Jason's BATs & Tutorials

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks for the input guys. 

 

I've gotten rid of all of the penthouses and have put a small non-descript mechanical penthouse on the top roof, and have put some simple mechanical systems and stuff.  I'll post a preview later. 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Sorry guys I was having trouble with imgur...

 

 

Click for fullsize.

 

The roof is now underway.  There's still some texturing to do, and a few extra bits of roof junk to add here and there, but other than that, the building is nearing completion. 

[art128 4,618]

Looks great Jason. Roof details are starting to be excellent.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Yeah prefer it without the penthouse...glass is utterly amazing, exactly how fully reflective glass should be..the ground pane is amazing, gives a feel that it is surrounded by SC4 buildings, yet not sure which..just perfect illusion

[RepublicMaster 428]

That is very Nice

[libellibicus 396]

It's looking better without the penthouses. The glass is tip-top. This will be a cool addition to my cities. Thanks

[Darknono35 3,137]

The roof texture is very good, as the details for the HVAC keep it up my friend

[MTT9 187]

Looks really good Jason

[Girafe 1,729]

I love your roofs.

 

Glad you are still working on new projects, after 10 years sc4 community didn't loose all its talents

[IL. 1,043]

It looks great and  very much detailed

[Za 164]

You may well have hit the golden ratio of realism and Maxis-blending with this one

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks guys, I'm glad I'm getting it right. 

 

I haven't done much work on it since last posting but there's also not much more left to do.  Some final details here and there, and tweaking the tree color.  It's on track for its March release. 

 

 

But I figured I'd do a little tech demo of an idea that I've had.

 

I tend to make a lot of public squares in my cities, but I have very few custom parks, and most of the time I just fill the squares I make up with those horrible maxis parks.

 

And so for a long time I've been meaning to make some parks.  But I'm horrible with the lot editor.  And even though there are a billion custom flora props and ground and overlay textures, there aren't the right ones to do a good job on simple parks like the ones that I want.

 

- The entire park is BATed except for trees, and possibly other tall objects.

 

- The LOD is short (I think I made it .3 m?  I don't even remember now), and made into a prop.  The one property that concerns casting and receiving shadows is set to False.  Everything modeled is casting shadows internally within the BAT and will be rendered with the BAT, so it casting shadows in the game is not necessary.  But receiving shadows is necessary because otherwise, otherwise the BATed ground shadow issue happens (it stands out).

 

- Trees and maybe other vertical objects will not be BATed in.  These are the objects that having a flat shadow line cast over them would break the illusion of the BATed objects being 3d.

 

- But within the BAT, the locations of trees will be accounted for.  With for example, fences around trees, or slightly browner grass under the trees, or whatever customizations might be done if the trees were actually BATed in.  So the trees would fit in more naturally than they do in my current example.  I would also probably use some custom tree props, because even though I don't use any tree replacement modds, the maxis trees don't always look very good in

 

- The other problem with parks is that they overrun the menu.  So each BATed park prop will be part of a prop family, with a handful of similar designs.  Each one would be designed around the fixed tree positions.  This way there's variety without crowding the menus.  You plop it, and if you don't happen to like which one showed up you can demolish it and replop it.

 

- The only downside to this is that the internal BAT shadows and the in-game shadows will overlap one another, so you get double shadows.  But this is a minor problem, and tbh I think this is a lesser problem than the fact that normal props (bushes, fences, etc.) normally receive no shadows at all.

 

- The other downside is filesize.  It's not a big issue for a 4x4 park but I'd also want to make a few bigger ones, and for those the filesizes would get pretty big.  But maybe it's worth it for this kind of thing which you'd get a lot of value out of?

 

- In the screenshot you can also see 211 West Fort Street's planters which are also props with the same property turned on.

 

[MTT9 187]

I like the idea. I've been thinking about doing this myself after i saw a masterplan for Detroit's waterfront. The teapot monument is a nice touch

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I like the technical approach behind this project! I suppose so far the park model is a proof of concept and not final, so I won't comment on the hedges, etc.

 

Concerning the trees, I think if you stick to one and the same model you could at least rotate the individual tree props in a different direction each. This way the plaza will look uniform and well groomed (which can be absolutely accurate), but not too sterile and artificial.

 

It's good that you stick to Maxis trees, too - they can be "captured" and replaced using a tree mod if required.

 

For bigger parks you may want to explore the possibilities of versatile modules. Ideally, these could be used as individual fillers on their own and could be put together to form larger parks when used in conjunction with other parts. There's a very old and entirely texture-based set by marrast that looks totally inconspicuous at a first glance, but can be mixed and matched to astonishing effect given the very limited means that were used in its creation.

 

Finally, on a slightly off-topic note, I think soldyne has released some "urban beautification sets" (dunno if that's the precise name off the top of my head) that you may find useful for your cities.

[Darknono35 3,137]

Nice square park. It's an interesting project. I'm agree with you, I've already trying to delete the maxis squares by most realistic like this one.

[Gn_leugim 853]

nice plaza eheh =)

 

about the roof texture my only suggestion is to reduce a bit the noise of it. I fell it is a bit too noisy. but that is just me

[libellibicus 396]

The park project looks very interesting. I've no doubts that you'll have it spot-on pretty soon.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Cool, cool. Like the idea. Could become a new big project.

[SimCoug 5,972]

Interesting park idea.  I may have missed it, but is the base batted as well?  I ask, because there are a variety of sidewalk mods that change the texture, so the maxis pavers, while common, might stick out for anybody who is using a different sidewalk texture.  Otherwise, I think you are on to something

[Jasoncw 11,840]

MTT9:  Yeah I think this will work out well.  You should make some too. 

 

T Wrecks:  I'd like to use Maxis trees if possible, but it will depend.  One possibility is using the Maxis tree props.  Another possibility is using non-Maxis tree props.  And then the final possibility is BATing the trees and exporting all of the trees together, so there would be the "building" (the trees and other stationary vertical objects), and then the prop family, which would be the paths, hedges, flowers, fences, and all of that stuff.  I think it will depend on how much control I need when I start working on them.  I'm going to be finding real parks to recreate as best as possible, and so far it seems like the size, shape, and spread of the trees is something I might not be able to do with existing trees.

 

Darknono:  Thanks

 

Gn_leugim:  I'll reduce the noise a bit on the roof. 

 

libellicious:  Yeah I think these are going to be some of the best parks on the STEX.

 

skyscraper:  Thanks 

 

SimCoug:  Yeah, everything on the lot, including the pavers and grass are BATed.  The only thing that isn't BATed are the tree props.  BATing the ground is necessary to get the kinds of paths that I'll be making (without making a million lot editor overlay textures).  It's also needed because the hedges and stuff need a BATed surface to cast their shadows onto, because the prop itself won't be casting any shadows.  It's just going to have to stick out for those players. 

[gutterclub 2,729]

Slightly off topic...From what I usually spot, most lots use 2 types of tree..the one on your lot and the other darker green one...would it be easy to recreate these trees in Max that were identical in size and create a mod that replaced those 2 maxis trees with 2 new ones?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

This is something that I'm already working on - I compiled all Maxis tree props, sought out suitably sized replacements from girafe's and orange's VIP HD trees, and began to write a tree replacement mod. It works just fine, the trouble is I'm still lacking a few models.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Update on the glass building:

 

 

Click for fullsize as normal.

 

This is looking very close to final, except for the main entrance which isn't made yet, and the trees, which are currently hidden and need a bit of color tweaking.

 

Since the last update, I've done tweaking here and there, have reduced the noise of the roof a bit (enough?), added more roof junk, made the bmu/window washer crane tracks smaller, and textured some things that weren't textured before.

 

Speak now or forever hold your peace. 

[MTT9 187]

It looks great, although i did like it a bit more when the plaza was white as in the previews render. But maybe you changed it for a good reason...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The plaza has always been red. 

[MTT9 187]

In the render from the top of page 82 it looks white... guess it's just the angle. Nevermind then

[Jasoncw 11,840]

oh, I see what you mean.  Yeah, it's red there, but it's reflecting the blue sky and is also in shadow, so it doesn't look the same as in the other renders. 

[Turjan 1,048]

Hi Jason, I really love your stuff. I have nearly all your buildings in my cities, and they make for great accents. I just had a weird occurrence yesterday, when your Sturgeon Building grew as empty lot. I have the Maxis version, and the lot was a 2x4, so should have been the right size. It showed just as some nondescript lot without building. Sorry I didn't take an image, it didn't click with me that this was one of your buildings and assumed it was just one of those old lots from the early SC4 days and deleted it. The plop works fine, btw. Perhaps it was just a weird glitch, but I thought I'd let you know.

[Darknono35 3,137]

I like your reddish plaza  , I think it's an original color and she does an good contrast with the black windows of the tower.

The windows are amazing like always, like the roof HVAC and the gravels on the roof, too real

 

This skyscraper will be an stunning BAT my friend

[libellibicus 396]

It looks primed and ready for upload, IMO.