Carrot1984's BAT Projects

[carrot1984 9]

I have begun delving into the world of creating custom content for SC4.  Constructive criticism and tips are always appreciated. 

The inspiration for my first BAT was the lack of a modern coal power plant.  Modern coal fired power plants are no longer the pollution spewing monstrosities of yester year.  With the technologies of selective catalytic reduction (reduces Nitrogen Oxide emissions), electro static precipitators (eliminates a vast majority of particulate emissions as well as significantly reducing Mercury emissions) and flue gas desulferization (nearly eliminates Sulfur Oxide emissions), the emissions of modern coal power plants have been drastically reduced.  The only downside to all this is an increase in solid waste production by the plants.  At the same time their power output has been significantly increased, often in the same capacity range as nuclear facilities.  Thus my first BAT Project.  The final specifications will be listed on the STEX when I upload it.

Below is my first BAT which I posted to the forum a few weeks ago for critique.  Following that are the images documenting the changes.

Based on some of the recommendations made I adjusted a few aspects of the BAT.

I implemented height mapping of  a plane to create the coal pile (an excellent suggestion I received from nihonkaranws) and adjusted the textures to improve the quality visual quality of the export (another helpful suggestion T Wrecks).  Other changes were recommended but I found the time requirement to implement them on a nearly complete BAT to be too time consuming.  This is posted on the STEX.  Link: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=24759

[carrot1984 9]

Project #2 Waste Transfer Station

When a suitable site for a Landfill or incinerator can not be found near populated areas an alternative is to ship the waste by truck train or barge to an alternate dumping loaction.  These are more often found in dense urban areas and areas with a large affluent population that has no desire for a landfill or incinerator anywhere near them.  The only option for offsiting Garbage in SC4 is a neighbor deal which still requires placing a landfill in your region.  Pegasus has a spectacular garbage transfer port facility ( https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=17245 ) but if you have a landlocked city this is not really an option.  My goal is to create a realistic looking modern waste transfer facility to fill that gap.  Pitures of progress will be forth coming.

[carrot1984 9]

This is what I have so far.  The larger building is the actual transfer shed where the collection trucks dump their load and it is transfered to long haul trucks.  The second structure is the scale house fore weighing incoming and outbound trucks.

Because I have not found appropriate props for any of the vehicles such as the long haul trailers or trash trucks, those will be the next item to build.

[carrot1984 9]

There have been some questions raised about the "clean" in my clean coal plant.  My goal was to approximate the pollution reductions found on modern coal fired power plants using the Maxis plant specifications as a baseline for a plant with little to no pollution control equipment.  The Maxis plant has an air pollution amount of 200 over a radii of 16.  To calculate a realistic comparative reduction in emissions I focussed on four categories of pollutants:

SO₂- sulfur dioxide, causes acid rain and can complicate respiratory symptoms

NO_x - Various Nitrogen Oxides, the principal culprit in the creation of smog

Particulates - solid particles of ash and incompletely burned coal in the exhaust stream, aka smoke

Mercury - very small concentrations of this highly toxic heavy metal found in most coal

I chose not to include CO₂ because it does not contribute to decreased air quality from a visual or health perspective which is the effect of air pollution in SC4.

My assumptions for the Maxis Coal Power Plant are as follows in terms of pollutant controls:

SO₂ - No controls, high sulfur (2-4% by weight) Midwestern US coal

NO_x- Basic flue gas temperature controls to mitigate NO_x formation

Particulates - Minimal particulate controls in the boiler, no particulate removal system

Mercury - No controls

These assumptions are all based on the Maxis plant being of a 1930's - 1950's design when emissions controls were in their infancy.

To calculate the reduction when adding modern pollution control equipment to my coal power plant I used to following assumptions:

SO₂- 95% removal of SO₂ based on manufacturer stated wet flue gas desulfurization efficiencies

NO_x - 65% reduction from selective catalytic reduction based on actual measured reduction from one of the plants I used as a reference

Particulates - 99.5% particulate removal by mass based on manufacturer stated efficiencies

Mercury - 50% based on Mercury being largely found on the finest ash particles, and the above efficiency of particulate removal

I then weighted each of the four pollutant types relating their relative amounts in the emissions stream as well as their health effects.

SO₂- 40% of pollution value, Second largest pollutant by volume and has significant health and environmental effects

NO_x - 30% of pollution value, a distant third pollutant by volume but has significant health and environmental effects

Particulates - 20% of pollution value, largest pollutant by volume and has some health and environmental effects but only in larger quantities, particulates are removed from the air fairly easily by rain and to a lesser extent by gravity

Mercury - 10% of pollution value, very small volume released but with such high toxicity I give it significant weight

By calculating a weighted average based on the pollution values and on the estimated reductions I got an estimated 82.4% reduction in pollution value over the Maxis plant.  I rounded that to the neat number of 80% which gives a pollution value of 40 for my "Clean" Coal Power Plant. 

As a disclaimer these are all educated estimations and generalizations based on published information. 

[LivingInThePast 364]

Well, let me be the first real commenter on your thread! Your BATs look pretty good for a new member...I've been here five years, only recently started really BATting, and really struggling. Do you have prior experience in 3D? What are your future plans in BATting?

[carrot1984 9]

As for prior experience with anything 3D I have none.  In order to get a grasp on the basics of the BAT I worked my way through Phillippbo's Gmax Tutorial (see link below) as I was doing my power plant.  It also took about 1.5 months of on and off work to get the plant to where you see it.  I am far from an expert, I just plugged away until I got a product that was what I was looking for.  My background in Math and Engineering helped because I am comfortable working in 3D coordinate systems.  I still have a ways to go in improving my texturing and the editing of textures.

( https://www.simtropolis.com/omnibus/index.cfm/Main.SimCity_4.Custom_Content.BAT_Essentials_Page_One )

My future plans for the moment consist of working on my Waste Transfer Station project.  Beyond that I will see what sparks my interest when I finish my current project.

[carrot1984 9]

Update on recent work on the waste transfer station.  I decided to try doing some subsurface work.  I have seen it in other BATs and thought it would fit well for this one.

The long haul trailers loaded with trash seen at the bottom of the ramp.  The ductwork and vessels seen outside the main building are for the odor reduction system designed to reduce the amount of stench for the neighbors.  I have decided to make the scale, scale house, trash trucks, loader and trailers into props for ease of lotting. 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well, you also seem to be a good observer because everything looks realistic and credible. I like what I'm seeing!

[Lugnuts 3]

WOW! Amazing first bats!

[carrot1984 9]

1.  I have decided that for ease of lotting and looks of the final lot I will have to make some Custom Props that will be released with the final product.

2.  I am considering leaving the duct work and dust collector relatively unweathered to make it look like the air handling system was a recent upgrade to an older structure.  Thoughts?

3.  Below is a preview of the mostly textured model.  I have still not gotten the texture effects I wanted for the truck scale (Which will most likely be release as its own Prop for other to use at will) but will hopefully have that nailed down in the coming week.

I took T Wrecks advice and began modifying my basic textures to weather them and give basic effects.    Feed back as to whether the weathering enhances the model, detracts or needs to be adjusted to work well.  I am considering switching the wall color to a redish hue to provide better contrast with the green Long Haul Trash Trailers (Bottom of the ramp and more to be parked around the lot when the lot is completed).

*EDIT: Update Screen Shot*

[T Wrecks 10,209]

It's looking good so far! The weathering is hard to judge in a viewport shot; a test render plopped (or photoshopped) into game is always better suited for this kind of evaluations.

The green walls look a tad oversaturated, but the other colours appear to be fine. Did you add a slight gradient to the walls? It certainly looks like it, unless I'm hallucinating.

The roof could also benefit enormously from a gradient. Slanted roofs look much more threedimensional when they get darker towards the bottom, even if the effect is only subtle. Gascooker has demonstrated this effect very nicely in his tutorial on fake ray-tracing in Photoshop.

Making the different parts as props is always a good choice if every part stands on the lot in an isolated position and not directly attached to an adjacent structure - and some more stuff to play around with in the Lot Editor cannot hurt, either.

Great work so far, I'll keep following this thread.

[carrot1984 9]

As you suggested I have started applying the gradients to the walls and now the roof, so no you are not halucinating. 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: carrot1984

so no you are not halucinating. 

quote>

That's good to know.  However, it also means that you managed to find a good balance for the wall gradients - subtle enough to make them not too obvious, yet strong enough to influence the overall look.

Is the preview shot in high quality? I'm asking because of the roof. It may look better with a slightly lower contrast and some kind of framing around the skylights. I also think you could bump up the gradient on the roof a bit.

[carrot1984 9]

This is the semi-finished product of the waste transfer station.  It is transit enabled to allow the garbage trucks to navigate around inside the lot.  Due to the transit enabling I will have to find a different way to do my scale near the entrance because as it is right now the trucks roll through it and not over it.

I am working on adjusting the stats to allow for the disposal of 1000 tons per month of garbage.  The problem I am facing is that the plug-in manager is only letting me create it as a waste to energy power plant.  The buget for the building is moveable but has no effect on the garbage capacity and I cannot figure out how to make a fixed buget item for this building.  This leads to the following questions:

Can anyone point me in the right direction to modify the buget property such that it effects the garbage capacity instead of the power capacity, or create a new property for it altogether (if that is even possible)? 

If the above is not possible, can anyone tell me how I would be able to set a fixed budget amount?  Right now I get a buget item stuck on zero.

Any assistance would be appriciated.

[Simbourgeois 139]

This is just awesome!!! Great idea and you've done a wonderful job in creating this very useful building!

Sorry, can't help with your problem - I'm not that good with plug-in manager...

Keep up the great work!

Best regards,

Simbourgeois

Mayor of Belleville