Francis90Bats

[Francis90b 748]

It was expected to be an easter egg, but it and took somewhat longer....

It's based on a building in 26 W 38 th, NYC, though not an exact recreation.

I will probably texture and nightlight it, and then move on and model and work over it's neighbour.It's neighbour should be based on 43 east 20th, in NYC as well.

Most of my BATing is now bit of a puzzle piece...i'm waiting for some things to unlock so that i can work on other BATs i'd like to work, or finish them.

In the mean time, i thought this was an interesting path to explore.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Gasp.

Very nice work.

[Vlasky 1,803]

I'll say it again> adorable, adorable, adorable.

Simply lovely and I'm looking forward to seeing it/them shape up

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Wooo!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

It's looking really nice.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

OMG!!!!! Great work!!!

[gutterclub 2,729]

This is really cute, really like the window frames. Looking forward to more progress on this!

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

This is awesome. Will it be a W2W building? If yes mind the measurements.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Okay, I had to come back here are you going to make a verity of colors for this, it would be a good idea for a lot of batters to do this to stop building repetition. We most move to another stage and I think this is the way to go for make building for video games not only Sim City. I do not think Really tall buildings should be like this, for say the Empire State building that to me will be stupid to have a verity if colors of that building and then the rendering times, oh no I that's not a good idea. I think it work best for buildings that is less than thirty stories.

[gutterclub 2,729]

I tend to disagree, its a hobby afterall and there doesn't need to be such rules. We should just appreciate it if someone releases one building

[Francis90b 748]

You spoke about height, and about famous tall building as the ESB...but you probably noticed them as "not really feasible for colour variations" because their dimensions and "unique" look makes that fact really evident - yet the whole criteria that should define wheter a building should have colour variations or not is - i think - completely missing there.

In order to decide wheter a building might have colour variations, other things need to be taken into account, as building style, type and architecture...

considering them, you should have a fairly good idea as wheter a building can have more colours to it, how many, and which ones.

Please define how you'd like to move in another stage.

  Edited April 15, 2012 by Francis90b  

[Francis90b 748]

Assume everything as provisional.Hadn't had much time to work over it, and still need to sort some things out.

[Vlasky 1,803]

It looks very nice, but instead of black paint for iron works/window frames on main facade, I'd go with copper patina color to make details stand out a bit more.

Sure, that's your choice to make, and even if you don't want it, it'll look great with black as well.

[gutterclub 2,729]

I'm loving it so far and it is very much needed.

[Ceafus 88 1,906]

These are looking very very good indeed, I will have a render of the row-houses and the colors ect. tonight if everything goes as planned too

[Francis90b 748]

I have something to say, and more is to come in the next days.

Some time ago i began to look for pre-war commercial buildings to BAT.My aim was, at first, to just look for something to BAT, as i felt that my hand for details was a bit rusty, and i had to practice over it.But, i soon began to develop a more organic plan, which i've decided to realize, at least in part.

AIM:

-To add non-standard widht w2w for the game, and attempting to fake the illusion of them being replaced with taller ones as your city grow.

INSPIRATION:

In real life, buildings don't usually fit into SC4 grid.Additionally, those are often mixed, old with new, lower with taller ones.

Take a look at Union square, or wander a bit in the area between Madison square and Bryant park.

REASONS:

Few people tried to model non-standard widht buildings for the game, and their sight is (for many reasons) quite uncommon.

Yet, IRL they make up for a large amount of the building stock, and their variety in dimensions adds yet another element of interest to the landscape.

HOW:

Buildings will be modelled to fit into some standardized non-sc4 widhts.Selected widhts will be 8, 12, 20 and 24 mtrs.

Their models will be exported as props.Props, combined together, will fit into SC4 lots.

Props will be divided into 4 groups according to their floor height.The groups i've estabilished are:

H1)3-5 floors.

H2)6-9 floors.

H3)10-13 floors.

H4)13-15 floors.

For each group and widht there will be 2-4 models (if not more).Therefore, there will be a minimum of 2 models for the H1,8mtrs, 2 for H1, 12 mtrs and so on.

Props will be combined into lot to "fake" the "replacement" illusion.

For example, a H3 prop might appear next to an H1 prop, or an H4 prop, according to the growth stage of the LOT,

Therefore, the bigger your city will get, the more likely lots with taller props will develop.

Actual replacement of props is, AFAIK, impossible,What you will get is just an illusion.

WHEN:

The final deadline is dependent on both modelling and modding time.

I'm going to dedicate to it most of my BATing time, but it will take very long in any case.

BATed props, will be exported and then collected.Once a decent amount of them is available, modding will begin,

I think i might need some help in making sure that modding work goes correctly and tidy.If someone is willing to look at the big modding picture for me, i'd appreciate it.

This is going to be a complex project, i will try, for my part, to fullfill it so that it's results complete enough to be useable.

  Edited May 11, 2012 by Francis90b  

[Francis90b 748]

I think it's necessary to add the rest of the update into a separate post.

The building i've lately shown is going to be an H2, 8 mtrs model.It will be called H2-8 NYC 26W38th.

The one i'm going to show now is going to be H3, 20 mtrs:

From now on, i will call my models according to the RL building that inspired them, in order to avoid confusion.This one is H3-20 NYC 17 John Street.

I'd call it done.Now i'm going to model something based on the (now demolished) 50 West Street.It's probably going to be H3-12 NYC 50 West Street.

This post is going to be updated in a couple of days in order to show it's progress.

When they will be done? When they're done.Seriously, the so-called "extra 10%" is what makes or breaks a BAT for me.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

The model is lookign great so far! Sorry I didn't have the time to answer your last PM in detail. Now that you outlined your approach here, I must say that it sounds feasible. Same basic lot design, different props, growth stages of the lots increase with building height... yes, that will work. Of course, the lots in question can always appear where nothing similar used to be, and likewise, totally unrelated stuff might overgrow them, but that's just the way the game is.

However, I like the approach of adding some W2W's with "uneven" width that will break rows of 8 or 16 metres wide buildings.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Looking great!

Really like the idea of different width W2W, a few of my recent BATs have tried not to conform to the standard 16m 3m setback approach to break things up a bit. These are going to be fantastic, I assume the previous bat you showed (26 W 38 th) is going to tie in with this?

read your post again

  Edited May 12, 2012 by gutterclub  

[zahrul3 472]

Nice model there!

[Ion_Cannon 677]

What a great idea I don't use W2W myself much, but I can still appreciate good modelling and a good idea.

[Francis90b 748]

Some more progress over H3-20 NYC 17 John Street.

It's almost done, i should just play with the shop windows so that more details can be visible, and add a cornice above the shop windows.

One last thing - there will be some delay about H3-12 NYC 50 west street.I'm having troubles figuring out some design details, so it will take more time.If things don't improve, i might even put it on hold, and work on something else.

EDIT:New naming for H3-20 NYC 17 John Street.The real life building i based it upon has a name, it's called the Tyler building.Since we aren't white pages books, a name would probably be easier to remember than an adress .Therefore, from now on,H3-20 NYC 17 John Street is going to be called H3-20 NYC Tyler.

  Edited May 13, 2012 by Francis90b  

[zahrul3 472]

Where's the textures? I don't think its almost done, "almost done" to me means only needs finishing touches and extras.

[Francis90b 748]

Sometimes it helps to have people pointing out to things you might have missed .

My plans would be to finish modelling a given number of buildings (3-4), then texture them, then repeat the process until the completion of the project.

I'd prefer doing so, rather than model each building and then texture it.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great, I do not see a flaw.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Looks good, except for the crappy textures.

*runs away to dodge stuff thrown at him*

[Sgt Pepper 864]

^

Really love both of those models Francis.

[madhatter106 3,931]

I know nobody has mentioned it yet, but where's da texturrrrezzz ?

[Francis90b 748]

Enough.If i see someone else commenting on the "textures", i will release that one as it is .

1)H1, 12 mtrs building.

As you can see it's made up by two 6 mt buildings.

The one in the left is based upon a building i saw on 34th street, just after Broadway, the other on the right upon a building on west 38th street that hosts a "roth international" shop that, it seems, deals with trimmings, embroidery and that stuff.

Therefore it's name will be H1-12 Roth and 34th.

Few things are still to be added, but the bulk had been done.The building on the left misses a roof access, both needs fire-escape stairs (that i will need to make specifically for those buildings), and both need AC units on front.

2)Very narrow buildings IRL - their usefulness in the project.

Many narrow buildings i considered as references are even skinnier than 8 mtrs...some of them are actually closer to 5 than 8 mtrs.

Some might still be modelled as 8 mtrs - while with other ones it just wouldn't work.

They can still be used to make 12 mtrs buildings - joining together two 6 mtrs buildings, as i just did.

This is going to come really handy, as i will explain below.

3)Building widht, building height.

It seems like i'm going to face two kinds of shortages when looking for references:

• It's more difficult to find low rise (H1) buildings that fill the three larger widhts (12, 20, 24 mtrs) and
  
• It's more difficult to find high rise (H3, H4) buildings that are as narrow as 8 or 12 mtrs.
  

This means two things:

• Some combinations are unlikely to be completed (for example it will be quite unlikely to have one H4-8 building, almost impossible to have more than one)
  
• Parts of those "missing combinations will be filled with a combination of narrower buildings (it will be the case for some combinations that have large footprint and small heights)
  
• I will probably need to produce more H1 and H2 models than previously expected.But this is going to be balanced by the fact that i will probably produce less highrises than expected (look at the first statement in this bulleted list..
  

4)Glass texturing

I'm considering the possibility to texture the glass in some models by modelling a simple interior (e.g. a plane that should act as a building floor).

Which kind of bitmap i should use? Have you any suggestion, or would you mind sharing one?

  Edited May 17, 2012 by Francis90b  

[Vlasky 1,803]

Great job Fran! Tyler building looks lovely!

I am looking forward to seeing the modifications you plan on doing on it.

and remember, never obsess over details too much.