My first BAT

[TCD 123]

Hey, I wanted to start sharing some of my BATS. I've been a long time Simcity player and been making content for my own use for years. I've started turning some of my houses into slope-friendly lots and I plan on making more custom foundations for the rest and eventually releasing them as a single pack. 

 

So far I have 1 house with a custom foundation and custom LODS and I was hoping some people here could scrutineer my BAT. Try it in game on slopes and look at it in the reader (I am a novice with it) to see if I did everything correctly. Compare it to other buildings for scale, etc.

 

 

 

I used a blank model and the house and foundation are both props. I turned shadows off on the foundation since it had weird underground shadows. I also rendered both of them in HD.

 

Where can I upload this? 

[unnamed 174]

1) go to the top of the page 

 

2) hover mouse over ST/Exchange   

 

3) click on [upload New File]

 

4) finish  

[Compdude787 916]

Before you upload it, you probably should make it bigger. It seems like it's even smaller the Maxis 2-story houses. Also, you should keep in mind that SC4's camera view distorts things vertically, essentially "squashing" everything. To compensate for this, many BATers make their buildings be 133% taller so that they don't look really short.

 

Also, if you used some custom props on your lots (it definitely looks like you did) you need to figure out which prop pack they come from and put a link to where people can download it as it is a dependency for your lot. Make sure you know which dependencies are needed by taking out everything except the prop/texture pack(s) you used, and then opening up the game and seeing if the lot is displayed properly. You want to make sure that people only download the dependencies they need; nothing more, nothing less.

[TCD 123]

I've uploaded it here so hopefully people can test it and give me some feedback and check it out in the reader to see if I've made any mistakes.

 

https://depfile.com/tv5PnLRJMp

Dependencies:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=101

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1180

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2790

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=746

 

I will make it a little taller like you said.

[TCD 123]

I have several houses lotted and working in game so far. They're all slope friendly with custom foundations. Some of them have some visual glitches; I think I just need to precisely align the house and foundation in the lot editor. Here's what some of them look like so far.

 

 

I also have a bunch of partially modeled/textured buildings in progress. This one will be a corner lot.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

We can create San Francisco neighborhood with slope lots.

[TCD 123]

I have 10 houses finished and lotted so far. Some of them need to be re-rendered to fix a few visual errors. I've decided to render them in SD rather than HD. Zoom 6 looks awesome, but zoom 5 looks weird. They look odd on extreme slopes so I just need to figure out the max slope for each lot.

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

It's about time I posted in this thread! I saw it when it started, and I remember my surprise when I read "first BAT" and thought about a very basic shape or a very clumsy structure, but instead I saw these wonderful houses!

 

I love how you also make them slope-tolerant by adding custom foundations. Modeling-wise, I have no advice or comments, everything looks superb to me. However, I think some of the textures are oversaturated and need some desaturation to prevent them from standing out too much. Most notable among these are pretty much all roof textures (the black and the red ones especially), the dark blue wall texture, and the green wall texture of the house at the bottom right in your most recent picture.

 

Everything else looks absolutely fabulous, and that includes the beautiful lot design. I hope this first set of BATs will be far from your last.

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Wow! Some really beautiful houses. Great job, buddy

[SimCoug 5,977]

I agree with TWrecks about the saturation, but other than that I am really excited to use these beautiful houses (especially the slope tolerant aspect).  Since you have so many great models, would you consider giving each one two or three alternate paint options?  You could really ramp up the variety with the extra texture work and by moding them as a 'prop family' you could be more efficient with you loting.  I just wanted to throw out that idea.

[TCD 123]

Thanks, guys. I still have to re-render the majority of them with updated textures. I will start toning a few colors down.

 

SimCoug: I just got my own prop family iid range a few days ago and I've been testing it out on one of the buildings that already has a few color variations. I also have a few houses planned with the same footprint to share the same foundation. I was planning on having 3 color variations for each model.

[jmsepe 2,040]

Cool small houses, I wonder where I can use them but nevertheless nice job. It is just too American for me.

[TCD 123]

Some alternative colors.

 

[KonstantinII 1,106]

I don't think I will be able to use these houses, given my specific style, but I know other people will. Keep up the good work!

[Hotwheeler 409]

Ohh these are beautiful. I will definately have a use for them and i also love this semi victorian architecture style.

They would be perfect to fill entire blocks with 2x2 low density lots.

Are there any plans for making similar houses in brick?

Keep up the good work, you are doing a great job.

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Why won't you bloody release these already!?

[Huston 5,800]

You've been quite selfish not to give these away on the STEX

 

They look amazing, a real steal if you do eventually distribute them and worth much more than just a 5/5

[SimCoug 5,977]

Very nice!

[Compdude787 916]

Looking nice! I'll definitely download these once they're available! It seems that you are sizing them to fit with the Maxis houses, so just to make sure they don't stand out like a sore thumb, let them grow next to Maxis houses. People who don't use Maxis blockers (that includes me; I just have a mod that puts seasonal trees on residential and commercial lots) like having custom content buildings that fit right in in size and scaling.

[TCD 123]

Ohh these are beautiful. I will definately have a use for them and i also love this semi victorian architecture style.

They would be perfect to fill entire blocks with 2x2 low density lots.

Are there any plans for making similar houses in brick?

Keep up the good work, you are doing a great job.

 

Do you have any examples? I have very few references for brick houses.

 

 

Looking nice! I'll definitely download these once they're available! It seems that you are sizing them to fit with the Maxis houses, so just to make sure they don't stand out like a sore thumb, let them grow next to Maxis houses. People who don't use Maxis blockers (that includes me; I just have a mod that puts seasonal trees on residential and commercial lots) like having custom content buildings that fit right in in size and scaling.

 

I will get some screenshots of them next to Maxis houses once I get them all exported and growing properly in game.

[TCD 123]

I've been too lazy to set up night scenes so I haven't exported anything new for a while now. The garage foundation has a ramp which I haven't tested in game yet. Hopefully that looks good in game. The bottom 2 rows are the same corner building just inverted with some minor cosmetic changes.

 

[tonyr 926]

Beautiful houses my friend!

[SimCoug 5,977]

These are really top notch!  The modeling, textures and style are really beautiful - it reminds me of some of the great BATers like C.P. and jmyers.  

The detached garages are a great touch (you could even do a few more colors to ramp up the variety since garages tend to be a staple on most lots).

I will certainly be adding these to my plugins!     

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

These are absolutely excellent! Not sure if I could fit them into my current urban style but I'll certainly try! Would make some some nice new homes close to a gold course development. 

 

Looking forward to seeing them on the STEX

[NielsC007 499]

Amazing work! 

[jmsepe 2,040]

Oh they are getting better. Looks good to be used in places like a small suburb in US.

[Hotwheeler 409]

I squee in joy...

your little homes look great and i have to admit,they are cute as hell. About the brick houses i mentioned:Technically they just look and have mostly the same shape as the victorian/Queen Anne Style houses you already did,just instead of wood siding,they have brick walls,mostly in reddish or reddish brown colors.

Keep up the great work with your adorable little houses,hopefully they will be available some time.Maybe with low density lots?

[TCD 123]

Small update. These will all be R$ houses each with matching detached garages.

 

I have a few of them modded, lotted and put into families. Here they are growing on the side of a moderate slope.

 

The garages and houses are in separate families and I have no idea how to make them both grow in the same color variation on each lot. (If that's even possible)

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Nope, tying props of two prop families together to have one appear depending on the other is not feasible AFAIK. It doesn't matter, though, because I think the variation looks really nice.

 

And "nice" is an understatement for what I see on these recent screenshots. From models through textures and night lights up to the lot design, these are real gems. Hats off to you, sir!

[dirtguru 24]

Really looking forward to these!! Am about to undertake a major rebuilding of my main city which is quite hilly. Your Bats will fit perfectly into my plans to more or less model hillside neighborhoods consisting of turn of the century homes.