SPAs Urbanist BAT Thread

[Odd from Sweden 129]

It is a really good model and a unique piece of building that I would like to have in my cities. However, I have one big objection:

I guess You have built those signs out of boxes in BAT, and thus all sides got the same texture when You textured them. Well, it is an easy way to fix this and give different sides of the boxes (or anything made in BAT) different textures.

To show how it is done, I created a nice but simple building only using a box and a texture. It looks OK I guess, besides that there is facade decorations and a window up on the roof.

To fix this, first convert the box into a editable mesh.

Then (1), select polygon as shown,

then (2) select a surface on the mesh. You see those arrows on it when it is selected.

Then drag a suitable material and drop it on the roof surface. And voila, it looks much better!

Try this to give Your back and top sides a more "back-sidy" finish!

[Odd from Sweden 129]

sorry double post

[spa 970]

Odd: Thanks for the advice, it's appreciated. I'm embarssed to say that anytime I have needed to have a different texture on the same object I have made a copy and extruded out .001 so that it covers up the side I want to be different. I honestly didn't know there was another way to do it.  Anyway, I took your advice about the lower walls on the back of the bill boards and I made a dirtier rusty variation of the pink wall to go there. As for the sign tops and the red though, thanks for the advice, but I'm going to take a pass. The pink tops to me aren't unrealistic. It has been my observation that a lot of plasticky materials used on roof outlines and signs on modern buildings are kept fairly clean by wind and rain if they're suitably exposed. The paint and colour tends to fade, but that's about it. The pink texture I have is already a pretty light colour so I'm just going to leave it as is. As for the red, it took a lot to get just the shade I wanted. I like how it contrasts and complements the overhead SAM signs so, realistic or not, I'm going to keep it. Thanks again though for your advice.



So this is not a happy update. I have hit render #10 and the same problem continues to torment me. Those little black spots on Sam's just won't go away. Check them out below.

They're ugly and a blotch on all the work that went into this. I'm really peeved. The thing is they're not in GMAX or in the model's fsh files. If they were it would be easier to fix things. The problem is coming about in the lot editor. Something in Sim City doesn't like this model. I know Sparkythepenguin ran into a real mess with this very same problem on the roof of his Hadfield Courthouse so I have PMed him and Bixel to see if they might have some suggestions. Hopefully either they or someone who sees my thread will be able to offer some advice. For now I have to put Sam's on hold. I'm hoping to solve the problem, but, if need be, I'll release as is and people can decide whether or not they still want it. This is all very disheartening. Anyway, I have had more than enough for one day. Hopefully things will be better in the morning.

[ACEfanatic 7]

Check your LOD's. That might be the cause.

-ACE

[spa 970]

ACE: Unfortunately I'm almost 100% certain that it's not a lod problem. It isn't in the fsh files. It appears in the lot editor. Luckily today I figured out a partial solution.

So after my little tirade yesterday things are looking better today. I have come up with a partial but imperfect solution. Check it out below.

As you can see the problem is greatly diminished in my 14th render. I have it down to a few isolated splotches that are scattered across the building instead of a several big splotches all in one place. I think it's better this way and only a keen observer, or someone who comes through my thread, is likely to spot it. This seems to be as good as it's going to get. So what did I do? Well I took the original detailed grey wall texture and replaced it with a simple one tone solid grey texture. You can see them both below (the original is on the left and the new one is on the right).

With the new solid texture, the problem ends up as it is now. I lose some texture detail, but the problem ends up greatly diminished. Seems like a good trade. I'm now ready to sign off on this. I'll finish testing, setting the stats and writing up a readme sometime tonight.  

[bixel 1,228]

I think it is the hazards of working with gmax....as of now I have yet to see this problem replicated in Bat4Max > 3DS Max renders/exports. Good luck!

[spa 970]

Sam the Record Man is now, finally, on the STEX. I think that makes it a whole three to four weeks later than I thought it would be. Anyway you can download it here:

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16420

[buckbeach 8]

I like your BAT it is very realistic. I am a big fan of the smaller town (JB Smalltown, yticmic, etc, etc). I think you could use this with some small modifications (like I even have a clue as to how much work is necessary) to add up to three of these type of buildings to that theme.

[spa 970]

Buckbeach: Thanks. I too like the small town stuff. It's a very underappreciated part of sim city. A lot of my stuff can work in small towns and a lot of the small town stuff can work with my BATs, but the inspiration is entirely different. The buildings I do all come from trendy, lively urban areas in big cities. That makes a difference. The most obvious effect is that the stuff I draw inspiration from tends to have very loud very prominent signage whereas JBSimo's buildings are much quieter. Makes senses since there is more competition between businesses in large cities. Anyway, it would be possible to break Sam the Record Man up into two buildings, but it would take some work and I'm ready to move onto something new. Generally I'm not very good at making multipe versions of a building because by the time I'm done one, I'm bored with it and eager to start something new. So I don't see myself doing any further work on Sam the Record Man. Thanks for stopping by though and making the suggestion.

So with Sam the Record Man released I'm moving onto the new things. I find batting is a cyle for me. When I release something I'm eager to get going again on something else while when I have bats nearly done I tend to slow down. Anyway, I'm not in the mood to take on anything too big right now (the 17th Avenue Pedestrian Shopping Centre will have to wait) so I'm tackling some more shops from Kensington to expand the set. Below is the one I'm currently working on.

Trend Fashions is a clothing store and Core Partners seems to be a business consulting firm of some sort. I don't have a clue who the happy guy is in front of the building smiling at me. When I was taking the picture I was so focussed on the building that I never noticed him. He must have thought I said cheese  I generally don't like to make any of my bats smaller than 2x2 so I decided to double the size of Trend Fashions. Below is a picture of what I have so far.

As you can see to make it a 2 wide I just added on another wing to the building in the same style with some variation of the doors and windows on the store fronts. The additional business aren't fictional. Both Bead Works and Tower Cleaners are real businesses in Kensington. They're located up the street in a building that I'm not going to be batting so I figured they could come along for the ride with Trend Fashions and Core. Lots to do still. I need to wait until the girl friend gets back so that I can snap some pictures of the side and back. This one shouldn't take too long. Depending how busy I get with my thesis I could have this finished sometime during the upcoming week. In the meantime the other buildings that I have in mind include the Richland Building that I showed earlier and this one:

The Tandori Hut is an excellent Indian Restaurant in Kensington. It shares its space with a nail studio and a tattoo parlour. It's right next door to Ridley's Cycles and it is diagonally across the street from Trend Fashions. I like the colour scheme of the building, but really it's a fairly generic place. Both Trend Fashions and Tandori Hut will fit 2x3 w2w while Richland will be a 3x3. All three BATs will have parkings lot in back oriented to link up with my other 3 deep bats.

[buckbeach 8]

Alas, I still am impressed by your work and the new projects above are will make a fine addition to the game. I very much like the 2 to 5 story W2W stuff that departs from the European style with their steep gables for their roofs to handle their snow. Having said that there are some mighty fine BAT/Lot models in that arena also.

[JBSimio 152]

Looks like another great start, Spa!  This one looks nice and basic... a great generic type of conversion building.  Should bridge the gap between our styles pretty well!   One of these days I'm going to have to spend some time at the "fast" computer and go on a downloading spree to catch up on all your stuff.

JB

[spa 970]

Buckbeach: Thanks. I didn't set out to do non-European non-historic w2w buildings. It just happens I live in one of the few neighbourhoods in which they exist. It seems to have been a fortunate coincidence as their really aren't many of them on the STEX.

JBSimio: I was thinking that too. It's kind of a modern building done to look older so it could sit well along our ever growing main street collection.

Just a small update today. In between working on my thesis I popped in and out of BAT. I can't do any more on Trend Fashions until I get a chance to walk down to the end of the block with the camera so I started Tandoori Hut. Below is what I have so far.

Like Ridley's Cycles this isn't exactly a complicated building. It does have some interesting stuff around back though that should be fun to do. As usual I have diverged a little from reality. I decided to give Shari's nails its own roof sign and I cut the second Tandoori Hut sign. Anyway it's a beginning. I have also got started on a more complicated three storey building in Kensington but I don't want to show anything of it just yet. Until I move near the end of August I think I'll spend my bat time strictly in Kensington. Kind of a tribute to my soon to be old neighbourhood. I'll limit myself to the three or four models I have underway. I'm going to try and mix it up a bit as finishing Sam's became a real drag. If I can flip between three or four models things will hopefully stay fresher. Anyway, my next update will probably be of the more complicated building. Until then.

[Kwakelaar 92]

Nice work again, Spa. I can understand SAM becomming a bit of a drag after something like 14 renders just for the small spots on the wall. Meanwhile I enjoy the look of the building in the game.

[Spike345 20]

Great Work So Far, I love it, and I absolutely cannot wait for your next Yonge Street Project? Any Idea so far? I am estatic!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

We certainly know how tough it is to get something just right in the Portland Project! Glad that we could be of assistance to you Spa in getting the Sam Records out! It looks great! Keep up the good work!

[spa 970]

Kwakelaar: Thanks. By the end I was really sick of it. Sometimes BATs become something to just get done unforunately. I'm sure you know that from your own work.

Spike345: Thanks. I'm going to be batting buildings from Kensington for the next while. I move in August and before I go I'm going to do as my building as I can from my soon to be old neighbourhood. After that though... I don't know. I'll probably put more time into my Halifax collection since I'll be back East. That said, I do see myself doing the HMV on Yonge Street sometime this year since it would complement Sam the Record Man.

Sparkythepenguin: Thanks Sparky. You and Bixel were great in sending me feedback about your dealings with the distortion problem. I hope some of what I found might be useful for you guys if and when you run into future difficulties.

So I haven't done anything on Trend Fashions or Tandoori Hut since my last update. Instead I have spent my time on another Kensington project, Kensington Manor. Below is a picture of the real building.

As you can see Kensington Manor is yet another modern w2w building from the neighbourhood. It's an odd building because it's like 3 1/2 floors. The street level has a set of stairs. You go down half a flight to get to the basement cafe or up a half flight to get to a clothing store and upstairs offices that are occupied by a development firm (they build condos). Below is what I have done so far.

It may not look it but this has been a lot of work (probably 15-20 hours). As usual, I have departed from reality. I decided to make this one 3 wide and to do that I just added on another wing in the same style. I have thought about maybe making a second tower for the left end or the left middle, but right now it's not on the agenda. Making this has taken so much time because of dealing with angles and the area around the stairs. That was a lot more difficult to model than I thought it would be. Below is a close up

Most of this, as it turns out, doesn't show up very well. I'm hoping though that it might when I put lights on it so that at least in nightview it might be visible. This is the first time I have ever put anything below ground so I'm not sure how this will go. If it becomes a problem I can easily take it out. Hopefully I'll be able to leave it. Below ground entrances isn't something that many people have done despite the fact that they are fairly common in real life. There are two other buildings in Kensington that I are on my agenda with below ground features, but we'll see. One final note, the actual building is really called the Kensington Plaza Building but I have already released a building called Kensington Plaza so I'll just call this one Kensington Manor. 

[jt_144_2004 0]

Looking interesting...keep it up

[JBSimio 152]

Stop coming up with such cool ideas!!!  I already told you, I'm way behind on downloading right now... and you're not helping.

I really like this one.  I didn't even catch the angles until I saw your BAT version and then had to go back up and look again.  Personally, I would stick with just the one tower.  But that's just me.  Either way, it looks great so far.

JB

[spa 970]

jt_144_2004: Thanks.

JBSimio: I'm sorry to add to your burden Yeah the angles are really subtle. I only rotated the thing by 5 degrees to get it. I started with 10 but that was just too much. I'm thinking one tower too. I might, however, include one at the back. I just don't know what I'm going to do with the back of this one yet.

Today I made some more progress on Kensington Manor. I decided that since this building is 3 1/2 floors high, it needs some below ground access on the left hand side. So I added space for two storefronts and another entrance into the offices. That decisions has left me torn, however, as to what to do with the buiding's support trusses on the left. The green cylinders that I have been using for support columns work well in close to walls where they don't have to hold much, but on the left things are different. There is a significant space between the left corner and where the building's wall is going to be (to the right of the stairs). I'm worried that the green supports that I have been using will look dinky compared to the space in between them and the wall and it won't be believable that they can hold up the two brick floors above without help. I decided to made a bigger, bulkier, tougher support column to try and avoid this issue, but a bigger green cylinder just looked dumb so I had to change styles. Thus, using a bigger support means that all the support columns on the building no longer match, which has also left me torn. I'm not sure what to do so I'm looking for some input. I have made up pictures of the two options. What's the grreater evil? A dinky column or supports that no longer match? Any opinions or preferences are welcome.

Option A:

Option B:

As things sit right now, I'm leaning towards Option A. One final word on this BAT, it's going to be CS$$$ since the additional shops I have added are expensive places (two clothing stores, a jeweler and watch shop). None of my BATs have been CS$$$ yet so it's probably time to release at least one BAT of that type.

[jacqulina 162]

these look wonderfull great work

[NicolaiS 8]

Spa,

So far I really liked all your creations and with the last pictures shown you are really outdoing yourself. I can already imagine these great BAT's in my cities and I am looking forward to the release date. You are very talented and I am grateful your share your talents with the community. Kensington Manor is becoming a masterpiece. The green support columns are a very nice touch and I hope you will keep them in, even if they turn out a bit "dinky" in the game.

Nic.

[yoder7652 21]

Spa...this is belated, but have you downloaded the texture upgrade for BAT from the simcity website. I was having the same problem and Jestarr suggested it to me and it was worked so far...no more little splotches of discoloration.

[6459978. 106]

Option A works for me .

[praiodan 78]

My vote also goes for option A.

[yoder7652 21]

guess I forgot to vote, I'd say A....looks like it provides more support. who cares if they don't all match...it gives character.

[Kwakelaar 92]

I am leaning towards option B, allthough I like the building with the chunky columns as well.

This building is becomming very nice, and I can only agree with NicloaiS as to your talent.

[Spike345 20]

I really like these buildings you're spitting out....but I have a question for you Spa, is there anywhere in your planned Buildings where you have a Starbucks? I am dying for a new Starbucks I can fit into my dense urban settings since like, in Toronto there is like one EVERYWHERE and like I am a barista and all ahaha.

[asturianu 4]

Wow, spa, theese buildings are awesome, amazing i love all they, as you know i use all your buildings and your news are great, i can't wait for them.

[jt_144_2004 0]

A is better

[buckbeach 8]

Considering the weight distribution of the over-hanging portion of the second floor, option A looks more solid. You know here in California even a small temblor might collapse Option B (although it does look nice).