Aaron Graham's BATs

[madhatter106 3,922]

The thing that jack_wilds has hit on is key, here, with regard to the window frames - the new exterior texture is close to the same value as the frames, so they are starting to blend into them. It might be a case of tweaking the frame texture and making it so that it's not a similar value. Maybe just cheating it up 5% lighter or brighter in Photoshop would be enough. I often find that I am constantly shuffling contrasts, brightness, saturation, etc. back and forth and back and forth, even so much as only 3% here or 2% there. All to get the right balance of effect. I've had situations where it was modifying the red or blue or yellow in the color or hues charts by only 3%, and it made all the difference in the end result.

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Those stores look brilliant, and you have adressed the problem with the window frames blending to much IMO. This is going to be another must have release

[Utvaw 45]

I love the addition of ground floor retail on this building. It helps me be able to put it into a downtown area without it looking out of place and it adds so much to the feeling of realism when looking at a streetscape. They are well done too, so they don't take away from the building at all.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Gutterclub- Thank you!!!

Jack_wilds- Thank you, and thanks for the store name. I have fix the window frame the best way I can.

Amthaak- Thank you!!!

Frex_Ceafus- Thank you!!!

Francis90b- Thank you!!!

Spike345- Thank you, I did wanted to stay a way from making retail in the first floor I always wanted to mod the buildings with retail on the first

floors to act as a commercial and reisdential building but it not possible for me to do.

Yoshiisland- Thank you!!!

Roger51- Thank you!!!

Mustangflyer- Thank you, I have seen your new posted thread, Good luck on that.

Madhatter106- Thank you for that I hav fix the winod frame a little I hope that helps.

Ion_Cannon- Thank you!!!

Utvaw- Thank you, I hope to see it in one of your cities downtowns.

Johnson Apartments

Here's a chair set I have made, I hope you like them. The Johnson Apartments texturing is almost finished, All I have to do is work on the garage, the top of the chimney and the ground floor doors after that just make a second version of the building with a different brick texture. I'm looking forward to making brown, red, and white bricks.

  Edited January 27, 2012 by Aaron Graham  

[Girafe 1,729]

Looks good,

the only point I have is your foliage is a little bit too blue. Try to switch to more yellowish tinte which fits better this the game.

[Francis90b 748]

I would add some more (subtle) wear on the terrace tiles, and i also agree with Girafe's suggestion about plants,but other than that, i have nothing to say.

Chairs are looking fabulous, and they fit very well.

I'm looking forward to the variations.

Maybe the next building might be a non-corner building.

Franklin, Johnson, Graham are corner-only buildings, only Hogan is also non-corner.

[Jasoncw 11,941]

I think right now the grime is overpowering the bricks in the texture. You might have to find a brick texture with more contrast in the bricks to start from. And I think the color might be a little too saturated and a little too bright. It's coming along great though.

[Seraf 1,239]

I think you can try adding bump-map to the facade, now it looks too flat. I already like the plants but maybe if you do what Girafe said they will look better, don't know. But the ground floor looks great, really like it.

[Francis90b 748]

Another couple of things you might want to consider while thinking about your bricks...quoting a Jasoncw post:

(...) you can decrease the "Blur" setting of the bitmap from 1.0 to .1 or even .01. This will have max render the bitmap more clearly (...)

Something else, in general, for many of your materials you'll want to enable Ambient Occlusion. In the Arch & Design material, if you scroll down to the special effects rollout, it's in there along with the round edges effect. If you google ambient occlusion you'll understand what it is. I usually use a distance of a few meters. There's a checkbox for making it more accurate (instead of using black (or whatever you have as the color) to shade the inside corners, it will sample the color of that surface and base the color of the shadow off that). Normal AO doesn't seem to increase render times much, but enabling the more accurate color will increase render times, so use that when the default black shading looks unnatural.

Now, my stance:

While bricks are looking very good now, i think that Seraf and Jasoncw have provided some interesting suggestions.

Personally, i don't find the dirt to be overpowering - but still, it would be a good idea to tone it down a bit.

Before increasing contrast on your bricks, you might check the things contained inside the part i've quoted.If this fails, then go for it.

The bump map might be a good idea...if you want to do it, take your brick texture, fill the area with the mortar with medium grey, and fill the rest of it with white.Then apply it to the "bump map" slot, and play a bit with it's values (the values of the bump) if necessary.

  Edited January 27, 2012 by Francis90b  

[Jack_wilds 550]

like it better... your welcome about the name inspiration -what did you go with?... nothing to add but to tweak with the brick per previous suggestions to see what or where that gets ya -if your a mind to do so that is... Otherwise, its another excellent model

[Jasoncw 11,941]

Yeah those things would help with the bricks too.

For the bump map though, off the top of my head the only time you would use those BATing are for relief sculptures and glass. Whatever it is needs to be big enough that there are pixels for the "bumps" to be visible. For the bricks, the mortar is so incredibly small that it wouldn't really do anything. So whatever it is you're using a bump map for, it needs to have at least a few pixels between the high and low points, in order for there to be space for the effect to fit in.

[PBGV103 729]

It's true that a bump map would need to be larger to actually see it, but by being as close to RL as possible max will better know how light rays should react to a surface. A small bump map can have the effect of slightly darkening a surface and diffusing light, rather than creating straight forward illumination.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Like the progress and I like Subway. But I agree with Jason, the grime makes the brick look a bit odd

[Jasoncw 11,941]

It's true that a bump map would need to be larger to actually see it, but by being as close to RL as possible max will better know how light rays should react to a surface. A small bump map can have the effect of slightly darkening a surface and diffusing light, rather than creating straight forward illumination.

The thing is though, when it samples a spot, it's going to get black and white and it's going to merge them into grey. Giving a bump map to represent the mortar at this scale would basically be the same as giving it a solid grey bump map.

Not only that, but the mortar is maybe a cm deep, which is pretty inconsequential, even if it were included. You could just as well represent it by reducing the glossiness a little or something. And aside from that, the reflectivity and glossiness, as well as the brdf settings are already inaccurate (but fine for SimCity), so if total accuracy/realism is the goal, the mortar is still the last place to look.

Now if this was a close up render you would use a bump map, or you would even displace the brick topography, or even model it, but in this situation bricks can be well represented by flat geometry with no bump maps.

[Seraf 1,239]

Easy guys, it was only a proposition. But in this case Jason is right - today I tried to made a brick wall with bump map but all I got was blurry-flat texture. Initially I suggested it because that method worked for me on Farley Post Office and it looks pretty good to me

[zahrul3 472]

Your BATting has improved a ton the last time I checked up.

You should make 2 versions, the 'dirty' R$$ version and a 'cleaner' R$$$ version, meaning the R$$$ version is either new or just renovated.

The texture of the bricks, once zoomed in, will look a lot less flatter than the SC4 3DSMAX render.

[Francis90b 748]

Actually, linking the building's appearence with wealth is a deeply unrealistic and conceptually dangerous way to reason...

It stems mostly from a prejudice that in turn is based on rather simplicistic considerations, and none of them take into consideration a reality that is much more complex...

Wealth is NOT associated with dirt.

Dirt is most related to objective phisics, not to subjective value statements about a building...soot has that nasty quality to affect both low and high wealth buildings walls equally over the time...,

The prejudice that says that high wealth buildings should be cleaner might come from the assumption that the owner of a high wealth building might have more money and more motivation to keep it's facades clean.This is often not true,

Even a building like 240 Central park west (an high wealth apartment building building during all of it's life) got it's facade renovated only once in fifty years...and because the facade itself needed much more than just a cleaning.

Another good example might be the rockfeller center...built in 1933, it's facade was cleaned from the unbelievable amount of soot that deposited on it only fifty years later, in the early 80's...and i guess that the rockfeller center was owned by people who could put some money into it...

on the other hand, even low wealth buildings might be reclad, or painted over during the time, giving them a "clean" look...

  Edited January 29, 2012 by Francis90b  

[spa 970]

Well to me it looks done! I like the storefronts, especially the Tim Hortons, but hey I'm a canuck and up here a love of Timmys is mandatory. The chairs add a lot of depth to the balcony and were well worth the time. You might want to tinker with the bricks as others have suggested, but I think they're alright as is. Looking forward to seeing some variations. If you're going to vary the brick, you should also vary the shops in the storefronts to make each one even more distinct.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

O Okay guys, I hope this is it, some of you have me going in circles, I'm sorry I did not do the replies, so many to do, but I will continue to do them.

Here's a two day old render I want to show off, I do not like renders to go to waste.

  Edited January 29, 2012 by Aaron Graham  

[benno2005 112]

Aaron Graham to me this looks fantastic keep up the good work.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Some of my thoughts about this progress:

1: The building itself is really great

2: Why did you remopve the plants on the roof

3: The darker texture is better now

4 The darker chimney looks better then the old one

5: What happened there

All in all the building looks better now.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Benno2005- Thank you!!

Skyscraper241 - It's a good Idea to make the sign face the avenue or the road facing the front of the building with angle so people can see it.

  Edited January 29, 2012 by Aaron Graham  

[gutterclub 2,729]

For me that's spot on!

[Delecto 941]

Look great Aaron, he's ready for me!

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

I would give a top and bottom and another side to that sign so that it is triangular shaped. Even though people wont see the other side of the sign it will make it more believable

[Renedius 25]

the best building ever

[Francis90b 748]

I think you should add some more dirt and contrast...

I didn't think that the building really needed more of them before your changes, but i think that now it's quite necessary.

Park sign should be made triangular in section, if seen from the above it should remind you of a triangle or a V.

  Edited January 29, 2012 by Francis90b  

[tcx 170]

Final result is great!! I like it.

[Kendiecasttsoi 209]

oh I am satisfied with the new and old look, but hopefully when this one is released to the stex, can keep those plants on the rooftop as skyscraper241 suggested.

[harishna 847]

I like this version much better I never liked the previous bricks too much to be honest.