Reddonquixote's BAT thread

[muxcomee 35]

Holy mother. That is beyond amazing. that detail. is uneblieveable.

 

IM SO EXCITED

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Man, where have you been all the time. I guess Amthaak gets a challenger

[darn42 1,268]

drools............

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Sooo... how about that local sports team?

 

edit: question) are those reliefs modeled in 3ds max using splines or sculpted in some sculpting program or what?

[dubaidude303 1,119]

Oh mercy what a beautiful structure!!  I will be watching for this! Great progress 

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Thanks everyone.

 

Darn, mostly the reliefs are just extruded/beveled splines with a bit of ProBoolean extraction (and some of it is just basic geometry spheres/torus etc), but believe it or not there are only two designs, they have just been mirrored/rotated/scaled/squashed/bent/composited for different uses.

 

Textures are going to be interesting,(Hard!) the stonework is mostly bright saturated yellow, not sure how to get that to look right while also fitting with the game palette. See how I go...

[darn42 1,268]

That's what I thought. You did a good job masking the repetitiveness that you had. It looks really nice.

[RepublicMaster 428]

Amazing, Can't wait to see the finished product

[Forthwall 1,118]

EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   This is what you call mastery of all things BAT D:

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I've had many many requests for this one... here's BAT number 6, Flinders Street Station.

This is just the first building. Not really sure how I'm going to make this into a BAT yet. The lot needs to be around 18x6!. I think some of the buildings might be made as props. Any suggestions gratefully received

 

Sweet mother of God. I have been waiting for this day to come.

So the way I see it, is you have two options:

 

• Make it a terminal station. Not as is in real life, but easier to do.

   

• Make it a through station. I beleive this could be done by sitting the station in a sunken 7.5m or 15m trench, and having the entrance to the station (ie where the clocks are) 7.5m/15m above the lot, on the corner. Then a road could be constructed over the through rail so the east side of the station lines up.

Either way I am looking forward to this. I always like your BATs, but this one especially.

[gutterclub 2,729]

Beautiful..and brings back memories of living in Melbourne! Yep, materials will be a toughie..but the modelling is something else!

[Gn_leugim 853]

but... but... that is... I mean... is...  *drops dead*

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

LOL... funny

Thanks for those nice comments everyone.

Yoshi, I might need to pick your brain some more, sounds like you have given quite a bit of thought to this.

Actually, what I was thinking i should do is make a prototype, that way I can iron out any design issues before I get too much further with the model. The biggest problem, already, is the slope of the intersection of Swanston and Flinders Streets, the ground floor of the East side of the station is level with the first floor of the North side of the building. I've fudged this a little in the model, not sure how else to do it, but I'm worried it looks a bit out of scale on the East side, and certainly, I've truncated the height of the lower set of windows on the North facing side. Some of your ideas seem to address this, but on the other hand, I don't know if its a really good idea to build a BAT which requires detailed excavation instructions for the lot... is what you're suggesting very complicated? (Not sure I'm visualising it very well..)

One idea I was thinking about is making the station into a Ground-to-Subway transition. Once the rail passes the other side of the station it needs to go under Swanston Street and come out the other side of Fed Square, as well as transitioning to the city loop and joining up with Melbourne Central. However, I have no idea how to do this, or if its even possible. Definitely more investigation required.. and anyone who has other ideas please.. help?

[Pobs 24]

Just... what... how????

 

A.

Ma.

Zing.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

LOL... funny

Thanks for those nice comments everyone.

Yoshi, I might need to pick your brain some more, sounds like you have given quite a bit of thought to this.

Actually, what I was thinking i should do is make a prototype, that way I can iron out any design issues before I get too much further with the model. The biggest problem, already, is the slope of the intersection of Swanston and Flinders Streets, the ground floor of the East side of the station is level with the first floor of the North side of the building. I've fudged this a little in the model, not sure how else to do it, but I'm worried it looks a bit out of scale on the East side, and certainly, I've truncated the height of the lower set of windows on the North facing side. Some of your ideas seem to address this, but on the other hand, I don't know if its a really good idea to build a BAT which requires detailed excavation instructions for the lot... is what you're suggesting very complicated? (Not sure I'm visualising it very well..)

One idea I was thinking about is making the station into a Ground-to-Subway transition. Once the rail passes the other side of the station it needs to go under Swanston Street and come out the other side of Fed Square, as well as transitioning to the city loop and joining up with Melbourne Central. However, I have no idea how to do this, or if its even possible. Definitely more investigation required.. and anyone who has other ideas please.. help?

Well you very well know I am a fellow Melburnian, we have probably used the station more times than we can count!

Yes, the slope is a problem, so I did a mock up of in in Sim City (using MS Paint to fill the gaps). I don't think it will be complicated, there are many train stations on the STEX that have usage instructions.

This is the setup (assuming it will be 10 track). Swanston St goes over the rail at 7.5m like so.

The red shows the lot it occupies. The entrance that you modelled sits 7.5m above the lot, so it can be level with the overpass. On the ground along Flinders St, you can model it so it sort of heads into the embankment.

Hope this helps.

 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

B-b-b-b-b-b... *gargl* *sputter* What the heck... I think one of us has finally gone insane now, and I have a hard time telling who.

 

While my mind is flying around the ceiling lamp and mumbling gibberish, let my fingers type a question: Could you explain your plans concerning the way this station will make it into the game? It would really be a shame to see even the tiniest part of such beautiful modeling work go to waste because you need to make cuts to make this behemoth work in game.

 

EDIT
 

Oh, I see ROFLyoshi just cross-posted - looks like a viable approach to me!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow!!!  The detail of this building. This is it, this is it, this is the building that's going to put you where the greatest batters are.

[libellibicus 396]

With a BAT/model of this quality, I think that a bit of terraforming/faffing about is definitely worth it. Whatever you do, don't let this exquisite building go to waste..........that would be a crying shame.

[RepublicMaster 428]

Maybe you could lower the railway tracks rather than raising the road. That would give a more seamless urban appearance.

[raymond3020 0]

1 Spring Street?

[Darknono35 3,137]

Hohoho      Breathtaking, I do not know what to say...

[Jack_wilds 550]

as long as its kept to a responsible scale so it looks like it fits in game in a city... maybe an intelligent building split, where one can be two or one again....

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

as long as its kept to a responsible scale so it looks like it fits in game in a city... maybe an intelligent building split, where one can be two or one again....

It's a very large building in real life, stretching 2 1/2 city blocks. So 18x6 would still be good.

One day, I will make a Melbourne CJ using your lots!

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Wow.. some lovely comments there, thanks guys.

Yoshi, I'm really intrigued by your suggestion, I particularly like the idea of having the model entrance elevated above the base lot to meet the road-overpass (or potentially lowered as RepublicMaster suggested), I don't understand one thing though. In your mock-up, the lot appears to be occupying the same tiles as the rail tracks, which I didn't think is possible, or I've misunderstood? Could you please explain how that would work?

in any case, there are a number of aspects to the BAT which I would like to incorporate. Refer my diagram:

 

(1) Represents the transition of rail tracks to the lot. I assumed this would just be transit enabled somehow?
(2) Represents passengers being able to get on and off at the station
(3) Represents a ground-to-subway transition
(4) Represents a subway-to-ground transition (after it passes under Fed Square)
(5) Represents a secondary subway branch heading off to Melbourne Central

That's what I would like it to do.. am I crazy? I literally have no idea if any of this is possible in one lot (or at all?). If not, could it potentially be made as several lots each with its own TE properties, but somehow interconnected?

One decision I have already made though, I will release two versions of this model, one will just be a flat-lot eye-candy/ terminal station, and one, (if its possible), will be a full transit hub as described above.

I will keep playing, please keep the suggestions coming through

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Are you referring to the part of the station along Swanston St? That would sit above the tracks. I think the lot can occupy the same space, but you would need to talk to a transit modder though for confirmation.

Your diagram is a wonderful idea; be great if it could be done. And I think the idea of a ground level terminal lot is good too.

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

I see.. so its not literally tracks laid down with the lot plopped on top, the tracks would be transit enabled into the lot. Thanks!

[scotty222 549]

Awesome i was really hoping you'd get round to batting this

 

Getting it to function as youve suggested from the diagram should be possible, im not overly familiar with transit enabling or modding though

Im 100% sure you can have one lot function both as a surface rail and subway station and this should enable the station to function as outlined perfectly

This Station on SC4D is a good example  https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=849 You could plop it where your model is and it could do all the things youve listed 

 

Dont ask me how to do it though

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yeah that's how I would personally do it.  You don't even need to make two versions because if they want it to be a terminal station without a subway station then they can simply not connect the subway part. 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Yes, technically all this transit-enabling is possible. Using SC4Tool, it's not even all that difficult.

 

As for the lot occupying the space where the rail tracks are, this can be done by transit-enabling if the lot is at the same level as the tracks. You'd need to cut "tunnels" into the LOD shell, too, to prevent trains from being cut off by the building.

 

However, I'm pondering a different approach. You see, when a lot is defined as a transit switch, Sims get teleported from one edge of the lot to the other in no time. That's why larger transit-enabled lots tend to influence traffic simulation more heavily than smaller ones. Another problem is that lots with a large footprint are crime magnets. That's why I've been thinking about making the 1 tile deep strip between access road and first rail track the actual lot, and the buildings overhanging props. This should be possible. It would eliminate the crime problem and might prevent overloading the station because trains passing through could use the outer tracks (the ones not touching the actual lot) without affecting the station.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Yes, technically all this transit-enabling is possible. Using SC4Tool, it's not even all that difficult.

 

As for the lot occupying the space where the rail tracks are, this can be done by transit-enabling if the lot is at the same level as the tracks. You'd need to cut "tunnels" into the LOD shell, too, to prevent trains from being cut off by the building.

 

However, I'm pondering a different approach. You see, when a lot is defined as a transit switch, Sims get teleported from one edge of the lot to the other in no time. That's why larger transit-enabled lots tend to influence traffic simulation more heavily than smaller ones. Another problem is that lots with a large footprint are crime magnets. That's why I've been thinking about making the 1 tile deep strip between access road and first rail track the actual lot, and the buildings overhanging props. This should be possible. It would eliminate the crime problem and might prevent overloading the station because trains passing through could use the outer tracks (the ones not touching the actual lot) without affecting the station.

How would that work in terms of capacity though? Because the building IMO should have a capacity of 100,000, as it is used by ~85,100 people daily. Plus there are no through trains in the actual network; all suburban passenger services terminate at the station.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Numbers in SimCity don't really compare to real life numbers, so the capacity would be based on the size of the building or the number of platforms and then compared to Maxis buildings and custom content.

 

And also, from my understanding, even though the UI makes it seem like they do, nothing bad actually happens when transit stations are over capacity.  iirc anyway