This is my current project:
the townhall of Sint-Denijs-Westrem
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm4.static.flickr.com%2F3633%2F3432126978_c88bd71f27.jpg&hash=727b30b4cebf21057f23d31646abc09172d20357)
and my Bat:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg607.imageshack.us%2Fimg607%2F6580%2Fsint4.jpg&hash=7654208ff7308e09492b8fa7c183face103a61c3)
Really impressive,
Looks very detailed, but I would go for a bluer green color. I think you would see the brown boards beter. With this light green color the brown bords (you see in the top picture) is harder to see.
But still very impressive bat &apls
Getron
Yes, very good indeed!
Could you modd it as a replacement of the town hall reward? That would be nice. I am getting a bit bored by the neo-classicist architecture of the standard USA-rewards.
That would be a splendid idea Frank
BTW I'm glad that you've opened a thread here Alex.
And your buildings look wonderful
-Ernst
Wow, It's an enormous and fabulous BAT, &apls &apls
Quote from: FrankU on May 18, 2011, 04:54:34 AM
Could you modd it as a replacement of the town hall reward? That would be nice. I am getting a bit bored by the neo-classicist architecture of the standard USA-rewards.
Good idea but how do I do that? My Plug-in manager doesn't have "town hall" ????
IT should be fairly straight forward if you use SC4PIM-X.
Just drop the model into "Reward/Governmental Buildings/City Hall.
BTW, awesome looking model!! &apls
Robin ;)
Yes, that's the advantage of Pim-X. As soon as you get the hang of it, which isn't even very difficult, you can do almost anything with lots and models without a problem.
Good to see you've opened a thread here. I like the townhall so far, great work!
-Matthijs
great looking BAT you got there :)
How do I download from the BSC Lot Exchange?
I can't find a "download"-button?
(remember, this is a English forum)
You have to be registered apart for downloading from the LEX. ;D
Quote from: MrMAvE94 on June 15, 2011, 07:32:41 AM
(remember, this is a English forum)
You have to be registered apart for downloading from the LEX. ;D
OK, thanks... I got it...
I'm now reading the manual (all 81 pages). Think I'll be done by august :P
This is the update... with more details
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg6.imageshack.us%2Fimg6%2F1779%2Fsintdenijsmetdetails.jpg&hash=039fca893b11492edbd22eebf6c2ae57b7d6e0f7)
Like I said in Simtropolis, it's very awesome! &apls
A lot of details, a BAT like I love! &apls Excellent work on this, congrats my friend!
Guillaume :thumbsup:
Knowing quite well how well its real life counterpart looks, all I can say is: it looks just like it really.
Xander
Alex_bervoets,
The model looks great. So detailed.
Getron
It's becoming a real beauty! &apls
wow that looks fantastic !! &apls
First of all, I must congratulate you with your terrific job on my old campus of the university of Ghent (The campus "Letteren en Wijsbegeerte" on the Blandijnberg, aka the "Boekentoren".) Pity though you didn't made the building itself :D.
Are you having some other plans of making Belgian monuments? Otherwise, it would be cool if someone made a model of the Basiliek of Koekelberg, the royal palace and the Justitiepaleis in Brussels
Thank you Brechtje...
nice to hear that somebody has a special relationship with "my" building ;) I'm a big fan of the Boekentoren because it would be the kind of buildings I would design as an architect...
I have a lot of plans but with every BAT I finish, three or more new buildings just made the list :P
So I'm reducing the list to special Belgian buildings that I really like myself... Somewere on the list is the train station of Antwerp for example. But I don't think I'm good enough to BAT that beauty. So for now, I'm keeping it small to improve my skills.
I'll add them to the list but there are so many buildings I would like to do, if only I had 8 days in a week :D
Anyhow, the Sint-denijs-Westrem Bat is on hold for now... If you want to know why: the answer is on the little blackoard on the left ;) It's also the reason why I have chosen this building... After that, I'm leaving on holiday till august 16. So I'm planning to finish it before the end of august!!!
OK... back in town... time to finish the Sint-Denijs-Westrem project !!
Update soon!
Received an email from simtropolis today... My booktower (V2) will be on the new "STEX collections"!!! ()stsfd()
That gives me the energy to put some more effort in the Sint-Denijs-Westrem project!
Nightlights almost finished, but they have to be perfect now! ;)
Trying to finish tomorow, see how it looks in the game, adjust where needed and render it later this week...
Here is a draft export to the game:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg41.imageshack.us%2Fimg41%2F3619%2Fsintdenijswestremdrafti.jpg&hash=0af0886efd63238567f5a822fd05604e3521ba8b)
It appears to be too high? I've raised it by 133% but that doesn't seem to be necessary for lower buildings?
The lenght seems to be OK?
Oh and don't mind the ugly lot :P
Hi Alex,
I don't know the real building, but for an old city hall I think it is too small. The height of the floors is now comparable with the Maxis row houses. In real life I think the floors are quite some higher. The proportions of width and height are quite OK, so I think you should upscale the whole building by maybe another 133% or maybe even 150%. So the lot will be larger too.
Maybe you try to compare it with some Maxis rewards like the City Hall: does it lookout of scale there?
Good luck. Scale is tricky in SC4.
FrankU
I agree with FrankU, I had the same problem with my city hall.
A city hall must be stately :thumbsup:
Thank you for the comment guys...
but I think this city-hall doesn't belong in a large city (with tall buildings). So I made a better export and placed in a city with no high-rise buildings.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg508.imageshack.us%2Fimg508%2F9360%2Fpimxtest.jpg&hash=95206fa8ec84e774b3b626a0bebd4e6245a97ff3)
But my lot isn't looking like I designed it: the garden should be all grass, more trees, a hedge etc... and the front lot should all be small bricks with a fence around it. Does anybody knows why it looks this way? I've used PIMX for the first time, so I think I'm doing something wrong here?
Much like Alex, I know the what the building looks like in RL and it looks about right heightwise actually.
As for the lot, did you lot it using the PIMX LE or create a basic lot in the PIMX LE and then continue in the Maxis LE?
Didn't use the Maxis LE... just PIMX LE. Some textures appear for a few seconds but dissapear again.
It looks like it's a W2W building, so I feel like I'm missing something at the right side of the building (where the wall suddenly ends)...
at the end of the wall is a diagonal house (see here (http://g.co/maps/96mn)) so it is indeed W2W.
Ah yes... in real life, the street on that side is diagonal. So a building should be W2W against the gate...
I've tried to solve that with the lotting (a hedge starts at the gate), but that isn't working out like it should
based on how the building fits on the lot, I think it should fit in quite nicely. If you want to try it out how it looks, you could try plopping one of Porkissimo's Parisian W2W's next to it.
While I'm trying to figure out what's wrong with the Sint-denijs-westrem-lot, I was thinking about my next project... But I already know one big problem: how do I make a window in a tube? Or can I bend a rectangle wall with windows to a tube?
I'm using GMAX...
This is an example of what I'm trying to do:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.grenzenlos-radfahren.com%2Ftypo3temp%2Fpics%2Fa528a57585.jpg&hash=5c4919ce8426113d29a841c21ef5937b8526eca3)
And this is what I get when bending a rectangle wall:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg30.imageshack.us%2Fimg30%2F3641%2Frondetoren.jpg&hash=ad7c263bfbde67766306829283347dc59015a2bd)
It looks OK in the top view but in the perspective view you can clearly see a dent in the wall...
(ps: it's a wall with one window that I've copied and pasted to get around)
looking good. finally something to download that's from home :)
I'm very interested to see the bat of the Boekentoren though.
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on September 11, 2011, 02:29:36 AM
I'm very interested to see the bat of the Boekentoren though.
The booktower is on the Stex: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/24972-booktower-ghent-library-v2/ (http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/24972-booktower-ghent-library-v2/)
How does the texture look ?
Quote from: vester on September 11, 2011, 03:25:52 AM
How does the texture look ?
Texture? ??? I'm a bit confused... Which BAT?
Begun work on my new project... here's a teaser:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg821.imageshack.us%2Fimg821%2F3814%2Fteaserer.jpg&hash=ab0d132c978df1bbc2d909ac43b2741a39c8089a)
Quote from: vester on September 11, 2011, 03:25:52 AM
How does the texture look ?
Quote from: alex_bervoets on September 11, 2011, 03:39:53 AM
Texture? ??? I'm a bit confused... Which BAT?
On the last round tower (http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/3641/rondetoren.jpg) !
Did apply an uvw-map to the round tower ?
Maybe cylindrical one!
Quote from: vester on September 11, 2011, 12:14:57 PM
Did apply an uvw-map to the round tower ?
Maybe cylindrical one!
Tried every UVW-map...
Found the solution in the meantime: the rectangles for the windows aren't bend the same way as the wall causing them to be placed a little bit in front the wall... so you have to move them with the "edit Mesh" untill they fit the wall...
But thanks for the help Vester...
You use the boolean function ?
Quote from: vester on September 11, 2011, 12:45:18 PM
You use the boolean function ?
boolean function? ()what()
Here is an update of my new project:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg35.imageshack.us%2Fimg35%2F163%2Ffase3cr.jpg&hash=d08712532b39bda32662638b071880041168e635)
I've sharpened it with Photoshop, so textures are not exactly like they should be
Excellent work :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:, but may be some dirty house-top (roof) textures with this ...
Quote from: alex_bervoets on September 11, 2011, 12:51:45 PM
Quote from: vester on September 11, 2011, 12:45:18 PM
You use the boolean function ?
boolean function? ()what()
Poly modeling. Almost all the BATers use it! ;) Much much easier than the traditional methods. Or creating complex shapes from a box.
Hi Alex, looking nice!
The brickwork of the "Trapgeveltjes" look a bit thin, though. They could have some more mass.
And the roof texture is a bit too bright, I think.
@ Silur: the castle is recently been renovated, so the roof is brand new... I'll see what happens when I make it a bit darker...
@ art128: thanks... JasonCw has already given me a small manual on this matter at ST. It looks easier than my method :P
@FrankU: you're right... the "trapgevel" is way too small, I'll fix this right away.
Thanks for the comment, update soon...
PS: Carl is almost finished lotting the Sint-denijs-westrem town hall. Keep posted!
The Castle of Ooidonk? Nicely done!!!! :thumbsup:
I should've recognised that actually, having been there a few times myself. Still, after finding a picture on google, I did notice that the straight bits of wall are a bit to orange texture-wise compared to the real building
Quote from: art128 on September 14, 2011, 01:17:57 PM
Poly modeling. Almost all the BATers use it! ;) Much much easier than the traditional methods. Or creating complex shapes from a box.
Well in gmax its flauted. I use it, but to find the complex shapes.
Then draw up the shapes with the splines and add an extrude on it.
Good start on the new project.
I've been working on the back side now... not happy about it, so I'll show that later... Here is a render of the front without sharpening:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg189.imageshack.us%2Fimg189%2F9523%2Ffase3.jpg&hash=392070bfcb6252fc3c374844036766fccc19af63)
I've based the difference in colors on this picture:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg43.imageshack.us%2Fimg43%2F5169%2Fluchtfotovoorkant2.jpg&hash=cc69412ea904964603ff8c0a561086d72099f79c)
Just a stunning job, It's a great and complex project but I'm sure you will do a great job :thumbsup:
PD: Maybe your model looks a little bit orange...Maybe you could desaturate the texture.
Greetings Alex :thumbsup:
Hi everyone,
Carl finished the lotting of the Sint-Denijs-Westrem project but I still have a problem with overlays:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg825.imageshack.us%2Fimg825%2F6886%2Ferrorinbat.jpg&hash=c2c7fff412d878acb94c270090e97c206e76b8a1)
Strangly: I seem to be the only one with this problem?
I've placed the file and the dependencies in the team-dropbox. Could you try it out and let me know if you're having the same issues?
There are two versions: one landmark and one city hall
This is how it should look:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg832.imageshack.us%2Fimg832%2F2210%2Flmsintwestrem1.jpg&hash=80068a4e9e810d4c351736c5fb1d3096373c0f28)
Thanks!!
Hi Alex,
I tested the lot. It looks very nice. I guess you forgot about a dependency file. After I had installed all files from Dropbox I found out that I missed two overlay texture that show up in your image. It appears that the textures you are missing are in the BSC textures vol 1 and that the textures I was missing are in the BSC textures vol 2. You added BSC vol1 to the dropbox directory, but probably you don't have it in the directory you used when you took the image. If you install both, the lot will be OK.
Does the City hall have the same stats as the existing Maxis one? I was too lazy to check it myself.
Good work, Alex!
Quote from: FrankU on September 29, 2011, 02:52:06 AM
It appears that the textures you are missing are in the BSC textures vol 1 and that the textures I was missing are in the BSC textures vol 2.
Does the City hall have the same stats as the existing Maxis one? I was too lazy to check it myself.
Great... that works! Thanks Frank... I'll add it to the dependencies-list. I think it's finished then
Yes, it has the same stats as the Maxis city hall, but you need to demolish the maxis one before adding this one to the plugins-folder (there seems to be a glitch when the game changes the Maxis city hall to the ons of Sint-Denijs-Westrem). You can also demolish it, and build it again ("besparingen? welke besparingen?" :P)
Alex,
In my opinion the lot is ok. It looks very good. Just, I guess there should be some nice Icon to it.
If you try to make an icon and think.. hey, there is something weird, it does not work, I advise you to read my tutorial on replacing Maxis rewards: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13471.0
Groeten,
Frank
Oops... I've read your post just a little too late... It's on the Stex.
But I'll use your tutorial for the next one ;)
This is the link for the STEX: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/26821-town-hall-of-sint-denijs-westrem-ghent-belgium/
Greets
Alex
I love your town hall Alex :thumbsup: and with a beautifull lot &apls
And I love the castle you're making, it's a good start! :)
Done some work on the North-side... had some troubles with the roof at the both ends, but it seems OK now:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg713.imageshack.us%2Fimg713%2F1237%2Fnoordkantfase3.jpg&hash=ca2928cc71b42669ec5bdb47989f8d704e7eb5b2)
Still to do: 4 large round towers, inside and lights
You do really good work.
If I had one criticism it would be the color of the walls that I find too orange compared to the actual building. Can you try to get this?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg189.imageshack.us%2Fimg189%2F9523%2Ffase3.jpg&hash=392070bfcb6252fc3c374844036766fccc19af63)
Yours
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg11.hostingpics.net%2Fpics%2F604576Sanstitre1.gif&hash=3f44eabb184b9389f47b23a56fc44310f5a6f3eb)
Mine
Wow, it´s look very great! :thumbsup:
Oh yes it sure looks fine.
However I think the front needs a red and a orange texture.
it looks correct, keep going on this way ;)
Quote from: Orange_o_ on October 28, 2011, 07:49:08 AM
You do really good work.
If I had one criticism it would be the color of the walls that I find too orange compared to the actual building. Can you try to get this?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg189.imageshack.us%2Fimg189%2F9523%2Ffase3.jpg&hash=392070bfcb6252fc3c374844036766fccc19af63)
Yours
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg11.hostingpics.net%2Fpics%2F604576Sanstitre1.gif&hash=3f44eabb184b9389f47b23a56fc44310f5a6f3eb)
Mine
Here's a close pic from the entrance building... it has the same bricks as the castle:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fusers.telenet.be%2Fvandaele.dirk%2FDV-Foto%2527sKasteelOoidonk%2F2003-07-Kasteel_Ooidonk-001-Toegangsgebouw.JPG&hash=831f6edb35cffc9ebc9ee4107a5fc92da3be6a7c)
So it seems you're about right... my colors are too orange. I'll adjust the textures!
This model is lovely! &apls
I can see that you have used the mirror function in GMAX.
This function has a bug and I would recommend avoiding it: the tell tale give away is the texture on the left-most small tower has become distorted. I would just clone the roof from the right-hand tower and rotate it 90 degrees to overcome that issue. :thumbsup:
Well... actually, I didn't use mirror. I've had some problems with it when I was building the Belfry of Ghent so I stopped using mirror...
That roof is a rotation of the other... but I had to use "edit mesh" to make ik fit with the other roof. I guess that caused the distorted texture... I'll see if I can fix it
New texture:
north side (back):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg191.imageshack.us%2Fimg191%2F1708%2Fnoordkantfase3roderande.jpg&hash=0ab58a83cd55df619944b78e7ba519927c167409)
too red?
And I've added the shapes of the large round towers to have a complete idea of how it's gonna look:
South side (front):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg52.imageshack.us%2Fimg52%2F7028%2Fnoordkantfase3rodermetz.jpg&hash=7f885789f5551c40c29eb3ab9a867baf0bc69658)
Ahhhh! The color is much better now.
Otherwise the model is becoming very convincing. It's improving! &apls
It is a stunning job ! The New texture looks so good and very realistic, I can't wait to use it !
&apls &apls
Ah! Here are some nice textures. Go on, that's fine. &apls
Looks great. &apls Maybe a bit older wood for the drawbridge in front?
Here is the new update:
towers are finished
roof is fixed
Drawbridge has new texture
concrete base added
(water is just for showing how it would look, will be removed in export)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg191.imageshack.us%2Fimg191%2F5259%2Fnoordkantfase4.jpg&hash=bd263ab621b36abd8b515260d7f6b09b3ceb3aa7)
I like the concrete base texture. The roof looks much better now. Is it possible you forgot the middle tower?
In the two main towers there is a 'line' going thru the windows.
Besides that, it's a great building :thumbsup:
Quote from: MrMAvE94 on October 31, 2011, 09:58:44 AM
Is it possible you forgot the middle tower?
Ah yes... and the two smaller ones beside it too...
Quote from: MrMAvE94 on October 31, 2011, 09:58:44 AM
In the two main towers there is a 'line' going thru the windows.
The line has to be there, it's the same line as in the main building, I have to make it less "eyecathing"
Thanks for the comments!
That is beautifull!! &apls &apls I will use it!
Ahem... cough cough.... Concrete base?
It could be the result of a bad restoration, or the whole complex is younger than I thought, but usually these kind of castles is older than the use of concrete.
Although the Romans used a kind of concrete for their constructions, in Northern Europe the real use of concrete begun in the 19th century. I guessed that the castle was older.
But it looks real good! And maybe I shluldn't be so picky?
Quote from: FrankU on November 01, 2011, 04:44:41 AM
Ahem... cough cough.... Concrete base?
It could be the result of a bad restoration, or the whole complex is younger than I thought, but usually these kind of castles is older than the use of concrete.
It's not really concrete, it's actually large gray stones (see pic below)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fc%2Fcc%2FKasteel_ooidonk_sideview.JPG&hash=b211d30884aa5c9a1112bcd882e03bd9f9403f41)
But those small lines won't be visible in the game so I used a concrete texture because of the look (with the algae...). I do think they added a small layer of concrete on top of those stones at some places when they restored the castle some 10 years ago...
So to sum it up: from an aerial view, the base looks like concrete ;)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ooidonk.be%2Fmedia%2Falg01.jpg&hash=9e7b824faa13fd0a0605835e1b803d0178dda13a)
But I'll try to use photoshop to merge a texture with rocks and algae. And see how that will look...
The model is looking so much nicer with the newly enhanced textures.
About the stonework at the base - you are partly correct: at the present resolution, each of those blocks will not be visible in game.
But the larger lines, the light and shade - all of which 'trick the eye' (trompe l'oeil) into believing it sees stonework are there.
Particularly with a signature bat such as this which will likely be plopped once in a city and probably surrounded by water/flora etc, the user will in fact be looking long and hard at the BAT because there won't be much else around the castle. That means you'd probably think twice about cutting the usual corners with smaller BATs designed to blend in with the urban landscape.
Besides, you've seen how much a simple hue shift can change the feel of the BAT, so it pays to follow that through.
CG Textures have tons of stonework pictures: I just downloaded the first one I could find. I then downloaded two stain decals that I thought would fit the bill. I only downloaded thumbnails for this excercise
Using the gimp, I sharpened the the stone texture by 30% and saved it. I then added an alpha layer to the decals and pasted them onto the stone work. I erased some of the edges of these until I was happy with the result.
I then turned the tint up through red and added (using the dodge and burn tool) highlights around the blocks that I want to show off in game.
I then added a slight gradient and airbrushed a few of the prominent greens, brown and greys through the stone work.
Lastly I desaturated the whole image.
I did this very quickly and it's very free-form - I probably wouldn't use this texture in game (too small and I really did it in a hurry), but I hope this shows you what can be achieved. These darker/lighter areas would in fact show in game and help create the illusion of stonework.
looks good,
Smooth a little it your towers (cylinder). Your brick texture is maybe too pink but don't desaturated it , switch to more yellow one.
@Matt: I've been looking around CGTextures myself and saved some textures (that one too)... I'll see if I can do better but yours looks OK so maybe I'll use it. We'll see how it looks...
@girafe: I'll tweak the texture a bit...
thanks!
Here it is:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg716.imageshack.us%2Fimg716%2F5259%2Fnoordkantfase4.jpg&hash=1f29c34409bbce691907f936669ef929b297abf6)
wall-texture is a little less yellow
Base texture is now rock with some moss. No running down algae because I was thinking: there is no water running down, just some minor changes in water-level. So I've deleted that part of the texture.
Previous:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg191.imageshack.us%2Fimg191%2F5259%2Fnoordkantfase4.jpg&hash=bd263ab621b36abd8b515260d7f6b09b3ceb3aa7)
What do you think?
Looks great.
Of course, now that these other textures are improving, it's starting to show a flaw in your roof texture :D
Based on your other BATs, this particular texture becomes quite beige and washed out once in game due to the colour shifts that occur in GMAX.
Gascooker wrote some very informative tutorials on dealing with textures in the BAT. Barbyw posted a couple of them here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?board=41.0 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?board=41.0). Others may still be available on Simtropolis Omnibus.
To fix your roof (and align it more to the warm grey slate of the original) I would recommend adjusting the hue to include slightly more blue, magenta and red shades in the midtones and shadows, and slightly more magenta and red tones in the highlights.
It certainly doesn't have to be a strong shift. But your grey has quite a yellow base whereas the actual grey roof has a much redder base.
(To tell that this is the case, just use the eye-dropper or colour selection tool in whichever program you are using to compare photos and your BAT, be aware that photos may not be 100% accurate based on lighting conditions and other factors, but it certainly gives a good reference point)
Lastly, I would then apply a subtle gradient to the tiles to give the roof a greater depth.
Gascooker used to have a tutorial that talked about 'cauliflowering' brickwork.
I can't locate the tutorial anymore, but essentially he said that you use both the dodge and burn functions at various strengths with an oddly shaped brush (hence the term cauliflower) to 'roughen up' your brickwork. This will aid in giving the apperance of drip stains, water streaking, dirt and other grime that builds up under window sills, around rain spouts, under eaves, in cracks etc.
This really is coming along beautifully :thumbsup:
The second image for me is the better, because the textures looks more realistic :thumbsup:
I have a question for you, How you will do the water? It is possible a version without water ?
Greetings mate and keep up the good work &apls &apls
It would nice to have a version without water, so that everybody can plop their own water type: PEG ponds, PEG PPonds/Canals, Simgoober, CAL, Oppie, Diggis .... how many did I forget?
@ Matt: it's like programming: fix one bug, created another :P
I'll fire up photoshop and try to get that "slate-look"...
For the bricks: I've used those dodge and burn-tools in my booktower of ghent. But this texture is a box where all 4 sides are the same color so they can be repeated. I needed this because of all the small items. One large texture didn't look good.
@ Frank & Kelis: I haven't really tought about the water. This render has water because I wanted to show how it would look. So this texture will be removed in the export. Don't know if this would still look good without water? I'll give it a try, but a castle without water is like a pub with no beer :D
I was thinking of making it like a harbor: where a part has to be on land, and the larger part on water... Never tried this before, but I guess this can't be that difficult... I've already built the bridge over water
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg27.imageshack.us%2Fimg27%2F8905%2Fnoordkantfase5.jpg&hash=39b45782d1d72d18f13f20f0d978ecc5f6ccdbf5)
Thanks for al the positive comments...
My idea is make a personal lot with water, but using props, can you understand me? If you export a
bat without water, We can put our water. As Frank says, we can select the type of water and use the
better water for us.
A castle without water is perfectly OK. In many cases the moat was and still is dry. But with water it's nicer, of course.
Making a lot that can be placed partly on water is simple: in LotEditor there is a tab where you can choose "water". If you place one of those tiles on your lot you have to place the lot in such a way that that blue tile will be under water. The rest may be on land. If you add a brown tile named 'land" that tile has to be on land, the other may be (bus does not neccessarily) be in the water. So if you use "Land" the whole lot may be on land. Simple.
Me again $%Grinno$% ::)
Regarding the bricks, if you have a texture that is a sqaure, that is an excellent starting point.
Tiling in GMAX is one way to achieve an outcome, but a better way is to make the texture to fit the wall.
In GMAX, you will be able to see by your longest wall (the south one) how much wider your brick texture needs to be. (For Example, if your texture is 128x128 pixels and UVW map tiling is by a factor of 3 vertically and 7 horizontally, then the your texture size for this project will be 384 x 896 pixels.
You then tile the brick texture in photoshop. That way you can apply the gradient, the doge and burn and tonal variations across the entire palette and there will be no need to tile the texture in GMAX.
For a signature piece like this - as well as the fact that you have a perfectly tileable texture, you can also get very specific:
1) In your front viewport in GMAX, right click the word 'Front' and select 'Smooth+Highlights'.
2) You will now see your textures in the front view.
3) Right click 'Front' again and select 'Texture Correction' and uncheck 'Show Grid'...this will make things appear closer to the render.
4) Select every object except the front wall, its window sills and any other protruding details on that wall (such as the decorative course lines etc)
5) Right click and select 'Hide Unselected'
6) Take a screen shot of your textured front wall/sills and so on
7) Using the calculation above, line up your wall so that it completely fills your project space
8) Create a new layer, and then subtly paint on (using gradients, airbrush, dodge and burn etc) all of the little logical stains that you would expect to find running from window sills, brick string coursing, eaves and so forth. You could then either save this as a new texture, or copy the layer over to your tiled texture to ensure you don't loose any quality in the brickwork.
9) Repeat for other walls
Below is to illustrate.
*I have made a wall that is 10m high by 15m wide. I have added typical details such as window sills, downpipes, decorative coursing.
*I have selected a 256x256 wide brick texture.
*I apply it to the wall and it looks ridiculous, so I tile it in GMAX. I tile it by 5 across and 3 high.
*This looks better, so I now take my screen shot.
*I open the GIMP and make a new project of 1280 (5x256) x 768 (3x256) and paste the wall screen shot to completely fill the space
*Because my screen shot is perfectly flat with all of the elements on my wall to guide me, I then get creative with gradient, dodge & burn to emulate water and dirt stains, airbrush (pale-blue, pale-brown and pale-olive) to 'cauliflower' the brick work. Using these tools tends to saturate the image, so I adjust the lightness and saturation.
*I save my texture as some new name
*I reset the UVW tiling in GMAX to 1, 1, 1 and apply my bespoke texture.
Picture 1 shows just the brick texture I have used (no UVW tiling)
Picture 2 shows the brick texture with UVW tiling of 5x3 ready to be pasted into the GIMP
Picture 3 shows the final result - as this is an illustration, I have 'over-emphasised' the stains and marks, in reality it would be far more subtle
Hope this helps ;)
Hi Alex,
sorry, i was busy in the last weeks, so i only looked for some short views into Your thread. But now i must say again: this castle is still beautyful! &apls &apls
I also prefere the second version, and whow - i´m eager to make a lot with it.
And in every point i accede to FrankU and kelis. Many players use ploppable water, reason for a dry version, maybe enabled for build on slope. But i wouldn´t make a port from it, as a lot i would think for a bigger one with a detailed moat and a smaller one dry for free use with ploppable stuff. I´ll write You, when i´m ready with the old lot.
Greetz, Carl
@ Matt: I really appreciate your texture-manual... but do you know how many walls I have in this bat? ;D
And how to texture those round ones? I can't paste a round texture on a rectangle one because it will deform, no? I think it's very usefull on straight walls, but I'm afraid I have to many bits and pieces of wall...
@Carl, Kelis & Frank: I'll skip the water-part... but maybe I'll have to raise it a bit: the stone base is now underground? The bridge should probably have a slope that ends at 0m?
Quote from: alex_bervoets on November 04, 2011, 05:45:05 AM
@ Matt: I really appreciate your texture-manual... but do you know how many walls I have in this bat? ;D
And how to texture those round ones? I can't paste a round texture on a rectangle one because it will deform, no? I think it's very usefull on straight walls, but I'm afraid I have to many bits and pieces of wall...
You could model it like a straigt wall and the add a bend modifier. You will need to add a lot of sections to the length of the wall and the polycounts goes up.
Or you could pick a cylinder uvw-map.
In addition to what Vester has said, there's a real quick and dirty method to getting this to work no matter what the wall shape or details.
I have made a very rough massing model of your castle to show you what I mean (I have used splines and basic rectangles as it is very quick, but it will work on other methods).
The first thing I do is look at the length of the longest wall and the height of the tallest wall. The longest wall is 54m and the tallest part of the tower is 30m. That then becomes my UVW map parameters for EVERY wall.
So, I apply a 'Box' UVW map to the South Wall: Gmax gives it co-ordinates of 19.05 (l) and 54.05 (w) and 0.03 (h). I slap my 256x256 brick texture on it
This won't do based on my measurements above, so I change this to 30.0, 54.0 and 5.0. I then make my U tile 8.0 and my V tile 4.0. This is just for illustration - your measurements will be different of course.
I make every wall have the same UVW measurements for a very simple reason: all of my bricks must look the same size no matter where they are on the building. Looking very closely at your images, I think that some of your bricks are different sizes based on what the size of the UVW map is.
In my image I have done this on every other wall to illustrate that it works even on rounded walls, but you wouldn't need to go that far as you now have the measurements you need (that is 256px x 8 and 256 px x 4). Also make sure (using the UVW gizmo) that the base of each UVW map is the same on the z axis.
Next in photoshop, you would open a new blank project 2048wide and 1024 high. You copy and paste 256x256 texture 32 times as needed to fill the entire space. Be sure to add a subtle gradient.
Now save this as a base, as you will be ammending this a few times.
Looking at the arrangement of walls that you have, I can see there are four main types based only on the horizontal sandstone trims (and I'm ignoring the window placement).
Using the method from my last post, you can take a screen shot and line up the horizontal bars and paint dodge/burn streaks into your brickwork depending on where those horizontal lines are. Emphasize the shadows underneath the lines and lighter stains where water may run down the wall. You can also make some darker and lighter areas for visual intrest. This should be enough to do the trick.
You will then have four (or more) types of wall that will have specific stains depending on your sandstone lines.
Also replacing a texture in GMAX is easy: In the Material Editor click on the 'M' next to the Diffuse button - you will then be able to expand the Bitmap Parameters: click on that and load your new texture. Any surface with this texture will automatically become the new texture.
Beats the heck out of selecting every wall and navigating to the material editor to apply the texture ;)
While of course this is your BAT, and there are many, many wall pieces, I do hope you consider doing something with the textures. While it may seem like a pain now, it will assist greatly in future as it will make projects so much quicker for you...
Matt... I've did several attemps to improve the textures... but every one turned out worse than it is now... &mmm
I'll give it a try on my next project (wich will be lots easier to try this).
In the meantime: I've done some more work:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg818.imageshack.us%2Fimg818%2F7815%2Fooidonkfase6.jpg&hash=f433bc73b9ffa7e44b1cd4c0f34d08832e16f53c)
The towers at the back aren't finished offcourse... they need some windows and details.
The grass is just to see how it would look (it was a bit empty)
The path too...
So... what do you guys think?
Hi Alex,
This is getting better and better.
In my opinion it might be easier to make the building in front and the two at the back as separate models. They can be put together on a lot to make the whole castle. Maybe yo make a separate prop of the walls in between too. You don't have to worry about the grass texture then and the use of the props will be more versatile. We can combine the props with other stuff.
Good thinking Frank... I'm also batting the gate-building after this one.
but I do have a problem with the grass-area: the grass is 1.5m above ground level (now water)... so without a grass-textured-rectangle, the Maxis-grass will be too low. Any ideas?
Well, then it is a matter of how exact you want to be.
If you plop the lot in game-water there is always a small difference in height, so a normal lot with game textures etc will look OK. If you want to make your own water it would be possible to make this water a bit lower than the normal ground level, like all canal modders do. Then you will have this difference in height too. If you want us to make our own water by plopping some ploppable water (PEG, Jeronij, Edmonton etc) then there is no difference, but when you make some kind of wall around the garden I guess nobody will really bother about the problem. Or is it just my lack of perfectionism?
Otherwise you could make props with the grass texture on it which is 1,5 meter thick...
Options enough! You choose, we plop! ;D
No constructive critisism from me because all I can say is that I really like the building!!! I can imagine it somewhere just out of town in a highly desirable and beautiful location.
Great model! There are some really nice details that you've taken the time to include. I can't think of many bats available like this. The weak part is the textures. Matt had a lot of great advice. More so than the stones, the one that distracts me is the roof shingles. Castle stones could easily vary in size, but shingles are going to be the same size everywhere. It looks to me like the upper parts of the roof have larger shingles than the lower parts. I think you should adjust the UVW maps. If the roofs are originally straight pieces that have been adjusted to be angled instead of straight pieces that have been rotated, you'll have to adjust the angle of the UVW maps manually (you can rotate and move UVW maps just like any other object). If nothing else, you should definitely deal with the roof bits on the back tower that are running in the wrong direction! Again this is a great model and some great work. A little tweaking on the texture front will make it truly excellent work. If your out of patience, it might be worth starting something else and then revisiting this one at a later point (I have done that with some of my stuff).
Spa: I know that the roof is far from finished... I'm going to check every UVW-map because some have the wrong size...
I'm not out of patience, but out of time :P Exams and so on... I'll have some more time soon.
Hope to finish before end of the year...
Update:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg9.imageshack.us%2Fimg9%2F6560%2Fooidonkfase8.jpg&hash=33a0de8ae5823e86ff6f4e4cdbd8db464aba7575)
The grass in the middle is not good, still need some work to connect the two buildings...
And the first nightlights:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg202.imageshack.us%2Fimg202%2F7467%2Fnightdraft.jpg&hash=76fb7e7059e5e7f87276f66bbdcf19a9eae0828a)
Great!!!
I see that you made a back garden. Great flora in the back.
I hope that you can make the same quality in the middle.
-Ernst
I've done some gardening in the middle ;) and made a draft export to the game...
What do you think? Is the size OK?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg94.imageshack.us%2Fimg94%2F9741%2Fdraftexportsc4.jpg&hash=95c2a168331d7af4653da4bd21202b4a84425ca4)
Hi ALex,
The size is always a problem in SC4. Maybe you should put it also in a forest, with your favourite trees, and in an area with other landmarks like Stonehenge, the Korean Temple and the like, to see if they fit together. In comparison with these small houses it looks a bit too smal. I think.
Also I still think you should not BAT the gardens. It's more versatile for us and easier for you if you kmake the BAT without water and gardens. We can lot that later!
But the building is getting really good.
Quote from: FrankU on January 04, 2012, 01:47:59 AM
Also I still think you should not BAT the gardens. It's more versatile for us and easier for you if you kmake the BAT without water and gardens. We can lot that later!
That would cause some trouble with LODs. For that to happen, you need custom LODs to prevent the building for covering up your garden flora. And I actually like the current garden, but I think the building itself may be a bit larger, by about 25% or so. It looks so small... or maybe I'm wrong...
Quote from: FrankU on January 04, 2012, 01:47:59 AM
Also I still think you should not BAT the gardens. It's more versatile for us and easier for you if you kmake the BAT without water and gardens. We can lot that later!
I'm going to export two versions: one landmark with all the buildings, walls, gardens etc included (for the lazy people ;) ) and one with all the elements as seperate props. With that second version, you can relot the building and add a garden of your choice...
I'll see how it looks compared to other landmarks... I think I have some other castles somewhere..
Thanks for the help guys!
I will be more than happy with the two versions!
Maybe I could combine the props with other props, or make a castle that is half destroyed.
Quote from: FrankU on January 04, 2012, 03:21:15 AM
or make a castle that is half destroyed.
You're going to destroy my castle? :'(
Can't wait to see that :P
Yes yes yes! ;D
Well Frank, here is something else to destroy...
I've built the little gate-building:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg84.imageshack.us%2Fimg84%2F6328%2Fpoortgebouw.jpg&hash=b1f7ffdaf1e9aae4130dcbb64fd40f43ee9a27de)
and the real picture:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F6%2F61%2FToegangspoort_Ooidonk.JPG%2F220px-Toegangspoort_Ooidonk.JPG&hash=0b59941b6dee9d8c463ec20032f43302e246a813)
No nightlights here offcourse
Next on the list: the large one
Very cute Alex!
But is the base a part of your model? That may cause problems when putting the building into a park. I still say: make the model separate from the base texture.
Happy new year Alex,
great work on the castle, i´m stunned! But i agree with Maarten for the size. The most European Buildings are bigger than maxis ones.
I also appreciate the two versions idea! :thumbsup:
And this little doorhouse is cute! &apls
But can You make here two versions too, one without roof and burned down to blend in Frank`s ruin fantasies? :P
Greetz, Carl
Quote from: carlfatal on January 04, 2012, 05:48:13 AM
But can You make here two versions too, one without roof and burned down to blend in Frank`s ruin fantasies? :P
Ha, yes! Ruins..... great!
No, seriously. I had an idea about an old farm that also has a small ruin of an old castletower on the area. That would be a nice addition to my Farms Set, but maybe you first stick to the large castle and finish that first. Then you can make ruins as much as you like. I also have an idea of putting your castle on a Stage 7 farm. My idea at the moment is to make some Stage 7 "farms" as castles, abbeys etc. As an addition to the BSC landmarks farms. Nice idea?
@Frank: no no, the base is just to show how it would look. I feel that a BAT always looks better with a base because it makes it easier to compare with the real thing... Just as the water of the main castle it will be removed from the final export. I also use it to fit the BAT in a particulary size, in this case: 1x1
I love the idea of using it as a farm... If you want, I'll give you the Gmax-file so you can adjust it to your needs? That way, I don't have to destroy my own work ;)
@Carl: thanks Carl, the same for you offcourse! I'll give it a try, it looks a bit too small compared to other landmarks. The doorhouse has a little error: the wall above the first window is too short. I'll fix that tomorrow (hope it will still be cute ;) )
Hi Alex,
No, please no G-max files. I won't allow them on my machine. Maybe I would get tempted to actually do something with these files and the G-max software. This would make me probably do much longer to finish the farms set. No, I'll stick to lotting. Whatever is offered: as long as I think I can use it I will. But I am not going to make my own models.
Fixed the size of the small gate but noticed that the textures aren't the same as the castle... strange, I was sure I've used the same file and the same UVW-map... ???
Anyhow... I've been testing a path that will be added to the pack... But how do I get rid of those height-differences (red cirkels) ?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg36.imageshack.us%2Fimg36%2F3545%2Ftestmetpaden.jpg&hash=99df73d29ceb6c51389625aaf42c017d2971d00f)
@ Frank: OK... :P
Hi Alex,
Are those paths selfmade lots with a selfmade texture on them? Maybe the lots are not slope friendly. There is a property that you can edit in Reader that accounts for slope friendlyness. I just don't exactly know how to go on with it.
You could also find some slope friendly park lot from Maxis and edit that with your own textures. That should work always.
From TWrecks on simtropolis:
Make sure that you set...
- MinSlope (minimum slope) to 0,
- MaxSlope (maximum slope) and MaxSlopeBeforeLotFoundation to a high value (e.g., 80 or something).
This way your lots should adapt to the terrain.
Hi Alex,
like You wrote, first property is 0 and for the maximum i take 90, then it will go with every slope. As long as it is a field, park or path i use these values.
And i have not seen this little issue with the height before You mentioned it. ;)
Greetz, Carl
Seems to work... :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg20.imageshack.us%2Fimg20%2F2011%2Fpathswithelevation.jpg&hash=a7cc3b2cfa282f89bf2fc53dd6010a83381915f6)
Does anybody know how to rotate the tiles in the game? I've seen parks that can be rotated with the Tab-key, but how do you do that?
do you mean rotate as in rotate the tiles themselves? Because that can be done with the home/end keys on your keyboard. If you meant rotate in as in making a tab-ring, I think the NAM-Team would be your best bet for help with regards to that.
Quote from: WC_EEND on January 05, 2012, 12:27:47 PM
If you meant rotate in as in making a tab-ring, I think the NAM-Team would be your best bet for help with regards to that.
According to Maarten, this is only possible for transit lots... Too bad, so we'll have to do without it (better empty that parks menu ;))
Great progress. On the draft export pic the building seems a little low. How high is the ceiling from your building? For simcity 4 it should be 4.5 meters high. If you have made a real-world sized building you can scale the z-axis 133%. This will overcome the problem.
Your garden is great BTW.
-Ernst
Hi Alex,
About the texture of your path. I am not sure, because I cannot see very clear details on the images. But my question is: isn't there already some BSC or CP texture that does almost exactly the same as your path? That might spare you the time to do it again...
New laptop, so finally a high export to the game...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg713.imageshack.us%2Fimg713%2F5898%2Ftestinsc4.jpg&hash=0434b388e8cc88904c9c00cfc7333e6a97577a0c)
Problem: the grass is gone and is replaced by the concrete... I had the same problem with the townhall. Why does PIM-x does this? Any ideas?
Anyhow, it's a little bigger than the previous one, compared to the trees, how does it look?
@Frank: I'll see if I can find those paths, thanks
Hi Alex,
it is wonderful, and the scale looks good - compared with the tiny maxis buildings and trees. Normally i use a s a standard for scaling things in SC4 the KWK small town set and Xannepans Paris buildings. They fit together and are often used if people play Euro style.
Away from that: do You use high graphic settings in SC4D? Some overlay textures disappear in low graphics and then You only see the base textures.
Greetz, Carl
Hi Alex,
I downloaded your Castle of Ooidonk and it looks beautiful! The scale seems very good to me. The garden is beautiful and there is only one remark: you did not mod verything nivcely. In the landmarks menu the castle is called "Custom ploppable" that's a pity.
Maybe you correct these flaws and upload the improved castle together with the BATs in parts upload that you have promised?
Frank
Ah thank you Frank...
I'll fix the description as soon as possible.
I'll add it to the prop-pack ;)
Any good advices, I've never made props?
Hi Alex,
You can take the PIMX for this. Look for Your model in the folder "standard" and take it over to the left side to props. Then it will make a prop from Your model file. There are a lot of them, i normally make a building as prop without wealth from every modelfile.
Hope that helps,
greetz, Carl
Hi guys,
I'll be away from batting for a while... We will be moving to our new house sooner then expected and since I'll have to do a lot of real-life "batting" I won't have time left to BAT. &mmm
I'm going to finish the prop-version of the castle and I'll be visiting the BNL-forum to help offcourse.
Thank you all for the help on the castle, it's a nice BAT to start my break from batting &apls
If everything goes as planned, I'll be back after the summer of 2012
Greets
Alex
OK, take care! Everyone here has a time where RL occupies most of the time, so it's nothing you really have to worry about. We'll be there when you have time again (in your new house) ;)
OK, Alex,
Succes with your new BAT or Lotting work. We won't be able to help you out here, although if you upload images...? If there's something we can do: you know where to find us. ;)
good luck building your real life castle, nothing virtual will ever beat that.