Simtropolis Shipyard

[Dreadnought 8,226]

@justforfun

"Big Smoke"...??? 

I got you covered, mate.  But I cannot speak for "AP" on the matter of creating new models without the people.  That is entirely up to him. 

@AP does all the hard work -- I just take props and put them on a lot to try and showcase his "works of art".  If I can make them look as good as they truly are -- then I have fulfilled my part of the bargain.

My other goal is to use the CJ to explain a few bits of history that deserve to be remembered.  Until you have visited a WW I cemetery and walked some of that ground, you don't really understand the magnitude of the events that are now a century old.  My bit of history will help to reawaken a sea war that is little remembered.

BTW -- I just found out what "Big Smoke" means.      In all the time I spent in London -- I never once heard it called by that name!

 

[justforfun 7,815]

8 hours ago, Dreadnought said:

I cannot speak for "AP" on the matter of creating new models without the people. 

Well, I wouldn't expect entirely new models, just the fantastic ones AP is making minus the people. And only the smaller commercial ships, not the warships. Keeping my fingers crossed! 

8 hours ago, Dreadnought said:

In all the time I spent in London -- I never once heard it called by that name!

Haha, "Big Smoke" is still sometimes used as a nick for London, although thank goodness it is no longer immersed in smog -or at least, the current smog is less visible.  

[AP 3,588]

happy to see you had such a civil exchange about this topic! I see both your points and might be able to export some of the models without crew. Thankfully, the smaller vessels do not take half a day to export, so it seems more doable. I won't be able to do it for every variation of each small vessel though, that would double the amount of work on those packs, but I can certainly slip a few in here and there...

Ideally I have my vessel list on page one of this Topic completed before publishing then you can have a look. @justforfun

Another topic that I also realized is the historic flag that is flying on lots of these model, I might potentially replace that with a civilian neutral flag as well in the crewless version.

Which actually bring me to another thought that I will need to discuss with @Dreadnought: Will we seek someone to design a banner/logo for our packs? (we can discuss further in PMs)
I always kinda liked this style you had with the historic black and white photograph and the historic flag and this red font:

Maybe we could take that away a bit and have someone who is skilled with photoshop degrade the black and white photo a bit, so it looks like a very old ship drawing or so.

I guess if anyone reads this and is interested just send us a PM.

[justforfun 7,815]

1 hour ago, AP said:

Ideally I have my vessel list on page one of this Topic completed before publishing then you can have a look. @justforfun

Oh my, thank you! I really appreciate this. I'll certainly let you know if there are models I would love with no crew (I can already say the wheel tug is one) and then you'll decide if it's doable! 

[Barroco Hispano 26,730]

@AP I currently have 45 low poly yachts and don't have time to redo them to be high poly so i was wondering if you wanted to model some? I can send you the models.

 

[AP 3,588]

 

2 hours ago, Barroco Hispano said:

 I currently have 45 low poly yachts and don't have time to redo them to be high poly so i was wondering if you wanted to model some? I can send you the models.

this is a cool idea, I was thinking about yachts for a wile but never put any focus on them. To be fair, I think I wouldn't do a better job than what you already have... Since I still use gmax I try to keep my polys to max 250k per model (how much do those have?)

If you look closely on some of the stuff I made, you will easily see that they don't always have the fairest of lines

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

Hydrofoils and swamp buggies, anybody?

[Barroco Hispano 26,730]

@AP 16k - 30k POLYS

[AP 3,588]

9 hours ago, Barroco Hispano said:

16k - 30k POLYS

That is indeed very low! Can you export them to .3DS or are they .max ?

[AP 3,588]

Armoured Cruiser SMS Prinz Heinrich nearing completion:

[AP 3,588]

Preparations for the next armoured cruiser are ongoing:

[Dreadnought 8,226]

OUTSTANDING -- my friend !!

You got the "tumble-home" of the hull along the midships section just right !

Very impressive...

When she was launched, she was a "bruiser" for her day (1900) -- a real "cruiser-killer".

[Fin44850 46]

This ships look amazing...but where are they?? I'd love to see these as ploppables somewhere on simtropolis.

[Dreadnought 8,226]

36 minutes ago, Fin44850 said:

This ships look amazing...but where are they?? I'd love to see these as ploppables somewhere on simtropolis.

Yo, guy --

We are finishing up the final parts of a CJ that will highlight these ships and many other props created by @AP.  We are currently waiting for one more model -- a final edit on the text, and some more pictures for the CJ -- and then we have to organize the prop packs for release to the community.  Both "AP" and I have been busy with our "professional lives" for the last 6 months or so -- and it has delayed the release of the project -- but we will be publishing as soon as possible to make these available to all who want them.

In the meantime -- you can follow this link to the "Show Me" thread.  I post pictures of the models there from time to time.  Just scroll back through the past pages and you should find a lot of pictures from us.

Hope that will help you out a bit --

 

 

[Fin44850 46]

1 minute ago, Dreadnought said:

Thanks, I'm looking forward to it, these will make some really nice additions to my 1850's setting in the pacific northwest

 

 

 

 

[AP 3,588]

I have decided to remove my 3-mast barque picture from the initial post, so I added them again here:

Overview of different types of ships:

As you see in the graphic above, a barque usually has the fore and main mast square-rigged, while the mizzen mast is fore-and-aft-rigged.

 

[justforfun 7,815]

4 hours ago, AP said:

I have decided to remove my 3-mast barque picture from the initial post, so I added them again here:

Overview of different types of ships:

As you see in the graphic above, a barque usually has the fore and main mast square-rigged, while the mizzen mast is fore-and-aft-rigged.

 

Amazing!! 

[AP 3,588]

On 12/06/2023 at 10:59 PM, Fin44850 said:

This ships look amazing...but where are they?? I'd love to see these as ploppables somewhere on simtropolis.

The publication of packs has started, the first 10 are out:

estimate there will be at least 20 more to come...

[AP 3,588]

On 01/09/2022 at 9:18 PM, justforfun said:

Yo, Dreadnought! 

I guess I was a bit confusing when making my point. First, I was asking whether there might be versions without crew and versions with crew, so that one could choose.

Second, my pet peeve is not with having people populate scenes. Quite the opposite, I like my cities to be as vital as possible, and to achieve this I like animations, not static sims which inevitably look like statues. There are only two circumstances where I use static people props: for military guards, and for sleeping sims, which are supposed to be still in real life too. 

Of course, static people props are fantastic if one wants to take pictures of a scene, and the ones AP has made are incredibly detailed and realistic for that purpose. However, I like to browse my streets and watch people walking, talking, hopping, etc. rather than frozen in a move. As limited as Maxis sim animations may be, they do make the city feel alive.

Lastly, on the banks of the river here in the Big Smoke I see plenty of empty boats of all kinds. I can definitely see your point for big ships, however it is tugboats, barges, and small boats that I would like to park along my canals, and which therefore I would love to be available in no-crew versions as well. Pleeeeease 

I have issued a model without sailors on the ship in each pack so far

[AP 3,588]

A sneak peak on our current historic steam tug fleet... First tug class will be published soon!

For a more detailed view on these, have a look at @Dreadnought's CJs:

 

[AP 3,588]

Working on getting Cutty Sark ready for publication.

To my knowledge the first square rigged ship under full sails with realistic rigging and a nice heel to leeward.

Just a few screenshots that I took while enjoying this work:

 

 

[justforfun 7,815]

3 hours ago, AP said:

Working on getting Cutty Sark ready for publication.

To my knowledge the first square rigged ship under full sails with realistic rigging and a nice heel to leeward.

Just a few screenshots that I took while enjoying this work:

 

 

My gosh what a model! I had always thought this famous ship should be featured in SimCity, but I couldn't expect it at such level. 

[AP 3,588]

our latest project:

[Dreadnought 8,226]

@AP

You do MAGNIFICENT work, my friend --

[Odainsaker 2,135]

On 3/22/2024 at 12:21 PM, AP said:

Working on getting Cutty Sark ready for publication.

To my knowledge the first square rigged ship under full sails with realistic rigging and a nice heel to leeward.

Just a few screenshots that I took while enjoying this work:

 

 

Your Cutty Sark came out amazing!

Given the theme and sides of the thoroughly engrossing historic navies collaboration, I have to do a fun shout out for a paired recreation of Preußen, a stunningly 5-masted, full-rigged icon of the windjammer era.

Sadly, Preußen was accidentally rammed by a cross-channel steamer and infamously lost off Dover, but I know the perfect artist to bring this historic wonder back to the world!

 

[Dreadnought 8,226]

10 hours ago, Odainsaker said:

Your Cutty Sark came out amazing!

Given the theme and sides of the thoroughly engrossing historic navies collaboration, I have to do a fun shout out for a paired recreation of Preußen, a stunningly 5-masted, full-rigged icon of the windjammer era.

Sadly, Preußen was accidentally rammed by a cross-channel steamer and infamously lost off Dover, but I know the perfect artist to bring this historic wonder back to the world!

 

@Odainsaker

Yo, Odainsaker -- !!

I could not agree with you more -- !!  

If anyone could do justice to the Preussen -- it would be "AP" -- !!

And I "second" your suggestion......

While I have your attention -- in your wanderings about the internet -- have you come across any pictures of sail-rigged steamships from this period ??  We have had trouble locating any that show a reasonable amount of detail -- or -- are at the right angles to demonstrate hull form.

Nice to see you drop in --

[Odainsaker 2,135]

On 8/25/2024 at 6:37 AM, Dreadnought said:

 

While I have your attention -- in your wanderings about the internet -- have you come across any pictures of sail-rigged steamships from this period ??  We have had trouble locating any that show a reasonable amount of detail -- or -- are at the right angles to demonstrate hull form.

There indeed does not seem to be many detailed photos out there but instead numerous paintings.  It doesn't help that as steam propulsion became more reliable, sails were seen as auxiliaries, continuously reduced and simplified to cut down on crew size until the sails were eliminated entirely.  If the sails weren't even being used, there is even less chance of such a ship being photographed with a full spread of sail.

I wonder if it might help to pin down on a particular named ship.  Best bet might be something like the SS Great Western (1838) or the SS Great Britain (1845), which actually still exists preserved in Bristol and so would have more recent measured drawings and photos.  Interestingly, those two Brunel achievements are in the lineage of the goliath SS Great Eastern (1857).

The Inman Line had a number of sail-rigged steamships, several of which, such as the SS City of Rome (1881), were acclaimed for their beautiful profiles:

...but, yeah, how much of this is the artist rather than the reality.

Interestingly, SS Oceanic (1870), the first of the famous White Star Line and the lead of the popular Oceanic class of six ships, several of which served until 1910.

...of course, again, how much of this is the artist?

Should I ever spot an true photograph of any of these actually with sails deployed, I'll be sure to share.

 

__________

 

I admit, I've also long been looking at fan-made models for the games "Virtual Sailor" and "Vehicle Simulator," particularly those on the wondrous fansite Great Virtual Fleet by Fabricio3d.  Amusingly, I was looking specifically for sail-rigged steamships for historic port scenes!  Perhaps more usefully here now, though, is that the fansite has a nice catalog of already-made ships which can be skimmed to see how they and their sail patterns may look before embarking on a full, self-made, high-detail BAT recreation of a particular ship.

Here is a link and sample to the collection for the White Star Line:

...of course, how much of this is the artist, for did these steamships ever actually deploy this much sail?

 

__________

 

SMS Hindenburg's mast tophouse is so intimidating!  Like Maximillian!

 

[AP 3,588]

Thanks to the amazing work of @memo, I have started BAT4blender and the Simtropolis shipyards are open again. 

[AP 3,588]

On 01/09/2022 at 10:36 AM, justforfun said:

Simply amazing models, in one of the hardest fields to recreate.  I am very much looking forward to seeing these on the STEX, just wondering... do you think it might be possible to release also versions with no sims on board? It is just a pet peeve of mine, I don't use any static people props because at high zoom, no matter how beautifully designed, they necessarily look like statues (I had to forego several Pegasus models just because they came with baked-in sims).  I would love to park the "empty" tug boats along canals and rivers for scenic effect. Thank you for consideration.

Just realised that I never replied to this... I hope you saw that I have released several models without crew onboard or any historical flags. 

[justforfun 7,815]

14 hours ago, AP said:

Just realised that I never replied to this... I hope you saw that I have released several models without crew onboard or any historical flags.

Of course I have, and am making ample use of your wonderful creations, albeit feeling a bit guilty for giving you additional work. Thank you so much, AP!