my first bat - need advice

[tiemanj 5]

This is my first bat building, and I need a little advice.  I can't seem to find a good texture for the overhangs - I can't really even imagine what the should look like.  Can anyone help me out with this.  Any other advice or constructive critisim is welcome.

  

[chapo16 14]

hey that looks great

but maybe you need to change the glass and the pink texture and it will look perfect, very european

Chapo16

[Kwakelaar 92]

Nice looking first bat, you could try to texture the overhang with some rooftiles or a greenish copper texture.
You could also add some transparency to your glasstexture.

[JayStimson 212]

That's very good for your first BAT. Congrats.
As far as textures go ... and they are so important to creating an attractive BAT ... I'd suggest looking through the STEX at what others have done for similar buildings to get some ideas. Then decide what you want and hunt down (and maybe modify) a texture that you like. There's also a textures thread in the BAT Workshop forums you could try for info. Good luck.

[tiemanj 5]

I added the roof texture to the overhangs.  I'm still not happy with them, and I'll probably play with it for a little while longer.  The oxidized copper and other roof textures didn't look right, at least not with the overhangs angled down like they are.  I also increased the transparency of the windows and added a few pictures behind them so it appears something is going on.  I still need to add something behind the first floor windows.  I was going to go for a 1st floor resturant look, or perhaps a book or clothing store.  The building I based this off had a Abercrombie & Fitch their, but I think I perfer a resturant.  How is it looking now.  Suggestions are welcome.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//day3.JPG align=baseline>

[Goin2Chicago 4]

i don't bat but i think it looks very good for a first bat. for some reason it reminds me of a japanes bath house. i have no idea why but it looks ver cool. i like the whole thing and will get it from the stex when it comes out. keep up the good work!

[Odd from Sweden 129]

This sure looks like a really good first attempt in BAT. I think the roof looks good now, but it sure would be nice with something in the large windows. In your next BAT, you should make the heigth of the forst floor taller, usually a sopping/ restaurant floor is taller than a residential/ office floor. Good luck batting!

[jacqulina 162]

very nice

[tiemanj 5]

I added some stuff to the front windows.  I think I'll export it tonight or tomorrow.  Should this be a Co$$ or Co$$$ building?

I'm working on a new building now.  It is another office building with a grand front entrence and large lobby.  It should be a little bigger then Fierra Inc (is that what it is called - the building with the running track on the roof), and hopefully will fit it nice with it.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//day4.JPG align=baseline>https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//night2.JPG align=baseline>

[TheCrybKeeper 301]

Tiemanj: I have been looking at your images for bit; Love the stone texture you chose. Great style and design. That roof reminds me of tin sheet, but not sure I like the lighter texture of that. Just my taste and not a problem.

Overall I would rate it an 8.1 out 10. especially nice for your first!

[Gman55 0]

Great job for your first BAT.

My advice: add more detail to the bottom windows. Usually the bottom floor is the "busiest" - signs, interior junk, or whatever gives your building a little more realism.

[onlyplace4 605]

Looking excellent for a first BAT ... deffo better than my first attempts Just a couple of small suggestions:

1. 1 The canopies over the entrances would probably not be tiled, but rather cloth. In that case, and depending on how you have constructed them, you could simply apply colours to the individual polygons to simulate striped cloth as seen in many canopies.

1. 2 The ground floor needs to be taller, but I know other people have already suggested this.

1. 3 I assume you are using nitelite textures. These are opaque and cut out any internal detail at night. Better, if you can get your head around it, would be to set the windows as transparent textures and then light the internals with spots/omnis (not forgetting to prefix them nitelite of course). This way you can vary the intensities of individual lights as well as make all your internals show up at night as well.

Anyway, just my five cents worth. All in all it's looking GREAT, and if this is your first BAT can't eait to see what you produce in the future. 9 outta 10 for a great first effort!

[tiemanj 5]

Thanks for the help guys.  I fixed it up a tad more, but for the most part, I think I am done with this building.  Once I get one to grow in my city, and the building exchange is up, I'll release it.


I took most of your suggestions when I created my second building though.  I've also completed this one (the picture bellow is a little old)

Any thoughts on this one?

[onlyplace4 605]

Looking real good. A couple of small observations though.

Two objects on the roof appear to be making a break for freedom (they look like they are floating).

The roof texture is too clean. Try adding a plane 0.05 above the roof plane and use this to add dirt using a diffuse and an opacity map on the texture.

I don't know what you have planned for the nitelites, but I can see a perfect opportunity here with the recesses in the ground and first floor to use target spots to create a very realistic nitelite scenario. If you are going to use object lights rather than the normal texture lights for the windows, don't forget that the BAT render will not show these unless they have something to reflect off, such as internal floors.

Other than that, this looks great and will make a very good addition to the STEX. 10 out of 10 and a great big thumbs up

[Jasoncw 12,030]

The second one looks great except for the texturing, which probably makes it look very out of place in the game, and kinda weird out of game too, lol.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, what an improvement! That second building looks sweet.

As Jason said, however, the textures are ok, but not really perfect currently. With improved textures, this building could make a "star performer" on the STEX, if you ask me - the potential is definitely there!

For the roof texture, take a look at 6459978's Toronto BATs thread; there used to be a mini-tutorial on page 12 (old Simtropolis site) which will teach you how to create superb roof textures.

Concerning the wall textures, that yellow brick texture looks oversaturated to me, whereas the brown texture around the lower floors could use some more contrast and some gascooker-style gradients (check out his tutorial on the Omnibus, too, if you haven't done so already!).

Another thing that caught my attention are those pipes on the roof - it looks to me like they are floating in the air! (EDIT: Just saw that onlyplace4 has mentioned that already, sorry about that)

Other than that, I don't see anything right now... maybe you could take a close look at how Maxis made the windows of their houses; they look pretty interesting in case of some buildings, and if you manage to recreate that, you may find that your building has become even more interesting than it already is! Check out Jason's Fisk Insurance Building (in the "Jason's BATs" thread); it really has the best day windows I've ever seen on a custom building. Then again, I reckon that's really one of the last and most difficult steps.

Well, all in all, that building you got going there is already a pearl - just keep BATting, you obviously have what it takes to become a great BATter. I hope that I managed to give one or two points of constructive criticism and that I didn't sound negative, because I really like to see your progress. Keep it up!

[tiemanj 5]

Thanks for the input guys.  I have a quick question.  When I went back in to make some of the suggested changes, I can't seem to get anything other then a siloute:


which makes it very difficult to modify things (I also hide most of the building when I'm editing - otherwise my computer runs to slow to do anything).  How do I make it so I can see it again. I tried adding some lights to shine on the parts I'm working on, but no luck.

onlyplace4 - thanks for the texture advice - that was what I was trying to fix when I ran into this issue.  As for the night lighting, most of the building is textured lights (I think - is that what you call it when you add "nite" in front of the window name?).  The ground floor however is lit by spots from the inside, which allows the player to see inside the ground floor at night. It also casts some shadows from some details that you normally can't see.  I'm kindof happy with it, except that it took a lot of trial and error.  It seemed as if sometimes the lights would cast the shadows, and sometimes not - especially on the loading dock in the back (sorry no pics yet - it takes about 15 min to generate one at low quality).  I still haven't really figured it out yet.

T Wrecks - thanks for the pointers.  I guess I try lowering the number of bricks across the walls - will that help unsaturate it?  I thought something didn't look quite right.

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[Spike345 20]

Perosnally, I think there should be railings on the second floor platforms...it would look nice, a nice jesture.

[tiemanj 5]

Can anyone help with my last question?

[Glenni 1,447]

ok go right lcik on the text in one of your window which says perspective, click configure slelct default

[tiemanj 5]

Thanks for the help.  I redid the roof texture.  I changed it to a darker, stonier texture, them added another semi-transparent one on top.  I looks better, but I think it is still missing something.  I think it could use a little more streaks of dirt similar to the ones in my first building above.

(please excuse the preview - I takes FOREVER to render even a draft quality preview with the roof decorations).

Is their a way to make certain colors (such as white) transparent (while leaving the rest of the image file untouched)?

I'm also going to adjust the color of the rest of the building.  I like the yellow brick color, but it is a little to strong.  Is their a way to darken it.  I saw the "self illumination", but that just seems to brighten it, and it won't allow negative numbers.

Thanks for the help.

[JayStimson 212]

Looking good. Roof needs another piece of junk (IMO). I always darken the texture itself (outside of BAT). If you don't change the file name (of the texture file) it'll automatically change the next time you open the model in BAT. I have gimp2 which works pretty well but for something as simple as darkening or lightening, I open the texture file in MS Photo Editor and reduce or increase the brightness. This is a nice building. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Sabretooth78 808]

That second one is awesome, but I must agree that the textures are a bit too "rough", if you know what I mean. The amount of texture isn't evident from as "far away" as the in-game vantage point.

As for the roof, a little more junk on the roof might help. Maybe a skylight, an A/C unit (which tend to be gawky on older buildings), piping always works, etc. Also, your roof texture has a tiled look, and it's way too clean looking. Assuming it's supposed to be an older building, the roof would be alot more weathered, discolored patches, etc. Take a look at some aerial photos of old parts of cities to see what I mean.

Other than those details though, that looks like one heck of a model for a beginner!

-Chris

[tiemanj 5]

Thanks.
I'm still working on the roof - I'm trying to figure out how to make some discolor patches and streaks without adding obvious squares or seams to the texture.  Any suggestions are welcome.
I darkened the face textues a bit, and I think I like the result.  I think I need to darken the inner roof borders now (and perhaps the roof itself) so it doesn't stand out quite so much, but hopefully this will fit in the game better.



I also agree it needs a little more junk up top.  Maybe I'll try my hand at a skylight.  If I do that, I'll need to model the top floor.  What is in these buildings (I've never been in one) - a conference room / table perhaps?

Thanks for your help guys

[spa 970]

This second building looks really good. It looks like it took quite a bit of time. Some of the textures (mainly the roof) could use some work. If you're looking for help in making a custom roof texture so that you won't have to tile you should check out 6459978's tutorial in his BAT thread. It's on approximately page 13. Here's the link: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=58309&STARTPAGE=12&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

It's really easy to follow and is really useful. It solved my roof textures problems. The principles he outlines can also be used for making walls.

One other excellent texturing technique tutorial that I would highly recommend is by gascooker. I don't have the link to it unfortunately since the Simtropolis change over rendered my old one obsolete, but he explains how to apply gradients to make textures more life like. You might be able to find it in his BAT thread. Good luck and keep up the great work.

[tiemanj 5]

I used 6459978's tutorial, and I'm pleased with the results.  I think I may redo it again - I think I can get better on the second go around, but I like the current one far better then anything previous.


(roof border decorations removed again to allow for a reasonable rendering time)
It came out a little dark, and I think the dirt is a little too big  / much.

I put a conference table and some chairs under the skylight, and some pictures on the wall, but they are hard to see.  I don't know if they are helping the feel or not. 
Do you think I should light the skylight, and if so with real lighting or the nitelite texture - the side windows would be texture lights to fit in with the rest of the building.

Also, now that I'm looking at it more, I like the older - lighter color sceme better.  What do you guys think?

[tiemanj 5]

I'm try to export the model, and I keep getting an error -6 during the zoom 5 south night view every time (4 times now).  Any idea what could be causing this and how I could fix it?

[tiemanj 5]

I updated the roof texture and adjusted some of the base textures.  This is a high quality preview.  I'm about ready to put this model to bed.  I want to fix up the lights under the skylight, and I might do a little more texture work.  I can't find gascookers gradient tutorial...does anyone know where it is, or could give me a real quick overview.

[eedoon 0]

Looking good! What building it would be, R$$, Co$$$ or Co$$?

I personally think your first BAT should be a shop or something, the wide front windows is perfect for that.

[tag_one 133]

really great, I love the amount of details