Recreating San Francisco: Real Life Aside, October 1, 2009

ldvger · October 02, 2009, 01:43:35 PM

battlecat, mayorfabz/Fabien, and everyone else-

Well, the act of writing out the pros and cons of my situtaion last night and posting it here has helped me view things from a better perspective, I think. That and a restless night spent tossing and turning while my brain reviewed both sides of this coin, flipping it back and forth over and over again (maybe that's why *I* was tossing and turning?) has led me to the conclusion that the risks presented to me in accepting this position just far outweigh the unknown potential benefits. And that I am, in truth, way too vulnerable right now to go tearing off for the sake of adventure or to restore my connection to the planet.

If I was unhappy in my current career, or unhappy with my current job, or hated where I lived, AND had lots of money in the bank, then yes, this might be a perfect and perfectly timed escape route. However, none of those factors apply. I love architecture, love Seattle, hate the fact that I am unemployed, and no longer even have a bank account, let alone any money in the bank. The potential for absolute life-wrecking disaster in accepting this position in Wyoming is, unfortunately, very, very real, while the potential to find employed bliss in a rural setting is quite small. These are just not the type of long odds I am willing to gamble on.

So, I am going to email Paula (the woman I interviewed with yesterday) and withdraw myself from consideration.

I want to thank both of you for reading my lengthy post and for taking the time to reply. I also want to thank any others who read the post and didn't reply...I appreciate the freedom of being able to use this MD as both a showcase for my project and, occasionally, as a sounding board for non-game issues.

I'll be working on a new update this evening, so tune back in soon.

Lora/LD

ldvger · October 04, 2009, 01:42:10 AM

Well, I hate to bump my own post, but being as how no one has posted since my last post, I have no choice.

I am serving notice to my readers that this MD is entering into a new phase in which Lora Learns to Bat. I have been threatening to delve into custom content for many years now, so much so that I'm certain most folks figured it was all talk and no walk. Well, today I have applied for my own texture file range numbers and prop file range numbers and if you don;t know what those are, don't worry, I don't either, I just know I need them both if I am going to create custom textures and props. And, if I am going to create custom lots and buildings, I need to also be able to create custom props and textures to plop on the lots and with which to texturize my custom buildings. It's taken me over four years to learn that much, to put together in my own head how all the CC stuff was connected to each other.

So how does this relate to my MD? The Burdell School. This MD is a recreation of RL. I have, I think, enough information to recreate the Burdell School...if I recreate it from scratch. Truth being, as a choice of a first CC plop lot, it's probably a good choice (as much as *I* know about CC, which is next to zero). It's almost all ag buldings, which are very simple, basic structures, four walls and a roof. Many folks have created tons of ag props, so I most likely will not have to create my own props, just use others'. I have learned I can "lift" a building from a prviously made lot and turn it into a prop to plop on my own lot, so I will probably borrow houses from either maxis lots or one of the many farm lots I have downloaded to make the residences.

All in all, I think my first foray into BATing and CC will be more about using the Lot Editor tool than anything else. I will create the base lot for the school, which will be pretty big, then BAT the ag buildings, then plop the props and textures, and then, hopefully, export the new CC lot into the game.

This could be a really painful and boring process for those who stop by here to watch me go through. But, I pretty much knew when I started this MD that I could not count on others to provide me with all the CC I knew I was going to need. I knew my choices were going to be limited, and my recreation perhaps compromised, unless I finally dove off the high board (hopefully a perfect swan dive and not a belly flop) into the world of Custom Content.

I am climbing the rungs of the ladder to the diving board now. No longer young and no longer a hottie in a bathing suit, displaying myself in this way, on a public forum, is part of why I have avoided it for so long. But really, what have I got to lose? The bathing suit image is just a metaphor, after all. And if it grosses anyone out, well then, you have a more active imagination than I need deal with here, hahahahahaha.

So, until further notice, I am going away from the actual building and development of the MD and focusing instead on my fumbling efforts to learn to BAT, then LOT, then MOD. Could be a while before I actually get back to working in game. Just a warning.

The first project, however, will be the Burdell School.

Hope you hang with me and hope my efforts will inspire others to try for themselves.

Lora/LD

kwakelaar · October 04, 2009, 02:44:27 AM

Well, best of luck with your diving, hopefully you will achieve what you set out to do.

ecoba · October 04, 2009, 08:48:42 AM

Sounds Exciting, Lora!

Well, I can't LOT very well either-- I'm working on it, and maybe some of your ventures will be learning experiences for me as well as you. I have been working on LOTing some ploppable farm fields for a new type of city building I might experiment with-- all plops. I have had trouble even with trying to get a basic 1x1 grass texture to export to the game- hmph.

In what I have seen from the Burdell School lot-- it looks like a moderately challenging LOT-- but the Ag Buildings look like they are a perfect building for beginning BATers. As you also may know-- I don't BAT at all! I have attempted to download this tool-- but my computer will not let me. I really do wish I could start to BAT-- as I think I have some perfect rural farm buildings in mind for my MD. I almost wish I could make some Chicken coops appear in the Mayor Mode Tree Menu-- that would be nice.

Well, enough of my senseless rambling-- I am very excited that things will be taken a different turn here at RSF. This is one of my favourite MD's-- like many others on this site, and I would be glad whatever you do with this project.

Ethan

This is my 100th post, and I specifically planned for it to be here.

calibanX · October 04, 2009, 10:38:26 AM

Well Lora, sorry to hear your opportunity in Wyoming isn't going to pan out. My roommate lost his job as a credit analyst a year ago and has been to a dozen interviews since. He has come away with nothing from every last one of them. He is depleting his 401k and is having to lean on his family for help too. I hope your situation improves. it's a tough time. In the meantime I'm thoroughly enjoying your efforts here. Looking forward to seeing your BAT'ing skills.

Take care.

Geoff

Attila464 · October 07, 2009, 06:50:00 PM

If your bats will be anything close to the quality of your landscapes we will be in for a treat! Can't wait for the update.

ldvger · October 08, 2009, 01:54:10 AM

Just want you all to know I have not abandoned my MD, just had a busy couple of days. If you are like me at all, you conform to a daily and weekly routine and if that routine gets thrown off at all, then all chaos breaks loose and that's kinda waht happened to me this week. My roomie usually has Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off (he works 4/10's in the summer months), but because his sister is moving into her new home this week (after 18 months of construction), he switched his days off with a co-worker and didn't have a day off until Tuesday. Sunday is usually his day to do his laudry and take care of personal errands, Monday his buddy comes over and we play board games and have a meal, which I usually cook. Tuesdays have become a day for Michael (my roomie) and me to share a meal and then I run off to my kntting group. This has been our routine for the past several months, but it was thrown out of whack this week and so everything kinda went to heck. No board games Monday. Tuesday Michael and I had a meal together as usual, but I didn't have time to clean up before running off to my knitting meeting and I stayed late knitting, so the kitchen was a mess when I got home and I was in no mood to clean it. Michael did his laundry Tuesday instead of Sunday and he never puts it away (he does fold it, though), so his laundry was all over the living room waiting to be put away (I live here rent and ultility free, so I have taken over a lot of his tasks as a way of paying my way here and one of them is I put away his laundry). When I came home from knitting last night, this apartment looked like a bomb went of in it...a total mess.

So I spent today putting things back to right and so was able to return, after several days absence, to my BATting lessons. I now have 4 walls, a roof and a floor/foundation on my tutorial building. I have windows in the walls and doors in the front and back walls. I am about to learn how to detail the doors and windows, but it's getting late at night, so I thought I'd leave that part of the lesson for tomorrow.

There is a set of tutorials over on ST that are very good, up to a point. The author obviously knows his way around the BAT tool very well and while he explains the initial concepts and starting points extremely well, once he gets cooking, he starts overlooking instructions total newbies may not be able to find easily by themselves. I ran into one of those tonite while trying to learn how to detail doors and windows. It took me almost 45 minutes to find the menu tools he was referring to.

So, this is going to be a slow process for me, and I may not have much to post here for a while except updates such as this one.

Parallel to this period of learning is the fact that a lot of the jobs I am applying for these days want folks to have experience with a graphics software program called "SketchUp". I have learned this is software manufactured by Google and is free in it's most basic and simplest form. Google has free tutorials on it's website for learning to use this software, which from my extremely quick perusal of it appears to be very powerful. Truth be told, folks, I am having a hard time justifying to myself spending time learning to BAT when I could be using that same time learning SketchUp and so padding my skills and resume towards a JOB.

I have been using my afternoons to both create updates and learn the BATting tool, but that is going to end. I am going to download the SketchUp tool and instead spend my afternoons learning how to use it. I need a job, people, and spending time playing games when I could be learning new professional skills is, quite frankly, professional death for me. I will still continue to work on learning the BAT tool in the evenings and will still continue to work on this MD, but the pace is likely to slow down a lot. I have to find work and that has to be my number 1 priority.

I hope you all understand and will still stop by from time to time to check my progress, both with my own RL and with my game.

Lora/LD

joelyboy911 · October 08, 2009, 02:11:15 AM

Hey Lora. Its good to hear you haven't abandoned the diary, though I don't think any of us had any concerns.

I beleive you can use models from SketchUp, converting them to gmax, for BATting. However, I have a feeling it is only possible with the professional (payware) version. You could always ask someone who does have that version to convert your models, but I myself do not know the technical details of the process. If it worked out, you could practise your potential professional skills at the same time as making your buildings.

Of course we understand that you cannot devote all of your time to playing - Of course I feel a little guilty for playing SimCity when I should be studying or something like that.

I'll still stop by.

Good luck!

ldvger · October 08, 2009, 09:19:29 PM

QuoteI beleive you can use models from SketchUp, converting them to gmax, for BATting. However, I have a feeling it is only possible with the professional (payware) version. You could always ask someone who does have that version to convert your models, but I myself do not know the technical details of the process. If it worked out, you could practise your potential professional skills at the same time as making your buildings.

Ya know, I kinda wondered about that when I took my very quick look at the SketchUp software a couple of nights ago. It appears to be a tool very similar to the BAT and I seem to recall there being a tool in the BAT for importing files. I'll have to figure out what file extensions BAT accepts and what file extensions SketchUp creates.

Downloaded the freeware version of SketchUp this afternoon and spent the day working my way through the first 4 video tutorials and drew my first 3D object...a chair! This evening I downloaded 24 short video tutorials that walk me through each tool on the toolbar...tomorrow's lesson plan. In the meantime, I'm going to play around a bit with the 3-4 tools I learned to day and see what kind of interesting things I can draw. There is an option in the software that allows one to beging 3D modeling from a floor plan and being as how that is most likely to be my use of the software, I think I will experiment with that a bit. Also because (ahem) I already know how to draw floor plans, so this may be the easiest "back door" for me to sneak into. If I make anything interesting (like a farm building maybe?), I post a picture here.

Lora/LD

joelyboy911 · October 09, 2009, 12:03:56 AM

I think Sketchup Pro can export to .3ds, which Gmax can import. Other than that, I'm not sure. Gmax can also import .DXF, and .SHP.

I've never used SketchUp myself, but I imagine most 3D modelling programs are quite similar, or share similar characteristics/methods. If this is true, then learning modelling in SketchUp will help you learn gmax as well.

I hope you do post pictures of your modelling achievements.

Again, good luck - both for your BAT learning and, more importantly, your job search.

ldvger · October 23, 2009, 01:29:04 AM

Hello all!

Well, It's been a long two weeks of working with SketchUp and wending my way through the tutorials. I got to the point where I needed to download a plug-in that would allow SU to import CAD files then worked my way through THAT set of tutorials. Cool, tool SketchUp, in many ways very intuitive. It has it's quirks, especially for someone like me used to CAD...I keep looking for tools that don't exist or, if they do exist, exist under different tool menus.

Once I learned how to import CAD files into SU, I realized that the next logical step was to model a 3D image of a CAD file, as that would be the way I would be using SU in a professional setting. Most of the projects I have in my computer files are way huge and complex, so I thought I'd start with something simpler, like the little house I designed almost 20 years ago for myself to live in, alone. Over the years, the design has been revisited many times and grown and changed, but it's was still fairly simple...or so I thought.

One of the ways the design has changed is that I no longer think I'll build this home (if indeed I ever do actually build it) for myself to live in alone. Most likely my mom will be living with me, too, so the space I had originally designated as office space became my mom's bedroom. She will need a private bath, so that had to be added. That also meant that the main floor of the home needed a half bath, so that folks visiting (or me staying up late) didn't have to troop through mom's bedroom to get to the bathroom. So the home got a little bit bigger. I also had to enlarge the garage from a 1 car to a 2 car, even though I don't currently own a car or drive or even have a driver's license. Mom is 74 and while she's sharp as a tack and still a long-hauler in terms of driving, I need to keep in mind that I may be her only source of transport at some point in time, so I'll need a car and hence a agrage to keep it in. Mom also needs workspace, as she sews, makes jewelery, and does handcrafts, so the home sudeenly grew a basement.

Part of adding a basement was the idea that my younger sister Char is likely to end up living with me also and she would need her own space, too. So I created a nice little suite in the basement for Char while I made a nice workspace for mom.

And of course, I need my own workspace, so my second floor bedroom gained a loft where I can install my drafting board and a work station.

So, these past two weeks have been spent both working in SketchUp and, this last week especially, working in CAD to create a floor plan I can use to model as a resume project.

Along the way, I have begun to think I should probably learn to use PowerPoint as well, as that's another software tool that comes up often in the job descriptions I am looking at. I'd like to create a "walk-through" of the home I am working on modeling, preferably animated, so the feeling is truly of walking through an existing building. I'd include this animated PowerPoint presentation as part of my digital resume. Anyone out there know PowerPoint? Can I animate/create virtual video in PP?

So, that's what I've been up to these past 2 weeks and my apologies for not posting sooner. I miss playing SC4 and my region a lot, but, I also know that time spent playing could be much better spent enriching my job skills. I hope you all understand.

Lora/LD

ecoba · October 23, 2009, 05:48:08 PM

I completely understand, Lora. Job Hunting must be pain in these times.

Although I expect things are probably different in Seattle from how they are in the South. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean better.

I swear, Lora, if I need a building built, I'll have you hired.

You are, of course, allowed to spend your time doing what you need to do. Isn't it kindof one of the general knowns (words slipping from my mind) that RL comes first, Lora. You don't need to worry about SC4D at all, we know what you're doing is important, and of course, you need to take care of yourself first.

Also, Lora, Eblem released a new California style Terrain Mod on the STEX, if you might want to try it out...

Ethan

rooker1 · November 30, 2009, 05:18:56 AM

Hey Lora,
I hope real life is treating you better now as I know that some....most of us are itching for an update.

Robin

norris71 · December 22, 2009, 02:33:56 PM

Fantastic! I live in San Jose, CA., and truly enjoy your MD. All this love, and passion, for a corner of the Bay Area finds me happy. Keep up the great work. I'am looking forward to another wonderful installment. Cheers.