Lee Towers' assets

[Lee Towers 179]

Hey all! I've been following this forum for a while now and all your amazing creations inspired me to start building assets myself. The first building is almost finished - a 3 track train station, as seen below (props for the person to recognise the station it's based on). I still have a few problems with it though, so bear with me:

1. The game is creating floors inside the building on its own. There's not even a vertex with the same z-coordinate where it's creating an xy plane inside the building. Is this something that's generated on purpose by the game? The floors are assigned the same textures as the roof of the building. They can be seen through the windows and are positioned about halfway behind the windows.

2. My sims are not using the third platform. I'm using the single station track with a platform on the left side of the track (relative to the direction it was laid). I thought it had to do with the pedestrian connections that I've laid down, but they are using the second platform which is accessed by the same pedestrian connection.

3. Speaking of pedestrian connections... I'd much prefer a rendered underground tunnel to the half-assed building I have there now but the game isn't letting me (it pushes the whole model upwards). How do I go about doing that? I know Joak uses them in his train stations, how did he do that?

Any help regarding one of these questions would me much appreciated! Feedback on the model is also welcome by the way... it's my first time using blender and gimp. The textures aren't final either (mainly the roof and supports need work) but I've yet to learn how to use bump maps.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

I can't help but notice that this station looks really Dutch, is that so?

Also, if you want the tunnel, make sure the pivot ('Origin' in Blender) is at ground level. To make the tunnel visible, use the 'Clip Tool' in the ground textures menu (where you'll also find concrete and gravel). 

Do you even have trains stopping at the third track? You need either Traffic++ V2 or Multi Track Station Enabler to make trains stop there.

[Lee Towers 179]

1 hour ago, Tim The Terrible said:

I can't help but notice that this station looks really Dutch, is that so?

Also, if you want the tunnel, make sure the pivot ('Origin' in Blender) is at ground level. To make the tunnel visible, use the 'Clip Tool' in the ground textures menu (where you'll also find concrete and gravel). 

Do you even have trains stopping at the third track? You need either Traffic++ V2 or Multi Track Station Enabler to make trains stop there.

It certainly is Dutch! Inspired by Middelburg actually. I live in Delft by the way, so I might tackle our beautiful old station at some point (when I get better at modelling...)

Anyway, did a quick test and my station isn't floating anymore when going below ground level! The problem was that I had "bottom centre pivot" checked in the asset editor. I had that checked to get my station at the right y coordinate, but I'll just adjust the pivot a bit to fix that, I guess. Didn't think about using the clip tool. The problem now however is textures: they don't show up under ground. I recall that there is some kind of shader that you have to use or something, or is there a modtools script that achieves the same?

As for the third track: yes, they are stopping there since I have MTSE. I might need to check the direction of the track again since I believe it was working in an earlier version. EDIT: It's fixed now, I relaid the track in the asset editor and after replacing the stations in my test city people started using all the platforms. Still no underground textures, though.

Thanks for the help, Tim!

  Edited October 9, 2016 by Lee Towers  
partially fixed

[Tim The Terrible 586]

Ha! I live in Delft too! And don't bother making the OLD Delft Station building, I'm almost finished with it

For the underground textures you need a change of shaders indeed. I'm not at home right now so I can't give it to you nut I'm Joak (on Steam) or @boformer can help you with that.

 

[Ronyx69 2,413]

No textures underground you mean it replaces them with the building base texture? I think this is the one you need to run:

var shader = Shader.Find("Custom/Buildings/Building/NoBase");

var asset = ToolsModifierControl.toolController.m_editPrefabInfo as BuildingInfo;

if(asset.m_material != null) asset.m_material.shader = shader;
if(asset.m_lodMaterial != null) asset.m_lodMaterial.shader = shader;

 

[Lee Towers 179]

57 minutes ago, Tim The Terrible said:

Ha! I live in Delft too! And don't bother making the OLD Delft Station building, I'm almost finished with it

Ooh, nice! Looking forward to that!

 

21 minutes ago, Ronyx69 said:

No textures underground you mean it replaces them with the building base texture? I think this is the one you need to run:

var shader = Shader.Find("Custom/Buildings/Building/NoBase");

var asset = ToolsModifierControl.toolController.m_editPrefabInfo as BuildingInfo;

if(asset.m_material != null) asset.m_material.shader = shader;
if(asset.m_lodMaterial != null) asset.m_lodMaterial.shader = shader;

 

This works, thanks a lot!

 

Now, next on the list are properly modelling the stairs, reworking the textures and making an LOD. I might make some simple Dutch train station props (check-in stuff, signs etc.), unless @Tim The Terrible is making those for the Delft station...  

[Tim The Terrible 586]

1 hour ago, Lee Towers said:

I might make some simple Dutch train station props (check-in stuff, signs etc.), unless @Tim The Terrible is making those for the Delft station...  

I have made a NS Ticket Machine and the new metal station benches (not published yet) 

[Strechnitz 12]

Where do all these dutch guys come from?

Nice building! A staatsspoor second class station. I don't suppose you'll make the other four classes?

Good luck with modelling.

 

[Lee Towers 179]

22 hours ago, Tim The Terrible said:

I have made a NS Ticket Machine and the new metal station benches (not published yet) 

Nice, was considering making those benches as well. A Dutch train station doesn't feel complete without them

 

9 hours ago, Strechnitz said:

Where do all these dutch guys come from?

Nice building! A staatsspoor second class station. I don't suppose you'll make the other four classes?

Good luck with modelling.

 

You mean this isn't simtropolis.nl...?  

Not sure if I'm going to make all the classes. Maybe fifth class, for rural towns or something. This one is third class btw, not second (according to the googles, only learned about waterstaat stations last week). I was originally planning to make Den Haag HS, the most beautiful station in The Netherlands imho. But I figured it would've been a little too ambitious for a first project...

Meanwhile, a bit of progress:

(pic 1) The underground textures work now. There is still an almost verticle ground texture visible which I believe is the base of the station track, I don't think it's possible to delete that. I've partially hidden it after taking this screenshot by extending the platform floor. 

(pic 3, for some reason... what's up with including pictures on this forum? :x) Onto problem number two: it looks like the game is not lighting all the faces correctly. I have the base colour as 192/192/192 in my specular map, why is it still doing this?

(pic 2) Thirdly, I updated some textures and added normal mapping. Might've gone a bit overboard on the brick textures  Forgot to invert the red channel though, it's fixed now but forgot to take a new screenshot...

Single rail catenaries still aren't showing up for me though.... might be because I'm working in noworkshop mode though.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

5 minutes ago, Lee Towers said:

(pic 1) The underground textures work now. There is still an almost verticle ground texture visible which I believe is the base of the station track, I don't think it's possible to delete that. I've partially hidden it after taking this screenshot by extending the platform floor. 

(pic 2) Onto problem number two: it looks like the game is not lighting all the faces correctly. I have the base colour as 192/192/192 in my specular map, why is it still doing this?

(pic 3) Thirdly, I updated some textures and added normal mapping. Might've gone a bit overboard on the brick textures  Forgot to invert the red channel though, it's fixed now but forgot to take a new screenshot...

Single rail catenaries still aren't showing up for me though.... might be because I'm working in noworkshop mode though.

1: Are you sure you are using the Station Tracks and not the normal Train Tracks? I believe the Station Track mesh doesn't go that deep, but I had issues with the Single Tracks a while ago when I was working on my own station.

2: My first thought is: "Shouldn't it be 0/0/0 for buildings?" Give it a try, I might be totally wrong right now

Also, the single rail catenaries don't show up in -noWorkshop mode indeed, unless you move the props (Rail1L... .crp) from:

Steam\SteamApps\workshop\content\255710\724382534

to

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Assets

 

[Ronyx69 2,413]

18 minutes ago, Lee Towers said:

Onto problem number two: it looks like the game is not lighting all the faces correctly. I have the base colour as 192/192/192 in my specular map, why is it still doing this?

Are you sure it's 192 and are you sure you're talking about the specular map? Because 192 is the base for the illumination map for randomly lit building windows, not the specular. Specular should be less 20% or even less than 10% for the building, maybe even 0% for parts you don't want shiny at all, except for windows which should be really high % for those reflections.

[Lee Towers 179]

13 minutes ago, Tim The Terrible said:

1: Are you sure you are using the Station Tracks and not the normal Train Tracks? I believe the Station Track mesh doesn't go that deep, but I had issues with the Single Tracks a while ago when I was working on my own station.

2: My first thought is: "Shouldn't it be 0/0/0 for buildings?" Give it a try, I might be totally wrong right now

Also, the single rail catenaries don't show up in -noWorkshop mode indeed, unless you move the props (Rail1L... .crp) from:

Steam\SteamApps\workshop\content\255710\724382534

to

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Assets

 

 

7 minutes ago, Ronyx69 said:

Are you sure it's 192 and are you sure you're talking about the specular map? Because 192 is the base for the illumination map for randomly lit building windows, not the specular. Specular should be less 20% or even less than 10% for the building, maybe even 0% for parts you don't want shiny at all, except for windows which should be really high % for those reflections.

Uhh yes of course  0/0/0, was thinking of the illumination map   My windows are at 100 currently because I don't have any proper window textures on my diffuse map yet. My roof is at... 6, I think? But the rest of the image is at 0...

And @Tim The Terrible, I just did that but they still didn't show up. The weird thing is that when using your catenary replacer mod (awesome job on that one, by the way!) the normal catenaries do get replaced, but those on one-way tracks don't. And I'm pretty sure it was doing the same thing when I was playing with all my other mods on yesterday. I even resubscribed to one-way train tracks but that didn't work. I'll get back to this tomorrow.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

Thanks! I don't know when, I don't get them in the Editor in No Workshop mode either, but they will show up in-game when you are finished so don't worry  

[Lee Towers 179]

16 hours ago, Tim The Terrible said:

Thanks! I don't know when, I don't get them in the Editor in No Workshop mode either, but they will show up in-game when you are finished so don't worry  

Weirdly enough they don't show up in game either, that's the point... ah well I'll figure that out later.

In the meantime I created a prop to be used on this station: a "big" NS sign to hang above the entrance. The model has 152 tris, the LOD 24. Both have 64x64 textures because that's the minimum I could get them while still looking good (wanted the LOD to still be recognisable). Is that still small enough for LOD or should I sacrifice the quality? I'll probably release it tonight by the way, because why the hell not.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

Looks fine to me. 

[Lee Towers 179]

I've finally finished it! Not 100% satisfied, mainly due to the horrible pedestrian connections in this game. I finished most of the model and LOD earlier last week but didn't really have time to upload it. The final model has 2803 tris on a 1024x1024px texture, the LOD 190 tris on a 512x265px texture. I didn't have a nice LUT at the moment of taking the screenshots so the textures are a bit more washed out than usual (already put a 25% opacity black layer on top of my textures...).

By the way @Tim The Terrible I still couldn't get the single track catenaries to work :(. Only the default show up, not the Dutch replacements.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=782539245

 

Things I've learned:

• It's way easier to finish the model before even starting with textures... went back and forth way too much with this project.
• Pedestrian paths are a pain in the ass
• Normal maps on brick textures can get really ugly really quick
• Making assets is fun!

Regarding the last point, this won't be my last asset I've learned a lot from building this station.

[Tim The Terrible 586]

1 hour ago, Lee Towers said:

By the way @Tim The Terrible I still couldn't get the single track catenaries to work :(. Only the default show up, not the Dutch replacements.

That's very odd, I will look into it today. I will also upload those props I told you about so you can use them on future stations, or add them to this station when I update it at some point.

[Lee Towers 179]

Working on three things at the same time now. First of all, I wanted to make a really simple single track train station. It's super low poly already, but thanks to a comment in another thread (by @GC_Vos I believe) about texture tiling I might be able to make it with only 10 tris. Still need to experiment with that, though. I'll also wait for @Tim The Terrible to upload his station props before I release it. Don't know how much interest there is in a single track station, anyway . Made it mostly for my own city, as seen in the screenshot.

Secondly, I built a simple Dutch house to fit with @Feindbold's small collection of tiny Dutch houses. You can spot it between his houses in the screenshot (the single track station is in the background, by the way).

Thirdly is something I started working on today and will probably finish today as well. Floating bouys! That's right, I managed to figure out how to make props float. I know there is some interest in a guide on the steam workshop, so once I've finished the props I'll start working on that. Stay tuned!

[Tim The Terrible 586]

29 minutes ago, Lee Towers said:

I'll also wait for @Tim The Terrible to upload his station props before I release it.

Sorry, will get to it as soon as I can, been very busy lately. To make up for it, here is a preview of the 60% finished Delft Station  

[Lee Towers 179]

6 minutes ago, Tim The Terrible said:

Sorry, will get to it as soon as I can, been very busy lately. To make up for it, here is a preview of the 60% finished Delft Station  

Oh damn, that's absolutely stunning!! So much detail! Don't worry about the props by the way  

[squirrelarmyuk 100]

Floating props is very interesting. I know both Fluxtrance and Strictoaster have been wanting more boats which actually bob in the waves to use in their marinas. If you can provide the method needed I'm pretty sure we can flood the workshop with more boats fairly quickly.

[Lee Towers 179]

14 minutes ago, squirrelarmyuk said:

Floating props is very interesting. I know both Fluxtrance and Strictoaster have been wanting more boats which actually bob in the waves to use in their marinas. If you can provide the method needed I'm pretty sure we can flood the workshop with more boats fairly quickly.

Agreed, we need more boats on the workshop! Maybe I say that because building boats is in my field of study... 

Buoy is released now. It has a terrible LOD so beware... but I mainly built it to test the technique, in which I succeeded! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=787492580 Guide should be up later tonight.

[Lee Towers 179]

Sorry to double post, but here is the guide! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=787530459 If I've made a mistake or if something can be improved, please let me know!

[Tim The Terrible 586]

2 hours ago, squirrelarmyuk said:

Floating props is very interesting. I know both Fluxtrance and Strictoaster have been wanting more boats which actually bob in the waves to use in their marinas. If you can provide the method needed I'm pretty sure we can flood the workshop with more boats fairly quickly.

Has been possible for a long time now: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=691602861

I guess you can ask @GC_Vos since he made one as well.

[Strechnitz 12]

Great station. Love it! And since you have grown fond of assetmaing, we look forward to your future plans.

[GC_Vos 714]

If you are gonna build NS assets, make sure you build in a 10% delay rate, 25% chance of detours and 40% customer dissatisfaction.

Kidding aside these are great assets and I'd love to see more Dutch stuff.

[Lee Towers 179]

Released a "pack" of two buoys, the red cylindrical buoy I made yesterday (with improved LOD, hurray for alpha textures!) and a green conical one. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=788185296

The weird thing though is that my textures were 256^2 but for some reason Mesh Info says they're only 64^2. The LOD texture size didn't change, so it is larger than the normal model according to Mesh Info.... It doesn't bother me enough to fix it, though, the models aren't that great anyway 

 

[_Beardmonkey 449]

@Lee Towers Awesome guide! This is just what I needed right now. Thank you so much! Your Dutch buildings look nice as well by the way!

[Lee Towers 179]

Totally forgot about that small Dutch house I built. Should think about finishing it; all it needs is an LOD (which is simple enough with this shape) and s/i/c/n maps which shouldn't be too difficult either... learned a lot in the past few weeks just making different kinds of assets.

 

Anyway, we need more ships! And in this case by ships I mean big freighters. Since this is in my line of studies this could be very interesting. So, I quickly modeled a hull shape after a lines plan I had made in a study related project. I used the lines plan as an overlay in Blender and started tracing the buttocks (xz plane), as this will result in the fewest amount of polys in the end - according to my intuition . Each one positioned a little bit further into the y plane to make things less confusing. Like so:

I now had nine planes that I simply needed to connect the edges of to make a hull shape. I tried to select all edges of two buttocks (except main deck line), fill with a face and then triangulate it. That did not end up working as intended, so I had to do it all by hand. I found out I had to triangulate it all by hand as well, to make it look good in the end. It was actually way easier and quicker than I thought. Anyway, here's what the stern looked like in the middle of the process:

Notice how the buttocks are still clearly visible, even amongst the triangulated faces. This will make adjusting vertices later on a lot easier. They were indistinguishable when I tried connecting the buttocks and triangulate those faces automatically. A few minutes of triangulating later, with smooth shading on almost every face and edge (except the transom: the flat "backside" of the stern), et voila, we have half a ship hull:

 

From an engineering standpoint this is an AWFUL way to model a ship, but hey - I'm not an engineer in my free time . Below is the half hull. It currently has 282 tris which I'd consider pretty low poly. I'm going to test this in-game to see if more polys are necessary - or perhaps it'll just have to be a smaller ship (the lines plan I used was an adaptation of a 380m container ship - that's definitely not going to be my final length). I also think the freeboard is a bit too low (freeboard = height between the waterline and upper watertight deck, which is the main deck in this case. The water line is supposed to be just under the top of the bulbous bow - that oddly shaped thing at the front of the bow) so making that higher may add a few tris as well. Not to mention the deckhouse and other structures I'll have to add. But then again, the default cargo ship has about 3000 tris iirc...

 

edit: after testing in-game, the scale seems to be alright but yes -- definitely needs a higher freeboard. Don't know why my lines plan cut off half of the ship... Also, if you're wondering why I modelled the submerged part of the hull as well, it is a) because I have more plans with this model than just using it as a functional cargo ship (think in the direction of... building ships) and b) bacause it just looks great with the bulbous bow being just below the waterline   And yes, there are quite some vertices to add before the smooth shading looks alright.

[squirrelarmyuk 100]

Looking good, just wondering if you could release a half finished version of a boat as a prop. Would be good to have an under construction ship for dry docks.