N1's Gap Fillers

[N1_2888 305]

Due to the closure of not just one but two once popular SimCity 4 web portals (SC4 Devotion and German-language SimCityPlaza) this year's SFBT Christmas present has been uploaded to the good old STEX. The reason of the latter's closure is a very sad one: Spocky, who was not only operator of the SimCityPlaza, but also longtime operator of the SimForum and, like me, member of the SimForum BAT Team (SFBT), passed away on 12 June 2023 at the age of just 63. The download I link to below is dedicated to him.

SFBT Gare du Bas-Meudon

Merry Christmas!

[N1_2888 305]

Thanks to Tyberius06 there is an update of the station mentioned above. Now it works not only as railway station, but also as GLR/tram stop, bus stop as well as subway station. Moreover, the railway functionality was extended from Maxis railway to Hybrid Railway. Following the specific design of the station, just a road at the top and (railway or GLR/tram) tracks at the bottom level are required, both running orthogonal.

On this occasion I've also slightly improved the nightlighting:

Finally and at last I've fixed the icons that undesirably used to turn grey if the lot was selected.

 

[N1_2888 305]

We need more slopy railway stations, don't we? Of course we do! So I've modified my Meudon station in order to

• be compatible with Buddybud's walls and
• symmetric (have I already said that I really like symmetry?) as well as to
• require less space and
• feature a nice rooftop viewing platform.

North view by day is already finished:

[Tyberius06 12,170]

22 hours ago, N1_2888 said:

We need more slopy railway stations, don't we? Of course we do! So I've modified my Meudon station in order to

• be compatible with Buddybud's walls and
• symmetric (have I already said that I really like symmetry?) as well as to
• require less space and
• feature a nice rooftop viewing platform.

North view by day is already finished:

Looks pretty awesome. I like the idea. One "tiny" bit of thing. Could you expand the platforms  by at least 1-1 tiles on both end of the model? As I see it is only 5 tiles long at least 6 tiles, but preferably longer would be better. The LOT doesn't need to be that long/wide, it can be 5 tiles as it is on the image and some part of the platforms would overhang the LOT.

And of course, if you need help, let me know, I'm happy to help you out with the TE modding stuff. 

- Tyberius06

[philforhockey51 4,203]

lol  at first I read it as Sloppy railway stations.. I was wondering what is a sloppy rail station.. those we have in the US are mostly dirty but the rest of the world does a good job keeping them clean no? lol it's been a busy day for my brain, took me a second to realize but yes on slope stations are a good idea

[N1_2888 305]

@ Tyberius06: The station is just four tiles long. As soon as this one is done, I'll create an additional version with longer platforms. And thank you very much for your offer, I surely will come back to you on this.

@ philforhockey51: Can't you say "slopy" in English, not even in a non-serious context? (Yes, I got the thing with the different spelling.)

In Vienna railway and subway stations are quite clean (more or less). However, close to Heiligenstadt station, there has been an illegal waste dump for some time now. It is small yet, but growing steadily. I don't know, how the situation is like in France, as I've just been there once in my live in 2007. I just can remember the subtle smell of urine in the area around Gare du Nord in Paris.

The remaining views: South

East:

West:

[philforhockey51 4,203]

Yes it can be used, I just read it the other way and laughed at my mix up. 

[N1_2888 305]

You may have wondered, why I didn't re-release my older stuff, i.e. everything older than my first Mairie. Well, the reason is quite simple: My BATting skills have improved over the years (at least a bit) and I want to do it better now. I've started with my first Paris BAT: Rue Bourdon

I really hope no one says, the left model (= the old one) looks better than the right. The old version just doesn't look that bad because my SFBT fellow voltaic did his very best to pep it up. He even added two sims to the upper balcony. In turn, the balconies of the new version feature some potted flowers. The actual flowers are stretched spheres maltreated with the Tesselate modifier. What do you think? Can I leave them like that?

[hugues aroux 3,779]

5 minutes ago, N1_2888 said:

I really hope no one says, the left model (= the old one) looks better than the right

Well, since you're talking about it... then on the left... I don't know, maybe, yes, but no, but... hihi... well come on, I prefer the second, and why not one sim watering his flower pot! Bravo, it’s really excellent!

[Honolulu 2,732]

2 hours ago, N1_2888 said:

I really hope no one says, the left model (= the old one) looks better than the right.

I actually like both. The one on the left, with its old-fashioned feel that you'd expect to find in a working-class neighborhood. And the one on the right, with its slightly more upscale feel, where the wealthier classes live. Seeing the two, side by side, makes me imagine that a real estate company bought the one on the left and renovated it to get the one on the right.

Nice work.

[debussyman 1,348]

Great to see you're still at  it with the parisian BATs. Lovely stuff!

I'll have to say, the newer model looks much more detailed and proportioned! however, being picky about it, the textures one the old one are a bit more interesting. The new one looks too smooth and "plastic", specially the walls and the roof metal plates. The shingles too dark and with too much contrast, and the texture: most parisian buildings have rectangular shingles instead of round like the ones you used. The flower pots are a tad oversized for my taste, and the colors too saturated. I'd say experiment with it a little bit more to get it perfect!

Also, I love the "back building" on  the old one. Perhaps you are still planing on adding it later.

[Bobelboy 435]

Here you are! Great to see you are still working on new stuff. And why not update older creations? I like the result.

The station has a spectacular design! Great work! My only point on this would be to consider a non-flag version. I know that this is France-themed, but not all our cities are located there, so I would always recommend an additional neutral version, if possible.

[N1_2888 305]

In order to make the flowers' colour less saturated I prevent any sim from watering them. Thus no sims on the balconies.

My Paris BATs are more leaning on Porkissimo's and Xannepan's BATs than on real buildings. Or, let me put it another way: Even if I model a real building (Rue Bourdon is entirely fictional), the model's proportions, textures and details follow the standards set by these two marvellous BATters. I always failed in mimicking Porkie's roofs, so I model them more the way Xannepan used to do. His Rue du Général-Foy buildings, for instance, show a quite sharp contrast between slate and metal roof. Nevertheless I've tried another brighter texture with rectangular shingles. As already mentioned, I've also made the flowers look less garish and replaced the two bigger ones with the smaller versions. If I make all of them even smaller, they'll be entirely covered by the balcony grids.

All four views:

I left the side wing because I want the model to fit in just one tile. Do you want a version with that wing anyway? Unfortunately I had to change the wall ad because I lost the original image file. The "new" ad doesn't feature a pink bumble bee (French: bourdon), but is still pink. So at least a part of the inside joke remains.

Please give me some time to deal with your input. If not here, I'll surely take it into account in future creations.

Concerning the flags of the second station: Do you want other flags (German or whatever)? Or do you have any suggestion they could be replaced with?

[hugues aroux 3,779]

5 minutes ago, N1_2888 said:

ll four views

[Tyberius06 12,170]

10 minutes ago, N1_2888 said:

In order to make the flowers' colour less saturated I prevent any sim from watering them. Thus no sims at the balconies.

My Paris BATs are more leaning on Porkissimo's and Xannepan's BATs than on real buildings. Or, let me put it another way: Even if I model a real building (Rue Bourdon is entirely fictional), the model's proportions, textures and details follow the standards set by these two marvellous BATters. I always failed in mimicking Porkie's roofs, so I model them more the way Xannepan used to do. His Rue du Général-Foy buildings, for instance, show a quite sharp contrast between slate and metal roof. Nevertheless I've tried another brighter texture with rectangular shingles. As already mentioned, I've also made the flowers look less garish and replaced the two bigger ones with the smaller versions. If I make all of them even smaller, they'll be entirely covered by the balcony grids.

All four views:

I left the side wing because I want the model to fit in just one tile. Do you want a version with that wing anyway? Unfortunately I had to change the wall ad because I lost the original image file. The "new" ad doesn't feature a pink bumble bee (French: bourdon), but is still pink. So at least a part of the inside joke remains.

Please give me some time to deal with your input. If not here, I'll surely take it into account in future creations.

Concerning the flags of the second station: Do you want other flags (German or whatever)? Or do you have any suggestion they could be replaced with?

21 hours ago, N1_2888 said:

You may have wondered, why I didn't re-release my older stuff, i.e. everything older than my first Mairie. Well, the reason is quite simple: My BATting skills have improved over the years (at least a bit) and I want to do it better now. I've started with my first Paris BAT: Rue Bourdon

I really hope no one says, the left model (= the old one) looks better than the right. The old version just doesn't look that bad because my SFBT fellow voltaic did his very best to pep it up. He even added two sims to the upper balcony. In turn, the balconies of the new version feature some potted flowers. The actual flowers are stretched spheres maltreated with the Tesselate modifier. What do you think? Can I leave them like that?

I liked the old version and I like the new version too. By the way, the old versions (basicly all the BATs that used to be hosted on LEX and SimcityPlaza) are planned to be rehosted when we get there with the restoration efforts. I used to make relots of your Paris filler buildings. 

I don't know if you feel the motivation or how much motivation you would feel to create more than one versions of this building. I mean with left wings, with right wings (perfect for 1x2 fillers even in prop/building families), multiple 1x1 versions with some colour changes on doors, balconies, windows, murals... I mean these fillers with more variety would be pretty awesome to create diverse yet matching districts with Parisian models. Prop/Building families can be made easily for them. And yeah specially with the 1x1 footpring could serve awesomely for diagonals... Could you rotate it/them 45 deg and make diagonal version(s) of it. That would be truely awesome. 

And as always if you need any help with modding and releasing them, I'm here and around!

- Tyberius06

[Bobelboy 435]

First of all: Please take your time. Quality needs some time and I think we all agree you are working on a VERY high level here.

I like the changes you have made on the building - but will leave the rest to the experts. I do second Tibi's suggestion for variation though. Once you have made a great building, why not change some colours and rearrange the plants and have another one? I would also love to have 1x2 lots with side wings or garden/back houses (maybe even disconnected from the front house).

As for the flags in a second version of the station: To keep it simple I would either skip the flags or maybe put telescopes in the two corners, which can often be found at lookouts. Or if you would like to keep flags then maybe the international peace flag or something else, which is less official.

[N1_2888 305]

First of all I want to thank Tibi and all other people involved for their restoration and rehosting efforts! I am really looking forward to the results!

I've just seen a picture showing some of my old Duméril BATs with their pixellated cornices and balcony edges (see here, first picture, top right corner). Ironically that's the outcome of too detailled modelling. On the other hand I was quite lazy when BATting the backyard facades (see here on the bottom of the picture). I think, if the staircases are silhouetted against the facade, it looks better. And the number of windows is too high.

Anyway, let's come back to Rue Bourdon. I've got myself some inspiration from this photo. I had no idea that there are Haussmannian buildings featuring such windows! In any case that was a good inspiration for a second version. And the narrow row building on the left gave me even more inspiration for a third version. The latter one is still in a very early stage of development, but the former is near completion:

I've made a HD rendering in order to depict the differences between version 1 and 2:

I think, I'll change the slate roof texture of the first house again. It took me some time to find a simple angular design for the balcony grids in order to match with the triangular pediments.

By the way, rearranging details for additional building versions isn't that simple. Let me just give the window shutters as an example: If they are unevenly distibuted, it doesn't look good. Otherwise, if you try to arrange them in a more regular way, this may result in unwanted patterns. And you may know the saying sometimes less is more. As far as the shutters are concerned, that's true. Believe me or not, I really spend a lot of time on things like that.

Finally a few words about diagonal versions: Some people think, okay, take the orthogonal version, rotate and stretch it, et voilà, that's it. Perhaps that is just an unfounded assumption, but, anyway, it isn't that simple, too.

[N1_2888 305]

On 13.7.2024 at 5:11 PM, Bobelboy said:

As for the flags in a second version of the station: To keep it simple I would either skip the flags or maybe put telescopes in the two corners, which can often be found at lookouts.

Something like this,...

...I guess. Well, let's see how I can simplify this in gmax till Christmas.

_____

Meanwhile, the Bourdon set has got yet another addition. The first three models have been finished so far:

The one and only* 1x1 orthogonal corner building is still in progress:

*) Within a 5x8 residential block, for instance, just four of a total of 22 1x1 buildings are corner houses. So I think that will do.

 

Have a wonderful 2nd Advent Sunday!

[N1_2888 305]

On 27.7.2024 at 3:17 AM, N1_2888 said:

I''ve just seen a picture showing some of my old Duméril BATs with their pixellated cornices and balcony edges (see here, first picture, top right corner). Ironically that's the outcome of too detailled modelling. On the other hand I was quite lazy when BATting the backyard facades (see here on the bottom of the picture). I think, if the staircases are silhouetted against the facade, it looks better. And the number of windows is too high.

Laziness in the past results in additional work in the present. And the whole set consists of ten buildings. *phew*

Well, anyway, at least two Duméril houses have been revised so far: left half of the image => 2015; right half of the image => 2025/26

 --- 

 --- 

Variant 1, 2015: 91.230 vertices, 66 materials
Variant 1, 2025/26:  86.784 vertices, 24 materials

Variant 2, 2015: 76.520 vertices, 58 materials
Variant 2, 2025/26: 105.038 vertices, 19 materials

The latter variant got new balcony and window railings, which explains the increase in the number of vertices. Of course you can't see anything of this even in zoom 5. Well, I did not expect anything else. 

Again, I want to provide some just-for-fun HD renderings:

 --- 

If you look very close (very, very close) you may see the distinct guilloche motif of the second building's balcony and window railings. The 2015 model just featured mirrored railings of variant 1.

_____

Speaking of "tiny": I've recently discovered two bugs, one affecting an animated sim by Maxis, the other a tree prop kindly provided by BATter Girafe. I've taken the liberty of fixing these (left: before, right: after).

Now the girl does what she is supposed to do: hop-clapping and not boo others rudely. And the beech model by Girafe now also shows its full beauty in west view of zoom 3.  I'm just wondering if it makes any sense to upload these minor bugfixes solely.

 

 

[sejr99999 8,333]

yes please upload any fixes you have they will be much appreciated

[Tyberius06 12,170]

17 hours ago, N1_2888 said:

 I'm just wondering if it makes any sense to upload these minor bugfixes solely.

Hm... regarding girafe's tree, I think it would be the better if we added it to the original upload on Evermore and we refer back to this post as an explanation. 

The maxis animated prop fix could be uploaded directly and/or added to one of the ModPack Zero packages, which are aiming to handle maxis bugs anyway. But I tag @CorinaMarie, one of the developpers behind ModpackZero, she might have a better idea. 

[N1_2888 305]

I hope it's okay if I provide the bugfixes this way for now:

https://limewire.com/?referrer=pq7i8xx7p2

-----

EDIT: I guess, this is the correct download link: https://limewire.com/d/snjTq#YnWFzJrFfp

Sorry

[CorinaMarie 29,556]

1 hour ago, Tyberius06 said:

But I tag @CorinaMarie, one of the developpers behind ModpackZero, she might have a better idea.

RL is being rather nasty right now so I'm unable to think coherently for more than just generalized replies. I'll punt the ball back to you and we'll go with whatever you decide is the best way.  

[Lab Rat 12]

Automated Notice Message

All posts after 1 March, 2026 @ 01:37 GMT were lost in the site crash.

We've added this message thread divider in every topic across all forums for what were then active threads. (We decided active is if the most recent extant post (from the backup) was on or after 1 January, 2026.)

This divider serves as notice that the conversation was interrupted. Answers and further discussion which used to be here have been lost. Keep this in mind when replying. Our hope is to rebuild what is missing.