SPAs Urbanist BAT Thread

[spa 968]

Welcome to my BAT thread. Thanks to the wonderful efforts of so many BAT artists we have a lot of choice for suburban shopping and commercial office towers. In general though street side commercial shops have been ignored. I'm working to remedy this and I have focussed on traditional style shopping districts or what is often now called new urbanism. Buildings in traditional shopping areas are typically oriented towards the street and often feature storefronts at street level with either additional retail space, offices or apartments on the floors above. Typically parking is limited and is either provided behind the building, in a central garage or on the street in front (the dreaded parallel park). This is because these neighbourhoods were usually built before the automobile when most customers lived nearby or passed through on public transit; lots of parking spaces for cars was unnecessary. This is generally a much better way of building cities in my opinion for all sorts of reasons that I won't be getting into here (see Louisville's excellent city journal Adventures in New Urbanism right here on Simtropolis   https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=57406&forumID=36&search=1&searchstring= for a good outline of what I'm talking about). Below is a catalogue of my complete BATs by set with their STEX link. Feel free to browse.

Canadian Banks:

 
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15550


Bank of Nova Scotia
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15551


Bank of Montreal
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15552


Toronto Dominion Bank
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15553


Royal Bank of Canada
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15554


Kensington: Calgary


Kensington Manor Building
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16624


Kensington Place
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17087


Kensinton Plaza
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15970


Ridley's Cycles
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16034


Richland Building
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17170


Tandoori Hut
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16670


Trend Fashions
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16708

17th Avenue: Calgary


Royal Manor Building
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16077


Quinpool Road: Halifax


Ardmore Tea Room
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16341


Spring Garden Road: Halifax


King of Donair
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17462


Yonge St: Toronto


Sam the Record Man
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16420


Garrison Woods: Calgary


Phase 1
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17243


Phase 2
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17280


Phase 3
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=17298

Others:


Corner Gas
https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=15615 

[brancra 1,121]

Hm, just an observation, but the windows don't have any variety in the panels so they look painted on. Otherwise, these look great. Best of luck with your BATting.

[bixel 1,223]

Use photoshop and copy those windows straight from the photos, use distort and skew to make them perfectly rectangle, apply to glass and viola! Great BATting! Nice projects.

[CDI_spy 5]

Wow Spa!  As a fellow canadian BATter, I'm impressed!  You have a lot of potential!

Better textures and maybe more roof junk and you're on your way to greatness!  To get REALLY good, check out Phillipbo's fantastic BATting tutorial ... it sets you up with all the basics and teaches you well!

[dev 47]

I like your work! I see a lot of potential in you! Keep it up!

[mattb325 28,880]

These look really good. Well done - it's great to see people batting their local area!

[spa 968]

Origional First Post: 02/042006

My first project is actually a pack. I’m looking at releasing a Canadian Bank Branches set all at once, which will include branches from the five major Canadian banks (Toronto Dominion Bank, Scotia Bank, Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce). I have made a lot of headway on the Toronto Dominion Bank. The branch my BAT is based off of is the one pictured below and is located on Spring Garden Road between Queen and Brunswick Streets.

And this is what it looks like from the back where it faces onto Doyle Street.

And this is what my version of the Branch looks like so far both in g-max and in game.

I have some work to do on it still. There is no night lighting (I’m still really weak on lighting) and I haven’t put the roof junk on yet, but the primary work is basically done.

My second bank branch is a more boring building. The Bank of Montreal branch that I’m worked off of is on Quinpool Road at the Harvard Street intersection. It’s pictured below

And here is my version.

As you can see I had to take a lot more liberties with the BMO branch because the real building is built on an incline, but that’s alright as I’m not going for exact replication. It still needs work such as a floor, night lights and more roof detail but the basics with it seem to be done too (I think I need to darken the metal texture by the doors too).

So this is what I have been up too while lurking. Here’s a sneak peak of the photo I’m going to use for my CIBC branch (also from Spring Garden Road), which I expect to start soon.

Any feedback is welcome of course. I'll keep this thread updated as I work on things.

Origional 02/06/2006 Post

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I take the point about the windows and roof junk. My roofs are by no means done. I still need some kind of combination that includes the basic HVACs, vents, chimnies and ducting. I have been checking out the tutorials that are available for some good techniques as to how I should go about it and I have also been paying attention to what Maxis and other batters did in the actual game. Rest assured neither the TD or the BMO branch will be released without something put on the roof.

 

As for the windows, I had thought I was done with them since they are transparent, but I am of course happy to go back and take another look. Do you guys think I should have the reflected images up there on the windows? I'm still new at this so I don't have any instincts when it comes to the more dodgey things like lighting and windows. I have been just afraid that windows with images on them would end up looking strange so I have stuck to generic colouring that does not have the reflection of any surfaces or interior contents on it.

 

So yesterday and today I didn't get into the BAT much because I was out on the town and then sleeping it off. Today though I spent several hours worth of work in photoshop fine tunning a set of bank sign textures that are now pretty much ready to go. They have all come from the actual bank branches that I'm going to be modelling. Check them out below.

 

 

 

Expect to see these on BATs coming to this thread soon.

[spa 968]

Oh and specifically what do you guys think about changing the dot on the i in Scotiabank into a plain white dot. I'm kind of leaning on doing that even though the real bank branch has that strange coloured dot. Thoughts?

[profecy 2]

oh these will be great for my Toronto replica..................damn i wish i was a BATer.....**sighs**, great work man, keep it up

[Kwakelaar 92]

Very nice work, your models look excellent.
The rooftextures could use some work, they look very new and a bit flat. Make them dirtier and with some stains etc. and your buildings will look more real.

[spa 968]

Profecy: I'm glad to help. I'm looking forward to seeing my BATs put to use in your CJ!

Kwakelaar: I was afraid someone would reach that conclusion about the roofs. It's something I have been having trouble with, especially on my TD branch. That's about roof 15 or so that I have tried on it and so far it has been the best one. Do you think darkening it would help? I'm not exactly a pro with photoshop (I can get by if it requires slight modifications but that's it) so anything complicated like drawing on stains is a bit beyond me. Any thoughts on how I could improve there given that liability? Do you happen to know any good roof texture sites where I might be able to find something better (I haven't found much in the texture thread). Thanks for your constructive comment.

 

So today, I felt motivated to start the CIBC branch (I'm still avoiding roof junk until probably the weekend). It is by no means ready to go or finalized but this what I have so far:

 

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/3123/cibcfrontgmax9ez.jpg align=baseline>

 

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/9571/cibcfrontwallingame9nm.jpg align=baseline>

 

As you can see I'm going to have do a cover up of some of the bricks on the sides facing up, but that won't be a big deal. I'm pleased with things so far. A word about the bricks. I know they look different than the ones that appeared in the photo I posted earlier, but they're actually the exact same. The quality of the photo I took wasn't good enough to get the detail level I needed so I went looking around the internet and found one single photo of the CIBC branch. This is it

 

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/4627/lobster0eu.jpg align=baseline>

 

As you can see, like many cities, Halifax went for that 'stick sculptured animals around town and call it public art' thing that has been so popular (orcas in Victoria, moose in Toronto, polar bears in Winnipeg, cows in Calgary and lobsters in Halifax). I always hated those lobsters since I think they're just a tad tacky, but no longer. The person who took the above photo probably wouldn't have done so if that lobser hadn't been there so without that lobster I wouldn't have been able to get the exact brick texture I wanted. So praise to the hideous lobsters.  They have their uses after all.

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

This is a fantastic start to BATting, look forward to seeing you Hit the STEX.

[jacqulina 162]

great start to batting

[spa 968]

Thanks for the support guys. I didn't do a whole lot today, but it was time consuming. I put on the front doors, the front support columns and the after hours deposit box. I also spent a lot of time putting on little .03 patches to cover up the funny effect that happened on the sides of my building from tiling the brick a great deal in one of the UVW dimensions and not in the other (needed to get it across the front). That took a while. Only three more sides to do it too! Anyway this is where I'm leaving things for the night. Time to go play some Civ4.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8936/cibcfrontgmax37ya.jpg align=baseline>

 

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3650/cibcfrontingame33zi.jpg align=baseline>

[spa 968]

Things are still going slowly today but I have run into a glitch that I need some help with. I figured out today how to make partially transparent windows (before I wasn't attaching a opacity map so my windows were either clear through or not with no halfways). Anyway this is the result with a few of the windows put in.

 

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Doesn't look bad eh? Well my problems occur when I render, even on high. For some reason after I put the windows in when I render some of my textures become distorted. Look at the below image

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As you can see the sides by the windows on the left have become distorted even though the UV maps don't overlap at all. The same happens, although it's not as visible on the doors. I can't seem to get it fixed. I have tried to reload the texture and it hasn't done a thing. Any ideas anyone. I'm really stuck.

[spa 968]

I just tested a render after deleting the windows and the problem goes away. It comes back though as soon as I try to put the windows in. Again any ideas would be appreciated.

EDIT: I shoud probably also mention that I haven't used mirror as I know that's linked to some texturing problems. Each of the windows was created independently. I'm at a loss here.

[profecy 2]

wish i could help spa...

[Kwakelaar 92]

Let me start off by saying you have a good eye for details and the texturing of your BATs, the last bank that you have started looks excellent.

For how to make textures there are at least two tutorials that I know of that could help you out.
First one is from Gascooker find it here
The second one is by 6459978 you can find it in his BAT thread here

About the windows I have no idea what the problem could be, from your image I can't really see the what is happening.
Try to set your texture quality etc. on high and take a very close up snapshot from the game, maybe we can think of something.
How did you make the windows?

[Glenni 1,444]

looks good you are good at bat!!about that roof junk though:why does always people always nag about roof junk on this site?I mean  a lot of buildings arent stuffed with roof junk everywhere,just for example the towerblocks where i live dont have anything on the roof AT ALL just a plain roof and the and a some kind of box.

[spa 968]

Kwakelaar:

Thanks for the reply and those helpful links. I took a look at 6459978's tutorial and when I have more time to fiddle around I think it'll make a huge difference if I can figure it all out. I should be able to since I can always go crying to the girl friend (she use to work for a newspaper and her job was to organize the layout).

 

Anyway, to the window problem. I use to make windows by putting the texture on a rectangular spline, adding a material and uvw map, and then messing with the basic opacity setting. This meant that my windows were either completely transparent or completely solid (below or above opacity 50). Yesterday I learned that if I also add an opacity map of the same texture as the window to the object, I can than adjust the two opacity settings to get semi-transparent glass, which looks a lot better. I tested it out on my TD and after sorting out camera rig bug by saving the objects and merging them into a new file everything was fine. No problems there. My CIBC is stubborn though. I have attached an image below with the before the windows were added and what happens after the windows are added (circled in red).

 

Before:

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3650/cibcfrontingame33zi.jpg align=baseline>

 

After:

align=baseline>

 

I hope you can see a little easier with them circled in red, but, basically, I'm getting some blackish coloured distortions on the left side and on the door and door frame. I can't figure out why this is happening. I have tried using different textures for the frames (same thing happens), I have tried reloading the textures, I have tried the save selected and merge fix for the camera rig problems, I have tried setting the windows further back in the window frames, I have downloaded the texture script from Maxis and I have tried resetting the LODS and cameras from the BAT roll out menu. Nothing helps and the problem appears or goes away as soon as I put the windows in or take them out. I find the whole thing puzzling since the windows are contained entirely in their boxes and I didn't have this problem with the TD. Their UVW maps have not been expanded outwards at all. I have made a post in the BAT render help thread too to hopefully get a wider audience of knowledgeable people but so far no luck. I'm beginning to think that this is something I'm just going to have to live with (I can use a darker window frame texture to make it less noticeable). Still it would be nice if I could solve the problem.

[spa 968]

Date: 2/9/2006 12:07:12 PM Author: Glenni looks good you are good at bat!!about that roof junk though:why does always people always nag about roof junk on this site?I mean  a lot of buildings arent stuffed with roof junk everywhere,just for example the towerblocks where i live dont have anything on the roof AT ALL just a plain roof and the and a some kind of box.

Thanks for the comment Glenni. Indeed there is an emphasis on roof junk in Sim City that is out of proportion to the real world. You're right, many buildings don't have anything on top except for shingles. That said in Sim City, especially for small buildings with flat roof, a big portion of what you see is the roof so I do get why a lot of people find it so important. Putting roof junk up there livens things up, even if the building might have nothing more than a mechanical shed on it in real life. For me, I'm going to try and liven up my roof tops without going overboard.

[spa 968]

Well I have been busy in the last two days. I'm still working on frame of the CIBC but I have now finished the side walls.

align=baseline>

 

align=baseline>

 

align=baseline>

 

I think things are moving along fairly well. I decided that given the cube like nature of the building it would be appropriate to have both of the sides match. The only difference between the two sides is that the front right corner doesn't have any side windows. I haven't figured out exactly what I'm going to do with the back of the building yet, but I have a few ideas. I'll probably start the back sometime tomorrow. As always, any feedback is welcome.

 

EDIT: I should mention, as it struck me now as I'm looking at the photos, that I'm changing the brick pattern that faces up between the first and second floor. It is tiled and it shows quite horribly. That'll be changed.

[Kwakelaar 92]

Looking good.
Did you solve your problem that you mentioned earlier?

[spa 968]

Kwakelaar:

 

Thanks. Did I solve the texturing problem? I'll have to go with yes and no. The distortion seems to not be as bad as it was now that the building is enclosed, but it's still there. It's really now more of a nusiance than a show stopper. In fact, below some of the corner windows where it shows up, the distortions darkens the brick and makes a stain like effect. It actually kind of adds to things since I have noticed that the corner of windows is often where water drains off and buildings get stained. So the discolouration looks almost at home there.

[spa 968]

Well things are still moving along. As mentioned the texturing issue seems to have corrected itself for the most part now that I have enclosed the building so maybe it was a lighting problem? Maybe relfections? I really don't know.

 

Anyway, on Sunday I started the back of the CIBC and things came along quite nicely. I put the finishing touches on the back just now. Over the last three days I also found the time to read 6459978's wonderful texture creation tutorial (thanks to 6459978 for creating it and to Kwakelaar for pointing it out to me). The result, after some trial and error is that I now have a custom designed roof texture for the CIBC. This is how things look now.

 

In Gmax

align=baseline>

 

From the front in downtown Dunbrack

http://img47.imageshack.us/img47/3923/cibcnearlycompleteingamefront2.jpg align=baseline>

 

From the back in downtown Dunbrack

 

align=baseline>

 

As you can see I have created a large glass enclosed room on the back. I'm planning on making that a board room so I'll be modelling the inside of that space. I'm not yet entirely done with the roof texture as the darkened stains are a little too distinct from the rest of the texture for my liking. I'll have to go back into photoshop and turn down the opacity setting slightly for the stain layer. All and all though things are on the home stretch for this one as far as modelling goes. As usual any feedback or suggestions are welcome.

 

Oh and just for fun. For the person who can identify all three differents BATs and the artists who made them in the two images of downtown Dunbrack, I'll let you chose one image of your choice for a painting that will hang on the wall in the CIBC boardroom. Post your answers or private message me.

[Kwakelaar 92]

I think the model and the textures are very well made.
You have managed to catch a lot of the details of the building.
The rooftexture is a great improvment to your earlier roof.

The roof could be lowered a bit and you could add a rooftrim, like it is now the roof will overflow when heavy rain starts pouring down and the brick-work will start soaking up water.
These are really minor details though.

[underworld 129]

What Kwakelaar said: looks well made. One minor detail you could make the textures 'less clean'.

take a look at this tutorial by Gascooker.

[ElBarto92 7]

Those BATs look great, I really love the latest one (and I know what you mean about those public art animals - in my hometown just outside of Miami, Florida, we had flamingos for a few years)

[spa 968]

Kwakelaar: Thanks for your ongoing feedback. It has been quite helpful and is much appreciated. I take your point about the roof level. As I have been working on my bank branches I have noticed that most older bank buildings have very high ceilings on their first floors. In fact both the building I'm going to use for my Royal Bank and my Scotia Bank have such high ceilings that one floor is actually the equivalent of two storeys. Anyway I have tried to reflect this trend towards high ceilings in my bank branches. Unfortuantely, somewhere along the way, I ended up with things somewhat out of proportion on the CIBC. More ended up upstairs than was suppose too. I don't think it's too big a deal as it doesn't look too out of place next to the Maxis buildings. It doesn't seem worth the huge effort it would take to go and change every piece for such a minor detail. As for the roof and rain, I had originally put the roof and brick edge level, but I kind of like having the brick serve as a decroative rim. Maybe I'll put a drain on the roof instead of making it level.

 

Underworld: Thanks for the pointer. I have introduced gradients on my TD and BMO branches (preveiw pics to come) and I'm doing the same on the CIBC. You're right, it does make things look a lot better. The one thing that I haven't been able to decide with the CIBC is whether to go lighter or darker to make the gradient show up. I think I'll do both and then decide. I'll post the pictures of the two when I have them done.

 

ElBarto92: Thanks! I'm not surprised that your town went for flamingos given that it's Florida. It seems that this awful trend exists far and wide. Heck, there are probably Pandas on the streets of some Chinese city, Kangaroos and Koalas in Australia and Kiwis in New Zealand.

 

 

So right now I'm doing some fine tuning of things here and there. I'll probably have a status update on all three branches and maybe even have one of the last two started some time this weekend.

[spa 968]

So I did end up playing around with textures to try and make things less clean and plastic like. Here are the reults.

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I haven't decided whether I should use the lighter or the darker gradient. I'm leaning on the darker model, but I'm not sure. What do you guys think?