The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I'd scale the building down to where it needs to be, and then I'd see how the window frames look from there.  They're already really skinny at this size.  Hopefully you'll be able to make them bold enough to be seen, but not so bold that you can't see the design.  The rest of the details are pretty bold and I think they'll show up.  Except for maybe the cross details, lol.

[paperboy15 4]

The Bishop House is looking very nice, you Beaver Believer BATter. (okay, so I'm going out on a limb there)

[sparkythepenguin 90]

@Josefmayor: Glad that helps! Guess that design was very popular! But then it's SOM. After a lot of analysis, anything those architects design can look the same and just be plopped anywhere in the world and work the same.. No prob on the timeframe. I understand real-life comes first and foremost.

I can give tours, just give me a good warning ahead of time so I can plan ahead for it! Done this before, and I come quite well recomended. Just need to know what you want to see in particular, and I know how to get there. Unfortuneately I don't drive (a real big Portland thing is not driving as much as possible), but if you'd like to see our public transport system, it'll be your lucky day.

I'll dig up some shots of the Kell's/Glisan Bld. Area. I have quite a few from around there actually. Most of the streets are unfortuneately, modern paving. But the storefronts along that area have survived the "modernization" demolition derby of the 1940's-70's.

Can WWE do stuff in Oregon? Last I heard, they couldn't because the state has really strict laws regarding professional wrestling shows for some reason. Or was that WWF?

@Bixel: Dude, get ready to have fun! Any ideas on where to go grab some pics? I have a few must-gets that need to be done scattered around a good walkable/MAXable area around Powell's.

@Jasoncw: I'll take a look at it soon. That cross was probably overkill, but it is less ornate then the real one! Looks like garbage up close in GMax if you know what the real one looks like.

@Paperboy15: I'm not really a big partisan when it comes to the OSU Beavers vs. the UofO Ducks. But is is totally cool when Oregonians make it big.

<begin off topic rambling>

Although if I'd have to pick a college, I'd rather go to UofO, as it has a great architecture program. No matter what though I'd neve willingly live in Eugene or Corvallis. Too small of towns and boring. The Portland area is just right, although PSU's architecture program is just a overrated sculpture class set inside a Survivor episode.

I'll save my partisanship for politics, but thats another story, and certainly not on-topic.

<end off topic rambling>

OK, let's talk about Bishop's House now...

What lot size is it going to be? I see that the lot size has been of interest, so for those curious, I will divulge that it is going to be 1x2 like Kells/The Glisan Building.

Is it going to be W2W (Wall-to-Wall)? Well, yes and no, pending commentary. In real life, there is a small alleyway between its neighbor to the left, and this is filled with a really beat-up gate and a stairway that serves as a fire escape. On the right sidee of the building is a surface parking lot, built over a demolished building. (I think they ought to build a nicely scaled modern condo building there that integrates and plays off on the Bishop's House design).

So if the building's facade was flanked by buildings, it would be a w2w structure. They way I envision it, I'd make the little alleyway/staircase gap, so the full w2w effect wouldn't work on one side. While I could leave this off, it may end up spoil the realism I intend for this building..

Everyone's so receptive and helpful here, and I value that. After all, I really don't play SC4 too much (thanks to it crashing my new PC for some reason!), so it's really everyone else that enjoys these BATs. Its quite fitting that those who'll end up using them the most get a say in their development.

Once we've discussed the W2W issue, I'll move in for imput as to what function this BAT should have in-game. I'm quite perplexed on that a

[josefmayor 8]

WWE is WWF, My dad was just in Portland recently so I doubt it

I'm going to set up my CJ soon, and you'll see tons of these Portland Buildings in it.

(My city is kinda Tampa based and a lot of the buildings in Portland look similar to those in Tampa. Although Tampa has some bigger buildings)

1x2

I have all 4x4 lots in my city and all my w2ws need to be atleast 1 to 2 deep.

Thats what I would like

[Jasoncw 11,949]

w2w on one side with the alley on the other sounds ok.

[MarcosMX 222]

Great job Sparky the penguin, I can't wait til you release the Bishop House, simply because it's so detailed and will fit perfect in my city.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK, today's update is a nice one which will show that this project will hopefully start speeding along nicely. Thanks everyone for your feedback. Now I can show you all what the preferred lot configuration will look like.

8/2/2006:

-Finished up all windows, awnings, and other major features of the front facade.

-Scaled to SC4 world, using Kell's model as a guide, and allowing for the fire escape alley.

-Performed some general housekeeping, attached like objects together as meshes to dramaticly reduce object count. Thanks Bixel for reminding me about that!

Here's a screen at zoom 5 (best zoom level for these sort of small buildings):

In real life, Kell's is not next to the Bishop's House, but it is within close walking distance. Some texturing tricks ought to bring out a little more of the detail.

Here's the real Bishop's House for those of you who don't want to backtrack through a ton of older threads:

And that brings me to the next question... What should I do with that blank wall? Discus and enjoy!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

The color of the walls looks like Thompson Trading with a little more peach.

anyway, for the wall, I'd put a row of small arched windows on the third floor, and a few recangular windows on the second.  I'd leave the first floor blank.  Although I could understand if you copied the original building and only had those ridges.

[josefmayor 8]

Mural it@

[bixel 1,228]

@ Sparky don't worry I got great ideas

[sparkythepenguin 90]

@Jasoncw: You are quite astute! I'll show you some pics of Bishop's House and you'll see what I mean... The Maxis building you showed looks like a good match, although I'd make it a tiny bit more tan...

@Josefmayor: A lot of the buildings around it have murals or large ads applied. These buildings are perfect for big ads, as some are visible from the other side of the river (where I-5 runs) or to motorists on the Willamette River Bridges. I'll look at some of these and post some examples once I get some pics.

@Bixel: Looks like we'lll have to be on the lookout for murals and ads painted on buildings tomorrow!

OK here's some shots of the Bishop's House alley, and from above, thanks to the US Bancorp Tower. I love Big Pink!

Jason, you nailed it when you said arched windows would look good on the top floor! The lighting in this picture is better, as the building is sport-of peachy tan in real life.

Here's the weird alley/fire escape thing on the side:

Below the blue Al-Amir sign is a really beat-up gate made up of two battered sheets of silvery metal. The covered fire escape stairway takes up the entier width of the alleyway. I'm going to assume, as Jason has that there aren't any windows on the 1st floor. I don't remember any last time I ate at the Al-Amir. Lebanese food is sounding pretty good, I ought to make another trip there just to check out if there are at least bricked-over windows in there.

[josefmayor 8]

I like all those buildings all around that block.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

wow!  I was close and I wasn't even trying to be close! lol

It's too bad that parking lot is there.  That would be a really nice intersection if there was a building there.

[screamingman12 30]

referrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">Here are all the MAX trains, old & new, high & low floor

New:

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/4500/maxnldeveloperzw8.png

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1596/maxnlreleasegg9.png

Old:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/9097/maxoldeveloperot4.png

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4995/maxolreleasebv6.png

[screamingman12 30]

referrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">Here are all the MAX trains, old & new, high & low floor

New:

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/4500/maxnldeveloperzw8.png

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1596/maxnlreleasegg9.png

Old:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/9097/maxoldeveloperot4.png

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4995/maxolreleasebv6.png

[screamingman12 30]

referrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">Here are all the MAX trains, old & new, high & low floor

New:

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/4500/maxnldeveloperzw8.png

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/1596/maxnlreleasegg9.png

Old:

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/9097/maxoldeveloperot4.png

http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4995/maxolreleasebv6.png

[speedsecrets1 0]

Hi,

I'm a race car driver and I just got back from Portland Int'l Raceway, Is there any chance that somebody could build the track? It's pretty awesome, and kind of major landmark in portland. I really like Portland and think it's awesome that someone is rebuilding it in SC4. Keep it up!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK it's been a while, sorry for the lack of communications lately. I've been pretty much not in the mood to BAT, and SC4 is getting very wonky on my PC. I think its something in the couple of gigs of "plugins". Nonetheless, I have somehow forced myself to work on Bishop's House  bit-by-bit over the last month.  I'm not quite willing to give up the ghost yet, but I'm not exactly working with BAT as much as I want either....

@Screamingman12: Good work! Those look enough like MAX. Be sure to say happy Birthday to MAX, it turns 20 this month!

@Speedsecrets1: PIR, a very interesting idea... Did you know that it's built over the ruins of what was Oregon's 2nd largest city during World War 2? I think some of the track and access roads follow some of the old streets. The lakes in there were once lined with houses.

OK, onto progress:

I've added the main bulk of the side walls. The roof section, minus the metal roof junk, has been added. Now that there's four walls and a roof, light is appearing at the end of the tunnel! Next to add will be a small portruding section that I assume is a freight elevator or stairway added later to the building. Compare to the shots above..

And the usual disclaimer: Textures at this time are either non-existant or provisional. More modeling and final textures to come! Screen shot at zoom 5, low-quality render in BAT.

Must.... keep.... trying to... BAT... !!!!!!!

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull work the detailing is great

[Jasoncw 11,949]

The roof area is looking nice.  It's definitly more interesting than the generic flat roof.

But yeah, keep on working on it!

[blade2k5 1,523]

I recently downloaded the Fox building, installed it, but when I go to plop it in game, or get it to grow, all I get is a brown box. No dependencies were listed in the details for the BAT. Are there any dependencies for that BAT? I would really like to use some of these wonderful recreations of Portland's skyline as I think they are some of the best looking real-world BATs I've seen on the STEX. Thanks for any help given.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

If the brown box replaced the building itself, then it means that you didn't intsall the building right.  Double check to make sure that all of the Sim City files that were included are in your plugins folder.

[blade2k5 1,523]

Boy do I feel like dummy.  I was missing the model file in my plugins folder.  Thanks for the quick response Jasoncw, it's much aprreciated.

[josefmayor 8]

It's beautiful!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks for the commentary, will hopefully get some more done soon. Its a pretty busy week and month coming up, so I have no timeframe (as usual!) on this one...

Blade2k5, you're not the first to have that problem with our earlier lots. If I can ever get a hold of JtPortland again, I'm going to ask him if I could repackage his files, and have him re-upload the packages as an update on ther STEX listing. In the begining, before I discovered install creator, we just had to zip folders and have people move them manually. Having had to reinstall SC4 many a many times (and will be doing do again probably!), I found myself completely confused by what was in older BAT packages, even my own sometimes. Sometime, I'm going to have to dig through everything I have uploaded and repackage them too. Unfortuneately, those won't make the latest collector's CD repackaged, but my newer creations utilize installer programs to make things easy.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Looking good...excellent progress!

[bixel 1,228]

Totally badass Sparky! Yeah that roof looks very nice and authentic!

[baldy 0]

Recently took a vacation out west and stopped by in Portland 2 nights / 1 day. I must say that thanks to all this fine work, I knew a lot of buildings in the city and I almost felt like I'd been there before! Anyway, great city, and great job with these BATs! Keep up the good work.

[screamingman12 30]

Sparky,

I don't understand the PIR thing, what took place that made the city deserted?

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I actually felt like BATing, and got a little done! It's been a bit tough latelt, but things are looking up now. Of all the problems lately, Gracie, one of my cats was hit by a car and died. And that is just the least of things lately that have been keeping me preoccupied with other tasks. But, as I say, things are looking up and improving.

Before a progress report, a few replies. Sorry my posts are a ton of reading and replies take a while, but I really don't like posting in this thread unless I have some sort of BAT progress. Something I ought to work on.

@Sergentcm; Long time, no see. Glad to hear from you again! Its been a while since I checked in on the Buffalo project.... And I'll get to Waddle's sometime soon, I promise! I know you like that building...

@Bixel: Sometime we need to meet up again. This month in't looking good for that though. Next time we ought to investigate SOWA, although that is quite a hike at the moment...

@Baldy: Wow, that's just what I intended for this thread to accomplish. Glad you had a good time in Portland, and that we could help you get a little familiar with it beforehand. Next time, and if given enough notice, I can provide the 10 cent tour of town if you want. ]

@Screamingman12: The city was called Vanport and while referred to as a city, it really was a WW2 housing project for shipbuilders, and was home to a large influx of wartime African American workers. In 1948, the Columbia River flooded the area in a matter of minutes. A history of the event and how it profoundly changed Portland's demographics can be found here at the Oregon History Project. The MAX station at Delta Park on the MAX Yellow Line memoralizes Vanport, and even includes artwork made out of artifacts unearthed during construction.

Now onto Bishop's House progress:

All the major and bsic modelling is finished. It's nice to have four walls and a roof now. Before moving forward with detail modelling, I have decided to work out the texturing situation on the front facade. Organizationally, that part is really confusing and a total mess for the most part. Getting that done before the model gets any more complex is probably a good thing. So here's the first textures, and a look at how, little by little, this BAT is coming to life.

I'm a bit upset because zoom 5 doesn't do the detail I put into this justice. Oh well, this will work OK...

Now, the color on the facade walls is just about right. On a sunny day, it's a bit on the peachy side, but on an overcast day (basicly any day from fall til June here), it comes out pretty grey. This seems a good compromise between those extremes.

2nd floor windows have blinds in them, and I'm not sure if the present look of some-blinds, other open, look good. All blinds may look too uniform. Any thoughts?

Also the top windows need a certain look to them. Those are made up of smaller glass panes, which may be an effect that I may not be able to duplicate because you can't zoom in any further.

Much better than that off-tan ugly defalt GMax/3ds placeholder color, eh?