• Welcome to SC4 Devotion Forum Archives.

c.p.'s BAT and Lot Workshop

Started by c.p., November 23, 2012, 04:25:46 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

c.p.

Reserved for future table of contents :satisfied:

c.p.

Although I've haven't been around here much in the past few years, I've been quietly working on various projects off and on. For SC4Devotion's 6th anniversary, I thought it would be a good idea to finally start some threads to show some of the progress I've been (slowly) making over the past few years.  And I'll actually have quite a lot to show, once I get screenshots of it all.  This thread will be for architectural BATs and lots.  I'll eventually make another thread for tree controllers, but I don't have many up-to-date screenshots to show for those, so this will have to do for now. :)

I'll start with some farm lots.  All of these use existing barns by JMeyers, and house BATS by myself, already available on the LEX.  The field lots are part of a new set of farm fields I've been working on, using props from my Mega Prop Pack No. 2, as well as some forthcoming prop packs.
First a maple syrup farm, with seasonal maple trees:


An acorn farm, with seasonal oaks:


A scots pine farm, with scots pines that grow over a number of years:


A black spruce farm, with black spruce trees that grow over time.
Unfortunately, some of the spruce flora on the field lots aren't showing up.  This is a perplexing problem I've been running into with some lot flora lately.  On some lots, if the lot grows on an east-west road, all of the flora appears on the lot where they are supposed to, but if the same lot grows on a north-south road, some of the flora will be missing.  I wonder if anyone has any ideas or insight as to why that may be happening?


I've also made some farms with new greek-revival or gothic-revival style barns, but unfortunately, none of them grew in my little test city when I was taking these screenshots, so I'll have to show those another day.  ()sad()

So how about some mills instead?  :)
Here is a large brick greek-revival style mill:


And a smaller wooden mill.  (This one needs rerendering, because the foundation doesn't match the building.)  To the left of the mill are some low-wealth multifamily buildings.  The diagonal ones are already available on the LEX, but the long brick one, and the small whitish one in front, with the red trim and black shutters, are new additions to my early-mid 19th century american buildings set.


The new additions to my early-mid 19th century building set will be done a little differently than the previously released stuff.
My plan for the smaller buildings in this set is to make at least 4 texture variations of each building design.  The buildings will be sorted into 4 different prop sub-packs.  (Whitish wood, variable color wood, brick, and "seaside" shingle.)  You will be able to choose which sub-packs to install.  This R$ multifamily building is an example of what the 4 versions of the building might look like:


The idea is to give a little control over the "flavor" of the city (while keeping it simple).  If you want the maximum variety in your city, for example, you might install all 4 prop sub-packs.  If you want to build a mostly-brick city, you might install only the brick sub-pack.  If you want variety, but are building an inland city, you might install all but the seaside sub-pack, etc.

So here are some shots showing some of the new buildings, so far:

First, some R$ duplexes, (to the right are some seasonal aspens that were planted with an in-progress god-mode tree controller)


Some small R$ multifamily buildings:


and the other side of the same buildings:


Another R$ small multifamily, with rows of duplexes on the top and bottom.  This picture represents a medium-density area early in its development.  Probably stage 2:


A somewhat larger R$ multifamily, (but still a relatively low stage lot).  To the right is a scrubby oak forest (planted with the same in-progress tree controller):


Here are some R$$ houses:






I'm not too far along with these, but I'm also making some "village" commercial buildings.  Here is one alongside jestarr's Ponchtoula Feed and Seed Store:


These are Cs$:


These are Cs$$.  They are all the same lot, so it's kind of repetetive, but you can maybe see what I'm attempting:


Here's what the original forest (planted by the in-progress tree controller) looked like before the city grew:


As an added bonus shot, here's an overview of my little test city.  As you can see, the brick mill building is the most prominent building in town so far.



Swordmaster

I DREAMED A DREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!

(Okay, calm down, Willy.)

I do nominate this for best post/topic of the birthday month. Your buildings and trees are still #1 for me, so to see you back at BATting is truly the best news in a long time. Everything you've shown here is of superior quality, especially the controller - one wouldn't say you've been away. Thanks a million for the great work!


Cheers
Willy

PS: That's an interesting sidewalk texture you've got there as well.

vortext

#3
 &apls

Very nice work! The farmfields are great and do I see new textures as well?!  ::)

As for missing flora, that might have something to do with the Occupant Size. In the past I've noticed weird behaviour when the OS was changed while the props were already on the lot. The LE also still showed the former OS size and eventually I had to replace every prop.  &mmm 
And are you using actual flora or seasonal props? Flora doesn't handle small OS sizes too well (stricly speaking not OS size but small values for rep 11/13).

The BATs are great too, especially the industrial mills and commercials. Hope the new barns will grow soon. Also curious to see your tree controller! Keep it up!  :thumbsup:


btw:

Quote from: c.p. on November 23, 2012, 04:31:09 PM

Here's what the original forest (planted by the in-progress tree controller) looked like before the city grew:

Sooo, this controller plants streets too. .   :P   sorry, couldn't resist.   $%Grinno$%
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Simcoug

To say that I am excited would be an understatement. 

The 19th century industrial BATs are especially welcome because similar buildings are hard to find.

I won't gush too much, but I will say that I started my CJ in the 19th century because of your great building sets.  So here is a proper 'thank you' for those, and all your wonderful contributions to this community.   &apls

You can be sure that I will be watching this thread with great interest. 


Mr.Lin

Great work !
Look forward to your small house !
Cheer!
THE CITY OF DANYARD ! SCCN
THE CITY OF DANYARD ! SC4D (Click on the pictures below)


人们都知道的,是生活;人们不知道的,才是艺术

Gugu3

nice to see you back c.p.!!!!
great job with the buildings!!!very very nice!!!! &apls
the tree controller seems amazing!!!!!very dense forests you have!!!!! :D
I know I'm a bit off topic...but since you are famous also for your terrain mods...is there something new in progress???maybe HD stuff :P ;D
cheers
Gugu3

Serkanner


jmyers2043

Quote from: c.p. on November 23, 2012, 04:31:09 PM
Here's what the original forest (planted by the in-progress tree controller) looked like before the city grew:

I like the dense canopy.

- Jim
Jim Myers  (5th member of SC4 Devotion)

sunv123

Yes! You're back! ;D I have been using your 19th century buildings for a long time, because many of the other ones don't look as good. I didn't get surprised when you showed us the flora, because you're awesome at it! :)

I can't wait to see what's in store for us! :)
Provo, a city apart Updated July 4.

Ol.S / Benoit

You know, you are a legend here c.p., I heard many epic stories about you ! Lol.  ;D
As a big fan of your trees and maps, I'm glad to see you here, and I'll follow your thread ! :)
Benoit.
MD : Click on picture

whatevermind

Wow, fascinating work all around. Glad to see you're back!

Jack_wilds

I am amazed by your creativity and attention to period detail and sensibilities in lot design  :) ... I truly hope these aren't just teaser things your working for hobby sake- which is a good thing  ;) ... its just, are these also intended for eventual [sooner than later] LEX/STEX surprises too  %confuso  as these would also make for great Christmas packages too [just a thought  ::) ;D :satisfied:] luv it all -especially the warehouses, the Christmas tree farm, and teh maple syrup collection site/farm with a warehouse/barn processing 'center', its all wonderful nostalgic stuff  :thumbsup:

c.p.

#13
Wow, thanks for the great reception everyone :)

Swordmaster: Yikes, I guess you liked it.  The sidewalk in those pics was actually not what I intended.  Among other things, the sidewalk mod got turned sideways.  That's fixed in the following update.

Vortext: Thanks! I appreciate the help.  In answer to your question: The growing trees are flora, the seasonal trees are props.  The OC size thing is definitely a possible culprit.  I'll give removing/replacing a try and see if that fixes the problem.  Flora can be a bit of a pain, but I like the slow growing-over-time flora feature too much to give up on them.
And yes!  You definitely see new textures.  Some will be in a new mega texture pack, some will be in an interchangeable dirt texture/rock model package, and some will interchangeable sidewalk-compatible textures (more on that below).  The downside to all of these new textures is I have to finish/package, etc, the new texture packs (among other things) before I can release most of this stuff.

Simcoug: thanks, I'll check out your CJ. :)

Mr. Lin: thanks!

Gugu3: Thanks!  No new terrain mods in the near future.  I'll be busy for quite a while getting the projects I've already started finished.  In these pics, I'm using Lowkee's Appalachian Terrain mod, which looks GREAT under dense forests. When I start working with wetlands/marshes/swamps, I'll probably have to tweak one of my existing terrain mods, or maybe simply create a brown mud "beach" mod for the low swampy areas.  However, if I do either of these things, it won't be in HD.

Serkanner: Hey, how are you doing?  Long time, no see.

Jim: Thanks.  I'm finding dense forests are more enjoyable to play with when they are seasonal, because you can zone/build roads during the winter season, when you can sort of see what you are doing. ;D

Mr. Sunshine: Thanks!

Ol.S / Benoit: Thanks!  (And yay, a fan of my maps!)

Jack_wilds:  Thanks for the kind words.  Yes I fully intend to upload everything to the LEX, when it's done and ready to be upoaded.  If you only knew how much work was left to do, you'd see that Christmas this year would be a WOEFULLY unrealistic timeframe for uploading any of the stuff shown here, with the possible exception the mills, which stand somewhat independent of the other stuff.  (Luckily those seem to be one of the most sought after items!)  Almost everything else is caught up in a byzantine tangle, where one project is dependant on another partially completed project, which is in turn dependant on another partially completed project, which is turn dependant on another partially completed project, and so on and on, ad infinitum, in endless dizzying circles.  ::) I'm completely confident that eventually it will all come together, but until then, you'll just have to be patient (as will I - I'd really like to get this stuff uploaded too!)
And actually, even the mills will require the release of a sidewalk-compatible interchangeable lot texture pack (which can perhaps be called SCILT, if everyone isn't already acronym-ed out  :D ).  I've pretty much got those textures done (a few changes need to be made) but I haven't figured out a good, simple and unconfusing way to package/present them yet.  (If anyone would like to voluteer to undertake that task, that would be awesome, and it would pretty much ensure that the mills could be released before the end of the year.  ()meeting() )

So . . .
I ran a couple more test cities, and I found a bunch more stuff to show.

For starters, here's a better commercial village shot.  The tall brick building I believe is by mattb325, and the dark brick theater at the right edge is by someone else, but I dont know who.  All the other buildings in the shot are by me.  The larger ones toward the bottom are medium wealth commercial.


This building is the sole high wealth commercial building I've made so far:


Here is a FAR version of my wooden mill, and some FAR warehouses.  At the moment, the blue mill building has foundation issues:



As you can see, there is grass texture in from of them, which may not be ideal.  I think there is a mod somewhere that gives the FAR pieces a sidewalk texture in certain circumstances (?), but I haven't checked that out yet:


Some diagonal warehouses.  These don't look that great plopped repeatedly next to each other, as I have done here:


Here is a small growable brick warehouse.  Here you can see an overlay texture along the front of the lot that matches the sidewalk texture.  This is what my sidewalk-coordinated interchangeable lots texture (SCILT?) pack is about.  There will be a bunch of these overlays, based on various commonly available sidewalk mods.  They will be in various shapes that can be used on the edges of lots, or for pathways, patios, plazas, etc.  I have sets of these made for the maxis sidewalk textures, Jeroni's sidewalk mods, the SMP sidewalk mod, and a few sidewalk mod options of my own.  I just have to make a few corrections, then figure out how to package them up and release them.


2 identical warehouse lots that grew next to each other:


Here are some more rural industrials I made several years ago and completely forgot about:



a medium wealth residential lot:


By the way, all of these buildings are slope-friendly:


OK, now for the good stuff.  :D
It turns out I've made a lot more farms over the past year than I had realized.  Some of them I completely forgot I'd made.  Others I knew I had, but had never seen them in-game until now.
The first 5 farms once again combine JMeyers' excellent barns with some of my previous Greek Revival houses, and new farm fields.
Here is a seasonal crabapple farm in spring:


And a Kinnickinnick farm, also in spring:


A seasonal Aspen farm.  Unfortunatley, the aspen farm fields all abandoned as soon as they grew, so there must be something that needs to be fixed on those:


A Pitch Pine farm (the pitch pines grow after a number of years):


Gabby Ganderson's very large Gooseberry farm (seasonal):


and a closer view from the other direction:


This farm wan't made by me, but the seasonal wheat field lot was:


This flower field is just a lot texture, so it doesn't change with the seasons, but it goes well (IMO) with this beautiful mediterranean farm by BarbyW and Mickebear:


This Olive field grows with time.  Here is is when it first appears:


And this is what it looks like after the Olive trees have grown:


The Olive field is one of the lots that is giving me trouble.  If the farm grows along a road that runs east-west, the field lots look like this:

I'll try try Vortex's suggestion and see if that solves the problem.

And here's a seasonal Dogwood farm field in fall:



The last three farms are made with new Greek Revival barns and houses.
The first is Babette's Buttonbush Farm (seasonal).  The field lots have issues that need to be worked out, but the fall version looks OK:


Cobb's Corn Cornucopia (with semi-seasonal corn).  Here it is in spring, before the corn pops up:


Here it is in summer:


And lastly, Tammy's Tamaracks.  I'm especially happy with how this one turned out (except for a minor prop problem that needs to be fixed).  Here are shots in early spring, late spring, and fall:






So I think that covers all the farms I've made so far.  There are more fields (and barns!) but I haven't used them yet, so have no pictures to show of those.
Now, it's time to get back to work on this stuff. :)

vortext

#14
Awesome farms, I really like all the winding paths.  :thumbsup: 

As for the textures, I guess a number of textures packs - one for each sidewalk mod and its wealth options - which use the same IDs for the individual textures (e.g. a corner piece) would do the trick.

And I was just thinking the other day there're hardly any FAR buildings, in fact I only know of one. So job well done, though I hope to see more of those in the future.  ;)
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

mave94

That's the most amazing comeback I've ever seen. :thumbsup: Your bats are great as always. I like the idea of trails through the fields. It makes a field more realistic. I agree with vortext about the winding paths. Keep up the good work!

-Matthijs ;)

Swordmaster

Wow, great post again. I've never seen anyone come as close to realistic farms as you did here. I hope you can fix the east-west issue - I have no idea why that happens.

As for the SCILT, I undestand it's one texture pack for each sidewalk mod? Vortext's suggestion looks a good way to do it then.


Cheers
Willy

noahclem

wow, really amazing stuff--and lots of it  :o

Awesome custom foundation work, and on that note, great city building in hilly terrain. There's a plethora of nicely done bats and the diagonals and Fractional Angles are particularly welcome. Sthlrd98 made a mod to add sidewalks to FA puzzle pieces though I'm having trouble tracking it down at the moment. NAM developments may soon change how FA sidewalks are implemented though. The sidewalk texture interchangeability is a good idea. Of course great job with the farms and nature stuff. I love the winding paths and great flora and buildings. Awesome aspens!

Looking forward to more  :thumbsup:

Air6

Incredible stuff. I particulary like you farms lot. Brillant !

whatevermind

Wow, more stunning reveals! That old-style wagon shop is precious. And I love those farms, as was said, incredibly realistic, and I like the use of some more non-traditional crops - these will definitely be a very welcome addition to the world of Sim-farming. These all look so amazing!