Belgian BAT-thread

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

I think you should halt your mach to uploading and work on it some more. The proportions still seem off, you have not scaled it vertically (therefore it looks short), the textures could still use some work, and there are more details you can add.

If you plopped it in a city now, it would stick out like a sore thumb (only a lot whiter ).

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

The proportions are just as in real life: 20metres x 20metres x 60 metres. I've read somewhere that SC4 makes buildings look smaller but does that means that I have to make it taller in Gmax (80 metres for example) so that it looks like a 60 metres tall building?

What details do you suggest? I've tried to add detail to the walls (that's where the texture needs work, I think) but that is how they are: plain with the horizontal lines

And now you made my hard work sound like a disease Thank you so much for the positive feedback...

[WC_EEND 9]

As far as I know buildings for SC4 should be made at about 130% of their original size.

[Francis90b 748]

Actually Todd did not mean the footprint or the size of the building, he spoke about proportions, something different.

Let's say, for example, that you're making this:

well, knowing that it is 30,8x30,8x66 is not enough in order to get it right.You need to know the proportions between the parts, e.g that the large pillars between the groups windows are 4 times wider than the smaller ones, that a window height is 3/2 it's lenght and so on....without knowing the relations between the elements of a building everything will look wonky and won't look right.

That is, in short, what proportions are and why they are useful.

Now i advice you to find some pics of the building, and find the relations between it's parts from them.Jasoncw did post about a good way to do that on it's blog.Taking a look there wouldn't be a bad idea too.

Oh, and remember that a bat thread is where you get scolded before uploading things in order to avoid to get scolded much more after you do it .

[T Wrecks 10,209]

To add another detail, judging from the last preview and the photograph of the real tower, I think the contrast between wall and windows is too high. Ok, so photos are a bit treacherous - depending on time of day, weather conditions etc. they can make one and the same building appear rather differently. Still I think that on your model, the blinding bright walls and the pitch-black windows form too strong a contrast.

Desaturating and darkening the wall texture to some degree and adding some reflections to the windows might go a long way in helping your BAT to blend better into the game. I also have the impression that the gradient you added to the wall looks rather choppy - you might try to make it smoother.

Apart from all critique, though, I think it's also worth mentioning that you show rapid and considerable progress. Compared to the first picture you showed, your latest efforts already show an altogether different level of quality, and if you continue at this pace, you'll be making great BATs soon!

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

Ok... I'll see what I can do about the proportions without having to begin from the start

I wasn't very happy with the texture myself but like you said: it depens on the time of day. The picture is taken when the wall was in the shadow... I'm going to "fire up" my photoshop and try to make the texture something like this...

[Red Lightning 7]

very nice

[SimFox 801]

may I ask will the low-rise part of the building be following, or are you just making tower on its own?

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

@ simfox: I was planning on just batting the tower. The low-rise is very large and not so beautiful to look at But you are the second to ask, so maybe I'll have to reconsider?

The plan was to build a library for large cities that doesn't take a lot of space (2x2). With the low-rise the lot would be 3x4 or 3x5 and that would take a lot of precious land in a dense populated city.

[WC_EEND 9]

Yeah, but then again, it adds to the realism of the building and a 3x4 or 3x5 lot is not that big, most skyscrapers I have in my plugins are larger

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Or you can just do both: one version with only the tower, and one with the tower and the low-rise building.

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

OK... I did the walls again (for the 4th time) and I made the building taller with the right proportions (I think)...

I've created a new wall texture (a bit darker with more details) and made new windowframes with less contrast. I went to have a look at the tower yesterday and found out they were made of aluminium, so I added that texture to it...

Left: new version                                                       Right: old version

So... bring it on...

[Brutalizer 5]

wow dude ! very very nice !

i want to start buildings of my own so i can help you with belgian buildings, but i really don't know how to do it. Need an A to Z tutorial lol, does it exist ?

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

@ Brutalizer: Thanks...

try the omnibus... there's a good tutorial for BAT... good luck!

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

I'm still not so sure about the little building in front... should I have left it small? Because it looks out of proportion this way...

[SimFox 801]

it is a good improvement over the ver1. but I strongly believe that it has to be full building. As tower it is a bit pointless

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Originally posted by: Alex_Bervoets

No comments? Come on you guys! quote>

Happens to my BAT Thread all the time. I'd say it's a big improvement. Major infact it looks great! But I think the roof could use a little more detail(but keep those antennas I like them).

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

@ simfox: looking at the floorplan of the building with google maps, it's a huge building...

Red = booktower (lot size 2x2)

Blue = low-rise of the booktower (the university) (lot size about 9x12). And that is way to big to use in the game...

So I'll probably just add the green buildings, they have the same architectural style as the tower. I think this will be the best solution. It will look good and will still have a descent lot size...

And it should look something like this:

I'm afraid I'll have to improvise a bit to make this work (it won't be the real thing offcourse)

[WC_EEND 9]

I second the request for (a slightly edited version of) the whole building.

Something else just popped into my mind: maybe you could also BAT the Sint-Pietersstation?

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I think it would help and make it easier on you to just BAT the tower with the green highlighted part of the building. So far I see it being a very great BAT of yours.

[Francis90b 748]

The tower was designed to be part of something bigger, and it wouldn't make much sense to model only that part of the complex.You might want to model the whole thing in order to give justice to the fine piece of architecture you've picked up for your re-creation !

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

I found out that the dark rooftops (north side of the complex) were build toghether with the tower in 1939. The other buildings (with the lighter rooftops) were added many years later.

So I'll BAT the original part of the complex. It has the same architectural style (see picture below google map) and would still be a descent lot size.

I think this would be a good compromise

Construction will begin soon

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

After a few delays... I've begon work on the lowrise on the street-side...

Here it is, I know it needs some work so suggestions are welcome!

[WC_EEND 9]

Looks way better already, Although now you've added the lowrise, you might want to remove the original entry you've made

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

@ WC_EEND: Of course..., there will also be another L-shaped building behind the first (the one with the glass on the roof --> see google maps image)...

Too bad tough, I liked that entry (if I were the architect, I would have build it )

[Francis90b 748]

Well, in my opinion it does look a pretty good model.But i'm feeling really strange about the lack of parapets or copper bands on the edges of the roof...is the building (the original one) built that way?

Another thing to consider is that you might need to model the mullions of the windows on the lowrise section too, or, if you made them, to make them a bit more noticeable (i.e thicker).Right now you can't see any of them, except maybe for the rightmost part....

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

@ francis: there's a picture a bit higher on this thread... the roof doesn't seem to have an edge, but there is a drain-pipe for the rainwater so that's strange...

I have added mullions to the windows but they aren't showing because I drafted an example pic. I'll check it out in the game and see how it looks... Thanks for the tips!

[Simbourgeois 139]

Oh, this looks very nice so far! Will be a great addition to our European cities

Keep up the great work!

Best regards,

Simbourgeois

Mayor of Belleville

[SimFox 801]

yep, that's the way to go!

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

Thank you guys... here is a higher res pic and a zoom... the mullions can now be seen

I'll start on the L-shaped building soon and see how it looks then