nybt-forum-threads Jumpthefence's BAT Forge

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Haha, I love all those little details you put into your models! You know, when I have finished a part of the town I'm building, I sometimes like to switch to zoom 5, scroll around and look at everything from up close. If you have used good stuff and done a good job, everything looks so realistic and full of life and details. Your BATs will go a long way in making sure players have what they need in order to create this impression of a living city.

One general aspect I'd like to point out: It's best to make sure that no part of the BAT sticks out too far - I'm looking at the side entrance of the corner building posted before when writing this. The ground plate you modeled there will make the building too big in the LE to be placed at a corner of a 1x3 lot (or 2x3 or whatever the lot size is). Now it's quite easy to modify the descriptor and 'cheat' the LE, but anything that extends over the Maxis sidewalk might interfere with sidewalk mods such as parallel parking, tree mods, etc.

That's pretty much all I have to point out, the rest is looking at your creations, watching how they come together, and thoroughly enjoying them - a rather pleasant thing to do.

[madhatter106 3,903]

Just gotta drop in and say these BATs are really, really stunning. The texturing and detailing are top notch. I had thought to sit down and do something similar to this at some point ages ago, but seeing these, it looks like I don't need to - you've already done what I had in my mind's eye!

Keep up the great work, it's always great to see BATs of the caliber and quality of these...

[madhatter106 3,903]

Just gotta drop in and say these BATs are really, really stunning. The texturing and detailing are top notch. I had thought to sit down and do something similar to this at some point ages ago, but seeing these, it looks like I don't need to - you've already done what I had in my mind's eye!

Keep up the great work, it's always great to see BATs of the caliber and quality of these...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Perfact textures. If I keep looking here I will learn somthing. Texturing is always my weakness.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Perfact textures. If I keep looking here I will learn somthing. Texturing is always my weakness.

[lucky7 73]

Oh, great! You are giving us the perfect decay feeling, beautiful work so far.

lucky7

[lucky7 73]

Oh, great! You are giving us the perfect decay feeling, beautiful work so far.

lucky7

[WillG_75 19]

Amazing work! The textures you use really complete already great models.

[WillG_75 19]

Amazing work! The textures you use really complete already great models.

[Jumpthefence 74]

I think I left those BATs to stew for a while. Nonetheless, I'm back.

For those of you who care about my cross country antics, I finished 10th out of 110 people at a local race. And it was the day before Halloween. And I got to wear a costume. Only in my crazy little town do people get to do that.

But you're not here for that news! You're here for replies!

T Wrecks: I have to say, little details are my favorite part when BATing. They may not always be easy or convenient, but looking back, I'm always happy with where I added them. As for the flat planes? If I understood you correctly... I add those only during the building process, just to help me judge how subterranean elements will look. I used a similar plane on 68 Bayard Street (as you'll soon see), but by the time I export, it'll be gone.

madhatter106: Well, I'm glad you like them! To be honest, I always look at the buildings you've made before I build the annexes on some townhouses. They're often textbook examples of high-quality small CS$ businesses.

Aaron Graham: It's all a matter of opinion. A little practice and experimentation is all it takes.

lucky7: Hmm... "perfect" and "decay" together in a sentence. Not something you see every day...

WillG_75: Well, I'm glad to hear you like the textures!

And you also want to see some pictures!

I think 61 Bayard Street is done at this point. I may try some things with the cars or the windows (curtains? more variations with blinds?) , but only small things.

As for the bulk of my work over the past few weeks, the result is 68 Bayard Street:

I think this is the tallest pair of townhouses I've ever made, so that'll be interesting.

Speaking of interesting, how 'bout that right fire escape? It actually looks really inefficient and confusing. I wouldn't want to live on the top floor...

Anyways, I still have my work cut out for me. More updates in the coming days.

Here's the schedule I'm going to try and stick with (naturally, it's centered around holidays):

-NYBT Bowery Shops uploaded by Thanksgiving

-NYBT Chinatown Shops 2 uploaded by Christmas

-I also have plans for something else before New Years, but I'll see how everything pans out.

This should be pretty manageable. We got our first snow last night, so it's going to be a long winter with a lot of boring snow days. Plenty of time to BAT!

This update is already long enough, so I'll let everyone get back to their lives.

Have a good week!

[Sgt Pepper 864]

We've got BATs! 61 Bayard looks beautiful....eh...I'm not sure what to say, good job!

I'm a little curious about the wall texture on the front of the redish-brown building. Is that supposed to be like concrete,stucco, or bricks?

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Originally posted by: Sgt Pepper

I'm a little curious about the wall texture on the front of the redish-brown building. Is that supposed to be like concrete,stucco, or bricks?quote>

Same thing with me, I'm a little curious about the front wall textures. Your Bating is truly the best.

[Jumpthefence 74]

Well, after two tryptophan-induced comas, I have various good and bad news.

GOOD: I made a lot of progress before Wednesday last week, finishing on 68 Bayard with roof junk, back details, and beginning with texturing.

GOOD: I was actually able to upload the Bowery Shops by my artificial deadline. And they got surprising good ratings (I was actually more skeptical than happy when it stayed at 5.00 full stars for a full day).

BAD: I discovered on Wednesday that the file for 68 Bayard was corrupted, most likely the last time I saved (that's often where gmax files get corrupted). I checked the autobak files, which would have been good in most situations, but since I wasn't happy with some of the Bowery Shop exports, I re-exported earlier that week, and overwrote the autobak files. I went to bed at almost midnight on Tuesday thinking the files were gone forever, after trying everything I could.

GOOD: I got back from a Thanksgiving trip Friday and found a solution within a half-hour (thank you, automatic external backup!).

BAD: The backup file was at least a week old, so a lot of progress was lost. Was it worth it after about five hours of searching? Maybe not. It was worth trying.

GOOD: After getting angry about 68 Bayard, I temporarily gave up on it to work on 80 Bayard. I made some major headway in just a few hours. 68 Bayard will be finished soon, but at the moment it's a few weeks behind schedule.

GOOD: There was a lot of turkey at Thanksgiving.

BETTER: There was a lot of stuffing.

BEST: There was a lot of mashed potatoes. Mmm...

BAD: If you're going to work off the meal by going for a run, consult with a coach before deciding to go 8.1 miles. And if you plan to stop a friend's house 5 miles down the trail, don't forget his house number at the 4 mile mark.

Replies:

Sgt Pepper: Yep, one thing we're not lacking in is BATs! As for the wall texture, that's a good question. It's a brick texture, but it's so flat you can barely tell. Google Street View looks like a flat color, but I eventually found a picture to prove that it is, in fact, brick.

Aaron Graham: False, my BATing is [currently] not the best. But I'm working towards that general goal.

Pictures:

80 Bayard Street

It's the first left-facing corner building I've made since the first Chinatown pack from 2009, so I need more of those. As for completion, it's going at a steady pace. The facade is a colorful, jumbled mess as always, but that'll look pretty nice when it's done. The building to the right is a souvenir store, so I have my work cut out for me making sunglass racks, etc.

68 Bayard Street

Obviously, there's no positive progress on this one, but at least I know what to do exactly. Considering I've already done it. And I also have a couple textures finished, so progress on this one should go more quickly than other townhouses the first time around.

I have plenty to work on, but I'm pretty tired right now. I'll see how busy this week will be, and then I'll work my plans out. Hopefully my hectic holiday season will be anything but. So, bye for now.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looking good there can't wait to see the textures to the top picture, because it's so different. I copy and paste my GMAX files over and over when I save it. Like thte Timpson PL row I have over 10 GMAX file so I can go back before I even had the fire ecapes and roof junk and ect.

[Jumpthefence 74]

"Hopefully my hectic holiday season will be anything but." Nevermind, it was exactly that. Very hectic.

I was able to squeeze in BATing yesterday and today between a high school band concert, and a friend's party this afternoon. And at the same time, I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. Luckily, I'm getting to the point of the learning curve where I may not be learning as many new skills, but I can do stuff a heck of a lot faster. Although watching TV and BATing at the same time is a new skill, eh?

Reply:

Aaron Graham: Yeah, 80 Bayard Street is almost a small tenement if you ask me. A little bit different from what I normally do, it'll be odd doing a roof texture that's not relatively square. And you can be sure that I back up all my files often after the incident with 68 Bayard. Don't need a repeat of that.

Picture:

So obviously, this is the progress on 80 Bayard Street. The roof is kind of a jumbled mess, but that should look better after texturing. The cornices were a little odd, but they came out pretty well. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I really like that clothesline and the antennae on the roof. Geometry is 99% done as far as I can see. I still have to stock the shelves of the corner building, but that's it. I'll start on texturing either late tonight or tomorrow.

It's starting to look unlikely that I'll be done with Chinatown Part 2 by Christmas. I'll still try, I'm a persistent person, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. If the deadline has to be pushed back to January or something, so be it.

Other than that, there isn't much I have to say.

It snowed late last night here in Massachusetts, and it's still cold. Everyone keep warm. See y'all later.

[PBGV103 729]

It's been snowing for the past 2 weeks here in Blacksburg, VA. Now my blue car is white with raod salt

Well isn't that a colorful building! hahaha I wouldn't worry so much about deadlines. The next two buildings I'm making will probably take until summer

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Ha,ha Paul yes it's really colorful, how do you manage all those colors when it's time to texture you work? Love the roof junk and the details Jumpthefence. Keep it up.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Well don't worry about deadlines dude, take yo time.

I'm loving the detail shoved into that model. Very, very nice. The clotheslines and the antenas are a nice touch as well. I can't wait to see the textures. Is it going to be another 1x2 right? It looks 1x3..but that's nothing to worry about. I'm also thinking about the parapet walls compared to the roof on those two...Shouldn't the walls raise a tad taller?

[Jumpthefence 74]

So today I'm just going to do a quickie post to fill the gap between the 6:00 news and USA network at 9:00.

Replies:

Paul: The snow's been creeping in over the last few days, and there are a bunch of puddles that froze over on my way home from school (I should be more careful about that). As for quality control, I believe deadlines create the urgency that gets things done, so long as quality doesn't suffer. That's my basic ideology, though I don't strictly follow it. Also, good luck with that car of yours. Salt is probably bad for it. Just a guess.

Aaron: The colors aren't usually too much of a bother, I don't mess with the default gmax colors, and I don't know why. Glad to hear you like everything.

Brandon: Meh, overshooting a deadline here doesn't have major consequences (and I don't regret anything considering I lost a few weeks of work). I'm kind of guessing with the parapet walls based on the shadows from Google Maps and Bing Maps, they might be lower or higher. My train of thought is "would a penny-pinching building owner worry much about a parapet's height for safety reasons?" To some extent, but it's still a guess. Also, it'll be a 1x2 with a good bit of overhang into the street.

Picture Time!

I managed to patch up my differences with 68 Bayard Street. I reclaimed all the progress surprisingly painlessly on Tuesday and Wednesday night (two nights-not bad!). I don't like to flip-flop, but I'm going to stick with this one hopefully until it's finished.

There are obviously a few small geometry changes/inaccuracies that were not intended, but aren't going to be a huge problem. The original picture is only 9 posts up, take a look. There's not much to say, it was basically reclaiming lost work this week. Fun.

I'll do a little bit more geometry this weekend, and hopefully I'll get to texturing. Until then, everyone have their snow shovels at the ready. Well, except for Sgt Pepper.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: Jumpthefence

I managed to patch up my differences with 68 Bayard Street. I reclaimed all the progress surprisingly painlessly on Tuesday and Wednesday night (two nights-not bad!). quote>

I know what you mean - it happens to me, too, whenever I lose some kind of progress (be it in a city I'm building or on a lot I'm making). At first I'm so annoyed that I don't feel any motivation to touch the project again (  ) , but when I finally get around to doing it (  ) , I find that reclaiming everything that was lost is often surprisingly quick and painless, and the result is often better as the initial version, too (  ) . Guess that's because it's easier to go a way you already know because you've gone it before.

 

Anyway, I'm glad to see that building come together, and I cannot say that the precise height of the parapet walls is something that bothers me too much.

[Jumpthefence 74]

I hope everyone's enjoying their holiday; I'm in Pennsylvania right now, posting using some pictures I put on a thumb drive hastily on December 24th, aka "My Christmas this year".

It's been pretty laid back, I got to visit some family in New York (although, not New York City), and I'll be visiting some more family later this week in Virginia. Tell Paul (PBGV103) to steer clear of Fairfax County for the rest of the week.

I'll be back to regular work and posting shortly before New Years.

Reply:

T Wrecks: First off, I'm glad to see you won a Trixie for your behind-the-scenes support; I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for you and Todd back in Februrary. Second, that's a good way of putting reclaiming progress in perspective; "annoying" is a good word for it. And I'm glad you like the building.

Picture:

There it is, the back of 68 Bayard Street. I'm sorry I'm still on the psychadelic coloring stage; texturing can't come soon enough, but I just have to do roof junk. There's not really much for you to comment on, but either way I want to include a picture.

Merry Christmas everyone.

On a partially related note, I see I've won a Trixie...? It's good to see NYBT is getting recognized, I think we've really been striving for success this last year. And I wouldn't have been able to contribute as much as I have if it weren't for...

-Todd (SimHoTToDDy) for all the help he provided, especially last Februrary, as well as a long list of others: (Jasoncw, T Wrecks, Paul, Brandon, Aaron, et cetera et cetera). I also have you to thank for keeping me interested and productive when it comes to BATing. And also for keeping me focused.

-Alternative rock, for keeping me moderately unfocused through it all. Ezra Koenig for President!

< It's a Major Award. I won it!

Damn, hell, you say won it?

Yeah, mind power, Swede; mind power.

Have a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season and New Year's everyone!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Frahhh-geeee-laaay... Must be Italian.

I'm upset I missed so much progress in this thread. How could I have missed that beautiful, extra long 80 Bayard Street? I love it, can't wait for textures.

I also love the Charlie Brown micro tree being weighed down by a single ornament

I'm happy I could help you out with the advice that I give, if there is one thing I really enjoy on this forum it is giving BAT advice (I guess that's why I got the MOTM) I'm happy to see you guys finally get a Trixie. A big team like yours has gotten a lot done in a short amount of time, the energy and enthusiasm you guys started with reminded me of the good old days when NDEX and the BSC were still cranking stuff out like machines! You guys deserve it!

[Sgt Pepper 864]

^^ I've been wonderin' where you've been in this thread.

Great BAT so far. I agree with Todd, love the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. Psychedelic colors are pretty and make me smile...

Well done with all the BATs you've gotten on the STEX. I'm still hoping for the textures on 68 and 80 Bayard.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Merry Christmas, congratulations, no problem, and keep up the good work.

[Jumpthefence 74]

Bon Année mes amis!

Hopefully, everyone had a good New Year's; I spent the majority of the day watching the Twilight Zone and BATing (which is exactly what I wanted to do) so it's all good. Oh, I also took a nap.

Replies:

Todd: Ah, you like? 80 Bayard Street will look good when I'm though with it. And the tree, that's just one of the things I do to amuse myself while BATing. If I were to export in HD, a lot of people would be confused why "Drew Is Awesome!" is written into the graffiti over and over.

Brandon: No more psychedelic colors for you! Instead, you get these depressing textures of grime and filth! ...which probably make Todd, Glenni and Sam Johnson smile...

Jason: Well, your post was tl;dr () and I didn't get through it all, but thanks!

68 Bayard Street:

I'm still thinking about what to do in terms of graffiti, but everything's essentially done. I still have to remove that temporary pink test plane front the storefront area, but that's easy. Any ideas are welcome.

All I have to do now are textures for 80 Bayard Street as well as I few small changes with 68 and 61. After that I have no sure clue what I'll do. Here are my ideas:

-Finish the walkups-under-construction that I started a few months back

-Try some Industrial Revolution buildings; I've thought about the ones from Gustave Dore's "Over London" but that idea's just floating around.

-Make some brownstones, though that'll be a change of pace if I have to make $$ buildings, and they may be awkward to do as a $ building.

-Find another neighborhood to pick townhouses out of, even though I've just about exhausted that resource. The Lower East Side is about the only place where tenements were built on a grand scale and haven't been demolished (as far as I've seen).

Here's to another year of productive BATing! Cheers!

[PBGV103 729]

Looks great! Just remember that not every single building has graffiti, in fact, I'd guess the majority don't. So if you can't seem to figure out what the graffiti should look like, it wouldn't hurt the model to just leave it off.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looking great. Keep it up.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Very true indeed, for realism purposes.

I was thinking of doing some banksy graffiti props and making some alleyway lots..if you aren't aware of Banksy look him up, he's genius

[PBGV103 729]

So what are you doing about the stairways to the basement? As they are now the part below ground that you shouldn't see will also be rendered.

[Jumpthefence 74]

I can't think of anything witty/exciting to open this post with. I cleaned my desk and there's 17 inches of snow outside my window.

Replies:

Paul: I'm shooting for something looking somewhat neglected, but I can't figure out how excessive graffiti is in cities. Rural Massachusetts isn't the best baseline to go by, but where there is graffiti, there's a lot of it. So maybe I'll try what you suggested and omit graffiti from 68 Bayard. Also, everything below the ground plane will be fine once I reset the LODs and modify them; it shouldn't be a problem.

Aaron: Got it! 

gutterclub: I have conflicted feelings about graffiti artists. It doesn't seem like the safest or most appreciated form of art, but there's got to be some reason behind it I simply don't get. I can't say I've heard of Banksy, but he makes some of the better graffiti I've seen.

80 Bayard Street:

I think this is basically done; at least, I can't think of anything it needs.

I might play with the air conditioners, windows or various textures, but that'll be if I have the time and nothing better to do.

Speaking of having time, I won't for the next two weeks or so. Mid-year exams are coming up, from January 25th-28th. I don't know what to expect (first exams of freshmen year) so I've been studying like crazy the last few days, and won't let up until the end of the month. So don't expect any BAT-related progress.

Fingers crossed, good luck to everyone else who has exams coming up.