Dethkwok's Custom Buildings: Suburbia, USA: First set released!

[ized 7]

I spent  many a summer sweating my ass off on a lake living in these kinds of home.. Great work!  You brought back so many memories.

[DethKwok 238]

I spent  many a summer sweating my ass off on a lake living in these kinds of home.. Great work!  You brought back so many memories.

No Problem! I'm glad I can have that affect

 

This is going to be epic! Is it an NY styled building from SC4?

Its definitely a NYC Building. Can you guess which one?

This game lacks alot of Neo-Classic and Art Deco buildings in favor of modern buildings. They are my favorite type of architecture.

Some comments: Its a shame we are locked to 4x4 zones. This building should of been 4x8. I had to scale the model down 40% from actual size, then i had to scale z (height) so the floors fit with the Cim height. This will end up being 2x4.

Don't worry about the globs of blocks, it will be optimized at the end lol

[DethKwok 238]

 

Heres a teaser shot. 
Building is still WIP.
This is gonna be a pretty nice office building

I enjoy making these wall to wall buildings.
When this is done, expect more. Looking at NYC for inspiration.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

That looks awesome!

[DethKwok 238]

Awesome dude! Glad to see more people making fancy art deco skyscrapers.

 

The 4x4 growable limit is pretty lame. I hope they increase the size of growables, or allow plopped buildings to function as office, commercial, residential, or industrial.

 

I've done a few models of similar buildings and here are a few techniques I've found useful:

 

-Use instantiated geometry for columns between the windows. This helps with spacing. You can also set up instanced symmetrical groups for your whole building.

 

-Make a single poly strip the height of your entire building. In your texture, have one tillable stack of 5-10 windows. UV that window strip onto your tall poly strip. Tile it so you get as many windows as you need. Copy that poly strip over and over to make your window columns, and cut it down to the needed height. In your texture, surround the windows with a few pixels of transparency, so the space in between the windows doesn’t render in the game. That lets you use your window poly strips over different base textures.

 

-The photo textures just don’t look right in game. It looks better to just make flat photoshop textures, and let the game apply its own lighting and shading on top. The problem with the photo textures is that they obviously already have lighting, shading, and shadowing.

Thanks for your tips!

Whats instantiated geometry? I'm new to blender.

I will try, making the normal map for this is going to be insane. The brickwork on the edges of this building is very detailed. I might have to skip out on this one.

Also, noone has guessed which building this is!

Hint: Its a building on Broadway.

Working with the textures, scaling, little details and hopefully working on blending everything. I want to make this recolorable aswell. Possibly in orange, white, gray and brown

[ized 7]

Looking like the Empire State Building without the tower on top.

[DethKwok 238]

Lol, could you just tell us the address? I cant really offer much feedback or help without knowing what building your making....

 

An instance is a piece of repeated geometry. You could make a cube to represent one column on your model. You then instantiate the cube over to make the other columns. When you modify one cube, it will apply the same changes to all the others. When you need to export, you just convert all of the cubes to regular geometry and combine them into one mesh.

 

You can also use this technique to model symmetry in your building, so you only have to do a fraction of the work. For example, you could make one group for your buildings base, and another for the tower (since the tower is offset from the base). What ever you model on one side automatically gets mirrored over to the other.

 

Instead of thinking of things in terms of solid faces, try to think of these buildings as though they are made from joined columns. The vertical lines were really important in this type of architecture, and the buildings have all kinds of subtle vertical trim lines.

 

If you set things up well, it can really speed up the modeling process.

Ah ok, yes I have been using repeating geometry in the creating process. I will perfect the technique.

This is the Harriman Building on 39 Broadway

 

I just finished making the obscured right and left facades of the building.

 

 

This face of the building is gonna need some work. The windows on both sides don't really exist on the building because its Wall to wall, but I thought it would be necessary aesthetic if It doesn't grow in a W2W setting. I did however wanted to keep this side of the wall preserved like it is in this historical photo:

I ripped it from this photo, so I have a guideline if I'm gonna make those indents in the brickwork by hand as a diffuse or possibly as a normal map.

Also, theres a lone window near the left side. I wonder if this was done intentionally or if it was some kind of error

[DethKwok 238]

Looking good man!

 

Do notice how the windows in the center of the tower are closer to squares, and are wider than the ones on the edges. Its a subtle detail, but it really changes the way the building appears. The mini "towers" on the corners are meant to look tall and thin, so they used narrow windows.

 

As far as those lines on the blank facade, I would ignore them for now. Focus on trying to capture the main aesthetic features and proportions of the building.

 

Admittedly, its going to be a struggle to maintain the architectural features of the building while scaling it down that much.

 

It looks like this is a long narrow building that was meant to have other buildings constructed right next to it. The main shapes that are formed between the setbacks are rectangles that are longer than they are tall (green lines). That makes the building look wide and short, rather than a tall thin tower like what yours looks like.

 

Yours looks unbalanced. The base it wide, but then your middle tower segment is taller than it is wide. Then you have a segment that is wider than it is tall. And then your very top segment is taller than it is wide.

 

Also, notice the proportions on the set backs (red line). If you drew a line from the corner on the very first one up to the corner on the top, it would form a nice smooth curve.

 

I understand you need to scale things down, but try to maintain as much of the main proportions as you can. They're what makes the building look so nice.

 

 

It would also be helpful if you posted some better pics of your WIP with out the close up perspective and other buildings.

 

Thanks for your feedback. The original building had better proportions. It was wide and short. However, since i had to scale it down to almost half its size, I wanted to keep the same amount of floors the building has. This was the least I could scale the height (Z) so all 37 floors are represented.

Admittedly, my mistake was copying the sketchup model I found on Google Earth, I laid a rough sketch by laying rectangles on that model with cubes. It's proportions weren't accurate as I had hoped.

 

I am aware the windows near the edges should be thinner.

Front View

 

Left View

Some interesting things about this building is that the Front section has 2 extra floors. The top section is also a bit off-center: due to the street on the rear not being parallel, I had to modify it a little bit, I guess this was the result.

 

Back View

In the front and back views, the mid and top section seem to not align with the lower section could be because of the incorrect model I drafted from the sketchup model. In the photos I've seen its hard to tell because the lower section isn't parallel to the top. I think I might adjust this for the sake of aesthetics.

 

Right View

The base that sticks out of the back here as seen on the right of this view is smaller than the section in the front (Like in the photo)

Angle

[DethKwok 238]

Thanks man. Its much easier to see in your new images.

 

It may help to knock out some floors any maybe a few window columns to help it not look so squished with such a large scale down. The top area is also looking really cramped.

 

Your floor spacing is off too. Try making a primitive cube, and give it 40 or so height segments. Scale it up and put it right next to your building, and use the poly lines to line your windows up with.

 

If you want a short and inaccurate history, I believe both NYC and Chicago had rules that governed building heights within a certain distance of the street back in the 30's. In Chicago, it seemed at around 20-22 floors, the buildings all "step back" around 20 feet, and then continue the rest of the way up. It was those laws that lead to all those crazy stair shaped buildings in NYC. I read that on Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

I have a hunch that these windows line up on the real building. Its another one of those subtle details that add up to make the building look nice.

 

 

Also sorry if if I come off as harsh with my feedback. I mean well.

No worries, I appreciate the help. . I like your buildings too. I have your Lasalle Wacker building, little did I know I was getting advice from it's creator.

[DethKwok 238]

 

An Update: Added more details, updated textures, adjusted proportions and testing different color variations

To Do: more polishing, some texture glitches, finish specular maps and maybe a release

[DethKwok 238]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=461378105

Harriman Building uploaded on Steam!

Try it out and report problems or suggestions.

  Edited June 18, 2015 by DethKwok  

[Skypaul 26]

Wow! This is amazing. I do need more.

Bravo

[Cool_Z 1,547]

One question (I prefered to ask here instead than on steam).

Recolorable: Comes in White, Light Brown, Gray and Dark Brown

Did you grow the colors ingame ?

 

Because as far as I know the recolor system is still broken. 

[DethKwok 238]

One question (I prefered to ask here instead than on steam).

Recolorable: Comes in White, Light Brown, Gray and Dark Brown

Did you grow the colors ingame ?

 

Because as far as I know the recolor system is still broken. 

I managed to grow White and Light Brown.

I assumed that It was working. I didn't test to see if the other colors show up.

 

Wow! This is amazing. I do need more.

Bravo

I am working on another Art Deco building.  I'll post some previews soon

  Edited June 21, 2015 by DethKwok  

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Damn !! I thought maybe someone finally found a way.

 

FYI the color system does not work.

No idea if it comes from the asset editor or from the game engine. I've signaled it just a few days after the game was released and got an answer the devs would look after it... but obviously they didn't, or didn't find yet... or maybe they forgot.

 

What happens is that custom buildings are restricted to the number of colors the base asset (the one you pick when you import your building) is able to grow. If you picked an asset that can grow two, your custom asset will be able to grow two.

For small and low level assets you sometimes can find a four color one, but for 4*4 residential level 5 and for 4*4 commercial level 3 there is only one color possible.

For 2*4 office 3 (yours) it looks there is two colors then...

 

Oh yeah... and it's not even consistant !! My first building first grew red everywhere, after they updated the game it only grew green.

  Edited June 21, 2015 by Cool_Z  

[DethKwok 238]

Damn !! I thought maybe someone finally found a way.

 

FYI the color system does not work.

No idea if it comes from the asset editor or from the game engine. I've signaled it just a few days after the game was released and got an answer the devs would look after it... but obviously they didn't, or didn't find yet... or maybe they forgot.

 

What happens is that custom buildings are restricted to the number of colors the base asset (the one you pick when you import your building) is able to grow. If you picked an asset that can grow two, your custom asset will be able to grow two.

For small and low level assets you sometimes can find a four color one, but for 4*4 residential level 5 and for 4*4 commercial level 3 there is only one color possible.

For 2*4 office 3 (yours) it looks there is two colors then...

 

Oh yeah... and it's not even consistant !! My first building first grew red everywhere, after they updated the game it only grew green.

Thanks for the info!

Heres my current WIP

  Edited June 22, 2015 by DethKwok  

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Sweeeeeeeet

[wallacet 336]

Damn !! I thought maybe someone finally found a way.

 

FYI the color system does not work.

No idea if it comes from the asset editor or from the game engine. I've signaled it just a few days after the game was released and got an answer the devs would look after it... but obviously they didn't, or didn't find yet... or maybe they forgot.

 

What happens is that custom buildings are restricted to the number of colors the base asset (the one you pick when you import your building) is able to grow. If you picked an asset that can grow two, your custom asset will be able to grow two.

For small and low level assets you sometimes can find a four color one, but for 4*4 residential level 5 and for 4*4 commercial level 3 there is only one color possible.

For 2*4 office 3 (yours) it looks there is two colors then...

 

Oh yeah... and it's not even consistant !! My first building first grew red everywhere, after they updated the game it only grew green.

Thanks for the info!

Heres my current WIP

Is that building....purple?

[DethKwok 238]

 

<SNIP>

Is that building....purple?

Yup, just placeholder textures 

An update on my new WIP:

My available free time has not allowed me to make huge progress. I made some templates for my textures and modified the building shape. I also added some more detail,  such as the railing/porch on the balcony.

[DethKwok 238]

An Update, final form taking shape, a rough look at what It will look like in-game

[DethKwok 238]

I'll be gone for the month of august, so progress on this building has halted.

Heres what I have so far:
Made new Textures, they are close to final.
I also added more details.

Its a near 1:1 version of 1 Fifth Avenue in NYC

[Attercap 123]

Its just wonderful ! Congratulations ! We need plenty of these buildings !

[DethKwok 238]

Greetings!

I am back from my vacation in china.
I'll be busy with school and work, but I have decided that after releasing this building, I will expand my trailer homes set.

My plan is is to include more variety of Lvl1 buildings, then include double wide and modified trailer homes aswell as small regular houses in lvl2. Lvl 3 will feature similar medium wealth buildings in Simcity 2013 that I will model from scratch.

  Edited September 2, 2015 by DethKwok  

[DethKwok 238]

Working on some new things! I'm in the process of updating my buildings to After Dark, but I noticed that I have some ugly white lines around my windows with specularity (more pronounced with illumination)

 

Does anyone know how to fix this?  I've tried enlarging specular and modfiying the diffuse but the problem still happens :/

  Edited September 25, 2015 by DethKwok  

[Feindbold 1,190]

Could you upload your specular and illumination map?

  Edited September 25, 2015 by Feindbold  

[DethKwok 238]

I fixed it! Thanks guys! I had to set the illumination where I didn't want to illuminate to 192, instead of 0. Night lighting looks awesome 

[DethKwok 238]

Trailer Homes now updated to After Dark!

Heres a teaser for whats to come!

[Judazzz 1,936]

That looks awesome, both the trailers and the skyscraper!

One question in regard to the tower (it's the Harriman Office, right?): would it be possible to release it without the billboard props on the back facade? In my opinion they really take away from the beauty of your model.
Also, and again just my personal opinion, I think the positioning doesn't fully do your model justice: it's current 2x4 orientation means that the gorgeous front facade is always facing sideways, thus being obscured by adjacent buildings. I think it would look so much better if it had a 4x2 orientation, so the facade would face the street (with 3x4 or 4x4 extension possible, as I'm not sure it would otherwise spawn - unless there are L1-4 high-density residential buildings available for 4x2 footprint).

  Edited September 28, 2015 by Judazzz  

[Balthoraz 178]

Just they are awesome. Looks really realistic. The 2nd image seems to be a render instead of ingame image.

[DethKwok 238]

That looks awesome, both the trailers and the skyscraper!

One question in regard to the tower (it's the Harriman Office, right?): would it be possible to release it without the billboard props on the back facade? In my opinion they really take away from the beauty of your model.
Also, and again just my personal opinion, I think the positioning doesn't fully do your model justice: it's current 2x4 orientation means that the gorgeous front facade is always facing sideways, thus being obscured by adjacent buildings. I think it would look so much better if it had a 4x2 orientation, so the facade would face the street (with 3x4 or 4x4 extension possible, as I'm not sure it would otherwise spawn - unless there are L1-4 high-density residential buildings available for 4x2 footprint).

I will not include the billboards this time.

The harriman building is based of the real one on 39 broadway: 

It was meant to be built sideways so it can fit into a narrow space while allowing wall-to-wall buildings.

I will consider modifying it, but I will not release it under the same name.