BlackDragonAJ89

^Yeah, I tend to the let the props be the ones to make a lot seem alive as opposed to the stuff of the buildings. Oh yeah, I got some more buildings done, but I highly reccomend that people post in my own thread because of how big this project of mine is gonna get. I'll still show of the stuff coming off the line though:

Well, I got all the little Trinity Houses done: Now I got some more to do... I need to get the props made and such as well... that is if I don't get distracted by something else... =P

Cool!

Good luck! We could always use more little buildings...

I'm working on making a bunch of small houses, stores, offices, and little factories/farms before I do major large things, so don't fret, there's people working on nice little things too. Yeah psander5, keep up the good work. I wonder what kind of "roof junk" you'll add to the building's roof.

Rather than double post, I'll just edit this one. I've got some work accomplished. First off, all the Trinity houses have been modeled. I also got another Legendary house built up (the Waltons is its name). Since this isn't a modernism building, I put more detail on it and such to make it look more down to earth (and yes, it's supposed to be purple). I'm also working on more of the Cheapo Shops, since most of them are pretty easy to tackle. Here's the Greasy Spoon: I should note that I am expirementing with the window textures, hence the funny circles on the windows. Got to go back and try to figure things a little more... ^^; I'm also making props for these things, in which it's incredibly easy to do. If I can figure out how to make the props work in the Lot Editor (and get that stupid texture range programed and configured, considering I've been waiting on help on that for over a month now), I could get these tested in the game.

Francis90b - Thanks for the help! I'm going to have to make some since the Maxis props aren't going to look good with the building styles...

Well, I guess I could use these as some tips for my own work. Anyway, I have a quick question before I post up two of my little houses; can I make props in GMAX? Here's the three houses, all modern in style. I would have posted this on my own thread, but I would be double posting.

Yeah, the roof looks too shiny as is right now. Everything else though is coming along just fine...

Good Question... =P

Okay, I read through the texture tutorial and desaturated the textures some more. They automatically update themselves on the buildings, so I don't have so much trouble redoing them and fixing them. I'll go back though and make sure that they are aligned and fit properly, since I use Spline modeling. Anyway, I'm currently focusing on getting the little R$$ houses of the Trinity kit done (in which it only has four of them). Here's the Double Decker house (on the left) and the other one I got done today Dave's Place (yeah, kind of the cheesy name system like back in 3000) which is on the right. Anyway, I want to know what you think of them and see if they suffer from any flaws. Note that Double Decker is supposed to be two rectangular boxes stacked on top of each other with a back porch on it. The texturing pattern on Dave's Place (the siding) is all aligned properly. I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to light up the living room (the one part with the big windows) using real time lighting. I also have a quick question; can I make props with GMAX? Or do I have to use 3DS Max?

Well, I don't know how to use BAT4Max, even though I have Max and such, so sorry about that one. =/ I'm just using the BAT for GMAX doing all of my buildings. But I must say your school is very impressive; it will work out great for those who build country towns and farm towns most certainly. Here's a little building I just got done yesterday; Double Decker: Daytime Front: Nighttime Back Porch: A bit more for modern styles. I'm working on another two story modern house that I'm basing on two different houses that are in my town.

I don't know really what more I could do to them other than desaturate the textures more. I mean these are mostly small buildings at the moment, all of them either low wealth or medium wealth, so I don't think I could carry the detail any more. I probably should add porch slabs to the houses without the porches though.

Originally posted by: smileymk @ astronelson: One street going to that massive area? And that place has more trees than Milton Keynes! -6/10 @ Black Dragon: Yeah, why have you got level crossings there? Also, you obviously hold the world record for the shortest and stupidest train service! And why isn't that middle avenue connected to the highway? -9/10 BTW, love the thread. Slating things makes me feel a whole lot better...!quote> Because I use the Fail Train service!!! (Yeah, a topic where people can vent out a bit is always a good thing... *nod* Now here's another Fail City... wait, all I build is fail cities... XP One of my bigger and more sucessful ones......

Well, I went back and did some tinkering in PS, in which I desaturated all the textures (except for some of them, but their not in major use yet) and added some "ruffage" (used the filters to add some texture) to them. Some colors still need more tweaking, but the results have come out better, especially for the darker buildings. I'm going to display one more teaser here before I start my own thread. Anyway, I made another building (it's the Flynn's Mini Mart), and I'm showing you some of my base textures to see what you guys think. Anyway, I'll post more in my own little thread... =/ If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!!

Nice Work OSDT_27; It looks good so far. And Medic's tower is looking good too, considering the other works I've seen by the guy. As for me, yeah, I need to see how I can make the textures a little more "real" and not too toony. I'll see what I can do in Photoshop since MS paint isn't all that powerful. And speaking of 80s and games, I'm a gaming freak, so there's going to be lots of buildings and shout outs from Mario, Pokemon, Starfox, Earthbound, Metal Gear, and Spyro (and speaking of Earthbound, that's where I got some ideas from for building some of the houses from)... Yeah, I probably should start my own thread after I get things to look better.

A very interesting thread; I guess they didn't just go to San Francisco, Sacramento, and LA only after all to do the research. Of course, I'm trying to find some reference pictures of the Justin Brown Plaza, Silver Tower, Kong Tower, Wilkson Tower, and the Arbor Plaza from SC3K (and some from Unlimited) so that I could make BATs of them as part of my project.

astronelson - Why such a giant country club?? Don't you have a heart for the poor people?! -3/10 jeffsandychelsea - Here, I have $22.65 and a paperclip, will that make you feel better?? Now for another picture...

Why YUS! I'm going to make the Oompa Loompas drive straight into the side of the house with their little cars!! >=) Now... astronelson - Why the heck?! FARMS IN THE FLORIDA COAST!! DX I hope a hurricane comes in and causes everyone massive starvation! -6.2/42 Zelgadis - REDWOOD SIZED PALM TREES?!?! (I think). That is a proof that you fail Biology FOREVER!! -9/9000 Now I have another one: mai first city built! Yay Maxisland... (This topic is funny)

Can I say this? The BAT is not an easy thing to do on the first leg. Look at these crappy buildings for a laugh: Those two purple houses [named Matt's House] were built to correct scale, but I used poor modeling methods and built the lots sloppy. Good thing you guys never got them... That purple building is the Shiny Gems Bank. Don't worry about the color scheme, just look at the architecture of the thing, it stands out too much. Now here's the Renamon Plaza, the big yellow one over towards the left. Not very good is it? The problem was I was trying to build too big before I knew how to build small. GMAX isn't all to difficult to learn, but getting things right in the BAT is. Sure, we've all got our ideas on how we want buildings to look, but you can't break all the rules. Maybe you should sketch out your ideas before you make the actual buildings; that's what I'm doing...

Hey, you're welcome. Well, if I can figure out how to get my textures set up, get the props (basically just fences, billboard signs, signs, and a few lamp posts, since I'm going to use either downloadable trees from the STEX or the Maxis trees and flora), they should be up. By the way, I got more progress on them, and have some more made up that were either quick to make or just "palette swapped". Now if you're wondering, the little house and little shop on the corner are low wealth, while everything else is middle wealth. I've got the project split into 5 parts: Cheapo: All low income residential and commercial service buildings. Generic Class: Those 5 houses in the middle are that section. Basically your "theme park version of America" type buildings. Trinity: The blue buildings, all of which will follow a modern design. Right now, it's just got a palette swap, but I'm trying to plan out how to design some of the building parts so that it looks believable. Legendary: All the purple buildings are this. Again, just palette swapped, but it's going to be based on NYC style architecture. Corrupted: The black ones; I'm going for Victorian/European on this one, as well as to scare people. =P Anyway, as soon as I can get all the other little houses done (as well as some other little stores, offices, farms, factories, and some government things), I'll probably start uploading them to the STEX. I will slowly work my way up to giving large office buildings and apartments too. However, I'm kind of tempted to go back and de-toon some of the textures or else just try to darken them, plus I need to add porch lights. If you're wondering why the commercial buildings have so much roof space, it's room for signs and billboards. I probably should start my own thread... =/

^Looks good so far...

madhatter106 - Thanks. As I said, I'm planning on doing a whole bunch of various buildings. I do find the Maxis buildings to be a bit boring after a while. As for my texturing, I've got most of them to be rather dark (considering I made all of them I'm going to be using with MS Paint) since the system renders them brighter, so I'll see what I can do with that. But I could use some help on the lighting though. I'm planning on using both the real lighting and the nightmaps (nightmaps for mostly little buildings, since the detail isn't needed as much, and use real lighting on the larger buildings and for the porch lights, factory lights, etc). However, some of the first [ugly] buildings I made using the two techniques, they wouldn't display the night lights when I switched to night mode in the game. Is there something I should download for it to work? As for these houses... yeah, I kind of made them too narrow. They sort of look like modular homes. =/ It shouldn't be to hard to fix that though. Also, I plan on having some other types, such a few Victorian and modern designs, so these aren't the only ones. I might fix them or I might not depending if I forget. XP Yeah, I'm thinking about starting my own thread after I get some more buildings up and at least get my ground textures for the Lot Editor on the exchange.

Actually SimFox, the bay window thing is actually pretty common place in real life; after all, nobody wants to be in a glass and steel box all the time, so architects figure out how to make them interesting yet still supportive of the building. It's been happening since the Gilded age of the US. Now, for me, my suggest is first at, where's the doors to get in? I say add a set of doors on the bay window part of the building, as it's both centralized and will make the building look more realistic and functionable.