Simmer's Lotting Lab.

[b22rian]

You are quite diversified with your skills set and amazing.. !! 

Also I wanted to mention pop into the chat room when you have time and we have some more feedback for you on your super sound walls..

Thanks, Brian

[David H]

Oops, I hit enter to early ><

Here is my progress.
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Simmer2/Nick

Any chance you'd consider making the Silos and Buildings separate props? You could mix and match the silos with the buildings and get some real variety with it.

[Simmer2]

@David H. Not sure if you have made models in a 3d environment before. An issue arises when placing odd shaped objects too close with each other when putting together a lot. Its called "clipping", this is caused by LODs overlapping each other therefore under certain angles the said objects will seem weird. In conclusion, certain objects are best rendered as a whole rather than parts.

As many here can attest, I'm very attentive when creating props/buildings and always strive to replicate reality as close as possible.

However as I have said in an earlier post, I will make 1 single and 1 orthogonal row of storage silos with the feeding pipes leading in to the ground. I will also modify the main structure in the same manner. Even though it is divergent from reality (both should always be connected).

A bit more progress with the Grain Elevator. Still Work In Progress.
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Simmer2

[metarvo]

This reminds me of the western parts of my state; no town is without its grain elevator (to the point that they are the tallest buildings in these towns, unless you count a radio or cell tower), and the larger ones even have big silos to go with them.  There's often a rail line near them too... maybe that's why your real life picture is so familiar looking to me.

You're doing a fabulous job modeling this grain elevator!    The textures look so crisp despite being rusty, if that makes any sense.

[Simmer2]

Thanks metarvo!

A few more tweaks and then it is render time...
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Simmer2

[FrankU]

 

[Krasner]

My, you achieved such a great model, it has a soul now  I can't wait to get it, it reminds me of the river port areas in the south of my neighborhood 

[Jack_wilds]

    

[Simmer2]

No new pics..yet.

I'm having a hard time rendering this beast in HD. Tried 3 times but it stops after rendering 1/4 and it coughs up code 6. I tried the 3 axis centering trick but it still did not work. So I rendered it in SD and had no issues (4 hours) but I'm not happy with the results.

Soooo I decided to split the main model in 2 and I'm currently going through the rendering process (7 hours each). I'm hoping that they can be placed in extremely close proximity when lotting. If I get "clippings" I will have to re-think the whole strategy and come up with a different design. *sigh*

Nick

[mattb325]

While HD/vs SD is very much a matter of taste and not an argument worth having, suffice it say that there is a point at which HD is unfeasible, and you've probably reached that point with a model of this size.

Also, even though I like HD stuff, I would say that breaking the model into two HD parts is still going to be ill-advised.
HD models do put some strain on the processor in game and because this model will be used in a farm-field setting - where every tile has lots of props and also places strain on the processor it might be best to simply render in SD.

Before you say that you loose the clarity, in the material editor, there is a setting that I used to use often and it would help to sharpen textures:

The default 'blur' on a bitmap in the Material editor is set to 1:


Change it to the lowest value 0.01 and you can see that the bricks and mortar become much more defined:


Of course the building won't be as sharp at zoom 6, that is obvious.

This may be of help you, but if it were me, I wouldn't be hoist with my own HD petard 

[Simmer2]

Thanks for the tip Matt.

Still not 100% happy but better than the first SD render. I already split the model and got it to work therefore there will be 2 lots when ready. 1 SD and 1 HD modular.

Here are a few pics with the SD model. The lot is just a place holder I made therefore still WIP

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Simmer2

[Tyberius06]

I haven't really played recently. Lots of RL things and I spent the rest of my free time some lotting stuff. But the recently released Colossus farming and your recent works give me the urge to start playing again...

It's looking really good. Lots of new agri-industrial stuffs are going on recently!
Thanks in advance!

- Tibi

[Simmer2]

Thanks Tibi.

SM2 Concrete Sound Barriers Version 3 is now online here http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3558

Dec 18 2017

1) Separated the lots from the models. Lotters can now create new lots from this set.
2) Removed maintenance and bulldoze cost. Lots are now completely free.

Just replace the folder with this new update. No need to replace any lots in game. New stats will automatically come into effect once the game is started.

Simmer2

[Alan_Waters]

Simmer, the old file was called "SM2 Concrete Sound Barriers.dat", the new two files are called "SM2 CSB_Lots.dat" and "SM2 CSB_props.dat". Old file to delete or these two to the old add?

[Simmer2]

Hi Alan
As I have indicated above, you must "replace" the folder with the new one therefore yes, you have to delete the old folder.

Nick

[Simmer2]

Ok time for some real HD stuff 

WIP-WIP-WIP-WIP---Warning!

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Simmer2

[Alan_Waters]

It's delightful! I turned my attention to the fact that in your lots there are many realistic cars. Did you have any idea to release the entire kit for the automata?

[Badsim]

Hi Nick ,

What a monster you got there ... here's another one :




Silo of Breteniéres , along canal de Bourgogne ... when I was young , my parents had a house  , one of  the red roofs you can see at a few tens of meters behind ... by the past ( 2012 ) I tried to reproduce in my MD this site along a canal with various props :




So , to speak , it would be great to have a small modification for canals , with a  loading ramp for barges... even if  fluvial freight is now belonging to the past . 

Be that as it may , thanks to did not give up with an HD version ... the evolution of SC4 visual quality is certainly the primordial reason for people like me ( please note that I deliberately don't use the term « player » anymore ...  ) to consider SC4 as the best modeling and recreation software ever made ... and not ready to be dethroned as long as there will be creators like you to raise the bar and so , to keep on to inspire us all .



C.

[Simmer2]

Hi Cedric, something like this?
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Simmer2/Nick

[Tyberius06]

Oh... I love it!  
I don't know what's your plan, but I like both versions (with canal and the closed no canal version too). My question, that you showed previously diagonal shilos too, are they part of the upcoming proppack with this lot? Or are you planing to make a different lot for those models/props. Anyway that would be nice if we will get those props too...

Thanks!

- Tibi