The University of Clayhurst

[jgehrts]

The triangular flower gardens are a great decision. I can see that, if this were in a real situation without such gardens, there would be "cow paths" cutting across the grass. The flower gardens take care of that nicely.

[PlaneCrash12000]

Wow. It's been a while since the last post. Is this even still in development?

[Zacharuno]

I'm lovin' it. So nothing else to say.

[Utvaw]

The nightlighting on that older bell tower is fantastic, makes a gorgeous landmark in the night skyline.  I like your lotting on the shorter tower too, as Jack said it makes it act as a great landmark for people to meet up, hang out, etc.

As for the field house, it looks great.  The transition could be solved by a walkway that goes out.  I envision this building near a football field or the like, so an access from the field house to the field would make much sense. And with the path out on the other side it would allow for more rotations and placements in regards to a field or other campus structures.

[CabraBuitre]

I love the Gothic tower, and I like the setting of the smaller tower in the second pic.  With it being at the intersection (without the rounded pieces) it actually looks taller, I think.  It draws height from the straight lines in front and behind, whereas with the first version, your eye was drawn to the rounded pieces and so, compared with a larger-looking base, it didn't look as tall.

Great work on both of them!


And the Field House looks great too!  Have you thought about making a larger parking lot for it, or just sticking with the modular approach for parking?

[Aaron Graham]

Once again, keep it up, keep it up, I have to say your doing a perfect job.

[JBSimio]

Jack:  Thank you!  I definitely feel that the new bell tower lot is more appropriate... especially as a campus gathering or "show piece."

Jgehrts:  Thanks!  Good point about the inevitable dirt tracks. 

PlaneCrash:  Ummm... there was an update 4 hours before your post.  I think it's still in development.   

Zach:  Thank you!

Utvaw:  Thanks!  I did add a walkway going out, as you'll see.  It didn't completely solve the problem, but I think I came up with something that does.

CabraBuitre:  Thank you!  I plan to leave most parking as a modular approach so everyone can set things up their own way, especially with these athletic facilities.

Aaron:  Thanks!

A couple things to look at today... so let's have at it!  First, a couple small fixes on the Field House lot:



You can see the new paving textures for the rear utility area... also the fix for the east side.  I also added a transition on the opposite side so that other "main" entry will work with the standard campus wide paths.  There are still a few props to add and/or make... most important being the "event sign" out front.  In the meantime, I had a couple thoughts, but would like some input before deciding for sure.  I feel like there should be some "employee parking" here somewhere, and I was thinking that points A and/or B would be the best place.  But would this get in the way of trucks coming and going?  So question one is:  Parking (building side of the driveway only) at point A, B, or Neither?  Second question is merely asthetic.  I chose the narrow path at point C simply because I figured that was a very secondary approach to the building... but a wide path there would also line up with the edge immediately above the letter C and make things even which might look better.  So question two:  Narrow path (as seen here) or wide path?

Moving on... I have most of the lighting done for the Memorial Coliseum (which I've now officially named it)    There are a couple things to touch up, but not too much.  The most glaring spot (pun certainly intended) is the light over the central below grade loading area.  I'll fix that for sure along with a couple other minor tweaks.  With that in mind, here are all four sides... ortho first followed by diagonal for each view.

















I should mention that the red lights show up just as well as the green over the loading doors... just jpeg compression killed them in these shots.  But now with the lighting in place, I'm more comfortable with leaning towards the diagonal idea.  How does everyone else feel?

Your thoughts are next...
JB

[Jack_wilds]

Hello JB

Another great update! I trust that life in the sunny CA is well and good as its spring here finally, but the frost last and tonight would make one wonder when it will really BE spring... my green thumb is itching to plant my gardens 

Concerning modular parking lots and kits -in addition to what JB has already made, I recommend all the lot series made by "Hoo-Ha", they sit well with in the whole Clayhurst Campus

Fieldhouse:
Concerning the employee parking: I recommend in the area of 'A' BUT up to and along the wall; not out and away, and in the way of service vehicles
Concerning the side entry: agree as an emergency or service a 'less use' exit/ entry, I prefer the the narrow walk, it shows use priority

Coliseum:
Concerning the arena:  the name 'Memorial Coliseum' is agreeable, and would be a fitting place for remembering Clayhurst students who gave the most in the service of National Sim Military... if indeed that is the intent by the term 'memorial'

Concerning the lighting: The light appears 'greenish glowy' on my computer... the glow maybe ok for all the indirect light shining thru the windows but the color appears off or 'unreal' or something... perhaps a warmer look... maybe their using sodium lights for the main hall and it appears brighter... but whatever, I maybe seeing things too; I'm sure you got figured out

Concerning the orientation: previous voting leaned in favor of an angled lotting, reconsidered my previous vote, thinking it ought to work good, particularly since its rounded sides...

  so much for that... 

Jack

[metarvo]

Things are looking good there! 

For the field house, I think B would work best for employee parking.  It's further away from the truck area.  The narrow path at C looks good as it is, so I say leave it.

For Memorial Coliseum, I'm going to once again vote for the diagonal, especially with the lighting added.  It seems as though the lights show up better on the diagonal.  Needless to say, it breaks up the monotony of SC4's grid a little, too.

[Zacharuno]

JB. Love the name for the new building, where ever did you come up with such a name? lol

My first thoughts concerning this building, as I have walked past it everyday for the past two years and I have been inside of it many times, it seems a little dull at night, and I'm not sure why. It's just not popping to me. My first suggestion, the windows, the small rectangle ones, that go up the slope in the front on either side of the entrance, those are windows on the main ramps to the concourse level and the seats, those windows should be lite up if the rest of the building is. My second thing, maybe the front entrance could be a touch brighter? Just a thought.

To the field house we go. I'm not feeling parking back there. You could leave that up to the players to just add a parking lot next to the building if they wanted parking near it. Or they could just add a few prop cars to the back of the building if they felt so inclined to do so. What are you feeling the capacity of the field house to be? That will sway my opinion on the path to be used at "C".

[TS007]

I am speechless       
Love your Project

[JBSimio]

Jack:  Thank you for your thoughts!  Sunny CA hasn't been all that sunny lately... the rainy season seems very reluctant to end.  It should have done by now... but what can you do?   

Metarvo:  Thanks!  I appreciate your votes as well.

Zach:  Thank you!  All the lighting was an initial "first pass."  Most everything has been fine tuned since then, not to worry. 

TS007:  Thanks!

Been a bit busy here with the Outdoor Education season winding down.  I now find myself with a slight "break" (for lack of a better word) for the next week.   

Anyway, switching gears for a moment:  You may recall that I mentioned making some pedestrian overpasses to go along with all the other "small stuff" in EP2.  Well, I thought I'd give that a go today and see what happened.





You may or may not be able to tell from the pictures, but these are designed to work kind of the same way the NAM on slope pieces do.  You plop the lot on the slope after your last path piece.  The similarities end there, though.  Rather than having a slope piece for each side and center pieces for all sorts of various options, the whole thing overhangs to the other side so you can put whatever you want to underneath.  Just plop a plain grass lot on the opposite side for the look I made here.  As you can see, they're tolerant of different slopes up to about 20 meters deep (give or take) which would still a bit deeper than the first picture.  I'll make at least four of these altogether.  There will be two lengths for one tile or two tile spans (which really means 3 or 4 tiles from end to end) and two widths to match the campus narrow or wide paths.  My biggest debate right now is whether to make them all the same style, or have different ones.  I can see the desire for conformity regardless of the size, but I can also see wanting some different looks.  So I may end up with two or three sets of four... I don't know yet.

More to come,
JB

[Jack_wilds]

Hey JB,

Good to hear from you and its a surprising update.  Like the bridge concepts and placement flexibility...  looks ok-good for now 

[Ramona Brie]

Any progress on the modding of EP1?

[Sciurus]

Really good and usefull. But have you forgotten me (in the private messages)?

Guillaume

[rooker1]

 Wow.....my mind is spinning now.  That walking over pass is perfect.  I hope you will make three or four sets of four, each set having a different texture.  And if I may suggest an old grey brick style, maybe similiar to jeronij's wall set.
Just out of cuiousity, does the start and the end of the bridge slightly over hang to the next tile and would it be too much to ask for an offset to one side style?  Do the lights on the bridge work?
Love it all !! and just you wait and see how my uni. is turning out. 

Robin 

[peter007]

Great overpasses.
Could you make it transparant base textures?
Maybe it will look a bit better than.

-Ernst

[JBSimio]

Jack:  Thanks!  OK-good will have to do for now... 

Tracker:  If there was something to tell about EP1, I would have mentioned it... trust me. 

Guillaume:  Thank you!  Ummm... I kind of did forget, I'm sorry!   

Robin:  Thanks!  The more I've thought about it, I'm certainly leaning towards the "larger range" of options for these.  Could you post a shot of the wall set you have in mind?  I can think of several that might fit that description.  Currently, either end of the bridge does not hang over to the next tile.  The main reason for this being to have it line up to the proper height.  My method uses the highest point of the "banked" tile to determine the height of the walking deck which will always be at the very edge of that tile.  If the path tile leading to that were sloped and I hung over into it, then the bridge would probably not line up right.  I've never done an offset into a completely different tile, but I'm sure I could figure it out.  But, out of curiosity, why?  Yes... the lights work.  I'd love to see your take on the university! 

Ernst:  Thank you!  I could make it without base textures at all, yes.  Actually, one side doesn't have a texture anyway unless you add it (as I did).  I only used the grass because it's the same as other university lots.  There are a couple other things I want to test for that issue anyway.  For example... would the "under bridge" piece of various sea wall sets cover my texture up without looking bad?  At the same time, I could be opening a very large can of worms if I start trying to predict every possible situation here.  It takes the work of 2 seconds to change to the base texture of your choice in the lot editor of your choice anyway. 

Nothing new to show just now.  I have a short meeting to go to this morning (always a nice way to ruin time off!) but then I plan on working on some more of these.  They go together pretty quick, especially now that I have a basic template to work from.  I just saw the response was a little larger than I expected for such a small thing... and I wanted to get some answers posted right away.  I also figured this might prompt a little more discussion while I'm gone so I have a better feel of which directions to take this when I do get back. 

More this afternoon (afternoon as defined by my particular time zone, of course)

JB

[Zacharuno]

I go one day without checking this and I miss two post by you, not cool, not cool, lol. I don't worry about much. I'm sure it will be amazing no matter what. Once again, I'll ask for something cool. Can the ped bridges be diagonal too? I like diagonal stuff, lol. They look great btw.

[JBSimio]

Zach:  Thanks!  I have my doubts on diagonal overpasses right now.  I'm not ruling the idea out just yet... but we don't currently have diagonal campus paths anyway.  I've been toying with that option, but not very much just yet.  Time will tell...

OK... yesterday afternoon didn't happen for various reasons.  I had a bit of trouble figuring out the "best" way to export these.  Different options gave me different results and I had to play with all the choices before I knew for sure what would really give me the best results.  There are still a couple glitches here and there that the perfectionist in me doesn't like, but I think those are minor enough that we can push forward.  Here's a look at what I've got so far:





These are all still 3 tile overpasses... I haven't done the longer ones yet.  The first image shows the updated brick arch, narrow and wide, with lighting as well.  (I had to tweak the brick textures a bit since the first glimpse.)  The narrow night view is actually the white arched overpass in the next image, but those two bridges share the exact same lighting scheme anyway.  The second image shows the white arched overpass with an extra rotation to better show what the end looks like without a texture on the ground.  (All these pictures have a texture on one bank and not the other)  Finally, there is also a narrow version of the more modern looking "suspension" overpass.  I don't have the wide version of that one done just yet.

Comment away... cast your thoughts on the base texture or no idea... or your thoughts on anything else you see for that matter! 

That's about it for now,
JB