Pure Bits & BATs
Hi All. Thought I'd show some of my SC4 experiments here to see what you all think :D
Engine Shed project
Initially based on a railway Engine Shed found in North Yorkshire, England.
It's the first building I've created for SC4, so go easy on me! I'm happy with the way it looks in Blender, but when it's put into SC4 I'm not sure:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2FfeedbackBusA.jpg&hash=41f62003e02e48deb835e33b8f63c4dce4965b39)
Click here (http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w73/purepics/SC4/feedbackBusBig.jpg) to see a larger picture.
[removed some photos]
Is the roof too dark/saturated compared with other buildings?
It's currently a ploppable IM. That's it for now. Feedback welcome :)
thats really great, you should set yourselfs up a candidacy thread.
Really good for a first effort &apls
It's a well made interesting building, I would use it.
However I think the roof texture is much too bold, that definitely needs a healthy desaturation. This will help it blend it better with the walls as well as the rest of SC.
I have to agree with the others. Great start, but the roof needs some more work.
I hope you do start a candidacy thread HERE (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?board=5.0) at SC4D.
Robin :thumbsup:
Thanks guys, it's nice to hear that it's not a complete disaster ;D
I'll desaturate the roof and lighten it too, looking at the shed amongst the other buildings it sticks out far too much &mmm
I need to rethink what I'm going to do with the lot around the building, I'm not sure the green works in an industry environment. Any ideas?
I think you might need another roof texture.
As for the ground texture....what about a concrete and dirt one with some trucks by the side doors. I might also consider getting rid of the parking in the front and just place a few parked cars along the side and back.
I also would not TE the LOT, it doesn't line up well enough for that.
My two cents....
Robin :thumbsup:
What's wrong with the roof texture (and I can see this at the first glance), is that it's way too dark. It's much darker than any other building around. And thus the contrast to the (light) yellow wall becomes too high as well, which isn't pleasant to the eye. So you need to lighten it up quite a lot first, and then you can tell better if it needs to be desaturated and how much. Often darkening causes a perceived saturation increase, so it would be best to see what you need to do with saturation after you are done with luminosity adjustment.
The wall texture is a little weird too, but not really bad. I think there is something wrong with the colour balance, maybe you could try reducing the red components a little, or instead increasing greens (better do not bother with blues, what this will effectuvely do is adjust saturation, which I think is quite OK). For determining the optimum values for these adjustments you will need to experiment and make several test exports. Do not modify the original texture and make successive adjustments on it, this can result in distortions like gammas, inbalancies etc. Better add the proper adjustment layers on the original texture, and export the adjusted image every time (with the same name), and test your BAT with this exported one.
There is also this tutorial (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=5229.0) by gascooker, explaining how to adjust textures. The procedure might look tedious ar first, but you can do it once and then copy the adjustment layers to other textures too. But I don't think this is needed in this case, as you are quite close here. All it would do is decrease reds and incerase blues, which in a yellowish/brownish texture will reduce saturation significantly, making it almost gray. But you can try it (and keep the adjustment layer for your next BATs).
Also the material of the doors is too dark as well, and not convincing at all. What is it exactly, wood, rusty metal maybe??? I think a better texture here would work wonders.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I went through 3 other texture variations until I found the one I was happiest with. For today it's a quick and dirty update to the lot itself, some of the timed props missing from the screenshot make it appear emptier, but that's ok. I completely agree with Robin the TE road looked out of place, so my next mission will be to create 1 or 2 texture overlays to unify the lot with the TE more...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2Fbetterroof.jpg&hash=7264d027d1a43d12b5d31c6e7c2c4b2a6b9bf7d8)
cogeo thanks for the link to the texturing tutorial, that's actually very useful to know (will read through it properly tomorrow while at work).
This definitely isn't anywhere near finished, but was really useful to get all the feedback. Stay tuned for more :thumbsup:
looks great to me...
Thanks mightygoose! ;D While I'm still awake, here's another recent model and lot experiment:
Liquid Fuels & Co.
Fuel shipment manufacturing industry.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2Ffuels1feed.jpg&hash=d75b55e75b0ccbd819e4d01aed4c5cb66371f5bb)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2Ffuels2feed.jpg&hash=ab56b66cfb40ab6694fbc446f1efb16688691fa6)
The main building is a BSC prop, as are the trucks and trains.
it looks a lot better now :thumbsup:
There's no longer a problem that stands out, I personally think the roof could still be improved but it looks completely fine as it is. I find the lines on the roof texture, particularly on the long part of the building the train runs through, to be slightly odd. I would try rotating the texture so the lines were vertical with the ground like the other roofs surrounding your building. However on the other section of your BAT the texture is far more consistent and I think looks good, maybe if you can make the roofs match rather than rotating it.
But release it as is and I'll still be downloading it...
Thanks for the feedback thingfishs. I see what you mean about the roof, it's not as defined as the other smaller building's roof, although I'm not sure why that's happening because it's the same texture. I think scaling up the roof texture may help define the edges more and solve the smoothness. I'll carry out some tests.
While I was away I started another building (which I'll show later) and also worked on this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2Ftruck_semi_blue.jpg&hash=aa712ed83c9593296356abf2fb875e51c7223f32)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FBusiness_shed_semi.jpg&hash=418b4ae72374e5a0f899ca744753684775e8654e)
I still need to work on the custom texture for the Engine Shed, but at least I have some custom props in there now. As always any comments welcome!
nice semi there puresim :thumbsup:
I'm still not convinced by the roof. My personal inclination would be to drop that texture entirely, it looks like it's been drawn with coloured pencils and you can see the marks where they've coloured darker. Love the building though.
Quote from: thingfishsit looks like it's been drawn with coloured pencils
But I'm very proud of my pencil drawing skills! :D
Seriously thanks for the comments and for bringing a smile to my face. Following your inclination I've demolished the old roof and installed a new one:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2Fesnewroofa.jpg&hash=9d53a78eb4bebf70345d3a9fcd47a3f0067971e3)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2Fesnewroofb.jpg&hash=d1bbebd462453f89e1667fe24d498732af0bd6e9)
NOOOOOOOOOOOO - i loved the old timber roof, this new one for me is a step backwards...
ok they new one looks well new... and shiny and great but the old one is just what i was after, rough and dirty. if you are adamant on changing it, please release both versions...
I can't shake the feeling mightygoose doesn't like it ;)
To me it looks more convincing as a roof surface, but not necessarily for this building. I think with the beautiful old building you have the new roof looks too, well new. Feeling partially responsible &Thk/( I had a bit of a search for examples...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimgur.com%2Fl4JHE.jpg&hash=69ef77a0d11adc6736a07731ca0036f94af66a85)
The house on the top right is an example of an older place with a tiled roof, they are grimy etc. Do you use PS?
Sorry mightygoose, I've gottago ( ::) )with things re: your original roof texture; it does look like a colored pencil drawing.
Anyway, an old train shed built in the days of steam engines--open, coal-fired furnaces on wheels--would never be built with a wooden roof; it would catch fire within weeks. It would either be slate or metal.
Try this out--it's a non-tiling slate roof texture that's already grimed up. It should look good with the stone:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi209.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fbb173%2Fzegadams%2FSlateRoof.jpg&hash=c0c83d3d9ceaa3ee043bd02c30700cefd1f51aec)
And the semi looks very good; I'd just say that the trailer looks pretty short in comparison to such a big cab.
Something like this really should have a corrugated iron roof....There are loads of textures available for this type of roof. Here are a few:
http://cgtextures.com/textures.php?t=browse&q=39335
I'm with Mightygoose that the new roof was a step back. If you are going to continue with it you'll need to dirty it up some, it's too consistent and doesn't look like it's suffered 100 years of grime. All the photos you posted had patched roofs too. However, corrugated iron could work well too.
Thanks to all for the feedback :thumbsup:
thingfishs I appreciate you taking the time to find those photos, they were helpful!
gottago that's a nice tile, if you don't mind I might use that for another building (or even try it on the Engine Shed over the weekend).
I allowed 100 years of British weather to do this:
[screens removed to help load times]
It's by far my favourite so far. :thumbsup:
Although to me it jumps out at you a bit much, particularly the grooves. I suspect you may need to lower your contrast by a fair bit. (but it may be something else, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be through soon enough...) Good progress.
agreed, lower the contrast and maybe darken it a tad.
This is the best version so far, but two things stand out--it's way too overscaled--each tile is nearly as big as a window--and there's too much contrast. It would help to lower both saturation and contrast at least 15%, saturation more.
Here's the last update until the weekend - Tiles are much smaller. Contrast and saturation reduced 15-20% each.
[screens removed to help load times]
Have a great day/night all :)
Now you're talking :thumbsup:
Probably a little washed out, could do with some darker patches. But looking much better.
(have you learnt to do whole custom textures yet?)
just a little bit darker and we are spot on XD
It will be done :thumbsup:
Quote from: thingfishs on February 03, 2010, 04:53:44 PM
(have you learnt to do whole custom textures yet?)
For models or base/overlay textures? I model using Blender where I have one square UVmapped texture - then when finished I stick the model into gmax and import the UV and texture. If you meant base textures, no I haven't created one yet, but I will try over the next few days.
No I meant model textures, so you can have a texture that covers the whole length of the building. This will allow you to add little dark patches of grime etc. will helps to give a realistic look that a uniform raising or lowering of brightness levels will never be able to.
It's quite easy once you know how. I primarily use the dodge and burn tools in photoshop (or similar) to darken and lighten areas, it works well. The way I've been doing it (which is probably slightly incorrect) is taking the length and width of your largest roof/wall section. Say it's 20 by 10m. I've just been multiplying each figure by 10, but as pixels. So in this case I would make an image in PS that is 200 by 100 pixels. Then take your texture and copy/paste it enough times to fill the area. Then with dodge & burn and the clone tool I will make the seams between each piece blend in and will add some "dirt" for variety. If you start out with a bigger texture then you don't need to do do many copy & pastes.
You've probably already seen http://cgtextures.com/, check it out if you haven't. But there are others. I've found many of my textures via a custom google image search.
I will also copy over the more accurate (presumably ;)) instructions that gottago gave me at one point:
Quote from: gottago on November 18, 2009, 05:19:44 AM
You've got your ur texture, a rectangle representing corrugated metal. Make it big enough to cover the largest element you have (I assume that's one of the large roofs) without tiling at the correct scale. It looks like your texture is already large, but if it's not big enough, you can use the PS rescale function to scale things up without blurring. Check the dpi and the image dimensions and note all that for later. Let's say the roof is 20x 40 m in gmax and your texture is 300 x 600 px @ 72 dpi, just to have some figures to explain with. Now, you have to make a different version of that texture for each piece of the building it's going to be applied to.
Say you want to make a texture for the smaller shed's roofs. Get the dimensions of one of them from gmax; say its 10 x 15m. Do some basic math and use a ratio to figure out how big the new texture should be. In this case, we know that 20 m = 300 px, so the new roof texture should be 150 x 225 px.
Click on your PS crop tool and set the resolution to the dpi you noted and the width & length to 150 px & 225 px. When you drag the crop tool it will automatically make a window of the proper dimensions. Double click and voila, you've got your base texture for the small roofs at the right scale. Rinse and repeat as needed, saving each version under a new name.
Now you can go back to each one and apply gradients and weathering as you see fit. Use layers until you're happy with the result, then merge the layers and save under a new name and keep the originals as .psd files with the layers because you'll undoubtedly have to go back and tweak various layers several times to get things right.
Remember to invert one of your paired roof textures in your uv map rollout so the gradients are mirrored. Obviously, don't use tiling with this method--apply them 1 to 1.
That's pretty much it for basic textures, thus ending my first tutorial $%Grinno$%
That's all very new to me, the way I texture for models in Blender is completely different. What I have is 1 photoshop file, usually 1024x1024, that contains all the textures of my model. I save this as a flat PNG file that I import into Blender - Then the process of manual UV unwrapping begins. So all my textures are in 1 photoshop file (multiple layers) and can be adjusted easily. I'm not sure I could use Gmax's way of texturing very well, it's so different to what I'm used to. The most annoying part of the process is having to import the model, texture, and UV map separately into Gmax for the BAT export.
Started working on a custom wall for the lot, so no new screenshots today :)
Engine Shed update:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2FESalmost03.jpg&hash=a47fd048f8a9962b1a6aa03295643d2ac5ceb7e0)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2FESalmost02.jpg&hash=8af4252e05f8806035ec898ff2f98fde8a9840d2)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2FESalmost01.jpg&hash=19fffa6689fd688eeccc277828b22b1a874c10b9)
And introducing my Small Traction Maintenance Depot
An I-M industry for servicing and maintaining trains.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2FTMDfirstsml01.jpg&hash=66ae64c7f32f3d4108a657a88853b7af12e7a9ec)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2FSC4%2FTMDfirstsml02.jpg&hash=0a2b02f6b0a0e4894d2453ed52000ef6ad90805b)
looking good puresim :thumbsup:
And we've got another one; I think these are a great idea and I look forward to installing them over my rail.
Personally I'm not a fan of your tyre track overlay textures on the first one, such perfect alignment of wheels (whether those marks are representing grooves or marks) is unrealistic... but it's not a big deal.
With the depot I don't like the overlay texture where it meets the street at the entrance. I'm not sure if there's a transition texture between the wider street & the thinner driveway but if there is, use it. The textures of the depot also need work, certainly the roof and probably the walls. What kind of surfaces are you emulating with that one? (I'm guessing also that you've learnt to do whole textures?)
Are you using timed props with these to give them some vibe of activity?
Thanks for the feedback thingfishs ;)
There is a bit of activity at the Engine Shed with timed props, and I'll work on the base textures to see what I can do.
These are the textures I'm using for the TMD (Traction Maintenance Depot):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi173.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fw73%2Fpurepics%2Ftmdnotrender.jpg&hash=c04f7ec7e10a5d6733a542cd86700c0610cf0cac)
I'll work on the TMD driveway and maybe do what you've done with your sports field entrance instead.
Hey, your doing some great modeling here.
I do have some questions though, and they're more logistical than technical. If these sheds are engine repair stations (maybe I'm wrong) shouldn't there be a small break from the main line passing through? I mean, if they work on the engine while it remains on the line, won't that impede traffic? I tried to imagine somewhere inside where the line splits and an engine could detach and move out of the way, but the buildings seem too small to have room for that. Just a suggestion. Take it or leave it.
Your making excellent and useful stuff here, so keep up the good work!
EDIT: Maybe you could make the shed a terminus for a spur. That way distressed engines can go get work done without gumming up the works.
hmmm...I agree with cubby, although the photo may be misleading. If you had a line branch off and into the depot it would make sense (and wouldn't have to be widened).
"Maybe you could make the shed a terminus for a spur"
After rereading cubby's edit there I think they were suggesting the same thing, but I can't be sure as I don't speak railwayese. ;)
As for your textures I think there's still a way to go. To me those bricks are distinctly too green, however I'm no architectural expert and for all I know bricks are that shade somewhere.
The roof I think is too bright more than anything, try lowering it down a bit. Last but not least (actually, least) is the flora. Your whole LOT will get a lift from using something a bit more interesting from a prop pack. (I used a lot from the SG & MJB mega packs on the winery which I think came up pretty good)