im new at this

[PykesPeak7 0]

does anyone have any tips of how to begin building? the tutorials that come with the bat are confusing.

by the way i am using gmax and the download of BAT from simcity.com

[thingfishs 416]

I would recommend this tutorial to begin with: sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php

and then the oft recommended (and excellent but potentially a bit intimidating right off the bat... groan) BAT essentials : www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/index.cfm/Main.SimCity_4.Custom_Content.BAT_Essentials_Page_One

best of luck with

 

[Timmystwin 201]

You are indeed new, welcome. Once you know how to make walls by extruding, basic buildings, and later, skyscrapers can be built quite easily. Complex things are harder but the tutorials are a lot easier to understand with basic knowledge, and i fully reccomend the ones thingfish linked.

Here is the very simple guide to it, doesnt really touch on building though, only does plug in manager

http://simcity.ea.com/coolstuff/bat/bat_tips.php

\/ here is a link for night lighting buildings if you really want to do this, it looks technical and if you want help pm me.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=108428&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=4#1595244

If you dont know how to make and extrude stuff, PM me, but it is probably in thingfish's tutorial links.

[BoxCarRacer 1]

Also get photoshop or GIMP [or any other free image editor like GIMP] if you aren't in the position to get photoshop. A big part of BATting is making textures, which will require a lot of image editing.

[Timmystwin 201]

True, i suggest paint.net. Its free but you need the microsoft .net framework, also free. LINK

Framework link( on link above anyway) HERE

Links should work

[Slashback 136]

The Omnibus contains a very easy basic tutorial, about how to BAT a house. www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/

[PykesPeak7 0]

another couple of questions.

1. where do i find paint/textures to pur on walls for my buildings?

2. how do i know exactly how big my buildind is?(how big the lot needs to be etc.)

[Francis90b 748]

A sc4 tile is 16x16 mtrs wide.

When doing a BAT the size is not important (the building doesn't necessarily need to cover the whole lot) unless you've decided that your model needs to cover a given number of tiles (e.g if you decide that your BAT shouldn't cover more than 2x3 tiles you have to keep it within a 32x48 mtrs size) or when you're planning to do it wall-to-wall on two or more sides.

"Textures" are images that you put on models in order to give the illusion of a material.So, you might do a box and then apply an image representing bricks on it to give the illusion of a brick surface.

You can put those images everywhere, but i suggest you to group all the images you're going to use as "textures" in a specific folder.

A good choice for this is the "textures" folder in .../gmax/gamepacks/BAT/Textures but, again, you can place anywhere you want, provided you remember where they are .

How's going with BATing tutorials?

Is the situation any better?

[Timmystwin 201]

The big square you see upon opening a new screen is 1 tile wide.

[thingfishs 416]

1: cgtextures.com

2: Single tiles are 16m x 16m. In gmax you could go into TOP view and make a new box the size of your building and note the dimensions (before erasing the box). There's probably a better way but that's what I would do. Also you could just export it as is, make it a building (or prop) in the PIM, and make a grass LOT in the LE to test the size on. If your grass lot isn't big enough your prop/building won't show up in the list. In this case just make the lot bigger until it does show up.

Also scale is all over the place in SC4. The general rule is that small things get scaled up and large things scaled down. Some people also say for general sized things to increase the scale by 33%. This can be done at anytime in a gmax project.

Hope some of that helps.

[Francis90b 748]

CG textures is ok, but i saw it is very often regarded as the solution of all the ills.That's not true.Any inmage you can download on CG textures does need some modifications in order to fit with your building and SC4 colour palette.

I suggest you to get some programs like Paint.net, Gimp (both are free) and Photoshop.

[thingfishs 416]

Fully agreed, I just figure this person is new and that it's best not to throw too much at them until we can gauge their skill/interest level. But certainly you'll be lucky to get a texture from there (or anywhere else) that will work well without any modification.