BlackDragonAJ89

I understand those things, so don't worry all that much. At least it's something that's easy to fix since it's more about just experimenting and trying to figure out what actually can work, but without destroying what I was trying to originally intend. I can go back and fix up and update things, since at least they're houses at the moment.

Okay, so I made some houses and things like that. However, I get kind of tired of the "generic" Maxis resident dorbell sounds (as well as some others). I heard that you can add your own custom sounds to via changing a property in the Reader with the building, but I have no idea on how to do it or what has to be done. Could somebody help me on this or show me where I need to go to read up on it?

Is it true that all the standard Maxis buildings are built in different proportions? Here's some houses being shown that I built. While colorwise they are supposed to be a bit fantastic, for some reason, they look enormous. I used the standard 4 m for the middle class and lower class buildings, but they look bigger in this picture (or else my eyes are fooling me):

Good work everyone... Anyway, here's just a big glomping look at I what I did with the textures after reworking (and rebuilding them entirely) to be more suited for the game's lighting style: These are all the old little ones from beforehand, with a bit of tweaking: As you can see I went and tried to repair the textures of the buildings. I don't think I'm going to try to go much further with the houses now. Anyway, I went and tested them in the game on their lots without props (since I'm making my own) to see if they could grow. Here is the result in two snap shots: Anyway, I'm going to give these props (all which are done, but I'm having trouble with them getting messed up by Reader's conversions, so I am trying to fix that). I also will have to update the lot base/overlay textures because of a programing glitch (fixed it) that occurred with the base textures. Oh yeah, I also made my own bus stop, needs improvements on the lot though.

I took the advice and began experimenting around with my two mansions I've built up so far... Anyway, I've been studying my textures and some houses and buildings around here after reading the gradient tutorial on the Omnibus. Anyway, since my textures were built to be tiled both horizontally and vertically, and since most of the color gradients of darker and lighter go from bottom to top, I realized that if I "stack" the set of the same textures on top of each other and use gradients as an overlaying layer on the stack of textures, I could create of a variety of horizontally tile-able texture sets that I can use to help make the buildings look a little more realities (as well as to keep desaturating colors, not to the point though that they look drab and follow the "real is brown" principle and destroy the character that the buildings are supposed to have, considering they're supposed to be fantasy buildings). I'll probably be working with creating the texture stacks and redoing some things to see if I can strike a little more realism here.

Well, while I'm trying to get my props finished, I'd figured I'd get to work on my mansions and such. Here's one of my mansions that's finished. I really wished I could get some help with making custom lighting props and try to figure out why my little house lots can't grow in the game, then people will be able to access these buildings.

Well I've done some testing of the lots with my houses and for some reason, outside of the R$ houses that I made, none of the buildings will grow... =/

It still looks good...

Okay, thanks... *nod*

I need some help with making Custom Lighting Props To put it simply short, I've made some cutsom lamp posts and I wanted to make them be able to work during the night using just the basic Maxis light cones, however, the tutorial on the Omnibus section is incredibly hard to follow, let alone, I'm not all that slick with the Reader. Could some one give me a bit of help here? I've already built the lights, I just need to figure out how to make them work...

Well, I've covered a whole lot of territory... All of my houses are made now, and now I'm making props for the R$$ and R$$$ classes, but my lot textures are up on the STEX now...

Hi everyone, you probably know my screen name as "BlackDragonAJ89". However, you can call me either AJ or Arthur, since those are shorter and easier... Anyway, I've been playing the Sim City games for a very long time (since I was , and I've always enjoyed making cities. Well I have the Sim City 4 Deluxe game, and it's great and all, but the buildings are kind of... well, bland. They all look like they came from Southern California! Not that I hate Maxis' buildings, they have some good ones, but come on, do you guys really like Wren Insurance, the Weegee of the Sim City games, appearing all over the place? So I'm making these buildings, which will range from cute little houses and stores, to big huge factories, skyscrapers, and snazzy apartment buildings. Note that I am NOT the best artist, nor the best at anything, but I will be always willing to listen to any suggestions. Anyway, to give you a quick overview of how the project is divided with these "building sets", here's the categories: Cheapo: Basically R$ and CS$ buildings. They're for the poor, but they aren't going to super grungy, after all, not every low income family I've met or every mom and pop store I've been too is a slob. However, they aren't going to be any fancy like the others. Generic Eagleland: Your garden variety, stereotypical/theme park version 1950s America R$$, CS$$, CO$$, and a few R$$$ buildings. We'll expect cute homes, stores, offices, and other things. They will be rather colorful, and will have some decor. Trinity: This is middle wealth and up (R$$, R$$$, CS$$, CS$$$, CO$$, CO$$$) buildings built in a modernism style, all with shades of blue. These can be allowed to grow if you have the building style control set to Houson 1980. Legendary: This is middle wealth and up (R$$, R$$$, CS$$, CS$$$, CO$$, CO$$$) buildings built in a classical gothic style similar to the buildings of the 1920s and 40s New York/Boston with some modern twists, all with a main color of purple and complentary colors of green, yellow, orange, and dark green. If you've got the style control set to 1940 New York, they will grow. Corrupted: The last batch is is middle wealth and up (R$$, R$$$, CS$$, CS$$$, CO$$, CO$$$), and is inspired by the works of the Gilded Age America and Europe, along with a few modern window schemes, set to a tone of black as the main color and either red or gray as it's complementary colors (and sometimes purple, green, and gold). It's designed to be more a nightmare fuel type set, and can be allowed to grow if you have the style control of Chicago 1890. Of course, I will also be making government buildings, starting with parks and plazas, to help add more flavor to game. Please note that while I am going for fantasical buildings here, I am studying and researching real life buildings, from my own hometown to other parts of the North America and Europe, as well as some Asian styles as well. Note that I have a set of goals for each building set and their "building teirs" (example: house, mansion, townhouse, small apartment, etc. sort of thing). I will also try to add more store/shops to the game as well. Finally, I should warn you that many of these building names and some of their designs are shout outs to various video games, movies, and TV shows (well, probably more to video games), so don't be surprised when you see a building with the name like "Ness' House" or "Octacon's Game Stop" or happen to spot a building that looks like it came from Warfang or Corneria. Anyway, here's the snapshots of what's currently being done: Completed buildings (needs lighting) and some completed base textures: In case you're wondering, the names are: 1st row: Shotgun House, Flynn's Mini Mart, Old Folks Mini Mart 2nd row: Cute Cottage, LipLicker Lane, Ness' House, The Minch's, Twoson Street 3rd row: Dilbert Rowe Office, Steamline Mini Mart 4th row: Matt's House, Little Purple Office 5th row: Convexity Lane, Little Hatchling Office Of course, the other side is some base textures that will be used. Here's a building that's under construction; A Trinity house, called "Double Decker", as based on some box shapped homes: I am planning on making some of my own props, but I plan on using the trees by SimFox and the SFBT trees as well... If you have any questions or comments, don't be afraid to ask! Hopefully the first set of houses and the parks expansion pak can be done...

simcity4fan12: Yeah, I'll see what I can do about the textures. They are supposed to be a fantasy-like, but I am trying to strike for something that could be plausible in real life too, so I'll see what I can do to fix up the red so it isn't so... I can't really think what to say. I'll probably "roughen" and desaturate a bit more with the red tones. And thanks. Jasoncw: Crap! I can't believe I didn't do that. =/ Oh well, it will be an easy fix now. Thank you for the help. =) LivingInThePast: Yeah, it's all interesting, even if some of the buildings wind up being sort of goofy in the process. Oh and the Monotoli building? That will come eventually as a landmark, as well as some other video game landmarks, like Peach's Castle, Cynder's Tower, and the Empire Porky Building. Anyway, since these are almost ready for being put into the lot editor and ran through the plugin manager, I was wonder how the growth stage values work, since I want to make these little houses at growth stage 2. Also, after I make my props and get them set up in the plugin manager, how do I get them to work in the Lot Editor? Anyway, I appreciate all the advice and pointers. UPDATE: I wanted to add a nice big thanks to Jasoncw for telling me what the problem was with the window frames. Here's just a picture of the houses that had the frames problems that are now fixed.

Why I know that double posting is wrong and everything else, however, I want to let people know that I am still working on this project. A lot of work was done over the past two weeks, as this collection of buildings will show: I built up some commercial storage units, although they're just "palette swaps" of one design. Here I have some more houses, part of the Legendary selection as I was talking about. Unlike the Trinity buildings, these are a little more of an older look and just are mostly eye catching because of their color scheme. Now here's some of those old, dark houses. I figured that they really didn't need a ton of decor since they're just middle class homes, although I do plan on reworking the third one (going from left to right) a bit better. Anyway, I've been having a glitchy problem though with GMAX. If you look at the some of the houses, the windows and door frames aren't there, even though I actually modeled them, as I will show in this picture here of the latest set of buildings done: If anyone could help me explain what the issue is with GMAX, I'd gladly like that.

I kind of have this problem, except it's dealing with Commercial Service (Any wealth) vs. Commercial Office. Where I want gas stations and shops to be, I get printing offices and private offices. Where I want the office buildings, I get swamped with stores and truck stops. If there was a mod that split the CS and CO, I'd really appreciate that.

I was wondering; is there a mod out there or would somebody be willing to make a mod that splits the commercial service and commercial office into having their own zones?

@ CSGdesign: Yeah, I'm going to be making a lot of little business (since I'm starting small and working my way up). Now to concern with the door, it's a swinging glass door (it doesn't look all that good because I made the frame too thin). The circle is just my mistake of using a basic plastic wrap filter over the original window texture I was using. I've fixed it though, and here's the result for that building: It looks a little more like an actual window, or at least I can tell on this building. Good thing is that all these texture changes and fixes update on the buildings, so everything is working okay on that. If you'd like to see some more and get the progress of the stuff, I have my own thread (link is in signature). I'm willing to listen to what a lot of people have got to say and any kind of suggestions to offer. Anyway, I should say that I almost got all my R$$ houses done, save for some 4 more that need building. After I get all the props made lot textures ready, I'll start testing them out. As for the Maxis dinner, I can't even pronounce the name. =/