CT14's Railroad Lots and BAT

[mattb325 28,891]

This is a very cool idea.

If I can offer some suggestions...and I offer these suggestions because when you are dealing with a unique idea, applying the same methodologies as a standard BAT will often lead to less than satisfactory results. You literally have to think outside the (LOD) box.

So, if I were doing this as a project, the following points represent how I would approach it. You are free to take on board any thing that I say, or dismiss it entirely. In case anyone misunderstands, these are suggestions, and it doesn't detract from the fact that I think that everything you have done so far is really excellent.

1. Use a seamless roof texture whose patterning runs at a 45 degree angle to your walls and contrary to everything you read about batting, do not apply any form of shading/gradient/dirt/specular, etc map to it. Maxis made plenty of seamless textures. I've taken one from the reader. It's the standard asphalt lot base texture. Obviously I wouldn't use this for the roof, but it shows the pattern that would create interest in among the square walls and it is seamless and it blends in terms of colour.

2. Because we have applied no dirt to this texture, the roof would appear very flat and boring indeed. To get around this, I would make a whole bunch of 17x17 transparent planes in gmax (with a 15.95 x 15.95 x 0.2 LOD. I would then go to https://www.textures.com/ and grab the 'leaking' and 'stain' decals and arrange them either around the edges or the centre (preferably) of the of the plane and then render these out. I would make dozens of them and put them all in a prop family which you then place over the roof and voila, your one model with a seamless roof texture suddenly has a different dirt look every time it is plopped. You may need to fiddle to get the props showing the transparency correctly, and it has been so long since I used gmax that I can't provide the steps necessary and you may also need to add the transparency settings using the model tweaker/reader, but it is entirely possible to achieve. If you want to do this, then you may need to tweak the LOD of the parapet area on the main model so that props sit nicely inside the roof area; but I already know you can do custom lods.

3. I would also use the same logic with any roof junk rather than putting it on one variant; the reason being is that the shadows are cut off when one model joins another. Again, if I were doing this, I would make a bunch of spizzles, pipes, hvacs, water towers, coolers, etc and put them in a family with a few blank options and then again, suddenly you have a lot of variety for very little effort, and I know lotters will love you for making a roof junk prop pack (it's been on my radar to make for a while now, I just haven't ever got around to it as BAT4Max is a lot more painful to use with smaller objects than Gmax). To get these props from point 2. and 3. to appear on the roof of your models, you just raise them up or down in the Lot Editor, so you can render them out on the ground plane for ease. 

4. To texturing, using the modifier maps in gmax will only sometimes work, and may not give the best results. The bump map, as bombadiere said, doesn't work (it was taken away deliberately) and the other maps, while they do work, may not achieve the best results. It is usually better practice to make a texture in a photo-editing tool and then apply it; certainly all wall textures should have a slight gradient applied in this method to fake ray-tracing.

The last suggestion I can give you on texturing is to watch out for your saturation and your colour space levels; pretty much well everything in the Maxis palette has a saturation level of well less than 40 (using an eye-dropper tool to obtain HSV) and most typically, it will sit somewhere within around 20-35. Additionally everything is at the orange/red side of the colour rainbow. If you look at the cement Maxis texture, at first glance it appears grey, but is in fact 'greige' (a word I hate):

 

Any other time you want to get a different colour for one of your projects (let's face it, your buildings are not always going to be yellow, grey, white, etc), the easiest recommendation I have is to download the SC4Tool. It puts little thumbnail images of every single Maxis building in your C: Program Files drive and from there, if you want to say, use a deep cobalt blue, you can eyeball existing Maxis Buildings and pick the closest one from the jpeg files, use an eye dropper tool and adjust your own texture accordingly. This is what I did in the earlier days as my very first 5 or 6 bats operated quite outside the Maxis palette.

I hope that helps, and I hope that others in the community reading this do not misunderstand the information that I am providing here is merely a suggestion. You are free to take as much or as little as you please.

Edit: I have noticed this thread is in the Modding section. You might want to ask an admin get it moved to the BAT section; that way you will get more visibility from other batters.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, splendid progress! I think the brick texture looks spot on now. It should not clash at all with Maxis content, and it absolutely looks the part IMO. My former school used to have bare yellow brick walls, and they certainly looked exactly like this.

Honestly, I'm somewhat relieved that you were going to make another render anyway because I sometimes feel like a jerk when I see the 98% awesomeness but simply cannot help mentioning the last missing 2%, too.

Great suggestions by @mattb325, too!

Oh boy, it's sure fun to watch this project come together... thank you for letting us participate in this way.

By the way, I moved your topic as per your PM request. I'm sorry it took a bit longer, but my Simtropolis time is a bit limited these days and I wanted to double-check with the admins that your followers wouldn't be affected. I hope everything worked as intended.

 

[CT14 2,486]

@T Wrecks Thanks for moving the thread! And for making sure it was done right.

Behold...The @mattb325 method

Still needs to be tested with roofjunk, but the effect seems good so far. I found a grungemap with the sort of tiling, non-perpendicular pattern suggested, and adjusted its contrast and brightness in GIMP, then mixed in a sand texture so it wasn't totally flat appearing.

Roof schmutz prop families: What does and doesn't work

Stacking transparent props in the Lot Editor will create visual glitches (plane or box, doesn't matter). I'd hoped to get the variations by just stacking a few rotated schmutz props on the roof, and letting the prop family do *all* the work, but that doesn't work. You get these gnarly diagonal lines clipping through, even with no LOD collisions.

Stacking those same objects in Gmax works great. I did some collages each with 2 "stain/leak/damage" images, with a box with height 0.001 on Z=0, and a second box on Z=0.001. This would probably work with planes as @mattb325 suggested, but I'd been testing Box objects to eliminate possible causes of the clipping bug mentioned above, and never switched back to planes. I did use the 15.95m square LOD on the stain props, but with a lesser height to avoid interfering with roofjunk (0.01m).

Question: What is the purpose of using 17m square objects for this instead of 16m? I tried 17m to start, but a lot of the textures were bleeding into the edges at the 16m point and creating problems. Since I'm lazy and didn't want to resize/position each texture in Gmax maps, I simply used 16m objects. But if I'm missing something important about why 17m is the number, I'd like to know.

Color saturation

All the textures have now been tested for saturation. The yellow was still around 47-51, and I reduced it twice to around 37-40 at this point. Other textures (roof, concrete) are around 10-20.

It seems nearly impossible to eliminate the lines on the roof in between tiles. Fortunately, they are prototypical areas to find a seam on a bitumen roof... I'm not going to worry about it.

The ruffles at the bottom of the building are back, and I'm going to see if it's possible to eliminate them.

Tutorial: Transparent Props in Gmax

Transparent props are great for applying decals and signs to a scene.

This assumes you already have a suitable PNG or TGA image with a mask layer. Appropriate images will show up with the mask in black when previewed in the Gmax material editor (in the "Select Bitmap Image File" open dialog's preview area).

In the material editor, create a new material. Set your image as the "Diffuse Map" as usual. Adjust amount if necessary for desaturation (a "Diffuse Color Amount" of between 50-100 is normal).

Still in the editor, drag the image down to the "Opacity" slot. Select "Copy" in the resulting popup box. This will set the opacity map, based on the mask layer. Leave the "Opacity Amount" at 100.

You can now apply this material to a plane, or a box with height .001,  depending on the needs of the project. Create default LODs.

Render to .sc4model, make a prop exemplar and try it out in the Lot Editor. The new prop should be transparent at the masked areas.

[Krasner 1,062]

I didn't comment here in a while... But I'm pretty enthusiastic with this modular factory, it really has the same vibe and almost the same design of many 20's and 30's big factories (usually abandonned or about to close) that I've seen throughout my teens around me. I love it ^^

[mattb325 28,891]

Looking good  

I'm glad gmax let you do the opacity maps. I knew it was possible (the shaded ivy prop I made in one of my prop packs had this method) but it's been such a long time since I did anything with gmax that I've forgotten 

I'd add some blank prop exemplars into that prop family to allow a reasonable chance of no grunge being added when the module is plopped.

To answer some questions: with the diagonal lines that appear over these really thin props ( less than 0.295m tall); it is based on the property 'is ground model'.

It is set to either true or false. Most props are 'true'.

If false, it means it can have shadows cast upon it from other objects: but as you have seen, it can deliver pretty sketchy results. Adjusting the property in either the reader or sc4tool should potentially correct that.

The reason for 17x17 with a 15.95 LOD is for tileability in game...if you have grunge maps on the perimeters of the factory module then it could align with other grunge maps without appearing too jagged. You would use a similar method when making wall, hedge or ploppable water props that you absolutely don't want to see a seam appearing in game.

[CT14 2,486]

@mattb325 well, I didn't have any luck with the is_ground_model property on either main model or grunge props. But, moving the grunge props up by another .1m fixed it.

Blank props have been added to the roof grunge prop family, for a 25% chance of no grunge on roofs.

Thanks for explaining the reasoning behind 17x17... I gave it a shot but decided I prefer 16x16 transparent props for this project. With the variety of grunge models, the edges weren't really blending very well at 17x17.

Modular windows

After much trial and error with LODs, I've gotten modular windows working to my liking. Night windows are included in the variations. Still to do: bottom story windows, applying this system to a few of the other main building props (which need rerendered anyway for hue). I'd also like to get some more variation on the windowpanes with some sort of texture map, but now that's easy to do for every lot by rendering a new window prop (30 seconds).

Side by side testing

In addition to the texture work detailed above to make sure the overall palette fits SC4, I've begun testing these BATs side by side with the classic auto factory BATs by SimGoober, nofunk and jestarr. I'm also running all sorts of NAM networks around the lots to get a feel for how they look together. And of course, the IRM I-M filler lots.

Park sidewalk bug

The park lots have been triggering pink sidewalks, but should probably be the grey ones to fit into an industry area.

[matias93 7,535]

Wow, really cool advancements, the modular approach is working quite great with this!

About the park sidewalk, the issue is with the wealth setting of the lot: modding it to be medium or low wealth would do the trick.

[mattb325 28,891]

It's looking really good! (But of course, the main test is that you are happy with the results)

 

With the bit about the window textures, when you installed the Bat, Maxis actually provided 18 textures that they used as the basis on their own models. These textures often don't tile, and are not altered for the correct game HSV, but they are very easy to manipulate in gimp/photoshop.

You can find them here: C:\gmax\gamepacks\BAT\Textures and there is one called 'glass' that will probably be of use. It's basically the template for all of their windows in one form or another.  Many of us in the BSC (Gascooker, Simgoober, etc) based our go-to textures on these bitmaps. 

It should be applied as a map of somewhere between approx 40mx40m and 70mx70m to get it to look right in game. Again, like with the opacity grunge maps, I'm going from memory as I haven't used gmax for years. But I used it dozens of times before, with many, many alterations to the color and blurriness etc (depending on what I was trying to achieve) and usually with an opacity setting of around 35%-75%. With your UVW map, you could get it so that each one of the 'squares' that the Maxis artists super-imposed on the japanese street scene aligns with the whole of your window and you will achieve something that not only mimics the Maxis models, but also gives lots of variations with the single map by using the 'gizmo' function to move the texture around.

Based on the new roof texture, I think you've found the stash, but I'll attach the glass texture to this post just in case. 

[CT14 2,486]

@mattb325 Thanks for the pointer, I actually hadn't found that texture stash! The roof pattern is a "Crackle/Grungemap" from textures.com. I went ahead and used that glass picture for a diffuse map on a nite window mesh and it works wonderfully.

Window Module LODs

Here is a picture of the process of chopping out windows from the main BAT LODs. The windows are still in the model as guides for placement of the window prop family. The pink box is about to be subtracted from the main LOD mesh to match the other side. Boolean Subtraction operation is used.

And here, 3 more boxes are added to the finished corner LOD to make the Fancy Corner LOD. Boolean Union operation is used. I'll do a static nightlighting for the corner windows so that they always match each other, so no sockets (separate prop families for lit and unlit windows are a bit beyond my wherewithal as I am trying to kick this project out of the door.)

I-M Rail Fillers

Well, I've finished the Doors and Dock modules with modular windows and night lights. I took a little break from the modules to work on some I-M Rail and fence filler pieces using @Angry Mozart and @Simmer2 props/overlay textures. These will be released separately from the Fisher project, but are intended to complement it. I need to review @Tyberius06 seaport set to make sure I'm not duplicating effort. Here's a bunch of pictures, with the IRM I-M Filler base set also visible.

I-M Rail filler concept

3x3 corner modules with the building corner at 1,1

SM2 Dirty Concrete Walls - a small IRM I-M Filler addon set may be forthcoming - has someone already made this?

Includes prop families for over 6 dozen 130 of Angry Mozart's train car props, not counting the gp38-90 family I discovered Simmer2 already made

Side by side with nofunk's Gratiot Motors, JBSimio and cycledogg

Cars being staged for shipping

89 ft Hi-Cube auto parts boxcars and 89 ft autoracks

Transitions from NSB to RRW

Side by side with SimGoober's Auto Factory

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

You got a nice car factory over there, it reminds me so much of Detroit in its golden years,  and the rail cars blend pretty well with the scene, it's beautiful!!!

By the way, I have a few autorack loading ramps and autoracks with open doors, you can see them in this post:

If you are interested I can send you a download link for you to use them on your lots.

[CT14 2,486]

@Angry Mozart Thanks, I'm glad you like it!

I saw those autorack loading systems earlier and they are wonderful. I'd be happy to add them to the I-M Rail set. Are you planning to release a prop pack with them?

I have completed cohort files for the rail car prop families, so that they will have names in the Lot Editor, matching the convention already set by @kingofsimcity for your semi truck prop families.

Fisher progress

Well, I've gotten the second variation of the window spizzles modeled, additional window modules with new maps, all the main BATs are re-rendered with updated textures and modular windows, and lotted.

To do:

• Create "Small Roofjunk" prop family, and add it to lots
• Cohort files for prop families
• Mod the lot queries, plop sounds, other properties. These will remain neutral lots.
• Lot Icons
• Readme
• Final packaging

Here's another screen from a few days ago, showing docks with window modules, SM2 walls and another Goober SxS...

An Immortality Killer that's out of this world

So I managed to plop a El Rail over Road on top of the edge of the Ashland Station, and created an immortal lot... After chasing down RippleJet's classic Immortality Killer lot and solving the problem, I decided to make my own version with a paranormal twist.

Truth be told, I've always been a little bit afraid to make a UFO bat, but @Simmer2 hasn't been abducted yet...

The blue beam needs a lot of work, but you get the idea. The immortality killing function seems to work as intended, but definitely needs more testing due to the 'serum' flavor of this mechanic...

Someday I'll get bored, clean up the beam and release it...

[Angry Mozart 1,199]

@CT14 Ok, I'll send you a link tomorrow, I'd love to see them in one of your lots.  And I haven't tought about releasing them as a part of a prop pack, I don't have enought props to make a prop pack by now, but I'll probably release them with a buch of other things I've been working these last months.

Edit: I didn't see the rest of the post haha. I'm really thankful with you and everyone else who have made prop families with my props, specially with my first pack, as I didn't knew at the time how to make them,  it is a huge task. And i'd love to see that UFO someday haha.

[CT14 2,486]

@Angry Mozart Oops, I ninja edited the post to add a bunch of stuff. And you're very welcome! Definitely a task to do bit by bit.

Fisher prior art/SimHotToddy side by side/conveyors

Well, I'd forgotten about this Fisher Body Plant #21 BAT - the factory from Detroit, on left below. SimHotToddy did all these amazing factory BATs and I've added them to my test city.

Also visible are the Conveyor BATs from a few pages back, updated and detailed with plumbing and wiring.

I'm really glad to rediscover this earlier BAT because the quality is high - gives me something to aim for when I add the final touches to the roofjunk.

[JimC 159]

Those auto plants look fantastic. What decade are these factories based on? To me they look sorta like 1950s post-war modernist factories. The pastel yellow colour screams modernism imo. Fantastic.

Also I love the grunge effect you've put on the rooftops. If you look at any satellite photo of an old, torn down auto factory in Michigan, the appearance on the ground in those photos is nearly identical to the appearance of the rooftops in your BATs - indicating that there has been a removal of some kind of former utility. Outstanding.

Here's a photo of Flint, for comparison.

 

[CT14 2,486]

@JimC You got a great point there. I whipped up a Flint Grunge Filler lot... just one plop, with the grunge prop families and Girafe feathergrass. I think this look would be a great fit for SM2 chain link fences, so that's the direction I'll go - adding one ortho fence lot, one gate lot and one corner lot.

The factory modules are based on the Fisher Body Plant #1 in Flint, built around 1920... the architect, Albert Kahn, was very influential and prolific, so you can see similar buildings throughout the next few decades around the world. He built many plants in Russia as well as the United States.

Rough overview of Fisher modules

I am going to make window modules that are somewhere in between the two colors below, using the glass map as does the darker one.

Roofjunk: Detroit Water Tower

Detroit water towers have some very specific details, like the rounded bellies, diagonal guardrail braces and lightning rods. I found a great prototype picture and made a BAT from it. I think it came out too dark for Fisher, but I'll keep the dark renders for others who may match them better. I'll also do a lighter version. Here's the prototype:

Here's the model. Also visible are other members of the roofjunk prop family. I'll add a machine house or two, some larger exhaust vent fans, a dust collector and call it a wrap.

Here's a variation with a Shepard Fairey piece on it. A similar prototype exists or existed in Detroit.

Viaduct lots

Gotta have em.

I remember making an earlier viaduct pass through lot using the NAM prop and having the viaduct texture override work properly... I'll have to see what's different about this one.

[CT14 2,486]

Fisher progress

Well, I've squashed about 15 bugs having to do with lots, props, models. Did a ton of housekeeping to standardize names of things, menu item order. Rendered lighter versions of the water towers.

Here's the Viaduct Dock model in a test layout with the latest changes:

Major things left to do for the main Fisher Body Modular Factory release:

• Lot query sounds done
• Lot icons done
• Window module new textures
• Create new roofjunk
• Figure out texture override situation for viaduct passthru done, @Tyberius06 correctly noticed the wrong prop was being used
• Fix LOD (raise the upper edge of the tunnel part) and brick up lower stories of Viaduct Passthru BAT

There are also a few more minor bugs identified in this last round with alignment, menu item order, etc. And it's almost time to dig up the details of Query-to-Plop again.

[Tyberius06 12,267]

Hi!

48 minutes ago, CT14 said:

Here's the Viaduct Dock model in a test layout with the latest changes:

Did you designe it to work with L2 viaducts only, right? Also I'm not complaining, but is it intentional, that you used the El-Rail props by the building entrances instead of some viaduct rail prop? Or is it baked into the model? The Idea is awesome for sure! I wish for more similiar designs!

Nice work anyway!

- Tyberius

[CT14 2,486]

@Tyberius06 Yes it is for the 15.5m heavy rail viaducts. The lot might actually have the wrong prop, which would explain why RRW isn't showing. I'll look into that!

edit: you were right!

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

Really awesome looking building with great flexibility to boot! So much grit and grunge, and the filler is just the icing on the cake!

[CT14 2,486]

Thanks @Tyberius06 and @kingofsimcity for the comments. Tyberius06 was correct about the wrong prop on the passthru lot - it's been fixed, along with many more bugs on the list.

The last of the basic fillers (I hope)

I created a prop family with 27 of @Simmer2 HD props, added 30 blanks and put it on the grunge filler lot. The following scene was made with 4 different plop lots; I particularly appreciate that the ground grunge props and the basement props play well together.

Using transparent props as faux overlay textures avoids the water bug neatly. I made grass and dirt grunge/brownfields lots.

State of Ortho variations and new window textures

This next scene was made with just one plop lot: Fisher Ortho, and zero selective bulldozing/replopping.

New window textures and machine house roofjunk have been thrown into the mix. I still need to create stovepipe BATs, vent BATs and add them to the roofjunk family. Perhaps a staircase or hatch.

With 4 variations now, there are certainly a lot of water towers coming up in the roofjunk rotation, but I don't want it to be too frustrating for someone to get one to spawn where they want one - better to have to knock down a few extras here and there.

[CT14 2,486]

New roofjunk

New large stovepipes with guy cables, two styles of exhaust vent have been created and added. There are a few different configurations for each of these props. A staircase has also been added.

In the next shot, all of the new models are visible. A third dock BAT with single door on the left is also showing. And the conveyor height is adjusted to better fit.

I have to go back and add feet to all the water towers.

Now for some more I-M Rail Filler concepts:

Viaduct over Boxcars, Viaduct Boxcars over Boxcars

Just a fun bit of eye candy. The idea is that this viaduct is a short spur off an embankment nearby, and these are cars being staged for the viaduct docks just down the line. I'll try to whip up an example.

El Road 15m over Boxcars

Transit enabled. Not sure how best to handle the transitions to El Road grass, but there's always fence lots.

edit: Adding a "DTR End with Overhanging Concrete" to be used on one side of the bridge might allow a clean solution.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, what a cornucopia of cool features! Rail viaduct through building - if you don't get people with that, then how do you wanna get them at all?

Looking at the sample pictures - particularly those with simhottoddy's buildings added to the mix - I came to realise two things:

1. Once you are taking care of the final roofjunk props (and also the transparent ground filler props), I think it may be worth considering shapes that don't fill the tile as much. Why am I saying that? It's because you managed to hide the seams between the individual 1x1 pieces so well that any result really looks like one single and coherent building complex. However, many of the preliminary roof junk tiles make the underlying grid rather obvious again. If you had more props that only fill a part of the tile, this effect could be more subtle and improve the illusion. The concept is great, it's just the fine tuning.
2. Looking at the comparison buildings, I noticed that the top of the parapet on your modules is really wide - is it really like that? It might totally be, I'm not familiar with the originals. Just wondering because of the direct comparison to be seen in your pictures.

All in all, this is easily one of the most impressive industrial projects I have ever seen for SimCity! Going through this thread is really a joy - whenever you think "Wow, this is the highlight so far", up comes the next. Gorgeous work!

[CT14 2,486]

@T Wrecks Hey, those are good points. And I don't trust anyone who doesn't like rail viaducts!

The grunge props can be varied a bit more - I'm right now creating some that take up only half the tile, and some more that are on the less linear side. Note that all the linear ones have already been aligned to fit along the edge of the roof, including on the corners - the picture above where the two conveyors meet is a good example.

The parapet is a bit more problematic, and it is slightly too large - see for example this 1930 aerial view https://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc78516 and compare to main wall pilastres - it should be around the same size, and right now it's somewhat wider. The very good news is I'm using the same BAT model for 3 of the lots now (ortho, chimney spizzles, window chimney spizzles) so it wouldn't take as long to fix this as it would otherwise. I'm thinking of reducing it by about 25% - still on the large side, but not as glaringly different from the likely side by side buildings.

With over 40 bugs found and fixed during testing, and over 140 exemplars and models discarded during the process, I've crushed most of my bug list for the main Fisher lots. We're getting rather close to a prop pack release to support the 3 different releases (Fisher Body Plant Modular Factory, I-M Grunge Fillers, I-M Rail Fillers).

The water towers have been re-rendered with feet and lower braces. There is still some foofaraw occurring with the viaduct passthru, actually, and I'm thinking of doing a double sided one with Transit Enabled while I'm at still it.

Here's a replop of the Ortho test from a few posts back, with SimHotToddy in the middle. The grunge family has nearly doubled in size, but needs to have its blanks ratio adjusted back to 1/3 to keep a certain amount of the roof clear. This goes for the roofjunk prop family as well.

Zooming out, we can see the new roof edge looks better proportioned.

[Krasner 1,062]

This is excellent. The gateway to endless industrial labyrinth hells

[CT14 2,486]

@Krasner well, these are Satan's mills, as Blake would say!

Roof texture improvements

After staring at this stuff for a couple of months, I've realized I can use just three different textures and give a nice gradient to the edge of the roof. Since I'm redoing the models anyway, why not?

I used a layer mask in GIMP on the roof texture and applied a gradient. The gradient fades out by 25% of the way into the tile, which seems to match other BATs pretty well. I made a texture with 1 edge gradient, and a texture with 2 edge gradients. The third is the existing no-gradient texture, which will remain on the filler piece.

Visible here is the Ortho with new parapet and roof gradient:

I also made more blanks for roofjunk and grunge prop families.

In this next shot the latest texturing for one of the FA3 intersection fillers is shown.

And finally, a 'cutaway' of sorts, showing what's left when the main BAT is removed:

El Road over rail fillers: Overhanging props to the rescue

I realized the underbridge areas can be done with an overhanging prop I happened to have sitting around. DTR End, STR End, and empty filler lots can have versions with this prop extending the concrete - here, it's done with the DTR End.

Some funky shadows in this rotation, probably a misaligned bridge prop on the El Road over Boxcars lot.

[CT14 2,486]

A few lots need pixel shoving again. I'm going to re-render the fancy corner model to fix textures at the top, same for machine house roofjunk. I think it's pretty much ready now, model-wise. Still need to finish modding lots, do readmes, cohort files for prop families, datpack.

[CT14 2,486]

Adjusting building props in Reader to eliminate gaps

Fixing the last few gaps between building modules has been a challenge, especially with the asymmetrical corner BATs. I have been resorting to hex editing in Reader to move the building props around on the lot in micro adjustments; the "push" amount in the Lot Editor is about two times larger than is required to actually line up. This is still pretty tedious but I have got pretty close to perfect alignment now - still working on a few spots.

Daeley's "Click-to-copy" method a.k.a. Query to Plop!

@T Wrecks Well, I got query to plop working. Here's the tutorial by Daeley, way back in 2008:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4278.msg135101#msg135101

The query to plop functionality requires a .UI file in the lot... so I made one and put my favorite picture of the plant in. And here's the tutorial I used to make the query:

Saginaw water tower

And, here is the updated roofjunk, with some new water towers including a concrete frame tower from a Saginaw, Michigan factory rooftop. I'm really enjoying modeling these prototypes; I found some amazing tower houses with 3 stories in brick on top of the roof under the water tower! These only have 1 story...

While it is fairly easy to get a water tower to spawn, it took me many dozens of plops to get the one on the right to appear - so the "difficulty" is dialed in right where I want it.

Window props

Several first story window props have been added to the prop family to improve variety. These are also visible above.

Props feel like they're done at this point; I've gathered everything for datpacking.

[CT14 2,486]

Well, Fisher is as done as it's gonna be! Have fun with it and let me know if you find any bugs - I'll try to fix them.

Next up: I-M Grunge Filler lots, I-M Rail Fillers, Wild West BATs.

I already want to do a modular Packard Plant. High-quality problems.

[JimC 159]

Outstanding. Gonna download them and fire up SimCity now. And I'm probably being selfish here but personally I can't wait for wild west BATs!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Glad I can be the measuring stick against which your work is judged.

One quick question, do any of these pieces include a door for workers/employees?

If you take away nothing else from my models, pay attention to proportions and how subtle change in the texture has a big visual impact (Miller St could have been better in this regard). If you add a blotch or stain, try to tie those changes in texture to something in the surfaces' surroundings or sensible wear (like a low spot along a drainage path). You do not need to have a really dramatic change in texture (that is, contrast or color) in order to have the desired impact. Also, try adding some noise or try re-sizing textures so that you don't end up with faces that look like a flat color. With reinforced concrete industrial buildings this isn't easy to do, but look at Fisher Body 21 as an example if you need to.

I have one other texturing note; in the BSP*, we always calibrated our color palette against similar Maxis buildings. I think a similar approach may be helpful for you.

  Edited February 27, 2019 by SimHoTToDDy  
Corrected BSC to BSP.