Cogeo's BAT Projects - Preview

[cogeo 960]

Hi all,

I've been working with the BAT for some time, however I have only made one BAT (an Incinerator), I have mostly been changing BAT props (made by other members) for use in my lots. I'm currently working on some new BATs. As I'm not an experienced BATter, I would like to have my BATs previewed and commented before releasing them.

My current project is a set of warehouses, to be used in a Logistics Centres pack. The BATs and their lots are completely fictional, but I have used the liveries and colours of some real companies (basically of their containers). For the main building I have used the logos of Maersk-Sealand, ECS, Gartner KG, Hapag Lloyd and P&O Nedlloyd. Some of the pics are listed below.

I wanted them to look new and modern, so I didn't overdo with "weathering" the textures. Actually for most of the buildings I only carried out the "classic" texture processing, ie made them look brighter near the top of the building and added some noise so that they don't look too shiny and spotless. For nightlighting I have used nightwindows as well as open skylights; also some distant omnis with carefully set attentuation parameters so as to get an uneven lighting, for some realism.

And some close-ups.

There are some auxiliary buildings too (retail loading, warehouses etc), not all finished.

The lot is yet far from being finished (not even near completion). As you can see it uses some custom-made textures (tracks, streets etc), it is transit-enabled and hopefully will spawn freight trucks and freight train automata. Also, due to use of prop families, you will get a varied appearance every time you grow or plop it. It will largely rely on jestarr's industrial props. It won't be industrial though, it's actually CS$ and CS$$ mid-density, as industrial demand slumps as soon as EQ, HQ and land value rise (plus I don't regard this activity as really industrial, it's esentially commerce).

I'm looking forward to you comments, ideas or suggestions.

[vester_DK 477]

Wow that looks really good. Keep up the good work.

Those rail textures, where have you finded them ? Something you have done yourself ?

[spa 970]

Yeah these do look good. They would make a wonderful addition to any industrial area. I like the way your lighting shows on concrete floors of your warehouse just through the open door. It really gives that overhead high up warehouse lighting feel. One thing, and this is relatively minor, the textures you have on your buildings might be a tad on the bright side, specifically, the red and yellow on the long warehouse with the numbered bays and the orange on the Hapag-Lloyd.

[Odd from Sweden 129]

This one looks really cool!

[cogeo 960]

Another bit is ready. I have completed BATting of the retail loading models (there are three). I'm now starting modelling of the warehouses. I considered using jestarr's (they're fine), but they are too small (1x2) for this lot.

@vester_DK: Yes, the street/uloading, rail and crane textures are all custom (but derived from the ingame textures). Could you suggest some alternatives maybe?
@spa: Thank you for your comments. What do you mean by bright? Too light or instead too saturated? The yellow in the doorframes of the ECS model is a bit acute, I have to admit. How about the model above? It uses a slightly darker, less saturated colour, resulting in a less contrasted combination. Do you think that the orange should be darker or more "washed off"?.

[toxicpiano 125]

wow excellent work!

[6459978. 106]

The modelling and texturing look quite good! My only complaint would be the noticeable tiling on the roof -- no realistic building would have a realistic pattern of wear like that. Doctoring the texture doesn't take long at all and it makes a huge difference.

[spa 970]

I'm sorry Cogeo but I'm not exactly a photoshop expert so I'm not sure about terms like saturated. I'm more of a lay person. However, as I look at them again I think it's not the red on the numbered bay building it's the yellow. It's simply too bright. The effect of weathering and outdoor light means that no real building would have such a bright yellow. I would guess that if you adjusted the brightness in photoshop down by approx 20ish it would look more realistic and not so "clean" and "plastic." Same for the Hapag-Lloyd, although the brightness thing isn't so bad on it. They just need to be a little less loud. The yellow you've used in your more recent model is a definite step in the right direction. Anyway, this is just constructive criticism. These really do look good. I can see that whenever they're released I'm going to have to go back to my ports and smash things up yet again to make room

[cogeo 960]

@6459978: Most probably you are talking about the Maersk building. Good point. I'm going to re-export this model anyhow, so as to reduce the number of polygons. I used the Maxis roof texture for this. You mean make a single large texture (and add the tile-lines, some noise and the weathering effects myself) that covers the whole roof? This is something I would have to consider. What about these with the inclined roofs?
@spa: The hue/saturation/luminosity values is another way to specify a colour (alternative to the RGB values). Hue is the "wavelength" (ie if the colour is red, oragne, yellow, green etc), luminosity specifies the lightness/darkness and saturation how "pure" the colour is (255 means a 100% pure colour, less saturation makes the colour more "washed-off", while a value of 0 makes the colour a grayshade). It's easy to see how these work in the colour editors of Gmax, or even MS-Paint. So most probably you're talking about saturation in both cases. Thank you for your comments.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

cogeo, you really show extraordinary talent! This reminds me pretty much of the superb start people like jeronij had - first BAT, first hit. You appear to have that certain urge for perfectionism and a good eye on what others did well and how you can reach equal quality. I wish you the best of luck in all your BATting endeavours, and I will follow this thread for sure.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

These are looking really good.  My only suggestions have already been suggested, except that I think it would be good if you made a set of smaller growable lots with one of the buildings on each (like for the one building with the blue trim, it could be an 8x4 or something).  I think that would give the most amount of usability for each of the models, without a ton of extra work.

anyway, keep up the good work.

[Trigger_tre 1]

WOW, cogeo. You have been busy mastering the BAT. Your texturing is very realistic and is some of the better textured BATs Ive seen. Also your lighting is very realistic as well. You didnt overpower it with nightlighting, just enough for good effect.

I look forward to the final STEX product.

-trigger

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[cogeo 960]

Hi again,

There has been some more progress with the project. There are more buildings and props on the lot (fixed textures, streetlights, parked cars etc). The administration building is not a custom BAT, instead it's an ingame CO$$ building, but I think it's OK (there will be more though).

There is also some work with the BATs. First of all the warehouse at the corner. There will be two more variations.

Some of the BATs have been updated, according to your suggestions. The Maersk building now has a single custom texture on the roof instead of the previous tiled one (see the lot image above). The ECS building has a softer (less saturated) yellow on the frames and the spouts; paradoxically the difference is more apparent at night!

Also the Hapag-Lloyd building has a less saturated orange (more in line with the ingame colours).

These are the changes for the moment, now I have to finish BATting and start making the props (trucks, trains - they will be visible during specific periods in the year so as to achieve an alternating effect). I would welcome any further comments, ideas or suggestions.

[spa 970]

Ahh that's much nicer. I didn't notice it before but now that you've made the change I have to say the roof Maresk warehouse looks a lot better. I approve of the less saturated colours. It's a small difference but the yellow and orange went from being too loud to more gentle and realistic. Keep up the great work.

[Trigger_tre 1]

I am curious how you get that lighting effect from your parking lot lights.

I know how to make a spot light but how did you get it to look like a solid beam from the starting point (light itself) to the end-point (the ground).

I am modeling a helicopter and would like the solid beam effect from the spotlight in the copters under-belly. Something similar to the beam from a lighthouse.

About the updates

The first picture is kinda hard to form a perspective, I think its because you havent added any of the props yet. I will look forward to how it looks then and save my comment for then.

The other individual pictures of buildings I really like. Especially the yellow-red one and the orange-blue one.

-trigger

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[cogeo 960]

@trigger: there is supposed to be a floodlight at the parking lot (see the floodlight prop between the two lightpoles?). The hard thing is to turn the lightcone to horizontal direction. Lightcones are indeed models (semi-transparent, with special blending parameters, so that you get an illumination effect). It may be possible to make it horizontal, but there are other problems too, eg these models have a single apsect (S3D/FSH pair) for all rotations, so if you rotate the view by 180° you will get a beam pointing to the lightpole (lol). I will attempt to make a light effect but I'm not sure if I can do this.

[jestarr 3,423]

These are looking very good. As for textures, yellow is the hardest color to get right (imho). You really have to work at it to get it right.

[JayStimson 212]

Your work looks so clean and crisp. I like it. I can't really add more than others already have but I would like to know how you get the "floodlight" working when you do. Pegasus has got this technique figured out if you look at his "bug lites" props but I haven't been able to unravel the trick yet. I'm willing to bet that getting the light cone horizontal (or any angle actually) is probably not that hard once you figure out the technique. So ... if you are able to figure it out ... please share the secret. I searched the forums extensively a while back but with no luck.
Keep up the good work.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Originally posted by: JayStimson

Your work looks so clean and crisp.quote>

I agree, and these would be great additions to any city, what big city doesn't have expanses of these low-rise industrial type buildings throughout certain areas?

Only suggestion that I might add, however, is that you make some that are a little more "weathered" looking.  Don't get me wrong, you're doing a heck of a job here - I just think it's very rare that you see warehouses so crisp and clean.  They don't have to look like they've been through a major war, just some wear-and-tear, grit and grime.

Great job, I look forward to seeing these on the STEX some day!

[cogeo 960]

To those interested: I've got the floodlight to work.

How this can be done: there are definitely other ways, I got the ingame "lightflare" model (used in the $$$ streetlights and lampposts), and modified it by using not BAT, but another modelling program called MilkShape.

These modifications were:
 - Make the angle more acute, the original had an umbrella-like shape.
 - Turn the cone to horizaontal direction.
 - Make it larger.
(no texture/material changes were requied, but in a more optimised version this may be necessary).

Then you have to make the prop exemplar:
 - As the model contains only one aspect (only one S3D/FSH pair for all zoom/rotation) but it needs to be rotated together with all other models, the prop exemplar must use the kSC4BuildingModelRotationProperty property (otherwise the model won't rotate properly).
 - You also need to use the Resource Key Type 4 and Nighttime State Change properties (sorry I don't know any other technique to make the model show only at night, could someone help?)
 - It was not possible to combine the lightpole and lightcone models into the same prop exemplar, cause the kSC4BuildingModelRotationProperty property causes the lightpole model not to be displayed correctly (apparently this property only works with single Z/R models). This is not a great problem though, you can just makee two prop exemplars, one for the lightpole and one for the lightcone models.

[cogeo 960]

Hi again,

I'm finished with BATting, there are now 5 large unloading buildings, 3 retail loading ones and 3 warehouses. All are basically the same models, with some differentiation on the roofs, the vents, and of course the textures/clolours/logos.

There have been some improvements, taking into account the suggestions and comments posted here.

I used less saturated colours in some buildings, like the yellow of the doorframes, in the ECS building below. I think it's now not so contrasted.

Also I have added some "weathering" effect to all roofs, without overdoing with it. I wanted them look "new" and "modern", but some little grit on the roofs is formed within a few months, so they now look more realistic (the previous ones looked like polished metal). Also the orange and yellow in the buildings below is now less bright.

The retail loading buildings are shown below.

Also the warehouses.

The above buildings will be prop families, resulting in a differentiated and random look, every time you plop or grow them.

As said above BATting is essentially finished, but I would still welcome comments, ideas or suggestions.

There has been some progress on the lots too, additional props, textures and transit-enabling.

They are estimated to be on the STEX by the middle of the upcoming week.

[Slice 0]

These are looking really good now, looking forward to their release

Can I ask, did you actually BAT the corregated effect on the buildings or is it just the texture?

Thanks.

[cogeo 960]

@slice: no, the corrugated effect is a texture effect in all cases (walls, roofs doors). Modelling it would require a huge number of objects and polygons.

[Trigger_tre 1]

WOW! I just realized that you found a workaround for the horizontal floodlight issue.

I would say that it sounds like good tutorial material. I think people would really be interested in knowing how you got those fanstatic lighting cones. Especially the sideways floodlight and the 4-light pole.

The only thing that might be missing would be some side doors on some of the warehouses in the pictures towards the bottom. The "Hapag-Lloyd" & "Gartner" have them but I dont see them on any others. I could be mistaken but I would think 1 simply side intrance would perfect the realism that would often be seen on real-life warehouses.

Beautiful work though!

-trigger

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[choco1 4]

These bats look fantastic! Very realistic warehouses you have there, they look just like some down from my house.

I love what you're doing, keep it up! You're making simcity much more realistic!

[cogeo 960]

Hi again,

I'm now finished with Batting. All textures and colours were changed to less saturated and more weather ones, getting buildings that are now more in line with the ingame ones. The improvement is clear in the before and after images below.

Also the lot is now almost ready. There are many more props, which change over time, eg the semi trailers that appear and disappear periodically.

All these streets are transit enabled. The parking areas are transit enabled too.

Very little work is now to be done, mostly packaging and writing the documentation.

[coultharda 135]

What can I say? That is truly stunning. Great job!

[cogeo 960]

The BATs are on the STEX now.

There is some little work still needed on the lot and packaging/documentation; it has proven more than I had originally estimated, as many of them change over time (the trucks appear and disappear, the gates close during the night etc), and this increased the amount of work needed. But it will be on the STEX soon.

[sloppet 3]

great work c. !! it's really good!

[spa 970]

This looks great. I like the attention you've paid to the minor details related ot the lots. Not many have the patience. I'm looking forward to trying these out by my seaport. Oh and the new textures are much better than the old ones. They're much more realistic looking.