Jason's BATs & Tutorials

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Well @Aaron Graham I just happened to finish a BAT that compliments your work. I'm glad to see you.

 

I'd like to have the Westin Bonvaventure Hotel on the STEX in June.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I'd also like to announce that I've started a Patreon page.

What is Patreon?

Patreon is a website where people can pay money to help support creators (of webcomics, YouTube videos, music, game content, etc.) that they enjoy, like a tip jar. In exchange, content creators offer rewards to thank people who become patrons.

What are the rewards?

The main perk is early access to my new BATs. Every month, I'll make at least one new building, which will be uploaded directly to Patreon. And then as time goes on, those BATs will eventually be uploaded to the STEX. I'll mostly be making fictional buildings and partial recreations, the types of buildings that still look good, but don't take me as long to make. Past examples would be Equitable Bank and Trust, Hillier Building, Sturgeon Building, and Heroult-Deville. Right now the Patreon already has two BATs in it, Union Bank Plaza from Los Angeles, and Two Commerce Street from Auckland.

There's also a higher level tier which gives access to a Discord server that I've made. The Discord contains an inspiration board, where you can post images of cool buildings which I can browse through when I'm starting a new BAT. I'll hold polls for making decisions about what to BAT or other things. I'll solicit names for BATs. I'll ask for help researching buildings (for example, if I'd like to make a library I might ask patrons to post libraries that they think would work well in the game). Plus anything else along these lines. It'll be different from month to month depending on what I'm doing. One perk that many Patreons offer which is definitely not being offered here is special access. If you want to "access" me, just send me a message, @mention me, here in the forums or on the Simtropolis Discord, like always.

How does it work?

You'll have to make an account at Patreon, and then you can join a tier. You'll be billed when you join a tier, and then again monthly, on July 1st, August 1st, and so on. Because it's already the end of May, I've turned off the June 1st billing cycle.

If you join the tier with the special Discord, there should be a button for joining it. You'll need to make a Discord account if you don't already have one. Unfortunately, Patreon itself doesn't have very many interactive features, so we have to use Discord. If you're concerned about privacy, keep in mind that if you join the Discord, other patrons who have also joined the Discord will see you there.

If you have any issues with joining either the Patreon or the Discord, let me know. I'm new to this as well.

What if I don't have money?

I understand that not everyone has extra money to spend on SC4 buildings, especially now. I myself don't have much money, which of course is why I've set up a Patreon. So I understand your situation. Please enjoy the new BATs I'll be making as I upload them to the STEX, I'll be making a lot more than I have in the past few years. Also, I'll still occasionally upload directly to the STEX. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel will go straight to the STEX.

 

Thanks!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It looks like Patreon blurs out images for non-patrons, so here are what 2 Commerce Street and Union Bank Plaza look like:

Both are CO$$ growables and ploppables. Union Bank Plaza includes separate CAM versions for those who it, due to its size.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Love the new BATs, what a treat! Patreon is a great idea, you deserve it!

[Bobelboy 435]

I agree. You create great content. And it is good news that you intend to upload more. I 'm happy to support this.

[madhatter106 3,903]

If ever there were a BATter who was worthy of being supported on Patreon, it's certainly you.  Best of luck.  Your stuff is always top notch and should be the level to which we all aspire and reach.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Also the 3D image of your buildings demonstrates how great a fully 3D SimCity game could be if computers could handle the polygons and detail SC4 bats have..the reason I don't bother with the new 3D game is that the buildings are just texture maps on boxes and you can't get the detail levels found on all the amaizng SC4 bats and props

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks everyone, I very sincerely appreciate the kind comments on the uploads, here, and everyone who has joined the patreon so far.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

By the way I tried to join the Patreon, but PayPal won't allow me to pay in dollars using another currency. There's an option of their digital card that would allow me to do that, but the conversion taxes would make everything too expensive in a long term, especially considering 1 USD = 5,48 R$
If the Dollar/Real price goes down after the pandemic, which is what some people expect, make no mistake I will support you there.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

4 hours ago, JP Schriefer said:

By the way I tried to join the Patreon, but PayPal won't allow me to pay in dollars using another currency. There's an option of their digital card that would allow me to do that, but the conversion taxes would make everything too expensive in a long term, especially considering 1 USD = 5,48 R$
If the Dollar/Real price goes down after the pandemic, which is what some people expect, make no mistake I will support you there.

Yes! 100% don't worry about it! I appreciate the thought anyway. I almost added in a bit about that because I knew that would be an issue in some places. Same thing with credit cards and digital payment stuff, not all countries do things the same way.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

On 4/17/2011 at 9:26 AM, Jasoncw said:

do not blur the ground plane

Dear Jason, I have learned a lot from your Splendid tutorials,  It's dumb of me to ask this word, May i know more about it since i even don't know how to blur the ground plane, i really couldn't follow this in 3ds max, Thank you!

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

--- Furthermore ---

Maybe rudeness again, I'm making a simtropolis building, May i ask about red sign at the very top of night scene, Did you modify the glare map? i used the default glare map but a bit different from yours.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Hello

Most map types in 3ds Max have a Blur setting. The default "Blur" of 1.0 is too blurry. Lowering it (you can do this quickly by right clicking on the up/down arrows) will make the texture sharper. But lowering the Blur will also increase the rendering time.

You do not need to reduce the Blur setting for your ground material, because it won't be visible in the render. But it will be visible in reflections, and it will still interact with lighting in the scene, so lowering the blur value on the ground might still increase your render time.

 

The Union Bank sign uses the default glare map. I increased the glare by making the self illumination brighter.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Ah, i see it, @Jasoncw i never changed this setting (blur) before, quite a newbie i am, Likewise, Thank you for teaching me the glare, i thought i have to modify the glare map with Photoshop, Thank you so much Jason, As always.

Yours,

-- Raymond

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Is it really almost 2022???

 

 

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

That's a wonderful surprise after all this time. Great job!

[RipRap 4,400]

Awesome stuff! 

[Bastet69008 1,102]

Niiice!

[EscabusaNigel 0]

Can someone help me how to create a buildings plugins 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

9 hours ago, EscabusaNigel said:

Can someone help me how to create a buildings plugins 

Read the "Getting Started Guide" that's at the top of this forum. It's slightly out of date, and in order to get Gmax, instead of the links in the guide, use the ones from this thread: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/761044-solved-where-to-get-gmax/

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Happy Thanksgiving! (To Americans anyway!)

I've uploaded another art deco deparment store.

 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Just posting a quick tip to BATers.

I think most of us have the problem that, when cloning something for the first time in a session, the default clone type is Instance, while most of us would prefer Copy.

If you go to CurrentDefaults.ini which is located at C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMaxDesign\2015 - 64bit\ENU\en-US\defaults\DesignVIZ.mentalray (or something like that) you can edit it to be Copy by default. Press Control F to find "ObjectCloneType" in the document and change it from 1 (Instance) to 0 (Copy).

Looks like this only works when you shift move an object to clone it. If you just select an object and go to Edit>Clone you'll still have Instance as the default option the first time.

Maybe another quick tip though. If you have an object selected you can clone it by moving it, but with the shift key held down.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Has anyone ever actually gotten Paulo Victor Condominiums to grow?

Someone has commented that they haven't been able to. It's a 2x2 corner for the houston tileset.

 

[Bobelboy 435]

Yes, it grew in my city. It's not a weedy BAT but it grows here and there ...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Norfair Corporation is on the STEX.

 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

More STEX uploads

 

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

Thank you for your continued support to the SC4 community Jason! I went through and caught up on your files here and an nothing short of impressed as always!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Hello everyone!

Moving forward I'll be making two BATs per month on my Patreon instead of one.

September's BATs will be these two police stations: https://goo.gl/maps/uYyZKyX11ZswLnRi6 and https://goo.gl/maps/smzYMW8nF2Cfij5Y7

Also, the version of Beacon Apartments which I have just uploaded to the STEX is updated from the version that I originally uploaded onto Patreon. The original has a modding mistake which prevented it from growing. The updated version grows correctly, and I've also included a new mirrored version. Anyone who downloaded it from the Patreon should redownload it.

 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I really can't believe that it's been two full years since I've posted in this thread! But there isn't really much to say!

Right now I'm just posting to say that I'll be uploading a BAT to the STEX every Wednesday.

[dubaidude303 1,119]

On 9/11/2024 at 3:44 PM, Jasoncw said:

I really can't believe that it's been two full years since I've posted in this thread! But there isn't really much to say!

Right now I'm just posting to say that I'll be uploading a BAT to the STEX every Wednesday.

Such a big fan of your work!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Last week I had family from out of town over all day and I completely forgot to upload the weekly BAT! But I've got both up now.

I've also updated my US Bank upload. @Tyberius06 has fixed the immortal lot bug. I found out about it not long after I uploaded it, and always meant to update it, but never got around to it. And then last December (!) Tyberius sent me a message with the updated versions, which I meant to look at and then upload, but never got around to it, and then forgot all about it. But now after an arduous 13 years, it has finally been updated! 

Everyone who uses this BAT should demolish it in their cities, and then take the old version out of their plugins folder and put the updated version in.