Vario's Bat Shed- Current Project: Apartment block

[SimFox]

you're doing really nice job recreating that block. 

The only think I would suggest is to re-work you balcony doors/windows. Don't do them by simply tripling the regular window. It is obvious and doesn't look good. It wouldn't be too difficult to make separate set!

[bat]

Great buildings! Also the newest is looking wonderful so far!

[Vario80]

First off all thanks a lot for the feedback and the suggestions everyone. 

@bat: Dankeschön, i'm glad you like it. 
@SimFox: Thanks for the suggestion, i'm going to see what i can do.
@Andreas: Thanks, yes i am thinking about releasing them in various colours and maybe diagonal ones as well.
@kwakelaar: Thank you
@pat: Never mind. I'm glad you like my stuff.
@Bengt: Thanks a lot, these kind of buzildings really seems to be common throughout Europe. 

And now Update time
I did a change to the balconies, right now i applied an orange tiled texture, but i'm not sure if this looks better than the previous untextured yellow version. For the walls i found a useful grey texture, so that now it really has an old and "ugly" look, typical for buildings like this.
Furthermore i tried also to put some details inside the building, as you can see i added stairs in the staircases in the hallway, they will be visible during the night hours.

However right now it looks like the lighting is too far overdone... actually only the hallway should be lit.
Does anyone have an idea how to dim it?

Previews:
Daylight


Nightlight


Architectoral view (the stairs can be seen even better in this view) too bad you can't see it that way ingame.


Awaiting your feedback. 

Vario

[Krio]

Looking good and I'm sure that the Lightmaster SimFox can answer to your problem better than me It seems that you're using only one Omni light which is placed in the center of right part. I use multiple omnis, usually near attention as 4-5 and far 8-10 and brightness (i have no max open, so i can't remember the word) in 5 and remember cast shadows. Also make floors ready before you do lighting

Stairs look good, though you can see only small part of them in game but beauty is in the details and it looks better with stairs than as an empty area. Also, will you make other colours than gray because I would like to have yellow-white because it's most common colour in Helsinki

[mightygoose]

in the modify tab there should be a box marked intensity with a value of 1.0 in it, reduce this as needed

[Vario80]

@Bengt: Thanks a lot for the detailed advice, that did the trick!
And yes i had four omni lights aplied a bit right from the centre in every floor.

For comparison:
Before


After


Now i only need to play with the far/near attenuation numbers, but for the desired effect i'm already on the right track.

[Vario80]

First of all sorry for the lack of updates, right now a lot is changing in my private life (in a positive way)  but that also means i have less time for batting.

Nevertheless i have started adding the roof with a hopefully fitting and decent texture. I'm not really sure about the texturing of the chimney, in real life it is a brick texture but the current one appears too bright imo. I also have to enlarge the roof, as you can see it doesn't overhang the side wall, while it should do this.

Here are again two previews:




Hope you like it so far. I am awaiting your comments.

[Krio]

Looking good, but you should made rooftiles smaller and less repeative. Also use different texture for floors. 

[RippleJet]

Your apartment block is coming about very nicely.

Great you also like the lighthouse, i also tried it to make it a reward, but i messed something up while doing this, the lighthouse indeed showed up in the rewards menu but i couldn't choose it even though that the set in requirements were all met. Also the game sometimes started to freeze.

If you want me to take a look at the reward script, just send me a PM.

[mattb325]

Hello Vario, I very much like the look that you are aiming to achive for this apartment building.

The roof tiles are too large as they stand at the moment. The width is OK, but the height of each tile needs to be shortened by at least one half. (You could achieve this by duplicating the top rows of tiles in the GIMP and then re-applying the texture. This will also reduce the obvious gradient line which is a touch too severe at present)

Also, with your comment about the stair well not showing in game - you could try erasing the wall space between floors and making the window panes longer - that way there is a greater chance of seeing inside. Grouping and dragging the stair-cases towards the window by approx 0.8 will also assist in showing them off.

Of course the model won't be as accurate, but you'll see some of the work that you've done...

[Pat]

Vario sorry i have slacked here a bitt and havent kepted up with your progress as it is stunning works.... keep up the hard work and i cant wait to see this go ingame - pat

[kwakelaar]

This is looking quite authentic, I can only agree with Matt's comment about your roof and the texture. The texture for the chimneys does not look that bad to me, maybe try to make the bricks a little more visible.

[Vario80]

Update

Here's a long overdue update of my house. I started adding some nightlighting on the front- and sidewalls of the building. What has still to be done are the lights on the backwalls of the building. I also made the tiling of the roof smaller so that it should look now much better.
Here's another preview


Replying to your comments:

@kwakelaar: Thanks a lot, i'm right now satisfied with the tiling for the chimney.
@pat: Thanks a lot and i'm pleased to see you are following my progress. 
@matt: Thanks a lot for these suggestions matt. I have already shortened the tile by half, but i will also come back to your methods on my next update. 
@Ripple Jet: Thank you, hmm i think i already deleted this file, but i can still take a look if it still somewhere on my hd. 
@Bengt: Thanks a lot for the comment, i will see what i can do. 

[metasmurf]

Looks good to me 

[bother_me]

Nice european looking. Perfect for my cities 

I mostly build german looking cities.

They look more like the kind of apartments you see around northern europe than the maxis ones do Nice work!

[vester]

Very good.

The gradient on the roof texture is a bit too strong.

[Vario80]

Hi everyone! *blows dust of the thread*

Because of a suddenly changing Real Life Issue, i had to step off batting for a longer time.   
But since a few weeks i started to bat again, here's a preview of my newest building i'm working on.



Yes it is a church, well it is even a quite special church for me, i was christened and confirmed in this house of worship.
The building is quite modern (built in 1962) and like some of the modern churches, the belltower and the house of worship are seperated from each other. Also the community center is attached to the building complex, which is also quite special about the church.

So far i have only drawn the two buildings, without adding any textures.
Since i wanted the church to look like the original, the walls will get a yellow texture, while the bellfry will get a brick texture.

Well, i hope you like it sofar. 

Edit: The appartment block can already be downloaded from the STEX, it will take a while though, until it appears (grows in stage 6)

Regards

Vario (George)

[Pat]

George wow I will have to hunt down the apartment block and try and grow that bad boy lol..... The church is looking real nice but the cross is a tad bit on the large size... Is it that hugh in RL by a chance?  I hope to see some more stunning devolpment soon 

[RebaLynnTS]

Love the church.

[Vario80]

Hi folks,

Just wanted give you a sign that i'm still alive and kicking. 
I've kind a lost interested in playing computer games altogether in the past year, in return i became more and more addicted to my new and now predominant hobby- digital photography.

Nevertheless i started a new church already back in August 2008 and after a break of more than half a year i started to work again on that project. The church is based on a catholic church which is only about 300 metres away from my apartment, in fact i'm looking straight on the frontside of the building from my study room.

Here's a preview


I won't and i can't tell an estimated release date, since i do work on the model only every now and then, though i'm definately going to finish it.

As for the other church, apart from some issues with the roof which i have do redo and nightlighting, it is almost finished and will appear on the next couple of weeks on the STEX.

I'm going to post an update in this thread, when the texturing is finished.

Greetings

Georg