The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[Andreas Roth 629]

*bump to see T Wrecks's posting*

EDIT: Yeah, I agree with T Wrecks, show us an in-game screenshot, so we can judge better about the rather unique coloring and texturing. The roof-junk seems a bit too random for me, but the details, such as the fire escape, add a great touch to the building.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks everyone again! Danke Schön Andreas und T_Wrecks! I managed to pop out a high-quality export in an amazing time span on this one. Its still not lighted, this was just for testing purposes.

@Andreas: Here's an aerial of the real building. I tried to place the roof junk as close to this as possible. Unfortuneately, the New Fleidner isn't very visible from the US Bancorp Tower, so Google Earth is the bestreference I had to work with:

(for you Portlanders, and non-Portlanders, this shot is looking north north west. Washington Street is at the bottom and  10th Avenue and the Portland Streetcar tracks are at left. The big shadow belongs to the Portland Medical Center across Washington Street)

And here's the shot in-game that T_Wrecks wanted, I did this at zoom 4 (I think!), and made sure that every viewing angle could be covered of the building:

Hamster_TK: Those faded murals are supposed to be old ads. Lots of old buildings have them, and some of them are still legible, advertising businesses or events long since passed. On this particular BAT, two advertise restruants: The defunct Jolly Joan (The lady in the blue dress) and Waddle's Diner (the duck). The other advertises a 1910's-era  Rose Festival. The real ones on the building are just black with white lettering advertising something called "Holmes Business College". Thought that looked boring and said, "Poor Joan and Big Duck need some awareness, let's put that on instead!".

Some thoughts of mine:

The building looks like I won't have to tweak it at all to get it looking like a good Wall-to-wall lot. It fits in nicely with the Maxis-made buildings. Zooming out obscures the details, but the Maxis buildings behave like that too.

The back walls look great when facing an open area, especially a parking lot! Old buildings were torn out in droves int the 40's, 50's, and 60's for parking lots, gas stations, etc.. leaving the survivors looking like the picture above. This is much more common in Old Town than where the New Fleidner is (it has shorter buildings around it), but still very realistic by Portland standards.

I may change some of the roof junk's textures to make them stand out better.

As stated previously, I still need to light this up, and add custom LODs because of the light court. Just want to get all the texturing issues out of the way first.

BTW, come to think of it, I haven't checked to see if I have my SC4 graphics settings as high as they can go. This new PC of mine surely can handle it with the 2 CPU's I have! The monitor seems a little bright, so please let me know if anything looks too dark, too light, etc...

Comments always appreciated and desired!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I think the brick is too dark, and the front is too colorful (it could be desaturated a bit).

are you putting something in the light court?

It's nice to see these sorts of buildings being made. Maxis didn't do as good of a job as they could have with the NY and Chicago tilesets.

[Andreas Roth 629]

Jason is right, the brick could be brightened a bit, and the front facade looks a tad too colorful. Just look at the Maxis color pallet, you won't find any neon-colored walls there. Looking at the Google Earth pic, the roof is quite cluttered indeed, but I guess this is the price when you install HVACs on an old building. The murals are a great touch, though!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I had sort of a flash when reading your comment, Andreas... I think I know what texture to use when I strart experimenting with neon red lights!

So definetly the red needs to be toned down...

And the blue parts more than likely.....

But what about the yellow? Does it look all right? A friend of mine that knows the building hates that the real yellowy color, referring to it in unkind words. Basicly what you'd see in the toilet after going #1 if you get my drift.

Jason, why I have to use a custom LOD is more apparent in the night views. Perhaps when I lighten the brick up a bit more, you'll see it in the day shots too... Even without any omnis, spots, or nite_windows, the natural light looks all messed up. The good ol' "Building with a hole" lighting problem. Custom LODs should fix that up.

Will attend to these matters and report back tomorrow if not sooner. I hope!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I don't know what LODs have to do with lights, but I guess I'll find out!

[Andreas Roth 629]

I'm not sure about the yellow either. It might be an original representation of the real building, but IMO some artistic license is allowed to blend the BAT with the Maxis color pallet. On the other hand, I know that yellow is a tough color to deal when it comes to a computer screen. Within ten attempts, nine will look aweful. Maybe you could try a cream tone, or something more brownish.

[bixel 1,228]

Wow! I think I know this building, but sometimes I look at it, and I get confused, is this the one on 10th & Stark?

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK let's see if this has worked....

Zoom 4 angles (sorry, photobucket resized these... ) :

Zoom 3 views:

OK then, y'all know what to do...

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I think the brick might still be too dark. The red looks good, but the yellow might still be too colorful. Are there any yellow maxis buildings you can put it next to?

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Hmmm.. I'll check for a Maxis-made yellow building in LE, and take a side-by-side screen.. Jason, do you have a brick texture or one that you could suggest that you think would look good there? The current one looks like a tosser.

[bixel 1,228]

Hrmm....I dunno I kanda like the brick, yellow is yup, needs to change.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK, some more pics for your viewing pleasure...

As requested, I have screens comparing the New Fleidner to some other yellow buildings. I chose SimGoober's Hampton Inn, Marriott Courttyard, and Loyalty Building. SG's one of the best BATers, and uses yellow a lot in his buildings.

SG's is a little bit more on the green side....

Looking good here...

Not too far off when compared to Hampton Inn...

And here is the brick portions of th New Fleidner in real life. It's a little bit on the dark side:

Hmmmm.. I think I'll start over with the brick. I may all ready have a texture somewhat like or at least close enough to this one...

[diablo_del_bano 3]

well, the dark in the real pic of the New Fleidner is the shadow of another building. I think the yellow looks fine, the bright color fits with the period, when buildings would be painted a bright color to make them look newer, more vibrant, and more impressive.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

@Diablo: The building was just recently painted up in this scheme. It used to be all red with cream/beige details up until near 2000. Emporis has a picture of part of it. I'm not sure what the original scheme was, but you are right, this building was designed to stand out.

@Andreas: You brought up earlier haow they tend to cram HVAC onto old buildings. Yesterday I explored a new parking garage that may be helpful for roof shots. Right by it was what I'd translate into a 1x1 SC4 building with enough roof junk on it to choke a horse! I'll post a pic of it soon.

OK, progress for today:

I took the original brick texture, which was a Maxis-made texture. I figure you can't go wrong using something they have put out there. It is much lighter, and looks all right. I also took a bunch of screens, mostly at z4 and compared it to the Fannieul Hall and Independence Hall Maxis landmarks. Good Maxis brick buildings for comparrison.

OK then, can I light this puppy up yet?

[bixel 1,228]

YES YES!!! I think its perfect

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I think it's still too yellow... I think those SG buildings are too yellow too though, lol.

I'd try desaturating the yellow even more, and then adding a layer of the lightest red color in photoshops default pallette at +/- 5% opacity.

The brick looks a lot better now. If I made you a brick texture it would end up looking a lot like the brick of Wagner & Diehl (in fact, I'd probably just give you that texture to fiddle with), but your current one looks fine (but I can still send you it if you'd like).

Also, I wonder if the advertisements are making it look too dark. Are you using the multiply blending mode? I'd try duplicating the ad layer, locking the pixels, painting it white, and setting that layer to overlay or lighten at a small opacity to brighten it.

anyway it's going to look great when it's done.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

If I desat the yellow anymore, it'll become too gray or white... Tried that and got one of those two (can't remember b/c I'm doing too many things with BAT lately). I'm going to stick with the brick. Hmmm..  interesting phrase. I'll keep the yellow for now.

I was talking to Ardecila earlier today. He found a real life pic of the New Fleidner and was amazed at how oversaturated it looks in real life. I've never really noticed that, but I've gone in or by it a couple thousand times. Heck, I'm even used to the Portland Building!

Perhaps I ought to make a second version in the original (?) red and creme detail scheme? Would anyone be interested in that too? More variety and a little more work to mod stuff, but very easy time-wise to change everything and it render out.

.

I figure the lots to be made are:

LM

CS: $, $$ (plops and grows)

CO: $$, $$$ (plops and grows)

So about 5 lots, double that with the red version, and you get 10 new lot versions to choose from after downloading the New Fleidner package. Should I just make the color versions 2 seperate packages for the STEX? Considering the recent "Vertical Canal" and "Horizontal Canal" map debacle, that may not be a good idea to have two BATs that are essentially the same on at the same time. I just worry that it would confuse people downloading this..

[ardecila 125]

I dunno about making it a CO$$$. The fire escape on the front of the building clearly shows, if not a disregard, then a definite choice of "let's stick this on the front because it's cheaper". This in turn seems like something that would be done in a depressed or middle-class area.

[Spike345 20]

I vote for a plopable CS $, the reason? - Well its simple. there are like no good CS $ buildings that can be used in the downtown core, and this one is perfect. It can help the great demand I get in my big cities.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I think it looks fine now. The yellow does stand out, but that's just a characteristic of the building. I'd really like to see the old colour scheme, though. Heck, I might even use Daeley's (was it Daeley?) trick to make both buildings appear on a random basis, just like a prop family, but without a prop family ID.

I also agree with Ardecila that $$$ looks inappropriate with this block. And since there are so many CO$$$ buildings anyway, I would leave out high-wealth versions entirely and focus on CS$, CS$$ and CO$$.

This could be an interesting building to combat those stage 5 or 6 mid-rise CS$ "Small Shops" that have the annoying tendency to split up a 3x2 or 2x2 lot and grow in a row (hey, another interesting phrase!).

That duck advertisement really takes the cake, btw.

[bixel 1,228]

I agree with T Wrecks, and Spike. Don't make a CO$$$, and a ploppable CS$ could be cool. I still dont know where or what this building is. Is Peacock Laundry inside it?

[sparkythepenguin 90]

@Ardecila: No prob! I was looking for a great excuse for not having to do more modding!  So.. NO CO$$$ version! hahahah

@Spike: No prob. Can very well do. Downtowns need junky buildings too. I'm glad that you really like this BAT.

@T_Wrecks:  Isn't Stage 6 is a bit too far up the totem pole? I'll see what 2x2 lots compare to this then... And we'll see about that. Would you be willing to mod this with the Daeley random building trick? I could bump it over to you, and then you could send back after its done. If you don't ahve the time, that's cool. Just let me know what you need if that's a go, and I'll get it ready for you.

@Bixel: You guess is VERY close. Actually The (now closed) Peacock Laundry is in the Clyde Hotel on the same block. That's on the North side of the block as you walk up 10th to Powell's.

BTW, Bix, how's the Henry coming along? I'm dying to see it.

Progress:

Here is the red version. On Emporis, the pic of this scheme doesn't reveal much except the top. Also, they painted the stripes red too. They must have thought that was a mistake when they repainted the building, so I made the red version have stripes too. This was the paint scheme sometime in the 80's, according to Emporis. I also put different ads on this one (not shown), and lowered the roof and all the junk on it to mesh more with Chicago-style Maxis buildings. Both versions are now lit up too!

I think the exporting process is about ready to go...

[jt_144_2004 0]

OMG.....THATS FANTASTIC

[bixel 1,228]

Hrmm, both look absoluetly groovy, though that roof texture looks too smooth, maybe I should give you one of mine. As far as the henry goes I haven't been doing much of anything lately, also I got a new game Nexus: The Jupiter Incident, so that kinda keeping me busy. I will finish up the Henry hopefully soon, but I think I just hit my 1st oh-hrmm-SC4-is-kinda-boring-me bit, don't worry though I will wake out of it eventually.

[screamingman12 30]

WW! looks good! Don't worry, the MAX is still on my list to do, but I haven't had much time to work on it (amazing what can happen when a severe case of RLS mixes with a storm front, and I don't trust my serge protector very much.)

[Andreas Roth 629]

Wow, the red version looks awesome indeed! As bixel pointed out, the roof texture is a bit blurry compared to the very crisp facade, but the rest is fantastic.

[Spike345 20]

Wow, I love the red version as well, both perfect additions to my downtown

[Hanson784 165]

It looks great, well done.

I like the red version a lot. It will fit in nicely with the New York tileset.

[bixel 1,228]

Here ya go!

I encourage you to use photoshop and make different variations of it.

[edit] There, fixed image now.