Attercap Buildings

[boformer 3,169]

Here is a guide how to update assets: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=424748932

[Attercap 123]

Thanks a lot ! I updated the Daisy Building this afternoon. Now it will grow in 1x2 1x3 1x4.

EDIT : Steinman Building will also grow in 1x3 and 1x4.

  Edited August 22, 2015 by Attercap  

[boformer 3,169]

I experimented with your buildings. Your buildings are very well-made!

A few suggestions how you can improve variety without creating dozens of assets:

• Use the Prop probability changer mod to change the probability of significant props/trees on the roof and in the backyard
• Use the color variation system:
  • The green/blue elements of the daisy building could be varied (green, grey, brown, white)
  • The color of the canopies of both buildings
  • The color of the brick texture?
• Use a slightly different roof color for the 2 buildings

Some general suggestions:

• Make the windows slightly more transparent so the interior generated by the game is more visible
• Get Rid of the bushes in the Steinman building texture and use bush props instead.
• It looks like the LOD of the daisy building has a sligly different roof color
• Add some dirt/cracks to the side walls of both buildings

[Shroomblaze 320]

I agree with schmidtbochum, Everything he suggested is good. I suggested you get rid of those textured bushes in the window a while ago too, They just make the front door area look a little odd in game. Other than that they are some great buildings.

  Edited August 23, 2015 by Shroomblaze  

[Attercap 123]

Wow the brick building nightmare !

Is the Daisy Building really like this in game ? It's far from this "pop" version in my own computer...

- I dont know the Prop probability changer mod ; I will have a look,

- I never used the color variation system ; I have to try it. I dont think we can change slighty some colors (roof texture) and in the same time change the cornice color from green to red, for example ?

- Ok for the roof color. There are buildings of the same generation so they use the same roof texture.

- For the transparence of the windows ; something like a white slide with 90% transparency (photoshop) is ok ? I tried 80% but it was weird.

- For the bushes I didnt forgot ; have to take some time to find THE bush.

- They are some errors you dont see in the pictures (maybe) but lot of things have to be improved.

 

Thanks a lot for your advices !

  Edited August 23, 2015 by Attercap  

[wallacet 336]

They look great. Good job.

[Attercap 123]

Hi,

I updated the Daisy Building. I followed most of your suggestions ; but I dont know if the color variation system is working.

I released the Hoffmann Building few days ago : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=504296147

The file is too heavy, around 5 mo. So today I used lower quality files textures (from 1,2 mo to 600ko for the model_d, model_s and so on) but the new version is still 5,1 mo (again 5,3 mo for the former version.) How can I decrease the size of the asset ?

 

  Edited August 24, 2015 by Attercap  

[Feindbold 1,190]

Mh filesizes are still a big questionmark to me, sometimes they seem very random. Maybe you could set your lod textures to 256x256, also check the normalmap filesize. If created with a generator, the filesizes are often very high, usually up to 1,5mb for a 1024² jpeg. I tend to open and save them with paint, that changes the filesize to around 200-400kbs.

[boformer 3,169]

The prop randomization works well:

 

 

The color variation also works. I would just desaturate and lighten the colors a little bit. I also think that the grey roof looked better. I would remove the color variation from the roof:

 

One thing though: You forgot to add a color variation map to your lod model: YOur whole LOD gets colored.

 

 

I would also desaturate the brick texture of both buildings a little bit. It looks very vibrant (no LUT selected).

[Shroomblaze 320]

I would also desaturate the brick texture of both buildings a little bit. It looks very vibrant (no LUT selected).

I actually was going to suggest that in my last post too but I deleted it cause I wasn't too sure after comparing it to some brick textures I viewed on google real quick. A little desaturation would probably help though.

Attercap, how did you manage to change the roof color and have a separate color for the front of the building as well?

[Attercap 123]

I didnt manage : the roof has a grey-red color and the cornice a blue-green color. So with the same color variation, cornice and roof dont have the same result.
I will try with a white cornice, color variation will be better I guess.

 

I didnt know for the LOD color variation... It's probably why I got one negative mark on Steam during the night My first. What a tragedy !

 

Thanks Feinbold, I will use Paint. But it seems the size of the texture map (1024² ; 2048²) is much more important than real size (weight ?) in octets of these textures maps.

  Edited August 25, 2015 by Attercap  

[boformer 3,169]

From the wiki:

"_c" suffix stands for the color texture (Mask) - 1 color channel mask specifying per pixel where the color variations can be applied.

just add such a map (and maybe an extra one for the lod). Paint the areas where the window frames and other colored elements on the diffuse map are white, the rest black.

[Attercap 123]

Yeap. I just updated the Daisy to add a model_lod_c ; roof will now be dark grey (without color variation) and I decrease a bit the luminosity of the brick texture.

[Shroomblaze 320]

Hey, I'm not trying to beat up your work. I'm a fan and that's why I'm giving criticism so I can see even better work from you in the future. I noticed something today with the LOD using the Isometric camera mod. Here's a before and after of the LOD triggering on the back of the building. It's noticeable with the default camera too.

 

Also with this one, I feel like you could of added 3 square planes to keep the yellow awning look when zoomed out because to be honest the awnings really make this building great and you wont even notice them most of the time zoomed out. Thanks

 

Also with this building which is my favorite I think, you could of added a few extra planes for the main 3 awnings as well because you really do notice that kind of stuff from far away. I see a lot of people do that though to be honest, they try to make their models have such a small LOD and completely get rid of some small details that make a big difference. It would only be an extra 6 Tris to make it work. Also As you can see when I zoomed in with the asset editor the color seems overly saturated. As you can see in the LOD image to the right, the color seems more correct. I'm not sure if this is just a bug with the editor at the moment and it looks perfectly fine in game, I dont have time to test it out though. I will also point out that the color of the brick in the LOD on this screenshot has a good saturation that should probably look like the very first Image in this post. That first screenshot seems saturated too when comparing to this.

  Edited August 27, 2015 by Shroomblaze  

[Attercap 123]

Hi Shroomblaze. It's okay, dont worry. I'm quite a beginner and want to create better buildings with time. I'm still far from Feinbolds buildings quality - one month ago it was te first time I texture something.

For the Steinman : It's because on a recent update ; I had to upload a new model without model_lod_d and others lod file - I had the "Broken Asset : xys is null" bug and I dont know how to fix it. On my own laptop the LOD is ok !!! So I need to update the building in priority, with LOD files (and we will see if the Broken Asset bug appears again.)

For the Daisy : ok, I will add the yellow awnings. In a few days, I need to upgrade the Steinman first, and I want to release the LaFayette Building (2x3 building, Lvl 2.) But in one month, with After Dark, probably.

For the Hoffmann : I dont undestand how brick texture color work. I decrease luminosity both on the LOD and on the main model, and you have this result - even in the game, not just in the Asset Editor.  I dont know what to do to avoid this overly saturated texture color (as decrease luminosity is not as efficient as expected)

  Edited August 27, 2015 by Attercap  

[boformer 3,169]

 

You coul probably do it with only 2 triangles (a single square) if you make use of transparency.

But I don't know if it is actually needed. The LOD model is pretty close to the one with the awnings. I would only light up the texture of the awnings a little bit.

[Shroomblaze 320]

I dont know what to do to avoid this overly saturated texture color (as decrease luminosity is not as efficient as expected)

You have to decrease the saturation. You could also play around with levels sometimes too. 

 

You coul probably do it with only 2 triangles (a single square) if you make use of transparency.

But I don't know if it is actually needed. The LOD model is pretty close to the one with the awnings. I would only light up the texture of the awnings a little bit.

Actually you are right, only 2 triangle would do if you made the texture 3 awnings. Correct. Honestly I think it is needed. Even though it would only lighten up the awning it makes a big difference imo. It has a much higher visibility from further away.

[Attercap 123]

Ok, I will try to decrease saturation. (this weekend !)

Thanks a lot

[Attercap 123]

New bat on my workshop ! The LaFayette Building.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=508470493

 

The building has the color variation enabled and the prop randomizer mod. The LOD includes the awnings. Hope everything is ok with this bat !

Thanks a lot to Shroomblaze and BO for your advices.

  Edited August 29, 2015 by Attercap  

[Judazzz 1,936]

Thank you for all your beautiful buildings, Attercap. Your and Feindbold's buildings combine really well to create superb-looking inner city districts!

[Attercap 123]

Thanks Judazzz.

A lot others buildings are planned ; it will take a few months. I want to release one building per week, actually I'm working faster but I need time to update former buildings... I want to create at least two buildings for each size (1, 2, 3, 4 tiles) and for each level, so 24 buildings, and even more (corners buildings, more diversity for 4x3 or 3x3 buildings...)

Last building : The Morgan Building ; a commercial Level 1, 3x2 - 3x3 - 3x4. I really like this one, for its simplicity. Or maybe level 2. Dont know yet

 

I'm also creating commercial level 3, like the Madison Building. But I guess the file will be really big (2048x2048 textures... )

 

 

 

  Edited August 30, 2015 by Attercap  

[boformer 3,169]

You can use this table to see which buildings are needed for a complete style:

  Edited August 30, 2015 by boformer  

[Attercap 123]

Yeap. Thanks Bo !

  Edited August 30, 2015 by Attercap  

[Feindbold 1,190]

Thanks Judazzz.

A lot others buildings are planned ; it will take a few months. I want to release one building per week, actually I'm working faster but I need time to update former buildings... I want to create at least two buildings for each size (1, 2, 3, 4 tiles) and for each level, so 24 buildings, and even more (corners buildings, more diversity for 4x3 or 3x3 buildings...)

Last building : The Morgan Building ; a commercial Level 1, 3x2 - 3x3 - 3x4. I really like this one, for its simplicity. Or maybe level 2. Dont know yet

 

I'm also creating commercial level 3, like the Madison Building. But I guess the file will be really big (2048x2048 textures... )

 

 

 

Very nice, you could scale that 2048² texture down to 1024 though, doesnt really change anything (in terms of loosing quality) except that you filesize will be halved.

[Attercap 123]

AAAAAND The Morgan Building is released ! A Low density commercial Building, level 1, 3x2 - 3x3 - 3x4 ; awning color variation + prop randomizer mod + full options.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=511182023

 

 

[Darf 1,439]

Looks great!  What's the purpose of the small greenish/brick structure on top? It looks like a billboard/sign, without the text.

[Attercap 123]

The model - yes there is a model - of this building has the same bilboard ; but without text. So I kept it empty ; but I will maybe upload it later.

I will try to increase a bit the saturation of the texture... have a look on the Sketchup picture : it's a totally different building. :/

  Edited September 2, 2015 by Attercap  

[simlink 1,098]

Building looks good, fits in nicely with the game. I will be adding this to my collection soon.  

[Attercap 123]

Hop ! The Pitt Building. A small Lvl 1.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514899922

 

[Attercap 123]

I did this 3x2 Level 2 building these last days ! The Rochester Building.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=516855080

 

 

Hope you like it

 

EDIT : if someone knows how to avoid these bad quality screenshots... (using Steam -  F12)

  Edited September 12, 2015 by Attercap