thingfishs' International BATs

[thingfishs]

Hi all & welcome to my thread for my non-Team Downunder (i.e. not Australian/NZ) creations. Mostly I imagine this will be country neutral type stuff that could appear anywhere.

My first BAT still isn't out the door but I'm keen, uni's looming, and I want to get as much done before then as I can. Firstly something I haven't been able to find and seems an important part of the urban landscape are bare blocks. Whether they can't sell, or people are sitting on them waiting for the price to increase, or are owned by an adjoining neighbour who uses it to park their boat - whatever the reason they are out there, much more commonly in lower wealth and much less commonly in higher wealth (which of course can be replicated in game). I was going to do some more work to them when I saw the latest addition to the STEX: http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=23132, and thought I'd better show what I've been doing.
Personally I think they've already added a real touch of realism to my test city, I've created a range of different blocks and in combination with prop families there are lots of variations. So far these are only stage 1, low wealth examples and only 1×2, but I intend to create all the other versions (although I expect latter stage high wealth ones to be as rare as hen's teeth). So far there is a range of four real estate companies' signs that can appear on a block (and on one particularly hard to move block three of them are represented) I intend to use a more diverse range of overlay textures as well as additional props (boats, cars, overgrown weeds, junk etc)

The upload at the STEX makes me think that maybe this has been done, anyone?


(Also where's the line between LOT & BAT? Although this is primarily a lotting exercise I have created three of the four real estate signs, as well as some grasses and ground textures, and intend to create some junk as well - I figure this is the right place)

Also, inspired by an idea in a thread a couple of weeks ago: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9296.0, I had a crack at making a BMX track with very poor results . I will probably throw this one away and start again, I was just wondering what particular method of creation in gmax would be most suitable for something like this. How I've done it below is by making long rectangular boxes and applying bend modifiers to get the bends, then noise & wave modifiers to try and make the track look rougher and more organic. I know what I have been doing has been time intensive and the results don't look very good so I conclude there must be a better way.



FWIW this is supposed to be a cheap BMX track like you might find in the suburbs, if I can figure this one out I'd like to do a proper competition one as well. It is also just the track at the moment, I will add trees, grass, people etc.

[skyhigh]

The empty lots look great, the top left looks like the empty lots here in WA, except they need a bit more of a beach sand texture  As for the BMX track, i would prob make them smaller, IMO.

PS: Any chance of making smaller real estate signs? The one in the middle looks too big.

[thingfishs]

Thanks Skyhigh ,

There are actually smaller signs too (LJ Hooker, Century 21 & First National, or yellow, black, & blue ) They are a bit undersized, I will make them bigger, thanks. (But I'm going to do the signs in HD so they will be entirely remade anyway, what's above was just testing the idea) Should I just take the big one out altogether? (It's more of a new housing development is coming type sign anyway) What sort of signs and sizes of signs are normal for people elsewhere?
In case the size of the BMX track isn't clear in the shot, it's 2×3, do you think this is too big?

[skyhigh]

For the residential/ suburbia the big is to big, however if it was used for a commercial lot then its fine. Glad the LJ Hooker, ect. signs will be in HD will look good. As for the BMX 2x3 is about the right size, donno maybe its just me from looking at the picture.??.

But as i said, its great work you are doing.

[puresim]

The big signs are maybe a bit too big, but here in the UK you would have signs that big above larger residential empty lots. They would work for 2x2 or bigger imo.

I also think the BMX track is the right size, get the trees and props in there and it'll work really well. The 3 little steep hills are probably a bit too steep - they would hurt

[thingfishs]

I've been very excited by the realisation that I can now add things to my favourite game. As a result my head has been going off in a thousand directions at once, and here's another one...

Something else I've slowly been working on here and there is a graffiti pack, as props to be used by others on their buildings. (in the LE or in their BATs)

Upstairs from me in the share house I live in are two excellent graffiti artists. They have opened my eyes to a whole other subculture. With their permission I have slowly been cutting up their pieces, creating alphas and then rendering them as HD props (I have years and years worth-many hundreds-not that I'll do them all). I have been encouraged by issa76 over at ST who started a graffiti thread. http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=22&threadid=112687

However best of all one of my housemates is working on some custom SC4 pieces, the first of which I present to you here today.


(For those that can't read graffiti it say Simcity 4. This is a HD prop at zoom 6, it's designed to cover much of the length of a wall.)

and some more non rendered ones...