Homefryes' BATatorium

[Pat]

Don OMG WOW!!! those are simply stunning works I am soo glad that Barby has kicked you in the Butt to finish it and the R2C's are also wonderful!!!

[Cali]

really good work

[homefryes]

Thanks again for the compliments.

Okay, so I think I've done enough for now. I have completed 8 buildings and made 2 lots for each.


Avis' Antiques, 2x3 and 3x2, CS§§§


Fritz's Italian Ristorante, 3x2 and 3x3, CS§§§


Hanni & Hanni Law Offices, 2x2 and 2x3, CO§§§


Humphrey Insurance Agency, 2x2 and 2x3, CO§§§


Makynen Medical Building, 2x3 and 3x2, CO§§§


Marilyn's Music Institute, 2x2 and 2x3, CS§§§


Thompson-Marcy Funeral Home, 3x2 and 3x3, CS§§§


Ulrich Dental Associates, 2x2 and 2x3, CO§§§

-- Don

[ponnie]

These look great... absolutely stunning . However, for the Italian restaurant, I think it would look better to remove one fence where the dumpsters are. They look a little out off reach this way  .

[gottago]

These are a wonderful series and a great idea too

With the restaurant, I'd add a banal modern wing to the back of the building for the kitchen/service area and take out a tree--that's invariably how these retrofits happen in RL. Otherwise, just perfect. bravo!

[SimGoober]

Nice looking stuff!

For the second lot on the Makynen Medical Building, I'd go with a different grass texture. The criss cross one is too formal for the "country doctor" look, and the pattern goes underneath several props.  Looks a little odd to me... 

[homefryes]

Thanks, all. Good advice!

ponnie, my intent was to hide the dumpsters from ground-level view; I mean, who wants to see the dumpsters when driving around the building? Ick! I will look for an appropriate fence with a gate piece, and perhaps have the gate open (if I can find an equally appropriate people prop to simulate that someone has just taken the garbage out). That should prevent the dumpsters from looking inaccessible, as you point out.

gottago, also a good point. I actually utilized a new floor plan for this building, rather than an historical one. But this new house has a 3-car garage, and with its placement being on the front left corner, I made that into the kitchen (those are vents on top of the kitchen). I felt it looked enough like an add-on that I didn't need to make another one, and I like having it match rather than not. But it is a good point you made. I need to show all sides of the building, and it might show how I utilized this part; the back of this portion has a service entrance.

SimGoober, very good point; you are right in that I should tone it down with one of the simpler base textures.

One other thing that I want to do (as I believe I've mentioned earlier in this topic) is to make non-functional eye candy alley lots. I initially had open fence areas along the backs of these lots (above), but realized that I should close them off to make them more useful to the masses. I may, however, redo them for my own use. Something similar to the farm connector lots (can't remember what they're called) could be fashioned for my alleys. The alleys would then give me a place to run my utility poles in urban settings (they would need minimal props, as they get in the way of my poles).

-- Don

[mattb325]

Hi Don

These look fantastic; I really love the attention to detail with these Victorians - and will definitely fill a gap in the commercials. 

However, before you release, you might want to check the scale (that old chestnut).
Maxis (and most batters) have their commercial buildings slightly larger than residentials. It is generally between 5 and 6 m per floor. Given that that group of sims look taller than the verandah, you may want to scale the buildings up to at least 5m per floor.

[metarvo]

It's nice to see you BATting again, Don.    This is what I call some serious re-zoning.  Now I'll be able to build some commercial buildings in my residential neighborhoods without them seeming out of place.

[Diggis]

Don,  those are some great looking BATs, but I agree with Matt, they suffer slightly from the SC4 Squish and look a little short.    Otherwise looking great! 

[Pat]

Don looking real good there!!!

[homefryes]

Sanborn Road Substation - for Ashtabula MD

Okay - so firstly, Ashtabula is not dead; it's still rattling around in my head from time to time. RL has really taken hold of me, and I just haven't had the time to devote to this like I once did. I really hope to get back to it.

In other related projects, it was suggested to me (by Buzzit) that I consider bringing my utility poles into HD. I agreed that this is a good idea as so much detail is lost now. But, like anythine else, as I was preparing to do this, I decided to give them a complete revamping! That was a while ago, of course, and I have been playing with them off and on getting the new models built and exported. The next daunting task will be to make them all ploppable! Ugh - as much as I want these in the game, I am not looking forward to doing that. I've been away from that project for so long that it will take me a bit to figure out where I left off. I'm certain I still have models that need exporting.

So - to compound things - it's not at all unusual for me to start a project before completing another! I was recently inspired to study the current power grid of (the real) Ashtabula County. In doing so, I made some assumptions about what the grid may have looked like originally. I may get into that aspect of it over at the MD some day. Meanwhile, this review also inspired me to consider some changes to what I've already done in my version of Ashtabula to make things more true to life as far as the grid goes.


2012-12-08 #1 - Sanborn Road Substation

That has led me here to what I am sharing with you today. Arial and birdseye view maps of The Sanborn Road Substation, located in Saybrook Township, gave me the idea that I should certainly include this in my MD. I created substation pieces which I can utilize for other projects later, and I built my version of the substation.

My next idea was to incorporate overhanging props - wires - to connect the substation to in-game high-voltage towers! Without locating the measurement somewhere else, it only took me a little trial and error to get the wires to line up perfectly!

One of the tricks, of course, is that the ground needs to be leveled for the wires to line up. And one of the drawbacks to the in-game towers is that they used 4 wires where there certainly should be 6. I can't build my substation with 4 wires - that would simply be wrong! So we have to just ignore the fact that my 6 wires connect to towers with only 4. It is what it is!


2012-12-08 #2 - View from west


2012-12-08 #3 - View from south


2012-12-08 #4 - View from east


2012-12-08 #5 - View from north


2012-12-08 #6 - Wires connecting to tower

In this beta version, I made my wires too light in color. I've since darkened them. In the end there will be towers continuing from the substation eastward as well. They're off the screen in the RL view above. There will be two more sets of wires heading west to the other tower in front as well.

All of the larger substation is made up of pieces - it's modular. Then we have the step-down to the subtransmission lines toward the front. I will build another lot for more subtransmission poles on the west side of the road. There are 3 subtransmission circuits that come from this substation. These circuits feed Ashtabula's downtown and western areas, and much of northwestern, central and southwestern Ashtabula County.

Question: is there a setting to make the props have shadows? I'm disappointed that there are no shadows except on the one piece that I designated as the "building" piece (most visible on the north and east pictures above). Any suggestions are appreciated. Trying to export the model in one piece, however, is not feasible. My BAT locks up after awhile, so I don't think it would ever finish.

-- Don

[metarvo]

I can't believe it, it's really you!    Good to see you again, Don.  That substation is sweet, and the ability to connect Maxis wires to it is also nice.    I haven't quite gotten that one down yet.  I agree with you about the pitfalls of Maxis' four-wire transmission system; it annoys the wits out of me, and I try to stay as far away from it as possible.  Seeing you bring out Bing to look at the grid reminds me of what I do sometimes. 

As far as your shadow issue goes, both the Reader and PIM-X have the setting "Is Ground Model" which is available for props.  It should be set to "True" if you want shadows.

[homefryes]

Quick reply (I think I need a new tagline - "I'd rather be playing SimCity" - because I'm stuck doing something I must do today):

...the ability to connect Maxis wires to it is also nice.    I haven't quite gotten that one down yet.

The measurement was super-easy. I haven't tried it on an ortho tower yet, but the measurement from the ground only took me one try to figure out! Pure luck! My wire ends are at 32, 36 and 40 meters from the ground and (if memory serves me correctly), 8 meters on the x and y dimensions from the center of the tower (plus or minus depends on which side of the tower you're attaching to and which way the tower is facing). As I said above, I leveled the terrain for this.

As far as your shadow issue goes, both the Reader and PIM-X have the setting "Is Ground Model" which is available for props.  It should be set to "True" if you want shadows.

Wow - I figured it was something easy! Thanks for this - I can't wait to get back to it ... hopefully I can wrap this other thing up quickly!

-- Don

[Simcoug]

Wow, it feels like a homecoming of sorts with all these great BATers making a return after many years away.  I am a big fan of your four square homes - and your recent work on the power substation is looking very cool.
I was looking back over your BAT thread and noticed your beautiful Victorian models.  Did you ever have a chance to finish that set?  Once again, its good to see you back!

[homefryes]

Hi Simcoug; thanks for the warm welcome back! You know, I was also looking back at my Victorian Residential-to-Commercial set. I think I got frustrated with the "unsquishing" requirement (which it essentially turned in to). They were complete and ready to go, but when I tried unsquishing them, it just messed up the night windows and whatnot. I would have had to completely rip them apart and rebuild parts to make them fit the apparent unsquished standard. In a nutshell, they didn't pass inspection and I am not willing to make the change that was requested to bring them up to the so-called standard. So I let them go. I may revive them at some point and post them elsewhere. We'll see.

I finished the other west-running wires on my substation and changed all of my props to be "ground models", and voila! However, I noticed something very bizarre with the shadow effect from the wires.


2012-12-10 #1 - West


2012-12-10 #2 - West


2012-12-10 #3 - South


2012-12-10 #4 - East


2012-12-10 #5 - North

Not so awesome. So now I'm thinking I need to pull all the wires into one gmax file and make them their own prop so I can have them NOT have shadows. I haven't decided how I want to do this yet. I can't believe how a line can take so long to render/export. It's ridiculous! So if I put all the wires in one file, it will literally take hours to render. Scared to think how many! And there are more wires I want to add!

But I'm loving the way the wires "connect" to the towers - the best view is the bottom of picture #2 (above). The background kind of gets in the way on the other pictures. Here are some close-ups of the other props I created for this project:

I'll have to provide the real-life inspiration for this model (mini-tower on the corner of the lot below) at a later date.

2012-12-10 #6 - Mini-tower at northwest corner

I used the mini-tower as the basis for these models. It's not true-to-life, but I've never had the opportunity to really "study" the real-life objects - they're unique to this substation, and I don't know how "original" they are (I believe parts were upgraded at some point).

2012-12-10 #7 - Junctions and breakers

Here, I used a new double-pole 90° corner setup.

2012-12-10 #8 - Southwest corner

I seem to recall a ploppable trail set out there somewhere; I'd like to incorporate that along side my poles and eventually the high-voltage towers that run cross-lots (not along roads or rails). This is very lifelike, as the utility company needs to be able to access the poles and towers. I like how this trail works, but it's on the lot. Once I hit the end of the lot, I don't have a suitable set to use.

2012-12-10 #9 - Southwest corner


2012-12-10 #10 - Southwest corner


2012-12-10 #11 - Another view of the junctions and breakers

This is the step-down part of the substation from the transmission to the subtransmission wires. (The parts with wires are actually duplicated right now, which is why the insulators look weird.)

2012-12-10 #12 - Step-down transformers


2012-12-10 #13 - Transmission switching

Things I'm looking for

• I'd like to find better gravel and/or dirt textures to use for my base. I really don't have the time to figure out how to make those right now. I've considered it before. Many of the gravels I have to choose from are too variegated and/or too coarse. I need something fine - limestone, perhaps - and not too variegated, as that takes away from the being able to view the details of the props. As you can see in the original picture (image 2012-12-08 #1, posted 12/9), the whole lot is dirt/gravel.
  
  
• Suggestions on other props to use would be helpful as well. To fit all of my props in, the lot is huge, and I need to fill some of the space with other stuff. I don't seem to have much in my plugins to choose from.
  
  
• A good ploppable trail set.
  
  
• Lastly, has anyone made a cherry-picker truck? I've thought for awhile that some of those are needed.

-- Don

[jmdude1]

hi homefryes, welcome back!

you might want to check out the prop and texture photo page: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13364.0
it has photos from all the major dependency packs and is really helpful.

also, if you search for 'bell' on the stex, there are 2 cherry-picker trucks.

i look forward to seeing what you have planned.

edit: sorry homefryes, i believe those cherry-picker trucks are only re-skins, not props.

[MTT9]

It's looking great homefryes! I wish i could help you with the lot but that escapes my knoledge...

[homefryes]

Thanks, jmdude1, for pointing me to the prop library. Turns out I pretty much have everything. I may have added one or two, but nothing that satisfied my needs any further than what I already have. I'll make do for now; perhaps I will find time to make my own. I found the thread for that, and it looks like something I could tackle.

edit: sorry homefryes, i believe those cherry-picker trucks are only re-skins, not props.

What are the ramifications of a "re=skin"? Does it change a particular truck everywhere, like the high-voltage towers I'm using (instead of the red and white ones)? If that's the case, I could live with that. I haven't searched for it yet.

MTT9, it's okay! No worries! Glad you stopped by nonetheless.

I've made great progress on the substation. I put the wires in separate files; this eliminates the need for them to be ground models, thus casting those strange shadows. However, I now have some weird shadows things going on with the models, too. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remedy this issue? See the quick mosaic I put together (it's not pretty, but it shows all the elements in one image).

2012-12-16 #1 - West Mosaic

I added wires to the subtransmission substation as well.

2012-12-16 #2 - South

In spite of the weird shadow problem, I'm pleased with the result. (And, yes, I realize I'm missing a fence piece - I have to remember to put that back in!)

2012-12-16 #3 - South


2012-12-16 #4 - North

I did find the ploppable trail set, as evidenced along the upper right (below). I'll get trails built by the towers as well.

2012-12-16 #5 - West

Zoom out even further:

2012-12-16 #6 - West


2012-12-16 #7 - South


2012-12-16 #8 - West


2012-12-16 #9 - South

-- Don

[MTT9]

It looks great. The lot needs a little improvement and it will be ready. It's nice to see something from Ashtabula once again