madhatter106
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Everything posted by madhatter106
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Those HVAC units on the roof are enormous - way out of scale compared to the rest of the BAT. There's also illogical bends to them - I rarely see HVAC tubing that doesn't make right angle (90 degree) turns. Is this from research/photos, or are you just making this up? Just curious, because the roof junk seems very odd to me...
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Originally posted by: T Wrecks Another detail I'm not sure about is the ground floor. Is it tall enough? I have the impression that it looks somewhat squashed and could safely be made quite a bit taller. However, I might be wrong because the canopy hides most of the ground floor and makes it hard to see how tall it really is.quote> I thought the same thing. The ground floor seems to me that it should be a bit taller. Otherwise, woohoo, more midrises!
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I agree with swat-medic, the roof texture looks entirely off. The awnings and walls could use a slight gradient to their texture, but it's so hard to tell because the picture zoom level is so far away. Night textures on textures on the windows could easily be avoided with a little more interior modelling and a few omnis. And your dependencies aren't listed, as there's quite obviously one that I can tell just by looking at it...
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Originally posted by: Simcitymaster13 Hey how about this: Good idea.isn't it?quote> Already on the STEX - https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=3719
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I would vary the air conditioners in the windows - it looks like they all purchased the same model and brand.
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BAT - Troubleshooting & General Discussion
madhatter106 replied to Jasoncw's topic in SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop
Originally posted by: penguins87 I am wondering, what is the eastiest way, other than to use the prefix "nite" to lite up only text on the side of a building?quote> Do you want the letters to be lit up, or the whole wall with the lettering on it to be lit? If it's the letters you want to be lit (like neon or whatnot), you can't get any easier than adding "nite" to the object's name... -
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- 28 Comments
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Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...
madhatter106 replied to madhatter106's topic in SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop
Thanks for the comments. And extra thanks to nihonkaranws for the scaling info, I shall try that and see how it looks... Side question, how do you guys "work?" I mean, do you often think to yourself, "oh God, this is like the 1000th HVAC unit I've BATted," or "if I have to make and texture another back door, I'll scream?" I got to thinking as to how to improve workflow, short of going into the last BAT I thought interesting and tearing it apart and constructing something new, and then I started daydreaming about Hollywood scene and prop shops, where you have a general stock of general items which can get used constantly. Sort of like one-stop shopping (and a bit like my end of the business, costumes/wardrobe, but it's never as easy as one-stop shopping because they guy you're fitting is like 5'2" or a size 48XL.) So I sat down, dug through a lot of my recent commercial BATs, and pulled/merged what I felt to be interesting re-usable tidbits and created a sort of "master" file, with a big open space in the middle at 0,0,0 for buildings to grow. I can pick and choose interesting bits to start with, hide or delete the rest, and resave the file with the new name, and merrily go along my way, not having to waste time reBATting a rolling garage door or retexture my 1000th HVAC. I don't know if I'll manage to keep to this system, but I figured I'd ask...what's your workflow like when you BAT? I guess it all depends on your output and what you like to do (be it R,C, I, Civic, etc.)...just curious... -
Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...
madhatter106 replied to madhatter106's topic in SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop
Okay, since I'm no gmax expert, this one stumped me...take a look at this little donut shop here... I had forgotten about the 1/3 squashing rule, so I need to distort the torus and skew it vertically by about 1/3 of its height so that my donut doesn't look squashed once it's rendered (like the picture). How exactly do I do that? What's the least "water torture" method of doing it? -
Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...
madhatter106 replied to madhatter106's topic in SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop
Well, the file won't open, and my backup program backed up the latest (ie. bad) version of the file. So three hours later, I'm back where I finished off last night. Colors have been tweaked a bit, and the chairs have been scaled down. Hopefully they don't get too lost in a blur of pixels... Mosin33 - thanks...don't get discouraged with your own stuff, just keep working and working at it. I find that my favorite buildings that I've BATted have been built up from many different research photos I've found on the web - a good google search helps you develop lots of different ideas for little details that make your BATs sing. kant01 - thanks, the preserver took like three minutes to come up with, but it's my favorite little detail. A bit hokey, maybe, but these types of buildings aren't known for their subtlety and restraint. nihonkaranws - thanks, I've tweaked the chair proportions in the re-do. -
Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...
madhatter106 replied to madhatter106's topic in SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop
Anyone know how to get around a "file open failed" error message in gmax? Seems the bait and tackle shop doesn't wanna open for business....argh. -
Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...
madhatter106 replied to madhatter106's topic in SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop
Yeah the color changes I agree with, and after having messed around with them and done some more test renders, it does help to desaturate and throw some gray in there. Regarding the chairs, I agree their scale is a bit large, but my main worry is them becoming lost - I figured I would cheat the scale up a little, to compensate for pixel squashing when the rendering occurs and it's loaded in game. The building itself is just shy of 16 squares deep (a single in-game square) and about 12 squares wide - so this could theoretically fit on a 1x1 tile (if the LODs are tight enough or I haven't mis-measured). Will play around with the chair scale a little - is it the thicknesses that are off, or the height of the seat and the back? -
Twinkle, twinkle, little BAT...
madhatter106 replied to madhatter106's topic in SC4 BAT & Lot Workshop
The lure of low wealth commercial is strong - "the siren song of crap," as I call it. I had a brainwave to do a bait and tackle shop, real homey and quaint. There was a lot of great research photos to work from on the web, and here is what I came up with...though I need another set of eyes (or ten) to look at the colors. - disregard the acqua sign above the porch roof, I haven't come up with a clever name and therefore haven't textured it. Same with the two chairs on the front porch, I am not entirely sold on their shape, so haven't bothered to texture them yet. - I like the front door, but I think it might be getting lost in the depth of the porch. - the same is true of the angled struts at the upper porch posts - I think it might be too much blue happening in that region when looking at the southward render. - the cement foundation is bugging me, I think I need to darken it a bit, though I do like that it's a warmer tone compared to the rest of the building. - take a quick look at the rear porch (north side), is the planking direction bothersome? I had it running perpendicular to back steps, but that looked even weirder... - there's some missing detail work, some signage and whatnot - I think I need a discarded oar at the base of the porch near the life preserver. I think it needs an American flag hanging off the porch, too, a lot of pics I found show similar places that are very "patriotic." Heheh. -
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Block ALL Maxis Buildings by DuskTrooper
madhatter106 commented on DuskTrooper's file in Gameplay Mods
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The roof texture looks more like a vertical water stain, on a surface that would be perpendicular to the roof...at least to me it looks that way. I love the texture, just not for this piece of the BAT.
