IDS's (mostly) Minnesota BATs

[gutterclub 2,729]

Would be cool if you put that on the STEX, i'd sure like to have a play around with it

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Now you would ask yourself: "Why is it unfinished?"

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

^Accept the offer. Seriously, just do it.^

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

?

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

I would love to put my hands on it

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

?

 

The BAT.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

@Borgmästarjojje: What about it

 

Aaron: Do it then -.-

[IDS2 3,346]

Jake: That looks superb! I'd love to take a crack at it. However, I might suggest that you upload it to the STEX so that everyone can play with it - I'm pretty slow at working on things, so it's likely that someone else will be able to finish it before I do

 

Thanks again everyone! I'm glad you all liked the theaters so much

 

Well, I kept my promise that my next post would be about the houses. 3 months may have passed in the meantime, but I finally got around to creating the remaining variations:

I deliberately used clashing color schemes for a few of these because the 70s weren't too kind to a lot of these postwar homes in South Minneapolis. However, if any of them are too ugly for the game, let me know. I'm personally not convinced that all of them look right, so again, let me know if something looks downright stupid. 

 

Oh, by the way:

This is Booth Manor, a RL highrise near Loring Park in Minneapolis. I think it's mostly there, but I could use some input. 

 

Now back to my material/energy balance homework...

[Jack_wilds 550]

the houses are good to go... as for whatever reason the 70s was very stupid about color schemes -why I have no clue; perhaps they had to be sic-high to 'get it'... also do you have any in game shots of these houses? as in getting a notion how they will fit in with jbsimios, mattb325, CPs houses, mntoes houses, plus others of teh same type size...

 

like the tower... it all looks promising... trusting it makes it to the STeX in time for the trixies... I hope more material does show up for the 2014 trixies at this point its rather weak showing so far...

 

anyway, well done... also to add, the theater pack very well done enjoy using 'em -if I haven't already said anything about them... they make a sim city feel like a home town...

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Really looking forward to the Trixies! In my opinion, it's better than the Nobel price and the Oscars together.

 

Anyway, on topic of these homes, I don't mind the color schemes as such. What annoys me most are the roof textures. They're too cluttered. 

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful work I love the houses and there variations. The highrise builiding good great too, keep up the good work!!!

[MushyMushy 3,617]

I like those houses and the highrise a lot!

 

The roofs on the houses are pretty well-done, too. There aren't enough CC house packs out there that have worn roofs like yours do (most people's are all nice and perfect-ish like all the too-perfect-ish stuff in the suburbs...). It really gives them some character!

I'll be watching this thread for sure.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wow, such a mass of cute little houses! They're lovely, all of them.

 

Like Borgmästarjojje, I think that the colour variations within textures (most prominently on the roof textures) are a tad too strong. In case of the 4th building from the left (the flat brownish one with the bushes in front), the same effect is also visible on the wall texture. Some houses also have a bit what I call "black hole" windows - a texture to mimic curtains/drapers or whatever here and there might help. Of course, this is all whining on a very high level, and I'd take them as they are. However, knowing what you are capable of with the BAT, I still thought I'd mention it.

 

As for Booth Manor, I didn't find many reference photos, but everything looks spot on to me! As far as I am concerned, that one is perfect and ready to go. What an ugly building! It should be great for SimCity, though.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Loved Booth Manor! Great job!

[SimCoug 5,972]

I'm glad to see the houses coming along!  I agree with Borgmästarjojje and T Wrecks about the roof texture - it seems too strong and almost looks like the US military 'digital' camouflage.  I would take a look at the maxis R$$ chicago and NY houses for something to shoot for.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Hihi, ugh, ^^. Good one

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Booth Manor looks good except that in real life the panels are not chamfered.

[IDS2 3,346]

Hey everyone!

 

So I'm on winter break and I finally took the time to rework those houses. I tried to reduce the contrast of the roof textures as well as the brick textures on house 4. Additionally, I tried to make the windows look a little more interesting. Rather than make a huge preview of all 32 houses, I split them into groups of 4 so that, should you see anything you hate, you can tell me which group(s) I should take another look at. 

 

Group 1:

 

Group 2:

 

Group 3:

 

Group 4:

 

Group 5:

 

Group 6:

 

Group 7:

 

Group 8:

 

Of course, if there's something wrong with all of them, I'm cool with you saying so

Nightlighting them should be pretty easy. Houses don't really have much going on after dark. 

 

As for Booth Manor: Jason, I really don't remember why I chamfered all of those panels.   Unfortunately, I also don't know of any easy way to select all of the panels to undo the chamfering, seeing as there are several thousand of them. Regardless, I took a crack at the night scene:

 

Finally, I tried to make a night scene for one of those buildings from my campus I showed last year. Unfortunately, the building looks even more lifeless at night than it does during the daytime, and I'm having trouble thinking of ways I could improve that. The building has these atrium things that contain the stairwells to get to the second floor, but the location of the stairs makes them invisible to the camera. I'd shift them over, but the way they're designed makes it hard to fit them anywhere else. Meh, anyway:

 

I also have a small library and fire station that are almost finished, but I'll try to focus on one thing at a time. 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

You call that lifeless?!?! Those are wonderful night lights if I've ever seen some! Not every building can be packed with intricate details, and making these buildings look good nonetheless is a work of art - an art you have mastered, I might add. It looks to me like a splendid depiction of such a generic building at night! If it pains you so much that the inside is rather empty, maybe add a few of those typical office plants?

 

As for the houses, they have improved a lot. I'd say that the textures are spot on this time. Groups 5 and 6 still seem to suffer a bit from the "black hole window" thing. The windows of group 8 look much better in this respect. Group 2 takes some getting used to - I suppose those things that block the actual windows from view are some kind of sun blinds?

 

Finally, Booth Manor is ready to go to the STEX as far as I am concerned. I don't know if undoing all those chamfers is worth the trouble in your opinion. All I can say is that I could live just fine with that slight deviation from the actual building. I'd probably call it "Boothe Manor" ("inspired by...") and get it on with.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Ah, you again

 

[SimCoug 5,972]

House roofs look much better

Good to see you back with an update!

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Very beautiful models! Great job!

[Huston 5,798]

DON'T UNCHAMFER IT. I really like it, gives the building....character.

[Jack_wilds 550]

progress progress yea progress!...   over all teh house are great... the manor is to be better once th chanfering is corrected... its all promising

[tonyr 926]

I love the Booth Manor, IDS!

[sencillo1 47]

thanks for the the stex upload.

[Xander Dax 310]

Must say i am loving all this Minneapolis content, though i would LOVE to see IDS Tower and Capella Tower (Love those Two) great work though.

[Hotwheeler 409]

Thanks for uploading it to the stex.I am always in the need for modern midrises with small fottprints.And the other uploaded educational building looks great.Will see how i can fit it into my Region.

Also yyour other BATs are great.One of my favorites are thoe two "towers".Can't remember the name but they both look very similar, the only significant difference is the height.

Whenever i need a shiny modern midrise or a modern office / educational building, these two buildings are there to help.

[IDS2 3,346]

Hey everyone,

 

Does anyone know how to guarantee that I will get a unique building ID every time I export a building's LODs? If I go for a while without exporting anything, my stupid gmax resets the building ID to 0x9edef4d8_0x10000. If I delete this one and re-export, I get the ID 0x9edef4d8_0x20000. I've exported over 50 buildings over the years (I'm about to release a bunch of stuff if I can get this to work), so it seems that I would have to re-export the LODs around 50 times in order to finally get a unique ID. I know these can be changed in the reader, but that's a pain in the ass and I want it to happen automatically like it's supposed to. Any suggestions?

 

Honestly, if I wind up having to play this stupid game every time I try to export something, it isn't even worth it anymore. I appreciate any input and I hope to get this show on the road shortly.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Are you saving the file first before exporting it? (exporting the lods into a blank gmax scene and saving it as something new?)

 

The incremental change you're getting is, I believe, what happens when you re-export from the same gmax file over and over. And a problem with that isn't to go higher to get into a unique range, it's that if you go to high you will start interfering with the maxis iids. Although I think the number resetting to the same one under and situation is wrong. Installing gmax is a pain but maybe reinstalling it will fix it.