psander5

The STEX search won't work in this case... I made them and never released them if I get the chance they might see the light of day eventually. Quite a few people have asked me for them over the years!

It's always great to see another new UK BATer around here! You have some interesting projects going on. That theatre model that you opened with would be great if you could pull it off, although the irregularity of the buildings will likely cause problems when converting it into a working BAT within the constraints of SimCity4. I usually have to take the facades and square up the backs so that they fit into the grid... which is a shame. My advice to you for now would be to pick one small project (that A Foster & Son shop would be perfect in my opinion), and work it through to the end. You seem to be flitting from one project to the next at the minute, and from experience I can tell you that it's not very helpful when you're leaning the complicated process of making things for this game. You'll also get more focussed, continuous help from the community if you show updates from only one or two projects at a time, start to finish. As has been said before, good textures are vital in this business If you don't already, you should get familiar with an image editing program. I and many use Photoshop, but there is a free alternative called GIMP. Here's a link to it if you need it, it's an unfortunate name for a Google search... link. I don't use it myself but I hear it's comparable in many ways to the expensive Photoshop. It's incredibly rare to find an appropriate stock image texture for a big expanse of BAT, so most will need heavy processing in an image editing program first. Personally I make most of my big textures (walls, roofs, floors etc) from scratch using various sloppy techniques. If you have access to Photoshop (There will probably be a way to do it in GIMP as well but I don't know it) I can recommend for creating a basic brickwork pattern to use as a base. I've also used a separate program called Bricks 'n' Tiles before, which has a free edition, to create a brick texture from photographs, although for regular sized house bricks then Jasoncw's tutorial is more than adequate for me. I'd love to see your models worked up into full SC4 BATs so I hope that none of this puts you off. I want most of them for my cities, which are influenced by my British experience, and there aren't enough of things like this yet! I have an insatiable appetite! I haven't BATed anything myself in a long time, but it just happens that I was inspired by a walk through Sheffield this morning to pick it up again, so I might be able to add my limited knowledge to your endeavours once I remember the stuff that I've learnt in the past

You've just about made my day

I use that compact one myself sometimes. It's good for where you need an interchange that you didn't previously plan for because it's so tidy. I hope that one day there will be a few more roundabout options in our world of SC4

A collection of small towns, villages and hamlets in one tile of a new region I'm developing: The main town is called Colbourne Town Centre: Schools and playing fields: Station, markets and high street: Park and the tallest building with habitable floors in Colbourne: Night time: A smaller town, McGlynn, to the south: And Walker Wood to the East of Colbourne: And a zoom 1 view of the completed tile... the only one so far in this region that will eventually be full of small towns orbiting a large conurbation: Fun Fact: I'm naming all the cities, towns and boroughs in this region after Team GB and Paralympics GB Athletes who've won medals at this years Olympics and Paralympics. If I get far enough into developing it I might even make a return to CJing This thread and all the other "show us your..." threads are inspiring!

Nice and curvy The FARHW pieces really add some interest to it and make it look really comfortable in its surroundings. It's been a while since I posted any content around here, but I recently started playing again, and lurking in the forums. Here's a pair of interchanges from me... I built the bridge system first to provide access for the riverside suburbs that will fill this tile, but I forgot that a major arterial road was coming through here so I had to squeeze it in to the side as an afterthought

...Hello I'm still here, sort of. I haven't forgotten the project. I've just been busy with work... or rather, travelling to work. I've moved to Sheffield now though, closer to work, so I should have more time and energy in the evenings. This means I will be able to do more BATing! I don't have anything more to show on this project yet though. It'll take me a while to get back into the swing of things. I have been working on the model a bit, but progress will be slow to start with. So don't worry, this building hasn't beaten me. It's not that difficult to do really, especially with all the support around here As well as this project I also have an ice hockey stadium to finish! I recently went back to Finland and had another look at it 'in the flesh', so I will get back on to that project before too long too. No BAT pictures to show so here's a relevant one from my holiday album... It was quite cold

I hear there are more than about three different voice actors in this one! If they have a copy left in the shop on friday after work I'll get a copy for the weekend.

Oops. Double post

gutterclub : There's no way I'd model the interiors of the whole thing There are some areas that might need it though, such as the lobby, the penthouse (top three rows of windows), skybar (the overhang), and the glass-enclosed balconies on one side of the upper section. That's still probably too long a list... oh, and there's the glass atrium and restaurant in the annex as well! Bing can sometimes give a good approximation of SC4's angle. Not so much in this case though. It appears less transparent and the overall colour is darker than from more lateral angles, but the resolution is too low to tell. Something inbetween realism and convenience is what I'm looking for T Wrecks : Yep, for someone who's scared of glass I made a strange choice in this huge glass box! The groundplane isn't appropriate for this model, I agree. I plan to make a better one. The current one worked well for my last building, which was a lot smaller! Jasoncw : Hero That's just the kind of knowledge I was lacking. That little mini-tutorial is great! I would have never arrived at that solution. I even 'chucked a sickie' from work so I could play with it Well, not really, but I have conveniently had the day off with a bad back. I've applied it to the hotel floors, but I think it might be more valuable on the residential floors, which have fewer obstructions in the windows. People that high up don't care about walking around naked with no curtains it seems! _____________________________________________ So here's another mini update. I think I need to stop messing around with the glass now though until the rest of the model is finished. I think I'm going in the right direction with it now at least. It'll be easier to judge colour and reflection once the reflected elements are finished and textured, and I don't want all that glass to stretch the preview render time too far just yet. Not that it matters too much any more now I'm using a beastly machine! I think I need to up the contrast between the 'clear' glass and the milky, coated glass a bit more... but that's one of those things that can wait until the end. I'm quite pleased with myself that I managed to work out how to get map channels to work so I could keep the bump map on 'face' UVW co-ords and the texture on a separate 'planar' channel. Even though it looks a little messed up on the south side, but I think that might be down to the white roof that's being reflected. On a related note... 3dsMax 2012 Bible is in the post, so I might be getting to know a few more useful features If I can find the discipline to work through it!