Expanding the Maxis Building Set: Midrise CO$$$ BATs

[cogeo]

Hi all,

After some period of inactivity, I'm preparing a set of low- and mid-rise CO$$$ BATs.

I'm p*ssed with some Maxis buildings growing all over the place at certain growth stages of my cities, more specifically Chalmers Co and Modde Inc. They are used in numerous lots at various stages. Chalmers Co is the only member of its family; Modde Inc's family also contains another building (Galvin Techtronics), but the game appears to prefer growing it a lot more.

As my lotting skills are at most moderate, and the Maxis lots really very good, I decided to make BATs similar (in dimensions and footprint) to the Maxis ones, and include them in the Maxis families, thus expanding them. This enables them to grow in the Maxis lots. Just take a look in the reader (use the Navigator tool) to see in how many lots Chalmers Co can grow:  stage-2 3x4 and 4x3, stage-3 3x3, stage-4 2x3 and 3x2, and finally stage-5 2x2! In general this is how the Maxis lots are set-up, ie the same building (family) can grow on smaller, but higher-stage lots. Not only the work required to make and mod all these is sheer (I mean to improve the chances of getting the building to grow), the qaulity of the lots is actually superb; Maxis has done an excellent job here, it's the building collection that is limited instead. So I think expanding the Maxis families is the way to go, to provide some more variety. Of course the BATs must be almost identical in size (footprint) to fit in the lots correctly, and the building stats similar (or identical ?) to the Maxis ones, if you want it not to be overtaking your city, or be unable to grow.

So Chalmers Co is the first family to be expanded, as this building not only i used in many lots as mentioned above, and grows under all four styles (although its style is NY), it can become very repetitive too. During the early growth stages of my cities, I can get some 10 or more instances, before being able to grow anything bigger. And after getting taller buildings this building keeps growing in large numbers along roads with no very much traffic.

I have started making two BATs (not finished yet), and I'm considering a third one. This is expected to reduce occurences to 1/4, ie you might get some 2 or 3 of each building, which is nearly acceptable I think. These BATs are actually quite hard to make, not only the size must be nearly identical, the LODshell must be properly made too, as the lots have... shop facade props, which sometimes appear and sometimes not, ie the BATs must look OK both with and without the shops, and this poses additional requirements as far the model and the LODshell are concerned.

Below is an ingame pic of the two BATs, next to Chalmers Co:



A closeup, with and without shops:



I have some questions to make:

Modelling:
- The 2nd building lacks a... door (main entrance). I have run out of ideas here. Instead of going and making something generic and uninspired, any ideas please? (btw I think a revolving door wouldn't look OK here).
- While Chalmers Co is a two-storey building, storeys are actually too tall (just compare it to other Maxis bldgs); I made these 3-storey, but the storeys aren't as tall, and as a result the total building height is only "somewhat", but not "considerably" taller. I hope it looks OK.
- Both buildings need a glass texture. I have searched the i-net and found some "glass" texures, but none looked really nice. I can remember some members making and posting glass textures (mostly for highrises) with reflections, clouds etc. I think a blue or dark gray texture would be the most appropriate. Any help here would be highly appreciated.

Architecture:
- These BATs, just as Chalmers Co, will be growing under all four building styles. Although the buildings are quite generic, if you think that they wouldn't look OK under some specific style (eg Houston or Chicago), pls let me know.

Modding:
- Currently both buildings are modded exactly like Chalmers Co, ie all stats, jobs etc are identical. Do you know if it would be OK to change these to similar, but not identical values, eg set #jobs to 60, 62, or 63, instead of 61? It would be interesting to know what PIM-X suggests here (I haven't been able to install and run it in my system), although finally I will have to set these to values similar to Chalmers Co's ones anyway.
- I have tried to mod these exactly like the other Maxis Buildings, ie linking them to a (Maxis) Parent Cohort (many properties, incl Building/Prop Family, are inherited from its ancestors). This didn't work (the buildings were unable to grow), so I had to browse through the cohorts and copy the properties over. It works now, but it would be better to mod them like the Maxis buildings. Does anybody know "why this"? Sometimes things don't work because of stupid conventions (eg LUA script IDs must start with 0x0...), so I would like to know if such a convention applies here too.

Naming:
- Can't think of a good name for these BATs. Could you propose something please? It should be Maxis-like but not very much similar or overused. Eg Maxis has enough Attorneys, Accountants, Accounting, Consultants, Consulting, etc buildings. Any idea?

Please post any comments, ideas or suggestions. Finally I would like to know if all this is really worth.

Thanks for reading

[Lowkee33]

Looking at Chalmers in PIMX.  The Maxis Occupant size is 24x30x24.  Recomputing the OS from the model gives 24x19x26.  I would guess Maxis increased the height of the OS to make it easier to query, and perhaps dropped the two meters to get the sign to fit in better?

Do you know if it would be OK to change these to similar, but not identical values, eg set #jobs to 60, 62, or 63, instead of 61? It would be interesting to know what PIM-X suggests here

... Well, I could tell you about it, or...



"Building Value" took a significant hit, being almost halved.  Also, PIMX gave different stage suggestions for most every lot, sometimes higher, sometimes lower.  Changing the Capacity by such a small amount wouldn't have any adverse effects.   Somewhere around here there is a list of the Capacity/Lot Size/Stage relationship that PIMX uses.  So, if the Capacity change you want still allows the Lot to be the same stage, then I think making that change is fine.     

For cohorts to work I think the exemplar has to have the same GroupID.  I just had a Lot Cohort tree "fall over" on me, so not too sure.  It was working, I only changed the exemplars, and then it wasn't.  I linked a working lot to the cohorts and it instantly broke. 

For a name?  How about some political group's campaign headquarters, they often rent office space over stores.

[cogeo]

Looking at Chalmers in PIMX.  The Maxis Occupant size is 24x30x24.  Recomputing the OS from the model gives 24x19x26.  I would guess Maxis increased the height of the OS to make it easier to query, and perhaps dropped the two meters to get the sign to fit in better?

The Maxis dimensions are approximate, because buildings are grouped into families. For Chalmers Co, for example, the front LOD face is 12.76m off centre, while the left face is at 12.13, ie slightly more than the expected 12.00 (some items protrude, but I'm not talking about these, I'm talking about the "walls"). Ie this family is specified to include buildings roughly 24x24m large. Height is another matter, in this specific case the model has this antenna at the front, which makes the LODshell taller (check the model in the reader, in wireframe mode, to see what I mean).

"Building Value" took a significant hit, being almost halved.  Also, PIMX gave different stage suggestions for most every lot, sometimes higher, sometimes lower.  Changing the Capacity by such a small amount wouldn't have any adverse effects.   Somewhere around here there is a list of the Capacity/Lot Size/Stage relationship that PIMX uses.  So, if the Capacity change you want still allows the Lot to be the same stage, then I think making that change is fine.

Thanks for testing this in the PIM-X! Interesting to see that PIM-X suggests a very different Building Value. This relates to the taxes paid; I don't know if it affects how easily the building grows too. The number of occupants does affect this though. Modde Inc offers 112 jobs, while its "sibling" (same family) Galvin Techtronics 93, and the game grows it a lot more. My question was if a difference of just 1-2 jobs could cause this effect as well. 62 jobs are "mathematically" more than 61, although essentially the same, and I don't know if this affects the simulator. The stage isn't changed anyway, as building exemplars do not contain any stage specification, there are the lots that have stages.

I don't know how the PIM-X has been parameterised, but I know examples in which it has produced stats not in line with the Maxis stuff.

For cohorts to work I think the exemplar has to have the same GroupID.  I just had a Lot Cohort tree "fall over" on me, so not too sure.  It was working, I only changed the exemplars, and then it wasn't.  I linked a working lot to the cohorts and it instantly broke. 

Thanks! I will definitely try this.

[Lowkee33]

The stage isn't changed anyway, as building exemplars do not contain any stage specification, there are the lots that have stages.

In a way, you are working with the lots though, which is why you need to make the model so specific.  Your stats shouldn't be too far from the Maxis stats either.  Increase the Capacity too much, and that Maxis stage 2 lot should be a stage 3.

I am not too sure about what makes buildings grow more often than others, but I do think it is in the construction exemplars.  From the Maxis Strategy Guide there is a fair amount of "thinking" that goes on during this process... Demand/slope/what would be the bulldoze cost for if a building is there.  I think the game comes up with reasons not to build the building, and if the Building Value is more than this, then the building grows.

Edit:  About the Cohorts:  I mistakenly made some prop cohorts have the Maxis Group ID instead of mine (They are unfortunately similar: 1A7EB8E1) and these worked in-game, so not sure about my last statement.

I also had some crashes during the city loading screen due to cohorts.  I too like the way Maxis has set things up.  The crash was with residential buildings:

1) Root Cohort with sound effects and the like
2) Cohorts for each wealth level/exemplar catagory/occupant types/groups etc.  I am giving each wealth a different tile set, will see how this works.
3) Building specific properties: Capacity/Value/etc Family
4) Model Specific: RKT and Occupant size

When I thought about Lots that have Props that are also buildings (if a house holds 8 people, and there are 3 houses on the lot, then the building exemplar should have a 24 capacity), I realized that I shouldn't have the Family property in it.  So, I made a "3.5" cohort to house the family.  CTD.  I thought it was maybe that a cohort needed more than just the Family property, so I cloned the #3 and still a crash.  Now I put the family in with the #4.  My only thought is that there is a limit to the cohorts in a tree, but not sure.     

[cogeo]

In a way, you are working with the lots though, which is why you need to make the model so specific.  Your stats shouldn't be too far from the Maxis stats either.  Increase the Capacity too much, and that Maxis stage 2 lot should be a stage 3.

The plugins will not be containing any lots, only the building exemplars and the models. They will be growing in the Maxis lots, so I don't really have any control on the stages. For Chalmers Co (more accurately: the lots it can grow in) stages are 2, 3, 4 and 5. And stats will of course have to be close (or very close, or identical?) to the Maxis ones, otherwise the building will either not be able to grow, or instead won't be allowing Chalmers to grow).

Edit:  About the Cohorts:  I mistakenly made some prop cohorts have the Maxis Group ID instead of mine (They are unfortunately similar: 1A7EB8E1) and these worked in-game, so not sure about my last statement.

I also had some crashes during the city loading screen due to cohorts.  I too like the way Maxis has set things up.  The crash was with residential buildings:

1) Root Cohort with sound effects and the like
2) Cohorts for each wealth level/exemplar catagory/occupant types/groups etc.  I am giving each wealth a different tile set, will see how this works.
3) Building specific properties: Capacity/Value/etc Family
4) Model Specific: RKT and Occupant size

Maybe I wasn't clear enough, all I want to do is just use the Maxis cohorts as they are, just like the Maxis buildings, not make a new cohort hierarchy. But for some weird reason this doesn't work.

When I thought about Lots that have Props that are also buildings (if a house holds 8 people, and there are 3 houses on the lot, then the building exemplar should have a 24 capacity), I realized that I shouldn't have the Family property in it.  So, I made a "3.5" cohort to house the family.  CTD.  I thought it was maybe that a cohort needed more than just the Family property, so I cloned the #3 and still a crash.  Now I put the family in with the #4.  My only thought is that there is a limit to the cohorts in a tree, but not sure.

Buildings and props are separate entities and should not be intermixed or attempts be made to somehow "relate" them. Some facts:
- A lot must contain exactly one (main) building (with or without a model to display).
- Props are only "decorative", a means to display additional models in the lot.
- Only the building has "stats" (occupants, power/water consumption, flammability etc).
- The only "stat" a property may have is flammability/fire stage, plus another property named "Prop Destroys Lot" (default true). You may also set "Query as main building" which just causes it to display the main building query, instead of the mini (hover) query (the prop name).
- And of course, a family may be either a building (-only) family or a prop (-only) family, not both.

[benvoliothefirst]

Just wanted to say that although I can't really offer any lotting/modding tips to help you with this process, I commend both your thought process and your efforts so far. I got here through MadHatter106's thread and he's one of my favorite BATters, partially BECAUSE he puts so much thought into making sure that his models will replace a Maxis building and "thin out the herd" effectively. I think that anyone creating a BAT should be required to go through a similar process to ensure that A) Their building will grow and B) That it will dilute the Maxis buildings it's meant to supplement. Kudos all around!

[Lowkee33]

I have tried to mod these exactly like the other Maxis Buildings, ie linking them to a (Maxis) Parent Cohort (many properties, incl Building/Prop Family, are inherited from its ancestors). This didn't work (the buildings were unable to grow), so I had to browse through the cohorts and copy the properties over. It works now, but it would be better to mod them like the Maxis buildings. Does anybody know "why this"? Sometimes things don't work because of stupid conventions (eg LUA script IDs must start with 0x0...), so I would like to know if such a convention applies here too.
Please post any comments, ideas or suggestions. Finally I would like to know if all this is really worth.

Stupid conventions?  Try copy/pasting the Maxis building exemplar and make it unique (change to your RKT, Instance, etc), rather than create a new .desc in PIM.  This has worked for me, don't know why though.

The main value of cohorts IMHO is that it makes large amounts of modding and end user modding easier.  Building/Prop Family is a good example, many props can be added to a family rather quick using cohorts, and if someone wants to add the props to his/her family, this is done in one step.

You may also be interested, I got farm fields larger than 1x1 working.  You have to zone each field lot using the control key, I posted on my board, though currently I am dealing with some no road access zots.

[cogeo]

@benvoliothefirst: Thanks for the nice comments! There are quite a few Maxis buildings that grow like weeds, so expanding the Maxis families is a reasonable solution, isn't it? Most BATters prefer to make their own  custom buildings AND lots, though. Nothing wrong with this, provided of course that lot-sizes vs stage and stats are on par with the Maxis ones; only then, they would "thin out the herd". One could even consider do the same with certain lots, eg the Maxis 2x2 villas set contains just 2 or 3 lots (although, for the Euro set at least, the building collection is quite extensive). So you get the same lots again and again - it looks very repetitive if you have a fairly large R$$$ area.

@Lowkee: Thanks for the tips! I will definitely try them when the time comes (I'm not done with BATting yet). As for the larger than 1x1 farm-fields, I had tried it with my Spirulina Farms tubs, but couldn't make it work. After 1-2 game-months they were dilapidated and abandoned; finally I released only the ploppable version. Not sure if this will work, but try zoning only one row at a time. First zone one row, adjacent to the main lot. After 1-2 game months, zone another one, adjacent to the first, and so on. A small tip: if a farm-field is really "attached" to the main lot, the Route Query is somehow "attached" to the main lot's one, ie the farm-field and the main lot form a sort of a "mega-lot".

[Lowkee33]

Making the gif for my post took a few game years, and the fields had no problem.  These are 1x6 fields.  The strange thing is that this actually worked (none of the fields touch road, some don't have orientation arrows pointing at anything).  I made a 1x3 where all of the fields would "connect" and this instantly went abandoned.

But if one thing always works and another never works, there must be some reason for it.

Farms are strange, they have no problem growing in front of TE lots.  My guess is that it has something to do with required roads, but I haven't checked out the Maxis Lots yet. 

[gn_leugim]

where did I see something like this before ein? ^^

the grey building looks very good, about the brownish I'm more neutral. keep it up

about the door. I usualy do something like a slide door. its lke a generic door to me. let me see if I find some examples....
here they are.




hope it helps

[cogeo]

where did I see something like this before ein? ^^

Yaknow!

the grey building looks very good, about the brownish I'm more neutral. keep it up

Oh my, I wanted it to look white actually!!! Of course "white" doesn't mean 100% white, it would look completely out of place then, an eyesore. Maybe I have exaggerated with the "burning" of the texture near its base. Or you think I should lighten the texture throughout?

about the door. I usualy do something like a slide door. its lke a generic door to me. let me see if I find some examples....
here they are.

Yup, I think I will finally have to devise something that matches the buildings' architecture, and this doesn't necessarily need to be something "special" or "impressive", it can be "generic" too, and this would be very acceptable as well (provided that it blends in well).

Thank you for your comments and your help.

[gn_leugim]

Oh my, I wanted it to look white actually!!! Of course "white" doesn't mean 100% white, it would look completely out of place then, an eyesore. Maybe I have exaggerated with the "burning" of the texture near its base. Or you think I should lighten the texture throughout?

The "white" one looks awesome indeed. I wouldn't tune it up or down.  the darker one you could try to light it a little. and also, less gradient effect on it I think, too short building to so pronounced gradient.  maybe create both version so customers, I mean, Mayors can chose which one want to grow in their cities

[cogeo]

Hi,

I have resumed BATting these buildings, hope I release them some day 

the darker one you could try to light it a little. and also, less gradient effect on it I think, too short building to so pronounced gradient.  maybe create both version so customers, I mean, Mayors can chose which one want to grow in their cities

I'm surprised that you have even noticed this,  actually I was wondering if my settings were rather weak and would make any difference at all, let alone be "so pronounced"!

I would like to know what other members think about this 



There is a new baby in the works. Here is a render preview:



Lot of work to be done. Due to the large glass panels, this one absolutely needs the glass texrure I was talking about above. A dark blue texture would look best here. Preferably one with cloud and/or urban landscape reflections on it (it would compliment the model beter). If you have such textures or links please post.

The three buildings will be reducing occurences of Chalmers to ¼ of the original.

Thanks for reading

[gn_leugim]

well, for the upper glass panels I do have an idea. instead of making a glass texture, make the glass transparent (not 100%, so you can add color and a texture anyway) and model some details inside. this depends ofc on the capability ither for you to model (I see you have good ones thou) and your computer to handle bigger and detailed models (can tell about that XD)

[cogeo]

...too short building to so pronounced gradient...

Are you talking about the top face of the roof? This one indeed looks almost white, however this is due to the reflections. I will put something darker there.

well, for the upper glass panels I do have an idea. instead of making a glass texture, make the glass transparent (not 100%, so you can add color and a texture anyway) and model some details inside.

Nice idea, but the buildings are really small, and were made with the nitewindow texturing/lighting in mind. Plus I don't have the necessary material (the inside stuff, as well as proper textures) to achieve this. Any links please? A tutorial would be useful too. I will consider it for the larger BATs (the Modde Inc family).



I have finished with one of the buildings (the last one).

Here's an ingame pic (with one shop facade prop):



Nightlighting:



I've given it a very... unconventional and inspired name: Thorpe Enterprises

The LODshell (the part around its base) is identical to Chalmer's.

Paradoxically, the standard Maxis setup, using the cohort tree, has worked in this case! Not sure what made it work, it could be the group ID or instance ID range, I'll have to search it. So the building inherits most of its properties from the Maxis cohorts. They are identical to those of Chalmers. I changed only the number of jobs to 60 (Chalmers has 61) - the other two buildings will have 62 and 63 jobs. Btw does anybody know how Maxis has chosen these values?

If anyone wishes to test this ingame, pls send me a PM. Stats are very unlikely to change anymore.

[Aaron Graham]

Nice looking mid rise building.

[gn_leugim]

see these? they dont match with each other. the door you have a clean glass showing the ground lighted, yellow hues and on the windows you have a opaque full bluish lightning.

and at the overall, the standard maxis lightning does not fit good here.

About tutorials, I have one at omnibus but is a bit outdated, I use different techniques for lightning. I guess I have to make a new tut.

[cogeo]

So is this really bad? That is, should the windows and the door be necessarily of the same material? I tried this first, and it wasn't looking good, it had problems in the day render (that blue glass on the door looked rather weird - take a look at the untextured pic above).

As for the "yellow hues" this is due to the following reasons:
- What is really yellow, is actually the door frame - the pavement is black & white tiles. Maybe I could try to make it blue as well.
- Another thing is the colour of the light. It's actually white, but in comparison to the Maxis "Blue" windows just next, it looks "warmer", indeed giving the impression of being rather "yellowish". I'll try to make it somewhat colder too. All outside lights are white as well, however they are cast on the rather bluish walls, so I think these ones are OK.

So the solutions could be:
- Make the door frame dark blue.
- Make the internal lights a little bluish.
- Make the door glass a nitewindow as well (leave it as is for the day render). We will have to see how this really looks like.
- Use a nitewindow map that isn't as blue. See the pic below (a low quality preview render). This is a custom map I have made, however I would prefer to use it in the 2nd BAT - unfinished yet). Actually, as the glass colour is blue, I found it normal to use the blue nitemaps here.



I can try other "blue" nitemaps, like Equinox's "Cerulean", however such nitemaps in most cases deliver rather poor results, because the have large "features" on them, or high contrast and/or poorly set luminosity or saturation.

Now, something that looks weird in this BAT is the floor height. This has been discussed in the forums many times, and many BATters recommend a height of about 5 meters - some even suggest adding ca 20-30%, "to counter the sqaushing effect". However it seems that Maxis hasn't used such a scale. The floors in this BAT are 5 meters tall, and they are noticably taller than the Maxis ones. Maybe 4 meters would be OK. This would make the BAT about as tall as Chalmer's - the height of the lobby is dictated by those stupid shops anyway. But making them 4m tall has some other implications. As you can see, this BAT consists of "blocks", rather than extruded splines. The window blocks are 4m tall, and the dark areas between them 1m, totalling 5m. And the blocks in the columns 2m tall (the big ones) and 1m (the short ones). These blocks are visually attached with the window panels, eg the short ones are placed next the dark areas between the floors. Making the floors 4 meters tall (3m the window plus 1m the dark area), would only allow using 2 big blocks per floor, and would destroy this effect (which I doubt if anyone has noticed though). The proportionality of the BAT may take a hit too, as the height of the area covered by the blue windows will be almost as tall as the area covered by the white plates (the lobby plus the area above it). The blue "stripes" (the windows) would look better if they were "longer" (taller) actually, not shorter. Should I go and change these anyway?



I have also finished the first BAT in this thread. Here is a pic:



And a night shot:



The contrast between the bottom and the top has been reduced (it was actually the darkened colour near the bottom that caused the high contrast). Also the colour of the panels at the lobby windows has been changed, and a gray/black glass texture has beed chosen, and a (another) custom nitemap has been used. Do you like the lights at the top (inside the recession)? Put them on the front side only. They are supposed to be "gradient", but the space is really very little. Should I remove them?

Hope you like it.



Found the reason that caused the cohort-based thing not to work: weird, but the game needs a "short" exemplar (ca 215 bytes) here! If you make one with the PM and modify it in the reader (remove unneeded properties etc) this won't work. The solution here is take a copy of one of the Maxis exemplars, and modify this instead (change TGI, name, RKT1, etc). This works!

Regards

[Lowkee33]

Hi Cogeo.  Reading news, so I am glad to here from you.

For Thorp Enterprises: 

I feel that the dark and light blue boxes are the same object, such as a window with details (picturing the building having a lobby and an atrium of sorts, but not three floors).  This is fine with me, just an observation.  That the boxes have depth make the night light a little strange though.  The Maxis windows are set in, while yours are set out.  I don't feel that the windows have a frame though, they are just sort of planes that are lit up.  Perhaps the dark blue boxes could be lit by an outside (like a dull orange) light.  Maybe blinds or something in the windows, I don't know. 

As for the scaling, I don't feel you have to match Maxis.  If your building has taller floors, then it is just a wealthier building (in RL, not $, $$, or $$$).  If you do decide to remove the 1m blocks on the edge, perhaps you could widen the light blue boxes, to at least keep the proportion to the dark boxes the same.

Brown building (unnamed?):  I really like the lights on the top.

Cohorts:  This was a conclusion I came to also.  The very little I know about it is that the PIM exemplars are readable by a human (Wouanagine uses better words), and the Maxis are not.  This makes the PIM exemplars much larger.  What is strange, is that I have certainly seen working cohorts that mix the two types. 

I have a feeling there is something invisible we are missing.  If you should desire, now that you have a working CO$$$ cohort tree, try to copy/paste the exemplars/cohorts, but change the properties so that they are ID (or perhaps any other building type).  If you get the same results as me, this will not work.  What should work though, is if you copy/paste template ID cohort/exemplars for Maxis.  I believe I had to do this from going from R$ to R$$ as well.  This even works if you were to delete every property from the Maxis exemplars, and then copy/paste the properties from an exemplar that was not working before.

Basically, it's a PIA.  A good way to find if an exemplar has this problem is to make a totally self sufficient exemplar (grows correctly in-game).  I believe that having anything other than 0,0,0 in the Parent Cohort property is enough to know if your exemplar is "cohort friendly".

Edit: Forgot to add, I believe the nightlight difference between the doors and the lobby windows.  There are often differences in windows than doors (where do you look to see if a store is open?).  Perhaps the windows shouldn't be lit at all?   

[jmyers2043]

Hi Cogeo.

Now, something that looks weird in this BAT is the floor height. This has been discussed in the forums many times, and many BATters recommend a height of about 5 meters - some even suggest adding ca 20-30%, "to counter the squashing effect". However it seems that Maxis hasn't used such a scale. The floors in this BAT are 5 meters tall, and they are noticeably taller than the Maxis ones.

The best you can hope for about Maxis is an average. I discovered the same thing ... my 10 story buildings have floors that are 5 meters tall. I compared them against other 10 story maxis buildings. The 10 story Maxis building is equivalent to 9, 10, or 11 stories. 

Squash is different. I usually do small businesses. I displayed some pics on the private BSC threads. Deadwoods says "nice but they look a bit squat" ... I said to myself ... no they're not. Afterall, I knew how tall they were because I batted them. But there was something that made him think so. So I kept them in my game for a few weeks. Deciding to narrow them by about 10%. That is what made the difference.

Doing your building so it blends in with other content is important.

Another thing you can use is the maxis Sim. You'll probably put some Sims loitering around the front entrance when you put the lot together. The in game Sim is why I usually make the ground floor of a building 7.5 to 10 meters (depending on the building type). On the other hand, I make my farm buildings so that they are smaller than than the largest maxis barn. Keeping them in the middle when compared to Maxis barns.     

Regarding the in game night shot. I usually set the global intensity of the night windows at .7 or .8 as that seems to make for a softer looking light. Some folk put spot lights and illuminate each floor. That's too much work for the benefit. I used the blue once. But wasn't happy with it after seeing it in the game some months later. I stick with Beige now as it is warmer. Obviously my opinion. It probably depends on what you're trying to achieve and the kind of building you're doing. I usually use a target direct to wash the front entrance. Simulates a group of flood lights. I also don't do a lot of lights. My way of thinking is that a commercial building is usually empty at night and that most employees are home. I keep a few lights on because of the cleaning crew but not many. I make sure the starways are lit and I'll put a light in the lobby.

Good Luck

- Jim