CT14's Railroad Lots and BAT

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

thing that immediately jumps out tome   is the train props should probably be condensed. Instead of using  the fairly obscure PEG and Fukuda props, just use Jestarrs props fore verything..

[Simmer2 23,831]

Well done!!

[matias93 7,535]

That's simply a magnificient work! Any person with a brain would gladly accept the half hour of installing dependencies for the sake of having that beauty on a privilegied site of their industrial neigbourhoods.

Just a question: did you plan to do a steel gasholder too? This is the thing that popped to my mind when read your concept:

If you are interested enough, the location of the photo could be useful as a reference, or even a recreation attempt:

https://www.google.cl/maps/place/Antofagasta+3426,+Santiago,+Estación+Central,+Región+Metropolitana/@-33.466798,-70.6839488,683m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x9662c4ef4c0004df:0xa0df4426af3541cd!8m2!3d-33.4668806!4d-70.682805?hl=es-419

 

 

[CT14 2,486]

@DavidDHetzel Indeed this was definitely an "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to prop selection - I think the Fukuda cars are not prototypical for the type of lot anyway, but I do like the PEG steam engine and smaller ore cars. We'll see what makes the cut. I'm really waiting for the @Angry Mozart railcar props - hoping for diagonal and FA versions, there.

You'll also like the "Small" gasworks, which should be achievable with just one prop pack - Gascooker's. He put all the necessities together including brick buildings with monitor roofs, gasometers, cleaners/washers and so forth.

@Simmer2 Glad you like it, more is on the way. I didn't see a gasworks lot after making the gasholder building, and that got my gears going...

@matias93 The gasholder itself is inside the brick building, the prototype of which has only one story made up to look  like two. It would look much like the one you show, but with fewer telescoping sections. These gasholder house "shell" buildings went out of fashion about 140 years ago due to being unnecessary and actually more dangerous than not. If a gasometer exploded, what happened to all the bricks?...

I may do an old fashioned gasholder model as well, although I do like the ones by Gascooker - after copying the entries to a different lot type, they ended up as a timed prop on this lot which is really bizarre - gotta fix that.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

The Steam Engine could work if you set the lots time as being the "Late 60s Early 70s"

 

The BN didn't exist untill the late 60s, but you still had examples of Steam working industrial plants during that time most notable being Northwest Wire & Steel ins Sterling, Illinois.  

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/575935/

[metasmurf 705]

I think the buildings look good and they will be really useful. I would adjust the textures slightly though. To illustrate:

I did some gamma correction to lower the overall contrast and lowered the exposure slightly.

Then to compensate, I lowered the brightness with -15 in Photoshop. The textures now look a bit more like the ones on Cycledogg's building.

 

 

[CT14 2,486]

@DavidDHetzel Sounds about right. Most of these gasworks were shut down in the 50s, so I might have to ditch the BN for strict accuracy...

@metasmurf Thanks, I hope they will be useful. Regarding textures I do plan to lighten the bricks - something more like the brightness of Gascooker's brown brick here.

Well, here's the Small Gasworks:

Aside from the Troy Gasholder House, this lot has only two dependencies: Gascooker Vol 1 and Jestarr Vol 09.

Gasometers still blinking in and out as if timed... I'll have to look into that.

[matias93 7,535]

That prop IS timed, there should be a phase with the tank at full capacity. Maybe that's the problem, one of the phases could be missing...

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Yup, the gasholder prop is timed. You'll have to stack the three stages on top of one another, just like you would for a seasonal tree to cycle through its seasons.

So jestarr Vol.09 contains this coal stack? That would be great to know because I have something in mind for which I'd need something just like it.

[CT14 2,486]

Gasometer timing, coal props and plant flow diagrams

Aha! Thanks for the clue, guys. I'll set it up with just one standalone gasometer, maybe add a gate for coal truck deliveries with the space thus reclaimed.

@T Wrecks Yes, it is in Jestarr Vol09. There is a similar sized coal pile in that pack, and a different similar sized coal pile in SimcityPolska's industrials section. I couldn't find anything smaller - considering BATting a few coal sheds since good prototypes are available to work from (from Troy, even).

ETA: I also found:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3343

which has small coal models.

On that note, there should also be storage for graded coke (product of retorts and sorting) although this might not always be visible either, similar to coal/coalsheds - I've been assigning coke storage as a role of a building which is past the retorts on the flow of the plant, instead. Here are some diagrams:

Basic flow in plant:

Industry overall flow:

Large plant:

Small plant:

Victorian plant:

A gasworks model design:

[CT14 2,486]

Texture variations

@metasmurf So there are not one but several textures I need to consider this for. I want to create at least three variations in texture for the prop families. Here are the candidates, unretouched and with no Gmax color mapping.

I favor a few of these such as brown_brick, red_brick_seamless, yellow_brick, grey_old_siding. Even black_seamless_brick would look great for lofts/gentrified areas, but I'd want to reBAT the lower stories and so forth for commercials, upper with green roofs and condo balconies.

Both dirty_brick textures seem a little too noisy to me. brown_brick_2 is the one we've seen so much of, simply too dark for ease of use.

The Troy Gasholder House is nearly ready for release. It will have a small prop family as well, here are at least two variations. The brown brick variation stonework has been darkened but needs a little more darkening and everything could be a little more "washed out".

Current plan is for the third variation to be painted gray or white, perhaps also borrowing from the 60s version of the building with boarded up windows.

One of the only accessories found on the outside of the prototype building is a small utility meter on the lower wall, visible from the alley in Street View. I added it near the southwest corner of the model.

I also updated the nightlights by cloning a few more lights and moving them down to lower windows and I'm pretty happy with them now. Getting window frames and cupola to reflect properly was the goal. The steps use only one omni light located where the lamp model is above the door - the reflections on the steps and the pillars are ok but I may need to add "dummy" omni lights to illuminate the walls around the steps. Rather not use floods, because reasons.

 

[CT14 2,486]

Coal hopper cars

@DavidDHetzel Remember our discussion of BN period correctness? After discovering some LOD bugs in the Pegasus ore cars, I got an urge to make some proper period coal car props. This is an HL series Norfolk & Western hopper from drawings. There are a few more details to add, then scaling and rendering to LE (with angled versions).

Here's a Gmax preview, in comparison to a photo.

And in game HD, showing some further model work:

The decals are a little bit bright and I missed the placement of car numbers and load limits by an entire panel.

OK, here are some angles. I noticed there are textures in SM2 RRW overlays that are too tight for Jestarr angle props, so I rendered versions at 5.625 degree intervals. Below is Ortho, 5.625L, 16.875L, 45, with the Jestarr cars for comparison. Lack of skill at lining them up to the textures notwithstanding.

I also got the timed props in place with 1 gasholder (having two with identical timing would make no sense, as normally one would empty first.) And made a few other minor fixes to the lot.

And with more angles finished:

Empty versions are next.

Update:

Most of the empty versions are finished. I discovered a hole in the set when testing on some SM2 Ortho-FARR transition textures: no FARR 18.435 degree version! This will be addressed shortly.

The picture above shows 3 ortho "full" variations, followed by 5.625R, 11.25R, 16.875R, 22.5R, 28.125R, 33.75R, 39.375R, 45, 39.375L, 33.75L, 28.125L, 22.5L, 16.875L...derailing into FARR 18.435 rails.

Textures:

Washed out colors via image editing software are also complete, testing underway and may re-render the set to fit game palette better.

With the brighter textures, it's obvious the coal load models need a little more work. I used three different meshes as I created the angled versions. As I have to go back to each version anyway, I'll make them each a little more unique, and lower them in the cars slightly. And more two humps than three.

In game, the new textures are a better match for both Jestarr's coal and black tank cars.

[CT14 2,486]

N&W HL progress

• The twin support posts at the end of each car centered inside the open area have been corrected to a more realistic angle.
• Added the little horizontal bar on each end and its accompanying ladder rung.
• Added the handle that leads to the coupler area on each end.
• Added chain from brake wheel.
• Moved air brake cylinders to better match prototype.
• Corrected size of a few decals - car numbers on side weren't big enough and those on the end were too large.
• Removed brake end floor - shouldn't be a floor there at all on this model.
• More work on coal load.
• Added decal above and left of car numbers, for builder's mark.
• Bogie frame made bigger to match prototype.
• The shiny wheel flanges are a little too shiny - they rendered as a few jaggy white pixels - so I made them darker for the export (by applying a mono color map at 0.75, 0.33).

Other small remaining details on the prototype like minor brake system lines, etc seem to be below the size which is the threshold of rendering, without cartoonizing to unrealistic proportions. The handbrake wheel and its chain are the only magnified details. The details above are the smallest which are visible when exporting.

90% of this can be recycled for other hopper car models, thankfully, as well as the 33" wheels and old fashioned bogies.

Side note on coal loads

Typical coal mine/coal breaker loads look quite different from many model railroad loads, while they are still at the facility and haven't been on the road yet. The coal mine loads are super full, as full as they can get, scraping flat on the facility on their way out... I believe the coal settles during travel, so there seems to be a place for both types of load model.

They really packed it in! Check the flat top on the pea coal load on the right.

Lots of hand work involved here, it seems.

[Silur 3,308]

Very strong work. I really like it. Good Luck To You

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

Nice work you have done on those N&W hopper cars and those buidings, they really catch the atmosphere of a 1940's-1960's industrial zone. The coal loads look awesome. And yes, there will be diagonal/FA versions of my props. Nice work!

[CT14 2,486]

@Silur thanks for the good words!

@Angry Mozart I'm glad the atmosphere is coming through, I try to focus on the source photos when modeling.

That's great to hear about the angled props, I look forward to lotting with them.

Troy Gasholder House final touches

Here are a couple of shots of the third texture variation for the prop family. About 40-50 years ago it was boarded up, like this:

Test shot in HD, though I don't like the moire effect that then occurs in zoom5 and don't plan on releasing HD of this (at least not initially).

I also added the little doohickey to the weathervane (visible above).

Prop family testing is complete. I'll finish up lotting next.

[metasmurf 705]

On 2016-11-03 at 2:12 AM, CT14 said:

Texture variations

@metasmurf So there are not one but several textures I need to consider this for. I want to create at least three variations in texture for the prop families. Here are the candidates, unretouched and with no Gmax color mapping.

I favor a few of these such as brown_brick, red_brick_seamless, yellow_brick, grey_old_siding. Even black_seamless_brick would look great for lofts/gentrified areas, but I'd want to reBAT the lower stories and so forth for commercials, upper with green roofs and condo balconies.

Both dirty_brick textures seem a little too noisy to me. brown_brick_2 is the one we've seen so much of, simply too dark for ease of use.

I think most of the textures look good now.

For the dirty brick, you could decrease the white output in the levels setting, something like this, maybe less.

For the noisier textures overall you could try and apply the Gaussian Blur filter very slightly, like 0,2 and see how that looks.

Brown brick 2 looks a bit dark indeed. I would just increase the brightness with like 5 .

 

 

 

 

[CT14 2,486]

@metasmurf thank you for the suggestion on blurring those noisy "dirty brick" textures, I agree that will help. And thanks for pointing out so early that photo editing textures is necessary. I have been adjusting saturation, brightness and contrast to match existing "in theme" BATs in game.

Troy Gasholder Building released

The Troy Gasholder Building is released, enjoy and please post if you find problems:

 

[metasmurf 705]

1 hour ago, CT14 said:

@metasmurf thank you for the suggestion on blurring those noisy "dirty brick" textures, I agree that will help. And thanks for pointing out so early that photo editing textures is necessary. I have been adjusting saturation, brightness and contrast to match existing "in theme" BATs in game.

 

I'm happy to help! Never done a bat in my life (yet) but I've worked some with Photoshop before. Look forward to seeing them on STEX.

[CT14 2,486]

New props, Gmax tips and Fractional Angle Building status

While working on the industrial building textures again I came up with a little something extra for props: conveyor houses. There are ortho, ortho-incline and ortho-diag-incline props for factory lots.

Roofjunk is a little more up to date for commercial versions:

There's also a downspout, which helpfully waters the sidewalk tiles:

Growables and storefronts

I also started testing a simple method to crank out varied W2W growables for Residential and Commercial based on these models with commercial storefront prop families. Think of goofyguytpa lots and you won't be far off. More on this soon.

Mirroring in Gmax for left and right versions

Mirroring models along the X axis is a snap in Gmax (Tools menu > Mirror > OK), so creating left and right versions has been simple.

Fixing the white texture glitch in Gmax

Use the eyedropper in the Material Editor to select the material that's rendering/previewing as white. On the next preview, you should see the problem fixed.

Overall project status

Textures chosen:

• Industrial Ploppable Tileset: brown brick
• Residential Growable Tileset: red brick
• Commercial Growable/Ploppable Tileset: black brick

Model/lot progress:

• Ortho: models complete, testing prop family
• Diag: models 80% complete, testing prop families (L, R), need to create separate triangle footprint model
• FA3: models complete, need create prop families (D1-L, D2-L, D3-L, D1-R, D2-R, D3-R)
• FA2: 0% complete: need FA2 D1, FA2 D2 and prop families (D1-L, D2-L, D1-R, D2-R)

Bugs:

• A few missing props on some renders, just a matter of merging and re-rendering
• Night lights on diagonals are freaky, leaking in roof somewhere
   

Latest preview of FAB-O-4-brownbrick (in HD):

FAB-FA3-D2-3-brownbrick with only the stand for the water tower remaining:

And here is a panorama showing test growables in red and black brick, along with the D-R prop family.

Thoughts about roof textures: lighter may be better for taller buildings because it helps with the illusion of depth/shadow between different heights of buildings.

Reddonquixote Melbourne Victorian BATs

Lotting one of RDQ's new HD BATs, the Train Station:

And here's the RDQ Heritage Cottages on a 3x2 R$ growable:

[rathefalcon 395]

Looking great! I really enjoy the HD renders, they show off the details very well (especially those fire escapes!). And the brick colors are definitely looking a lot better. I'm a fan of this new red brick

[CT14 2,486]

@rathefalcon thanks for the feedback. I'm starting to be more happy with the appearance of the final renderings.

I'm not sure about HD yet, I sort of imagine a lot of work will be necessary with texture fine tuning so it would be a future release.

FA3-R prop family complete

Where Diagonal Way meets FA3 Street: here we can see most of the variations of the three depths and four stories of the FA3-R prop family.

Roof textures and roofjunk

I'm very pleased with the effect of using different color maps on the roof for the different height versions (mono mapping where lighter = more stories/sunlight, darker = fewer stories/more shade); there are a few UVW mapping/scale issues on that roof texture itself for some BATs still. The red brick and diagonal versions don't use that scheme yet and look much less natural in the cityscape.

I'm also planning about 1-2 more different pieces of roofjunk to scatter around, maybe some vents and a fan. The cyclone separator from Llama Ag will also make an appearance here shortly, to further differentiate the industrial brown brick style BATs.

Modularity and matching

After some more research into overhanging props, I hit on a possible method to make things more seamless in appearance: using a cornice which protrudes from the structure, but sits a little below the top of the roof/walls; at the same time texturing the top face of the outer edge of the roof with the tar paper, so that two plops of the same height show nothing but tar paper at the seam, but a single plop of the BAT will show cornice, etc as expected.

If that doesn't work, I'll look again at doing color variations within the prop families (making it challenging to plop matching structures with the height you want).

Model problems to fix

1. There are probably still a few models lacking the vertical moldings on the front wall in a few spots (visible in the HD previews above).
2. Diagonals are too far onto the sidewalk, this will be corrected.
3. FA3 D2 is also too far onto the sidewalk but not by as much as the diagonals.

When the above are corrected as well as texture/prop finalized, FA3 and Diagonal can be mirrored left to right and FA2 work can begin.

Update:

Here is FAB-D-R-4-brownbrick prior to another round of test fitment. I found a nice prototype to use for vented windows in this type of building, intended to represent general manufacturing between 1875-1950 or so.

And in SD:

And in game:

Visible above are the new cornice, window fan and vents. The cyclone separator is a little tall and will come down some.

Still too far into the sidewalk on the new 4 story renders. Looking at moving the wall in some more.

Update

About 2m seems to be a good setback to dodge the T21s lampposts, though I think some street trees will hit basically any realistic setback - maybe a T21 mod for diagonals would be nice. Yes, it would have been better to have done this step about a month ago.

[CT14 2,486]

New BAT: the DeKalb Coaling Tower

Something to fiddle with while I finish the angle buildings.

Concrete is poured here, but ironwork like chutes, ladders, stairs, railings and poles remains to be added. Doors and windows are in.

The structure can fit on a 1x2 plop. The dump shed gets coal cars. The four tracks in and beside the main coaling tower can each serve locomotives.

Today I think it's just a double track main under the tower; this may be what the lot ends up as for flexibility.

Update

Grand Staircase complete:

[CT14 2,486]

I finished 95% of the detailing on the coaling tower, then the savefile got corrupted (probably from too many booleans) and I had to redo everything from the basic shapes in an old save copy. I used the opportunity to fix some minor inaccuracies in the first version's concrete meshes. More on that model soon.

FAB Diagonals are nearly finished. I spent a while getting sidewalk fitments verified, as well as overall building dimensions. Diagonal sidewalks are rather narrow, as it turns out.

Almost all the building details are complete now - need to add utility boxes and chase down one or two remaining texture glitches. There is new roofjunk, and the windows open now. The water tower has gotten an access ladder.

[CT14 2,486]

Detailing: utility boxes and roofjunk

Aside from more conduit and gas pipe runs, I think I'm done with the utility boxes. Per standard artistic license, they will be placed around the building such that any rotation will include a few in view.

I was pleased to find some excellent photos of old meter gauges for both electric...

and gas...

Roofjunk and seamless/modular aspect
All the roofjunk has been adjusted to not cast shadows on the cornice/wall top. In Gmax, there is no "Cast Shadows"/"Receive Shadows" property for objects, so the only workaround for shadows is to move/rescale the objects, in this case the roofjunk's maximum heigh and distance from building's lateral center determine whether or not it shadows the cornice.

Window Vents got some weathering:

And some vent stacks/chimneys are poking out of the side of the building:

A plank walkway has been added to protect the roofing material and provide access to the water tower/rooftop AC.

The cyclone dust collector got a cage to protect against storms.

When the orthogonal part of the cornice is free from shadows in every rotation, it blends nicely with another building plopped next to it.

Windowsills and foundation are no longer brick and are now ashlar (or concrete, take your pick).

Next up: get brick texture scaling sorted, finish conduits/finalize roofjunk, and return to cranking out the different form factors.

[CT14 2,486]

Testing and LODs

Available time this week has gone to in game testing, especially the LOD and "tiling" with multiple plops of the BAT.

The best results have come from an LOD that matches tile edges perfectly (16m on a side). I've modified it to handle the building's irregularities, but the top vertices (where the roof edge is) are at -8m and 8m. In the screenshot, the small purple box center left is already Boolean Unioned to the LOD object. The blue ones are about to be.

Changes to the BAT: minor adjustment of roofjunk, open window angles varied a bit, utility boxes on 2 sides. Also lots of geometry tweaking, re renders and in game tests to get the edges matching on the diagonal face with multiple plops.

Textures gone over for matching scale, bricks are still too big and may come down some more.

[nos.17 5,256]

That roof certainly looks good! Can't think of any ways to improve it at all.

I am also really impressed in the time you took to model all of the really small details. I feel like creators oftentimes overlook these and fail to recognize just how much those details can add to a building. I think you've done it beautifully.

[Silur 3,308]

Great job. Thank you.

[metarvo 711]

Interesting (and needed) project, CT14.  New diagonal/FA additions are always useful, and these fill the gap a little more in downtown areas — which sometimes have fractional Main Streets.

Oh, and those details!  I don't see too many people model electric and gas meters, but almost every building IRL has them.

[CT14 2,486]

Not much time lately but diagonal prop family is finally done with details and textures in HD.

I'm considering mirroring the models for the left hand version, and releasing the diagonal pack first since it takes so long to do these properly.