koumus BATs

[koumus corporation 715]

So first off, why i am not posting from my main account - couple months back, i had the oportunity to exchange my pc for a newer one, my old ones graphic card was dying being almost 10 yrs old and the only game it could seem to run durably without crashing was sc4, which was probably the main reason for my return to batting.

When wiping clean my old pc i also hastily erased chrome stored passwords which included my secondary gmail for trivial things, which i will probably never again be able to access and simtropolis which used that email, among other things. But with some surprise i found that i used my primary email to create an account here years ago, so here i am. My bat and texture folders i was able to save aswell.

I had a break from batting for a while but the last couple weeks i have had a new project :

A popular place dense with landmarks in the heart of Stockholm - Sergels torg.

From this area i intend to make at least :

- the sunken square - Sergels torg proper ( the general form and size is traced out, i wanted to finish this first, but i found that the textures were so dependent on the larger building that my attention was consumed by that all this time.)

- the fountain with the glass and steel obelisk filling the roundabout (not pictured, before planning stages)

- Kulturhuset - the building with the view towards Sergels torg, includes Stockholm city theater and the large zinc clad building at the back, where the large stage is (the south and east views are generally done, the rest of work is left in the west view featuring a transition to 7.5m road viaduct, north side is just a bare concrete wall in real life.)

- Riksbank - Swedens sentral bank HQ, not connected to kulturhuset ( early planning stage, google maps capture scaled and adjusted to FAR 3 angle )

- Scandic Sergel plaza - a mid-range hotel ( progress same as riksbank )

- Quarter Hästskon - the one with the golden rim and sedum roof, a new building, so new that google maps doesnt have a capture of it, so i had to make my own ( roughly the size of the real thing, adjusted for FAR 3, but the model is now a rough mess, especially the bottom)

some more views :

 

 

About the weird looking buildings, those are google maps captures, put down straight without much adjustment, i may or may not get around to making them. Here is how to make your own google maps captures if you are interested, more useful for accurate modeling for sc4 than anything else, since the rendered textures come in png format and when converting your baked texture to jpeg it results in those black spots : 

 

[koumus corporation 715]

Progress on the large stage roof top :

Now onto the bottom, which has 2 slope floors facing Drottninggatan in real life ( the ped mall strip ), same as the hotel, which you can see floating at the backside. I will try making them as a declining foundation.

[Jasoncw 11,933]

Very nice!

[Krio 624]

Oooh Stockholm! Have you seen my Sergels sunken square-mock off, Columbia Square? 

 

[koumus corporation 715]

@Krio I remember when it came out a long time ago, and with that old glass wedding cake cafe too, which was torn down 2004 i think!  i was looking for it too at one point, but i could not find it searching STEX for sergel, torg or stockholm, i thought it might be one of those files that got lost throughout the years as the site changes, nice to see it is still in fact there, but under a name i could not have guessed.

So, many more nights have been sunk into this perfectly worthwhile endeavor, shapes, sizes and textures have been chosen, new adjacent quarters have been trace out and some buildings are close to finish.

Some foliage and textures have been changed on kulturhuset, might change the glass still, but not sure. I am also testing it as an overhang building, so that commuters from the subway station in front of it can pass trhough it towards the dense commerce buildings behind it.

Modeling on the large stage building and its slope floors is done save for the canopies on the corner Rolex store and lamp casings along with nightlights. The yellow tinge and monotony of the facade texture does bug me a bit, but im not that sophisticated with photoediting and alphas and masks and so on.

Riksbank is mostly finished, but the roof and window texture need work.

The post-2019 refurbished and extended Scandic Downtown Camper hotel is finished save for minor details like the big sign on the side and nightlights.

The shape for the 7.5 m viaduct stairs and entrance to the adjacent mall is decided, details to follow.

Here you see the entrance of Riksbank and some of the slope parts of the hotel and large stage.

Testing textures and object spacing on Quarter Sporran ( the one with the brown building ).

Initial draft of Hötorgshusen using the texture of house Nr. 5 ( the one facing the roundabout ).

More of Hötorgshusen, this is very close in spacing as it is in real world, they are very similar but also different, each has to have different textures, a lot of work to be done here.

Drottninggatan (slope) side of the large stage and hotel. Modeling for specific slopes is almost always frustrating, i settled for the prop approach here, it works ok i guess, just the ground has to be prepared carefully.

The Benny Fredrikssons Torg side of those buildings with their main entrances and that jagged outcrop i will get rid of.

Closeup of Brunkebergs Torg ( The square with the fountain ), viaduct stairs and Riksbank entrance with malfunctioning LOD

View of Brunkebergs Torg and the massive redesigned and extended Quarter Trollhattan which is occupied by shopping mall Gallerian on the first few ground floors and expensive office space above that. Just the form is traced out and some simple textures applied here, only detailed modelling is only on the front and side facades of 2 buildings on the lower left.

[koumus corporation 715]

Now that there are some landmarks and job sites done, there is still almost nothing aesthetically accurate to fill the space around and inbetween them. I was happy with how my Lidingo old villa set turned out and how you could have ok looking suburban districts without plopping and micromanaging, so i want to achieve something similar for old dense city centers, here is the first serious attempt :

Corner of Radmansgatan and Dobelnsgatan, around the border between Norrmalm( commercial ) and Vasastaden ( residential )

I think the scale is final, i had to add an extra row of a room on each floor for the corner building to make it compatible with the stupid 16m grid, which should make further planning of lots difficult, as the vast majority of these types of houses are 18 - 20(w2w) and 24 - 28(corner) m wide.

[11241036 5,105]

34 minutes ago, koumus corporation said:

Now that there are some landmarks and job sites done, there is still almost nothing aesthetically accurate to fill the space around and inbetween them. I was happy with how my Lidingo old villa set turned out and how you could have ok looking suburban districts without plopping and micromanaging, so i want to achieve something similar for old dense city centers, here is the first serious attempt :

Corner of Radmansgatan and Dobelnsgatan, around the border between Norrmalm( commercial ) and Vasastaden ( residential )

 

I think the scale is final, i had to add an extra row of a room on each floor for the corner building to make it compatible with the stupid 16m grid, which should make further planning of lots difficult, as the vast majority of these types of houses are 18 - 20(w2w) and 24 - 28(corner) m wide.

Great work on these old town buildings! Being a fan of such buildings, I must say that these would really be a good addition to the game. I hope to see them soon on the STEX.

[art128 4,618]

Lovely buildings. The modern styled buildings you released recently will find a nice place in my city. 

[koumus corporation 715]

Something i've been working on and off for the past year, hope i will get to completing the whole quarter this year. At this point Hessenstein palace ( yellow one ) is done except for nightlights, expect that soon. Here it is at the authentic ( relative to Norrmalm grid being ortho ) far 2 angle, will do ortho and diag versions too.

Former state archives building

real life Riddarholmen

 

[justforfun 7,878]

On 1/27/2022 at 2:00 PM, koumus corporation said:

Former state archives building

Absolutely gorgeous! I am just concerned about a couple of things: the angle formed by the front and side walls doesn't look to be 90 degrees - this might make placement problematic in a w2w context. Also, are you going to add windows to the back walls? Otherwise it would look unrealistic. Just my two cents.

[koumus corporation 715]

3 hours ago, justforfun said:

Absolutely gorgeous! I am just concerned about a couple of things: the angle formed by the front and side walls doesn't look to be 90 degrees - this might make placement problematic in a w2w context. Also, are you going to add windows to the back walls? Otherwise it would look unrealistic. Just my two cents.

This will be a faithful rendition of the real life block with its weird medieval accommodating angles that you can see in the aerial pic and temporary roof textures above, but who knows, i might make a completely straight version too. The building is far from finished and the back windows and details will of course be added when the front facades are done.

[Glenni 1,445]

Loving all these projects!  If I may just put my opinion in this though.

 

Yes, it may look odd with certain angles without windows in Sc4. But this happens pretty often in real life. Just in Oslo  alone I can think of several buildings that just weirdly jut out facing the steet. Some with windows, some without. But either way, it's clearly the back of the building we're seeing.

 

There's many reasons for why this happens, demolishment of buildings is one thing, former (but ultimately failed) street widening schemes, which is why some buildings are much closer to the street than others.

 

Personally, when it comes to European cities in SC4 I've started doing it more myself, cus real life isn't perfect, and neither is an SC4 city. 

 

 

 

[justforfun 7,878]

Hi @Glenni, lovely to see you around! Are you still working on some projects yourself?

Yes, cities are constantly changing hence the odd shapes and such, however I have never seen a period building without any windows at the back (please note: the back, not the lateral sides) which is what I was referring to when Koumus had just began working on the project. The back side he has now completed is absolutely gorgeous. 

I see nothing particularly weird in the pictures you posted. Many lateral sides have no windows because small buildings mainly have rooms facing either the front or the back and no need or opportunity for lateral openings (or, as you say, the adjoining buildings have been demolished). Putting too many windows on a BAT sometimes looks as unrealistic as putting too few. 

[koumus corporation 715]

@Glenni I thought about the side wall question when making my 19th century releases and decided against them for the sake of lower file size. From what i gathered in maps, in the very rare cases that their sides are exposed, they are plain plaster , sometimes with smaller ad boards at the bottom when they are next to a recessed modernist building like in your picture. I havent seen proper windows on the sides of the more common turn-of-century 6-7 floor buildings, except for some occasional tiny kitchen closet and modern ones. The 2-4 floor 1850s and older buildings are more likely to have them, as do the 1920s and younger ones. I will think about including some ad boards, graffiti scribblings and tiny windows in my unfinished buildings of that period.

That modern building on the left in your second pic is pretty identical to the one thats been lying around my bat folder for some time now.

I wanted to remake Maxi's Despret consulting into a more realistic w2w 6+1 floor office building with possibility to create proper office+shopping blocks, i ripped the building texture from the game, which was a grey-purple mess in gmax, so i searched Oakland and San Francisco for something similar in size and appearance, nothing, looked at Berlin and found Axel Springer passage which was a good fit.

As 4x3 modular block, how i would like to be able to use in game. Model and textures are far from final.

[koumus corporation 715]

I am right now in the finishing phase of the first part of my automata replacement and expansion mod that ive been working on since february. I have decided to release it in parts, otherwise it would take years to complete like mikeseith's replacement mods, also makes it easier to pick and mix for those who are pursuing American or Asian themed projects.

The first few low poly models, in many colours, accurate blueprint scale + 134 percent in height. To replace private and public Maxis vehicles, mostly the pickups.

 

 

[Glenni 1,445]

Nice nice,

 

I have a few unfinished automata models myself, if you have the time to help out on those... ^^; Buses, police cars, etc. 

[koumus corporation 715]

@Glenni I can look into it, but my grasp of modding is pretty basic.

[koumus corporation 715]

What a long time it has been since I was here!

So many new exciting developments that I only dreamed about years ago, like custom menu sections and well lit SC4 rendering in blender. Lets hope for the possibility of functional diagonal intersection, FA road, avenue and street puzzle pieces soon!

@JulioC

I have had inquiries about content that is in development (for years now), as I am not certain about a proper full set release in the near future, I will put together soon a Take It Or Leave It pack like some others here have put out a long time ago.

[koumus corporation 715]

Been working on this old office building next to Norrmalmstorg this week

The width is fortunately around 30 m , but lengthwise, I will probably have to do the 2 adjacent buildings to fit into SC4 as 2x4 or 4x2 lot.

 

[justforfun 7,878]

Fantastic work! I'd better start looking for the right spot to place it in my region. 

[koumus corporation 715]

11 hours ago, justforfun said:

Fantastic work! I'd better start looking for the right spot to place it in my region. 

It does look similar to the old pale stone buildings of central London, it even has slate roofing on the street facing parts (very unusual in Sweden). It would fit in a Piccadilly Circus or Trafalgar Square inspired area. In real life it sits on the corner of a busy square and shopping street.

[art128 4,618]

Looks good! I like the roof. texture. 

[Jasoncw 11,933]

The facade turned out really nice.