then again, it could be some shortened Sovietspeak abbreviation for "district party meeting office" or the like, as the first three as "rai" could be an abbreviated form for "raion" as "district," but I don't know how that works with "duga."  Oh well, the color theme is fun...it can be the "kafe raduga" for "Rainbow Café" as an inside joke on the bleakness of proletarian communal blocks.

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Okay, my Russian sucks, and this is actually Ukrainian...I wondered why the top signs had different letters for "i," this is near Chernobyl in the Ukraine (doh!).  The lower sign looks like it really is a Ukrainian variant for "rainbow", in this case as "raiduga":

Perhaps the name of an organization or maybe a patriotic slogan sign along the same lines as "Unity" and "Peace."

Rainbow!  Circular logic brings us right back to the colors, hehe.  There is karmic meaning here, somewhere, well hidden...

[Gn_leugim 853]

just like I asked have you thought how you will put it on game? R$ growable I hope

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Thanks Odainsaker, That at least gives me somewhere to start. I could always just make something up XD, though I like the idea of a "rainbow" on such a bleak building!

Gn_leugim: Growable is the idea, but I'm still debating whether to make it $$ or $. In reality this would have been one of the nicest buildings in the city due to its location next to the community center, hotel, amusement park, and the central square. But, I have made it look rather grim haven't I? We will see I suppose.

To be honest, I got fed up with the lights. I tried a few different color variations and none of them seemed to cooperate. I am happy with the result here, even if they seem a bit saturated still. Unless there is something that is horribly wrong that I am not seeing, then this is as good as done, Though I might add some lettering like in real life.

And to take a brake form that, I started a little doodle based on this building.

But I'm really not sure what to do with it now that I have it

It was fun, and only took me about an hour so I don't care

-Todd

[madhatter106 3,903]

Hmmm a good question, $ or $$? You could make the case for it either way...I think maybe with the "grim" texturing, it might work better as $...but I'm biased, as I'm a big fan of $ in my cities...

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

That's what I'm thinking.

Anyway, I the texturing and such on my tiny building. This has inspired me to try some larger buildings of this type

[Gn_leugim 853]

I think it's more R$.. on the game it does not need to be in such good location as the real one ^^

and that tiny building looks quite good

[kant01 5]

Beautiful job on the lights! I really like that one. Also, I don't think the red is too dark. I kind of like that and think it complements the building.

Great job on that new little one too! Are you thinking CS or CO for that one?

[bixel 1,223]

Beautiful Work!

[art128 4,618]

the nightlight of the building are fantastic my friend, great work !!

and the last one look great, can't wait to see more.

Arthur.

[Francis90b 748]

That's good, but you need more brightness on the walls and less rundown glasses.This way you can also make a middle wealth version.

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Damn, I know who's getting my nom for the "Most Improved BATer" award this year.

You're probably one of the fastest learners I've ever seen, only two months in and you're already making stuff that's easily up to what we might call the industry standard.

Just one thing though, I'd tone down those lights a little on the Commie block. The ones you had on the previous page (dimmer) were probably more realistic, I know lighting can be a real pain but keep at it! If it's any help, you always get it right in the end if you persist.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I personally think the brightness is good.

For the new building I'd try out copying the original building's color scheme, I think it might work well for the game.

Also, if you want to put a little learning exercise into this one, you can model the exterior basement entrance and steps (or at least that's what it looks like from the photo). AutoVino explains a technique in his thread (or maybe in a different thread). Basically, you model the steps and everything that will be underground, and then you change the object's properties to make them not visible to the camera (just like you'd do for your ground plane). The objects would be hidden in the render, but if you can make what could be called an unmask object. This would be a plane, with a material (that is completely transparent) applied to it. This plane gets rendered, but the stuff behind it will also get rendered, even though it's hidden, but since your material is totally transparent, it doesn't change what the rendered objects actually look like.

[SimFox 802]

I also think that the new brightness of night lights on the large commieblock is better/more appropriate. WHat makes it (overall) seem to be a bit off is still saturation... it is too hight. NAd when you increase teh brightness it becomes more obvious. Or, to be more precise; it starts too look more "off". Normally with increasing brighnes saturation decreases.

As for a small builing, I agree with Jason that you could try oroginal color schem...

I want to point out one thing that has been mentined few times, but I believe people still overlook a lot. It is not the best choice to have a preview on a black background. Neutral grey of 50% would give you MUCH more accurate impression of brightnes and saturation levels.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Nice yes? I have to admit I like this a lot more than I thought I would originally

I would love to have something to upload for tomorrow, but I can't promise anything.

Gn_leugim: for most people, no it won't be, so I suppose $ is the best route.

Joint1: I might do that eventually. Its just a matter of switching textures after all.

C0ckatoo: Really? Though I do have to admit I was a hot mess two months ago when I started. I actually think the brightness is about right, finally. Even the saturation isn't really that bad when I PS it into a SC4 pic. I was going to go dim at first, but it seems a bit strange in game. Thanks for stopping by!

Jason: Hmmm, I was actually going to start trying under-ground stuff like that, I'll have to find that post. Might add on the basement later, but I'll defiantly need to know how to do it for some ideas I have for the future

Simfox: I actually like how they came out color wise after comparing them with some in game pics. I was worried about that looking really weird too. I changed my render background, I had been meaning to do that, probably would have saved me some time changing brightness and things a few times XD.

[jt_144_2004 0]

Heh...didnt think you would actually make this. It looks pretty good actually.

[JakeMD 107]

Here is an underground LODing tutorial, courtesy of Pegasus..

[art128 4,618]

The textures are great my friend, good work !

[Jasoncw 11,840]

That tutorial is for a different method which causes some visual shadow issues in game. The method I pointed to provides perfect results, but it depends on using 3ds Max.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Good news and bad news folks. Good news is, I exported my commie block and everything appears to work fine (not sure about nightlights yet, my plugins are screwy and aren't showing any custom ones, I'll try getting the update again). Looks pretty good in game all and all.

Bad news is, The windows were displaying the wrong texture and it will need to be exported again (they came out rather black XD).

Either me or someone else will lot this thing and have it ready to upload soon.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

I swear something is trying to stop me from finishing this... We have a new problem. I have looked it up but I didn't really find a convincing solution that was any better than "do it again". I realize it is a problem with the fsh files and the sc4 model itself. I looked into a few things suggested in support threads, but I'm not getting it.

Please help if you can, I don't feel like spending all that time exporting this again if I can avoid it.

Thanks in advance,

-Todd

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You'll need to redo it. Any manual fix for the problem would take far longer than re-exporting it. It didn't take that long to export, did it?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

I see, well that stinks. Its not that it took so long, I just don't like having my computer locked up for that block of time. I suppose we will see how things go tomorrow, I'll re-export it tonight.

[pagenotfound 53]

Good luck and good job, hope to see more!

[Gn_leugim 853]

that's a nasty issue =1

[bixel 1,223]

SimHoTToDDy: HOLD ON!! I came across this problem several times and it really stumped me on one of my bigger projects. Here's what you do. Go to gamepacks > BAT > Outputfiles. Go to the folder that is the name of your building (export) and rename it with a prefix MAIN. Then go to your scene save as QUICK_Export, select about 95% of your geometry and delete it - leave the LODs alone, I usually leave nothing but a roof. Turn off Lightracer or Global Illumination to speed things up.

Save - open a New Scene - Merge everything in from QUICK_Export and save as the same name. Hit Export - wait till it get done (usually 1-3 min). Then! go to gamepacks > BAT > Outputfiles > MAIN_nameofyourbuilding and do a Search on the folder. Type in Index and do select all and delete. (Wont need the index files).

Then Select all the folders inside MAIN_nameofyourbuilding and copy them to nameofyourbuilding folder and override. In 3ds Max hit Dat Fsh Build and Insert and poof your Model works!