IDS's (mostly) Minnesota BATs

[Jack_wilds 550]

an excellent project -projects... the WF IDS is a study in perservernce, development and progresive learning curve ...

[IDS2 3,346]

Haha, thanks jack! That's actually kinda why I wanna release it now. It happened to be a pretty big project spread over a pretty extreme part of my learning curve, so the quality gap between old and new became more and more of a problem as the project went on for...about 9 months, actually

My next project will likely the residential building I've been working on. Here's a little render now that I've added more roof junk and some grass for the planters:

I'll start textures after I work a tad more on the dumpster area. I already have a lot of my materials set up, so I'm hoping the day scene won't take long.

  Edited April 6, 2012 by IDS2  

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yeah, that's one of the nice things about being at that point in the learning curve. You grind away at a project for a while and you finally finish it and you've learned a lot. And then when you start the next project everything comes a lot easier and faster and better than it did the previous time, and it's a nice feeling.

[IDS2 3,346]

It's been going a lot faster already, which is really nice. It's a bit hard to remember everything since it was so long ago, but at least it feels fresh and new. It's a nice change

Anyway, I took a shot at a few of my materials. Right now I'm really just experimenting to see what looks good with this building, but I might keep a few of the materials I have right now. I think for starters I'd like to get the glass right since it's such an important part of the building. I kinda had this bluish color in mind, but I'm thinking maybe a darker gray or even a rusty color might look nice. I chose to go with strong reflections rather than transparency due to the unorthodox window pattern, but I'm open to ideas. I think right now I have too many conflicting colors in the scene - the blue of the glass, the green foliage and the pinkish plaza sort of clash. I kinda like the concrete texture I have on the building right now, so I'll probably wind up matching most of my materials to that.

[nick13 194]

I like the current gray/blue layout on the shorter building but not on the taller or both. I think this building style could be a rusty red brick with brown paneling below the window sections. Then it would look like a realistic 80's/90's apartment

[IDS2 3,346]

Hmm, I like that idea. I'll have to do some more experimenting with this building sometime...I think right now I need to take a bit of a break from it so that I can figure out where it's going, but I'll definitely return to it.

Sorry for the recent lack of updates - I've kind of been freaking out about my AP exams, but I have my last one on Thursday of this week so hopefully that means I'll be able to get back at it pretty regularly I had a bit of free time a couple weeks ago and I put together a timeline for future releases:

1. WFP: finished, day export complete, need to do night exports and lot/mod it. Just wondering, what exactly does "modding" include and do I need anything besides the reader and SC4PIM for it? I'll probably get around to exporting this weekend sometime...the rest shouldn't really take that long, so maybe I can finally release this thing in a few weeks, schedule permitting. I'm not gonna take the SAT or retake the PSAT or ACT until next year so I should have plenty of freedom coming up.

2. Generic office building pack: will include some form of all the following buildings and possibly some others that I have in mind.

3. the residential building I was working on a month or so ago

4. Metropoint complex, old Minneapolis library, Riverview Office Tower, small elementary school, CNA Center

Speaking of CNA Center, I tweaked some details between the windows and added louvers to the lower part!

That's all I have for now. Hopefully I'll have something for you all very soon.

[nick13 194]

It's looking really good. Although i wonder what you need the reader for? I only use the pim-x from the devotion. haha I have an AP test thursday too. hope I get at least a 4

[Roger51 381]

Looking great! We need more of these We need more of everything

[T Wrecks 10,209]

In the context we are dealing with here, modding is everything that comes between the stages "model exported in .sc4model format" and "building works in game in a particular function the way it was meant to". It will involve assigning a function to your building (RCI growable, landmark, college...) - this is done using the Plugin Manager that comes with the BAT. The building will also require stats/values that determine things like wealth level, plop cost, EQ/police/firefighting/landmark/park effect and radius, energy and water consumption/production, garbage generated/processed, pollution values and radii, vehicle dispatches, jobs provided/inhabitants, budget cost/tax income, bulldoze cost etc. etc. - depending on the function of the building. Finally, your building will need a lot on which it can stand (either after being plopped or after growing). This lot can be put together in the Lot Editor, and it might require some further tweaks to adjust growth stage and zone density (for growables) or menu icon, menu order, and description text (for ploppables).

I'm old school, so I assign function and stats using Plugin Manager (stats can be tweaked later with iLive's reader or SC4Tool) and do the lot design with the Lot Editor. Any final tweaks are once again done using iLive's Reader or LEProp and/or SC4Tool, depending on which of these tools is easiest to use for the specific task.

[IDS2 3,346]

Nick - AP World history? If so, same here, and I totally got lucky on that test...our teacher didn't teach for the test at all, so we all thought we were screwed and most of us didn't even bother studying. I think I still got a 4 though, woowoo I'm one of about 3 or 4 kids who studied, so I have no excuse if I fail! And pim-x includes everything you need? Sweet, thanks man!

Roger51 - Thanks, hopefully I can provide some of that

T Wrecks - I think I've practiced assigning functions and values in PIM already, but are there any standard values for water, power, bulldoze cost, etc. to which I should adhere? I've practiced lotting as well, but is there an extra step I'll need to take in order to make the building growable or ploppable? I think I remember seeing tutorials for custom menu icons and stuff like that somewhere, but I'll have to do some digging.

Soo...something postmodern I made last weekend...I'll just leave this here...

Anyone care to guess what it is? It's in Minnesota, if that helps. It's my first real foray into anything postmodern at all. Everything I've done up to now has been relatively boxy modernism. Also, it occurred to me that I haven't posted the updated CNA Center with louvers:

I have to crank AA wayyy up on CNA so that it even renders the louvers, which makes render times hella long I imagine it'll only get worse when I do the base and top louvers.

As it stands, basic building modeling is nearly complete on both CNA Center and this latest building. 9 days of school left, so I'm hoping to hit the ground running when summer break starts.

  Edited May 25, 2012 by IDS2  

[zahrul3 471]

The modelling is great, just waiting for the textures now.

Basically, the walls of CNA Center is painted (rough)concrete, not a solid color, and most postmodern offices have some sort of cladding and in this case, it should be brown granite.

Texturing is more important than modelling, a skyscraper BAT with bad textures will probably stick out like a sore thumb.

[gutterclub 2,729]

You're the new Scotty !

[Bastet69008 1,102]

God I love your creations dude, this is the kind of buildings I'm craving for ! Is the latest building St Paul's Wells Fargo Plaza ? Great Job, keep up the good work!

[00.7 Cheeses 69]

Yay it looks great. I really wanna see how you will make the glass. It looks promising already.

-Ernst

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

Very good start to the BAT, I love the modeling, and I cannot wait till texturing.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Unfortunately if the louvres aren't showing up there's not really anything to do about it. You can increase AA but remember that there is some compression when the render gets converted into a .FSH for the game, so even with the higher settings they probably won't show up. I think it would be better to just exaggerate them a little bit.

zahrul3: The facade isn't concrete.

[Francis90b 748]

I really like your apartment complex (gray & blue building), and it (oddly enough) reminds me of the addition to the AT&T building in Detroit.

[IDS2 3,346]

zahrul: no worries, I've already taken that into account

gutterclub: haha, don't I wish! Thanks man, that means a lot!

Bastet: Thanks! You're correct, good sir! As close of a recreation as I could muster, anyway. Hopefully I'll be able to get some stuff released really soon! I have about 20 buildings that I think are suitable to be released someday, but only a handful of those are getting close to the export stage.

Peter: Thanks! Glass will be the first thing I tackle after I finish modeling. I like to establish a good glass material and work around that. I've been working a lot on glass lately and I think I have something that will work nicely.

Frex: Thanks man! I'll try to get on that really soon

Jason: Yeah, I was afraid of that. I've had to scale them up once already, but I think I can get away with a little more without them looking out of place. If all else fails, I think they're small enough that I might be able to get away with just texturing some of it...

Francis: Thanks! You know, now that you mention it, I wonder if I may have been subconsciously influenced by the AT&T Building I've been having a little bit of trouble deciding what to do with the apartments, some sort of BATting writer's block...but maybe I'll try to incorporate some elements from the AT&T Building into it.

Okay, so I was creating a little office building to do a test export before I export the night scenes for WFP and I actually kind of like what I came up with. Anyone think this is worth keeping? If so, what should I change before I export it for release in my generic office building pack?

A tad boring, but that's alright...

[nick13 194]

It's is worth keeping. I was actually really exited about that little office, it's the perfect filler i'm looking for. oh and before I forget It was world history, i studied for about 2 days before the test im sure I got a 3 maybe a 4 if my multiple choice is good but im not counting on it. Anyway keep up the good work its really high quality. I'll get back to BATing after school ends june 23.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Hmm... Once again it reminds me of the process when cockatoo was making the glass walls for his Comalco Place. Although the glass panes themselves were absolutely great and true to the original, somehow several people (including me) said that the BAT looked cartoonish to them. It turned out that the culprits were those black dividing lines between the glass panes. Long story short, I recommend trying to use a shade of grey for these dividing lines instead of black.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I like the overall building. But somehow I agree with T Wrecks' statement about eh glas texture. I makes the building look a bit odd. I also think that the window are looking too rough. And, at last but not least, I think i looks a bit odd to see an edge of a building out of windows without frames.

But keeo up good work.

[IDS2 3,346]

Nick: I'm really hoping I did well on multiple choice because I had no idea what I was doing on 2 of the essays : school totally killed my BAT time this year, hopefully I'll be able to make up for it this summer! And thank you, I'll keep the building

T Wrecks: Aha! I felt something was off, but I couldn't place what it was...thank you! I came up with 4 different shades of gray that I think all look better than black, so hopefully one of them will tie everything together.

Skyscraper: Thanks! No worries, the frames are there They were just a bit hard to see before because they blended in with the windows.

So, I messed with the darkness values of the mullions, which were previously set at 0.02, which might as well be black. I came up with 4 new options that have the value set at 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4, respectively.

0.1:

0.2:

0.3:

0.4:

I think I'm leaning a bit toward 0.2 or 0.3, but it's hard to judge based on how it looks on a single computer screen. I know renders look different depending on which monitor is used. Maybe I can try some middle values like .25 or .35. I'll add a bit more detail to my roof material in the meantime.

[Amthaak 1,501]

IMHO 0.25

[00.7 Cheeses 69]

Nice building. Is it right that the pillars are a little bit pinkish? Shouldn't they be more white?

The color of the mullions is right whatever darkness you do. I like them all

-Ernst

[Jasoncw 11,840]

My vote is for .1. Brighter than that and they start looking like polished aluminum (although if you want it to be polished aluminum that's fine too).

I think the concrete could be a little less saturated and a little brighter.

For the glass, right now it's hard to tell which part is the spandrel and which part is the window. To help with this, you could give the glass a glass texture. My glass is always has the material set up (reflectivity and stuff), but most of the time it has a bitmap too.

[Metzger28 6]

IDS,

First, my apologies for being extremely late in replying to your messages. University transfer and all. Rest assured I'll respond soon!

Just thought I'd chime in a bit: This particular little building looks like your late '60s-early '80s office box. Personally, I like the first image - with the almost black mullions it seems more fitting to the style. If the building were renovated and the curtain wall replaced, an anodized aluminum look would be the most common choice. For some reason, not a lot of folks like the black glass/dark mullion combination any more.

[zahrul3 471]

I prefer the pitch-black mullions, for some reason

As this is a small filler BAT, the striking details look much less obvious so it shouldn't look cartoonish.

You should release the 0.1 and 0.4 versions, the 0.1 represents an unrenovated 70s office while 0.4 represents a new/just renovated office.

[gutterclub 2,729]

I don't see how the fact it is a small BAT would mean that it cat look cartoony, especially when the evidence is clearly staring at us in the form of the pictures supplied.

I prefer 0.1 version, looks great!

[Francis90b 748]

I'd pick 0.1 or 0.2.

[IDS2 3,346]

Sounds like it's a pretty unanimous vote at 0.1 Thanks everyone!

Zahrul: If you like the 0.4, I can definitely do a more updated version that matches aluminum mullions!

Metzger: No worries my friend! I'm with you on the mullions - I definitely prefer the old school dark ones. For most of my buildings (like Wells Fargo Plaza) I try to go with the original as much as I can.

Jason: I was having trouble deciding how to best show the difference between the windows and their spandrels, so I thought blinds might do the trick. How about something like this?

I gotta say, I really like working on smaller buildings the render times for this building are only like 3 minutes.