MGB BATs

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Now if I could clone myself a few times, I'd totally assign at least one of my clones to working on a huge selection of lots for these wonderful buildings.

If Maxis had gone to such great lengths to provide variety - different heights, colours, orientations - we'd have considerably less trouble with obvious repetition even if the underlying building pool was identical.

Maybe it's a wise choice to limit the number of differently sized versions, especially in view of later lotting projects. As long as you look at single-building lots, the equation is simple: one building exemplar for each different building. Granted, you'll also need building exemplars for the different colour versions/orientations, but the stats remain identical.

When you look at multi-building lots, however, the number off possible combinations grows exponentially. Even with two buildings only, if we have 3, 4, 5 and 6-storey versions, you could do 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 3/4, 3/5, 3/6, 4/5, 4/6, 5/6. And now for three buildings on one lot... you do the math. In such a situation, you'd probably end up either making an insane number of versions (that aren't all that different from another), or you'd draw a line somewhere and limit your work to certain combinations, so that some BAT versions would effectively remain unused. Therefore, offering a handful of versatile and plausible options in different colours and orientations is probably a better choice than going nuts with even more height versions IMO.

If only JaWood was still around to see this...

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

This is phenomenal. 4 colors of 4 different height variations at 4 different rotations... 64 total models?  Just thinking about all the layout possibilities for these is both overwhelming and incredibly exciting. I think I might've found a fun little project for this coming year. 

[rsc204 21,867]

5 hours ago, kingofsimcity said:

4 colors of 4 different height variations at 4 different rotations... 64 total models?

Close, that'll be 5 / 4 / 4 = 80. If you add DN renders (I am), make that 160 models to render.

20 Down, 140 to go

[SimCoug 5,976]

Awesome work - I like how you rescued an old model and gave it your own touches.  

[CT14 2,486]

Hey, how did I miss this? These are looking great!

My only suggestion would be to do 1 and 2 story versions for commercial office and services, medical, etc.

[Fantozzi 4,068]

On 15.3.2017 at 1:40 AM, rsc204 said:

Close, that'll be 5 / 4 / 4 = 80. If you add DN renders (I am), make that 160 models to render.

20 Down, 140 to go

In the style of a famous american soul singer - from now on I'll call you Mr. batmachine rsc204.

 

Get up, (get on up)
Get up, (get on up)
Stay on the scene, (get on up), like a bat machine, (get on up)

[rsc204 21,867]

What's this, MGB has made a tree?, surely not...

Well it's all @Fantozzi's fault, having enquired about trees, I just sort of started messing around with a free model online, next thing you know it's 'seasonalised' and everything. What you see is an Acacia tree (apparently).

I've placed some of Girafe's trees around it, for comparison purposes. Now I must state, I've no particular knowledge or interest in trees, this was taken from a free online model, just gently adjusted for SC4 with my own textures. Clearly the colours could do with some work, but actually I think it could be decent enough that some may want it.

Will I make more trees, like different sizes/variants of this one? Hmmm, maybe, if it's not a huge time-sink. Other trees, I don't know, really depends again on what I can scrounge, the results and amount of work involved.

However, the image is here, along with a basic seasonal MMP (attachment)see below for updated version, so I'm open to feedback from those who maybe know what they are looking at. Really this is just one of those test things I play with, that seemed to come out well enough for once that I'll try to make it usable. So it may only be one tree, it may be more, I really don't know.

[matias93 7,535]

Pepper trees, you know you want to do them

[Fantozzi 4,068]

If you look on the girafe trees - the exposed parts are a much lighter green while the inner parts are almost black. This way the tree gets depth, due to the texturing I think or I don't know how he achieves this. If I look on your acadia, which is really nice, the colour of the outer leaves and the inner part is too close, so it's missing depth. Somehow we (I have the same problems) have to strenghten contrast. I don't know. 

[matias93 7,535]

1 hour ago, Fantozzi said:

strenghten contrast

Yes, this was a thing I noted too, but was unsure what was specifically.

The other issue could be the shape of the tree; I'm not sure which Acacia is the one you are doing, and as they vary between big trees and dwarven shrubs, it's hard to compare and correct from there. In any case, it is a bit strange to see a tree this tall with a trunk so narrow; maybe widening the base could do the trick.

As reference, acacias:

[rsc204 21,867]

On 08/10/2017 at 7:21 PM, Fantozzi said:

the exposed parts are a much lighter green while the inner parts are almost black.

Indeed, I'm well aware of the disparity. I fear though it's not the textures, it's the modelling that allows Girafe to make them so life-like. This isn't something I can reasonably hope to resolve without a level of dedication to this I simply don't have.

On 08/10/2017 at 6:46 PM, matias93 said:

Pepper trees, you know you want to do them

Find me a free Pepper tree model (3DS or Max 2011 format), accept the limitations of my abilities, you may just get what you're after .

On 08/10/2017 at 8:47 PM, matias93 said:

The other issue could be the shape of the tree; I'm not sure which Acacia is the one you are doing, and as they vary between big trees and dwarven shrubs, it's hard to compare and correct from there.

This is exactly one of the drawbacks to using models you find elsewhere. When I make a model, I have a very clear idea about what it should be. This is just a tree that I downloaded for the sake of seeing if I could get anywhere with it.

Frankly I'd expected things to be much more awful and it would be a throwaway piece of work. But I think it's close enough, that with some tweaks it may be usable. Will it be as good as Girafe's trees, not a chance, I simply don't have his talent or dedication. If it was that easy, Girafe wouldn't be the only one able to do what he does .

So what type of Acacia tree is it, the simple answer, I don't know, but it's one of them (literally all the information I got, some trees were labelled "Tree"). I did a little Googling to check the autumn colours, seems to be yellowish in hue. But I'd like to get colours that blend with existing trees, even if that means it's not 100% authentic, I need a useable SC4 tree for my setup to bother. However, I did find examples that mirrored this shape of tree, so I'm pretty sure, whilst maybe not the typical Acacia, it's a good representation of one. Ultimately, I'm not a tree guy, I'm not going to spend hours researching to make things perfect. Even if I did, I've no real reference to go on.

On 08/10/2017 at 8:47 PM, matias93 said:

it is a bit strange to see a tree this tall with a trunk so narrow

That's the sort of thing I can handle. Again, such free models are often hideously oversized. I had to cut it down by about 200% at least to get to where I am. So this may have distorted the trunk a little too much, but honestly, I would never have noticed such a detail, so thanks for pointing it out.

I hope everyone understands, I appreciate any feedback (always do), but I'm not looking for perfection here, that would be unrealistic as a goal. Good enough would do me, and whilst that won't be a Girafe tree, there are plenty of trees people still use that look a lot worse than what I've already achieved here. So long as this doesn't become a time-sink, I'm willing to invest some effort in improving it, but it won't likely be perfect. Maybe I can make a few simple variations too, I'd prefer to at least have 3-4 trees if I release anything.

I did download a cache of small shrubs/bushes though. I'm far more interested in exploring this area, can never have enough bushes to help me fill spaces. But if I can add a few half-decent trees for little effort, then I'm open to that also.

[matias93 7,535]

I found this one that, while is not a pepper tree, could double easily as one: the bark is very similar, the foliage is a bit bigger but nothing very noticeable, the colours are generally right (maybe the leaves should be a bit more yellow and grey) and the overall shape resembles a young pepper tree (even if it would work better reducing the vertical scale). As is an evergreen species, the only seasonal change you would want to add is to change some leaves' colours to red-pink, to simulate the clusters of seeds that are more frequent on the hot season. If you are motivated, I let the link here:

http://www.cadnav.com/3d-models/model-32407.html

And the reference image of it:

Also, some references of real-life pepper trees:

[rsc204 21,867]

I download the model, but it was made in 3DS Max 2014, as such I can't open the file in my 2011 version. Is there someone with 2014 or higher who could download this, open the file and save in compatibility mode for 2011 for me? Otherwise I'm sorry but I can't pursue this further.

[matias93 7,535]

I'm pretty sure my sister has 3DS Max 2017 on her laptop, but this will require a high spionage mission... Nah, I'll just ask her 

[rsc204 21,867]

You may find 2017 is too new to convert it to 2011. I think 4 versions back is the most they support. In which case, the only solution is exporting it as a .3DS model, which should work. Although if possible, a proper .Max file saves me extra work with the textures.

[matias93 7,535]

Luckily, it was 2014, mission accomplished:

(it's on a 7zip because the file inflated to <100Mb when saving on 2011 format)

2011_Cadnav.com_B121741728.7z

[rsc204 21,867]

Thanks, 7zip is my preferred format, so no apologies needed there :). The model is opening now, but another couple problems have crept in. It seems to require a specific plug-in for 3DS max to correctly show the texturing. As with so many of these uploads, no one thought to bother to mention which. I've worked around that for the moment, but it's stuck as "one piece" which means it's hard to apply different textures to different parts. I think with some effort I can get past those issues, but it might be a while before I have time. The good news is that the model itself is hugely detailed, I think if I can get the texturing to apply properly, we could have a really usable tree of high quality.

[rsc204 21,867]

Sorry Matias, no progress with the Pepper Tree yet. I have a boring week ahead being stuck cat sitting at a friends apartment. It would be the ideal time to mess about in 3DS Max, but I'm stuck with my laptop and it's inferior resolution screen, so I don't know if I'll get much chance to do anything with it for a while.

However, today I've been looking again at the Acacia Tree, trying to get a better texture for the summer model, I think I may have cracked it:

My tree is in the middle, surrounded by some Ash, Beech, Chestnut and Oaks by Girafe. Trunk is also better sized here too.

So on to the Autumn and Winter models now.

[matias93 7,535]

That's surely a progress, now it looks much more volumetric on the canopy and the trunk seems to be adequate to support the tree structure!

Maybe what you could experiment is to shorten the entire tree to make it more similar to the arid-climate acacias on the above photos. I don't know the software, but if you can push and pull the canopy volume, you could play a lot with the shape and get interesting results.

Oh, and don't worry about the pepper tree, there's no hurry with it.

Now, cat sitting? That sounds possibly fun, depending on the cat 

[Ke|is 3,337]

I think it looks pretty good !!

[rsc204 21,867]

And now the other seasons are pretty much done too - Orange dots next to Winter versions so you know which is which. I think the autumn textures worked out pretty good too. All in all this was about 5-6 hours work, considering I never made the model, that's a lot of time texturing/tweaking.

Comes for use as props in the LE & as an MMP, both seasonal. For now I'm attaching it for download on this post. But, if I manage to make some variants of shape/size later, I'll turn it into a normal download. I have a feeling I won't get that far, so rather than have it sit on my HDD, you can have it in-game right now.

To download, please see the below post / update:

[Fantozzi 4,068]

Wow, fast progress today. And they look good to me. But your acacia trees - they have a spring time?

[rsc204 21,867]

1 minute ago, Fantozzi said:

they have a spring time

No, because my focus was on MMPs, which don't support 4 variants (so far as I know), max of 3. So whilst a Spring model would work for the props, it's no use for MMPs. As such, given the time needed to tweak textures, I didn't really even think about it frankly.

[rsc204 21,867]

I've been working on an excellent Pepper Tree model that came my way courtesy of Matias93. I kept getting an awful "Halo" effect around the outside of the tree though, the complex alpha simply wasn't working and I almost shelved it entirely. Recently, I saw some trees where the cutout, that's the background parts of a texture, that when cut from the Alpha or transparency channel will be unused, matches the edges of the cut image. I figured I'd give it a try and finally managed to get some decent results:

The Autumn/Winter model has a subtle colour shift, with some reddish hues added from berries which grow in those seasons. They are so small in practise that it just alters the colours of the leaves ever so slightly, rather than show actual berries, but I still think it's worth keeping a seasonal choice.

Speaking of trees...

I've brightened the Summer model of the Acacia tree just a small amount and modified the trunk to be half as wide/deep. I've also tweaked the textures, to make them a little sharper and also done the same trick for the cutout as the Pepper trees. I think they are much improved for this.

Both Seasonal and Evergreen variants of these are attached to this post. Included for each tree are an MMP and Props for the included trees to use in the LE. You can use both Seasonal and Evergreen together, as the MMPs and Props have unique IDs. Note the Seasonal versions include the Evergreen Prop. But no seasonal models/props are included with the Evergreen versions. Enjoy.

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Now this is a surprise! It must have been a huge relief to finally find a method that did the trick and enabled you to finish this project. The result looks awesome, I gotta remember to download this as soon as I'm home! Are you going to make an "official" STEX upload, too? It's really been a while since we saw some flora items.

[rsc204 21,867]

5 hours ago, T Wrecks said:

Are you going to make an "official" STEX upload, too?

Maybe, I've some other things in the works and two trees doesn't seem like it warrants a full-on upload right now.

In short, wrestling with the models was hampered hugely by my on-going (2 years) PC problems. I've restored some older drivers for my GPUs, which have restored some stability to 3DS Max, but I don't know if that will continue. It was getting so bad, when the PC locked up, any files recently opened in 3DS max would be corrupted, which coupled with general instability is a real motivation sapper. If things start to be a bit more reliable, I'm hoping to put a package together with some little, but hopefully useful, surprises.