Belailyos BAT thread

[Belailyo 2]

A lot of people told me I should open up a thread to give me tips and advice 'cause I'm a

beginner. Now I'm following that advice and here I am.

Here's a question: should I remodel the underground train station?

[Hatchet999 0]

Hi Belailyo,

Great idea opening a thread because you can get helpful advice to make your BAT perfect before uploading to the STEX.

Do you have pictures of your work so far so we can see what (if anything) needs improving?

I've just popped over to the STEX and seen your uploads, are you BATTING or just using the lot editor, or both?

[SimFox 804]

I think you should. But when you do give a go at recreating one you see in the real world. And while at it not simply copy piece by piece but try to understand the logic behind the construction. This will enable you to make fantasies that are believable later on.

Also it is so small that it could barely be seen. You may, again as a learning process to render it bigger. Simply in order to see in the render result of you work. You don't need to model it bigger though, just render in HD...

[Belailyo 2]

I BATted these two things so far, the subway station (really bad) and the train station.

And yes, I use both BAT and LotEditor

[Hatchet999 0]

I like the idea of different subway stations, but there are so many already on the STEX you will need to do something really special for people to want to download it.

If this is something you want to do, research it thoroughly first, look at Real Life examples and see how they are constructed. then you can start batting them.

I think for a subway station to need to decide if you want modern, in which case lots of glass roofs and shiny metal is all the rage. Or old fashioned, lots of brick and stone or art deco like the famous London Underground stations.

Just come up with some rough designs and loads of folk will give you suggestions as to how to improve them into a finished lot.

The main thing is not to rush to upload stuff that isn't quite ready as you'll get bad comments and that may stop you wanting to BAT and that would be a shame as you seem to be starting out well.

[Belailyo 2]

Thanks for the tip.

How About BATting the Berlin Potsdamer Platz Station?

I have a question: How do you Bat Windows or Transparent things?
Or should I just Leave spaces where the windows should be?

[harishna 847]

First I think you should find a better picture is very difficult to see the station in question, but from searching on the internet I see it has a lot of glass and that is what gives character to the station so my suggestion is to definitely Bat the windows as transparent glass by adding 60-70% opacity to the texture, here are some links that deal on how to make windows:

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=68271&STARTPAGE=17#884583

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=106356&enterthread=y

www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/index.cfm/Main.SimCity_4.Custom_Content.Nightlighting_Windows_in_Gmax

Are you using GMAX or 3ds Max?

I'm not expert but I hope that helps.

This links to a better picture of the station .

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Train_station_Berlin_Potsdamer_Platz.jpg

[Belailyo 2]

Hi, I didn't post anything so long, it's because my Computer broke and I couldn't get it fixed here in Germany and bla bla bla...

Nevertheless, I managed to build the Potzdamer Platz building, with the same scale as the escalator.


How is it? and what should I do Better?


 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, it looks quite fine as a model on its own (I presume there are no final textures yet, so I won't comment on texturing), but if you compare it to the picture linked by harishna, you should notice several rather obvious differences:

- The glass on the original station consists of many more, smaller glass panes, both around the walls and in the roof. On the back wall, I count 10 columns and 10 rows of glass panes on the original. On your model, it's 4 columns by 4 rows, if I'm not mistaken. The roof seems to be 10x9 on the original, 5x4 on your model.

- The glass panes on the original are tilted backwards, yours are simply straight.

- The name of the station is written in capital letters on the original building, on your model only the first letters are capitalised.

- The elevator house has thicker corner columns and an angled roof on the original

So if you really want to recreate that station, I'd recommend researching some dimensions (how long, how wide and how tall will the real-life building be?) and getting the overall proportions and numbers right.

[gecko001 2]

belailyo - here is a copy of a comment i made on your underground rail station:

"I found out why I was getting no usage (same with samness7): the transit switch entry cost was 20. It should be zero. I used sc4tool to set to zero. My sims were happy to use it after the change. :-)"

There is a thread somewhere (maybe by "z", I can't remember) where he tested the effects of changing the transit switch entry cost. I remember the upshot being that they should leave all stations' switch costs at zero. Anyway, I am really glad to have a second underground rail station to use: thank you for batting/lotting it! You might want to re-check the transit switch points as well. There is an "outside to inside" "car to pedestrian" switch: does not that mean that this lot is being used as a parking garage, in essence? Which is fine, but if so, would it not be best to let users (like me) know that it is functioning as such? Please, someone correct me if I'm mistaken. I'm also very new to this, and want to understand and learn...

[gecko001 2]

Originally posted by: gecko001

(--snip--) You might want to re-check the transit switch points as well. There is an "outside to inside" "car to pedestrian" switch: does not that mean that this lot is being used as a parking garage, in essence? Which is fine, but if so, would it not be best to let users (like me) know that it is functioning as such? quote>

I continued researching this point. According to cogeo in a thread on sc4devotion, this invisible car parking is a "park and ride" function found in the in-game railroad station. (Sims drive to the station, park, then ride the train.) I guess what had me perplexed was that there is no parking area evident on this lot. Again, this is fine, it just had me perplexed. 

Learning as I go.... gecko001