SimCity 3000 BAT project

[nycsc4 5,250]

On 2/11/2018 at 8:43 PM, Odainsaker said:

I'm pretty sure Bluerise Plaza is based on the Crystal Tower (クリスタルタワー) in Osaka, Japan.  It is one of the landmarks of Osaka Business Park (the OBP), a tight cluster of skyscrapers near Osaka Castle that dramatically rose up in the late 1980s and early 1990s--just in time to inspire Maxis.

SimCity 3000 obviously tweaked and exaggerated many of the buildings used as inspiration, with the Crystal Tower here getting taller, narrower, and even intersecting itself.  Still, the angled folds at the top and the thin columns at the base are a match.  Actually, even the entrance is close to correct.

 

This building already exists for SC4.

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/2654-dusktroopers-azuriko-plaza/

[AndisArt 2,068]

3 minutes ago, nycsc4 said:

This building already exists for SC4.

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/2654-dusktroopers-azuriko-plaza/

yes but to be fair, not to the modern standards of BATing. BATing has come a long way since this model was released, so I think it's fair to allow a recreation.

[nycsc4 5,250]

1 hour ago, andisart said:

yes but to be fair, not to the modern standards of BATing. BATing has come a long way since this model was released, so I think it's fair to allow a recreation.

I wasn't arguing against a recreation.  Just merely pointing it out.

[Glenni 1,447]

Amusingly I saw this, and a few other buildings remade on SimCity China too. 

They're not super quality though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[coolsim1 104]

Man can't believe I didn't request more of those asian buildings the nightlights would have looked awesome

[Jasoncw 11,949]

To be honest I had forgotten about most of the Asian and European buildings when I tried to think of buildings that should be made.

I also have to say, there is a very striking quality difference between the original and the unlimited buildings. I always knew that they were better made but I didn't realize by just how much until I started looking closer at the old buildings and how crude and nonsensical they are.

[coolsim1 104]

1 hour ago, Jasoncw said:

To be honest I had forgotten about most of the Asian and European buildings when I tried to think of buildings that should be made.

I also have to say, there is a very striking quality difference between the original and the unlimited buildings. I always knew that they were better made but I didn't realize by just how much until I started looking closer at the old buildings and how crude and nonsensical they are.

Well guess its time to move over to bat request thread then!

[Glenni 1,447]

3 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

To be honest I had forgotten about most of the Asian and European buildings when I tried to think of buildings that should be made.

I also have to say, there is a very striking quality difference between the original and the unlimited buildings. I always knew that they were better made but I didn't realize by just how much until I started looking closer at the old buildings and how crude and nonsensical they are.

yeah I noticed this too, all though there are a coupe higher quality buildings with baked textures etc for the Original sc3000/American tile set, the Euro and Asian tileset has far more high quality models. I guess the most likely explanation would be that the Sc3000 Vanilla/American buildings are very old, and early in development of the game.

[AndisArt 2,068]

@coolsim1 post those buildings also in this thread, who knows maybe some will be made. 

[Krasner 1,062]

OMG IT'S NOT IN TOP TEN AND THEN HE MAKES IT WHAT THE HECK

...Please forgive me, I really wanted to make these sketchy towers. And probably, the other 3X3 that is made of the same elements more or less as it would be an easy rip-off. This is of course, work in progress. Still lots of details to add, the original roof junk of course, and some textures improvements. Back part will come as a separate prop.

[Odainsaker 2,137]

4 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

I also have to say, there is a very striking quality difference between the original and the unlimited buildings. I always knew that they were better made but I didn't realize by just how much until I started looking closer at the old buildings and how crude and nonsensical they are.

I recall that SimCity 3000 during development had a radical graphics overhaul when the released previews of the initial full 3D scheme were met with fan outcry and derision.  It was painfully obvious that a fully 3D SimCity was too far out of reach for that era.

They had to completely scrap what they had done, and then had less than a year to concoct the released SC3000 graphics based on a return to the isometric system of SC2000.  I suspect that unexpected time crunch where they reinvented the wheel lead to the original SC3000 buildings looking so hokey and cartoonish.  With Unlimited, the mechanics, art design, and workflow had by then been established, so they could focus more on crafting their buildings.

Not too much public source material seems to exist, but it might be amusingly ironic to even see one of these old, scrapped 3D buildings revived in SimCity 4.

Or maybe not.  I'm not sure if that video was by Maxis or was fan-made, but it well shows how the available capabilities were not ready for the concept.  After all the shock and melodrama on the fansites, it was a sigh of relief when the revamped, cartoon graphics were unveiled.  We didn't need to be able to tweak the timing on every intersection traffic signal when the cars themselves couldn't stay off the sidewalks.

 

[Glenni 1,447]

for some reason the old sc3000 3d screens reminds me of Driver or Driver 2, lol

[matias93 7,535]

1 hour ago, Krasner said:

Back part will come as a separate prop.

Thanks so much for that!!!

 

[Jasoncw 11,949]

So, last summer, @Cool_Z converted some of his CS buildings for SC3K. I've asked him about his camera rig, and he directed me to this page on @catty-cb's website. 

Basically, if you recreate the camera rig you should be able to make a 3d model and render it from the new camera. Then you can scale your render in photoshop to match the scale of the SC3K building, and you'll be able to match your recreation with the original.

You can also take it a step further, and bring a SC3K image into 3ds Max. Create a plane with the exact same proportions as your SC3K image, then rotate it 30 degrees and then 45 degrees, so that it directly faces your camera, and then the SC3K image should be there without distortion. Then you can sort of trace the SC3K image with your 3d model. After you make your camera, right click on your viewport and select that camera as your view, and then press "u" to leave the camera's view and to go into user view (just like after a BAT preview), and then you can move around in the viewport freely. Render from the camera (not the BAT4Max preview render buttons) to get a render. Doing all of this takes some familiarity with max, but it's possible.

So here's a render of Bluerise Plaza from 3ds Max (with the SC3K camera) overlayed with the SC3K screenshot.

My model isn't perfect because I was just doing it to see how it would work. There's a part that sticks out along the left edge of the building, but that's a modeling mistake of mine, it doesn't actually stick out that far. In all of the renderings, just pretend that the left part of the building doesn't stick out as far.

Here's the exact same model, rescaled to fill a SC4 3x3 lot, and rendered as a normal SC4 preview render.

But that doesn't look nearly as tall and elegant as the SC3K building! So I went down the vertical scaling rabbit hole. While the camera angle in SC4 squashes things, the camera angle in SC3K makes things look taller than they actually are. In the SC3K camera, in order to get a cube to have the same width and height when you render it, you have to scale down by about 91% (this might not be exact, but it's close). For SC4 you have to scale up by 136.6% (since this is scaling something that is based purely on existing proportions, and not real life dimensions, there's not a reason to use 133% in this case).

This is the same model as before, but scaled down 91% and then up 136.6%.

And now it looks like how it's expected to look.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

13 hours ago, Krasner said:

...Please forgive me, I really wanted to make these sketchy towers. And probably, the other 3X3 that is made of the same elements more or less as it would be an easy rip-off.

You make it easy for us to forgive you. And yes, I guess the building is structured such that it should be easy to create a few modules that can be combined like building blocks. This could become a very useful, generic low-wealth residential toolkit and not just a single BAT.

[coolsim1 104]

Well on andisart's suggestion, these asian buildings would look amazing with nightlights due to amount of signs and billboards. I would appreciate it if anyone wanted to tackle them and think they would be unique landmarks in SimCity 4.

1. Wen-Wen Insurance Plaza

[coolsim1 104]

2. Chungking Distressed

[Photovoltaic Array 97]

Ok, I hate to be uh... that guy, but other than @MushyMushy doing the SimMars Facility and @mattb325 doing the Triangle Terrace, who is doing what buildings?

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

On 2/16/2018 at 3:46 AM, Jasoncw said:

So, last summer, @Cool_Z converted some of his CS buildings for SC3K. I've asked him about his camera rig, and he directed me to this page on @catty-cb's website. 

Basically, if you recreate the camera rig you should be able to make a 3d model and render it from the new camera. Then you can scale your render in photoshop to match the scale of the SC3K building, and you'll be able to match your recreation with the original.

You can also take it a step further, and bring a SC3K image into 3ds Max. Create a plane with the exact same proportions as your SC3K image, then rotate it 30 degrees and then 45 degrees, so that it directly faces your camera, and then the SC3K image should be there without distortion. Then you can sort of trace the SC3K image with your 3d model. After you make your camera, right click on your viewport and select that camera as your view, and then press "u" to leave the camera's view and to go into user view (just like after a BAT preview), and then you can move around in the viewport freely. Render from the camera (not the BAT4Max preview render buttons) to get a render. Doing all of this takes some familiarity with max, but it's possible.

So here's a render of Bluerise Plaza from 3ds Max (with the SC3K camera) overlayed with the SC3K screenshot.

My model isn't perfect because I was just doing it to see how it would work. There's a part that sticks out along the left edge of the building, but that's a modeling mistake of mine, it doesn't actually stick out that far. In all of the renderings, just pretend that the left part of the building doesn't stick out as far.

Here's the exact same model, rescaled to fill a SC4 3x3 lot, and rendered as a normal SC4 preview render.

But that doesn't look nearly as tall and elegant as the SC3K building! So I went down the vertical scaling rabbit hole. While the camera angle in SC4 squashes things, the camera angle in SC3K makes things look taller than they actually are. In the SC3K camera, in order to get a cube to have the same width and height when you render it, you have to scale down by about 91% (this might not be exact, but it's close). For SC4 you have to scale up by 136.6% (since this is scaling something that is based purely on existing proportions, and not real life dimensions, there's not a reason to use 133% in this case).

This is the same model as before, but scaled down 91% and then up 136.6%.

And now it looks like how it's expected to look.

 

That's a very interesting way indeed, but I think I'm going to use a 'cheat code' here
Can you inform the height you got using this method to the Bluerise Plaza? This way I believe cross-multiplying using pixels and meters could do the job.

[Prophet42 1,503]

10 hours ago, Photovoltaic Array said:

Ok, I hate to be uh... that guy, but other than @MushyMushy doing the SimMars Facility and @mattb325 doing the Triangle Terrace, who is doing what buildings?

Actually mattb325 has left the site to persue other interests.  So, it seems MushyMushy is it for the moment.

[matias93 7,535]

6 minutes ago, Prophet42 said:

Actually mattb325 has left the site to persue other interests.  So, it seems MushyMushy is it for the moment.

And Jason, Krasner and Shriefer...

[AndisArt 2,068]

Ok here's how we are starting with the BATing: 

• Bradbury Building - @nofunk
• Bluerise Plaza - @Jasoncw
• SimMars Research Centre - @MushyMushy
• Triangle Terrace - @JP Schriefer
• Corporate Ground Zero Plaza - @Diego Del Llano
• Kong Tower - @andisart

and as a wild card we have @Krasner doing Sketchy Towers

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Triangle Terrace would be a perfect building in a Matt's style, since he pulled out I hope to not disappoint then

[AndisArt 2,068]

1 minute ago, JP Schriefer said:

Triangle Terrace would be a perfect building in a Matt's style, since he pulled out I hope to not disappoint then

I'm sure you won't ;-) 

[bapqapmoc 18]

May I make a suggestion?

Considering that the Corporate Ground Zero Plaza looks really similar to the 500 5th Avenue and that @JP Schriefer already has a pretty advanced model of it, wouldn't it be better if @Diego Del Llano made a different building, perhaps Gold Tower or Quigley Insurance?

[AndisArt 2,068]

51 minutes ago, bapqapmoc said:

May I make a suggestion?

Considering that the Corporate Ground Zero Plaza looks really similar to the 500 5th Avenue and that @JP Schriefer already has a pretty advanced model of it, wouldn't it be better if @Diego Del Llano made a different building, perhaps Gold Tower or Quigley Insurance?

True, I wasn't even aware of this. Given the obvious fact that Corporate Ground Zero Plaza is a near copy of 500 5th Avenue and that JP has it almost completed, it would make sense, yes. Let's see what the two of them think. 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

That's a good point, but I think it would be good if Diego model the Corporate Ground Zero Plaza because I don't know when I'm going to finish 500 5th Avenue. I was hoping to work on it on these vacations but I believe it won't happen.

Diego should decide it, I'm ok with any decision he makes.

[MorningMusume 94]

hello everybody , golden tower is a very beautiful building. don't make it lose.

[Glenni 1,447]

I don't really want to start any projects ( sorry, just not feeling up to larger recreations right now), however, for those doing the Triangle Terrace - a somewhat close shot can be seen in this video, as it's about to be blown up: 

 

 

[MorningMusume 94]

On 2018/2/11 at 3:51 AM, terryalonso said:

long time ago , japanese created arco mod for simcity4 (just LandMark without function)

website dead...but i still keep arco mod in my pc.

forget 1 thing , if everybody want it , what should i do??? pm admin send files to him or other ways???