EBLT - European House Add-On (EHA) Thread

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I absolutely love that third one as well! Omg these variations... Variations EVERYWHERE!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Yes, same here. I don't think it's too radical a change at all.

And yes, I guess the roof texture is 'married' to the building, so no luck for me. Well, it would have been a difficult relationship anyway...

[GamerManGT5 35]

It isn' too radical a change at all.

But I love these three versions!

[Gn_leugim 858]

Thank you all for your input and acknowledgements

Well, I have good news! I crack it! at least in this particular model.

As you can see it is all looking good now So, what did I do?

Well, Following the lead of Mntoes' window frame which caused the problem on his bat, I exported a third model, which has the red roof, the first on the picture, modded it, and plop it in a city, next to the others, as you can see in the pic. This way, I only would need to render (the model was on the root plugin folder, so everytime I exported on gmax, it was replaced) then enter game and load the city to check the model.

I first made different types of renders, draft, low, medium and high quality renders and with and without lights. From this nothing, the issue was still there.

Then I started to remove groups of items from the model and render. first rood details, then the balconies railings and then the pottery and voilá! the model was allright. So I reloaded everything but the pottery, render, and that was not all ok. then I took both railings and pottery and it was ok again. You may think, God, is not only one item conflicting, are 2, but, that is actually a good thing, because having 2 items, I can check them for what they have in common and test if that is the cause.

Soon I end up finding out the criminals: Opacity Maps. Both have them. and once removed, the models would show up properly!!

So, I found what was messing up things, but still I was wondering, why? was there a way to solve this issue without turning the opacity maps off? after all I have been using them for ages with no visible issues. So I wonder, is it an issue for the board dealing with non opaque item on game? To test this I rendered again with opacity map on, and used Cogeo'e Model Tweaker to set the 3ds models' opacity maps on, within the sc4model file and tested in game. no good result. Then I also tried to check if having any non opaque item displayed in game against the background would take effect, so I modelled the model again in order to assure that every pottery item would have a solid background, in the model it self. nothing too.

I don't know how graphic boards really work, way out of my league, but, in this particular case, it seem it has issues to deal with the end result of semi-transparent items. But, for what I saw on other threads, this is not always the case, so the issue may be harder to solve. Anyway, I hope this post may give light to anyone who will have this issue one day, in how to make a troubleshooting and find the solution

  Edited October 2, 2012 by Gn_leugim  

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, three great BATs side to side and a "detective novel" on top of that - good work, Sherlock Leugim! This really is more insight into the matter than I have ever read, and I sure hope it will be useful for others.

[Gn_leugim 858]

Thank you. It is indeed more insight about the matter, but I am afraid we are far from figuring out what is wrong, as I guess it would take a pc expert who knows how graphic boards work.

Anyway, I just need to finish up the modding on these and they are ready for release

[mntoes 271]

A step nearer to an answer. Guess I'm going to have to upgrade to "Perfection" again.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Impressive insight about the opacity maps. That seems like that's it! Maybe for certain computers at least. But seems like the answer.

[Gn_leugim 858]

MnToes: Well, thank you

Sgt Pepper: who knows, but it's strange I've been using opacity maps for a long time and never happened before.

So, lately I've been seeing real life buildings to base mine on. these usually are Portuguese, so, in order to avoid droping the project into a Portuguese House Add-on, I took a trip to France on google streets...

after searching for a long time, I found a good building in Nantes (here)

So, hands to work, and yes, I took 2 floors down, to match the scale

I may revisit the textures, namely the roof ones, but so far, not bad ein? the maxis building is there for reference on scale ^^

[GamerManGT5 35]

Omg, five words: These buildings just look chic

With these I can build southern European cities.

  Edited October 4, 2012 by GamerManGT5  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Yes x100.

I like these a lot!

The lightning on that HVAC Unit is interesting. I never seen anything like it before! Or is it actually a skylight? Sorry I can't really tell. It's pretty small.

[Gn_leugim 858]

thank you

well, they are vents, HVAC, or something like it ^^ some details were lost while resizing, but I can tell you the lights come from inside ^^

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Looks great so far! I agree that the roof texture isn't quite there yet, though. Maybe it's just a bit too grainy, I can't really tell what the material is supposed to be. Tar paper? Another detail I would change: The top and the inner side of the parapet wall should be in one colour IMO and not pick up the colour of the outside wall.

[Gn_leugim 858]

Looks great so far! I agree that the roof texture isn't quite there yet, though. Maybe it's just a bit too grainy, I can't really tell what the material is supposed to be. Tar paper? Another detail I would change: The top and the inner side of the parapet wall should be in one colour IMO and not pick up the colour of the outside wall.

that's exactly what I had in mind

[Gn_leugim 858]

I am having an issue with Building foundations. at lower slopes, the building show no foundations, and the buildings just hangs in the air.

I made the foundation, all under Z=0, rendered it as such, created the desc. file, set its size the same as the building, and in the buildings I set the Building Foundation property to match the foundation ID

What I am doing wrong?? any help?

[mattb325 28,890]

What is the min/max slope setting for the lot foundation? That can sometimes cause issues; otherwise, when I am doing the custom foundation stuff, I change both the building and lot foundation to be the custom foundation ID....

[Gn_leugim 858]

you mean set both building and lot foundations to my new foundation ID?

I think I have found the issue. still, at the lower slopes(maybe less than 5%) it seams it don't show up, the building hangs a bit in the air, strange. I had that issue already with the other buildings I made too =\

  Edited October 10, 2012 by Gn_leugim  

[mattb325 28,890]

That's correct.

If I didn't set the building foundation (name value = 0x88fcd877 in the reader) to whatever my custom foundation is in both areas, then during my tests, I got either the Maxis foundation outside the Lot Min/Max thresholds, or less often the building appeared to float (usually if I built a street or road next to my building and changed the slope of the land after the building had been plopped/grown)....

Also, just be aware that a floating building may also indicate your foundation is not absolutely centered in Gmax, but that doesn't seem to be the case from what you have described.

[Gn_leugim 858]

but, how can I set a lot foudation on the building exampler. I am not making any lots, I am using old ones already. Also, let me change that slope to something like 1%, above that, the foundation shows up.

well, I have the issue more or less under control. here is a picture of some city blocks that use these two last building packs

I know, that foundation is a bit bright and I will fix it out

you can see the ones I made and the maxis ones close by, so you can take a comparison

thanks for watching

  Edited October 11, 2012 by Gn_leugim  

[cogeo 960]

Can I get your work so far in my hands?

[art128 4,622]

I almost did not see the Maxis buildings....

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Pfft What Maxis Buildings?

[Gn_leugim 858]

Cogeo. Check your mail

Art and Pepper: if you look well, you can see them, believe me

[Gn_leugim 858]

So, here I am again with a new building:

It took me several days to get there and... still missing the nightlights... oh gosh, the nightlights...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great, keep it up with your Maxis style.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Yes, yes, and yes.

Great improvement on that wall texture. Overall the whole thing looks great. I love those details on the balconies that make it so alive.

[metasmurf 705]

Would slay if we could get the L-shaped apartments as custom lots.

Edit: As a workaround for the maxis blocker mods, maybe it would be possible to open the lots in LE and save them under a different name?

  Edited October 23, 2012 by metasmurf  

[Gn_leugim 858]

Aaron Graham: thank you, I surely will

Sgt Pepper : those details on the balconies were a pain in the ass to mod, texture and place, individually

metasmurf: Saving the lot with a different name don't solve anything, as the file name is kinda pointless to the game it self, it is only useful for moders to guide and orientate. What you would have to do is to save with a different ID. I have on the back stove a LOT project, that aims on replacing the Maxis lots, but still, they will use the maxis families, and not only some buildings AND I can't tell you when it will be, if will be, released. If you want though, you are free to try out on LE or PIM-X to create your own lots.

[mntoes 271]

Sorry to ask a bit late but i'm a bit confused now. The picture you have shown without the rendering problems has no oppacity maps- correct? ( hence it looks good in-game).

Does this mean that you intend to no longer use opacity maps or have you found anything to lessen the effect of this problem? Good detective work Btw.

Regards

Mntoes

[Gn_leugim 858]

no I still use opacity maps, I dont think its them all by themselves that cause the issue, because I have used opacity maps from the beginning of my batting experience and rarely had such issues. it may be also the amount used, as in these particular models I use them alot (or better said, many items with opacity maps)

Jason Leo has also encountered this issue and by removing opacity maps solved it, but in his case there were not many opacity maps thou. it is still very confusing at least =\