wallacet's WIP's

[wallacet 336]

Hey again everybody...I've begun work on what I hope will be a set of strip malls and shopping centers. My goal is to have areas in your city that, like in real life (and the screenshot below), contain large box stores and malls...a shopping mecca if you will. Similar to this:

and this:

These buildings will all have large parking lots and large numbers of jobs. Here's what I have so far:

 

This is a start, but it looks kind of bland to me... obviously texturing will make it look better, but what else can I add to spice this up? I'm at ~1800 polys, so I'be got plenty of room...thoughts?

[Cool_Z 1,547]

If you're at 1800... try to let textures do the job.

texturing is the moment you'll truly reveal the beauty of your work.

[wallacet 336]

If you're at 1800... try to let textures do the job.

texturing is the moment you'll truly reveal the beauty of your work.

This is what it will essentially look like in game:

Don't know why the parking spaces are floating but whatever.... does anyone know of any mod that removes the prop limit? I'm at like 55 props just from all the parking spaces, so I don't have much room to make any of them active parking spaces, since that also counts as a prop.

[Dubai Skyscraper 129]

I'd say you can model this with maybe half of the current poly count, without significant changes to the model. The store front has some small details that look heavy in terms of polygon density... they could be modeled with fewer edges or even part of the texture (something you'll not notice unless you zoom in heavily). Not that 1800 is a bad number for such a large building though! Keep it up 

[boformer 3,169]

no idea if it is possible to remove the prop limit. Sounds more realistic than the building limit.

[Dubai Skyscraper 129]

How about making a multi-parking-spot prop instead? If that's possible somehow.

  Edited July 23, 2015 by Dubai Skyscraper  

[wallacet 336]

How about making a multi-parking-spot prop instead? If that's possible somehow.

The one that is in there is a 5-spot prop....If the process for making props is the same as making models then yeah, I'll probably make a 10-spot prop...but I've never actually made a prop so I don't know the process. I really don't know why they consider "activation" items like parking activation or crowd gather spots as props...I wouldn't imagine there are any polys involved with those.

  Edited July 23, 2015 by wallacet  

[wallacet 336]

Update....I've started texturing. I seem to be fine with modeling to infinite detail (just look at my SC4 models!) but texturing seems to be my weak point. I've been basing most of my modeling off of this simple shopping center:

I'ts a simple one, but looks like the generic shopping center all of us US guys know and love. Here's what I have so far.

I think the roof texture is too large for the size of the building...I can expand that to make it look better so I'm not too worried about that. I'm really not in love with the stucco borders, but that seems to be the going texture for most shopping centers I've seen. I do like the way the air vents came out though. .

 

Thoughts/suggestions?

[wallacet 336]

Cool man! Are you using the bigger footprints mod?

I was also working on a ploppable RCI mod. Are you intrested in helping?

What does this mod do? Allow you to not be locked in by the 12x13,16x8 max lot sizes?

And yeah I'd love to help. What can I do?

[merc187 46]

Great work Wallacet!  And I didn't even think about using Google Earth for reference images.  Here I am using MS Paint to make a large image with several reference images inside.  I could have just opened up Google and boom - there we go! 

[wallacet 336]

An update...

Besides the thing being a little too tall (I'll fix this), please give me your opinions on texture, shape, size, etc... I really need some input here!

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I think it's coming out nicely !!  Maybe your textures are a bit "too clean"

[wallacet 336]

I think it's coming out nicely !!  Maybe your textures are a bit "too clean"

Too clean as in you can't really notice the texture and it just looks like a color, or too clean as in theres no dirt/grime?

[Jasoncw 12,030]

I don't know what other people think about this, but I think since the game is in perspective and you can zoom in so close, everything should be scaled to real life dimensions. So I think you should make your bricks RL dimensions. A brick is 8 inches wide, and three bricks stacked is 8 inches tall. 

Other than that I think most of your gains will come from the roof and the parking lot (as much as you can do with it anyway) since they're such large surfaces.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I thiclan t's coming out nicely !!  Maybe your textures are a bit "too clean"

Too clean as in you can't really notice the texture and it just looks like a color, or too clean as in theres no dirt/grime?

too clean as no dirt... when you zoom out it's normal that a brick texture or any texture loses detail. Oh and yeah, like Jason said.

[Dubai Skyscraper 129]

I don't know what other people think about this, but I think since the game is in perspective and you can zoom in so close, everything should be scaled to real life dimensions. So I think you should make your bricks RL dimensions. A brick is 8 inches wide, and three bricks stacked is 8 inches tall. 

Other than that I think most of your gains will come from the roof and the parking lot (as much as you can do with it anyway) since they're such large surfaces.

There are many different brick sizes and systems. His texture isn't that unrealistic at all.

 

I thiclan t's coming out nicely !!  Maybe your textures are a bit "too clean"

Too clean as in you can't really notice the texture and it just looks like a color, or too clean as in theres no dirt/grime?

too clean as no dirt... when you zoom out it's normal that a brick texture or any texture loses detail. Oh and yeah, like Jason said.

Any tips for making dirt in Photoshop or where to find good tutorials? I'll need this too for my project

[wallacet 336]

I don't know what other people think about this, but I think since the game is in perspective and you can zoom in so close, everything should be scaled to real life dimensions. So I think you should make your bricks RL dimensions. A brick is 8 inches wide, and three bricks stacked is 8 inches tall. 

Other than that I think most of your gains will come from the roof and the parking lot (as much as you can do with it anyway) since they're such large surfaces.

There are many different brick sizes and systems. His texture isn't that unrealistic at all.

 

I thiclan t's coming out nicely !!  Maybe your textures are a bit "too clean"

Too clean as in you can't really notice the texture and it just looks like a color, or too clean as in theres no dirt/grime?

too clean as no dirt... when you zoom out it's normal that a brick texture or any texture loses detail. Oh and yeah, like Jason said.

Any tips for making dirt in Photoshop or where to find good tutorials? I'll need this too for my project

Just find a dirty brick texture

[Dubai Skyscraper 129]

No, that won't be enough  for me. I wanted to draw some details at specific places, for example under window ledges...

[Jasoncw 12,030]

Search google for photoshop grunge brushes. You can also find images of things like leaks on concrete and other dirty surfaces and you can edit them into your texture with photoshop.

[wallacet 336]

Updated brick and sidewalk texture...

Don't have much time for modeling this week, but I hope to be done soon. Look any better?

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Much better 

[wallacet 336]

Here's a solid (pun intended) question for you fine modding folks...

I work 10 hours a day, and it seems that when I get home, I have absolutely no time or motivation to work on modeling. I model in Solidworks for a living, and there are times during each day when I have a few minutes here or there where things are moving a little slow...I looked it up today, and it seems that you can import Solidworks files into 3dsMax as a body object. So, I figure in my slow time here at work I could work on some models for C:S (I have an hour lunch break..it only takes 15 minutes to eat!) I have no experience with importing files, however, and have no idea what the imported product would end up looking like, so I want to ask...has anyone had much luck working with imported files in 3dsMax? What does the poly count on imported files look like, and does texturing work the same way?

[wallacet 336]

Does anyone know the general in-game height of a cim?

[Dubai Skyscraper 129]

Not exactly, but they are realistically scaled I think. Easiest way to find out is to import a simple vertical ruler or anything  

[wallacet 336]

We'll I'm at work right now haha. I tested it out yesterday, and I can model a building in Solidworks (simple square shaped office buildings anyways) and import it into 3dsMax for texturing. I'm way quicker with Solidworks than 3dsMax, and have some free time at work, so I figure I'll start pumping out buildings from here.

[Shroomblaze 320]

I believe they are around 6 ft tall for an adult. I just uploaded one of the cims I extracted for my own purpose of scaling things properly. This MAX file is automatically adjusted to the right world scale so this is pretty close to the real size of a cim, I got the height by making him an asset before and comparing it to the other cims in game until he was about the same height. Enjoy. He's 186 Tris

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=69066565959458398052

  Edited August 5, 2015 by Shroomblaze  

[wallacet 336]

Another update...finally had a few minutes to do a little more work.

 

Obviously the parking lot is not complete, and I need to make some custom signs, but what do you think?

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Very nice; is this a British (mini) retail park?

[wallacet 336]

Very nice; is this a British (mini) retail park?

Not British, but I have a feeling this type of shopping center can be found almost anywhere. The plan is to create a bunch of them so a whole shopping-centric area of your city can be made.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Not British, but I have a feeling this type of shopping center can be found almost anywhere. The plan is to create a bunch of them so a whole shopping-centric area of your city can be made.

That would be great!