Prosper`s buildings

[Prosper Merime 128]

Yeah, I think it should be added specularity. Normal map includes roof texture, but due to the depth of the building not visible details.

Thanks!

[Koesj 659]

Are you sure you've got the normal map set up to optimally show the rooftop textures? To me, even at the top it looks like it's got no depth to it 

Here's what I did with my Banhammer Bank roof, which might be a bit too glossy for your tastes but I tried to go for a bitumen look:

Clearly visible seams through a couple of percent specularity and a subtle normal map.

At a certain point where I was happy with the macro details on my roof diffuse I extracted it to my heightmap and put the levels really close together.

Which netted me this nicely functioning normal map. For the roof at least, which is way better than the hack job I pulled with the AC vent haha. 

 

In no way does this detract from the niceness of your building though in my opinion!! Just wanted to show an example of how something like this could be done with the question of whether or not you'd considered it  

[Prosper Merime 128]

Usually I apply a specmap only for windows. Therefore my buildings dont have reflectivity. Because of this problem with normal map. Yes, it's bad. Sometimes I`m lazy to do everything perfectly. The depth on the roof can be seen only when the sun is low in the game.

Do I understand correctly that under normal maps you have in mind a height map? I'm a little confused or misunderstand because of the language barrier:( For me, a normal map is a height map(blue map ). Oh, it's 3D modeling!

[Koesj 659]

The heightmaps are the monochrome ones (third pic) which I then run through AwesomeBump to get the blue 'normal' map (a type of bump map). We both know this but it's the language barrier being in the way haha.

What I've seen with the game is that even at 1 or 2 percent specularity the highlights produced by the normal mal look way better (though maybe a little bit too 'wet'), so maybe you could just select your whole roof on the diffuse map layer in photoshop, and fill that selection with black 98% on your specular layer? Takes about 10 seconds and might produce a better result

 

e: Also you can see a bit of depth on the roof when it's midday if you add a bit of specularity. Here's my building again, in the asset editor this time, with the time slider exactly in the middle, from short/medium distance (the pic is cropped), and looking at it almost from the top:

Is this what you might want to aim for with your roofs?

[boformer 3,169]

Prosper, it seems like some of your buildings have no or the wrong corner setting, and some miss a LOD illumination map. You should fix that.

Corner setting can be changed without reimporting the buildings with Mod Tools.

 

[Shroomblaze 320]

10 hours ago, boformer said:

and some miss a LOD illumination map. You should fix that.

 

I keep telling him that.

[Avanya 2,605]

Just had a look at your buildings and I love the USA apartments, but the tris count is still very high on them. I took a look at one of them (USA Apartments 10) and can see it still suffers from SketchUp's messy faces. I grabbed a pic to show what I mean. 3 out of the 4 windows here have an extra face they don't need. The window in the bottom left is 2 triangles, which is all you need. The same goes for alot of brick faces. I think you could get around 500 tris lower by optimizing the faces. I don't use 3dmax myself, so I have no tips on how to do it there, but I'm sure others here can help if needed. I hope you get around to it at some point

[Prosper Merime 128]

Unfortunately I don't know why this is happening and how to fix it. I hope in the near future will begin to learn how to model in 3DMAX. I work in the Skethup because it's fast, all geometry magnetic, and very comfortable guides.

Who knows how to display the tris? And then what is it?

 

As for further plans, if anyone missed my creations. The University session begins in a week, so I suspend the work on the new buildings until may. I have a lot of nearly finished buildings, but for their polishing needs time and effort. For many not ready LOD. A major update is waiting for the old assets. I love to do many things at once, so the closer to summer will rain from the beautiful buildings. Prepare your PC.  

I'll take a look at one of the buildings with one eye.

 

This is my first tall building. You'd be surprised what I want to do it as a growable residential.

[Prosper Merime 128]

Also want to warn that some of the old buildings will a corner.

[Darf 1,439]

Hey mate,  good to know you're working on some more buildings. That preview already looks amazing.  Would be good to know what lot sizes on and lvls you're working so we can coördinate a bit for getting a well rounded theme.

You can display the geometry in 3dsmax, like this: (press the yellowed icon and than ctrl-a on your keyboard)

To reduce try count you can do two things. Every endpoint in Sketchup will create a vertex. So to reduce the amount of vertexes those extruded windows create, you draw straight lines from top to bottom in sketchup and than delete the planes in between. Than in Sketchup make a group by selecting two lines. (I usually draw two lines on the floor) Now right click and make them a group. Double click on the group and you will see everything getting greyed out. Now in the group draw those planes you deleted again and instead of creating a vertex for every point they will just consist of two polygons.

Alternatively, you can reduce tri count in 3ds max. Click the most left icon in selection. (the 3 dots) Than go down where it says "weld selected". Now decrease the tresh hold to 1cm below the  smallest line you've drawn in Sketchup. I usually set it to 0,09 meter. Than again press ctrl-a and click selected. This will remove duplicate faces. 

You can also manually redraw some faces:

Here you see a face which has a lot more polygons than it should have. Select it and than press delete. Than select the polygon selection (4th selection type).
And press create. You will see all these red dots appear:

Than click on the red dots you're face should follow, press right button if want to complete:

You see the face, now only consists of 2 polygons:

[Prosper Merime 128]

Wow good tip! Try to do this in free time. Really want to get my buildings better.

1 hour ago, Darf said:

Would be good to know what lot sizes on and lvls you're working so we can coördinate a bit for getting a well rounded theme.

This is a great offer, I wanted to suggest the same.

I have a line of 3x2 corner buildings each level except 5lvl (One subject at a level and need more).

4x2 and 4x3 corner - its my apartment#09 and #10 respectively (There will be a corner), need all the levels;

4x4 corner - need simple building 1-3 level. Now it's only Feinbold`s buildings. I have only 3-5lvl;

2x4 and 3x3 - I have only 3-4lvl;

Well, mostly 3-5lvl 4x4 buildings.

So basically need a corner buildings and simple 1-3lvl like bricks apartments#09. This would greatly accelerate the output of my buildings.

I want to note that for me the 4th level is:

Above only if it is the skyscraper, modern building or a manor like Kauker manor or Apartments#12.

[Darf 1,439]

Hmm yeah that's about 70m high? I would classify that lvl 5, because you'll hardly see lvl 3s (the game will all upgrade all of them lvl 4), so you need High res lvl 5s, which are an alternative for the really high skyscrapers. Otherwise you get a lvl 5 zone which has almost no height variance. The 70m heighth buildings are fairly rare at the moment.

Anyways for growables I'll do:

• a 2x3(4) lvl 3 high res
• another 3x3(4) lvl 4 high res, but considering what you come up with I might shift this one or columbia to lvl 3.
• 2x4 office corner lvl 1-3 .
• 2x4 high ress corner lvl 1-5

[Judazzz 1,936]

Personally I wouldn't make wealth level and building height directly too directly related. Low-income tenements are often pretty tall, whereas very tall apartments for the super-wealthy is a rather recent phenomenon (now that land prices have skyrocketed and available land is increasingly rare, the only way is up - back in the days, the super-rich cared more for big apartments with tall ceilings in buildings in spacious settings, in which they aren't packed as sardines). For example, if you look at the Dakota Building in NYC, nowadays it would easily classify as L5 in C:SL, but it isn't nearly as tall as most of the ultra-expensive early 20th-century apartments lining Central Park West (it has 9 floors and a total height of just 35 meters).

[Prosper Merime 128]

50-55 meters. I have a dozen x14-18-storey buildings of the early 20th century. With balconies and a stone facade on the bottom. As the left on the pictures. And I'm really not sure what level to relate them. I also have "building-ships", such https://goo.gl/maps/hcbnmAdzBor. 4 or 5 level?

I suggested that because it is very difficult to find a middle ground for all levels, especially 2-3lvl. I think a lot of them. If I had my will I would have done 3 or 4 levels. Therefore, 5th level for eye-catching modern and very old luxure buildings. Although this is a problem too, I don't have enough time and energy for this level.

[boformer 3,169]

Note that both L4 and L5 are high-wealth cims. The only difference is the household count. For medium-wealth, you would have to go for L2 or L3.

[Prosper Merime 128]

Hello from St.Petersburg. This city is a huge storehouse of phototextures. It's a shame that I don't have a good camera.

[WesOvWolves 32]

Hey mate, I love your work. Following attentively as I hope to start 3D modelling in the future on SketchUp(I've got intermediate skills in SketchUp, and no experience with any othe modelling software. 

 

Keep up up the good work! 

[Prosper Merime 128]

 

10 hours ago, WesOvWolves said:

Hey mate, I love your work. Following attentively as I hope to start 3D modelling in the future on SketchUp(I've got intermediate skills in SketchUp, and no experience with any othe modelling software. 

 

Keep up up the good work! 

Thanks! In fact, to create a model in SketchUp is a small part of the work. Much harder to texture.

[Prosper Merime 128]

I don't know, maybe create a new topic or it's already discussed here, but I want to know what do you think of that to present items on the Kickstarter? For example as a thematic collection of buildings and parks. I am interested in the opinion of all.

I see that many gamers on the Twitch earn money just by streaming your game. And I thought - And why not.

[boformer 3,169]

It's worth a try. Just make sure that the asset quality is high (normal maps, illumination, LOD, stats...).

[Koesj 659]

Good streamers are pretty unique. We unfortunately compete both with each other and with a gazillion assets on the Workshop that look fine from medium distance but fall apart up close or when seeing their LODs.

[WesOvWolves 32]

18 hours ago, Prosper Merime said:

 

Thanks! In fact, to create a model in SketchUp is a small part of the work. Much harder to texture.

Good to know!

[Prosper Merime 128]

Well, let's start.

[Darf 1,439]

Very nice! Looks even better then when you showed it to me last time.  Is that also a new 2x4 corner I'm seeing?

[Prosper Merime 128]

13 minutes ago, Darf said:

Is that also a new 2x4 corner I'm seeing?

One of 2x3 corner, but it will be RICO building. I decided to make all the buildings as RICO. This expands the creative boundaries in the design of the city. And all advise;)

[Judazzz 1,936]

Woo, you started creating again, Prosper?!? A fine day it is indeed then  
Unfortunately I can't see the attached images  

[Avanya 2,605]

Same as Judazzz, but I think I might know what it is, since I saw something of yours pop up on the workshop today. Looks very nice!  And yes working outside the 4x4 limit is so nice!

[Prosper Merime 128]

37 minutes ago, Judazzz said:

Woo, you started creating again, Prosper?!? A fine day it is indeed then  

Yes, I will start to upload. But there is no time to play to make beautiful screenshots. Will do for me? I can upload more buildings today.

45 minutes ago, Judazzz said:

Unfortunately I can't see the attached images  

On this site? I even have two duplicates is displayed. In any case, in the workshop there are pictures.

[Judazzz 1,936]

I just noticed your Cornell Village tower in the Workshop (gorgeous building, btw!) - is that what you wanted to show us in this topic as well?

As far as screenshots: just let me know what buildings you need screenshots of, and I'll gladly make some for you - it's the least I can do after you've spoiled us with so many amazing assets  

[Prosper Merime 128]

Yes its the same building. I within the hour will upload another portion of assets. Screenshots will be needed in the near time.