Feindbolds Buildings

[Feindbold 1,190]

Hey , i made some Tenements and Apartmentbuildings, and as the Workshop is a mess (and I dont have the permission to upload them on Stex, guess a moderator needs to give me that permission), i thought about sharing them here too. All buildings are W2W.

First one is a 6-Story 2x4 Level 1 Residental Building (high density):





Second and third are two different 7-Story 2x4 Level 1 Residental Buildings (high density aswell):

 

The last one is for now a Landmark, but im planing to add more details and change it into a level 3 residental highrise. Its based on the Kenilworth Building (151 Central Park)





If you are interested in downloading them, here is my Steamworkshop link:
http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197978975775/myworkshopfiles/

Hope you like it

[jesper107 113]

Excellent! Thanks for these.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Great buildings! I downloaded them all!

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Very nice... Now we're getting into SC4 territory here.

[JaWood 194]

Yes. This. This is excellent to see. Some good quality, American style big city wall to walls.  Excellent attention to detail, too.  I have just barely started dabbling in C:SL building modding myself, just started last night. You're biting off more than I can personally chew for my first try, but more power to you. it looks like you've got the hang of it, for sure. I think my first building released on the STEX will be something modest like a low wealth car wash or a pawn shop or something.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Well done, some excellent style & detail in those buildings. Reminds me of some of the great NYBT content for SC4, but now in a new game & dimension!

 

 

Hey , i made some Tenements and Apartmentbuildings, and as the Workshop is a mess (and I dont have the permission to upload them on Stex, guess a moderator needs to give me that permission), i thought about sharing them here too. All buildings are W2W.

One suggestion I can think of:

 

What type of file were you attempting to upload? Currently on the STEX, it lists the supported file types as:

 

bmp, dat, hqx, jpeg, jpg, rar, sc4, SC4Desc, SC4Lot, SC4M, zip

 

If you attempted to upload any other file, a "you aren't permitted to upload this kind of file" error will show up.

 

As you can tell, most of these are files commonly used by SimCity 4, along with a few image formats. So as it stands, the options for Skylines content are to use compressed archives (zip / rar). Compressing the files is also really the preferred option, as this conserves bandwidth for both the site and people downloading.

 

The best universal format is zip, which can be opened natively on Windows, Mac & Linux systems. On the other hand, rar files have better compression, although you may need a 3rd party utility to open them. So you'll basically need to add the building's files inside a zip or rar, and then upload it using the black button, on the submissions page.

 

Then once you've added screenshots, a file name & description, it should (in theory) accept the submission.

 

 

If this doesn't work, I'll forward your issues to an admin, who can look into checking your permissions.

[Feindbold 1,190]

Thank you for your positive feedback, it really motivates to do more

And thank you Cyclone, that was my Problem Just started uploading them.

As I watch the good old Ghostbusters Movie right now, guess what coming next

[zimmie 521]

Great job on these buildings. Some of the better ones that I've seen so far.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Those look great!

--Ocram

[neilworms 0]

More ideas for American tenement buildings (from one of the more underappreciated and attractive neighborhoods in the US) - 

 

 

 

http://www.3cdc.org/files/2013/02/Over-the-Rhine-Now.jpg

http://urbanohio.com/SWOhio/Cincinnati/Neighborhoods/OTR2/OverTheRhine56.jpg

http://ims.lib.miamioh.edu/ims201d/marcumac/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2014/03/JMWolf-8483-1.jpg

 

Like what you are doing so far!

[Shy Dude 149]

Very nice, I feel like the textures could be cleaned up for the sake of clarity though. Maybe use bump mapping too? (can that be done?)

 

Man I wish I had a computer that could run this game.

[aable 63]

This is absolutely the best stuff in the workshop so far, I was blown away when I first saw the 151 CP building and placed it in my city. The lack of realistic looking buildings is the only thing I'm really missing right now in transitioning from SC4 and it's great that we're getting buildings like this already. Can't wait to see what you make next. 

[Feindbold 1,190]

@ shydude: Thank you hm there is bumpmapping, i use normalmaps (with prefix "_n") if you look at my first building (the 6-story), you can see I made the normalmap even a little bit too strong. The real problem is, that the ingame engine oversaturate a lot. somehow, this oversaturation makes Textures apear worse than they actually are, and with my first few buildings, i didnt really "fight" the oversaturation, here is an example:

The Ghostbusters Firehouse before i changed the saturation:


After i lowered the saturation by a lot:


If you look at the frontfascade, it looks sharper, even though i just changed the saturation.

@ aable: Thank you too, yes exactly, the lack of realistic Buildings was allmost the only flaw I had with this game. Im so happy they made these very well working import functions

And btw, do you notice the Firetruck leaving the Building it fits with the door (didnt plan that and expect that the Firetrucks spawn on the Street, was a nice suprise )

[TPB 563]

Incredible stuff Feinbold, thank you very much for sharing these! 

[Shy Dude 149]

Interesting, toning down the saturation does help but they still look like photographs pasted on the buildings, I think redoing the textures completely (with the photographs as a basis) without the blurry imperfections and unnecessary details of the photographs would make the buildings much more readable and cuter pro-quality. Also, now that i notice the normal maps, I see that they seem to be interpreting dark details as holes so that might also need some work.

 

But I have to give you credit because back in the SC4 days, almost no one attempted Beaux Arts architecture. This seems like the start of something new, keep up the good work.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great, One thing I think you need to add is more roof details, like a few pipes ect, other wise keep of the good work. I also think the texture could be a little better, maybe there's a way to layer your textures with other high quality texture to bring out the texture. 

[jesper107 113]

Great models mate! Thanks you!

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Very nice models! I didn't download them yet but i will soon.

 

Question: Are all your windows modeled? (pushed in) The front looks modeled but the side windows look flat in the pictures. Other than that, I love the style (I'm from NYC) and want this to make up most of my inner city buildings. Thanks for making these.

[TheeLord 42]

very nice, can't wait for more rowhouse varieties.  Your models all look great

[Micah 16]

Just curious, what are you using to create these buildings? Blender? 3DMax?

[Feindbold 1,190]

Interesting, toning down the saturation does help but they still look like photographs pasted on the buildings, I think redoing the textures completely (with the photographs as a basis) without the blurry imperfections and unnecessary details of the photographs would make the buildings much more readable and cuter pro-quality. Also, now that i notice the normal maps, I see that they seem to be interpreting dark details as holes so that might also need some work.

 

But I have to give you credit because back in the SC4 days, almost no one attempted Beaux Arts architecture. This seems like the start of something new, keep up the good work.

You are right, the textures limit the qualitiy of my buildings, but right now, i cant improve them by much, as my sourcequality is kinda limited. Heres a documentation of my workflow on my last building:

I see a nice building on Googleearths 3d Imagery:

I create a texturemap (i use 512x512 to keep the filesizes low, but thats limiting the qualitiy aswell):

Put that thing into game:

While there are areas with extremly detailed 3d imagery on Google earth (Baltimore or Grand Rapid for example) sadly NY has a lot of 2nd and 3rd generation 3d imagery, wish is just enough for what i do right now, experimenting, sharing and improving. Thats why im so happy about your comments, as they help me to improve

Looks great, One thing I think you need to add is more roof details, like a few pipes ect, other wise keep of the good work. I also think the texture could be a little better, maybe there's a way to layer your textures with other high quality texture to bring out the texture. 

Thank you Do you mean, replacing brown places on that texture with better bricks or replacing the windows and so on? Thats sounds like a nice idea. I will look into that, but i cant promise much, as im not exactly a photoshop mastermind ( in fact, i even did my specularmaps with Paint )

Very nice models! I didn't download them yet but i will soon.

 

Question: Are all your windows modeled? (pushed in) The front looks modeled but the side windows look flat in the pictures. Other than that, I love the style (I'm from NYC) and want this to make up most of my inner city buildings. Thanks for making these.

For now (except the Ghostbuster Firestation), I extruded only streetfacing Facades. I try to stay around 1000 Polys, at least until someone knows the average polycount of the vanillabuildings.

Wow, a lot of Text, i hope its somehow understandable, my grammar is awful

EDIT: Oh sry Micah, i forgot about your question, im using a mixture, model and textures in Sketchup and LOD UV Map and export in 3ds Max.

[Shy Dude 149]

I think the sources have enough quality to show what is going on but they have unnecessary detail like shading and shadows that would better be left to the normal maps. For Example: I have taken this texture:

And simplified it as

And made a height map for it.

and converted that to a normal map

I'm not sure how the lighting in the game will make it look, but it looks decent in this preview.

[neilworms 0]

After reading your workflow, here's the google earth link for the neighborhood I showed before (though its somewhat outdated- lots of stuff that's been restored or new infill isn't there - this is a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood).  I have it centered on the Germania building which is probably my favorite building in Cincinnati, hope the models are usable, there's lots of cool stuff here for the style you like:

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Cincinnati,+OH/@39.1083923,-84.5123404,94a,20y,270h,41.73t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x884051b1de3821f9:0x69fb7e8be4c09317

 

IRL Photo:

http://urbanup.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/20141123-_DSC4253.jpg

[Feindbold 1,190]

@ shydude: thanks for your work, i put it on the building, for testing. its looks nice, but a little bit too clean for my taste, i kinda like the imperfections of phototextures I dont have the time know, but i will post you a picture of your textures ingame, probably tomorrow.

I tried to find a good compromise between your style, and my very first pure phototextures. On my newest building, a 11 story Level 3 Office (maybe only Level 2 im not sure about that yet) I photoshopped most of the imperfections, while trying to remain that dirty look:



I didn´t touch the beige parts of the building yet (the building is from Kansas City btw.)

Thanks for the link to Cincinnati neilworms, i looked a bit into that, but it thems like most of this 3d imagery is a little bit too blury . Take a look at Rapid Grand for example, thats the quality i´m interested in .

[Shy Dude 149]

Yeah, I like to do a bit a clean style myself that was probably an extreme example but making details like the windows have crisp edges will make make the normal maps a lot easier to make, at least that's what I think, that was actually my first time messing with normal maps, it's fun.

[Feindbold 1,190]

Here is, what i´m working on right now. I use 1024² textures instead of 512², but this time .jpegs. This means I have 4 times more pixel, while cutting the filesize in half. I also lowered my overall details to stay under 1k tris. The model is finished and has 706 triangles (but i will ad a watertower for another 256 tris soon). Its going to be a Level 2 or Level 3 Shop. (No reflectionmaps and bumpmaps applied jet):

[SimCoug 5,973]

That looks great

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Here is, what i´m working on right now. I use 1024² textures instead of 512², but this time .jpegs. This means I have 4 times more pixel, while cutting the filesize in half.:

 

The asset editor recompresses the textures when you import, so the final asset filesize will be higher. And the game will have to handle a heavier texture in the end.

 

But for detailed texture like this you should be working with 1024 textures anyway.

[Feindbold 1,190]

 

Here is, what i´m working on right now. I use 1024² textures instead of 512², but this time .jpegs. This means I have 4 times more pixel, while cutting the filesize in half.:

 

The asset editor recompresses the textures when you import, so the final asset filesize will be higher. And the game will have to handle a heavier texture in the end.

 

But for detailed texture like this you should be working with 1024 textures anyway.

 

 

Mh it thems so, but there is something interesting about filesizes: for this Buidling I used only .jpegs, the combined filesize of all maps used (diffuse, specular, normal and color) is only 600kb.

-When I make this building into a Firestation, the asset will be around 5mb.

-When I make it into a residental, the asset will be around 1,4mb

-When I make it into a Shop (what i did) the asset is around 2,5mb.

At least every building I created so far, (regardless of the combiened filesize of its textures) thems to fit this pattern (I usually put them as a firestation into the game, to check the LOD). Just curious, do you have comparable filesizes on your buildings?

 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I will test that. Not the first time I read about it, that's weird... maybe the "compression" presets are not the same