BAT Making

[Koonam 519]

Hello~ I've had very little activity on Simtropolis recently. I've been making custom content for other games, so I haven't had time. And I finally have time to rest. So I'm working on new BAT now.

It's a vintage theater building which inspired from 'Paramount Theatre' in Seattle. I named this building 'The Fealds Theatre'.

By the way, I'm still making BAT on Gmax program. But I want to make the DarkNite version BATs too. And I saw about BAT4Blender topic before. I use Blender really often So... Is BAT4Blender currently available? If so, where can I download it?

[memo 1,439]

Looks really good so far.

As for BAT4Blender, you can download the zip file attached to that post. There aren't any preconfigured DarkNite lighting rigs yet, however.

[Koonam 519]

8 hours ago, memo said:

Looks really good so far.

As for BAT4Blender, you can download the zip file attached to that post. There aren't any preconfigured DarkNite lighting rigs yet, however.

Thank you so much Memo!

I hope the DarkNite tool will be added to the BAT4Blender someday.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Everything made with Gmax is compatible with both MaxisNite and DarkNite.

[Koonam 519]

8 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

Everything made with Gmax is compatible with both MaxisNite and DarkNite.

OMG??? I didn't know that....! Thank you for the information Jasoncw! <3 Yay!!!

[Koonam 519]

Oookay.... I increased the height of the building and re-exported the BAT. Now its height matches the surrounding buildings better!  

[Koonam 519]

I'm obsessed with Art-Deco and Chicago School architecture. And this building caught my eye recently... I want to make this building for SimCity 4. So I'm collecting photographic materials for that building. I'm not sure if I can make it properly... But I'll try someday...!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It's a fantastic building. I think it would be hard to recreate for SimCity 4, because the detail in the terra cotta is probably too small to show up (it will just look like a smudge), and the round parts at the top of the building will probably be hidden behind the cornice. In terms of dimensions, one side fits the SimCity grid really nicely but the other side doesn't. You can download Google Earth, which has a measure tool (although be careful, because the tops of tall buildings, which are closer to the satellite, are bigger than the bottoms, so you can get measurements that are too big if you measure from the roofs). I'm sure there are also floor plans and other drawings with dimensions on them, since it's such a famous building.

[Koonam 519]

16 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

It's a fantastic building. I think it would be hard to recreate for SimCity 4, because the detail in the terra cotta is probably too small to show up (it will just look like a smudge), and the round parts at the top of the building will probably be hidden behind the cornice. In terms of dimensions, one side fits the SimCity grid really nicely but the other side doesn't. You can download Google Earth, which has a measure tool (although be careful, because the tops of tall buildings, which are closer to the satellite, are bigger than the bottoms, so you can get measurements that are too big if you measure from the roofs). I'm sure there are also floor plans and other drawings with dimensions on them, since it's such a famous building.

Thank you Jasoncw! Fortunately, I got the facade drawing and floor plan of the building. The resolution of the drawing is little bit blurry, but I am currently working on it. Aaand... Yes... I'm also worried that the terra cotta decorations won't be well represented in the game. I think I'll have to leave it to chance about that. Thank you for telling me how to find out the size of the building on Google Earth!

Here's the current status of the building I'm making. (The bottom part texture of the building will be made by combining pictures of the details of the building.)  

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

That's really nice!

I don’t know which images you have, but there’s this collection with several architectural drawings. The download quality is terrible, but on the website itself, you can zoom in on the images and clearly see the dimensions in most of them.

https://artic.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/mqc/search/searchterm/buffalo!"guaranty building"/field/covera!all/mode/exact!all/conn/and!all/page/1

 

[Koonam 519]

18 minutes ago, JP Schriefer said:

That's really nice!

I don’t know which images you have, but there’s this collection with several architectural drawings. The download quality is terrible, but on the website itself, you can zoom in on the images and clearly see the dimensions in most of them.

https://artic.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/mqc/search/searchterm/buffalo!"guaranty building"/field/covera!all/mode/exact!all/conn/and!all/page/1

 

Ohh~! I don't know how to read the professional architectural plans (especially in English) but some detail photos can be helpful for my Guaranty Building project! Thank you JP Schriefer!

[madhatter106 3,903]

As for me, I'm usually not one to be utterly slavish when it comes to recreating something for a BAT; often I will use a building as an inspiration, and take elements, details, etc. from it and arrive at my own version of it.  (For example - does a building that is twelve storeys high really need to be twelve when making it as a BAT?  Will it look good, or better, at ten storeys? Or fifteen storeys?)  We have to remember that often we need to filter the "real" building into the game "world," so there are things that work in real life that don't translate over into the realm of SC4.  

There are certain things with the Guaranty Building that you could "cheat" for effect - the circular parts being hidden (even partially so) by the cornice, as @Jasoncw mentioned in his earlier reply.  You could "cheat" and raise the space between them and the start of the cornice, so that you can see more of them in the renders, or you could design and model the cornice so it's not jutting out so much, and you would be able to see some or all of the round windows.  Likewise with some of the terra cotta detailing - some will get lost in the render, and some can be designed and modelled or textured so that it gives a hint of detail and business and interest.  It is all trial and error.

I would be curious to see a preview render of what you already have - so that we could see how much of the circular windows you might be losing and how much of the detail can actually be seen...

[Koonam 519]

10 hours ago, madhatter106 said:

As for me, I'm usually not one to be utterly slavish when it comes to recreating something for a BAT; often I will use a building as an inspiration, and take elements, details, etc. from it and arrive at my own version of it.  (For example - does a building that is twelve storeys high really need to be twelve when making it as a BAT?  Will it look good, or better, at ten storeys? Or fifteen storeys?)  We have to remember that often we need to filter the "real" building into the game "world," so there are things that work in real life that don't translate over into the realm of SC4.  

There are certain things with the Guaranty Building that you could "cheat" for effect - the circular parts being hidden (even partially so) by the cornice, as @Jasoncw mentioned in his earlier reply.  You could "cheat" and raise the space between them and the start of the cornice, so that you can see more of them in the renders, or you could design and model the cornice so it's not jutting out so much, and you would be able to see some or all of the round windows.  Likewise with some of the terra cotta detailing - some will get lost in the render, and some can be designed and modelled or textured so that it gives a hint of detail and business and interest.  It is all trial and error.

I would be curious to see a preview render of what you already have - so that we could see how much of the circular windows you might be losing and how much of the detail can actually be seen...

Thank you Madhatter106, Those are good tips! I think I can't change the storeys because the building looks harmonious to me in original storeys. But I'm going to change the rooftop room of the building to be more classical. (The original rooftop room is too modern.)

Here is the BAT rendered shot. I think the circle window shows up well...? Btw, I don't know why the detail shadows shows up only on the 1st~5th floors of the left side. Is that glitch or render error?

[Koonam 519]

On 2025. 1. 19. at 3:30 PM, Koonam said:

Here is the BAT rendered shot. I think the circle window shows up well...? Btw, I don't know why the detail shadows shows up only on the 1st~5th floors of the left side. Is that glitch or render error?

Oops! My bad... I set the model's size too big. Okay so.... the terra cotta are almost shrunk but at least I can see it is existing...😂

[madhatter106 3,903]

Though the terra cotta details are a bit muddled, I would keep them - it creates a bit of visual interest, and your eye "fills in" the details, or at least convinces your brain that there are some details there.  Anything finer detailed, and it would probably be not worthwhile.  But it looks better than a flat color texture.

Looking at the overlap of the cornice, it was as I suspected - those circular window details are being eclipsed.  If you really want to see them, or a better portion of them, I would suggest either shortening the degree of overhang that the cornice projects, or raising the space between the tops of the windows and where the cornice curve begins - or perhaps a little of both.  I find that with deep overhangs (things like when I was doing my movie theatre marquees, or front entrance overhangs for office buildings) I had to either cheat them a little higher or make them a bit shallower, in order to get some hint of the doorways and entrances underneath.  In "real life," it would be wrong - but here, we have to "wrestle with" (or fight) the isometric angle which SC4 shows us buildings and BATs.

[Koonam 519]

17 hours ago, madhatter106 said:

In "real life," it would be wrong - but here, we have to "wrestle with" (or fight) the isometric angle which SC4 shows us buildings and BATs.

Wow, that's impressive expression. Thank you for the advices Madhatter106!   

[Koonam 519]

I think modeling & texturing is almost done...!  

[madhatter106 3,903]

Show us a preview render so we can see what it will really look like in-game.

[Koonam 519]

11 hours ago, madhatter106 said:

Show us a preview render so we can see what it will really look like in-game.

Here it is! It looks pretty nice to me.

[Koonam 519]

Finally! I fixed my BAT. It shows up well in game and the lights turn on well too. Now I need to fix the lot and add some props.

[madhatter106 3,903]

I missed this post from earlier, and it's probably too late to critique as you've uploaded to the STEX, but the roof texture needs some work.  It's really light, and with no wear or variation, it looks like someone painted it yesterday.  I find that when I am doing roof textures, I need to go really dark in Photoshop because of the BAT lighting rig.  The most light on your BAT will be on any horizontal surface, as that will be receiving a lot of direct "down" light, so as a consequence, it will "wash out" a BAT texture.  So you need to compensate and "go dark" on the texture editing end.

Ages ago, someone said that SC4 is "a game of rooftops," so I find that getting the roof perfect is more than half the work when it comes to texturing.  

[Koonam 519]

8 hours ago, madhatter106 said:

I missed this post from earlier, and it's probably too late to critique as you've uploaded to the STEX, but the roof texture needs some work.  It's really light, and with no wear or variation, it looks like someone painted it yesterday.  I find that when I am doing roof textures, I need to go really dark in Photoshop because of the BAT lighting rig.  The most light on your BAT will be on any horizontal surface, as that will be receiving a lot of direct "down" light, so as a consequence, it will "wash out" a BAT texture.  So you need to compensate and "go dark" on the texture editing end.

Ages ago, someone said that SC4 is "a game of rooftops," so I find that getting the roof perfect is more than half the work when it comes to texturing.  

Thanks for the advices Madhatter106! "A game of rooftops". I think I saw the same quote before. Yeah, the rooftop looks quite bright even I'd made the textures darker. And I should have worn out the rooftop a little more.😭 

[Koonam 519]

Finally, I designed my another own art-deco skyscraper. I drew this a long time ago, but I didn't like the design, so I recently revised it again. (Yeah, it's inspired from Empire State Building, Chrysler Building and Woolworth Building.😆)

And... I'm going to make this building for SC4..? I think I'll probably start to make it at the end of the month when I have time.

[Koonam 519]

Finally I started the project yesterday...!  

[madhatter106 3,903]

Something bugs me about the curves.
My eye works from the bottom towards the top, and when it gets to those curves, my brain says, "something seems off."
I am not an expert on Art Deco by any means, but those curves throw me...

[Koonam 519]

On 2025. 4. 13. at 2:52 AM, madhatter106 said:

Something bugs me about the curves.
My eye works from the bottom towards the top, and when it gets to those curves, my brain says, "something seems off."
I am not an expert on Art Deco by any means, but those curves throw me...

Ohhh That curved part is inspired from 'Paramount building' in NY.  

I'm not an expert on Art-Deco too. The straight line is good for expressing the Art-Deco, but I wanted to do something variation.

[Koonam 519]

Hello. I'm.... yeah, I'm back. I was so busy until 2 days ago and finally I can continue the BAT. I just finished the modeling and now I have to make UV maps. 😂 

[Koonam 519]

Hello... I'm extremely exhausted and tired of BAT texture ID conflict error in Gmax. When this error occure, Yeah, I have to open the new Gmax and merge the original Gmax file's objects and re-export them. BUT when I did this process, The .model file ID conflict error occure... (this error makes my BAT shows up as other building BAT in game.) And BAT texture ID conflict error occuring EVERY SINGLE EXPORTING GMAX BAT. Oh no, this makes me so exhausted.. So.... now I'm taking a break without making a BAT...

And I'm trying BAT4Blender recently. I hope this work...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Try installing the "BAT Texture Problem Fix". It can be found here: https://community.simtropolis.com/sc4-maxis-files/ 

Since you know Blender you should still try to make BAT4Blender work. There aren't very many people here who know Blender, so development on BAT4Blender has stalled. Your experience with it and your input would be helpful. 

[Koonam 519]

2 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

Try installing the "BAT Texture Problem Fix". It can be found here: https://community.simtropolis.com/sc4-maxis-files/ 

Since you know Blender you should still try to make BAT4Blender work. There aren't very many people here who know Blender, so development on BAT4Blender has stalled. Your experience with it and your input would be helpful. 

Of course I did that too. But the BAT texture ID conflict error is occuring again and again, and that makes me redo the Gmax processes...

And I want to be helpful for BAT4Blender. But I only know 3D modeling skill. I don't know anything about rendering and lightings. T^T  I hope that project will be completed someday...!