Adrianor's Latin American BATs

[Adrianor 628]

@matias93 No need to be sorry! I appreciate constructive criticism. After all, that's why I opened this thread.

14 hours ago, matias93 said:

The big building with the balconies would look better if accompained by a smaller building of its same height, specially when trying to create continous facades (this is, not only seamless in depth from the street axis, but also block-like in the buildings' general volume). As they are separate models, this can perfectly wait until you eventually revisit Lima with a new building pack.

I agree, didn't think of this before. Still, I might include this smaller building, just to add more variety, i.e., I'll make one two versions of the lot, one with the small building and another one with a building of the same height.

Also, it will be a while before I revisit Lima!

 

14 hours ago, matias93 said:

Instead of the saturation or the cleanliness of the awnings (which is understandable by them being new and plastic), the problem I think of is that the logos are too much wrapped up, pointing mainly upward. While this makes the trademark more recognizable from the point of view of the player (or to someone from a third floor on the building at the other side of the street), it could look somewhat weird from the street itself. Is up to you to decide if the logos should be easier to see to a pedestrian or the game user.

Hm, yes, I was having some trouble in gmax with the UVW mapping; the position of the logos was just not working right. I think it's just a matter of modifying the textures themselves. Anyways, I will take into consideration your suggestion.

14 hours ago, matias93 said:

Oh, and about the awnings, they look very useful for other uses too. Maybe it could be a good moment to begin a prop pack (lets say 'Adrianor Essentials', maybe?), and to distribute the 3D file to allow other users to create more props with different logos (I'm thinking specifically on what @pclark06 is doing with @rsc204 convenience stores).

That could be a good idea, but I want to stay away from creating any more unnecessary dependency packs, unless I decide to create lots of vital props for future creations. I'll have to think this through, that's for sure, so I don't want to give a solid yes or no answer yet.

[pclark06 12,070]

@Adrianor @matias93 My opinion is that a prop pack for awnings would be cool under a different circumstance, but Latin American architecture has unique traits that if one were to put some of the world's brands that don't exist in Latin America on a custom awning it would just look kind of strange.

The thing with the MGB Convenience Store is that the architecture is fairly neutral to most global architectural styles since convenience stores themselves are generic, so an American sign pack expansion made sense for it.

[matias93 7,535]

Yes, but these awnings are themselves very architectonically neutral, taken isolated to the building: I would say they are good for any W2W environment, whatever if it's on southern or eastern Europe, Middle East, far east Asia or Latin America (that, by the way, aren't so different one from the other).

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Who says awnings must come with some company logo on them? Aren't there just street cafés/restaurants and independent, owner-operated shops who may use awnings in solid colour or simple patterns, but without logo or lettering?

[AndisArt 2,068]

great progress, I have nothing to add that wasnt said yet, only that I would prefer awnings without logos as well, at least as optional

[matias93 7,535]

On 8/11/2016 at 8:20 AM, T Wrecks said:

Who says awnings must come with some company logo on them? Aren't there just street cafés/restaurants and independent, owner-operated shops who may use awnings in solid colour or simple patterns, but without logo or lettering?

In fact that adds realism in the local context: most independent restaurants and cafes save on mobiliary by letting trademarks to place ads on their stores; most of them have no money to buy or rent a drinks' refrigerator or a backlit billboard. 

Ref image (this is typical, the photo is the first one I found on google)

[Adrianor 628]

Thanks for your ideas guys. Here's the last update before uploading this pack.

 

Updates:

- Added a two story building to go together with corner building, as suggested.

- After reading your comments, I think that a plain black awning looks best for the small corner building. Let's keep it simple, I said to myself.

- Two more colors for the non-corner buildings have been added.

 

I've already started working on the next pack, which will be the R$$ pack Santiaguino 2. This pack will consist of small detached medium wealth houses, with dimensions similar to the Maxis homes.

I had originally planned to focus on a medium density residential pack based on buildings in Buenos Aires, but, when I began developing medium wealth neighborhoods for my cities, I noticed that I don't have many custom BATs to compete with the ugly maxis houses. Haven't found many latin american houses on the STEX or elsewhere, apart from the ones made by the LBT. 

[matias93 7,535]

Good decisions there, Adrianor! The secondary colours are very convincing, and the extra building looks really neat there. About the awnings, it seems like a wise option to get rid of logos.

About the new project, which neighbourhoods have you in mind for it? Central Maipú (north-east from the Plaza, up to the highway even) and La Florida, between Walker Martínez and Trinidad, match closely your description.

The bad thing? Most of them are on 12x21 meters lots, so, some stretching will be needed to match 1x2 in-game lots. Also, most houses are paired instead of detached, but making two of them on one lot could resolve both the irregular size and the lack of detachment. If I remember clearly, this was an usual solution Mattb325 used when doing his hundreds of R$$ houses.

[Adrianor 628]

@matias93 Gracias! For now, I have two houses in mind, one in San Miguel (which I've already started modelling) and the other one in Ñuñoa.  Links: San Miguel and Ñuñoa

There's the same little problem as last time: for the house in Ñuñoa I would say it falls somewhere in between R$$ and R$$$, even if it doesn't look too impressive. 

I hadn't even considered of Maipú, maybe because I live so far away from it and I've never been there myself, haha. I'll have a look at the houses in that area, maybe you have some examples in mind that you'd like to share? I can also indeed include semi-detached houses as you've mentioned.

 

[matias93 7,535]

Well, it always depends on the criteria, but those two look more like worn-out R$$$ houses than R$$, particularly by its architecture (very customized, even if inside an style) and location (Irarrázaval is something like the south frontier of high wealth neighbourhoods in the east, and San Miguel has always been a high wealth island in the centre-south).

As an useful rule of thumb that works temperate cities (at least) in developing countries, you can look at the main colour of the satellite images, using low zoom levels:

See how the more affluent zones are darker to the eye? That's because they are more forested and their roofs tend to have metal plates with less frequency, making entire neighbourhoods less reflective. The opposite is true too: the poorer areas are also the whitest ones in the map. We could even pinpoint the buildings you have already done and to check their wealth level just using the map RGB values!

***

Now, back to the point... 

Here are some suggestions:

• Central Maipú <-- Typical 1960s goverment worker house
• La Florida <-- This looks a lot like suburban US, but compressed!
• Estación Central <-- This ones are also on the limit to R$$$
• Huechuraba <-- Don't tell them those houses are really middle class!
• La Reina <-- Again, government-made houses for the middle class
• Macul <-- This guys went a little too far with the idea of pairing houses...
• Puente Alto <-- Really crazy: small houses on huge lots
• San Bernardo <-- Another wealth island, but much smaller
• La Cisterna <-- Rather dilapidated to R$, but they should have been very fancy on their days
• San Miguel <-- Basically the same level than the ones you found, maybe a little less
• San Joaquín <-- Classy, even if they were done for industry workers

Hope you like them!

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Good job making this pack!

[Adrianor 628]

@matias93: Yes, you're right, I've noticed this pattern as well elsewhere in Latin America. Thanks a lot for the suggestions! I'm a bit familiar with some of the styles of some neighborhoods, but it's quite useful to have a short description of each. I'll be sure to check out each neighborhood, especially those that I'm not too familiar with.

@JP Schriefer: Thanks man! I'm also glad to see that you've uploaded something too.

 

***

 

Pack is now online:

 

[matias93 7,535]

Just to emphatize, I've just found this on my twitter timeline:

It matches nicely with our simpler proxy (socioeconomic groups are A= richer to E=poorer)

 

[Adrianor 628]

@matias93: Ah, perfect! This is quite useful, thanks again.

[Adrianor 628]

First little house of the pack, was really simple to make. I feel like this pack won't take too long to finish.

Reference

Quick edit: Forgot to mention that I'm thinking of using CP's wonderful trees instead of the standard maxis trees, so this pack would have an additional dependency pack.

Now I ask you guys: would you prefer to have the back wall replaced by the same fence w/ hedge that are on the sides? Or leave it as is? 

As I'm sure you know by now, any comment/critique is always welcome.

 

Note: don't worry, I'll add at least one tree in the final version. I just didn't add any in order to have a better view of the lot.

 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

I like the way it is, but I think it would be weird if it grows in a neighbourhood where all the houses have just fences, you know, it will be like a random wall '-'

[matias93 7,535]

Wow, great work, you really captured the overall feeling! Just some suggestions:

• The base beneath the dinner table in the backyard is z-fighting with the overlay texture (you can see the diagonal lines there). Try rising the prop just a little to avoid that.
• The height of the fences and walls is maybe too much. In suburban contexts, they are usually at 1.6 - 1.8 meters, like 2/3 of the house walls. Sinking the props would do the trick.
• The fences usually don't extend to the lateral lot limits: a pre-fab concrete wall is the most usual option; ref images: on a suburban backyard, on an industrial environment (this thing is really versatile); each pre-fab piece is something like 50 x 200 cm. Hedges intersected look great, and they would work with the concrete wall too.
• The wall at the end would also look better in the aforementioned standard, smaller and thinner; is not usual to have huge and beautiful walls on the southern frontier (mainly because the neighbour at the other side of the border won't pay for it; the wall on my house is an exception, being 5 meters tall, but that's because some crazy people built extra rooms instead of a backyard garden)
• About the dependencies: bring them on! CP trees are a very common pack, so most users will have them already. If you are worried about problems with finding dependencies, maybe uploading your packs to the SC4D LEX could be useful; there is a dependency tracker that eases the end user job enormously.

[rathefalcon 395]

Great looking house! I'm not even sure that the lot needs any trees; in my opinion, there's already enough going on. Maybe it could use a small palm tree or something. That's just my opinion of course, though, and maybe trees would look better if you lower the fences as matias93 suggested. In any case, great work again

[matias93 7,535]

Palms? Dunno, here in Santiago the climate is unfavourable to those things, and end on two bad situations: or sturdy enough to grow disproportionately (to the point you have to call the firefighters to prune them), or weak enough to die on the third or fouth leaf, still as saplings.

The most usual greenery are fruit trees and bushes, or maybe vines on an arbor (I had to look a lot for that word, not even sure if is the right one); something like this:

(and yes, that's a Canary palm rising over the wall; I fell sorry for the people that will have to prune that thing when reaches its full size, or begins to crack the wall)

[Adrianor 628]

15 hours ago, JP Schriefer said:

I like the way it is, but I think it would be weird if it grows in a neighbourhood where all the houses have just fences, you know, it will be like a random wall '-'

Yep, that random wall will go away now 

 

15 hours ago, matias93 said:

Wow, great work, you really captured the overall feeling! Just some suggestions:

• The base beneath the dinner table in the backyard is z-fighting with the overlay texture (you can see the diagonal lines there). Try rising the prop just a little to avoid that.
• The height of the fences and walls is maybe too much. In suburban contexts, they are usually at 1.6 - 1.8 meters, like 2/3 of the house walls. Sinking the props would do the trick.
• The fences usually don't extend to the lateral lot limits: a pre-fab concrete wall is the most usual option; ref images: on a suburban backyard, on an industrial environment (this thing is really versatile); each pre-fab piece is something like 50 x 200 cm. Hedges intersected look great, and they would work with the concrete wall too.
• The wall at the end would also look better in the aforementioned standard, smaller and thinner; is not usual to have huge and beautiful walls on the southern frontier (mainly because the neighbour at the other side of the border won't pay for it; the wall on my house is an exception, being 5 meters tall, but that's because some crazy people built extra rooms instead of a backyard garden)
• About the dependencies: bring them on! CP trees are a very common pack, so most users will have them already. If you are worried about problems with finding dependencies, maybe uploading your packs to the SC4D LEX could be useful; there is a dependency tracker that eases the end user job enormously.

Thank you! The reason why I decided to go with the fence/hedge combination was precisely due to the lack of appropriate walls in the LBT mega pack, i.e., short, small walls as you've said. Either they are too thick, too thin, too tall or they just have another different style, unsuitable for this house. I went through all of my downloaded props to see if I have any suitable walls, but I couldn't find any. I'll have a look again. If I can't find any, I'll probably have to create my own. Also, I couldn't sink the props, but I'll check again.

Yes, indeed, most users probably have the CP trees, that's why I had this idea. I will use them now.

 

13 hours ago, rathefalcon said:

Great looking house! I'm not even sure that the lot needs any trees; in my opinion, there's already enough going on. Maybe it could use a small palm tree or something. That's just my opinion of course, though, and maybe trees would look better if you lower the fences as matias93 suggested. In any case, great work again

Thanks! Yeah I guess I'll use small trees or small decidious trees to be exact. I'll avoid using palm trees just to avoid restricting the flexibility of the lot, so that users not playing with a more temperate setting can still use this pack and not worry about a palm tree popping up and ruining the general look of their cities.

 

11 hours ago, matias93 said:

Palms? Dunno, here in Santiago the climate is unfavourable to those things, and end on two bad situations: or sturdy enough to grow disproportionately (to the point you have to call the firefighters to prune them), or weak enough to die on the third or fouth leaf, still as saplings.

The most usual greenery are fruit trees and bushes, or maybe vines on an arbor (I had to look a lot for that word, not even sure if is the right one); something like this:

[snip]

(and yes, that's a Canary palm rising over the wall; I fell sorry for the people that will have to prune that thing when reaches its full size, or begins to crack the wall)

While it might not be too popular to have palms in lots like the one I've made, they certainly grow adequately in Santiago (at least when it comes to climate). Regardless of this, I won't be including them anyways (see my point above). 

You're right, for lots like this one, fruit trees and bushes are the most common I think. I'll see which CP trees fit the role!

[Adrianor 628]

House #2 done. 

Reference

• Three versions for the fences/walls: a) Jestarr's fences, b) Romualdillo's walls and LBT fences, c) Romualdillo's walls and fences. I myself prefer option c), what do you think?
• Yeah, yeah, the concrete bases need to be elevated even more, I know.

[matias93 7,535]

Option C, by large, you are right.

Yup, z-fighting again. Maybe overlay textures could do the work. CP SCILT ones are very flexible and have many shapes to choose from.

By the way, I was stranged by the lack of eaves on the facade of the new house, but in fact the orignal one hasn't any. Guess in a rainy day to reach the door with an umbrella open is a must, then...

[Adrianor 628]

@matias93: Late reply, sorry. Thanks for the tip, but I managed to get the bases to work correctly. And yeah, fortunately for the house owners it doesn't rain that often here!

***

Two more models. A semi w2w house and semi detached houses. Again, I used LBT props and Romualdillo's props (as well as regular Maxis ones). Will add the trees eventually

 

 

 

Reference 1, Reference 2

[matias93 7,535]

Great models and lots there!

The Macul houses, you did it as a 2x2 lot, or left and right 1x2 lots? I tend to feel the first one is a better option to avoid pairing to appear inverted when growing.

And about the La Cisterna house (the white roofed one), have you thought on including the backyard rooms? It would probably make for a R$ lot instead of R$$, but as the reference has it...

[Adrianor 628]

@matias93 Thanks! The Macul houses sit on a 2x2 lot, precisely due to the reason that you mentioned. 

Ah, so they were indeed backyard rooms, I wasn't sure what they were. I agree, the Cisterna house is borderline R$ so I'll probably omit those rooms and leave the lot as is, just so it "looks" or "feels" more like a R$$ house...the references are just references after all.  

[Adrianor 628]

Last house done: 

Reference

Gotta work on the lots (make 1x1 and 1x3 lots) and this pack should be good to go. I will probably upload it tomorrow.

[Adrianor 628]

The pack is online!

 

[Adrianor 628]

I'm starting another pack, going back to Buenos Aires: R$$ pack porteño 1. I'll be making small generic w2w residential buildings. So, absolutely no high rises for now.

  

Reference

• This building is 8m in width. As mentioned a while ago, I'm making a bunch of them so that two of them fit on a 1xX lot.
• The second picture shows my building compared to one of LBT's  buildings (left) and one of Wallibuk's buildings.

[matias93 7,535]

Wow, great concept and flawless execution! I think @Fantozzi will see his wish granted here...

[Adrianor 628]

Another little building and another LBT building on the right.

  

Reference

  Edited November 30, 2016 by Adrianor