Kanimirs BATs

[Rokugatsu 126]

Hello!

I'm back to BATing after around 4-5 years, so I'll need your help and opinions

First, I'm planning to make a lot of Icelandic/Nordic houses. I already made one houses pack, but I'm not sure if it's good enough... 

One of the comments says they lack detail, and I agree, but then again those type of houses in real life also lack detail, so I just don't know how to make it more detailed Another thing is the colour. They are very colourful in real life and I was trying to do the same in those BATs, but maybe I overdid it?

 

Those are some of my bats:

 

Icelandic houses:

 

Town hall:

 

Japanese buildings:

 

ect.

 

 

And those are the houses I was trying to make now:

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Very ... icelandnic.

 

No, seriously. The basic idea is good. I just recently went through all STEX pages for buildings (yep, since 2004) and didn't see any scandinavian styled building. However, it would have been better to not just upload them. If you are aware that they might not be good enough start slowly and show them to the community before uploading them. I know it's an awesome feeling when you release a BAT and see how the number of views and downloads starts to increase. But, actually, the upload should not be your goal but the building itself. The upload is just what is left after the building is finished. Don't try to make it for the community, try to make it for yourself and then give it to the community (Maybe sound a bit harsh but that's basically how it works, just consider it as a side product)

 

About the current upload. I saw it and it was a good start considering that the buildings have their own style. But still there should be done some imrpovements to archieve a satisfying result. Post it in here, do yome previews in gmax or 3ds (depends on what you work with) and then let's see what we can do. 

 

Good luck

[Rokugatsu 126]

Well, that's the thing, I was BATing few years ago and people liked my buildings. They wasn't the best obviously, but I felt they ARE good enough, so when I made those icelandic houses now, I uploaded them, but now that I look at them I'm not sure, so I came here for help

 

What do you think I should change in them? What is wrong? Or maybe everything is wrong. 

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Post a preview pic please

[Rokugatsu 126]

I mean the Icelandic ones I already made, so I know what mistakes to avoid in the next one

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Yeah, I mean those, too. Best thing is you post a preview shot and a gmax/3ds max perspective view shot. 

[Rokugatsu 126]

Alright, I decided to just focus on new buildings and I'm trying to make it better Im making a R$ pack now. I tried to add a little more detail but I really don't know what to add, those buildings are very simple in real life. So what do you think?

 

Did you mean those previews?

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Not that bad. 

 

What I advise you to do first is what I always write to "new" batters: Download 3ds Max. Considering you can get it for free legally you should get it as fast as possible. It's too powerful and gives you a whole lot of new opportunities. 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

^ I agree.

 

Another thing I noticed is that you apparently don't exaggerate the height of your BAT. This has the consequence that the in-game perspective will make everything look squashed. Take a look at the entrance door: It almost looks like a square in game perspective! In real life, the door would probably be roughly 1 metre wide by 2 metres tall. To compensate for this perspective effect, you can scale up your BAT on the Z axis (height) to ~133 % of its real-life height.

 

All in all, what you have posted so far looks very promising, and I am glad that you have opened a BAT thread! The preview pictures you are showing (especially the bottom part) are just the kind of images that are required to judge the quality of a BAT. Perspective shots from within gmax can look fancy, but they don't help to judge how the building will look from the game's camera perspective.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Well, the reson why I asked him to post perspective view shots as well was that I wanted to see what techniques he uses to bat and if he is experienced with the programme or if he uses complex ways for the easiest things. 

[Rokugatsu 126]

Learning a new program? I'm not sure... But I guess I could try later if you say it's better

 

As for the buildings looking squashed, I agree, but how do I scale it up once I already made the building? What's "Z axis"?

 

I made more of them:

[T Wrecks 10,209]

You are making a three-dimensional structure, so you have the three dimensions width, depth, and height. The amount of width, depth, and height that your structure has is measured along three axes: The X axis for width, the Y axis for depth, and the Z axis for height. So the Z axis is the height axis. If your structure has a height of 10 metres, it measures 10 metres on the Z axis. I'm not familiar with the actual interface of gmax, but there should be a scaling option somewhere, and there should also be a possibility to select whether you want to scale the building up or down while keeping its proportions identical (that would be a scaling on all three axes) or whether you want to scale the structure up or down on one axis only. An actual BATter should be able to provide more help, but in a quick search result I found these brief instructions:

"Activate the Non-Uniform-Scale button (is in the fly-out of the uniform-scale-button) and activate the axis on which you are working."

 

I hope this helps.

 

Oh, and by the way, 3dsmax is not exactly a different software. Actually gmax is a feature-restricted "light" version of a now outdated 3dsmax version - something like 3dsmax 4 light, if you will. Switching to 3dsmax 2013 (or whatever the current version is) only means that you switch from the light version to the full version, and from an outdated version to a more up-to-date version. I recommend asking some 3dsmax BATters for advice concerning the best 3dsmax version to use for SimCity.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Oh, T Wrecks was faster 

 

Pretty much what he says 

[SimCoug 5,972]

Great work!  My only suggestion (since T Wrecks already addressed the scaling) is in regards to the texture.  I know you are trying to re-create those wonderful Icelandic homes, which are bright, but I would maybe de-saturate some of those colors (the blue roof is especially bright) just a bit, otherwise they will stand out like a sore thumb in-game.  You will probably have to do some testing by playing a bit with your models in SC4 to see how well they blend in with some surrounding buildings.  

 

Of course these are your creations, so If you like the bright colors and don't mind that they stand out in the actual game then you should just ignore my suggestion

 

Keep up the great work