ReikaKalseki

Originally posted by: Yoshiisland If you have MSN, I have some base window textures I'd be willing to share. PM me if you're interested.quote> I don't have MSN - adware - but if you have a rapidshare account or something...

Originally posted by: CSGdesign RadicalOne, I already said, Google Images dude.quote> That's what I tried - I'm no stranger to images.google.ca - but as I said, most of the images were either not tileable, or were inaccessible. EDIT: For example, here's one that might suit your BAT according to the style you're currently using. And here's another that might suit it if you're open to altering it a bit.quote> I have a use for that second one - though not as a glass texture. Glass need stuff reflected in it though, but make sure it's not sky because a vertical glass plane being viewed from above reflects what is lower than it, not higher. In other words, it's surrounding cityscape. This is the problem with many glass buildings in Simcity, because the BAT-Builder doesn't ever actually know what will end up around it but can only guess. Generally a large glass sky-scraper will have other tall buildings near it, so try to find a nice "cityscape" view and zoom in on a few of the scrapers in it and use that as your reflect map.quote> Yes, someone suggested I try that, and I will, as it sounds promising. Thank you.

Try here to remedy the problem.quote> I searched it yesteday, and I can't find a good texture with just glass (not lattice and facade). Are there any? For the lattice/window frames you've added, I'd make them brighter so they contrast more and thus stand out better so we can see themquote> I want to, but it's already almost white - it appears dark as the columns are embedded in the glass. I might completely redo that...tomorrow. It's 00:32 where I live, and I need to rest. Also, about the "fin"...imo, it should be symmetrical, and the texture on it seems a bit "pixelated"...quote> The pixelation is an artifact of having a poor texture - I definitely need to fix that. I tried a symmetrical fin, and I was reminded too much - in my opinion - of an obelisk. Perhaps there might be a workaround...

Originally posted by: swat-medic For help with texturing, see here, and herequote> It's not so much applying textures as getting non-crappy textures I'm having trouble with. Everywhere I go on the internet, I find watermarks, "register here", or my AntiVirus (AVG) blocking the site due to "high risk activity" on the site. EDIT: Is there any way to make the fin's glass partly transparent? I've had no success in the past - apparently, judging by my experiences with it, and according to the Simtropolis Forums - correct me if I'm wrong - transparency works fine if there's another object behind it. If not, it will render as opaque, with the rendering background adding in the missing alpha channel, darkening it drastically. I was using software rendering mode in the game at the time - I'm now using hardware - and I had the glass either looking invisible - (if set to <50% opacity), or opaque and darkened (if set to >=50% opacity). Is this still the case? I would love to have the fins be semitransparent, as per the original design.

Originally posted by: swat-medic Now you might want to start working on texturesquote> I'm having some trouble in this respect. Also, is there a roof? It appears that the roof junk is floating.quote> There is a roof, yes. I believe that the illusion of absence comes from the fact I used a dark asphalt texture for it. PS It's not junk - it lowers the power usage (and pollution, indirectly) of the tower.

Please tell me this is an improvement...

Originally posted by: Yoshiisland The problem is in your defensive attitude and incapability to accept the fact that your skills are far from professional.quote> We've been over the "defensive attitude", but I will tell you that I am aware of - and accept - the fact that my skills are still in need of major development. Don't portray me as delusional. the whole "futuristic, unique" thing is not to be used as an excuse for what is obviously a simple design flaw, or to just be lazy and not fix something because "oh in the future there will be giant black windows with nuclear reactor-bright interior lighting" etc.quote> The only thing I use "futurism" as a justification for is for some foundational ideas, such as my Hyperspace Garbage Disposal, which was a success. Anyways, here is V2 of Prism Tower Condos, remade from the ground up. (Only the solar panels were copied.) It's a day render only, as I won't bother lighting it until the model gets an all-clear. One note - the fin should be about 15% taller, something I've fixed since taking this image. I've added hedge-rimmed balconies, interior design - visible through the semi-transparent windows, a new structure system for the fin, doors, taller floors, a thicker - and bilayer - roof, more support columns, and the lobby is still in progress. I uploaded this - in haste, as I have to leave for several hours - to give a preview on the new edition of the model, and to give others a chance for feedback.

I'm completely remaking the model - including the fin - so the images are now out of date, and I plan to delete them as soon as a new one is ready. (The originals will be replaced with a "this image is obsolete; scroll down" image). In the meantime, I have finally been able to implement transparent windows. I have a carpet texture on the floor, and interior walls, but should I make furniture? (I'd then array that upwards.) PS Originally posted by: Jasoncw Your BATs suck.quote> There are far nicer ways to say that. Let me give you a piece of advice. When you go after a person or their work with plainly derogatory - and insultingly blunt - statements like that, rather than a statement like "it needs improvement", their first reaction is to tune out. Moderator rank or not. Believe me, I'm not new to situations like that.

Originally posted by: Jasoncw It's hard to feel like it would be worthwhile to critique someone who's being defensive.quote> I don't feel I'm being defensive, and I apologize if I appear to be. Originally posted by: Yoshiisland For your first BAT...I wouldn't attempt a massive skyscraper...I'd go for a small house, or a chain place like McDonald's or Subway.quote> I don't design for the sake of design; I design for necessity. SimCity lacks large residential towers, so I'm trying to fill that niche. I merely try to make it look good as I do so, with apparently disastrous results. I think I'm probably from too different of a background to stylistically fit in with the rest of the STEX... You've got some nice ideas, but the models as you've made them leave a lot to be desired...quote> Admittedly, my modeling skills are not very good. I seem to be able to model some things well - look at some of my addons for other games - but buildings apparently elude me. ...But, this is why we have this section in the forums...to help anyone and everyone become proeffecient BATers. If you'd really like to bite the bullet, and sit down and sharpen your skills, then plan out and start a new BAT...we'll be here to help. quote> I don't want to totally discard this building; I like two elements - the fin on top, and the general cross-section - too much... I'm probably going to start over (and radically overhaul the design, with hopefully good results) and just copy the fin (or use one other, more realistic - and yet still attractive - idea that's in my head)...any objections? My plan is not to "normalize" the fin to make it fit the building, but to "radicalize" the building to fit the fin or its derivative.

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Originally posted by: simcity4fan12 Well there's the MAXIS textures that came with it. When choosing your textures go to the gmax folder, gamepacks, BAT, then textures and you should find them. You need to modify them to your liking though.quote> I can do that. Sometimes you can find some textures on google image search. There's websites that offer them too.quote> For free? Where? You shouldn't give up modeling or remodeling any of your creations. They are great ideas that will look exceptional with some improvement. You just made a very good job on improving the lighting on the fin! Why stop there?quote> The problem is, I can improve the textures and lighting, but when I overhaul the model itself, I start to not like it anymore.

Originally posted by: simcity4fan12I think the texturing on the facade could be improved and more detail added to itquote> I don't have very good textures, just ones that I made. Do you know of better ones? PS Mostly to SimFox, but to any that suggest modeling overhauls: I tried, but unfortunately, when I do, I don't find the end result as beautiful as the original. Perhaps realism and beauty are, in my eyes, not hand in hand. What do I do? Should I give up remodeling (though continue retexturing) and accept the fact that many will dislike my models?

OK, I'm definitely going to take much of that into consideration. Thank you. I'll post an image of what it looks like after that - it will be a while, because I have an errand to do - but for now, here is what it currently looks like:

Originally posted by: swat-medic Tell that to NDEX. Their building, "Chronos Palms Condos" - which yes, is much better than mine in terms of modeling quality, I freely admit - was the inspiration for the shape.quote> You can download that model, and learn from it.quote> I plan to, though there's so much that I don't know where to start. I have a great deal to learn. Either way, thank you for the link. I have to agree with Simfox, in that the fin at the top just turns me away from this BAT. It would be nice on another model, but i don't think it fits on this one.quote> Is it the shape, color, construction, or what that makes it inconsistent? Coming from a very...unique...background on this, I have trouble with this kind of thing. Also, I just wrote this guide that you could use for your night lighting.quote> Thank you very much for this. Unfortunately, this is a residential tower. Office night windows would look weird. Worse, I can't export twice - that would take a full day for a building like this. That said, it will probably help on some of my smaller upcoming buildings.

Originally posted by: SimFox 1. This fin. the whole thing is out of place, like, fittingly fish out of water. Neither stylistically, nor compositionally anything in the rest of the building supports it. It's design and realization (as modeling goes) are very crude. quote> I'm not removing the fin altogether, but what suggestions do you have to improve it? 2. This paper thin roof that appear to float in teh air being unattached to anything else. It's not 2050. it's just bad design... This discrepancy in the shape between wall and the roof is absolutely unjustified. In fact it sort of screams: - i can't do complex shapes... It may be all wrong, but that is an impression it makes. quote> The asphalt roof is the exact same size and shape of the building itself, and it rests directly on top of the main building. That said, I'll thicken it, given that that is probably a good idea. 3. This 100 floor "bay window" is a questionable design choice. You can't just take an element from small architectural form and blow/clone it up 100 times, no more than you can blow a toad to the size of a bull. quote> Tell that to NDEX. Their building, "Chronos Palms Condos" - which yes, is much better than mine in terms of modeling quality, I freely admit - was the inspiration for the shape. 4. What is it made of? Please don't tell it is 2250.., or magiKquote> That sounds like an attempted insult, distorting my previous statements into a strawman argument. The way I've envision this tower is a glass facade, with the lattice made of steel vertically, and concrete horizontally. The problem may arise from poor textures. Any ideas on where to get good ones? 5. The size of this... I'm not quite sure what it is suppose to be is a bit awkward... It it way to fat for a simply column or support and way to thin for anything else I could think of... This last element highlights overall problem of this model... Sizes... What size it is? how tall is the typical floor? Where are technical floors? What is the thickens of the roof? Right now it look like it is paper thin and not attached to the building itself. What is thickness of the lattice? it's cross-section? I mean it's thick enough to be concern of cross-section. What is a width of the window? How is it glazed? What is you lobby hight and why have you chosen it?quote> I should mention here that since uploading that image, I've scaled the model vertically by about 1.3x to compensate for projection distortion. All sizes given below are for the stretched model. Chances are, the sizes are indeed a bit akward - I've never modeled a BAT before - which may be the root of some of the problems here. I'm not aware of the unit square/meter conversion ratio, so I'll just give everything in squares. As I said, I'll thicken to roof - which may make its shape more obvious. The building is 21 units (a unit being the same as one dimension of a lot square) high, plus 6 more units for the spire. A floor's usable space, the part behind the glass element, is 3.75 units high, plus 0.6 units of concrete above. Differentiating technical floors are not a concern; from the outside, I doubt you could identify them on most buildings. That said, a good idea would be to put another 2 floors on top for elevator mechanics, which I would differentiate. The steel vertical columns are 1.5 units in diameter, and there are 26 of them. A window width varies (as it would, depending on the room inside). The large ones on the front - living room windows, presumably - are 6 units, and the smallest ones - bathroom windows? - are approx. 1 unit. Window glaze is something that's been giving me real trouble. I can't get textures to be glossy and the like, so I've just been leaving them with the default options. Help in this regard would be appreciated. The lobby height is one floor, though that floor does not look any different from the others - perhaps a bad decision, I'll look into it. The lobby is also in cojunction with that glass overhang, which serves two purposes. One, to shield the entrance from rain, and two, obsure the door itself so I don't have to model it. Yes, that's cheating, but it is one that will ultimately be justifiable. How are my dimensions of the components? Suggestions for this are welcome. I'll probably post a new image soon, showing the result after the vertical stretch (already completed), a new lighting system for the spire, the new floors on top, and the new look for the lobby.

I only partly made mine, but here it is.

The last thing I listened to was "02 Sunshine ( Adagio in D minor).mp3" - John Murphy's score to the 2007 film "Sunshine". Yes, I only like film scores.

I can't vote in this poll - my favorite group (and it's not a band, per se) is not listed. Though I wouldn't expect it to be. "Media Ventures" (now "Remote Control Productions"), founded by Hans Zimmer, is the source of most (but not quite all) of my music; I only tend to like film scores. Zimmer and his coworkers (Jablonsky, Badelt, Rabin, Mancina, etc.) are by far my favorites.

Originally posted by: BlackDragonAJ89 I understand; sorry for the rudeness. =/ quote> No need to apologize; you weren't being rude. Granted, I may have worded my post rather flatly, but I can't envision any other way to word it and leave the message unhindered.

Originally posted by: BlackDragonAJ89 maybe the building is a little too bizarre maybe? I mean it looks really out there and far from normal...try to make things look a little more subtle too; that's all I can say.quote> Everyone has their own architectural style, reminiscent of their tastes. This is mine. Texture work and modeling detail are open to suggestion and recommendation, but my style is static. I design what I see to be aesthetically attractive. I've seen comments both in favor of and against this style (both here on the STEX, to addons for other games, for YouTube music compositions, etc.), either praising it as being futuristic - "from 2250", according to a friend - or claiming it to be too modern/too new/too different/too radical. My suggestion is this - If you have suggestions on how to model something, or how to light/texture, etc, go ahead. Constructive criticism is welcome. But if you don't like an architectural style, just don't download it when it goes online. I wouldn't post to BATs that would fit the "Chicago 1890" and "New York 1940" tilesets by calling them "old-fashioned" or "obsolete"; I just ignore them because I don't like that kind of architecture. And trust me, the night lighting is by far the most criticized aspect of my BAT modeling.

Originally posted by: simcity4fan12 Having trouble hm? Maybe I can help...are you having trouble for the spotlights being bright enough?quote> Not really. I'm trying both Omni and Spot lighting, and with the former, the whole tower is garishly lit, and with the latter, the spire is mostly dark with one bright spot. But I think I've got a possible workaround by making the spotlight omni-like. (120o field of lighting.) Once I get this working, I'll try my hand at fixing the scale, and then upload another image.