Zed (Cool_Z) at it again... (my BATs)

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Zs are Cool

[Darf 1,439]

I like the shape, but you should consider making the outdents in between the floors a little more complex/ material like.

[Feindbold 1,190]

I like it, it really fits the style of it Cities: Skylines, and I also like the fact that you dont scale yor highrises down. I read about it in the wiki, but i think its BS, it ruins the immersion.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I like the shape, but you should consider making the outdents in between the floors a little more complex/ material like.

 

Yeah it's a bit "blockish" right now.

 

I like it, it really fits the style of it Cities: Skylines, and I also like the fact that you dont scale yor highrises down. I read about it in the wiki, but i think its BS, it ruins the immersion.

 

It appears CO's buildings are not scaled down (or maybe their idea of "scaling down" is having 4 meters high floors)... so I didn't do it either. 

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

What percentage of white is on the specular map on that last building?

[Cool_Z 1,547]

What percentage of white is on the specular map on that last building?

 

90 (for now...).

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Guys I've got a question.

 

 

SInce I've discovered how to use custom textures lods I've reworked my first building. It's now vastly improved when viewed from far away.

 

But what do I do on the Stex ?? Do I just change the file of the original upload I made or do I make a new one ???

 

I fear that people who downloaded the first version miss the update. 

[SimCoug 5,976]

It would be best to update your original file and make a notice in the text that you have updated the file (change log is good for that). 

Thanks

[Cool_Z 1,547]

It would be best to update your original file and make a notice in the text that you have updated the file (change log is good for that). 

Thanks

 

I'll do that, thanks for the advice. I just hope some of the people who took the old version will see it has been updated.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Stex entry updated :

 

 

Normal view :

View from a bit further avay (LOD) :

[Cool_Z 1,547]

A 4x4 high residential... Level 3 or 4 I think...

 

[Reddonquixote 4,339]

 

I have a question about reflections. From what I can tell so far, glass is done with textures and not reflections. If you have the specular map at pure white, what does it look like?

 

The specular in game gives some fake reflection (of a pic made of buildings and buildings... and some sky if you look upwards).

 

Pure white gives you only that pic, moving as the camera moves. Going down from 100% white gives you a mix of that specular and the diffuse, but lower than 80 will create artifacts on the borders if the polygons affected are not using an uniform specular level. (Yeah it sounds silly...).

 

 

Any idea if this is likely to ever be fixable via a mod? This is a bit of a deal breaker for me. I came across this YouTube clip where the reflections are quite prominent as the camera flies through the scene... doesn't look good at all

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rDVu07VXl0

[Cool_Z 1,547]

 

 

Any idea if this is likely to ever be fixable via a mod? This is a bit of a deal breaker for me. I came across this YouTube clip where the reflections are quite prominent as the camera flies through the scene... doesn't look good at all

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rDVu07VXl0

 

 

What exactly bothers you ? the "almost always 100% reflective" part or the reflection map they've chosen (which I find quite poor). ?

 

The second one is the thing that would give the more improvement, and certainly the pretty easy to fix by modders.

[Reddonquixote 4,339]

I don't know the mechanics of it well enough to know what's wrong with it, all I can tell is it looks completely unrealistic. In this clip, (~40secs in) the buildings are reflecting tops of a distant city skyline... at ground level. It should be reflecting the street and the buildings opposite, not a distant city skyline, including the sky!

 

Is that the reflection map? I don't know... Is it fixable with a mod?.. I'd be surprised...

 

I'm assuming you can vary the height of the camera so you can look both down on buildings from the sky and up at the buildings from ground level? Both perspectives will have completely different reflections, sky will reflect the ground and the ground will reflect the sky. How can a reflection map ever be versatile enough to accommodate both perspectives, and look realistic?

 

Anyway... lots of very clever people have come up with lots of amazing ways to make SC4 look realistic.. maybe this is fixable too

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I think it's easily fixable, just needs to replace the picture used for the fake reflections. Yes it is awfully wrong.

 

 

 

Anyway... back to building.

 

I now claim the title of the most cramped UVmap ever.

 

[Deed_Poll 32]

Cool screen shot! I'm really new to this uv mapping thing, what will you do next? Will you start painting over the chequered png with textures using the model as a guide? So will you say "ok, this window is blue 5 so I'll paste in a window there and see how it looks"?

I noticed you've done all the faces of the building with the same texture, based on what you were saying about occlusion baking this seems like a good idea.

I certainly think the shadows could improve on my semi-detached house model, the way I am doing it at the moment involves a lot of repeats of the same textures - should I shrink down the "brick" texture of my UV (but keep it the same % of the UV) so I can sample each texture individually? I guess my buildings are symmetrical for the purposes of occlusion baking that should work OK?

Cheers!

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Cool screen shot! I'm really new to this uv mapping thing, what will you do next? Will you start painting over the chequered png with textures using the model as a guide? So will you say "ok, this window is blue 5 so I'll paste in a window there and see how it looks"?

I noticed you've done all the faces of the building with the same texture, based on what you were saying about occlusion baking this seems like a good idea.

I certainly think the shadows could improve on my semi-detached house model, the way I am doing it at the moment involves a lot of repeats of the same textures - should I shrink down the "brick" texture of my UV (but keep it the same % of the UV) so I can sample each texture individually? I guess my buildings are symmetrical for the purposes of occlusion baking that should work OK?

Cheers!

 

Yes the ambiant occlusion baking improves models an awful lot. I actually merged the uvs of the parts that were repetitive, but only those, so I can still use the baking.

 

By repeating some parts I tried to balance between polygon count and texture size (for small houses it's less problematic).

 

I also tend to give more texture space to parts that need more detail.

 

 

 

Note that I made eight separate windows that I dispatched to avoid repetition. I did this in case someday we have a night mode, so I will be able to have different lights in the windows.

 

Here's how it looks now :

 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Ingame test.

 

I made it to be a level 4 as the two buildings that surround it in the pic. I think it fits quite well.

 

 

No specular and normal map yet... textures not 100% finished too.

[Feindbold 1,190]

I like it, Level 3 or 4 fits perfect. Nice to see some workflows pics, and interesting how different our approaches are. I allways do the texture first.

Keep up the good work

[Deed_Poll 32]

Nice one! Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm definitely getting the hang of the nodding process thanks to you and the other helpful people on this forum! Cheers

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

The building looks nice. Only thing that's missing is some air units on the roof.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

The building looks nice. Only thing that's missing is some air units on the roof.

 

Yes, thankfully we can add them in the asset editor. And there are animated ones there. (I hope we'll be able to make animated props soon.)

 

 

 

Anyway... the LOD is almost finished (I learned how to bake textures... it just makes things incredibly easier.).

 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Finished and uploaded to the stex :

 

 

[namspopof 117]

Very good job Z !     

[aable 63]

Glad these are on the workshop. Great job. 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Glad these are on the workshop. Great job. 

 

Yeah well the last update unlocked the "share to steam" for me... but I'll still upload what I do here. 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Help needed !!

 

It seems some people who have downloaded my two released buildings via Steam have problems when they're activated... (They say they can't load anything in the asset editor when activated... and one even that it makes his game (or asset editor it wans not very clear) freeze

 

Did anyone who took them from here have any problem or is it due to steam?

[mutton noir 170]

Wow, I'm impressed by your work- great models. As you are French it would be awesome if you would use your cultural knowledge to produce a range of buildings in french architectural styles for use in the game that would help with providing greater choice and variety. Traditional Parisienne  buildings, landmarks (Beaubourg, Opera House) and how about a Guimard art nouveau Metro Station! Possibly also a set of Southern med buildings too? 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Wow, I'm impressed by your work- great models. As you are French it would be awesome if you would use your cultural knowledge to produce a range of buildings in french architectural styles for use in the game that would help with providing greater choice and variety. Traditional Parisienne  buildings, landmarks (Beaubourg, Opera House) and how about a Guimard art nouveau Metro Station! Possibly also a set of Southern med buildings too? 

 

I'm not the only french guy onterested in the game, and some have already started work on southern france builds. I think the parisian buildings will show up pretty soon too ;)

 

 

Concerning my steam workshop problems, they are due to some incompatibility with my assets exported with the 1.07c version of the game and the 1.06b that some people are still using... I'm not very happy with it but all I can do is wait for Colossal Order to release the next game fix. 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Finished and uploaded to the Stex : 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And started work on a new building :

 

 

I don't know if I should make it a commercial or an office building... the way they work in the game makes it a bit confusing. What do you think ?