CT14
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Everything posted by CT14
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@T Wrecks Hey, those are good points. And I don't trust anyone who doesn't like rail viaducts! The grunge props can be varied a bit more - I'm right now creating some that take up only half the tile, and some more that are on the less linear side. Note that all the linear ones have already been aligned to fit along the edge of the roof, including on the corners - the picture above where the two conveyors meet is a good example. The parapet is a bit more problematic, and it is slightly too large - see for example this 1930 aerial view https://digital.library.wayne.edu/item/wayne:vmc78516 and compare to main wall pilastres - it should be around the same size, and right now it's somewhat wider. The very good news is I'm using the same BAT model for 3 of the lots now (ortho, chimney spizzles, window chimney spizzles) so it wouldn't take as long to fix this as it would otherwise. I'm thinking of reducing it by about 25% - still on the large side, but not as glaringly different from the likely side by side buildings. With over 40 bugs found and fixed during testing, and over 140 exemplars and models discarded during the process, I've crushed most of my bug list for the main Fisher lots. We're getting rather close to a prop pack release to support the 3 different releases (Fisher Body Plant Modular Factory, I-M Grunge Fillers, I-M Rail Fillers). The water towers have been re-rendered with feet and lower braces. There is still some foofaraw occurring with the viaduct passthru, actually, and I'm thinking of doing a double sided one with Transit Enabled while I'm at still it. Here's a replop of the Ortho test from a few posts back, with SimHotToddy in the middle. The grunge family has nearly doubled in size, but needs to have its blanks ratio adjusted back to 1/3 to keep a certain amount of the roof clear. This goes for the roofjunk prop family as well. Zooming out, we can see the new roof edge looks better proportioned.
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New roofjunk New large stovepipes with guy cables, two styles of exhaust vent have been created and added. There are a few different configurations for each of these props. A staircase has also been added. In the next shot, all of the new models are visible. A third dock BAT with single door on the left is also showing. And the conveyor height is adjusted to better fit. I have to go back and add feet to all the water towers. Now for some more I-M Rail Filler concepts: Viaduct over Boxcars, Viaduct Boxcars over Boxcars Just a fun bit of eye candy. The idea is that this viaduct is a short spur off an embankment nearby, and these are cars being staged for the viaduct docks just down the line. I'll try to whip up an example. El Road 15m over Boxcars Transit enabled. Not sure how best to handle the transitions to El Road grass, but there's always fence lots. edit: Adding a "DTR End with Overhanging Concrete" to be used on one side of the bridge might allow a clean solution.
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Thanks @Tyberius06 and @kingofsimcity for the comments. Tyberius06 was correct about the wrong prop on the passthru lot - it's been fixed, along with many more bugs on the list. The last of the basic fillers (I hope) I created a prop family with 27 of @Simmer2 HD props, added 30 blanks and put it on the grunge filler lot. The following scene was made with 4 different plop lots; I particularly appreciate that the ground grunge props and the basement props play well together. Using transparent props as faux overlay textures avoids the water bug neatly. I made grass and dirt grunge/brownfields lots. State of Ortho variations and new window textures This next scene was made with just one plop lot: Fisher Ortho, and zero selective bulldozing/replopping. New window textures and machine house roofjunk have been thrown into the mix. I still need to create stovepipe BATs, vent BATs and add them to the roofjunk family. Perhaps a staircase or hatch. With 4 variations now, there are certainly a lot of water towers coming up in the roofjunk rotation, but I don't want it to be too frustrating for someone to get one to spawn where they want one - better to have to knock down a few extras here and there.
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@Tyberius06 Yes it is for the 15.5m heavy rail viaducts. The lot might actually have the wrong prop, which would explain why RRW isn't showing. I'll look into that! edit: you were right!
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Fisher Body Modular Factory with a viaduct heavy rail passthru, grunge fillers and new Detroit water tower model
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Fisher progress Well, I've squashed about 15 bugs having to do with lots, props, models. Did a ton of housekeeping to standardize names of things, menu item order. Rendered lighter versions of the water towers. Here's the Viaduct Dock model in a test layout with the latest changes: Major things left to do for the main Fisher Body Modular Factory release: Lot query sounds done Lot icons done Window module new textures Create new roofjunk Figure out texture override situation for viaduct passthru done, @Tyberius06 correctly noticed the wrong prop was being used Fix LOD (raise the upper edge of the tunnel part) and brick up lower stories of Viaduct Passthru BAT There are also a few more minor bugs identified in this last round with alignment, menu item order, etc. And it's almost time to dig up the details of Query-to-Plop again.
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@JimC You got a great point there. I whipped up a Flint Grunge Filler lot... just one plop, with the grunge prop families and Girafe feathergrass. I think this look would be a great fit for SM2 chain link fences, so that's the direction I'll go - adding one ortho fence lot, one gate lot and one corner lot. The factory modules are based on the Fisher Body Plant #1 in Flint, built around 1920... the architect, Albert Kahn, was very influential and prolific, so you can see similar buildings throughout the next few decades around the world. He built many plants in Russia as well as the United States. Rough overview of Fisher modules I am going to make window modules that are somewhere in between the two colors below, using the glass map as does the darker one. Roofjunk: Detroit Water Tower Detroit water towers have some very specific details, like the rounded bellies, diagonal guardrail braces and lightning rods. I found a great prototype picture and made a BAT from it. I think it came out too dark for Fisher, but I'll keep the dark renders for others who may match them better. I'll also do a lighter version. Here's the prototype: Here's the model. Also visible are other members of the roofjunk prop family. I'll add a machine house or two, some larger exhaust vent fans, a dust collector and call it a wrap. Here's a variation with a Shepard Fairey piece on it. A similar prototype exists or existed in Detroit. Viaduct lots Gotta have em. I remember making an earlier viaduct pass through lot using the NAM prop and having the viaduct texture override work properly... I'll have to see what's different about this one.
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I totally feel you on that. Rivit's picture is exactly what I was talking about - thanks @rivit.
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Glad you can spend some time with us! I love the guardrails and the orange bumpers! Maybe even a version with more bumpers, like 6-10 at once is common. For the Curve signs, I feel like I usually see that set up with all of the signs parallel to each other for each direction. It's difficult to explain. Basically half of the signs would point one direction and the other half the other way, with each half only being visible from one side. Does that make sense?
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- angrymozart
- bat
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@Angry Mozart Oops, I ninja edited the post to add a bunch of stuff. And you're very welcome! Definitely a task to do bit by bit. Fisher prior art/SimHotToddy side by side/conveyors Well, I'd forgotten about this Fisher Body Plant #21 BAT - the factory from Detroit, on left below. SimHotToddy did all these amazing factory BATs and I've added them to my test city. Also visible are the Conveyor BATs from a few pages back, updated and detailed with plumbing and wiring. I'm really glad to rediscover this earlier BAT because the quality is high - gives me something to aim for when I add the final touches to the roofjunk.
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@Angry Mozart Thanks, I'm glad you like it! I saw those autorack loading systems earlier and they are wonderful. I'd be happy to add them to the I-M Rail set. Are you planning to release a prop pack with them? I have completed cohort files for the rail car prop families, so that they will have names in the Lot Editor, matching the convention already set by @kingofsimcity for your semi truck prop families. Fisher progress Well, I've gotten the second variation of the window spizzles modeled, additional window modules with new maps, all the main BATs are re-rendered with updated textures and modular windows, and lotted. To do: Create "Small Roofjunk" prop family, and add it to lots Cohort files for prop families Mod the lot queries, plop sounds, other properties. These will remain neutral lots. Lot Icons Readme Final packaging Here's another screen from a few days ago, showing docks with window modules, SM2 walls and another Goober SxS... An Immortality Killer that's out of this world So I managed to plop a El Rail over Road on top of the edge of the Ashland Station, and created an immortal lot... After chasing down RippleJet's classic Immortality Killer lot and solving the problem, I decided to make my own version with a paranormal twist. Truth be told, I've always been a little bit afraid to make a UFO bat, but @Simmer2 hasn't been abducted yet... The blue beam needs a lot of work, but you get the idea. The immortality killing function seems to work as intended, but definitely needs more testing due to the 'serum' flavor of this mechanic... Someday I'll get bored, clean up the beam and release it...
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- duco
- haarlemmergold
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Digging the True Value project and the Sears Lawnmowers...
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This is a great concept and really nifty lots! It's giving me some ideas for future work. Regarding the overlay texture issue you mentioned, I'm not aware of a method to achieve predictable behavior with multiple overlay textures. It might be best to extract the texture images, then combine them to create a new texture.
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- duco
- haarlemmergold
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Why yes folks, the Fisher Body Plant makes a great neighbor! Just look at all these happy mansions next door...
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- industrial
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@JulianMIA Thanks! Hey, your highway fillers look really good. I think they're ready to go as-is, without any changes to the grass. Have you tried any of the Terrain Grass NAM mods to see if it gives the effect you are looking for, or a way to get there? The Chessie car is from Angry Mozart's pack, which will be a dependency for the rail fillers: Here's another test build:
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Good luck, we are looking forward to seeing it!
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The modular auto factory has spawned a modular auto factory railyard...
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Rail spur on the Fisher Body plant property
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Graveyard shift at the Fisher Body plant
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Auto industry service
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@mattb325 Thanks for the pointer, I actually hadn't found that texture stash! The roof pattern is a "Crackle/Grungemap" from textures.com. I went ahead and used that glass picture for a diffuse map on a nite window mesh and it works wonderfully. Window Module LODs Here is a picture of the process of chopping out windows from the main BAT LODs. The windows are still in the model as guides for placement of the window prop family. The pink box is about to be subtracted from the main LOD mesh to match the other side. Boolean Subtraction operation is used. And here, 3 more boxes are added to the finished corner LOD to make the Fancy Corner LOD. Boolean Union operation is used. I'll do a static nightlighting for the corner windows so that they always match each other, so no sockets (separate prop families for lit and unlit windows are a bit beyond my wherewithal as I am trying to kick this project out of the door.) I-M Rail Fillers Well, I've finished the Doors and Dock modules with modular windows and night lights. I took a little break from the modules to work on some I-M Rail and fence filler pieces using @Angry Mozart and @Simmer2 props/overlay textures. These will be released separately from the Fisher project, but are intended to complement it. I need to review @Tyberius06 seaport set to make sure I'm not duplicating effort. Here's a bunch of pictures, with the IRM I-M Filler base set also visible. I-M Rail filler concept 3x3 corner modules with the building corner at 1,1 SM2 Dirty Concrete Walls - a small IRM I-M Filler addon set may be forthcoming - has someone already made this? Includes prop families for over 6 dozen 130 of Angry Mozart's train car props, not counting the gp38-90 family I discovered Simmer2 already made Side by side with nofunk's Gratiot Motors, JBSimio and cycledogg Cars being staged for shipping 89 ft Hi-Cube auto parts boxcars and 89 ft autoracks Transitions from NSB to RRW Side by side with SimGoober's Auto Factory
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Yes, quite possibly it is a problem with the LOD size. For what it's worth, newer versions of 3dsMax since 2013 have their own rendering problems. If you can find an old version, 3dsMax 2010-2012 is best.
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Great! Yes, you can possibly do it in just 2 props from what you've described.
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That's good to hear that it will export at a smaller scale. I'd try scaling only the X and Y next, to see if you can get it to work at full height (Z). If it's possible to break up the model into several BATs to reduce the very large footprint, that would be the next step (assuming full height works at all). And yes, Gmax is known to have some limitations in this area.
