gilpo

The white roof will be toned down quite a bit. You probably can't see from the aerial shot, but the roof's covering is actually in 10 ft wide strips that go from left to right accross the top. On our roof, some of the strips have aged better than others and you can definitly tell where they stop and start. This will be incorporated into the texture as well as the dirt buildup along the outer edges next to the parapets. I plan on doing all the night lighting with directional nitelites (save for the skylights: too much work for little return on time investment). I get a week's vacation in 3 or 4 weeks and I hope to finish this during that time. Idea: we keep a lot of merchandise outside on a seasonal basis (flowers and trees, lawn mowers, bikes, snowblowers, etc). Does anyone know how to make props that only show up at certain times of the year? These will all be custom props. I would also like to make the trucks docked in the back appear and disappear at different times of the day. Any advice on how?

To answer your first question, I'm an assistant manager. To answer your second, not enough. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/9.gif> [bEGINQUOTE]

Here's an update: The GM Vestibule is done now. The garden center is starting to take shape. My videocard has suddenly decided it no longer wants to run simcity so all my screenshots are in GMax now. Enjoy. And your first glimpse of the night view: No idea on when this will be done. I only have an hour or two to work on it a day. I'm working at the real thing 12-14 hours daily https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/8.gif>.

The only texturing i've done is that center section where the sign is. I want to get the structure 100% so I don't have to re-do things later. The building will be a couple shades of gray when done. The roof is the only part of the building that is white. That in-and-of itself is strange, most Wal-Marts have a black or gray roof. Ours is the first one I've seen to be white. This store just turned 1 year old this month. It is a brand new prototype for the company so there will be some differences between the model i'm doing and one you may have near you. Sam's Club? It's a big deal! (pun intended) Like for the BB you suggested, if I can get some good reference material, I can do it. I don't have a SC near me, tho. [bEGINQUOTE]

Give me a squiggly! [bEGINQUOTE]

If someone can get me blueprints, dimensions or some reference photos, I'll do a best buy after I finish my wally-world. I like copying real things. It helps you notice detail. [bEGINQUOTE]

Please fellow simtropoleans (err...what do you call a citizen of simtropolis anyway?) you both make valid points. Just because I work there doesn't mean i agree with everything they do. Quite the contrary, I think the company has been going to hell in a handbasket ever since Mr. Sam died. But that's neither here nor there. Nor is this the place to discuss it. Lets end the dispute now before a mod locks this thread and makes me start a new one. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but please, lets share and exchange those wonderful opinions in another thread. Now, back to business.

The scale is correct in that it is replicated 100% to the exact building blueprints, however...the vertical scale is off in SimCity terms. I have to scale the bulding 133% vertically to match the exaggerated vertical scale of the game. I forgot to do that on that export you just saw, so the store looks too short. It will be fine in the final. Just use your imagination. And regarding the chain link fence, I need a custom one for the garden center. The greenhouse is surrounded by a chain-link fence of custom dimensions so an existing prop wont do. Any idea how to model one, anyone? It will have jobs in the end. About 550, CS$ jobs. That's what a supercenter peaks out at during christmas. Yes I know it's freaking huge. The real deal is 500'x700'. Over 200,000 SQ FT. Accuracy is my top priority. I'm just anal retentive like that. You guys can keep asking for a smaller version but, my apologies, it won't be from me. Baco has already done a smaller, non-supercenter WM and I encourage you to try your hand at making your own. You also have to consider, Wal-Mart doesn't build these stores much closer than 6 miles apart. (that's what they are in Indianapolis) Taking into account that each large city is 2.5 miles square, that's only a few Supercenters per region. That size seems appropriate. Also, take a look at this. Here is the aerial view of the exact wal-mart I'm copying. Compare the size of the lot to the houses just south of it. If you figure each houses' lot is 1 tile wide, the Wal-Mart lot will be almost 15 tiles wide and 14 tiles deep.

Ok, here's an update. Roof junk is mostly done. I couldn't find the blueprints for the roof initially, so I used the city's aireal photography web site to get a picture of the roof and copied it. I just found the roof blueprints today so I'll be fixing some things to get better accuracy. Things to do: All exterior doors (no textures; all splines baby) The garden center greenhouse and patio Finish general merchandise side vestibule Fix roof Exterior signing Final texturing Lot design BTW, can anyone tell me how to make a chain-link fence?

Thanks for all the feeback. The roof junk is done. All 10 million skylights and hvac units. My vid card is going haywire and I can't take a screen shot. Hopefully by morning I'll have it fixed. The building dimensions are accurate. I'm taking this from the blueprints used to construct the building. The overall exterior dimensions are 500'x700'x36'. They aren't small folks. When I release, I'll make the lot accurate to my store, but I'll make it so you can build your own parking lot how you like it. I'll try to get a new shot updated by morning. L8r.

I was snooping around at the Wal-Mart I work at and found the original blueprints. I've never done any 3d work before and I figured this would be as good of a place to start as any. Here's my progress so far: This is VERY MUCH work in progress. I can't take the blueprints home so I keep having to go back to work and make more notes on sizes, etc. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated. Please, no wal-mart sucks, etc posts.