hkabat-forum-threads Hong Kong / Asia BAT team

[ramvid01 0]

beautiful BATs and the lots compliment them also. Great works guys

[bixel 1,228]

Oh god that is a gorgeous building.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

@ Skyfire: Thanks for your comment! Just as a secret between the two of us, I hat palms as well, at least in SC4. Those annoying things that look as if someone had rammed a brush upright into the ground - no thanks. Then again, I can't take them out because HONG KONG would yell at me, so it's a catch-22 situation. Anyway, if you are using any "anti-palm" mod like the one mady by Swamper77 which I am using, you will never see them - they will just be replaced with other flora.

As for the textures; there are exactly 2 base textures on the lot: The cream-coloured diagonal tiles and the red tiles. The irregularly shaped red area around the bigger pool is included in the prop.

I can try taking out the red texture, and I'm still pondering whether to offer an optional version that would stray from my dependency policy for a change. I might use one of SimGoober's public pools as props and choose a nice prop pack with suitable flora, including nicer palm trees. In the end, we might be talking about 4-5 dependencies, though, and I'm not sure you guys want that.

EDIT

I lied blatantly. There is also a third base texture, the grass texture I used.

[paulvmontfort 617]

I agree, the pool looks a little awkward. I don't mind having some dependecies if it'll make the lot so much better.

BTW, how do you like the looks of this:

Things left to do: Flora and Nightlightning. After that I'll finish One Pacific Place and last but not least: the Island Shangri La Hotel

[mightygoose 92]

the shangri la is beautiful, wait who am i kidding this is all beautiful...

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull buildings excellent work

[hamsterTK 93]

You did a great job trying to make the maxis props look okay, but there is only so much you can do with those and they just wont cut it IMO. Its okay if there are a few dependecies, or better yet if the pool and tennis areas are incorporated into the BAT like that picture above(then there are no dependencies and it looks really good)

[skyscraper 216]

We work again on burj dubai for HK/Asia Team:

Here the current update: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=75165&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=2#last

[HONG KONG 74]

...........and it looks outstanding! I have however a few improvement suggestions:

The green area in the foreground is not necessary. I would remove the ramp(red line) at the left side of the basis and would disguise with a glass facade the open range(red arrows).

[paulvmontfort 617]

sorry HONG KONG, i prefer to keep it like the real thing thus meaning there goes a road underneath and half the open range is covered with plants. I like it how it is and adding more glass is just a lot of work.

[bixel 1,228]

WOW Paulvmontfort you have really progressed as a 3D Artist, insane! I suggest building your portfolio now cause it looks like somebody will want to hire you and soon!

[Skyfire2275 23]

@ T Wrecks: Hardly a secret anymore is it? I will download and install the anti-palm mod. Which I knew about before but just never eneded up getting because, I guess, I forgot.

@ paulvmontfort: Looks good! Can't wait to see it in the game.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Just to let you guys know I'm still alive, I browsed 25 STEX pages for interesting flora prop packs today and got a bit frustrated. I found most prop packs to be highly chaotic: A barn here, a silo there, a tree, a bench, a fence... it would be considerably easier if the prop packs were sorted by "topic", e.g. farms, industrial, flora...

Anyway, the 'hottest' candidates are either Cycledogg's or CouchPotato's tree props, plus the ones made by SimGoober. I tried about 15 different base textures, but ended up sticking to the standard texture I had used for the first lot. Some BSC overlay textures turned out to be quite useful, though.

A very likely dependency list would be:

- BSC Textures MEGA Pack

- BSC SG BAT Props MEGA Pack (SimGoober's assorted props)

- BSC MJB BAT Props MEGA Pack (CouchPotato's assorted props)

I'm not pleased with the pool area at all yet. I tried one of SG's public pools, but I will probably take it out and replace it with 1-2 smaller pools from his prop pack to eliminate another dependency and get a better lot. I might fill the resulting gap with a tennis court or whatever.

The lot flora doesn't quite convince me, either... there should be some interesting palms here and there (the ones by kd5rax look ok (not the huge illuminated ones)), but that would add another -and rather 'exotic'- dependency to the list. Anyway, I'm working on it, but I hope I'll eventually come up with a lot that makes good use of an acceptable amount of dependencies. The first lot will remain as it is and will be part of the final download, for those people who avoid dependencies wherever they can.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Bleh, I should take a break from this one and make something else instead... I'm not really convinced by anything I can come up with, and I have lost all sense of judgment, so just gimme some feedback on this lot, ok? I honestly can't tell if it sucks big time or if it's ok, I just don't know any more...

One constant problem with props is that they are not affected by the shadow of the building, so they really stand out when viewed in one particular viewing angle.

Oh, before I forget: The dependency list is as mentioned above.

There it is - those rose beds, SG's flower beds and corners, and ~50% of the lot flora is randomized.

Btw, some of you might have spotted the red warning lights I added to the roof corners - the problem is that the LODs apparently swallow the light props on the three corners that face the screen in any viewing angle. What about those - leave them as they are, take them out?

[paulvmontfort 617]

freakin uber beautiful man!! In my opinion you can leave the warning lights out.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Ok, time to adjust your sight to a totally different scale and style, everybody - back from shiny skyscrapers to little shops, back from overhanging complexes to tiny 1x1 lots, back from neatly manicured lawns to chaotic shops and advertisement signs.

I just played around with jasoncw's HK pawn shop, remember that one? He tld me it sits on the left side of a 1x1 lot, with the rest of the lot filled with a busy flea market... some signs to go with that... so here's my interpretation - did I capture the feeling, or did I f*ck up?

Notes:

- The lot is 1x1; the parking lot doesn't belong to it.

- It will be a corner lot; the orientation is as shown  here.

- Most signs, flora, people, and store fronts are randomized.

- There are people on the lot, but I didn't have the patience to wait for them to appear.

Criticism, suggestions, ideas... just fire away!

[mightygoose 92]

that looks amazing, 1x1 lots are the final frontier when it ocmes to replacing maxis stuff

[Alkaola 18]

very creative, i must think of Athens too when seeing this structure ... i would like to see more of it !

[2ch.net simplayer 180]

That is exactly what I wanted!!!! Not shiny skyscrapers, but explicitly Asian stuff!

[HONG KONG 74]

That's what we need, wtw asia stuff. More please!

From now on I will support the team as Modder/Loter. I am still a beginner, but very motivated

The KwaiChungEstate (already released) becomes my first work. Here the first pictures of a grown 8x4 lot. (no dependence)

Comments are welcome.

[Skyfire2275 23]

@ T Wrecks: The Marriott looks much better. Two thumbs up! However, the warning lights seem unecessary... They would seem more appropriate if there was an antenna on the top and then one light on top of the antenna, for example. The HK Pawn shop looks excellent as well... perhaps less green space on it and another tent in the flea market might work well too... even as a second lot that will make the whole thing seem busier and not as relaxed, as the green suggests.

@ HONG KONG: The lot looks a bit plain... it needs some props that would show that people live there. Maybe a playground or swingset, or a small flower garden, benches... Maybe a dumpster or newspaper box. Some stuff like that and it would be much better. Right now it looks kind of, well... not alive enough. But still well done! Keep up the good work!

-Skyfire

[jesselong 0]

I'm happy to hear the news from HOng KOng.... If you don't mind, can you offer me the ploppable version for me?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Whoa people, there's much going on to comment and to reply to! Ok, let's begin...

HONG KONG Now yours was the biggest surprise... that looks mighty fine for a first lot, the trees even seem to be prop families if my eyes don't betray me! I also like how you made the parking garage look logical by giving it an actual access road. All in all, you made the lot look more like R$$, which I like as well.

I agree with the others, though, that some parts of the lot are a bit empty. Maybe you could add a little food stand, a kiosk, or whatever there - not to mention some people props! On such large open spaces, a mix of small groups of people plus some randomwalk_smallcrowd effects are ususally very effective. Then again, maybe you did add people props, but didn't wait for them to appear, which can take a while.

One thing about the lots is that they look rather static and symmetrical - which is neither good nor bad, just a neutral characteristic. I wonder if it would be possible to arrange the building a bit less symmetrically and find a lot design that actually follows the diagonal shapes...

I think I'm going to play with these as well, but that shouldn't stop you from going on with your superb work! The models are released anyway, so why not have several sets of lots for them? Tastes are always different, so the more versions there are, the more likely we are to suit many peoples' tastes.

Ok, I think this is it. I'm moving 400 km back right now in RL, but once I'm done with the biggest work, I'm gonna start a modding tutorial / school thingy to teach all interested people everything from the naked sc4model file over balanced stats to an overhanging functional ploppable with custom menu icons!

Skyfire Well, the warning lights are an experiment... a member on the German SimForum recently uttered that he was slightly disappointed by the general lack of warning lights at skyscraper BATs, so I decided to keep that criticism in mind and see if and how they would work out. The Marriott Hotel taught me much about the possibilities (I basically like those lights), but also about limitations and problems. It's more of an experiment, and since firstly they don't work perfectly, secondly the Marriott isn't a very tall building compared to other HK stuff, and thirdly the general consensus seems to be "we can do fine without them", I'll take them out again.

The Pawn Shop... yeah, I got your point. I've already thought of a nice detail I wanted to play around with in the meantime, so if I'm going to rework the lot anyway, I might as well try it now. Yet another way of arranging props that I've never tried so far... I hope it works out the way I think!

jesselong I gotta take a look into my stuff and see if I can salvage some of the ploppable test lots I made for the HK Garden towers if you are interested... they are not modded in any way, have confusing and cryptic item names and ugly default icons on which you won't be able to tell apart the different versions before you plop them... they also don't have some of the fine tweaks I added to the final growable versions, but if you can live with that, I can send them to you... just drop me a line via PM. Btw, that goes for everyone who wants to plop together an HK Garden complex and doesn't mind the "quick and dirty" character of the lots. I'm gonna wait for a few days and PM a link to the interested folk. Maybe I'll also make a note in the STEX descriptions.

Ok, RL is calling loudly - thanks for the great feedback, news, suggestions and participation, everybody!

[mightygoose 92]

nice work hong kong, and Twex i liking the idea of the tutorial, gives a shout when its kicking

[HONG KONG 74]

Thank you for the nice comments!!!

I added some things to arrange the lot animated. Unfortunately some inhabitants and cars didn't want to be photographed. I should probably work with a hidden camera Nevertheless, here the result.

One thing is however sure. We need asia style props in order to provide realistic lots

[bixel 1,228]

Looking good! Better LOTting than I did anyway, hopefully I will have more towers done soon and you can do the lot and modding on the 'Estate' Pack.

[mattb325 28,891]

Just wanted to drop in say what awesome work each and every one of you is doing. The buildings and the modelling is superb as are the custom reflective glass textures that you use to actually reflect the modelling you've done in the BAT - brilliant!

The lot work on the Mariott hotel looks just amazing Twrecks, it really finishes off a great building!

[2ch.net simplayer 180]

Originally posted by: HONG KONG

One thing is however sure. We need asia style props in order to provide realistic lots

quote>

 

That was quite obvious.... although not many have thought about. I can make props on demand, as my gmax have an ability to get Chinese characters in.

btw, just completed the futuristic Chinese cargo vessel BAT. On display on my CJ...

[IGGYMAN 101 1]

It is too very big...

[jesselong 0]

Yes I'm interested in the plops, T Wrecks... and I will send you the address through PM later

P.S The Marriot looks unique in this angle, as few SC4 buildings look in that way... Great work!