SPAs Urbanist BAT Thread

[mattb325 28,880]

This looks wonderful Spa, I have been waiting for this one since you first started modelling.

[Jack_wilds 550]

like the progress... like the copper top [it needs a flag at its pinnacle -how to make that work though so many nations]... the limestone looks really hard and aged... will this be a courthouse, or can it also be be a general municipal/city hall type thing... glad to see you popping in now and again... trust family life in the Halifax box is suiting you well... come spring you will need to take some generic pics to show it off...

[SimCoug 5,972]

Its great to see progress on this project. I'm curious to see if you plan on starting any new creations after this gets wrapped up

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Oh you're a master! I love this. I can't wait to have it in my cities. Perfect for a much older district.

[libellibicus 396]

It's looking amazing. Can't wait to see the underground parking version

[spa 968]

Thanks everyone. In case you've missed it, all my government buildings have been released on the STEX and LEX. I even finished the Dominion Public Building in the nick of time. The version with the sunken parking lot proved to be more challenging than I expected, but I learned something that might be of interest to other batters. After I added the cars to my already complex scene, gmax began to really crawl. It started crashing everytime I tried to preview or render because my computer was running out of memory. My computer is old, but it's not a terrible machine (first time this has really happened to me). I tried several things to try and streamline the model with no success. I had pretty much concluded that the only solution was to render the parking lot as a separate prop, when the lightbulb went on. I had noticed earlier that when I clicked on the materials editor, the program would hang for a minute as gmax loaded textures. The custom-made masonry textures that I created for the Dominion Public Building were really large files and there were several dozen of them because of all the surfaces. I guessed that part of the problem was being caused by gmax trying to load the larger textures and it turns out I was right. I went into photoshop and significantly shrunk the image size for each texture. Because I had really been overly generous with them, there was no loss of quality on my model, but there was a substantial improvement in gmax's performance. It would seem that the larger the texture file size, the more memory gmax needs. Good information to have! If I model a similarly complex building at some point in the future, I'll keep the textures small to save myself a ton of aggravation! Worth knowing for anyone else who still uses gmax.

 

Anyway, below is how the final version turned out:

 

 

 

[Gn_leugim 853]

great releases, all of them

[libellibicus 396]

great releases, all of them

I second that.  Many thanks for sharing them all.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I sure like sseing you on a roll like this! Needless to say, Dominion Public Building turned out great once again.

 

As for your discovery in gmax, afterwards it all looks so obvious. gmax needs to load textures in order to process and/or display the building, textures take up memory space => smaller texture files, less memory usage, better gmax performance. It's so simple really, and yet you need to have that "light bulb" moment to realise the problem first. The rest is smacking your forehead and saying to yourself "gee, why didn't I think of that before?!" I'm glad you figured it out, and I hope it may be useful for other BATters facing the same problem.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

And it's spa again ... thanks for releasing!

[spa 968]

Well, 9 months since I posted anything. I'm still around and I'm even picking away at a little project. I have gone back to my batting roots with a small commercial building: an old beauty from Halifax's Barrington Street, the D'Allaird Building (aka the Vogue Building)

 

 

The Vogue Building is fairly unique in Halifax because of its art deco style. The 30s was not a prosperous time in Halifax and very little was built, which means there are few local examples of art deco architecture. I can think of only 5 buildings as stand out examples of art deco, the two most significant of which I have already batted (Dominion Public Building and the Bank of Nova Scotia). Sometime in the 1960s, a concrete block addition added two additional floors to the Vogue Building. The Vogue Building was recently purchased by Starfish Properties and will be loosely incorporated into a redevelopment of the Roy Building next door. Plan renderings show a common roofline and some green space on top, but the Vogue will remain a separate structure. I think the concrete block addition is really ugly and I couldn't bear to add it to my recreation so in Sim City, the Vogue Building will boast 3 storeys instead of 5.

 

 

Still some texturing to do on the north and west sides and, of course, on the roof, but the bulk of the heavy-lifting is done. I'm hoping to upload this before Christmas.

[scotty222 549]

Love it, you have such a good eye for the small details.

also good call on not adding the extra floors

[edwardjeria 503]

large building that is a triumphant return

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful work man!!!

[jaredh 195]

Could not agree more about not doing the extra floors....small commercials don't get done much anymore.  This one looks like it is a winner.

[SimCoug 5,972]

I'm so glad to see you back, and I like the little art deco project you are sharing.  Good call on keeping it without the addition, this one looks just right at 3 stories.  

[Jack_wilds 550]

SPA! a frozen hollered 'Hello!' from the Fox Valley... a promising art-deco project!

[RepublicMaster 428]

Nice looking BAT! I hope to see more.

[urielgarcia 344]

Looks great Spa.  Great to hear from you again.

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

Spa is back! Lovely work!

[spa 968]

Thanks everyone. I have been picking away at this one and it's now basically finished. Below is how it turned out:

 

 

 

The graffiti on the side is an old ad for eye glasses that I found online and just some text that reads "I never finish anythi". I'm fairly pleased with how this turned out. Unless anyone spots anything, I'll upload it shortly. There will be a left and right corner version. Finishing the Vogue made me stop and ponder for a second the growing collection of buildings that I have batted from Halifax's Barrington Street. Here's a block of Barrington Street in virtual form.

 

 

Edit: I forgot, I have also batted Wright's Building. It would stand on the largely empty (in Sim City anyway) side of Barrington.

[SimCoug 5,972]

Here's a block of Barrington Street in virtual form.

 

Very cool!  That is quite a collection.  So you piqued my interest and I took a look around Barrington St using street view and I really hope you continue to BAT some of those great historic buildings.  I came across this neat trio of buildings (actually on Argyle) - I love how they sandwiched that little guy in there

 

 (Google says this is 1665 argyle st.)

 

Looking forward to seeing the Vogue building on the STEX 

[edwardjeria 503]

ameizing

canada is beutiful

[spa 968]

SimCoug: Argyle Street is one of the Downtown Halifax's best streets! It's full of bars and restaurants, Neptune Theater and the big empty lot across from the buildings you posted is currently a massive construction site for an office/hotel/residential/convention centre project. It's a street that really should become a pedestrian mall since it doesn't have much car traffic. As a mall, the patios could be left out all year long. The tall brick building in your picture is actually the back of the Nova Scotia Furniture Building. It runs right across the block and has a beautiful front on Barrington. It's on my list. If I tackle anything from Argyle though, it'll probably be the old Carleton Hotel.

Edward: Thanks

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful work on the small bat!!!

[SimCoug 5,972]

SimCoug: Argyle Street is one of the Downtown Halifax's best streets! It's full of bars and restaurants, 

 

Well that sounds like my kind of scene 

 

 

 

The tall brick building in your picture is actually the back of the Nova Scotia Furniture Building. It runs right across the block and has a beautiful front on Barrington. It's on my list. If I tackle anything from Argyle though, it'll probably be the old Carleton Hotel.

 

Good to know - like I said, I'd be happy with any of buildings you choose.

 

I just noticed you uploaded the vogue building on the STEX - thanks so much for sharing your hard work 

[spa 968]

If you missed it, the Vogue Building is up on the STEX. With it finished, I have started another bat from Halifax's Barrington Street, the St. Paul's Building.

 

The 5 storey St. Paul's Building is located at the corner of Barrington and Prince Streets across from St. Paul's Church from which it gets its name. It was built in 1897 by George Wright who also built the Marble Building (aka Wright's Building) two doors down. The St. Paul's Building is a fairly ornate example of Chicago School architecture (terra cotta, tall accentuated column-like appearance, steel frame construction) with some neo-classical elements mixed in. It's a somewhat unusual building in that if you look closely, none of the detailing on any of the floors is exactly like the others (floors 2 and 4 come close), but everything still fits together in a coherent way. The St Paul's Building has had a prestigious history, having at various points provided space for the Belgian, Argentine, Italian and Chilean consulates, the Continental Bank, Lloyd's Bank and a variety of professional offices.  As Barrington Street fell on hard-times though, it stopped being a prestigious address and at some point it lost its clock tower and its parapet details. Most recently, it was occupied by a giant used-bookstore that has since, sadly, moved to the suburbs. The space is currently vacant and is available for lease.

 

Even though the St. Paul's Building is a fairly small structure, all of the details that aren't quite alike has made this one a relatively time-consuming little bat. I have floors 2-5 modeled on the street sides.

Sadly, a lot of the details that I have modeled aren't visible. Here's what's actually there in gmax.

 

With some contrasting textures some of it will become more visible, but some of it will be lost. I always tend to overdo the detailing, but I always figures its better to model too much than too little.

 

I'll be moving along to the ground floor next. I'm thinking of also doing a version that still has the clock tower and parapet on top. I found an old photo that shows them from back when the building was a bank.

[edwardjeria 503]

osom

[T Wrecks 10,209]

That's another beautiful W2W building! I like the idea of including a version with the little clock tower, too. Gives it a certain "small town high street" feel. The parapet and those ornate fake gables are very nice touches, too, that I would certainly enjoy to see.

[SimCoug 5,972]

Wonderful! I wholeheartedly support the historical version