MFP 1

[mrbisonm 1,620]

MFP 1......Nexis Bats are back!



First a little about me you should know, if you don't already.....In the early seventies, I finished my agronomical diploma in the MacDonald College (McGill University) in Montreal, Quebec/Canada. I was going to become an Agronome. My interest for farming was great and stimulated by my father's "Gentleman's farm", which had a dozen chickens, a few sheep, 2 or 3 pigs, a horse, some ducks and 1 cow. lol

Then all of sudden I turned into architecture which I also studied at the same time, to become a custom loghome designer in 1972, which I still am today. To satisfy my "arty" (artistical) desire and talents, I do a lot of painting (oil, lead and aquarell) and some taxidermy as my hobbies.(I love animals)
When my father died in 1973, I bought the farm from my mother and started to expand the farm, having bought more land and starting the Beefcow/calf system and gathering therefore my experience with farming, buildings, farmanimals and machinery etc.
Although I actually "farm" (work hard on the farm) very little myself, I am always around my farms, even more today and I even live on it. I have several folks that run the farms of a little more than 900 acres (approx. 425 ha), but for driving the machinery, helping the birth of a calf, I am always available.

That explains the farming knowledge I have since 42 years and my interest in this project.

.........................................................................

The MFP 1, Modern Farm Props Vol 1.

Let me explain what the MFP 1 actually is to those who don't know yet. It started a little over a year ago with an idea I had since a few years back. Then I met FranKU on SC4D, who was about to release a new simcity farming set, but as he was limited with the amount of BATs and Props for his Dutch based project, it inspired me to offer myself to make a few for him.

At the same time, my project idea to make a whole new farming community came back alive.....so, why not make it both. A European and North-American farmset

That is how the project of the MFP 1 actually started. Thanks Frank.

There is already a thread out on this subject since the beginning on SC4Devotion, but since I know that many members of other simcity sites do not go to their forums, apart to download some unique "stuff" from the site, I decided that it is time to open a thread here on my original site where I am a member since 2002 (under a different name for the first 6 months) and where everyone will be able to see what's coming up to the simcity Farming world.

In the beginning, it was meant to add some modern farmbuildings to the game, while we already have lots of good looking older farm buidlings available, such as the Maxis farms and the better SPAM of course. But no new looking and modern sheds, silos, barns and stables are on the Net to make today's real life farms appear in game, and this project was meant to be of an approximately volume of some 30 to 40 BATs at the start, but to make a complete Modern farm set, it expanded into several hundreds of BATs.

Now, don't panic, you will be able to download only what you like without being forced to download everything.
The MFP1 contains 7 sets (maybe . One of them is seriously big, the mainbuidlings, and the others are reasonable sized. And there's always a way to extract modelfiles from the datfiles if absolutely needed/wanted.

I decided to open this thread a few days ago, when I realized that I am about to finish all the sets and it is time for the rest of the players to see and read about the MFP 1.

Why the Volume 1 of the Modern Farm Prop Pack? Well to be honest, the project expanded itself into a whole new direction after having started with a few farmbuildings. The idea existed already since years. Because it is totally impossible to cover all and the total of the "farming" means with only one pack, I decided to make a conclusion of a Volume 2, to be available by the end of next winter. (hopefully)
While the first Volume will cover the main subject (agriculture, horticulture and animal production) of farming as most everyone knows about, such as Cattle raising, chicken, ducks, pigs, sheep and even rabbits, dairy farms, horse stables, plus vegetable growing, small fruit and even treefarming, not forgetting cerials, both for food, feed for animals, grains for reproduction as seeds and fuel for machines as ethanol... etc. The Volume 2 will be smaller, but as important, productions, of seafood, fish, crabs and lobster, mussles and clams, algae and seaweed, including the spirulina, ethanol production, also it wll include futuristic farming of all sorts, farms that don't even exist yet , as airfarming, underground mushroom farming, on top of water and under water, and everything else imaginable. Farming is the future, if we want to feed our kids and grandchildren properly.

MFP 2 has already started btw, as many as 20 Bats are either started or finished sofar. This is top secret though, sorry, because the last time I wanted to start something (a few years back), I talked about it and then someone else did it before I wasn't finished.... ...and somehow I lost interest in BATting for a few years.


This Project is big, a lot bigger as I imagined, but it grew on me, all by itself and without realizing where it took me. It is indeed my biggest project. Now it's too late to reduce it much. More than a thousand BATs have been made, from which I am choosing the best at this moment and render them into Props.

I am not alone in this though, there is my partner who will do the LOTting and the Lot "Tweaking" (stats etc). FrankU will take care of the Dutch farming sets (usable for Euro farms). He will himself explain what he actually will be doing. Then there will be other LOTters, Renderers and Testers, which we will meet later also.

The MFP 1 consists of 7, maybe 8 complete sets.

Set.1 :  Main Buildings, consisting of barns and stables, the bigger and more important buildings on a farm.(except farmhouses) Some of these could easily be used for industrial lots, such as hangars and little manufacturing shops.

Set.2 :  Manure, (the smelly kind) which consists mainly of "by-products" of animal productions. It doesn't sound big and important, but if you really get into the sh*t of it, you'll be surprized how many variations of manure storing, disposel, re-cycling, composting, refining and using  exists. This will contain manure composters, liquid manure tanks (purin), piles, hydraulic pumps and manure ladders etc. The second biggest set.

Set.3 :  Silage. Another big set with means of silaging and storing everything from grains and cereals to green silage, ground silaging, open air silagers, vertical and horizontal silos for feed and gaz production, ethanol, etc. Most of the names I don't even know in English, but with time they will be explained and named.

Set.4 :  Sheds and Shacks. There are toolsheds, machinery sheds, also little shacks for chicken, called chicken coops, and big sheds for storage, hangars etc. Again, another set of models which can be used for industrial lots. Sounds simple and small, but be not surprized when I told you that I have made more than 100 models for this category. Of course, there will be a lot less to be included in the MFP1, only the best models will be chosen.

Set.5 :  Harvesting, which includes the buildings where harvests will be stored, such as smaller barns for hay and straw, also some hay and straw stacks,loose straw piles plus ways to store other harvests. Although this is one of the smaller sets, it still has at least 25 or more models.

Set.6 :  Machinery and implements, containing almost all machinery used in fields and around the farm, such as tractors, wagons, plows and disc harrows, pumps and tankwagons for liquid manure, balers and harvesters, backhoes and small bulldozers etc. A lot of smaller props, which some might even be made into MMP's later on.

Set.7 :  Other. This set will be the "dump" of everything else which doesn't fit into one of the above category. There will be bigger models and also small ones, ranging from buildings to some other things that we find on and around a farm, sand and dirt piles, tree stumps, woodpiles, fences and gates (open, closed), wheelbarrow, barrels, logs, gaztanks, rockpiles etc. Some could end up into MMP's.

?? Set.8 ?? : Then there is the eighth set which is not yet quite decided for if it fits into another category or not. Greenhouse farming. Growables, ploppables, small, medium, huge and immense (industrial), see through or opaque. All kinds and all sizes and styles. A complete Greenhouse kit.

Now, in this thread we will follow the development of my props set as it approaches the final steps of rendering, testing, improving and uploading, the same as I do on our co-operational thread with FrankU on SC4D.

First, here is what I am at this moment.
 
Set 1 is finished, rendered and sent to FrankU for final testing and then LOTting.
 
Set 2 is finished and I am rendering them as I write this. It should be send to FrankU by the coming weekend.

Set 3 is finished and only partially rendered.

Set 4 is finished also and not rendered, some models have to be re-sized first, as I saw when testing them ingame, they are too big and out of scale.

Set 5 is about to be finished, shouldn't take more than a week or so. Not rendered yet of course.

Set 6 is still partially in the making, trying to search for good pictures of different machinery. I have received a set from Rambuckel, which she kindly allowed me to use, include and "re-build" into a machinery set. Her tractor, wagon and a harvester are very welcomed. Thanks Rambuckel.

Set 7 is almost finished, there are some fences to finish and that's about it I guess. Fences will be rendered in HD by Krashspeed who is willing to help out, since my computer does not accept the HD rendering program. Krashspeed will do the HD rendering of the barbwire fence set. Thanks.

Set 8 (?) is finished and some parts rendered and sent off to FrankU for LOTing and using them as growables for his farmfield set. The other half is finished, but not yet rendered. This shouldn't take long since there's only 7 models left to render. Maybe some resizing is necessary, we'll see.

So, this is one year's of BATting, testing and so on......
The props of the MFP 1 will be available a little before FrankU has finished his Dutch farm set on the STEX and maybe other sites also. These Sets will you give the chance to build your own complete farms of all sorts and with all details, maybe one (or several) of you will make some North-American farmsets with these props, so that I don't have to do them all next winter.

Meanwhile I will keep you informed here (with pictures of course) how the Project of the MFP 1 is coming to an end. Pictures of many different models from each category will be coming this and next week or when I will have the time. Some ingame pictures also.

mrb/ Fred

Just to give you a tiny idea what these props look like, here is a preview of an assembly of a few different MFP 1 props.

Enjoy and start dreaming about the farmworld you will be able to create.

Have Fun with Nexis

Note: On the second picture there is an error rendering of the picture. You can see the top of the blue steel silo being damaged (white cap). The model is actually as nice as on the first picture.






Direct links to the original sized Pictures, more detailed.

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1263/4425.jpg
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/609/4426x.jpg


 
 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well well, don't I remember these and the discussion we had about the colour of those used tyres and so on... Good to see the project hasn't died after all!

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I like this project. However, it's quite obvious that the grey warehouse isn't modelled at all. At least we can see how it looks like when there is only basic geometry. I guess this shouldn't be too hard to fix.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

I like this project. However, it's quite obvious that the grey warehouse isn't modelled at all. At least we can see how it looks like when there is only basic geometry. I guess this shouldn't be too hard to fix.

 

Are you talking about the stable/ barn? I'm not quite sure what you mean by "isn't modeled"....???? Aren't most parts of a basic and practical building of basic geometry? That is what I am doing since 40+ years with great success irl. This isn't a tree, sculpture or an artistic model, this is a barn. 

What is there to fix? Please be more specific. Thanks.

 

mrb

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

 

I like this project. However, it's quite obvious that the grey warehouse isn't modelled at all. At least we can see how it looks like when there is only basic geometry. I guess this shouldn't be too hard to fix.

 

Are you talking about the stable/ barn? I'm not quite sure what you mean by "isn't modeled"....???? Aren't most parts of a basic and practical building of basic geometry? That is what I am doing since 40+ years with great success irl. This isn't a tree, sculpture or an artistic model, this is a barn. 

What is there to fix? Please be more specific. Thanks.

 

mrb

 

 

 

I'm talking about the red-circled building. It's pretty obvious that basic parts like "doors" (not in this case) are parts of the textures and not made as a geometry. That's what I'm refering to.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Obvious....sorry Pal, these doors and everything else have been modded. The doors (the big ones) are made from 4 or 5 individual pieces. Frame, inside frame, door itself and boolean. And Yes, the doorknok is textured.

 

I will show you the very details of this and other models of mine soon, (no textured doors or windows on my models) because I now feel a little "almost insulted" by having told me that my doors are textures, because they are not. No detail in my models is textured. I don't know if you're a BATter and have experience with models, but if you are you know that high polygon counts made the game slower. Many excellent BATs have that problem, too many details that you hardly see or recognize, are totally useless. Twenty or so of these BATs in your plugins and your game starts slowing down because of this, and this is what will be happening when you want to detail even the doorknobs. One has to know where to stop exageration. These so great BATs will be looked at once or twice in the game and then shipped to an outside folder or deleted, while low polygon count BATs stay to play.

 

I'm not a Pro of BATting at all, but I know when a BAT is too "heavy" for what's it worth. And my details on my models are good enough to be seen.

 

I am 1600 km's from home at the moment (Rankin Inlet,Ontario), tomorrow it will be almost 6,000 km's (Alaska). I have to look at some of my jobs and maybe find a new contract at the same time. Also, while I am in Alaska, I would like to spend at least one day fishing trout and salmon.

But when I get home, I will show a very detailed picture of that exact same model and then we'll see if the doors are textures or actually modeled. Give me a few days.

 

No hard feelings.....

 

mrb

[mattb325 28,880]

Obvious....sorry Pal, these doors and everything else have been modded. The doors (the big ones) are made from 4 or 5 individual pieces. Frame, inside frame, door itself and boolean. And Yes, the doorknok is textured.

 

I will show you the very details of this and other models of mine soon, (no textured doors or windows on my models) because I now feel a little "almost insulted" by having told me that my doors are textures, because they are not. No detail in my models is textured. I don't know if you're a BATter and have experience with models, but if you are you know that high polygon counts made the game slower. Many excellent BATs have that problem, too many details that you hardly see or recognize, are totally useless. Twenty or so of these BATs in your plugins and your game starts slowing down because of this, and this is what will be happening when you want to detail even the doorknobs. One has to know where to stop exageration. These so great BATs will be looked at once or twice in the game and then shipped to an outside folder or deleted, while low polygon count BATs stay to play.

 

I'm not a Pro of BATting at all, but I know when a BAT is too "heavy" for what's it worth. And my details on my models are good enough to be seen.

 

I am 1600 km's from home at the moment (Rankin Inlet,Ontario), tomorrow it will be almost 6,000 km's (Alaska). I have to look at some of my jobs and maybe find a new contract at the same time. Also, while I am in Alaska, I would like to spend at least one day fishing trout and salmon.

But when I get home, I will show a very detailed picture of that exact same model and then we'll see if the doors are textures or actually modeled. Give me a few days.

 

No hard feelings.....

 

mrb

 

Hi Fred

 

The assumption that more details on a BAT somehow make the game slower is entirely incorrect.

 

While more details may slow GMax down while rendering, the end result of the rendering process is that it merely 'pastes' the imagery of those modelled pieces onto FSH images within the LODs (which are simple boxes) that become the SC4 model file.

 

Whether you have started out with only a simple 2mx2m plane and a texture applied or an intricately modelled 2mx2m masterpiece with many millions of polygons, it will still end up as a series of FSH files and the game will make no distinction between the two. Also, the SC4 model file size in that example will be almost identical as the number of FSH files used are the same.

 

Now, using too many buildings with custom LODs can slow the game down as the game has to use it's limited 3D capabilities to present the file, but that's as far as it goes. 

 

There is nothing wrong with using a texture alone (I've used that same door texture myself in the past), but don't take it too personally when it's pointed out.

 

Bats rarely suffer from having too many details - in fact, quite the opposite.

[Cockatoo 2,256]

I don't know if you're a BATter and have experience with models, but if you are you know that high polygon counts made the game slower.

 

Not entirely correct. Poly-count in Gmax doesn't translate to polycount in game. Only your hopefully very simple LODs (usually just a box) exist as actual geometry in game, your rendered images are then mapped onto these LODs. Increasing your polycount in Gmax/ Max only affects the time it takes to export the model, it doesn't impact on either the size of the SC4Model file itself or how the game sees it.

 

The correlation you make between high-poly BATs and game speed is incorrect.

 

Edit: Matt beat me to it.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Hmmm...new to me, and surely good to know, but how come then why it takes so few very detailed models to slower the game? When I started BATting, I was taught that more polygon counts slower the game......

 

Interesting...thanks for the info

 

mrb

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Nope, higher polygon count of a BAT before the render is definitely not what slows down the game. As Matt and Jason said, the only model in game is your LOD box, i.e. a simple cube in most cases. However, a previously rendered picture of the building is applied to the faces of this cube as a texture, and reading all those texture files required to display the additional BATs and props in game slows down the game (data transfer) and hogs memory (RAM usage).

 

I'm not into the programming side at all, but common sense tells me that having a choice between many more buildings than just the vanilla ones might also slow down the simulation due to higher CPU usage.

 

To add to this, the game needs to read the DIR files in all plugins first, that's always a process of opening a file and reading it, for each and every file. That's why Maxis consolidated all their game files into three or four huge lumps: Only four files to open and four large directories to scan => only four operations. A plugins folder can easily contain thousands of individual files => thousands of operations. That's the reason why using the DATPacker application available over at SC4D can speed up loading times: It applies the same consolidation that Maxis used for the original files to your plugin files.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

I understand, but there's still the question why certain models are some MB's big and small and others of the same modelsize, like mine, that only "weigh" half or a third of the size, although they are almost identical. By "weight" I mean the actual size of the file. There's an interesting model that I made, that uses a lot of chamfer and rounded corners (a detailed round hay bale) Before using all these  modifications on the model, the bale is actual quite simple but also good looking in the game, and of course quite usable, but if you zone in at 6, you can identify that the edges are not so "smooth". That model file is 186 Kb. The same model made with all the details and smoothiness, looks quite the same in almost every view (except maybe 6), is 455 Kb and the only difference, because I know it, is in view 6 that you can see the rounder edges. And it's NOT HD.

 

Now that is a big difference for a round hay bale only. If you plop several together, even gmax and the computer will have a slight problem looking at the model from all sides, and it surely it will effect the loading speed and  ingame speed with all details turned on.

Logical to me that means the model is more detailed , "heavier", and of course influencing the loading time and the game speed.

 

Now this is what I am trying to tell here. Make a detailed model with all the fuzz that you don't even all see, or take the attention to see in the game and create a Model Pack with several hundred of individual models like I am, and you got yourself a problem of playing the game smoothly on your hands.

 

I thought that it was the polygons counts that matter or are the main cuse of this, because this is what Ralphael Ninja (one of the older and great BATters we had on this site before most of your time) told me, and that is why most of my modelfiles are very small and help to play the game with many models easier.

 

I still say, modeling a door knob and a keyhole is totally useless! I use textures for this detail.

Having brought up this subject is quite interesting.

 

Like I said, once I am home, I will show a pictures of this specific barn model with all the details "detached" to proove that the doors and other things are modeled into the model and not textured. Noiw I got a plane to catch. It's a long walk from Rankin Inlet to Anchorage........

 

mrb

[Jasoncw 11,840]

If you have a small hay barrel and it's big enough to require one 128x128 pixel (or whatever the dimension is) FSH file, it will require that same size no matter how detailed the hay barrel is. 

 

And so the filesizes will be comparable, because each zoom 5 will still be a 128x128 pixel image. 

 

But the filesizes can also be different, because some images compress better than others. 

 

If, for example, you export a flat colored box, and then put a detailed texture on the box and reexport it, the one with the texture will have a slightly higher filesize, because an area of flat color is easier to compress.

 

 

Some people might notice, either from their own BATing, or by their experience downloading from the STEX, that DarkNite BATs have a lower filesize than MaxisNite BATs, and it's the same thing.  Even though the BATs are similar, the DarkNite renders compress better and have a smaller filesize.

 

The main predictor for filesize is the number and size of .FSH slabs the building requires, and how much area of those .FSH slabs are occupied by building (detailed surface) and then black/grey background matting, which is flat and compresses well.  Or in other words, the overall size of the building.

[mattb325 28,880]

As previously said the geometry files in game are simple boxes with imagery pasted on and their Kb size in game is determined by the size of LOD box. The larger the LOD box, the greater number of FSH files are used and the heavier the file size.

 

In your example where a bale of hay is 186kb when textured and 455kb when textured + modelled, you have something else at play, either the textures are different and compress differently as Jason said, or the LOD sizes vary meaning that there are a greater number of FSH files in the final product.

 

It's a very quick job to replicate to show you that polygons in GMax do not equal model size increase in game.

 

To start with, I made a box 3m x 3m x 3m. It has 3 height, width and segment sides. I then converted this to a mesh. I have used the same box in both renders.

 

For the 1st Bale, I just slapped a hay texture on it and then rendered. It has 108 polygons and ended up as a 15kb SC4 model file

 

For the 2nd Bale, I chamfered all of the edges and used a relax modifier (making sure that the model didn't exceed 3x3x3) and a smooth modifier. This increased the polygon count to 188. Yet the file size is 14kb.

 

 

So, not only are there more details, but the file size ends up smaller!

 

I know which I would be using.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

 

It's a very quick job to replicate to show you that polygons in GMax do not equal model size increase in game.

 

Now you tell me, why didn't you when I started BATting? Where were you then?.....lol. Kidding aside, that's one good info to know. And I worked my "thing on the lower back" off to make my models as little as possible with polygon counts......imagine....

 

 

But the filesizes can also be different, because some images compress better than others.

 

Do you what imges do compress better and why?

 

Thanks guys for all the info you have given me on this subject, much appreciated. I again learned something in 3d modeling.

 

mrb

[T Wrecks 10,209]

In general, the more repetitive data is, the more compressible it is. As Jason said, a solid colour is easiest to compress because all the compressor needs to remember is "OK, we have this RGB value, and the texture is X by Y pixels", and that's basically it. However, if the texture uses more colours and complicated patterns, the information on which pixel has what colour values is much harder to shorten and summarise, making the texture less compressible.

 

Another factor that comes into the equation is the distribution of visible content over the size of each FSH slab. The 2D images that are used to texture the LOD shell of your BAT are not full images in the respective size that's required to get the entire building (from a given camera perspective and zoom level) into the picture. For example, an antenna mast would be very tall and thin, whereas a boat dock would be wide and low. This leads to radically different image formats - or it would do so, if the graphics engine worked that way. What happens instead is that your building image is cut into individual tiles that are all the same size, in all the models. You can imagine the principle quite well if you imagine you had to paint the Eiffel Tower on an array of, say, 4 by 9 square floor tiles and then took all those tiles that have paint on them from the floor and piled them into a stack. Each tile would show a part of your image. Some might be almost fully painted, whereas others will only be necessary because an angled line is running along a tiny part of the corner, and the rest would be empty (invisible) background. Now if you have a tile/texture slab that's mostly invisible background, there's not that much colour information, making the tile/texture slab easy to compress. Those, however, that are fully painted, contain a wealth of colour information, and will therefore be harder to compress.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Thanks T Wrecks. Now I understand the pixelization of textures and the FSH maps of the model textures better. Much appreciated. Information like this is always welcomed.

 

mrb/Fred

[Gn_leugim 853]

my only critics is the overall oversaturation of the pieces, which is more noticeable when put together. but apart from that, great job and great idea

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Well, I am back home, therefore I have access to my gaming 'puter. Here's that detailed picture of the same barn as above, so you see that the doors and everything is modeled and not just textured.

 

 

 

mrb

 

[Shy Dude 149]

Well that big door is sort of just a texture, its nice that you modeled the frame around it but it might be better if you model it completely and give it transparent glass or at least apply an alpha map to it. It looks more convincing with transparent glass and you just texture the floor plane. Even if you just give the floor  a simple noise texture, it'll look better.

 

And that particular warehouse looks underscaled. Maybe scale the z axis up to 133%? I don't think it'll be necessary to also re-scale the vehicles, since Maxis doesn't - which creates a strange predicament for someone who wants to bat a drive thru, I'd imagine - but back on topic - Is the tractor supposed to fit inside the building or not?

[mntoes 270]

These are really good. But I have to agree with Shy Dude about the big door. I think it is this above all that is giving the "textured" effect. But then I'm no expert and I like what I see very much anyway.

[Gn_leugim 853]

well to add some thansparency to a door you don't need to do its all parts you can do it with just a plain plane like that

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Ok, I admit, the door itself could be better textured/ modeled or whatever, you are all right about this, and maybe I will do try to do it if I find the time. There's one thing that I would like you to consider though, I am far away from a good experienced BATter and I do what I can, while I do this for fun, amusement and entertainment. If I would start to learn to do this detail and that detail a bit better and which doesn't really show much ingame anyways, my project would take a few more years to be finished, and this doesn't interest me at all, and most probably none of the players neither. This project has more than 500 models btw and already has taken more than a year.

 

I don't want to achieve a "perfect" model like some of our expert members who only make one model once every three to four months (not to mention any names) I think that I take enough time to do the things properly as much as I can,  and transparency I worked on for months until I found out that one cannot achieve a good job with gmax as in 3DS max. So I tried, sometimes up to 6 hrs just to make the glassdoor for a greenhouse for FrankU and it didn't come out as I was expecting it. That was enough for me, I will never try to do another complicated transparent model again, because BATTing is supposed to be enjoyable and to be fun, but when it comes to an obligation to ruin a few days only to achieve a little "unimportant" thing, then forget it, I just do some other things then. (like fishing, hunting, eating out, theater, swimming, photographing, reading etc.....lol)

 

Another thing is the scale. OH my god....SC4 SCALE......What scale? Maxis scale? Your scale? My scale? The neighbors scale? Geeeeeez, c'mon!!? Don't tell me his, her, my or your scale is better......lol

 

This has been, is and always will be a giant problem and argument for most of us and is also an individual perception for each of us. He doesn't like the scale of the other him, so doesn't the other he, then one he says it's perfect and so on.

EVERYBODY has a different opinion on this subject that was disscussed seriously and for a long time on SC4D and mainly in my other BATting threads.....all this can end up in another Loooooong discussion again without any ground results. So, I leave it as is after I have spent more than 4 months on it to find an "in between" size. One wants it like this, the other like that.....STOP! Please don't talk about "scale" to me again......lol (pulling out my hair)

I found out that the scale I am using right now is the best fit for most of the players compared to other farmbuildings like Maxis and SPAM.

 

Another thing, glad you mentioned it, is that both the red and the green tractors are models I have permission to use and convert from rambuckel.(credit goes to her for the main modeling) I only textured them differently for the moment, and I didn't yet have time to reduce their scales yet, but they will, if you look at my grey tractor also on the picture and which is supposed to have the right scale. You are all right if you say that tractors won't fit into the doors.....lol....but then again...back to that scale problem,,,,,does the Maxis tractors and the actual Sims fit into ANY model's door????

 

Another serious problem I have with is "repetition" and "saturations" in my textures sometimes. I haven't come around to that yet. Right now I am working on irfanview, paintshop and gimp trying to understand and handle this problem better. A lot of work and a lot to learn too. I wonder, are there any Tuts on this specific texture repetition out there? Some of my models have this problem, while others don't. You will see with future pictures. Sorry.....

 

The buildings that you see are barns/stables and not warehouses, if I may add, but I guess they could be easily used as such also,. now that you mentioned it. I would like to invite you to have a look at my other threads on SC4D and Simpeg, so much more is shown there already. I will eventually do the same here on ST since it is the "home" site of Nexis......

 

Thanks for the comments, all are useful, educational (also interesting) and much appreciated and some things I will improve with time tahnks to you, surely my next project will be more "refined" that this one. Thanks.

 

mrb/ Fred

 

PS: Here are some more of the things the MFP1 will contain (a picture from my Nexis Work thread.

 

 

[mntoes 270]

Agreed, but they are near perfect anyway.

[LivingInThePast 364]

This looks awesome.

 

Question One: will this work with SPAM, which overrides the existing farm models?

 

Question Two: will you be able to place specific "fields"? I mean, SPAM is great, but it tends to grow things rapidly. Orange trees, for instance, aren't really in my ideal "SimCity landscape" (though are readily available at any SimSupermarket you can name). Growing up in Texas, I tend to find comfort in vast fields of cotton, corn, or sorghum. Despite living in urban/suburban areas, I can just as easily go south and see farms far as the eye can see then to go to the downtown core, where bars, libraries, restaurants, and shops are.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Agreed, but they are near perfect anyway.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Question One: will this work with SPAM, which overrides the existing farm models?

 

Question Two: will you be able to place specific "fields"?

 

One: The Desc and Lot files will be made by FrankU, but I assure you that none will be overidden, no SPAM, no Maxis.

 

Two: There will be a lot of ploppable fields available, all new models in the MFP2, which has already started but will be worked on only later this fall or next winter. I will talk about this when the time comes. Now let's finish the MFP1 first....

 

I am quite busy irl at the moment, so I will only be able to work on my BATs again later this coming week or next weekend.

 

mrb/Fred

[Darknono35 3,137]

Awesome work for our rural areas
 

[Gn_leugim 853]

I have to agree with you, and, although masterpieces of art, IMO most those BATs, you mention that take months to ready, don't fit properly well in the game. specialy the "mental ray" engine and the general hue that comes out from Max renders. They look diferent and so much detail is added such as reflected glasses and outstanding lights and so one, that they just look from other world. They are, as I said, masterpieces of modeling and art, but I don't think they belong to SC4. That's one of the reasons I never gave up on gmax and still use it today. And your models are just awesome and will fit nicely in game

[mrbisonm 1,620]

I am back on the project after having put it aside for awhile. Since 4 weeks I am finishing the models (what I call "fine-tuning", meaning adding smaller details and finding and adjusting the textures). In between I was detoured to produce some hedges that I started some 5 or 6 years ago and also finish one of my projects that I started also about 6 years ago. The last one is for FrankU, a whole set (1 model in 5 variations) of lighthouses that he will maybe use as a propfamily on one of his lots.

 

I just finished them and they will be available (the hedges also) on the STEX and LEX as prop packs once their lots have been finished, so everyone may make their own lots (and have permission to upload their creations with my models as dependencies)

 

FrankU's lightower (and other) lots will be shown when done in his thread:

 

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9146.msg478225#new

 

 

Now, I am back on the MFP1, doing some details on silos (pictures soon)

 

Fred

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Great!

Nice lighthouses.

[darn42 1,268]

This is really off-topic and in response to something from the original post. But "custom log house designer" is one of the most awesome, as well as the most oddly-specific profession I have ever heard of.