Show us What you're Working On

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Now I'm confused... I see you posted "works like a charm!" as a STEX comment 8 hrs ago (while I'm writing) this - apparently you didn't manage to get it to work after all, then? Unfortunately I won't be able to help you with anything Mac-related, but I sure hope (and I'm pretty optimistic!) you'll get it sorted out if you haven't already.

EDIT

@Simmer2, that's fantastic! I love retro commercial stuff, especially because there isn't that much around. Could it be that the station is a bit too tall, though? When I compare it to C.P.'s factories around, it seems to be really tall - and massive. I absolutely love the protruding roof with the rounded corners, but the Texaco signs on top are very thick and visually heavy, and the parapet around the main roof even more so. All in all, the building looks very industrial to me (which is probably not a wonder considering what you have been busy with recently!). However, the basis is definitely there, and textures are gorgeous as usual. Great job so far!

[Krasner 1,062]

@Simmer2 Great stuff, but I agree with T Wrecks, it seems to be a little out of scale. Also it seems weird that there are texaco signboards overlooking the roof, where they are not visible from the ground and therefor useless. But still, lovely and "industrialy" shorn art deco architecture

[Simmer2 23,831]

@T Wrecks and @Krasner It is to real life scale. 20m length by 8 meters width (building only) Cannot speak for other's work.....

Forget the surrounding buildings for a moment and look at the cars on the lot for a better perspective. At the end of the day it will have to fit on a 2x2 (32mX32m) lot and still have a bit of room to allow a car row to park on the side. The parapet is anything above the green lines, it is 1.5m plus Z. Top border is 0.1m by 0.3m plus Z

I applied the 33% rule on the Z axis for the entire assembly to correct isometric view issue. I could apply 10% on the X and Y axis but that's it. Again, it will have to fit on a 2x2 lot with a bit room to spare

@Krasner You should look at real pics before saying that the top signs are useless...... The original architect would be horrified

Simmer2

[kschmidt 6,223]

16 hours ago, Haljackey said:

Nearly done with my MHW replacement project

Mountaines terrain doesn´t leave much to desire: on-off ramps except the interchange size makes it hard to be ! Maxis interchange replace with the prefab RHw  three way interchange maybe only option to go complete RHW, unfortunaly this require absolute flat land still more desirable, well done !

[T Wrecks 10,210]

31 minutes ago, Simmer2 said:

You should look at real pics before saying that the top signs are useless...... The original architect would be horrified

Ironically, the picture shows one shortcoming of these signs - you can't read them once you're up close. But yeah, if this is the way the real thing was built, then why shouldn't the BAT have these signs, too? I like them. They also complement the rounded corners of the protruding roof section really nicely. Is that what's called streamline architecture? In any case, it's a little design gem, and it's great that you dug it out.

My main concern about dimensions was height, though. I agree that a certain footprint is required, and X and Y dimensions look spot on to me. Concerning height, if we assume that the entrance door is about 2 metres tall (maybe slightly more), then the entire building in RL should top out at roughly... I dunno, 4.5 metres?

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

@Simmer2 that Trains Station though

[madhatter106 3,931]

34 minutes ago, T Wrecks said:

Ironically, the picture shows one shortcoming of these signs - you can't read them once you're up close. But yeah, if this is the way the real thing was built, then why shouldn't the BAT have these signs, too? I like them. They also complement the rounded corners of the protruding roof section really nicely. Is that what's called streamline architecture? In any case, it's a little design gem, and it's great that you dug it out.

My main concern about dimensions was height, though. I agree that a certain footprint is required, and X and Y dimensions look spot on to me. Concerning height, if we assume that the entrance door is about 2 metres tall (maybe slightly more), then the entire building in RL should top out at roughly... I dunno, 4.5 metres?

Herein lies a problem with Maxis not adhering to a set scale with their models, coupled with the fact that sims themselves are apparently 4.0 meters tall - single story buildings often look squat or squashed when using real life dimensions.  I've found in my many years of BATting "little things" like this that often you need to "cheat up" the height a little bit, so they don't look too squashed.  It's something that comes up from time to time in BAT threads, and indeed I was just making this comment about a BAT that @IDS2 was showcasing in his thread a day or so ago.

In looking at that picture in an attempt to translate it to SC4 dimensions, we can assume that the door height is a little more than the height of a sim.  However, if a sim is 4.0 meters high, that makes our door even taller, so as a rule of thumb, I use somewhere around 3.75 to 3.85 for my door heights when I BAT.  (The sims can stoop a little when they enter my buildings, haha).  But let's just say that it's 3.5 for better maths.  If the door is 3.5 high, from the ground to the top of the transom (but excluding the transom window) just above the door, then we have approximately the same distance (in other words, another "door's height") between the top of the door itself and the top of the building - that is, the transom window and the remaining architecture above it to which the overhang is attached is also 3.5 high.  So, in totality, this could effectively be BATted at a height of 7.0 meters, and still be in keeping with the reality of the source material.  Even just looking at the door in the picture, you can see that though the building is single-story, the height of the ceiling inside the "office" (as well as in the area of the garage doors where the cars are serviced inside) is well above a single floor.  This, in addition to whatever HVAC and AC and electrical space wedged between the interior ceiling and the rooftop itself would be enough to get us to a height of 7.0 meters. 

So, essentially, our maths are the same, @T Wrecks - indeed, a doubling of the door height.  I just used the (near) height of the sims walking past the buildings to arrive at my result.

In effect, this little gas station is close to being a two-story building - it just happens to have a very tall single story inside.  Even in the multi-story office buildings I have been working on of late, I rarely use a ground floor height shorther than 6.0 meters or so - partly because it looks too short and squat, and also because many of these buidings have large lobbies at their entrances, which are substantially taller than a single story.  So even though the upper floors (past whatever mezzanine might exist) may be BATted at 4.5 (or sometimes 4.25 if I want to drive myself crazy with the maths) per floor, the ground floor is significantly taller than that.

[jaredh 195]

4 hours ago, Krasner said:

@Simmer2 Great stuff, but I agree with T Wrecks, it seems to be a little out of scale. Also it seems weird that there are texaco signboards overlooking the roof, where they are not visible from the ground and therefor useless. But still, lovely and "industrialy" shorn art deco architecture

This is pretty much spot on for the 50s Texacos in Arkansas I remember as a child being old and grungy in the 70s.

 

The buildings are tall because they were garages where they raised cars up.  That garage is at least a 12 foot ceiling.  Might be 15....I was a very little kid the last time I saw one, but the scale in my head has my mom's car up on a hydrolic lift with an adult standing UNDER it pointing to her the problem that day we got stranded on the side of the road.

So it had to be very high.

 

As far as the sign goes, who needs to see the sign when you are at the business already?   The point of the sign was to be visible well down the road. 

[feyss 1,981]

Small change of plan after downloading that old (but still great) factory from jestarr. The meadow located there got sacrificed.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

@feyss Love it, although IMO I think jestarr should  have made th elot backwards from what it is.

Also Whats the Lot to the left of it?

[feyss 1,981]

@DavidDHetzel Thank you!

This one ?: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=536 , it's from jestarr too.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

yeah, I actually thought it was that Maxis building @MushyMushy edited for one of the Lot contests. But I didn't remember it having out buildings. I'll go check if I have that DLed.

[Dreadnought 8,231]

WORK IN PROGRESS --

THE JADE BIGHT II

WILHELMSHAVEN SOUTH:

(Click to make bigger -)

Yo, guys --

On a much lighter -- and certainly less technical note -- a couple of quick pics from Wilhelmshaven South.

It occurred to me that I have been showing you bits and pieces of the new city -- WITHOUT showing you THE city.  Kind of like looking at the trees without seeing the forest ! 

Here are two pics that will show you the overview of the city and how the pieces fit in.  Still lots of work to be done, but now that I have finished my picture catalog, the actual building of the city is progressing fairly quickly.  Based VERY loosely on New York -- it's kinda' like "Manhattan on the Jade Bight".  Unfortunately, most of my lighting effects disappear at the max zoom level, so the effect is not as impressive as the "detail shots".  More of those next time --

[kschmidt 6,223]

2 hours ago, feyss said:

Small change of plan after downloading that old (but still great) factory from jestarr. The meadow located there got sacrificed.

Lovely canal zone ! UK Canal Barge pack 1; I also saw in the dutch cities some different long canal boat´s used; any info about these, well done !

[nycsc4 5,250]

13 hours ago, etgilbert said:

I'm on a Mac and haven't figured out how to use the fix or even if I can. I've posted a thread about it in the Mac forum, so hopefully there is an answer. Regardless, the fix is brilliant.

I actually use a Mac myself.  If you have the hard drive space and can get your hands on a cheap copy of Windows I recommend boot camping.  That's what I do.  Wine is another option.  This way the SC4Fix works, night lighting works, and no plugin limit.

[Krasner 1,062]

@Simmer2 I was, of course, talking about the signboard letterings that are facing inwards, towards the central part of the roof, not all the four of them. Only the ones that are facing inwards and that have no reason to be painted here

[RobertLM78 1,598]

9 hours ago, nycsc4 said:

If you have the hard drive space and can get your hands on a cheap copy of Windows

I don't use Mac, but there's a version of Virtualbox for OS X - I'm on Linux and run SC4 from an XP VM. 

[Simmer2 23,831]

@KrasnerOk now I understand. Fixed it.

New models (changed a few things)

Here is they are. They you ask? Yup I made 2 version... Oh and before anyone asks, these models will not have night lights beside the lit sign. (those old stations were pitch black at night)
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Simmer2/Nick

[redfox85 659]

@Simmer2 Finally a gas station with a tank loading area ! Its been bugging me for years on how gas stations get released with no area to offload the gas.

[younghappy 308]

These are ace Simmer! 

[RRetail 7,912]

Soon.... if I can figure out how to make an arched feature of the door. Otherwise this might stay boxy.

[Simmer2 23,831]

@kingofsimcity I haven't forgotten about the "abandoned" project. Here are a few more plus  a smaller version of the SM2 ADM Grain Elevator, a couple of new "decrepit" models including a flooded one and a station or 2... Also a new set of "broken" old pressure treated fence for the abandoned lots.

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Simmer2

 

[JulianMIA 1,610]

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 3:23 AM, Simmer2 said:

Here are 2 more models. One is yet another basement but with a somewhat intact corner tower and the other is fully above ground with walls showing decay. More to come, stay tuned.
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Simmer2

Your amazing sense of detail is very inspiring!

[JulianMIA 1,610]

On ‎4‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 9:21 PM, f3cs said:

New Suburban Subway Line to attend a new neighborhood

Great job on that rail line - beautiful station.

[jaredh 195]

@Simmer2  The big globes on the top of the gas pumps actually had lights in them (and look crazy cool when lit, that is why they are so sought after by collectors)

I recall seeing them on and off overnight.  

The lighting on the high sign is exactly as I remember...

Another thing these stations sometimes featured was a pay phone near the street with a light over it.

[Simmer2 23,831]

3 minutes ago, jaredh said:

@Simmer2  The big globes on the top of the gas pumps actually had lights in them (and look crazy cool when lit, that is why they are so sought after by collectors)

I recall seeing them on and off overnight.  

I know but they are so small that you would only see a dot of light. No way to see the logo on them.

[jaredh 195]

2 minutes ago, Simmer2 said:

I know but they are so small that you would only see a dot of light. No way to see the logo on them.

good point.  It probably wouldn't look right at all due to the scale.   They are not very bright when lit.

[RobertLM78 1,598]

11 hours ago, JulianMIA said:

Great job on that rail line - beautiful station.

 

Here's that station, in case you're interested.  I know first hand it can be a pain trying to find particular stations:

 

And one other sunken station, which isn't as cantankerous as the previous:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2702

[redfox85 659]

Just about finishing up the container side of the Laurentia port:

 

A part of it stretches 100 tiles... its huge.

[MatlockMan 370]

On ‎31‎/‎03‎/‎2018 at 12:32 AM, jmsepe said:

I'm still working on the same region, 1 and half year later.

Greater Kaijo Area, now at 4.34 million people, almost a quarter of the 12.5 million people target. I'm working on the island on the upper left and soon, I will terraform the small peninsula above it to match land elevations.

What mod do you use for the terrain?