Theatre BAT

[libellibicus 396]

I'm deffo interested. Which buildings from Cambridge are you looking at? If you need help with any pics etc give me a shout.

[SimCoug 5,972]

This looks like a very ambitious project. Great work so far.

[Monkee_boy 41]

Thanks Simcoug! That means a lot, I always enjoy your work!!


Hurray! The first two buildings are finally placed! Nightlighting is still not working, possibly because I've resorted to placing these as props for now, but I am well satisfied for the moment
 

 

I'm wondering whether to go back and add some details to the punch-house (sign, lamp, etc.)

[libellibicus 396]

Well done, it looks well smart. I really like the stained glass on the Church. Keep up the good work. Modelling the Sign and the Lamp would definitely help to add more character to the BAT.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

To me, the bigger Building's roof textures is tiling too obviously. Maybe changing it and making it less saturated would help in my opinion. Do you have Photoshop?

[Monkee_boy 41]

To me, the bigger Building's roof textures is tiling too obviously. Maybe changing it and making it less saturated would help in my opinion. Do you have Photoshop?

 

Do you mean the church? It's supposed to look like that - large sheets of lead. You can just about see it on the roof of the porch in this image:

 

[libellibicus 396]

Have you done any more work on your UK style Canals?

[SimCoug 5,972]

Are you going to consider releasing the models separately, or will this just be a private project? 

[libellibicus 396]

I'm really hoping that these will be for general release.

[Monkee_boy 41]

I have serious doubts about my ability to get these into release-able quality, with all the nitelight problems and so on. For the moment I'll just be working up to a point where I can start a CJ and see where we go from there! Given the scale of this project, I can say two things: one, this is the last SimCity map I will play; and two, I will still be playing SC4 in fifteen years...

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

To me, the bigger Building's roof textures is tiling too obviously. Maybe changing it and making it less saturated would help in my opinion. Do you have Photoshop?

 

Do you mean the church? It's supposed to look like that - large sheets of lead. You can just about see it on the roof of the porch in this image:

 

 

Are there birds eye views available. Because I can't really imagine that the lead looks that whit-ish. 

[Monkee_boy 41]

This is the best I can do off the cuff, aerial view-wise, but I have seen others that confirm the colour - it depends on cloud cover as it's very reflective!

 

https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=53.208129,-0.117086&spn=0.001264,0.002213&t=h&z=19

 

In the meantime, any feedback (particularly suggestions) is encouraged on the construction of these shops. They'll constitute a two-gridsquare wide commercial property, because the three buildings don't divide easily into 16m widths (though the three together make up exactly 32m, thank goodness). 

 

 

Overton's corner (the end, red shop) was a hardware shop which was demolished to widen a road in 1906. I've reconstructed it from photographs. The Overton family ran it from the 17th Century to the 20th without interruption. The white shop next to it still remains, and has been a fish shop and a bike shop in recent decades. The centre building is a 200 year old newsagent and stationer. The end building was once half of the Queen's Head Hotel, but is now a Farmer's Club/Young Farmers' Guild (upstairs) and charity shop (downstairs).

 

Only the green-tinted glass will be nite-lit. And I have to find some good shop-window textures for what is currently just brown glass.

[Gn_leugim 853]

yet about the church, not only de saturate it, but also reduce the brightness would be a good idea.

 

about this new one, i'll wait for a game preview to say something

[mntoes 270]

In the  description file for the prop (using the advanced tab of plug-in manager) set light to be "true" and the prop lights should work. Like your choice of buildings BTW.

[Monkee_boy 41]

In the  description file for the prop (using the advanced tab of plug-in manager) set light to be "true" and the prop lights should work. Like your choice of buildings BTW.

 

Ah, phantastic! Thanks

 

yet about the church, not only de saturate it, but also reduce the brightness would be a good idea.

 

about this new one, i'll wait for a game preview to say something

 

Right - I may reduce the brightness a bit next render, then.

 

I'll leave you with the 'money shot' of the completed frontage, before I turn in - I'm quite pleased with it!

 

 

Night all!!

[libellibicus 396]

Great.  I'm loving the interiors.  Well done

[Monkee_boy 41]

As they will appear in game (I never really appreciate how much detail is lost in the rendering... oh my...)

 

 

mntoes: I've changed the properties of all three of these buildings in plugin-manager now, but nitelights still aren't showing in game... any ideas?

[mntoes 270]

Only thing I can think of is that some times it take a while for them to work.  Keep switching between day and night mode to see if that helps. Also try the game on the fastest speed. I presume you have the up-date to add lighting. (SC4 Update for BAT)

[libellibicus 396]

These are looking really good. I think Mntoes may have hit the nail on the head re. lighting problems. I hope you manage to get it sorted. BTW, don't be so hard on yourself about your BATs, these are definitely of a good enough quality to upload onto STEX.

[Monkee_boy 41]

Only thing I can think of is that some times it take a while for them to work.  Keep switching between day and night mode to see if that helps. Also try the game on the fastest speed. I presume you have the up-date to add lighting. (SC4 Update for BAT)

 

Hmm, no, that sounded like it might work, but I ran the game at cheetah speed for a while with no joy...

[mntoes 270]

^^^

 

I have to agree. Nice Bats and more than good enough for the Stex, but with a bit more work these could be great. I would de-saturate the red texture a bit though and work a bit more on the roof textures they are a bit too "clean".

Use photoshop or down load the GIMP to add some dirt/variation to the texture.

If you want more fine details you sometimes have to make these slightly larger than real life. Also a good contrasting colour helps them show (similar colours blend in too much).

 

Regards

Mntoes

 

Edit  You posted before me...lol   Sorry I don't have any other ideas:-[  Any one else?

[libellibicus 396]

There needs to be a slight overhang on the roofline. At the moment the roof is sitting flush with the wall. I agree with Mntoes about adding some dirt/staining/weathering on the roofs. Maybe some moss on a few of the tiles. Little details like these will transform a good BAT into a great BAT. Keep up the good work.

[Monkee_boy 41]

^^^

 

I have to agree. Nice Bats and more than good enough for the Stex, but with a bit more work these could be great. I would de-saturate the red texture a bit though and work a bit more on the roof textures they are a bit too "clean".

 

I'll have a go at this as I go along, thanks!

 

 

There needs to be a slight overhang on the roofline. At the moment the roof is sitting flush with the wall. I agree with Mntoes about adding some dirt/staining/weathering on the roofs. Maybe some moss on a few of the tiles. Little details like these will transform a good BAT into a great BAT. Keep up the good work.

 

Actually, the roofs overhang nearly 20cm over the walls, except on the gable-ends... I had a look around last night, though, and there's very little noticeable overhang on these buildings - really there's no angle between the roof and the walls except for the gutters (which are also included above). I agree, the buildings do look a bit clean!

[SimCoug 5,972]

I really like the look of these - I hope you will consider releasing them at some point.  I would be happy to help with the modding/lotting.  I'm looking forward to what you come up with next.

[Monkee_boy 41]

The north side of the market place is now complete!

 

 

Having taken the trouble to scale these right - 16m per square - it's now annoying me that the Sims themselves aren't to scale! Tsk.

 

I really like the look of these - I hope you will consider releasing them at some point.  I would be happy to help with the modding/lotting.  I'm looking forward to what you come up with next.

 

Thanks! That might actually prove helpful, if I could send you a lot over and see if you can spot what's wrong with the nitelighting... the two north-side lots above shouldn't have any dependencies at this stage. After that I'll probably be able to sort them out myself!

[libellibicus 396]

This BAT is awesome. With Simcoug on the Lotting, it will be up there with the best Brit BATs. Definitely a candidate for STEX release (please....pretty please.....pretty, pretty please)

[SimCoug 5,972]

Scaling is always tricky.  Have you scaled your models vertically by 133%?  I believe that is the correct number, but maybe an experienced BATer can pop in here and confirm - That my fix your problem of giant looking sims next to the doorways (and keep within the 16m tile size).  

[libellibicus 396]

133% is the standard scaling measurement.

[mntoes 270]

133% is right. The sims in-game are oversized deliberately otherwise they would not show-up very well if they were to scale.

Try scaling-up, however your buildings already look quite tall (from the back). It's a case of trial and error and seeing how you feel it looks. As SimCoug said it's always tricky.

If you increase the height by 133% these buildings could look a bit Lanky (for want of a better term).  You may need to nudge-up the width a bit also (I know trying to fit them to a lot makes this difficult so choices have to be made).  Try plopping them next to bats made by a few other batters just to see how they compare. Even with Maxis building there is a wide variation.

 

These are looking very good but not quite ready for release IMO. (Don't rush what are promising bats ,I know the temptation is strong). Sorry to harp on but if you use a good photo program you can dirty your textures a bit, in particular the white is very clean. White is another thing it's hard to get looking good and takes practice. If you only take the brightness down a bit that will help.

[Monkee_boy 41]

133% is right. The sims in-game are oversized deliberately otherwise they would not show-up very well if they were to scale.

Try scaling-up, however your buildings already look quite tall (from the back). It's a case of trial and error and seeing how you feel it looks. As SimCoug said it's always tricky.

If you increase the height by 133% these buildings could look a bit Lanky (for want of a better term).  You may need to nudge-up the width a bit also (I know trying to fit them to a lot makes this difficult so choices have to be made).  Try plopping them next to bats made by a few other batters just to see how they compare. Even with Maxis building there is a wide variation.

 

Okay, thanks all. I may have to have a shot at them - depending how they look compared to the other lots in game. I've downloaded some UK houses before which didn't quite 'scale' right compare to others. I was aware things should be scaled vertically by a third but didn't quite appreciate why...

 

If I do go down that route, though, it may mean modelling everything from scratch, as I already modified the dimensions to fit the grid... trial and error! The easiest thing would be to scale up again double, but that'll probably result in them being too big...

 

These are looking very good but not quite ready for release IMO. (Don't rush what are promising bats ,I know the temptation is strong). Sorry to harp on but if you use a good photo program you can dirty your textures a bit, in particular the white is very clean. White is another thing it's hard to get looking good and takes practice. If you only take the brightness down a bit that will help.

 

I see what you're saying - I did dirty them up a little but it doesn't show well in the renders so maybe I've been a bit pansy-ish about it. The white in particular is quite a dirty texture: it's white-painted brickwork. Maybe it just needs a bit more contrast?