Darfs buildings | New releases

[Darf 1,439]

I recently started to work on some building, I released "De Verrekijker" which is a bit more of an experiment to getting the workflow down.
You can find it here.

I still find it quite hard to UV map, def could use a tutorial on how to effectively do that.
I'm currently working on a building inspired by the Puck building in New York. Mostly done still need to do the back.

After that's done I might do a cornerbuilding and some variants in the same style.

 

[Attercap 123]

Wouaw ! An other American assets creator !

But your building looks really flat. How many poly or triangles is this asset ? What are the software you use to create the building ?

[Darf 1,439]

Hi Attercap,

Thanks for your reply.
Actually this building is far from flat, the entire front is 3d modelled. Though that might be just AA and the angle you are looking at. The building has currently about 7,5k tris. I'm using Sketchup to model and 3d studio max to uvw map. I'm using Photoshop to edit textures.

In your PM you said you were using Sketchup to model and texture, how do you get your textures to export?

[Attercap 123]

7500 tris ? Outch ! You shouldnt have more than 2000-2500 tris for this building.

In sketchup for texture exporting I use a plugin wich allows Sketchup to export in FBX. Created by Thomthom (in Google : "sketchup thomthom fbx" you will find it.) 

But if you have the skills to use 3DS max, dont use Sketchup for the texture... it's not fun. 

  Edited August 31, 2015 by Attercap  

[boformer 3,169]

You can put small details like the ornaments on the wall into the normal map. That way you can save tris.

Can you post a picture of the mesh without the textures applied? That makes it easy to spot things which can be improved.

[Darf 1,439]

I know it's a lot, but personally I don't really mind having buildings a bit more detailed as my pc can handle it.

Here's 1 without textures, although I would hate the thought of doing all the uvw mapping agin for this building.

 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

I know it's a lot, but personally I don't really mind having buildings a bit more detailed as my pc can handle it.

 

You don't mind ok, but the people who might use your building once it's available for download might mind. Even if you put some warning some of them won't read it.

If you don't make the effort to make your buildings lighter or at least acceptable, you're actually killing the efforts of the builders who try t make their work as light as possible to keep everyone's gaming experience fast.

 

Please take this into consideration.

[Darf 1,439]

Well, I tested the weight ingame and thanks to the small lod for this building it is actually quite manageable.
Some of CO's own buildings are actually quite a bit higher, but for the next building I might scrap a bit more polys.

  Edited August 31, 2015 by Darf  

[Attercap 123]

So what is this building ? commercial, office, which level, which size ?

[Darf 1,439]

It's a 4x4 residential lvl 4 or 5, haven't decided that 1 yet.  9 stories tall, 10 if you include the small roofstructure. I actually got that plugin for Sketchup, Attercap, but when I want to export to fbx it says the building can only have 1 texture. I'm curious how you bake your textures or do you use blender for that?

  Edited August 31, 2015 by Darf  

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Well, I tested the weight ingame and thanks to the small lod for this building it is actually quite manageable.
Some of CO's own buildings are actually quite a bit higher, but for the next building I might scrap a bit more polys.

7500 is the polycount of a huuuge ploppable, not very ok for a low rise growable.

 

good to know you'll try to make better next time. 

[Attercap 123]

You can only have one texture means that you have to paint your model in one click at the beginning. (you select your whole model, you paint.) And after you deplace, rotate, etc, your texture manually.

For your model you probably have some "white-grey" textures from Sketchup somewhere. You have to find them and texture them (without using the paint tool, you have to copy/past existing textures from your model.)

 

[Darf 1,439]

There's actually a 2v2 building with some 5700 polycount and quite a few growables over 8000 in the vanilla game.
I released the first part of the Puck building on Steam. I might get back to it when I´m doing the last part, which is going to be a 2 by 4 and do some polygon editing.

I´m working on the corner building at the moment, trying to skimp a bit on the polygons, but having a double facade it´s not easy and I do want the two of them to match. Currently sitting at 6800 polygons, I think I might be able to do the original in around half.

Here is the two of them together, I havem´t decided on which detail to cut yet.

 

  Edited September 4, 2015 by Darf  

[boformer 3,169]

Maybe the arcs are the problem?

[Darf 1,439]

Well yeah, those add a lot of triangles, around 5 points per arch for the bigger ones, 3 for the small ones, I think around 100 polygons for the bigger ones and 50 for the small ones a piece. So I think a total of around 2200 polygons for those alone..

[Darf 1,439]

I'm not really a good texturer or really good at uwv mapping, so I'd rather not use that technique at this big of an arch.
Speaking of which, is there anyone experienced here with uwv mapping in 3ds max and knows how to stack your selected polygons on top of eachother, instead of doing it manually? It's a pain having to move and resize every single recurring element.

I released the corner building on Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514459810

I'm now working on reducing polycount in the original building to update it and release a 2x4 with an entrance. Should be able to do it in around 3,5 to 4k.

I'm also working on another New York building, currently about 80% modelling done, 4k poly's. It's going to be 3x4 lvl 5.

 

 

 

[Attercap 123]

I hope you will continue to do a lot of these buildings ! Thanks.

However you should resolve the problem with your floors...

  Edited September 9, 2015 by Attercap  

[Darf 1,439]

The floor problem should be resolved.

[Darf 1,439]

I finished modeling and texturing the Bayard-Condict building, just need to do some small stuff and it should be available for release. I turned it into 3x4 lvl 5 commercial.

 

  Edited September 12, 2015 by Darf  

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

That building looks nice. Great job!

Don't know if you played with this already but you can reduce the arch segments in Sketchup which can bring down the count a lot. The arches don't have to be super smooth. And you can use the Cities Skylines Tool plugin to help with the floors. It have a built in grid and floor height guide. http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/cities-skylines-tools

[Attercap 123]

This screenshot is Cities Skyline ? Yes there are still some ugly boxes around player's creations... I hope my own creations will help you to create a perfect city. 

Could you release the Puck Building as a commercial too ? Please please...

[Darf 1,439]

@ Attercap Well I edited out all of CO's buildings in this theme, so you shouldn't see any of those buildings.  We almost have enough for a whole NY theme. I'm working on the 2x4 version of the Puck building now, so I might release that as commercial. These buildings already grow like wildfire and I don't want people to have a city full of Puck buildings.

@ Mr. Maison I'm already using the plugin, the height is 5m per floor, which is not really accurate, but in line with other buildings. I'm currently using 9 segments per arch. Could maybe do a bit less.

  Edited September 13, 2015 by Darf  

[Attercap 123]

Ahah okay ! I was thinking the little blue / orange / red box on the left of your building was a vanilla building.

Your screenshot is really nice. It's the first one I saw which encourages me to play seriously. (my biggest city was ... 12K maybe. I want trams and elevated metros. )

[Darf 1,439]

Yeah elevated metros would be nice, but you can already get trams. They look really nice.
This city is only around 100k, but with Findbild's and your buildings it's the first one I can create a New Yorkish type city.

This is the 2x4 of the Puck building. It's much easier to uvw and texture to be honest. I might do a couple other 2x4s after this.

[Darf 1,439]

I'm currently working on a classic of Sc4:

 

Ofcourse the Sc4 version is out of proportion and they took some liberties in their design so I also looked at the Original building:

 

 

Currently doing the corner building, than might do 1 or 2 rowbuildings, there's only a few pictures so I had to take some liberties. Currently sitting at 4500 polys. One side done, need to do a bit of detailing at the other. Opinions on the roof terrace are welcome.

  Edited September 17, 2015 by Darf  

[Atys' 42]

I love your work

[Attercap 123]

Make something simple for the roof terrasse. The in-game assets (garden sunshide...) are really nice, if you want avoid an empty rooftop. Some flowers and it will be marvellous.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Make something simple for the roof terrasse. The in-game assets (garden sunshide...) are really nice, if you want avoid an empty rooftop. Some flowers and it will be marvellous.

To be honest, I don't really agree. Obviously irl. there are buildings that have a roof terrace with table set, sun shade, etc., but if you add it as a prop, every building will feature these props. Of course this can be negated by using the Prop Probability Changer, and many custom assets already do this, but still I see way too many buildings with such props popping up in my city (at least to my liking).
Additionally, props such as table sets and sunscreens etc. should be placed in gardens, on balconies or actual roof terraces (ie. in a realistic context), not just seemingly randomly placed on a flat roofs. Lastly, these kind of props mentioned are primarily residential in nature, so it's a bit odd to see commercial buildings with decorations like this, especially if you see whole rows of little shops with roof top table sets. Chimneys, air-con units, ducts, vents, antennae, satellite dishes, etc. would be more appropriate roof top decorations, imo.

Note that is is just my personal opinion, and only meant as constructive criticism - as a person with zero modelling skills (I have the depth perception of a cyclops :D), I'm really grateful for all the hard work you guys put in (C:S is a great game by itself, but it's you guys who make it truly terrific!) So instead, I'm just trying to provide some constructive feedback that can be taken or ignored at will.

[Attercap 123]

In my city (Lyon, France - a beautiful city, Paris is not the whole France ) there are a lot of former industrial buildings which are now commercial or office buildings with (expensive) bars or restaurants on the roof top. And antennae, chimneys, have been preserved. The mix is working quite well.

Of course you are right, these restaurants rooftops should be few in numbers. I dont play the game so much, so I dont know.

[Darf 1,439]

Well this will be another high res corner. But ofcourse your right, there should be some more props to do roofjunk, especially large ones.  We should make a NY prop pack or something.
I decided to make the roof an inner courtyard. Finished modeling also.