CIM2 USA buildings

[Darf 1,439]

CIM2 had some nice USA buildings, I was looking through some screenshots of my old city and I remembered they were on the workshop by a guy named Ray.

He removed them though, so I looked on Skymods and they are still there. All lvl 1 high ress though so and no lods/illum map. There's also a nice theater.

I wanted to make them available again, relot them on different levels and sizes and add a LoD/illum/color map, but not publicly on the workshop. So the choice would be here or privately on the workshop. What'd you think?

[gfvsims 169]

That would be amazing if you could do that! I don't mind where you share them - whatever's easiest for you.

EDIT: I just realised that you may have been asking whether sharing them here would be allowed? If so, I have no idea, but I hope so. The more people that have access to them, the better!

[Darf 1,439]

Yeah.. officially they are part of CIM2, so you have to own that game to use any of the content. Not sure if CO would have a problem with that.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Even though I was interested in Ray's buildings (they're right up my alley), I never subbed any of them because he never included any decent screenshots (blurry, gray 640 pixels wide screens, often 'graced' with cell-shading applied with Bordered Skylines :facepalm:) He never bothered to answer any questions or respond to suggestions to add better screens, a LoD or illumination, so I allowed him to slip off my radar again pretty quickly.

But I'd love to see those CIM buildings appear, be it in the Workshop, here on STEX, or where ever.
Not sure about the legality of it, but afaik. CO never went after Ray (unless that's the reason the buildings were taken off-line). Perhaps you can ping @Azurespecter or any of the other CO/PDX boys/girls to confirm.

[Avanya 2,605]

Oh yes! I had a peak at those and too wished they had proper lods and illumination. I would love to get my hands on some proper versions of these!

As for sharing I think it's safe to assume CO don't mind. Zed68 did the hospital (I think Ray had that posted as well, but with the main model as the lod), it got flagged as incompatible and the response from TotalyMoo was, that it was a mistake and the flag was removed. So here's an example of a CIM building published to the workshop and looked at by a Paradox employee.

If you're not comfortable sharing them publicly on the workshop, I'd say here is a better option (unless it's way more work for you). No matter where you share them I'd definately want to grab them!

[Darf 1,439]

Well I don't want to publicly release them on the workshop, because it's not exactly my work. I'd rather keep that structured and well organized. And taking screenshots, making descriptions takes some time as well. Also there's the avoiding of criticism and comments. I think I will keep them private, avoids the flags as well. So you'll need to add me on steam if you want them.

[Judazzz 1,936]

2 hours ago, Darf said:

Well I don't want to publicly release them on the workshop, because it's not exactly my work. I'd rather keep that structured and well organized. And taking screenshots, making descriptions takes some time as well. Also there's the avoiding of criticism and comments. I think I will keep them private, avoids the flags as well. So you'll need to add me on steam if you want them.

Expect a surge in the number of friends  

[Darf 1,439]

44 minutes ago, Judazzz said:

Expect a surge in the number of friends  

Ow, I'm already getting about 10-20 requests from random persons who add me on Steam. That green counter ticks a lot.  Just give me message here if your steam username differs from your Simtropolis one. I usually throw them away if I dont recognise the name.

[Judazzz 1,936]

33 minutes ago, Darf said:

Ow, I'm already getting about 10-20 requests from random persons who add me on Steam. That green counter ticks a lot.  Just give me message here if your steam username differs from your Simtropolis one. I usually throw them away if I dont recognise the name.

Same for me. My Steam name is the same as here (once a Judas, always a Judas  ), so you should be able to recognize it  

[Matthias King 348]

I'm definitely interested. Steam name: MatthiasPowerbomb

[Darf 1,439]

Just add me. Name is the same on steam. I've done the theater first. It's quite heavy though. About 10k tris. Here's a screenshot of the other stuff. What level would you put them?

[Matthias King 348]

It won't let me add you. It says my account does not meet the requirements. Can you add me?

[Turjan 1,048]

Ray's versions were all very high tris, and if they had a LOD, it was just a duplicate of the main building.

But thanks for sharing. I'll add you on Steam (same name).

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I typically go by the username AzemOcram but I thought OcramsRzr was hilariously punny.

I would count the boutique as low capacity L3 dense commercial.

I would make the theatres either entertainment leisure or T3 unique entertainment leisure

bl10 looks L1 dense residential, bl04 and bl12 look L2, bl11 and bl 13 look L4 or L5, the other apartments look L3

[Matthias King 348]

I got your friend request, Darf. Thanks.

And you know my opinion of entertainment specializations, but it's up to you.

[mastodon 0]

Hi Darf, I'm a lurker here on the CS modding forums. I'm very interested in these buildings, so please accept my invite :). By the way, if I remember correctly, when I tested Ray's buildings (deleted them immediately afterwards and never touched them again), I noticed they weren't wall-to-wall. In CiM2, they weren't exactly wall-to-wall, as there was a tiny bit of space between them, but it looked much better than when they are too far apart. Just something to consider. Anyways, thanks for doing this!

[Darf 1,439]

@OcramsRzr Those seem like appropriate levels. I'll have a look if it's possible to fit them on that level with that lot. Ofcourse if there's a level 5, we need lvl 1-4 with the same dimensions as well.

@mastodon I didn't get an invite with your Simtropolis username.

[mastodon 0]

@Darf oops sorry, my name on steam is mistahlova

[Darf 1,439]

I'll try and do one a day. First one is the theater, it's a bit rough texturewise (1024x1024) and has quite a bit of tris (9500), but IMO it's quite nice looking overall. Not really sharp though. The other buildings are much much better in that regard. Not really optimized well though.

I did a test on bl13 and I could reduced vertices from 7k+ to 2,7k with welding. Facecount is ok though, around 4,7k. These did have colormaps on the brick, so it'll look quite nice. I might removed some geometry to fit them properly on a w2w lot.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Would be great if those buildings were made wall-to-wall (or at least to more row house-like assets: ones like BL11/15 [from your screenshot] probably look good detached as well, with room for a little alleyway, plaza or parking lot).

I think I would make the smaller buildings (like the ones with the fire escapes) HD Residential L2, which is one level above most of Feindbild's Manhattan assets (most of his 2x4's are L1, although he also has one 2x4 for each other wealth level). For the larger ones I think L3 would be good - I typically associate L4/5 with buildings like those lining Central Park and the major avenue's, but imo. these buildings from CIM2 look too plain and unassuming to fall into that category.
The ones with the awnings could also be made HD Commercial L1/2, although I personally don't like it if such large buildings are fully dedicated to commercial - where is mixed-use when you need it, those assets would be textbook examples, with 3-4 floors of retail space and the rest residential (or perhaps even office space)   

[Ocram's Razr 964]

On second thought, usa-bl11 might be best as a hotel. A hotel is like a cross between commercial and residential. NYC and Chicago have quite a lot of tourism. If the building has a footprint in excess of 4x4 tiles, a ploppable Residential/Commercial building would be ideal.

[Darf 1,439]

I added another one: sits on a 2x4 corner lvl 3 lot. This is USA-bl15, with a colormap. 

 

 

 

[Darf 1,439]

And USA-Bl13 is up! Now named Vanderbilt apartments this sits on a 2x4 lvl 4 corner lot. Due to the brick being all grey had to be abit creative with the colormap. The top is a lighter color and there's some darker bricks on the colormap so you get a bit of variance.

[Matthias King 348]

Vanderbilt Apartments look nice. Thanks for all your excellent work.

By the way, what's that light colored building with the black roof in the bottom center of your second pic?

And the tall white, possibly triangular block building to the left of the Flatiron Building in your first pic?

[Darf 1,439]

I think that's  the CIM2 school. It's still on Rays workshop. I wouldnt recommend it though. Lod is messed up. I'll redo it when it comes up.

The other is 20 exchange place by Naskko26, also not really superb, but can't be too picky.

[Matthias King 348]

Thanks. I'll keep any eye out for your version of the school.

I'm surprised to hear one of Naskko's buildings isn't very good. I remember him being a very solid creator. I really miss the handful of apartments he published in the first months the game was released. He took down his entire workshop at one time, and sadly, none of those original buildings ever came back.

I'll take a look at the 20 Exchange Place. Thanks again.

[Darf 1,439]

Texturework is not really great, it kind of misses a lot of details texturewise and 23k tris and 2k texture is a lot for that detail level. His 500 fifth avenue is much better in that regard.

[oak street local 8]

Hi Darf, I have been following your work for a while now here on the forums and I have to say that it's great! So I'd like to thank you for that. I'd love to use your CiM2 buildings, so would you please accept my friend request on steam. My name there is Oak Street Local. Thanks in advance!

[Darf 1,439]

I've added you Oak street local, welcome to Simtropolis! Also uploaded USA-bl11. There's still a uv problem, will fix that tomorrow.

 

 

[Matthias King 348]

That new buildings looks good, though I think you may have forgotten to make it hidden.