Poiuy1208's BATs.... Mostly Chicago related.

[poiuy1208 46]

Hi, I've finally decided to take up batting and make the buildings in my city I have always wished were in the game. I plan on making homes like these as my first projects.

I am using Sketchup Pro since I find it very easy to work with and I just don't have time to learn gmax.

Here is my first house: Basic outlines and shapes.

I've been having a problem though in gmax when I import it. The chimney has some sort of graphical error. If anyone knows whats wrong of how to fix please let me know.

[Francis90b 748]

As a neutral statement, i'd say that if you work on Gmax from the start, you would need to import things, and this would probably more convenient.

Some people there have used or used Sketchup as you did, as part of their BATing process - i don't feel like discussing the pros and cons of it, as i have no true experience with it - however, i hope people who are into this subject might.

This said, it's a nice, little project, a good one to learn things with - let's see how it turns out .

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Oh I can elaborate on your problem because I used to use sketchup years ago before I started using Gmax.

Notice in your sketchup model that the chimney's faces are a blue color? That's the opposite side of the faces actually. In gmax, it renders reversed faces like that invisible.

In Sketchup, reverse the faces so they'll be white again or the exterior surface(and don't texture them white that won't work ).

Hope that helps!

[poiuy1208 46]

You are right Sgt Pepper! Thanks.

By the way I since there are so many of these homes in Chicago with many decorative variations, I plan on making many, many variations. There are probably 10s of thousands of these in the city. And of course I will try to do the Chicago bungalow.

[poiuy1208 46]

Well what does everyone think?

Very rough draft. There aren't even windows yet and I just threw on random sketchup textures to see what it looks like textured.

I'm having a lot of fun with this!

[biancabllins 3]

nice im a chi-town resident as well, it looks nice a great start!

[poiuy1208 46]

What does every one think of these rough drafts?

I really don't like the roof texture and am having a hard time finding a good one. I think the brick could use adjustments though.

[Jasoncw 12,060]

Try making the shingles bigger, and the roof darker.

[Gn_leugim 858]

... and in the overall, the textures less bright and saturated I would say

[SimCoug 5,977]

I like the progress you are making on this thread, and I am exited at the prospect of a new set of houses. My only suggestion would be to include a few different colors/textures for each of your models in order to get the maximum variety out of this set. I would take a look at Jmyers Homes Vol1 as a superb example. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to watching your progress.

[poiuy1208 46]

I like the progress you are making on this thread, and I am exited at the prospect of a new set of houses. My only suggestion would be to include a few different colors/textures for each of your models in order to get the maximum variety out of this set. I would take a look at Jmyers Homes Vol1 as a superb example. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to watching your progress.

I fully intend to do multiple varieties with different textures. In fact I have 4 other models mostly completed besides the two in the above picture. It's just a matter of getting the textures right which I am having trouble with at the moment because now I need to learn photoshop.

I do love the jmyers series. I think there is a huge lack of post-war style american housing in the game. The homes I am modeling were built in huge numbers on the mid 40's to early 60's in Chicago. In fact a large area of the city and surrounding suburbs are made up of these dozen or so different home plans. I am talking a couple dozen square miles. Chicago is rows and rows of these:

After these sort of urban ranch style homes I want to do more typical 1950's ranch homes. More like what is found in suburbia. Sort of like Levittiwn.

Yes, I do like midcentury architecture very much!

[poiuy1208 46]

I've been experimenting with gradients. The first two roofs have no gradient. The difference is really night and day. I figured I should add plumbing stacks and roof vents since these one story homes are pretty boring seen from the top. Let me hear all your input.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

The gradient does make a huge difference! In terms of roof junk, looking at the picture it seems they all have cable TV; so I guess TV aerials and satellite dishes are not an option. Well, if you can add some smaller objects, that's fine, but if the result would look forced and artificial, you could also leave the roof construction as it is.

Another aspect to take into consideration IMO is the white top side of that wall in front of the right building. I think it looks too glaring white and should be toned down somewhat - to the level of the stairs on that middle building or similar.

So far you're doing a really great job!

[poiuy1208 46]

Ok I've completed 14 variations on the one story home. They're all ready to go become lots now, but I'm having a problem with rendering.

In the game there are spots on the roof and half the stairs are missing. Only the front view of the house is affected at zoom 4 + 5. Does anyone have a clue on what's going on here? I rendered another model as well and there was the same thing on the roof, but the stairs were fine.

[SimCoug 5,977]

Sorry, I can't help regarding your rendering issue. I'll add my 2 cents though, just based off of that last in-game image. Your houses appear to be over scaled compared to the maxis R$$ homes. I understand scaling is inconsistent even among maxis models, but I would be hesitant to use these because they appear to dwarf the maxis homes. Maybe somebody else can offer their opinion on the scale, since I may be looking at them wrong.

[jason leo 485]

I think the scaling is fine, but the stairs and the roof are problems left so far.

For the stairs, I suggest you to re-render the house once again, I think there is a glitch during rendering that cause some stairs are missing.

For the roof, I thought if there is a texture glitch. Maybe others could help you to solve this problem.

Overall, those houses is good especially the roof.

Good luck

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, those stains are the usual nVidia rendering problem... you have an nVidia gfx card/chip, I presume? The problem is known, and although it has not been finally solved, some headway has been made.

Read starting at reply #136 - you will find some information on the problem there. You will not find a patented, 100%, one-size-fits-all solution, but you may find a workaround that does the trick for you.

[Gn_leugim 858]

the cutted stairs can be easily a issue with LODs, as for those weird pixels, do you have any opacity map on the model? also, take a look at this I had that same issue and I found a way out. worked for me, dont know if will for you though

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grr T-Wrecks you got it first XD

[poiuy1208 46]

the cutted stairs can be easily a issue with LODs, as for those weird pixels, do you have any opacity map on the model? also, take a look at this I had that same issue and I found a way out. worked for me, dont know if will for you though

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grr T-Wrecks you got it first XD

It was an issue with opacity! I removed any transparency I set for he window panes and the problem was solved. Thank you Gn_leugim!

Sorry, I can't help regarding your rendering issue. I'll add my 2 cents though, just based off of that last in-game image. Your houses appear to be over scaled compared to the maxis R$$ homes. I understand scaling is inconsistent even among maxis models, but I would be hesitant to use these because they appear to dwarf the maxis homes. Maybe somebody else can offer their opinion on the scale, since I may be looking at them wrong.

What does everyone else think about the scale? I based my scale off the maxis in game house called "Sheeza brick house" My models are 10m wide. The one story is 11m wide. And I made it deeper since all rooms fit on the one story.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

I think it just needs to be scaled up vertically a bit. It looks a little too squashed. Vertically scale up the model and I think you'll be fine with scaling.

[Francis90b 748]

1) As far as i can gather you have modelled those houses following the proportions of RL buildings, and with dimensions made to fit with a specific Maxis reference?

2) If so, and if you have also vertically scaled them by 133% to counterbalance the visual effect of the perspective used to render things, then you should be fine....

If the answer to both questions is "yes", then you shouldn't worry about anything...your houses should look correct next to maxis ones - which was what you were aiming for, right?

[poiuy1208 46]

I think it just needs to be scaled up vertically a bit. It looks a little too squashed. Vertically scale up the model and I think you'll be fine with scaling.

I don't want to scale up since they are already sqat houses.

1) As far as i can gather you have modelled those houses following the proportions of RL buildings, and with dimensions made to fit with a specific Maxis reference?

2) If so, and if you have also vertically scaled them by 133% to counterbalance the visual effect of the perspective used to render things, then you should be fine....

If the answer to both questions is "yes", then you shouldn't worry about anything...your houses should look correct next to maxis ones - which was what you were aiming for, right?

I did scale up 133% I personally think they look fine scalewise, but other opinions are always helpful.

Here are different renderings I did. What should I render these in. I like HD medium since I can't tell a difference between that and high and I get to see the stonework. I have 28 variations on this house. I'd like to have them as a prop family or building family. I'm not sure how to do that though. They still need night lights and I need to figure out stats for these buildings. How should I go about that? Just base it off Maxis R$$ homes?

[mattb325 28,899]

Hi poiuy1208.

Regarding the scale, on the z axis you are fine, however I would scale each house and scale them down by approximately 5% on the X and Y axis. At the moment, the increased width/depth, plus the fact that mid century homes have a lower pitched roof is creating the illusion that your homes are overscaled next to Maxis; reducing the width and depth slightly will counter this.

As to the HD option, I would advise against it. In Gmax models in particular, most HD objects look off in zoom 5 and zoom 4 (unless the texturing is top notch) and few players use only zooom 6. Instead, I would focus on making your brick/stonework maps larger so that they fit the scale of your roof tiles map.

You are making some good progress on these homes, I really like the mid century theme

[SimCoug 5,977]

i agree with Mattb - they just look large next to their Maxis neighbors... plus It looks like they are nearly as wide as a tile, which would make them difficult to fit on a 1x2 lot (at least if you wanted to add props, etc around the building). Regarding HD - I think it may be useful for small props, but overall I don't see many people playing SC4 in zoom 6 (as Matt said).

I also think this will be a great set of homes - looking forward to your progress.

[poiuy1208 46]

Thanks for the advice I did scale them down 5% on the x and y axis. They do look better! The models are finished except for nightlighting. I used sketchup for these so I have no idea how to nightlight these buildings. These models are done. Is it possible to nightlight sketchup buildings? I only use gmax to see renders. I just want these done so I can start something new.

Here is a pic of the home scaled down 5% on x & y.

It is very slight. Can you tell? Shall I go more?

[SimCoug 5,977]

Hard to tell with that pic - can you put them next to a maxis home on zoom 5?

[poiuy1208 46]

Hard to tell with that pic - can you put them next to a maxis home on zoom 5?

I'm still playing with this... I decided to scale upwards on z 10% Decrease the back by 10% and leave the width as is. The one with the black roof is scaled in that way. The gray roof is not scaled upwards.

[poiuy1208 46]

I'm having a problem with nightlighting. I figures out how to do basic nightlihting by prefixing the names of each pane of glass with nite and when I do a test render the lights do show up. However, when I make the house as a prop and then put it on a test lot in the lot editor I get no lights in the game. This is very frustrating as these models are done and ready to be modded. I have a darknight mod. Is this causing some conflict? Do I need to do a special render for darknight users?

Here is the final scaling I have come up with: The red one on the right. Not the dark gray roof one.

From afar:

[ohai147 9]

Before you do a final export, I think you should choose a smoother roof shingle texture, like the ones on the Maxis houses. The spaces between the shingles I think produce an unfavorable effect on the render.

[jason leo 485]

I'm having a problem with nightlighting. I figures out how to do basic nightlihting by prefixing the names of each pane of glass with nite and when I do a test render the lights do show up. However, when I make the house as a prop and then put it on a test lot in the lot editor I get no lights in the game. This is very frustrating as these models are done and ready to be modded. I have a darknight mod. Is this causing some conflict? Do I need to do a special render for darknight users?

Darknight mod shouldn't become a problem. The problem is the stats of the prop. It is based on the light description of the SC4Desc. file, if you set the light become 'true', then the lights are on. However, if you set it become 'false', then the lights aren't working.