The FrankU and Nexis CO-OP

[FrankU]

Hi Diggis,

Ah, maybe you misunderstood me. It's not that I thought it is a lot of work. I believe you when you say it's simple to do. Maybe I even could do it myself. They say that I can make textures with SC4 tool. I just never tried.
It's more that there is a risk that I decide to ask you for a new texture every time I cannot exactly find what I want. So that would be a kind of open end project, and I fear that is not practical.
If I had a dedicated idea about what textures were useful I'd be happy with your offer. Don't underestimate that.

Thanks,

Frank

[Diggis]

I just hate to see a wonderful lot lime the one you're showing let down by a minor texture that could be easily fixed. I expected it to be a minor open ended job. It's up to you, offer stands. ;-)

[mrbisonm]

We are back....

After my being so darn busy last fall and sick for so long last winter, I was back in March working on the MFP1 Project. And I have been doing this since then.
Right now I am closer to finish this "Mega-Super-Gigantic" Pack of Farmprops before the summer really starts.
Completely finished are the greenhouses. FrankU has received half the pack sofar which he will fill with all kinds of "greenhouse stuff"  and make them into ploppables and include them also as growables fields into his Dutch Farmfield Pack. The other half awaits the final touch and classification to be included into the MFP1 as props. These last ones are too big to make into growable fields. The first set will also be included in the MFP1 later.
First of all, let me explain why I am doing the MFP1 into 7 different sets. The mainreason is simple, the file will be simply way too big otherwise. 7 sets, 7 classes or 7 packs which you will be able to choose from. Example: You don't need/want the farm mainbuildings, but you like the silos and manure piles, you will be able to download the silos, which is one set and the manurepiles and purine tanks, which is another set and forget about the Main buildings. So, you can choose from the 7 sets, which category you want/need for your farming needs.
FrankU's lots will mention the exact dependencies needed. If you want to make your own lots, you can mention which set is needed also. After FrankU's upload of his Dutch Farm Lots, everyone is free to use my Nexis props to create your own farms and upload them with links to my props anywhere where they wish. I might do my own lots (North-American style) later this year, maybe during the next winter.

So, let's review the Pack as it is for this exact moment. The Propack will be divided into 7 Sets (as we know by now), and will hold some 150 to 200 (and more since most models have not yet been decided whether or not which are kept for the public upload) different models, plus different textures. In all, I have made sofar 1364 farmprop models....ouch. (believe it or not), but don't worry, most of them will not be uploaded. Too much is like like not enough, right?
Sounds kinda crazy, because at the beginning it was to be like max 25 models only, but while looking for farmstuff on the net and looking at real life farms around , I found so many things that could be included.
And I think I found the complete set to make this game a farming game......lol

Everything that can be found on a farm (from a silo to a manure pile, except animals, which are already available in a big quantity and excellent models) has been covered and BATted. For the moment I will show only the finished products (and only a small quantity and examples) of every set as soon as they are send to FrankU, as I did on the bottom with the greenhouses. Just before the whole Pack will be uploaded, I will show pictures of the whole list that the MFP1 will contain.

[The MFP2 is already started also, containing already some 60 different models of "different" kind of farming, more modern, futuristic and exotic and most of all including the lesser known farming, such as spirulina, algae, fish, crustaceas, skycultivation, stage and floorfarming, underground mushroom farming etc etc...... . Again, so many ideas, so many models. You will be amazed what I have found in the last year of intense reseaching on modern farming.]

Back to the MFP1.

These are the Sets that will be included in the MFP1 (Modern Farm Props 1)
The models are European and North-American, but many models can be found on other continents too.
So let's get at it:

SETs:

-  Main Farmbuildings containing barns and stables, buildings where we keep our productive animals, such as beef, horses, sheep, pigs, chicken, ducks and others. This set is finished. I have to finalize and classify/rename them and they are way off to FrankU in the next week or so.

Example Picture for the Main Farm buildings Set...



-  Sheds, containing machinery sheds, toolshops, storagesheds, other small buildings around the farm and in the fields. This set will be finished by this coming weekend and then it will be finalized and classified/renamed etc , and sent to FrankU in about two weeks or so.

Example picture for the Sheds Set...



-  Manure, containing solid and liquid manure, every possible manure subject has been added such as, tanks, piles, manure ladders, pits, covered, open, liquid, pumps, manure pistons, manuresheds, open and closed, u name it...I got it. Props for the farms and for the fields. This is probably the biggest set, besides the "Others" set. 95% of is this set is finished, already classified and renamed.
Believe me this is a sh***y world we live in. lol

Example picture for the Manure Set...



Harvests, containing hay and straw piles in all forms and shapes, sheds, covered or open air, pits etc. Finished, files need to be renamed and classified.

Example picture for the Harvests Set...



Silos, containing all kinds of silos, grain, silage, green, corn, cereals, hay in round silos, square, tanks, pits, ground, in sheds, open air, cement, metal, wood, etc etc... This is another big Set. This set could be finished within a month, and then needs some finetuning and classification.

Example picture for the Silo Set...



Machinery and Implements, containing farming machinery such as tractors of all sizes/ colours, wagons, plows, harrows, seeder, baler, sprinklers, dryers etc. Approximately 40% of this if finished. Note: There is farm machinery set in this category that was sponsered by rambuckel in this set. They are modified and resized to fit my props. Big Thank You to rambuckel (from SimCityKurier) for having offered her magnificent tractor set to meand given me the possibility to modify them to my liking and the permission to upload them. Thank You rambuckel, much appreciated!.

Example picture of the Machinery and implements Set...



-  Other, the last of the seven sets contains all kinds of stuff that I couldn't really class in the other categories. This is set is a medium large set, mostly things like smaller props that you can find in the backyards of farms. It also contains the Greenhouses. It is almost finished, I would say, give me another 8 to 10 hrs on it and that's it, off to FrankU. Look at the picture below to give you a better idea of what this set could contain.

Example picture of the "Others" Set...





Now, as I mentioned above, the first set of greenhouses was sent to FarnkU to use on his Dutch Farm Field Pack, as ploppables and growable fields. These props are totally transparent and can be filled with all kinds of greenery and flowers. FrankU will show some pics later of his amazing LOTting work.

Two models on the lower lines of the picture below in 3 colours each. This is the first Set that was finished and sent for LOTting.
The first model will be in the "Other" Set and is not meant for fieldgrowing.



So, I hope this will get us back "online" and also we hope that you will enjoy this set to the fullest. Long live Simfarming..... This is my biggest experience with gmax and 3d modeling, you will see other models from me soon in my "Nexis Works" Thread here on SC4D.

Fred


Edit: There is an uploading erro on the second last picture where we can see the upper left corner distored a bit. I will fix this when I have the time.

Fred

[catty]

That's stunning I really need to catch up on this topic again, thank you both for your hard work and karma coming your way, its well deserved

[sim_link]

Wow, these are absolutely fantastic! I can't imagine the amount of time that have gone into these. These will be sure to really change the way farms look in the game. Amazing!

[Swordmaster]

Lovely bunch of props and things Fred. It's apparent you put a lot of thought and dedication in these little creations. I'm looking forward to seeing what Frank does with them.


Cheers
Willy

[FrankU]

So.... I guess it's time for an update.
Fred sent me his greenhouse models two weeks ago. There are basically two models: one with one roof per tile and one with two roofs per tile. Originally I had planned to make two farm fields with the two models. The slight differences in colour should give a random effect. After some experiments I found out that this did not work. The differences were too large and the effect was annoyingly bad.
So I decided to make six farm fields, each using one of the models.
Besides that I did not want to add a dependency to the list that I already had for the Farm Fields that were published already. So there are restrictions.

At the moment I have five lots finished. The sixth is waiting for some inspiration, but that will come soon. I hope. 

Here they are


And I have a night shot
Some greenhouses in The Netherlands are lighted at night with a glare you don't believe untill you see it.
I can only use some streetlights. The smallest one fits under the roof. So I used that. You can see that the effect is very small. It is also weird. The light does not really work on the props, mostly only on the floor. The light cones in SimCity do not light anything, they just make everything that is visible through it brighter. So the effect is in fact.... well... in my opinion it is useless, but I still am curious what you think. So please comment on this image.



I did my best to make some interesting lots, but I admit that you hardly see anything of that in game. In zoom six everything gets a bit blurred, but anyway I made these close up shot of the greenhouses.

I made three vegetables

Cucumis Sativus = Cucumber (non seasonal)


Phaseolus Vulgaris = Butter bean (non seasonal)


Solanum Lycopersicum = Tomato (seasonal)


And I have two flowers

Hibiscus (non seasonal)


Petunia (non seasonal)


What shall I say more? You like?

[catty]

...What shall I say more? You like?

I like a lot   

[Swordmaster]

I like it a lot

Love the nightlighting idea. I know what you mean; these lights are easily bright enough to let you read a book in adjacent meadows. There's one particular such business south of Antwerp whose lights you can see all the way up north in the port (meaning you can see them right through the lights of the city itself).

I cannot recall off the top of my head, but there must be some light cone props or effects that generate brighter lights. Don't know if Fred got the transparency stuff in order; I know BATs are picky about light effects with them.

At any rate an interesting possibility.


Cheers
Willy

[mrbisonm]

Love 'em all. Nice job, Frank. I also love the details you put into them. I surely couldn't have done better, and I am eager to have them in my region already......

I have the transparency worked out (more or less) and I know that it will be a lot better done with 3DS Max than with my gmax, but I don't want to start to learn how to do things in 3DS Max now and spend another 4 to 6 months on learning that program. It took me years to learn gmax for what I know sofar...

I was wondering and I have looked around here and there, but couldn't find a clear tutorial on how to make nightlights anywhere. Nothing to be simple enough anyways, but I did some "fooling" around with gmax and got a lightcone actually working one day, only once though, and the thing is I don't remember how.....lol. I guess I have to spend another 1 or 2 hrs on "fooling" around and maybe make a lightcone good looking enough to fit into those greenhouses.

Since all the MFP1 models are props, nightlights are impossible to do with gmax, so maybe I get back to you Frank this weekend to try a lightcone of mine.

I will definitively finish the MFP 1 Set 1 this weekend. Frank will be overloaded with what he is going to get. Oh my, do I wish I could see his face when he gets the 55 or so Farmbuilding set......To be exact, I have 239 models made for Main buildings, but chose only the best looking ones for Set 1.

Btw, for those who do not know yet, The MFP1 (Modern Farm Proppack 1) is made out of 7 Sets. The first one is the Main Farm Buildings (Set 1)
This one will be ready by tomorrow night and shipped for final inspection to Frank. Then I will render Set 2 or 3....and so forth.

Here is a small Sample of Set 1 (Main buildings)......



This set contains more than 50 Farm buildings (mainly Barns and Stables). Sheds, toolshops, garages, manure sheds and haystacks do not belong to this set. There will be another set called "Sheds" for this and that set is ready for rendering also.

Every "older" model file was reworked, updated and/or worked on with better textures and adding some more details. Some are new models and all of them were re-rendered.

I will be showing ALL the buildings in my Nexis Works Thread (on this site) one day. I have to take the pics first. And I will also work on a downloadable "Picture Reference sheet" with all the main building's Set and all the other sets once they're finished.

Frank, I am also working on those barbwire fences.....wow, quite a challenge to do something goodlooking, but you will get it probably this weekend also. And a new saladgrow table to maybe make another greenhouse set.

Fred

[MandelSoft]

And I have a night shot
Some greenhouses in The Netherlands are lighted at night with a glare you don't believe untill you see it.
I can only use some streetlights. The smallest one fits under the roof. So I used that. You can see that the effect is very small. It is also weird. The light does not really work on the props, mostly only on the floor. The light cones in SimCity do not light anything, they just make everything that is visible through it brighter. So the effect is in fact.... well... in my opinion it is useless, but I still am curious what you think. So please comment on this image.

May I warn you that this WILL conflict with the LRM? Not only will the streetlight models probably be too big, the light inside the greenhouses will be as bright as the surface of the sun! I think we need to try to avoid that...

[mave94]

[...]

I did my best to make some interesting lots, but I admit that you hardly see anything of that in game. In zoom six everything gets a bit blurred, but anyway I made these close up shot of the greenhouses.

[...]

What shall I say more? You like?

What's wrong? The greenhouses are just perfect. I can clearly see the paths between the rows of fruits and vegetables. It's nice you put some variation in the greenhouses. I can see that you put a lot of work in it, like you always do.

A greenhouse at night indeed looks like this:

So, it's very bright. Adding streetlights is not the best idea, I think. I do not think it achieves the desired effect. I'm not sure if there are light props available on the exchanges. Perhaps we could make it ourselves and add it to the BNL Essentials. I'm not sure.


Fred, those models are just great. Well done!

-Matthijs

[FrankU]

Hi all,

@ Catty,
Thanks of the compliment.

@ Swordmaster,
Yes, there certainly are several light cone props. I am quite sure at least Pegasus and Tag_one made one or two. But I did not want to add another dependency to the already long list, so I did not search for these. I just tried to see what I could get out of what I had already.

@ Fred,
I do have several hours reserved for some apparently unavoidable "ahhh"s aand "ohhh"s and then the relotting of course.
I just say: make my day!

@ Mandelsoft,
What is the LRM? Is it Light Replacement Mod? I don't know about it, but I indeed do not want my lots to conflict with any kind of more or less important mod. The streetlight model I use in these lots is the Maxis "Streetlight1x1x11_MdSuspBridge_Lamp_2C07". Is that influenced by the LRM too? Should I, if I insist on using it, make my own prop exemplar of this one? Or does that not help?

To all:
Making a dedicated light source for these greenhouses would be nice, but....
First: in that case I'd like to have something that gives me a lighting for the whole greenhouse. Maybe a group of lightcones as if there were several lamps attached to the roof.
Second: If you look close you will see that the props are not inside the greenhouse models but behind. You can see that the back wall elements are placed in front of the props that are supposed to be inside the model. Probably it's not visible because I put a group of greenhouse tiles in one image. That is on purpose: this is the way you see the lot in game and I wanted the lots to look good. That is not identical to be good. Fred was not able to make the model in another way.
So cones might show this flaw too strongly. In that case I just might decide to renounce from nightlights.

So if anyone feels like making a dedicated light source or set of cones I would like to use it just maybe. And if you make it: may I add it to the farm lots set? I will certainly give the proper credits in the ReadMe. I don't feel like having an extra dependency just for one prop!
And last: if you make it, make it quick, because I am getting fed up of this set. I'd like to finish it and put it on the LEX, STEX and SimCityKurier.

Frank

[MandelSoft]

@ Mandelsoft,
What is the LRM? Is it Light Replacement Mod? I don't know about it, but I indeed do not want my lots to conflict with any kind of more or less important mod. The streetlight model I use in these lots is the Maxis "Streetlight1x1x11_MdSuspBridge_Lamp_2C07". Is that influenced by the LRM too? Should I, if I insist on using it, make my own prop exemplar of this one? Or does that not help?

Well, you could use a prop light cone instead. I know there are some prop packs that contain light cones, but I don't know which ones (you could check JMouse's Prop Pack catalog). This will avoid any conflict with the LRM

[mrbisonm]

Frank, just give me 2 more days and maybe I will have a more decent lightprop for you. I am learning how to make lighting in gmax tonight and then experiment with them. I have heard about a "fullroomlight" sort of, that fills the whole inside of a model. Ideal for the greenhouses. That one I will hopefully figure out. We'll see.
If I can't make it, well, use those you have and that'll do.

The MFP1 - Set 1 is totally finished and on your way latest tomorrow morning. It contains 56 Barn and Stable models. There will be a full line of pictures of every model as a reference included, such as below and each model from two sides. 56 pics in all.
Frank, you will also receive a day or so later the barbwire fences and the smaller salad prop for the greenhouses (at the latest sunday morning).
I guess you will have a busy weekend.
Small props and pics, I will send by e-mail directly and the bigger files by links.
I'll make Your day.....lol Have a nice weekend.

Here is another example picture of these models for everyone else to see.



Thanks for the compliment, Matthijs

Fred

[Jack_wilds]

all the pieces are coming together its beginning to all fall into place... anticipation groans with expectancy... 

[mrbisonm]

By the end of last weekend, I finished all the manure stuff, another set of the MFP1. I haven't counted (nor chosen the ones to upload) the  models yet, but there will be some 30 to 35 of them. From liquid manure to solid and all the nuildings and machinery that come with it. Just about everything you need to make your neighborhood a little more smelly.

Here is a short look at these...



Then, last night , I finished another set, the hay and straw set. All kinds of ways to store your hay and straw. You will find everything from simple balepiles to modern sheds. Not sure, but at leat 15 different models with different textures. Haystacking will soon be fun to lot.

A small sample shown below.



This is encouraging, 4 out of 7 sets are completely finished, one rendered and already in the hands of FrankU, another set will be rendered and shipped this weekend, and I am about to finish the machinery and implement set, set #5.

Courage folks, it's getting there.......

Fred

[FrankU]

The Dutch Farm Fields Set, version 2.0 is finshed!

After a long and troublesome BAT session by Fred I finally received his greenhouse models some weeks ago. While waiting I could not resist to do some other work on the set and now it is finally finshed.
I still have to check everything and then some testing needs to be done by myself and the LEX scrutineers in order to be certain that this set will not screw up. But then the upload will come to you. I am sorry to say that I have no idea how long this last phase is going to take.

But for now: the new and completed set.
It contains 35 Farm Fields that can grow next to your farms.
Many of them are seasonal, but some are not. This last is due to the fact that some props have no seasonal models. In that case I was not able to make changing looks. So funny enough the wheat gets reaped, the tulips are picked, but the trees still look like it's summer and the roses are still blossoming... It's a restriction to what I am able at.

But now for the long awaited images.

First some overviews.

Image 1


Image 2


Image 3


And a bit closer up.

Image 4


Image 5


I have also made custom queries. This one is for the field lots. You see that names of the crops are in Latin. The other texts for the queries are available in English (default), in German and in Dutch. It's just a matter of deleting the language file you do not want. It is described in the ReadMe.
For every type of field I have a dedicated query that counts the number of fields. If you take a good look you can see that it counts the grown and the plopped fields. I have made a ploppable version of every field too.

Image 6


Image 7


For the farm lots I made larger queries. For every type of farm a dedicated one too.
The farm lots you see here are my so called "Stage 0" farms. These are in fact simple 1x1 Stage 1 lots that do contain exactly the same props as the farm fields. Therefore you see only a square of crops. You have to search for the farm query in order to find the farm lot.

Image 8


Image 9


Image 10


So the set contains 35 growable farm fields with a ploppable version of each one.

I have

7 colours of Tulips
2 kinds of Roses
3 kinds of Meadows
Wheat
Maize
Hops
Asparagus
Sugar Beet
Brussels Sprout
Pumpkin
Rhubarb
Potato
Apple
Raspberry
Tree nursery
Buxus nursery
Red Currant
Blackberries
Aspen tree farm
A Forest

And in the greenhouses

Cucumber
Hibiscus
Salad
Petunia
Butter Bean
Tomato

Some of them are based on Simgoober's and the SPAM farm fields. Some of them are made by me with props that were not meant for farm fields.

The greenhouse lots are without nightlights. I had some experiments of which I showed some results. I was not very happy with them so in the end I decided to take the lights out.

For usage this is maybe interesting:
I will upload the set is such a way that everyone can pick their own selection from the set. You can delete every single farm field in order to keep the ones you desire in your city.
In the ReadMe I will exactly list which dependencies are neccessary for which lots. I will also make a list of the IID's of the fields, so that you can easily add them to your farm lots.


Of course these fields will be used in my Dutch Farm Lots that I will concentrate on from now on.

Yours truly,
Frank

[kelis]

Fantastic job my friend !! I like all those farm fields lots, I like the moding with those pictures as well !! I can't wait to use all of them.

I was wondering one thing, this V2 set contains all lots from the V1 ? or it is just an expansion of the first version ?

Groeten Frank 

PD: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2855 It's the Windmill which I'm using on my region, did you asked about it, right ?

[mrbisonm]

Looking darn good! Can't wait to grow them on my farms also.

Fred