Theatre BAT

[IDS2 3,346]

The textures for the ingame grass can be found

For the roof, I know there are a few seamless textures available online that you can use as a starting point. Try starting with something like this and mess around with it in Photoshop (or play around with blend maps, but I'm not sure if you can do those in gmax). Try to make it large enough so that you can have some variation within the texture and you don't have to tile it. You might consider working with raytracing (in this context basically just adding shading to the roof) to give the it a nice finishing touch.

[weixc812 509]

Great job, I've been anticipating now

[Monkee_boy 41]

I thought I'd show a teaser of a building I'm just preparing to lot up: Speer's 'volkshalle'. I should point out this was modelled by a friend, not by me - I'm just importing it into SimCity for my own use. Here's an artist's impression of the building in it's natural habitat:

And a draft quality render of the actual BAT (scaled down by half from the height of the one above) with nazi symbols removed for use as a general government building:

Some textures seem to have gone missing in the render somehow...

[darn42 1,268]

yea, the textures need a TON of work. Doesn't really look like there are textures at the moment. Also, the dome looks very subdivided. I know several ways in 3ds max to fix that that I have no clue about in gmax.

Another thing, why aren't you using 3ds max again? There are many more tools for optimizing and finishing your model in that and the export, even if there are problems, they are much easier to overcome than some of the challenges gmax poses over 3ds that aren't necessary when you have access to both.

[Monkee_boy 41]

I just couldn't get BAT4max to work - I followed the instructions to the letter and just kept getting the multi-coloured boxes instead of the actual buildings. I tried exporting to gmax and using the normal BAT but it mucked up the textures I applied in 3ds. So I'm using a third party exporter to get the models from sketchup to BAT... then texturing them there. If I just use basic colours in sketchup, then gmax groups everything handily by texture so I can just apply to each group...

The brick textures are there - that's what's causing the diagonal surface patterns - but it's only rendered at draft quality, which should explain the poor quality (and those patterns). I tried to export at high quality but I got error six... damn. And the textures were still missing. I think I'm happy with the dome having that tiled look, by the way. It's not entirely unrealistic. It was smooth in sketchup, but it's been reduced to that during the import...

[darn42 1,268]

It looks like all of those tiles on the domes have some sort of normal problem or something like that. Try selecting all of the vertices and welding them together at a low rating like .1 or something along those lines.

[Monkee_boy 41]

I'm gonna have to abandon BATing for the moment - I've got some missing dependencies I can't locate. I've spent the last hour running cleanitol files... there must be an easier way to find which lot it is! SC just keeps crashing...

[harishna 847]

weird reason to abandon BATing...

[darn42 1,268]

weird reason to abandon BATing...

agreed. I haven't played simcity in almost a year. Can't get it to work for some reason, but I don't really care since BATing > simcity imo

[Monkee_boy 41]

weird reason to abandon BATing...

agreed. I haven't played simcity in almost a year. Can't get it to work for some reason, but I don't really care since BATing > simcity imo

Haha, but I would love to play the game and I need to spend time on getting it running again! Anyway, a little sketch-offering:

Textures, as always, need work... still the best brick I could find. I'm hoping to be able to join this to the CAL original canal system, probably by means of locks to hide the join, and make it a canal-based freight station...

Edit: Except that I simply can't make the b*t*d transition...

  Edited August 12, 2012 by Monkee_boy  

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Hmm, couldn't you use the canal props and put them around these buildings when you finish the buildings themselves?

[Monkee_boy 41]

I could.... but the depth of the canals is inappropriate, as would be the fencing along the edge. I'm also going for the slightly unique shape of the quays. I'm hoping to use this as a test case for building a new set of more realistic uk canals - towpath on a level with the water with a bank down to it, and grass edges, and less deep than the existing sets.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

It seems like you'd like to make your own canal set if you don't find the other one appropriate for your BAT. It would be an interesting project to work on.

[Monkee_boy 41]

Well, as you guys kind of predicted, despite not actually playing SC at the moment, my BATing has continued. If you can call it that. This building will probably never make it into the game either, and was just something I doodled on the back of an envelope. Literally:

I'm not even sure what it is, to be honest. It could be a palace, or a prison, or a government building of some kind. I drew it after watching an episode of Time Team with a moated grange in it - but as always I accidentally made it much larger than I intended.

It's a work in progress, so any comments or (nicely worded) criticisms are encouraged - bearing in mind this is my pet

The first thing I'm going to do next time I do any work on this is to remove the central pillar from in front of the main door. It looks daft, and there's precedent.

  Edited August 30, 2012 by Monkee_boy  

[Monkee_boy 41]

I've left my giant monumental BATs because the things that are missing from my cities are rather less grand. I've decided to knock out some smaller BATs in spare moments to fill up these gaps with an array of more individual buildings. My first attempt is a copy of a shop in my home town.

[harishna 847]

Looks fine, make sure that the textures don't tile particularly the bricks, the roof texture needs a bit more of work. Remember to model details like the glass and frames of windows and doors.

[SimCoug 5,972]

Great little shop, it would go well with the theater model you showed to kick off this thread. Any progress on that BAT?

[IL. 1,043]

Do you study 3D-modeling or something?

Your models are very good

That last fotified building looks like a prison, is it?

You can modify it a bit and make it one, there's not much of prisons in simcity 4

[Monkee_boy 41]

Great little shop, it would go well with the theater model you showed to kick off this thread. Any progress on that BAT?

I have done some more work on the theatre - mainly going round and replacing the stuck-on windows for modelled ones. I'll do another update on it soon. Modelling windows has been most of what I've done today too (in between frustrating bouts of job-hunting) as I've been replicating the annoyingly detailed and beautiful stonework on the local church's stained glass:

(Very much a work in progress - I need to replace the lead roofing texture).

Do you study 3D-modeling or something?

Your models are very good

That last fortified building looks like a prison, is it?

You can modify it a bit and make it one, there's not much of prisons in simcity 4

Thanks! No, I'm still teaching myself - not as good as half the guys on here yet but I'm hoping to improve

Here's a modular supermarket.

  Edited September 20, 2012 by Monkee_boy  

[Monkee_boy 41]

In other news, I've started a huge new region and am now BATing frantically in preparation for a new CJ featuring an alternative Lindsey (Lincolnshire). I'll tease you with the transport map and a (WIP) farm that will feature in one of the side-stories:

I know this doesn't belong in the BAT forum - sorry! Each of those city tiles is a large city.

At the pace I'm working, it could be quite some time before the CJ is ready for its first installment - there are lots of teething problems with river-crossings at odd angles and so on. I'm trying to mimic the real-life layouts and buildings of at least one town as closely as possible and it's hard bl***y work... I need lots more UK style houses and industry.

[psander5 195]

It's always great to see another new UK BATer around here! You have some interesting projects going on. That theatre model that you opened with would be great if you could pull it off, although the irregularity of the buildings will likely cause problems when converting it into a working BAT within the constraints of SimCity4. I usually have to take the facades and square up the backs so that they fit into the grid... which is a shame.

My advice to you for now would be to pick one small project (that A Foster & Son shop would be perfect in my opinion), and work it through to the end. You seem to be flitting from one project to the next at the minute, and from experience I can tell you that it's not very helpful when you're leaning the complicated process of making things for this game. You'll also get more focussed, continuous help from the community if you show updates from only one or two projects at a time, start to finish.

As has been said before, good textures are vital in this business If you don't already, you should get familiar with an image editing program. I and many use Photoshop, but there is a free alternative called GIMP. Here's a link to it if you need it, it's an unfortunate name for a Google search... link. I don't use it myself but I hear it's comparable in many ways to the expensive Photoshop.

It's incredibly rare to find an appropriate stock image texture for a big expanse of BAT, so most will need heavy processing in an image editing program first. Personally I make most of my big textures (walls, roofs, floors etc) from scratch using various sloppy techniques. If you have access to Photoshop (There will probably be a way to do it in GIMP as well but I don't know it) I can recommend for creating a basic brickwork pattern to use as a base. I've also used a separate program called Bricks 'n' Tiles before, which has a free edition, to create a brick texture from photographs, although for regular sized house bricks then Jasoncw's tutorial is more than adequate for me.

I'd love to see your models worked up into full SC4 BATs so I hope that none of this puts you off. I want most of them for my cities, which are influenced by my British experience, and there aren't enough of things like this yet! I have an insatiable appetite!

I haven't BATed anything myself in a long time, but it just happens that I was inspired by a walk through Sheffield this morning to pick it up again, so I might be able to add my limited knowledge to your endeavours once I remember the stuff that I've learnt in the past

[Monkee_boy 41]

SO. Long time no speak

 

 

 

It's always great to see another new UK BATer around here! You have some interesting projects going on. That theatre model that you opened with would be great if you could pull it off, although the irregularity of the buildings will likely cause problems when converting it into a working BAT within the constraints of SimCity4. I usually have to take the facades and square up the backs so that they fit into the grid... which is a shame.

 

 

 

 

Yes, I think I may have to go back to that one and make it conform to a grid, which is awful But thanks for the encouragement!!

 

So it's been a long while and I've been getting back into BATing again the last few weeks as my interminable job hunt continues.

 

I've gone back to the church model (above) and have just attempted to export it with BAT4MAX so I can add night-lit stained glass - but this has been a bit of a disaster. I had a similar problem to when exporting the theatre model, in that there's been some mistake mapping the building onto the LOD:

 

 

For the record, the proper model as previewed looks like this:

 

 

 

You can see the progress on the model there, at least, and I'll give up on the proper nightlighting for now since I've followed the instructions to the letter... Sigh.

[Gn_leugim 853]

I believe that is a ID problem, have you all patches up to date?

[Monkee_boy 41]

I'll have to double check, damn. Any chance there's a quick way to find out?

 

Edit: Looks like I'm an idiot - I just assumed that I'd installed the nitelight update years ago, and apparently not, on this PC. Duh.

 

Edit 2: Okay, I installed the update. The problem is still happening... And now for some reason, parts of other buildings are showing up at certain zooms when exporting the same building from gmax (I've had no problems like this before, and I've done nothing different).

 

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Forgot to include at least one finished and working lot, Dogdyke Station:

[libellibicus 396]

It's great to see some quality UK buildings. Great work. The Foster & Son shop looks tip-top. I would love to have it in one f my Cities. I also like your idea of UK style Canals. I shall be trawling this thread regularly. I hope the modular Supermarket is going to be a Morrison's.

[Monkee_boy 41]

Thanks Libellibicus! It's actually going to be a co-op.
 
Just a quick progress report: I'm still trying to re-create one particular town in detail. I have three specific issues now:
 
1. Since trying to use BAT4Max, I'm getting repeated ID conflicts, even when exporting from normal, gmax BAT (something I know nothing about how to fix - if anyone can point me at an 'idiot's guide' to solving ID conflicts with step-by-step instructions, and a for-dummies explanation of what's going on, I will send you chocolates and beer) ()

2. A couple of difficult road junctions which I can't re-create in Simcity (trying to think about this one logically) - I'm trying to take inspiration from the TuLEP

3. Scale. This has led me to attempt to first create a very rough 3d model of the entire town all at once, so I can figure out how to mould and stretch it to a grid - and get all my dimensions right. This has turned into a project in itself, mainly because I don't have to use the BAT and get caught up with irritating render issues and ID conflicts which make me want to throw bricks at my PC.
 
This seperate project involves working off an 1888 ordnance survey map I found online:
 

 

 

 

So, ANYWAY - progress reported, if anyone can offer any help on my specific issues, I'll be eternally grateful!

[libellibicus 396]

Bloody hell.......you've been quite busy, eh?

[Monkee_boy 41]

Very!

 

Oh - I can also kind of update on the church, one of the more complex buildings. In Lot Editor, it looks like this, but the building isn't appearing in the game itself, for some bizarre reason...

 

[libellibicus 396]

I hope you get the problem sorted out. Will you be releasing the Church, or is it for your own personal use?

[Monkee_boy 41]

I'm not sure the quality's high enough for release, and I've never released anything before, but potentially, if you're interested!

 

Noticing your location - I do plan on doing some Cambridge-based BATS in the distant futurem too!