thecitiescenter's BATS

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

More California stuff on its way...

Pinks Hot Dogs in Los Angeles:

[RRetail 7,912]

That may be California, based but I think everyone will enjoy that. There's a certain charm to those kind of places.

[Evanjs 602]

33 minutes ago, RRetail said:

That may be California, based but I think everyone will enjoy that. There's a certain charm to those kind of places.

I could be wrong but I believe they now have locations outside LA. 

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

1 hour ago, Evanjs said:

I could be wrong but I believe they now have locations outside LA. 

According to their site, they're in NV, CT, NY, PA, FL, HI, and 3 locations in the Philippines.  

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

California Supermarket Pack.  There will be about 8-10 of them in the first pack.

 

 

[Evanjs 602]

8 hours ago, thecitiescenter said:

California Supermarket Pack.  There will be about 8-10 of them in the first pack.

 

 

Have you thought about Food 4 Less, Vons, or Safeway yet? 

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

45 minutes ago, Evanjs said:

Have you thought about Food 4 Less, Vons, or Safeway yet? 

Since theres already at least one version of each of those brands on the STEX, I wasnt planning on doing those at this time.

I want to prioritize brands that arent available on the STEX.  I’m open to considering requests if it meets that criteria, though 

 

[Evanjs 602]

If you don’t do food 4 less what about food co. Then? 

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

1 hour ago, Evanjs said:

If you don’t do food 4 less what about food co. Then? 

You got it.

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

Clearing these out and putting 'em on the STEX:

 

 

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

Pink’s Hot Dogs update:

[Evanjs 602]

5 hours ago, thecitiescenter said:

Pink’s Hot Dogs update:

Nices. Keep up the next work! 

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

Pinks is now available for download.  Enjoy!

 

 

[madhatter106 3,931]

If I may perhaps jump in here, probably too late, but I don't think Pinks was ready.  There are a couple of things that looking at this BAT bother me...

• few buildings, if any, have walls that rise straight up, then turn a 90 degree angle to the surface, and then begin with their roofs - there is no parapet on this BAT, which makes it look like a textured box. Even a .4 or .5 meter identantion where you see the wall thickness with the roof slightly inset from that would go a long way to making this BAT believable.
• the HVAC units look way too flat - they are maybe .5 meters high from my estimation.  No HVAC box on a roof is going to be that low profile or flattened.  You might have a vent or grate that would be so low, but not an HVAC box.  Plus the four HVAC gmax objects look like they are not sitting on the roof plane, but hovering slightly over it - hence the teensiest tiniest bit of shadow at their bases, which doesn't look like texture, just shadow.  
• despite being an LA native (part one) - I have driven by Pink's countless times in the twenty-some years I have lived in LA, and I can't recall if the sign on the roof is placed that way - I had to check, and it was, but not nearly as low as you have BATted it.  Imagine driving toward the building at ground level - set in towards the middle of the building as you've put it, the sign would be eclipsed by the walls facing you and perpendicular to it.  I would suggest raising the sign up on a stilts or poles every so slightly, just like it is in real life, so it doesn't look so close to the roof.
• despite being an LA native (part two) - I have only ever eaten a Pink's hot dog once, and that was when I was working on the series finale of a TV show long ago, and the producers brought a Pinks cart in for a snack during the last week of shooting.  We got to meet the grand daughter of the founder, and chat her up, and she was a sweet older lady.  The hot dogs were fine, not life-changing, (I feel the same way about Krisphy Kreme, meh, so what) but I can never understand how or why people would want to wait in line for them like they do, sometimes for hours.  It must be a weird "gotta do it because it's been done before" LA custom.  But then again, with the social distancing going on due to Covid-19, I can't imagine people waiting in line to go to Trader Joe's when the grocery store a block away doesn't have a line...I don't need that special pineapple salsa or the JoJo's cookies that badly...

All in all, the BAT as showcased here was a good start - I wish I had seen this before you uploaded the current version to the STEX.  As is, I think the above suggestions would go a long way to making it a much better BAT, if you would consider revising it or releasing a 2.0 version.

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

55 minutes ago, madhatter106 said:

There are a couple of things that looking at this BAT bother me...

If it bothers you that much, my suggestion is don't download it and move on.  Frankly, I'm not making these things as a professional (nor even an aspiring architecture student - I'm way past that stage in my life and closer to retirement than school and not looking for a new career).  In other words, its a spare time hobby and I'm making these things for my own uses.  I post these onto the STEX and share them w/the community in case anybody finds them interesting enough to use.  If they do, great.  If they don't, oh well.

That said, I appreciate you taking the time and posting your suggestions and trying to help make a better BAT.

55 minutes ago, madhatter106 said:

 

• few buildings, if any, have walls that rise straight up, then turn a 90 degree angle to the surface, and then begin with their roofs - there is no parapet on this BAT, which makes it look like a textured box. Even a .4 or .5 meter identantion where you see the wall thickness with the roof slightly inset from that would go a long way to making this BAT believable.

Based on the Google Street View, it is a box.  The wall on the south side of the building does indeed go straight up 90 degrees to the roof. As does the north side.  I can't see the west side so I assume its the same as the front and other sides.  Its not exactly the most unique building on the planet.

55 minutes ago, madhatter106 said:

 

• the HVAC units look way too flat - they are maybe .5 meters high from my estimation.  No HVAC box on a roof is going to be that low profile or flattened.  You might have a vent or grate that would be so low, but not an HVAC box.  Plus the four HVAC gmax objects look like they are not sitting on the roof plane, but hovering slightly over it - hence the teensiest tiniest bit of shadow at their bases, which doesn't look like texture, just shadow. 

Valid. I'll try adjusting the height on these if I do another version or on other buildings I do in the future.

55 minutes ago, madhatter106 said:

 

• despite being an LA native (part one) - I have driven by Pink's countless times in the twenty-some years I have lived in LA, and I can't recall if the sign on the roof is placed that way - I had to check, and it was, but not nearly as low as you have BATted it.  Imagine driving toward the building at ground level - set in towards the middle of the building as you've put it, the sign would be eclipsed by the walls facing you and perpendicular to it.  I would suggest raising the sign up on a stilts or poles every so slightly, just like it is in real life, so it doesn't look so close to the roof.

 

I get your drift... I don't live in LA and I've literally seen this building in real life once or twice so  I based everything off Google Street View.  The real sign... is... oddly low given that a Google Street View camera actually sits well above the roof of a small car (usually a Prius) and you can barely see the sign on Google Street View... in other words, the view perspective you see in Google Street View is much higher than you'd see out of your own car window or if you were walking on the street/sidewalk (unless you were an NBA center).  Yeah, I thought it was weird too.  Adjusted for height you probably can't see it from the sidewalk unless you were much farther away.  Hard to tell unless I was actually physically looking at it.  

55 minutes ago, madhatter106 said:

 

• despite being an LA native (part two) - I have only ever eaten a Pink's hot dog once, and that was when I was working on the series finale of a TV show long ago, and the producers brought a Pinks cart in for a snack during the last week of shooting.  We got to meet the grand daughter of the founder, and chat her up, and she was a sweet older lady.  The hot dogs were fine, not life-changing, (I feel the same way about Krisphy Kreme, meh, so what) but I can never understand how or why people would want to wait in line for them like they do, sometimes for hours.  It must be a weird "gotta do it because it's been done before" LA custom.  But then again, with the social distancing going on due to Covid-19, I can't imagine people waiting in line to go to Trader Joe's when the grocery store a block away doesn't have a line...I don't need that special pineapple salsa or the JoJo's cookies that badly...

All in all, the BAT as showcased here was a good start - I wish I had seen this before you uploaded the current version to the STEX.  As is, I think the above suggestions would go a long way to making it a much better BAT, if you would consider revising it or releasing a 2.0 version.

There are few things worth waiting in line for.  Pinks hot dogs probably isnt one of them and Trader Joe's definitely isn't one.

Anyways, I will take your suggestions into consideration if I end up doing a second version.  I might, eventually.

 

[madhatter106 3,931]

4 hours ago, thecitiescenter said:

Based on the Google Street View, it is a box.  The wall on the south side of the building does indeed go straight up 90 degrees to the roof. As does the north side.  I can't see the west side so I assume its the same as the front and other sides.  Its not exactly the most unique building on the planet.

Actually it's rather curiously unique - it's not just a rectangular box shape in plan, as seen in the picture I'm providing below.  It has a weird segmented L-shape to it, which I never would have guessed until I looked at it in Bing Maps via birds' eye view.  As to what I was describing here, the point I was making was that the tops of the walls are not and should not be flush with the top of the roof.  The roof is inset; otherwise rain just flows off the roof and down the walls.  

I mocked up something in gmax just now to illustrate this, which is the second/middle portion of the pic above; the aqua box on the left is what you have given us (with the edges of the walls flush and level with the roof), and the aqua box on the right is what the Bing Maps is showing us.  The external walls form a "parapet" ringing around the entirety of the building's perimeter at the roof.  Just think, if that weren't there, the HVAC repairman might fall off if he ventured too close to the edge.  This effect can be seen on virtually any flat-roofed building, in real life, created by Maxis for the game, or by other BATters (such as @pclark06, whose Cook Out building I have used to further illustrate the point with the third portion of the above picture.)  

There are no "professional" BATters, and a vast majority of us aren't necessarily architecture students, either.  Still, that doesn't prevent or impede us from observing and creating BATs accurately.  I am not saying people should BAT slavishly to detail, as I myself cannot, though I can admire some who do when they recreate things; but there are certain ways things have been done and built in the past which can inform the work, and informed work leads to better BATs.  

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

27 minutes ago, madhatter106 said:

 

There are no "professional" BATters, and a vast majority of us aren't necessarily architecture students, either.  Still, that doesn't prevent or impede us from observing and creating BATs accurately.  I am not saying people should BAT slavishly to detail, as I myself cannot, though I can admire some who do when they recreate things; but there are certain ways things have been done and built in the past which can inform the work, and informed work leads to better BATs.  

On this particular item, you are missing my point.  Which is, we are making assets for an almost 20 year old game.  I'm not designing a building for a client and if a Sim HVAC repair guy falls off the roof, oh well.  He can sue me in Sim court.  I don't have the time to re-do everything because everyone doesn't like it... and I'm not going to.

You came in here and said that my BAT "bothers" you (your words, not mine).  My response was, I'm not a pro at this, hell, I'm not even what I would call an "intermediate" BATer.  I made the building based on what I saw to the best I could given my limited time and expertise. Frankly, these details are not that big of a deal to me... if they bother you, that's your opinion and you seem to be a much more capable BATer than I, so ... feel free to re-create the building to your own desires.

If you're in here trying to give me constructive critique to help me get better at BATing, great, I appreciate it (which I said in my previous post).

But if you're in here to hammer me for what you insist is an architectural flaw like you're my boss or a pissed off client, and to tell me that my BAT doesn't meet your standards of "certain ways things have been done and built in the past", I don't have anything further to say other than maybe you should come up with a Licensing Exam for Professional Certified BATer and anyone without that License will be prohibited from uploading to the STEX in the future.......

I would think that's not what this community wants.

Final word on this and I'm moving on (second time repeating it)...  I will take your suggestions, which I agree that some are valid from a technical perspective, into consideration for future buildings.   

Actually if you look at my latest BAT project (Yoshinoya) I already did something to the effect of what you're talking about.

 

 

[madhatter106 3,931]

16 minutes ago, thecitiescenter said:

On this particular item, you are missing my point.  Which is, we are making assets for an almost 20 year old game.  I'm not designing a building for a client and if a Sim HVAC repair guy falls off the roof, oh well.  He can sue me in Sim court.  I don't have the time to re-do everything because everyone doesn't like it... and I'm not going to.

You came in here and said that my BAT "bothers" you (your words, not mine).  My response was, I'm not a pro at this, hell, I'm not even what I would call an "intermediate" BATer.  I made the building based on what I saw to the best I could given my limited time and expertise. Frankly, these details are not that big of a deal to me... if they bother you, that's your opinion and you seem to be a much more capable BATer than I, so ... feel free to re-create the building to your own desires.

If you're in here trying to give me constructive critique to help me get better at BATing, great, I appreciate it (which I said in my previous post).

But if you're in here to hammer me for what you insist is an architectural flaw like you're my boss or a pissed off client, and to tell me that my BAT doesn't meet your standards of "certain ways things have been done and built in the past", I don't have anything further to say other than maybe you should come up with a Licensing Exam for Professional Certified BATer and anyone without that License will be prohibited from uploading to the STEX in the future.......

I would think that's not what this community wants.

Final word on this and I'm moving on (second time repeating it)...  I will take your suggestions, which I agree that some are valid from a technical perspective, into consideration for future buildings.   

Actually if you look at my latest BAT project (Yoshinoya) I already did something to the effect of what you're talking about.

 

 

I'm here to give you constructive criticism.
I don't know why you're bothered by my use of the word "bother." 
I don't know why you have it in your head that I somehow expect you to be beholden to me or what I have to say. 
I'm offering a critique, in hopes that you improve, because that's what BATters do with other BATters in their BAT threads on this forum and other forums.  Ten years ago on this forum, what I would have said would have been standard issue for anyone BATting, both in tone and in subject; it would have come from any number of BATters who have/had been around much longer than I have.
And if I were to create a "Licensing Exam for Professional Certified BATer," the only requirement I would have would that the subjects taking it don't get butthurt when they are offered comment, critique, and criticism in their BAT threads.  

  

[thecitiescenter 3,059]

3 hours ago, madhatter106 said:

I'm here to give you constructive criticism.
I don't know why you're bothered by my use of the word "bother." 
I don't know why you have it in your head that I somehow expect you to be beholden to me or what I have to say. 
I'm offering a critique, in hopes that you improve, because that's what BATters do with other BATters in their BAT threads on this forum and other forums.  Ten years ago on this forum, what I would have said would have been standard issue for anyone BATting, both in tone and in subject; it would have come from any number of BATters who have/had been around much longer than I have.
And if I were to create a "Licensing Exam for Professional Certified BATer," the only requirement I would have would that the subjects taking it don't get butthurt when they are offered comment, critique, and criticism in their BAT threads.  

  

Good for you.  BAT and history lesson over.  We are moving on in this thread. 

[vw_oklahoma 308]

I really like the Japanese Kitchen posted here.  

[linhedavid 31]

The XIAMENAIR 787 is so wonderful. Hope for the BAT

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