Greek letters for frat/sorority houses (and related props)

[Elric888]

Does anyone know if there are any prop packs containing appropriately sized greek letters to place on houses? Or maybe someone can make some for me? I am completely inept with 3d programs, so I limit myself to using others props and buildings. I'd like to do a series of fraternities and sororities to accompany the Clayhurst campus buildings, and Greek letters are a must. on a related note I am also seeking props (and animated props) relating to rush week; party goers in togas, streakers, hazings, mascots, kegs, etc. some of which will be modded to appear only during rush week. Anyone interested in doing some props for me please respond here, or PM me.

[joelyboy911]

I can make the letter props. Tell me the letters you want, and the size and colour they should be, and I can do them easy enough.



Here's a quick lower-case delta. Just for an example.

[Elric888]

Awesome, Thanks! If you are up to it the whole alphabet would be good, but only because when it comes to stuff like this, I don't believe in half-A**ing things, someone out there besides me may have use for them as well, but all I NEED are some of the major letters used for frats and sororities: Alpha, beta, delta, gamma, kappa, lambda, pi, sigma, tau, phi, omega.. as far as color if you would be willing to do a set in red and one in blue that would be awesome, otherwise just red would be preferred. Size..not really sure how to specify but, I want them scaled to be about four feet tall, about the size they are on most houses I've seen, so just shorter than a sim i guess. Oh and capital letters only. If you need more details just ask. Thanks for the quick response on this too, I figured it might be days before anyone came to my aid! 

[joelyboy911]

Hey, so far, it sounds good and easy enough. Yes, that lower-case delta was just a test of the method. I can do the whole alphabet, provided the font called 'Symbol' has all of them. I can easy enough do blue and red as well. I'm afraid to say, I don't know much about the real life things, we don't really have fraternities and sororities in New Zealand (as far as I know...). So four feet, thats... 1.3 metres, roughly. It might be a good idea to scale them bigger than real life, because if they are about the height of a sim, then they're gonna be pretty hard to see properly. Do they need any kind of support poles or anything like that? Should they have any night lights? Perhaps if you could show me a photo of how they are in real life, I would have a better chance at recreating them properly.

[Elric888]

Unfortunately I no longer live in a college town, so cannot provide any pictures. But they mount on houses just like really big address numbers, no poles or anything. No night lighting is necessary either. Size should be okay at just over a meter, most of these I've seen around the campus in Ann Arbor (where I'm from) are only a couple feet high, except for the really big halls, which are about a meter tall. If they aren't clearly visible at the higher zoom levels thats ok, I don't want them dwarfing the houses and looking TOO big, at sims height they should be fine in the closer zoom levels, and not look goofy on the smaller houses. I intend to do several frats and sororities at different wealth levels and house sizes, and I think the best size that would work for all of them is just over a meter. Incidentally if these are really easy for you to do, a gold/bronze colored set would work really well for the higher wealth frats (based on real life examples), but otherwise I stand by red and blue. 

[Diggis]

Joel,

A quick google search gives these results:






There were many many more there.  I think the top one is close to what Elric is looking for.

[joelyboy911]

Hmmm, OK. I see what you're hopng to achieve, but you probably won't be able to get the props onto the houses like that, because of the way things are rendered in BAT. None-the-less, I've been getting the letters ready. I've actually prepared the whole alphabet. Extruding the splines was very easy.

Umm, you might need someone who knows how to explain the LOD box to you a bit better, because I can't really figure out how to explain it. Oh, what the hell, I'll give it a go. When you render in BAT, the BAT creates a box, onto which the shape of the model is projected. So the object, when you see it in SC4 isn't really 3d, I think I've heard it called 2.5d. So what this means is, that you will have trouble aligning things properly when 2 different models are placed next to each other.

[irrelevant]
This phenomenon has been well documented in Airport circles, when trying to use Tabi, or Kumba's props, in tandem with AC Team's jetways. Because both use the basic box LOD, the jetway either appears over or under thee fuselage of the plane, depending on the view angle and the comparitive heights of the models. The SCAG team, is working to counter this, by developing planes and jetways with complex LODs, allowing the two to be used together, while still allowing a more flexible use of the plane.
[/irrelevant]

Now, I am able to put complex LODs on these letters, but I don't think anyone has made houses that way, so you still wouldn't be able to get them snugly up to each other.



Here's a crappy jpeg showing the red Omega, at way bigger than the scale you're looking for. Hope this is fulfilling your expectations so far.

[Diggis]

Joel,  You shouldn't need complex LODs for those, as you aren't likely to mix them together on top of each other.  A simple BOX should be sufficient as long as the front face is flush with the letter.

The best way to understand LODs is open a complex model in the reader and have a look at the 3SD files and try rotating them.

[Elric888]

Yeah, not quite sure what LOD's are, but I have noticed quite a few props (in lot editor) have their defined space (the blue bounding box) much larger than the props themselves. I assume that this may have something to do with it, as well some props inability to be mounted flush against a wall without breaking into lines (like the graffiti). I'll make them work as best as I can.

[RippleJet]

Yeah, not quite sure what LOD's are, but I have noticed quite a few props (in lot editor) have their defined space (the blue bounding box) much larger than the props themselves. I assume that this may have something to do with it, as well some props inability to be mounted flush against a wall without breaking into lines (like the graffiti). I'll make them work as best as I can.

That's what it's all about.

In order to be able to place a prop against a building wall, it's not the prop that must have a tight LOD though, it's the building itself. No props can be placed inside the LOD box of any other model. If the LOD box isn't tight, then you would probably have to leave the letters a bit off the wall. In most cases that shouldn't be too much of a problem though. Just be sure to check what they look like from all available directions.