Hatchet999

I had the same problem, turned out I missed a left hand drive tick box on the euro textures install. Does the cars turn correctly despite the markings, if they do its definitely the road texture

I have a plugin zzz-No Road street stop which I will try and find the link to. Have you seen this?

I think proportion wise it looks good and we have quite a lot of these billboards with platforms in the UK as it gives the bloke somewhere to put his ladder when he climbs up to paste the poster on. I know you said you weren't going for realism, but if you were i'd replace the steps with a ladder to reduce the footprint as this would be up against the wall of a building and so you wouldn't want steps coming into the sidewalk. If you wanted to try folding up the edges of the actual paper billboard and add some dirt so it looks a little less perfect. Again I know you weren't going for realism, but I think if you did you would have a very popular Lot for the STEX. Add some good nightlight and you'd have a really good model, well done.

Hi guys, recently got back into SC4 after playing CXL and being disappointed. Since I last played SC4 the custom comment has made the game completely different and I have got back into it and started a new region and best of all, i think, discovered how to BAT. I have made one so far, based on tutorials on here and some trial and error and would like advice on this first attempt so I can put it on the STEX and get a reasonable response! I am thirty odd years old and I can take the advice and not kept upset or take any comments personally, I'm finding this good fun and would like to get to the standard of some of you guys and the only way is by listening to all of you! So my first question, I have taken my BAT and used the plugin manager to set it up and then put it on a lot with the LE. How do I get it to grow in my city so I can take a picture of it!?!

@Jasoncw Thank you so much for the excellent Blog, it is really helpful and straight forward. Unfortunately I am working all week, but fingers crossed i'll have some pictures of work so far by the weekend, even if it is just the first block! @Ed thanks for dropping in, street-view makes live so much easier if you can't visit the actual place. Unfortunately this one I visit most days!

Josh, these are three images I found in a couple of minutes with a simple Google search, use Google Earth to look at the building from all angles including above to get dimensions. Regards

I couldn't find enough pictures of the building I wanted to BAT so I have decided to do this one instead. Dimensions are 96 metres by 12 metres and it has a nice mix of concrete and brick and I have front elevation and ariel shots from Google Earth. and here is the start of the BAT

Jasoncw , Simfox thanks for the words of wisdom. I could have flooded the STEX with my brown concrete box, but that wasn't the plan, it was to learn and develop my skills, so this box will only grow in my cities! @Jasoncw I have photographs of a building very similar with corners and angles so i'll start on that using the skills I have learnt so far. Its still going to be ugly and concrete though! @Simfox yes this was my first ever attempt modeling and I don't think i've let myself down too badly. I learn new skills every-time I use it and listen to what is being said. I really appreciate that you make time to comment , thank you

Time for version 3 of the Vodafone office. I have corrected the height issue, hopefully. Tweaked those nightlights making them look better I feel and added toned down the Vodafone sign a touch. Firstly some pictures of what I was basing the building on, precast concrete, brutalist low rise office buildings: And here now is v3.0 As usual guys all comments appreciated.....

Hey Josh, good to see your enthusiasm is still maintained If you are looking at doing modular docks take a look at the work of PEGASUS in their CDK series of lots, thats the level of BATting in the dock sector already. It may be easier for you to BAT your own buildings and then utilize their Props and others, only last week the STEX had container port props rather than starting from scratch.

Josh, I think they are just to display the scale of the crane. The crane is the main thing here and will be a good addition to any construction scene. RQ are you thinking of putting on some night lights, red airplane warning lights or maybe some lighting up the internal ladder, would be a nice finishing touch to an excellent BAT. The base and counterbalance still look a little odd, but I cant put my finger on why? Keep up the good work so far.

Hi guys, thanks for all the feedback, really appreciate you taking the time to view and comment. I definitely think now I overdid the height when I doubled it, it looked better height wise i thought when i compared it to the houses around it, like a proper 4 story building, but then the doors at the back especially look massively out of proportion. I'm going to pull the height back down a bit and hopefully that'll reduce the stretched effect! I need to add something to the roofsign, as everyone has pointed out it looks way to bright. I'll photoshop it and dull it down a bit, and maybe add some grime as it looks a little too perfect. I see your point with the sign on the roof not really being visible Harishna, but i kinda like it now and i think if vodafone did have a regional office like this and a bare expanse of wall on the roof they probable would stick a sign on it! There may be an elevated railway or freeway running next to it, possibly! There are comments about the front being bland, boring, repetitive etc. Thats exactly the look i'm going for pre-cast concrete block all stuck together forming a really dull, but functional office building. The only thing that worries me is that it looks too repetitive and as each block is textured separately and then arrayed i think i may add some varying shades and grime etc to the blocks just to break it up a bit. I'll update with pictures once i'm done. Please keep the helpful suggestions coming.

I think the scale is better height wise, need to work on the base and practice with the LE. Should I have some dependancies and use others props or stick to Maxis only?

Here are my updated shots... I have doubled the height of the building, which seems to have worked out OK This has led to the vodafone roof sign actually looking in proportion. I also decided to night light both fire exit stairwells, could be helpful if the fire was at the other end of the building! Josh, this has taken three weeks so far and i'm still learning to do new things every time i switch GMAX on. Plenty of things to improve and then I've got to work out how to use the Lot Editor! You'll be much better with practice too.

There was a place in Liverpool, Quiggins, it was called. It was a collection of fashion and jewelry market stalls within an old five story building. Not really a shyscraper though...

Josh you've said it yourself with the sizing, I made my first too small so I know that its difficult to appreciate size when BATting! Just pick a building you like style of then research it online, look for as many pictures as you can find of that type of building. Then search for textures, a simple google search will do, that look like what you want. Just start BATting cubes and apply textures to them so you can see what looks good. You'll be creating beautiful work in no time if you listen to the advice that experienced people have to offer. Thats what I'm doing, listening and learning!

Thanks ImVhOzzi, I agree with you. I think when I resize for added height it will make the sign clearer. If not back to the drawing board!

 I love it, the scenery, the terminals, the story, very good work. The only negative, would an airport with only six stands need two runways? Preserve the scenery more and get rid of one!  Keep up the excellant CJ

Ok fingers crossed if i have done this right you shall see pictures..... I was going for a fairly brutal 60-70s office block, of the type popular in the UK. I made each window block individually just like pre cast concrete blocks would be, except I had the array tool, which made life much easier. I decided to 'brand' this one as a Vodafone office and put some advertising on it, however the logo over the door has been lost in the rendering process and the roof mounted one has lost definition, may need to work on that. The lighting is minimal. When an office is only occupied at night by the security guard seems daft having all the lights on, just the front entrance, main stairwell and one emergency exit is lit. The LOT needs a bit of work, I deleted my plugins to make this with no dependencies, but feel that I may need some of the parking lots and paths from somewhere other than Maxis. I would say something like, "first BAT, be nice" but thats not the objective, all comments on how to improve will be appreciated... My first observation, now i've looked at it ingame is that it is too short by about 50%, how I managed that I don't know!

I had the same problem, but found North facing didn't crash. If I had to chose between NAM or the ferries I'd be making them swim to the other side. Perhaps I should just build a bridge instead :-)

Cheers Jasoncw, I have no intentions of putting anything on the STEX for quite a while, but at least now I can put up a picture of my work. Landmarks, why didn't I think of that!

I think one of the real shames is that the people who are losing their jobs will be the talented programmers who succeeded in creating a very nice looking game. The accountants and business people that made most of the flawed decisions regarding the finances at MC probably work for agencies or companies with hundreds of clients and so won't be unduly affected by the loss of one. A sad day, best wishes to all the MC employees.

I would imagine it would be possible to custom lot houses so they appear to have diagonal footprints on a square tile. The problem is the lot has to have a street facing edge to avoid the green car zot.