BlackDragonAJ89 - The Eagleland Project

BlackDragonAJ89 · October 30, 2009, 12:30:07 PM

Well everyone, how are you doing today...

I was going to wait till the start of January to show off what I got done during the Holidays (Quite a lot really), but I decided to go ahead with a reveal on this...

An example of the gas stations having a complete set of props exclusively for them

Anyway, I think the pictures speak for themselves, but I had to go back and remodify all the lots so that I could get them to grow better. I still have a lot of work to do, but this should show you just how far I'm coming with this. Some of the buildings had to be rebuilt (as seen with the one with the 89 on it). Pretty much any building that's been fully constructed at this point has been given lots, programing, and everything else, but I had to do an enormous overhaul on it...

Well, I've been playing Sim City 4 Deluxe and Sim City 3000 Unlimited for years now, and if there's one thing that bugs me, it's the fact that the buildings look, well... CALIFORNIAN. O_o

Okay, lame joking aside, I wanted to recreate that "feel" of SC3KU by making some more colorful buildings, but also, I wanted to make shout outs to various other video games that we've played over the years, so, I began creating the Eagleland Project...

The Eagleland Project is a set of 5 different styles (Cheapo, Generic Eagleland, Trinity, Legendary, and Corrupted) that span different architectural ideas (as well as colors) plus a government collection (New City). It could be looked at like this:

Cheapo

Low income housing that's not so much as grungy and ugly as standard fare but more "less decor and more bulk". Most of these buildings lack any real style and just ultimately serve their purposes

These trailer homes and shotgun houses reflect just how simple these cheap buildings are...

Generic Eagleland

If you've ever played the game Earthbound or seen stereotypical portrayals of America, than this building set is nothing too spectacular. It's simply just cute 50s homes, simple yet homely apartments, and idealized business. All buildings of this category are for middle class citizens.

It looks like a colorized version of Leave It to Beaver, nice green lawns, white picket fences, and even shady trees... However, I don't trust that cute cottage, it looks like it's where the serial killer lives...

Trinity

How many of you like Modernism? These buildings reflect the 1950s through 1980s modernism buildings, all painted, well, blue... Don't ask me really where I came up with the name, it's just what I picked. The middle class stick to more simple designs while the rich go all out with some funky shapes and ideas...

Wow, they have green lawns too... I guess it goes sort of nicely with the blue. By the way, we've got an A-frame, box, two shoe boxes stacked on top of each other, and something that looks like it came from... CALIFORNIA! D:

Legendary

Based on the architecture of the East Coast USA, as well as the Big Applesauce, these buildings all share something interesting... the color purple. Like with most traditional western styles, the more decorated and elaborate buildings mark for the richer of Sims.

They look like they came from a cartoon... But then again, the world of Sims is utterly wacky, full of aliens, witches, llama gods, and people who love broccoli. If anything, these houses are probably the most normal thing one could encounter.

Corrupted

If it's painted black, it's evil right?? Not these, they're just Victorian/fantasy combination buildings, ranging in a wide variety of structures like all the other sets. Like the Legendary buildings, the more decorative and elaborate, the richer the person or company that owns the building.

The people living in the house on the left corner work with the Humane Society, while the family in the middle is a member of Habitat for Humanity. The other two work in the medical field. The little purple house is up for rent...

Well, that's all the residential and commercial buildings to come. The government buildings are all based around a combination of fantasy elements, sort of like something you'd see from a comic book or video game.

Anyway, this topic will contain info and updates of all these buildings and more buildings to come. Now for those who want uber-realism, I am planning on creating a specialty series of towers as part of the "towers of the midwest" collection, which features buildings from Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Iwoa, Missouri, and Arkansas cities.

For downloading, visit the link in the signature if it's still there...

The_Mario_Man · October 30, 2009, 12:37:23 PM

All of those look really good. Some are a bit too colorful for my tastes, but not bad at all.

BlackDragonAJ89 · October 30, 2009, 05:37:28 PM

Yeah, they're odd... however, I do plan on making some other things for those who don't like these as much...

The_Mario_Man · October 30, 2009, 08:06:17 PM

Yeah, of all of them I think the train/bus station and the Goodwin homes look the best. Good work!

BlackDragonAJ89 · October 31, 2009, 08:15:52 PM

Thank you... Anyway, I'm reworking the "roof junk" on some of the buildings so that it isn't so thrown-together-slop like I've done.

dragonshardz · November 01, 2009, 01:20:32 AM

Heh...it's actually very good, I will make sure to keep an eye (or two, even!) on this.

Evillions8 · November 01, 2009, 07:52:07 PM

There good and all, but there's barley roof junk on any of the buildings. Where's all the HVAC units, pipes, air conditioners, satalites, etc.

EDIT: I might start BATing these kinda of things, they do bring back old times, SC3KU.

Maybe you can have more than one person helping out.

BlackDragonAJ89 · November 01, 2009, 08:04:37 PM

Well, the reason for some buildings not to have roof junk as much is because the some of the offices/residents don't have much... =B Nah, I'm working on it all okay, the bigger buildings have more roof junk though, and although the CAFE sign on the Greasy Spoon is blocking the way, there's plenty of roof junk on it...

Evillions8 · November 10, 2009, 03:41:40 PM

Any activity lately? Haven't seen any since Nov. 1

BlackDragonAJ89 · November 11, 2009, 09:56:52 AM

I would have posted a bit more of an update, but I'm afraid to double post. By the way, all the little paper shuffling offices are done up now, and I'm gonna try to get some mansions done up...

Earth quake · November 11, 2009, 12:40:05 PM

Nice bat.

I really like the Generic Eagleland row homes.

BlackDragonAJ89 · November 11, 2009, 06:17:35 PM

Thank you for the comment.

It's appreciated.

Anyway, here's some "sneak peaks" to show that I've been working still...

The one the left is the Rusty Tank Gas Station (Cheapo), the middle is the Legal Aid Cube (Trinity), and the one on the right is a nearly finished Tea Time Cafe (Corrupted) that I'm going to add some touches to after the dishes.

Evillions8 · November 12, 2009, 02:28:27 PM

You could try to add textured indoor stuff in your commerical buildings. It looks a bit more realistic and pleasing to the eye.

BlackDragonAJ89 · November 12, 2009, 04:26:29 PM

I should probably do that. I might want to make some secondary mergeable models (like desks, tables, cubicles, and planters) that could be put inside.

Evillions8 · November 12, 2009, 05:54:47 PM

There's another thing too, the windows are too big. Do you mind telling or showing us how big in square tiles you put them in? The normal should be 3 to 4 tiles. But it seems you have more than 4, so that leaves me pondering on how these buildings are going to look realistic in a "cartoon" way. Another thing, try to add much detail as possible, this can be obtained by looking at R.L. pictures if you haven't. That way, you can get the best out of your buildings.

Overall I think this might turn out pretty good!

dragonshardz · November 12, 2009, 06:50:59 PM

If you want to save on polys, model the office furniture in a separate model file, then take pictures of them from the front, back, and both sides. Create a flat plane inside the windows along each side and place the pictures in the correct positions on the plane. It works best if your windows are semi-transparent.

This gives the appearance of an inside to the office while saving on polys and render time.

Evillions8 · November 12, 2009, 07:37:52 PM

If you had 3dsmax and BAT4MAX. You can do Trunite rendering and use Bixel's window textures would look sharp.

BlackDragonAJ89 · November 12, 2009, 08:37:55 PM

I'm just trying to save up on the poly count because I don't want my computer to over-work itself trying to render things... But I think a few basic shapes for an office desk, cafe tables, and lamps shouldn't be that big of a deal.

madhatter106 · November 13, 2009, 12:10:18 PM

Quote from: BlackDragonAJ89 on November 12, 2009, 08:37:55 PM
I'm just trying to save up on the poly count because I don't want my computer to over-work itself trying to render things... But I think a few basic shapes for an office desk, cafe tables, and lamps shouldn't be that big of a deal.

What kind of computer do you have, a Commodore 64?

All kidding aside, I have models with five to ten times the detail that you have in your BATs, with dozens of textures, at approximately the same size LODs, and I've never had my five-year old computer spit out fire or smoke during the render process. And an average 1x1 two story building takes approximately five minutes to render. Don't worry - your CPU can handle it. My guess is that the hardware you have won't be working against you, and is no reason for oversimplifying the design...

BlackDragonAJ89 · November 13, 2009, 12:21:03 PM

It's more that I do a lot of multi-tasking with this computer, in which it's an Acer Aspire 1800 with a ATi Mobility Radeon x600 graphics card... it's just I got a lot my parents' junk on here that still needs to be removed.

However, since I don't have any artwork to work up for someone on DA at the moment, I'll see if I can fix some of these things up a bit more since they aren't exported yet.

Oh, would like to see some light props I've made up? I kind of went with a universal design here:

Anyway, black ones are for Commercial and Industrial zones while the Silver ones are for government and transportation buildings. They don't light up like Maxis ones (hopefully I can figure out how to do that), but I've got some variations for different areas. I'm also using the silvers as street lights in some planned T21 later on after I get more buildings done up...