Tim's Edited Lot's

ofptim · February 04, 2010, 04:02:01 PM

Hey All, about 6 months ago i started lot editing. Untill then i tried to choose buildings so i got a nice ingame complete picture and most of all, a bit more uniform texturing. It worked well for a while, but since i wasn't lot editing, there were lot's of buildings i couldn't use. So i started lot editing, had to take a break because of exams, but i retook it this week.

My goal is to edit the lot's i use. The most important thing for me is to have more uniform ground texturing at side of roads and at sides of buildings, I also add more detail to lot's.
My way of working is not to start building a city and edit all the lot's so they fit perfectly in my city i'm working on at that moment as some people here are doing, and that is great. I'm however editing the lot's independly from using them in the city, i just edit them en if all the work is done i start buildin my city. I will show some of my edits here, at this point i think i have edited around 500-1000 lot's.

To start, here is a lot with a BAT that is good, not perfect, it could use a bit more detail and better textures, but i like the model of the building a lot, however the original lot is, sorry for the ceator, really awfull.

The original lot is on the left, my edited version is on the right

a close up from my edit

ShultzCity · February 04, 2010, 04:32:59 PM

I like it! Especially the detail up close. Base texture looks great as well

FrankU · February 05, 2010, 07:25:12 AM

Wow,this is really a great improvement.
The cities will look much better with this kind of relots.
I agree with you. The original lot is, let's say it nicely: empty.

I am curious of the other 499-999 lots! Show us the best ones you have on stock.

ofptim · February 05, 2010, 08:38:15 AM

Quote from: FrankU on February 05, 2010, 07:25:12 AM
Wow,this is really a great improvement.
The cities will look much better with this kind of relots.
I agree with you. The original lot is, let's say it nicely: empty.

I am curious of the other 499-999 lots! Show us the best ones you have on stock.

Thx, I'm editing a batch of lot's atm, if it's done in a few hours, i will load up everthing i have edited so far and create some screenshots. As said in first post, i can only give you screenshots of seperate buildings, i will start building cities with it later. I might start a journal about it maybe.

thingfishs · February 05, 2010, 11:00:44 AM

nice work, 100% better than the original. You're only as strong as your weakest link and too many great BATs are let down by poor lotting. It's now something that I would get.

jmyers2043 · February 05, 2010, 11:15:30 AM

Quotenice work, 100% better than the original.

Wow! I think the new lot is 1,000% better.

The close up view is impressive and I can't say enough good things about it.

I like this thread because it gives me ideas for my own lots.

- Jim

Battlecat · February 05, 2010, 11:42:25 AM

Fantastic job on this relot! I'm looking forward to seeing what else you've got planned!

ofptim · February 05, 2010, 12:18:51 PM

just finished my batch of the last 5 hours an 90% of the files are damaged by the lot editor, so will have to redo most of the work of today, only second time it happend, but it sucks. anyways, going to load up the game with my work of the last weeks and i'm going to make some shots and post them here, it will be shots of new buildings only, i removed the old lots so my menus are not to crowded

ofptim · February 05, 2010, 01:30:59 PM

Here an update with some of my edited lots

some snack bars i edited to fit in better in down town area

3 shops, the first picture is for inner city usage, second picture is to use out the city

mrbisonm · February 06, 2010, 10:41:35 AM

From one LOTter to another: Some Great LOTting you have done here. Very observative, constructive and talented. All of these are 100 % better than the originals. I only hope you'll upload these one day.....lol.....you better.

Fred

WC_EEND · February 06, 2010, 11:04:44 AM

Lovely lotting, as Fred said, they are way better than the original ones. I'm quite curious where you could find the c-shaped buiding...

FrankU · February 06, 2010, 01:16:36 PM

I can repeat what I said before: they look great, all of them.
Although I thought the Burger King could use some child's playing stuff on the yard.

And one big advantage: by lotting all them for your own use, you can give them some consistency. On the other hand: that could be dangerous, because it could look too idealised. In real life it is always thousands of people fooling around with furniture, base textures (I mean pavements), trees etc.

But I like your work definitely.
I'd say you could make sets and release them set by set.

ofptim · February 06, 2010, 05:06:44 PM

@ WC_Eend, the c-shaped building comes from stex, i will look into it tomorrow for you and give you a link.

@ FrankU, that tip from the playing stuff for burger king is great, i was looking for something, because there are a bit much tables.

Then about the consistency, the pro's and con's, that is something that i'm also dealing with and thinking about the whole time, the difference in texture without editing is far to much for me, but indeed, to much uniforming the texture is also not good, that's why for example at the restaurants i used some different textures. Also, i will make some filler lot's to have between buildings and between some buildings and roads, i will incorporate different textures in that also. And with the residential buildings I also started using more differentiated textures. (i will post some pictures of residential edited lot's tomorrow)

But my goal still is that there are nog abrubt texture overflowings and that i can still use the buildings in different situations, so not for only 1 city.

A last thing about the texture, you see the grey stone's i use now, i like them more then the standard white textures, but also i got a set of like 8 textures i use, so i can simple change all textures on roads AND lot's with only changing one .dat file in plugins folder (texture ID's are the same so they override

@ mrbisonm, about uploading, i don't know if it's allowed because of the BAT's are not my work. If it is allowed i might upload it when i'm finished and i started my city

--------------------------------------
Today i lotted some custom residential buildings and also relotted a part of the maxis residential buildings, there are some quit nice ones there.

To conclude, i will start a CJ when i start building my region with all these lot's i've edited.

jmyers2043 · February 07, 2010, 06:46:57 AM

Quotei don't know if it's allowed because of the BAT's are not my work.

That does not necessarily preclude uploading. It is generally understood that the creators should get credit for what they've done. In your case - the relot. A readme would have links so the end user can download the original bat. Thus, the original batter gets credit for his work. You would not normally include the model as part of the upload, unless you have specific permission from the creator to do so.

The other thing (I think) is that your lots should have something special about them. In your case they do. The lotting is a huge improvement over the originals (my opinion at least). But you should also think about adding extras - such as make them CAMpatible and X-Tool'ed if they are not already.

- Jim

FrankU · February 08, 2010, 04:24:32 AM

Quote from: ofptim on February 06, 2010, 05:06:44 PM
A last thing about the texture, you see the grey stone's i use now, i like them more then the standard white textures, but also i got a set of like 8 textures i use, so i can simple change all textures on roads AND lot's with only changing one .dat file in plugins folder (texture ID's are the same so they override

Yes, I recognised the texture: it is from the BSC parks series. It was a very good idea of you to use this, because you will be able to offer us eight textures for the price of one.
And your lots will fit seamlessly to the BSC parks, which will make the city textures even more uniform.

Again about uniformity; It is also a choice of game playing style. If you like realism, you should mingle different textures and styles. If you like utopianism you will probably want a beautiful uniform city with fitting textures etc.

And about uploading stuff: you can surely upload your LOTs. You may not upload the BAT's, because they are someone else's. You should add a readme to your upload in which you give links to all dependency files: texture packs, prop packs and also the model and/or original upload by the creator of the original lot/bat ect.

ofptim · February 09, 2010, 08:35:08 AM

Also, it's not only about uniformity why i'm editing the lot's, i also add more detail, and also important. i try to make the lot's a way so they can be used in multiple situations without causing rare interuptions and abrumpt changes of texture, for examble the parking entrance of one lot ending up in the front door or wall of the lot next to it

SimNation · February 09, 2010, 01:10:26 PM

Looking at your relots has made me decide to relot every building whom lots I do not like (usually because of low/no realistic detail).It overall will make my cities look far more realistic then just the wonderfully bat'ed buildings themselves do. Great work on your relots to bad you do not use the same sidewalk texture as I do otherwise it would save me some relot time

But thanks to PIM it hardly takes anytime anyway to relot them.

ofptim · February 10, 2010, 08:33:02 AM

Quote from: SimNation on February 09, 2010, 01:10:26 PM
Looking at your relots has made me decide to relot every building whom lots I do not like (usually because of low/no realistic detail).It overall will make my cities look far more realistic then just the wonderfully bat'ed buildings themselves do. Great work on your relots to bad you do not use the same sidewalk texture as I do otherwise it would save me some relot time But thanks to PIM it hardly takes anytime anyway to relot them.

where can you use PIM for, because i didn't use it so far, but if it's usefull i would like to know..

SimNation · February 10, 2010, 01:38:04 PM

Quote from: ofptim on February 10, 2010, 08:33:02 AM
where can you use PIM for, because i didn't use it so far, but if it's usefull i would like to know..

You can get SC4PIM from SC4D since its only available here http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2260. Its a great replacement for Lot Editor.Only thing is that you need to make sure you know what it is specifically you want to use and only have those things in your folder when you load it othewise it will take forever for the program to load. Aside from that is a super useful,easy and fast tool for doing lots of lot editing with a almost no fuss no muss approach.

ofptim · February 11, 2010, 01:37:41 PM

An update, i already converted allot of lot's but also saw that i will have to redo some lot's, namely the first i hunderds i edited, it's was the first time i used Lot editor and the quality is not what i want it. But ok, i started today with making some filler lot's plaza's, parking and so on... wel i first looked into my plugins folder and made a collection of props i want to use. you see it in the picture below. sorted in groups.

If anyone has a tip, or an idea for other props i can use, post it. also the props given here are for inner city medium-high wealth office and residential and civic areas. for gettho and outer city i will make lot's later.

a picture of my work in the lot editor

Below (and above) are pictures from my first 'set' of lots for my city, it's mainly suppost to fit between a main avenue and smaller road, but can be used in other locations also. these lot's also have a path, so i also use other textures and my city doesn't become to uniform

Also i want to say that the lot's in above pictures are all 1x1 lot's so they can be used in other situations and evantually shared with others. I have chosen for this and not to add the pathways to the lot's of the buildings they are before.

If anyone has ideas, hint's or tips, you can post them

, also comments ofcourse.

This was everything for today, this weekend there sure will be updates