Alex' Belgian BAT Thread

spa · December 08, 2011, 05:31:58 PM

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).

alex_bervoets · December 09, 2011, 03:19:44 AM

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

Exams and so on... I'll have some more time soon.
Hope to finish before end of the year...

alex_bervoets · January 01, 2012, 12:58:29 PM

Update:

The grass in the middle is not good, still need some work to connect the two buildings...

And the first nightlights:

peter007 · January 01, 2012, 01:24:23 PM

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

alex_bervoets · January 04, 2012, 12:58:40 AM

I've done some gardening in the middle

and made a draft export to the game...

What do you think? Is the size OK?

FrankU · January 04, 2012, 01:47:59 AM

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.

MandelSoft · January 04, 2012, 02:04:15 AM

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...

alex_bervoets · January 04, 2012, 02:36:59 AM

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!

FrankU · January 04, 2012, 03:21:15 AM

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.

alex_bervoets · January 04, 2012, 03:35:08 AM

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

FrankU · January 04, 2012, 03:37:45 AM

Yes yes yes!

alex_bervoets · January 04, 2012, 04:35:45 AM

Well Frank, here is something else to destroy...

I've built the little gate-building:

and the real picture:

No nightlights here offcourse
Next on the list: the large one

FrankU · January 04, 2012, 04:53:48 AM

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.

carlfatal · January 04, 2012, 05:48:13 AM

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!

And this little doorhouse is cute!

But can You make here two versions too, one without roof and burned down to blend in Frank`s ruin fantasies?

Greetz, Carl

FrankU · January 04, 2012, 06:51:39 AM

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?

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?

alex_bervoets · January 04, 2012, 03:27:40 PM

@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

)

FrankU · January 05, 2012, 04:21:44 AM

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.

alex_bervoets · January 05, 2012, 06:17:30 AM

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) ?

@ Frank: OK...

FrankU · January 05, 2012, 06:31:17 AM

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.

alex_bervoets · January 05, 2012, 09:57:01 AM

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.