Jason's BATs & Tutorials

[ScottFTL 29]

Originally posted by: Jasoncw MightyGoose:  Can you post a link to the thread about matt's station?  I just looked for it all over the site and couldn't find it.  I couldn't find anything by RippleJet about the stations either.  SC4Devotion confuses me, lol.quote>

Here is the link to the thread on the Crime Bug in Megalots on SC4D.

The police station looks FANTASTIC, Jason!  Excellent work, as always.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Andreas Roth & T Wrecks:  I'll make it an independent lot then. 

Shanghai Kid:  Plus, if you use the station I made, it will be the only station your city needs, but it has no patrol cars so you'll kind of need the lot if you don't have other stations, lol.

ScottFTL:  Big thanks for the link!

I won't have time to figure out what's wrong the the patrol car lot for a little while, but here's a picture of the lot (and how it could go next to the station) in the meantime.

[shanghai kid 6]

It looks great @Jasoncw.

1Q. If i use Pegs police car mod(i'm using swedish cars as there arn't any from Norway) will the cars on the lot change or is it only the dispatched & patroling cars that will use Peg's mod?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You'd have to ask Peg that. But if the mod changes the cars in the game's police station lots, then it would also change mine.

[ky72x 13]

shanghai kid: The cars on the lot should change, whether the station is Maxis or custom.

That parking lot looks nice! I like how it matches the size of the station, so like you said, we can make 4x4 blocks using both if we want. Also, it's neat how you have the parking gate overhang the lot onto the sidewalk.

- Kyle

[Sim shady 12]

Speaking of the overhang on the parking gate, why dont you take that one step farther and do what some BSC lots do and including an overhanging "parking lot" which gives the appearance of the lot connecting to the sc4 road.

I could pull up some pictures if you want me to

Also i understand if you dont want to take the time to do that.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yeah, I'm not really sure about what you're talking about. If you mean a transit enabled lot, I'd love to do that, but from my understanding it's bad practice for the game. I don't know if it would be ok for this lot though, since there is no traffic going though it.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

It depends. You can make it connect to surrounding roads or streets, but remove any transit switch properties. Then you'll end up with a lot that cannot be used by any passengers and any means of traffic, but has the graphical effect of being fully connected and fuctional.

EDIT:

And by the way, thanks for bringing Sidekick Girl to my attention - it's great!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

If removing the transit switch properties would make it fine for the game, then I'll definitely do that, since I'd love for it to connect.

I'm glad you like the comic!!  My sister and her friend make it.  I actually made the website for it.

Here's some progress on a bus stop, at zoom 5 and zoom 4 (not very big!).  The modeling is basically done, the rest is doing the textures and materials.

I plan on making the glass semi-transparent, according to Cogeo's explanation, which I can't find, lol.

I'd like for this to be a pretty definitive bus station pack.  I'll do an Art Nouveau (the one I started), Art Deco, and Generic Modern.  Are there any other styles or variations that would be good for bus stations?

[JakeMD 107]

Looking good! All I have to chip in is to put advertisements and signs on there.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: Jasoncw I'm glad you like the comic!!  My sister and her friend make it.  I actually made the website for it.quote>

I love stories where the usual patterns are a bit reversed and female characters don't act like cotton candy princesses like Illumina. Another interesting point is that the drawings are basically rather 'normal' (meaning not in that exaggerated Anime style), but sometimes the faces are drawn in an extremely simplified but very expressive manner, which in turn does remind me very much of Japanese Anime style (for example Sidekick Girl's broad grin when she pulls that monster gun out of her pocket - that was hilarious!). How old is your sister, if I may ask? Anyway, you can tell her and (and her friend) that one of those lunatics on that geek forum you keep visiting likes their comic.

Back to topic: The bus station looks superb so far, that's exactly what the game needed! Apart from SWAT-MEDIC's comment, I can't think of anything to add.

[Andreas Roth 607]

Ohh, that station looks very nice indeed.

Here's the tutorial how to create transparent glass, provided by Swamper77:

All it involves is some changes to how the materials are applied to the S3D models and these changes are done in the MATS tab of the model in the Reader.

These are the settings that will need to be applied to each image for the S3D models that have transparent glass:

Flags:

x Alpha Test x Framebuffer Blending

x Depth Test x Texturing

x Backface Culling

Alpha Func: Always

Depth Func: Less Than or Equal

Src Blend: Source Alpha

Dest Blend: One Minus Source Alpha

After making the changes to each model, hit the Apply button that is in the upper left corner of the S3D viewer before working on the next model.

This only needs to be done for the models of the three closest zooms (2##, 3##, 4##). In other words, you only have 12 models to process, but each model has one or more images applied, based on the model size.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

SWAT-MEDIC:  Sure, I guess I should do that.

T Wrecks:  I'll tell them.  I want to say that they're both around 27.  Lore does the drawings, my sister does the writing and coloring, and they work on the story together.

Andreas Roth:  Thanks!  That's the same as AutoVino's anti-aliasing tutorial, which would make sense.

[Howling 9]

Jason, your buildings (and your comments when I was still a-batting) are always so valuable! If I ever am to make a CJ out of my current region your BATs will be the first jewels to be constructed in it's timeline. Fosho!

*folds in a way someone might describe as "humbly bowing"*

I canna wait for the Knoll building

[Simfan34 11]

Great work on the police station Jason! When's the Nelson building coming around?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Howling:  heheh, thanks!  I'd look forward to a CJ by you.  The Knoll Building is rendered, but I want to re-render it, because it turns out there is too much contrast for the game.  I'm going to tweak the textures and re-render, which shouldn't take much time.  It'll be released along with all of the other finished BATs I've been collecting.

SimFan34:  I don't know about any Nelson Building, but Nafmis Tower & Building will be finished up sometime in the near future.  Probably after the bus stops.

[bigskelding 12]

so when you say that "it'll be released along with the other finished bats you have been collecting". does that mean we can expect one big Jason Release day! because that would sick! i think everyone can agree with that!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yeah!  Central Police Station, Extra Patrol Car Lot, The Knoll Building, and the Bus Station Pack will probably be released close to each other.

[Howling 9]

I cannot - can not - wait I'll just have to weave the buildings you batted and lotted so far, however instead of a CJ i've started an MD. The town - Ankersforth - has a lot of growing to do. And everything'll be molded into a storyline too. Hope to see you there every once in a while.

Just the whole idea of having all those buildings released together in one big stream (much like I believe Vlakhaas does with his?)... excellence!

[SimGar15467 0]

I can't wait for that big release! Hopefully it's really soon!

[ky72x 13]

Another "Jason Release Day" would be awesome! Christmas Eve last year was a very nice day for the STEX. I can't wait to see another one of those days ahead of us!

- Kyle

[Jasoncw 11,840]

A new upload today (Benjamin Pump, check it out), but today is not a big release day. 

There will be a big release day eventually though! 

[Sim shady 12]

OOH eventually!?!

anyways thanks for uploading the pump!

[Jazzmaster 716]

Ya planning somethin big J-dog?  Let's hope the cops don't catch on!

Aren't I just terrbible?  Meh...I've made worse puns.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

lol

I've done some work on this building.

The textures are temporary ones from my other BATs.  There's still more modeling to do before I start the real textures.

I've also started a thread at SC4Devotion.  I don't have any specific plans for it, so we'll see how it goes.

[bigskelding 12]

Looks good, are the Textures gonna look close to that because i think it looks pritty good as is. keep it up

[Sim shady 12]

Impressive. I think you are doing a great job on it And I'll assume that Nafmis is the name of the building

[Howling 9]

I wonder what Nafmis spells backwards....

[ianpaschal 77]

lucky simfan34 to have a building named for him

I suspect I'm an electronics company if my name were to become a building. SCIPIO -> OIPICS

[Howling 9]

Originally posted by: Scipio lucky simfan34 to have a building named for him

I suspect I'm an electronics company if my name were to become a building. SCIPIO -> OIPICS

quote>

Or something along the line of a photoshop, "Oi! Pics!"

I doubt Gnilwoh would be anything other than some chemical industrial complex....