Raymond's Newbie Thoughts

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

May i know more details about this, Thank you!

That would be ideal. Trouble is, I only have a vague memory of it and it might've been related to the double icons for UDI and even then, I don't recall the details. I imagine someone who knows about this will pop in with more info.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

...and your thanks just took me off of a 420 rating. Oh well, smoke break over...

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

@Raymond7cn: Hope I don't have to be English to respond, but I say model 1 for colour.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@CorinaMarie No problem Ma'am, i can leave it when i begin to make MMP. (i have tons of newbie ideas about it) Thank you!

@Whte_rbt Your kind tips deserve 100 rates, i couldn't see them clearly form the references of web due to reflected windows. And Frankly, i prefer ① as well. Thank you @Whte_rbt!

(you maybe not English but a Gentleman.)

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

4 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Which one is better? Thank you!

That is absolutely wonderful what you've made there, Raymond!

The reflections with signs you've added for details, and on the other pic how it says "Big Ben" at the front with my cyclone logo too.

Both versions look excellent, and it's hard to choose between them. Although me personally, I must admit how I honestly prefer the #2 with the more vivid colour. It reminds me of the way I saw it in that pic of Routemaster bus I sent you from when I last visited London over 8 years ago. Maybe it could be worth having two different versions so people can choose their preference? That way it would be a bit like for Dark Night and Maxis Night variations of a BAT building, but instead for the colour shading.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Newest progress on Props. it's just a similar effect to game, i made Newbie mistakes again with the details,  some parts are hard to see with 13m dimension in game. however i thought it would be useful for @Cyclone Boom 's website designing in future. Besides, i got a super idea from talks with CoriBoom™ today, The answer will become clearer tomorrow.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

②⑦ All Creatures Great and Small:

 

Oh, i couldn't tell how much i love this series, i watched the first episode yesterday, There is resonant material all through it, beautiful farm and rural house and animal and road and MMPs, (Just know there is such beautiful countryside in England) There is also vintage cars, (actually i just paid attention to it until recently) Besides, I was fascinated with the theme it presented: "All Creatures Great and Small", Anyway, i will make them one day.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Hiya CB, @Cyclone Boom I have asked for two orders of good old fish and chips, would you like to enjoy it with me. 

I googled it and got two signs, "Fish and Chip" and "Fish & Chips", which one is right?

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

3 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

"Fish & Chips"

This is the correct one.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

If you can only eat one chip, than you have will power. I have no will, just an empty bag. LOL

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

3 hours ago, Whte_rbt said:

This is the correct one.

Thank you for the quick response, @Whte_rbt so i export it quickly as well,  

And my dear friends, This LondonBus.zip is the test Lot which consists of Bus props and a CS$ (LondonBus2) Lot, it just grew up there when i was testing, what a coincidence! The dimension exceed 10% than real size due to distorted issue, i can fix it with Tweaker if you thought it's too big. Thank you for testing!

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

I would scale it back 10% or so, looking at it compared to the cars around it it does seem big, and thats comparing to 'American' scale car automata. European designed cars tend not to be so huge.

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Those were perfect fish & chips there, Raymond!
 

 

It really is such a great idea to be a fish & chips cafe by the roadside. Here I plopped it using BuildingPlop to create a little scene in a small rural settlement.

SC4 scaling can be a bit inconsistent sometimes, but I personally think it looks very good indeed as it is. One idea is I wonder whether it might be possible to render the model in HD also? My thought is to then show the details more clearly when doing a SizeOf zoom to magnify the view. This way the signs on the bus, and the fish & chips itself could be seen with more clarity when zooming in. It really is another superb creation of yours Raymond, and you have such a talent for creating models.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

Me like the lot, a lot. hehe Very nice work Raymond, I love it.. I'm good with the size, thou maybe a wee bit big. Its a awesome edition, can't wait for the final release.

Looks cool in this screenshot, and CB's above. 

And yes I see the road boo boo. Do you? Don't you worry, it will be fixed . LOL

[Wiimeiser 444]

I'd actually like to see a PaengParks version of that bus lot. Just replace the parking with the straight or dead end MON paths. This is what I'm thinking of (see second screenshot)

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@Whte_rbt @Cyclone Boom @Kloudkicker @Wiimeiser Thanks so much my dear friends for your precious time! My biggest problem is that i'm getting too much help, Frankly, i had a little selfish motives that i'd like to see your beautiful cities. ( @Kloudkicker You are also a CJ master right? Nick,) In terms of HD rendering, it's already so, CB, @Cyclone Boom That's why i always say that i'm still a newbie BATter, however your words did inspire me of a new idea which means i need to learn BAB one day,  @Whte_rbt i will leave the 110% dimension there since they can be easily tweaked with Tweaker, But i will definitely scale it back when making an Automata Version. Thank you @Wiimeiser, i will do it.

@davide1983it Hiya Davide, Apologize for the late reply, i will help you with textures as soon as possible, One problem is that i couldn't open your files with GMAX, whereas the 3ds max is ok.

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

The Shibaozhai pagoda in Chongqing, China is so beautiful. I couldn't imagine painting it. But that would be nothing to the construction over hanging the side of a cliff. All on an island at that. WOW, that is amazing.

Ok @Raymond7cn, Can you make this for me please. The pagoda on the island and with connecting bridge. It should place over water with the bridge touching land to plop. Easy enough. Get to work, I need it next Tuesday. OK, for real though, I am joking and dreaming. It is one very nice building that pooped up on my windows lock screen and I had to share.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Hiya @Kloudkicker, I have talked with @thecitiescenter about why i seldom make chinese (my country) buildings, ①Most of old chinese style buildings have been destroyed (but Japan preserves many of them), and the city i was born with has many western style buildings (Italian, French, English). ②some foreign friends @mattb325 have asked me about attracted places of China, i couldn't tell since i'm tired of enjoying them.

But i can regard this one as a good start, though actually there are more beautiful spots IMO, i will make it when i have enough passion and shorten the long list of this thread down a bit.

BTW, You can also post it into this thread, we really have many great masters of BAT there:

 

 

[mattb325 28,880]

Hi @Raymond7cn,

I love the bus! 

Scale in SC4 is a very vexed topic. Which is a sad state of affairs indeed because it often means that those of us who are very experienced in creating custom content from scratch self-censure in order to avoid the ensuing bar-brawl.

There are four irrefutable ways to check your scale to the game.

Two were in fact provided by Maxis themselves. (Note: Before anyone says, well Maxis scale is "all over the place", which I don''t deny - there were different teams of batters making the models we see in game and of course commercial realities behind why some things like Sims - later revised prior to the game release to tie in with the Sims franchise, stand ~3.5m tall vs automata which was not revised prior to game release and is more closely aligned to real world height.)

The two from Maxis are as follows:

1) They provided and shipped a Low Wealth house with the BAT. It is fully modeled, and you can check the dimensions yourself. It will reside in the following location on your PC: C:\gmax\gamepacks\BAT\Sample Model

2) In the very early days, Maxis also provided to Simtropolis one of their employees who modeled the buildings in game for about 6 months prior to the BAT addon being released. His user name was 'MaxisBrian' and he was one of the lead artists. His topic is here: 

It has been ravaged by time and forum upgrades, but his words on scale are as follows (bolding by me for emphasis):

“This will sound goofy, but if you then make, say, a typical ranch style house with an 8 foot ceiling, the walls would want to be 4 meters high in the Gmax environment in order to simulate this. Because of the camera angle (line of sight) we have found that we need to exaggerate the heights of buildings vertically in order to appear plausible in the SC world. The footprints along x and y should be true scale though.”

That means, that Maxis used 160-165% scaling on the Z axis (8ft = 2.434m. To make that 4m high as stipulated by MaxisBrian you multiply 2.434 * 1.65).

So, those two points are by Maxis - the people who made the game.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

However, there are two additional points by the members of the community that I find very useful and list here:.

3) One is by Jasoncw and it is simply states that in order to compensate for the near-isometric/orthographic squashing effect you scale the model by 133% on the z axis only. To prove this point, he simply rendered a cube in the SC4 perspective with and without scaling.

4) The other is by JP Schriefer and is 136.6% on the z axis only and is also based on the scaling of a cube and counting the discrepancy between number pixels rendered along each axis to calculate the deviation in the Z axis.

Both of these topics can be found in SC4 BAT & Lot workshop. I have not quoted these topics deliberately.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, anything else that the community says, including what I say, should be approached with due caution as such advice has been arrived at using reverse-engineering maxis landmarks to real world dimensions and other methods over the years. When I concede community based  logic, I will look to the achievements of the individual making the claim to decide whether I wish to follow, or pass on the advice. Jasoncw & JP Schriefer, for instance, have released a number of extremely high-quality models over the years that work with both the Maxis environment and other custom content equally.

Lastly......

Note, also, that 0.1m in 3dsMax is about the smallest visible thing at zoom 5 and is one game pixel. So whether you choose jasoncw's 133%, or jp schriefer's 136.6% for 2.434m ceiling you will end up with either 3.237m or 3.324m which is a difference of a single pixel in game for small single story structure.

If you use the Maxis scaling, you will have a difference of about 7-8 pixels per floor. That is utterly inconsequential on smaller objects, but it would be very noticeable on a 20+ floor tower.

The one agreed item on scale is that you should keep the X and Y axes as true as possible to real life and scale the Z axis.

 

[Kloudkicker 4,561]

Thank you, your to kind Raymond. I know how busy you are, I really was joking about making it. As sweet as it is, its full of fine detail and very large. Besides the fact, I haven't made more than "American" style city designs. Though I do love using buildings from around the world that "fit in" my cities. My real intention was to share the beautiful pictures knowing you have a couple of followers. Sorry, I didn't mean to distract you.

Sincerely,

Kloudkicker

[Barroco Hispano 26,695]

This is what mine looks like.

Sometimes it takes me days to find the exact dimensions of a model and then be able to rescale it 133% on all axes.

[Max4k 721]

On 9/5/2020 at 1:17 PM, Terring said:

Congratulations, my friend. You just broke the game

But seriously, your experiments might lead into some very interesting and unique results. For example, if you remove the grass texture of the hole...

 

To be honest, I was never expecting that one day one of the biggest annoyances would become the research lab that could produce something promising and awesome. You really are the mad scientist of SimCity community, Ray. A prodigy who's always willing to push the limits, wondering "what if", and exploring new fields. And it's deviants like you who keep our community (and the world) moving

 

These buildings and concepts are are unbelievable.  Which sets are these ?  I have not yet to look on the China and Japan sites yet.

I found your post on google images looking for Sunken Plazas and Subterranean stuff.   Im still testing things out, but these would be perfect for a different future map project.

> I found link on another post. Looks like a hospital

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@mattb325, @Barroco Hispano, Thank you so much for the kind and valuable tips, Hope you don't mind that i didn't resize it due to busy with a birthday present for simtropolis, I have a bad habit that i usually make model from scratch with a random dimension, then i rescale it to proper size after modeling, That's why i often mess up details which smaller than 0.1m after scaling.

Anyway, I'm fortunate in having good teachers of you, I will pay more attention to the size and make appropriate Automata Version as @Barroco Hispano's kind tip (Splendid bus, Alejo) in the future, And i'm still learning MaxisBrian's posts, Do you know what it feels like when reading old threads like this, I feel like a teenage boy is listening campfire stories from old experienced hunter. please share more to me when it's convenient for you.

@Kloudkicker, Much appreciate for the nice sharing, Nick, Yes i usually misunderstand some peeps who speak very native English, LOL, feel free to post them, @CorinaMarie and @Cyclone Boom have told me that this thread has became to a pretty open and free place where people are learning from each other and teaching a Newbie.

5 hours ago, Max4k said:

found link on another post. Looks like a hospital

Hiya @Max4k, Glad to hear the good news, Yes this is a Japanese hospital, i'm always wondering how does an Athena's child know so many Japanese BATs than me. 

Link

[Barroco Hispano 26,695]

I've been checking and you have the 1959 AEC Routemaster Bus RM. The bus is 2.44 meters wide without mirrors. 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@Terring He(or she) will be one part of my next plan, 2nd December (hope my memory is right here @Cyclone Boom)

[davide1983it 5,404]

my little pony, i remember a carton during 80's

[Terring 6,473]

I think that Rarity (it's she) will like it

You might want to include her cutie mark, which is three blue lozenge diamonds.

[Barroco Hispano 26,695]

@Raymond7cn I couldn't resist doing my own version xD

[Wiimeiser 444]

The Parks version does look a lot better, simply because it's not just sitting on an old parking lot. The parking lot isn't bad, but it seems placeholder-y.

 

I can only wonder what you're doing with Rarity...

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

3 hours ago, Barroco Hispano said:

@Raymond7cn I couldn't resist doing my own version xD

Simply Amazing, Alejo! There are somethings i couldn't tell, I thought i can handle most of tricks of 3ds max now, but in terms of a whole feeling of a model should being, i mean which place should be more reflected and the shade and the color (and size), i'm still short on these, it influences on adjusting the lines for NURBS as well, sometimes it drives me crazy when the final rendering phase.

Recently i was learning some tutorials of @Jasoncw, Likewise, i kept learning from your works, i reminded myself that i have to keep calm since i'm still a Newbie, somethings are relevant to experience, and i really appreciate all of your kind tips, they are extremely valuable to me, I mean it. Looking forward an Automata version of yours as well.

Thank you@Terring @Wiimeiser! Regarding of Rarity, Well… i had a plan long time ago, I wanted to make simtropolis's buildings for its birthday party after @Cyclone Boom told me the date (2nd December):

So this year i kept collecting and modeling resources for this, These days i was designing a rough blueprint, (i won't show you it now, since it's too ugly drew by pencil), Three buildings and some stores underneath, and Pedestrian zone and plaza, so far i'd like to put Catty and Terring's portrait models into plaza as statues, so Apparently i made a mistake of Terring's pony to Rarity, It should be Purple…(i forget it again,), Sorry! @Terring

Time is coming up and i have no idea if i could finish it then, Maybe i have to cut off a few Newbie's ideas, however it still seems like promising, CB has told me that @Dirktator celebrated that anniversary at 18th December.