This is the building work in process- the first version actually already shared in the STEX:
The day view:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi62.tinypic.com%2F16lephe.png&hash=d8df1fe209ee97996afd6d521a32586fd0a614e6)
The night view:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi62.tinypic.com%2F16k3k2s.png&hash=33d7f9478cf2e0a091c1bfd9d1d4f7bb9186507c)
An important note for the nightview: In my country, most people are already asleep by 11-12 pm. So, I nitelited less windows than normal. $%Grinno$%
Another note: I couldn't illuminate the front door for the ones about to enter the buildings.
PS: I was offered to open a BAT thread here by a very polite and knowledgeable person here and I am willing to comply with your advice as I am a complete novice. I am still in the very beginning seeking for your precious insights and suggestions. If you feel like you got buggered by me, please understand I want to learn this baby as after ten years I decided that the buildings and stuff shared here are not my type and this doesn't mean I ignore your very valuable commitments to this community. I wish I could be like you. What I want is to see buildings like the ones around me. Therefore, I 'll have a go for my own sets while having fun while BATting and lotting - hopefully with you before playing this game again.
I wish all you the best and now let's sail away :)!
edit - Resized your pictures. - Arthur/GM
It looks great, the idea is nice!
What's that white border around the roof?
Also, I'm not the most specialized person to talk about roof, but it looks a bit too solid, specially on the sides.
Also² the roof texture is a bit too uniform and could use some saturation. (it's a bit too bright right now)
The white structure encircling the roof is designed to represent the water conveyor to the ground when it rains. How can I put thr texture a bit more appropriate for a realistic roof and how can I desaturate it? &idea
The tiles is a bit too clean and too saturated.
Better make the roof thinner in the centre and make the drain follow the edge of the roof. Also shrink the tiles by tiling the roof texture and make it less saturated.
The walls and the chimneys look nice, though.
There're a couple of BAT roof textures on the stex (1 (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/16386-odds-roof-textures-for-batters/),2 (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/17147-roof-texture-pack/)) which may suit your needs. Otherwise you'll have to use graphics software to adjust the current textures, for instance with Photoshop or the GIMP. The latter is open source and freely available here (http://www.gimp.org/).
Then, I am gonna change the texture of the roof and try to make the drain look a bit nicer. Now, I am changing the layouts of the windows and the doors. I found out how to increase the number of tiles in a selected shape and working on the whole building. Now I am studying for a vital exam to be a civil servant and trying to find time to model my building.
Stay tuned, guys and thanks for the initial feedbacks! $%Grinno$%
This is the last picture of the work:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi59.tinypic.com%2Fao2u61.png&hash=533778b003dc109db6ed43698e704aad6ceeb960)
edit: resized image - Erik GM
Do you think I missed something for realism?:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi58.tinypic.com%2F1zl7zmp.png&hash=89dd38b2c028044d4240334b8bf9b1a5b45ccfca)
Please feel free to comment. I want to improve in this stuff. :)
edit: resized image - Erik GM
The roof texture certainly is improved! The metal caps on chimneys look a bit too bright though.
Also, I think you'd do many LOTters a favor if you ditch the BATted ground plane so they can put any kind of texture underneath the building in the Lot Editor.
All in all very nice progress. :thumbsup:
What do you think about nightlighting- especially front door illumination and the windows. I used specular maps to make them look beautiful and learned some stuff in GIMP for its sake! :D
You've improved the building a lot!! :thumbsup: The roof looks much better now, but I still see some strange encounters. (IMHO). About the lights, do you light the windows from outside? It's a bit strange for me, but I think it could work to simulate glare. Make sure that all your lights are called nitelite, because I see some of them on in the day render. Keep the good work!!!
really? which one can you describe it to me? I followed a tutorial by Gn_Leugim on Youtube. He used specular color and level maps to illuminate the windows instead of writing nitelite in front of window planes. I also used opacity maps for the daylight. Dont know whether I got it work. This is the nightviews from different angles in the game using LotPlop:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi62.tinypic.com%2F21exeec.png&hash=78ca4a373246e35fd0f0b5c784d5a46a7e3858ca)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi62.tinypic.com%2F2w7nup3.png&hash=948f083b4b311f39e0c728d19a1d93e44c27b898)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi61.tinypic.com%2F4kd5l0.png&hash=212b609b062d5f764d66d6e0bb296289ef5ffbbb)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi60.tinypic.com%2Fdvlis0.png&hash=b04b2c203b69d50f025115ccc3c4cc2076fa7d34)
The day view:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi61.tinypic.com%2F2r6icnd.png&hash=dae337956fd5ffa69c8fad2028b18561854737c1)
I cant see some of the overlay textures and props for plants and don't know why ()sad()
I meant the light cones. I saw a strange reflection or illumination on the building's basement in your previous post, and I thought it was because of them. I don't know if they affect the day view in-game. You've really done a great improvement!!
Do you mean the omni light in the front door or the ones on the left or right of the building. They represent the glare coming from the street lights. &Thk/( . Please tell me what you don't like here, guys!
Do you keep the omni lights on in the day render? I looked at Gn_Leugim's tutorial, but as I don't use that method, I don't know exactly how it works. I see some glare in the day view of your building and I don't know if it comes from the same omni lights you use at night.
which method do you use for this? I saw your buildings. How do you illuminate them? Yeah I keep omni lights open. Is this the cause or a weird bug? &Thk/(
I illuminate them from inside with omni lights, but I name them nitelite, so they only work at night. There are plenty of methods to illuminate a building, and yours looks splendid at night, but if you don't turn them off at day, your Sims will waste a lot of energy!! $%Grinno$%
Guys do you think it is ready for release? I'm gonna lot it and work on another building which is a bit bigger, different in color but the theme will be nearly the same.
While the roof textures have improved the modelling itself still has room for improvement as well. I'm referring specifically to these black gaps.
(https://dl.dropbox.com/s/te80paxq2hyeydo/FXfix.JPG?dl=0)
There are no gaps there. I checked the places you marked before I posted the last pictures. Let me show you the gmax picture:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi57.tinypic.com%2F332p8ci.png&hash=c417327bd04d79dc3de48f70f84289ceb26d5a4d)
I think it is just a shadow-what we see there.
Well maybe it's a rendering error or whatever, my point was those black surfaces are an eyesore and need to be addressed before release.
In general it is a good building, but I agree with vortext that the roof edge should be fixed. It doesn't look like a shadow to me. The triangular black area on the left could be a flipped normal. If you select the faces that form that black triangle, then in the "Surface Properties" section of the modifier panel, hit the "Flip" button. That will flip the normals of those faces. If that isn't it, maybe it is a texture mapping problem. In that case, you could detach those faces to a new object and re-map them from a different angle.
I'm rebuilding the roof. But I don't understand what you mean by surface properties. I couldn't find what you meant there.
It is here:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FGVjtrmv.jpg&hash=77a4a9cdf53ab944a59c35a80c41e25433b838a7)
But you have to select some faces before these options appear in the menu.
When you use the flip, the triangles, between two tones of red. The right side is the bright red.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FRYRCcbp.jpg&hash=6b1d21ff428b4fe178c69aeba8ee343f9bb4da0c)
First of the UV-Mapping on the roof. If you use the same material for all the surfaces should be the same (which you can find in the UVW-map moddifier under parameters)
Maybe go a bit up on the size. Tiles and bricks of RL size, tend to make a blur with no structure.
On the pink lines. Left on first, the surface is bended over this line. The two purple lines should be parallel to each other, this will solve this problem. Maybe draw up in the side view the triangle you see at the end. Add an extrude to that.
The pink lines on the right, sort of the same problem. The roof shape is just a mess. (sorry can't find a better word for it)
Here you maybe could start out with a box, converted it to a mesh, then drag the three out upper corner down a merge them with the vertices at the bottom.
[EDIT:] Arghh, now I remember why I am not using gmax.
Draw two triangles and an extrude to them. Them convert them to mesh. Drag the other corners down, then click on Weld -> Selected. [/EDIT]
Do you mean it by using lines with vertices merged? Sorry I don't have 3dsmax. I have to make do with this.
Draw a triangle (along one half of the rectangle at bottom.)
Add an extrude modifier.
Turn it into mesh.
Then move 2 of the top verities, moved them down to the bottom and weld it togther with the bottom verities.
Ok, I finished the building with the method you mentioned above:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi60.tinypic.com%2F29p4sd2.png&hash=52205e6bc8bd7dd8e877ef4afc3fac2f3ce0d77b)
Please tell me the issues you don't like.
So many yellow things. So much to this program, this looks so confusing.
I will say the end result so far looks so natural, it looks like a house that already shipped with the game.
j-dub, it is the building I live in ;D those are illumination signs(I used spots.)
Do you think the building is ready for release?
Quote from: frukox on November 24, 2014, 11:33:07 AM
j-dub, it is the building I live in ;D those are illumination signs(I used spots.)
Do you think the building is ready for release?
You are definitely getting closer, and it is looking better and better. Before release though, I think it would be good to see the house in-game first, from a few different angles. :thumbsup:
This is looking very nice and you're making great progress &apls The one thing I'd like to see improved is the nightlights: is it possible to give them a bit more variety instead of just having a uniform yellow color appear in the windows? Iirc some batters have been able to achieve a nice lighting affect in GMAX by applying a light texture to the internal floors--but I'm not a BATter so take my advice with a grain of salt ::)
Yes indeed, a few shots from in-game would be welcomed to see how it stands next to a few other houses/buildings. :)
Though so far on the modeling I'd say it's well done.