Xiahou's BAT Showcase

[XiahouDun]

I think I may just lighten the base color and leave the driveway how it is. I think once I get the base fixed, the driveway will look more real (yay for keeping my PSD ). And thanks for the offer, shouldn't be too hard to do. The only thing I'm really dreading is the Alphas (not that the work is hard, just tedious, and I've already redone every alpha 3 times )

[XiahouDun]

This will be a little delayed. Windows file was corrupt on start-up, had to reinstall. Didn't lose any files, but I need to install all my programs.

[Pat]

oooh wow XD im glad to hear you didnt loose nothing....  looking forward to seeing some more devolpment though - pat

[XiahouDun]

Ok, my little hiatus is done, ready to get working on the parking lot objects. Does anyone happen to know the size of the average light post in SC4? I found a few real world models I want to make, but want to be sure I have them not too oversized.

[Pat]

Hey XD Welcome back and to answer your question just look at SG parking lot lights i dont know the heights but they are pretty close...

[jmyers2043]

Does anyone happen to know the size of the average light post in SC4?

The street lights are all 11 meters high. The lamp posts are 8 meters high. Hope I am not too late with your answer.

[XiahouDun]

The street lights are all 11 meters high. The lamp posts are 8 meters high. Hope I am not too late with your answer.

Not at all, I needed a little break, so I didn't even check until now. Thanks for the numbers, I was using a range of 10 and 13 depending on the light, so guess I was pretty close. Ok, now that I have my scale, project should go smoothly. Still have to fix all my alpha textures still... Maybe I can get this all done by New Years

[XiahouDun]

I was wondering if there is anyone experienced with making textures that could help me out. I continued work on my parking lot textures, and an issue has come up with both Pat and myself testing in. The textures show up properly in the lot editor, but don't work in game. Here are Pat's screenshots of it:


Any suggestions on whats wrong with it? The only thing I can think of is maybe I saved the bitmaps wrong, but I just saved the reworked textures over the ones that were tested successful earlier in this topic.

On the BAT front, work on the lights is coming a little slower than expected, mainly because I am distracted by old games I will hopefully have a screenshot of all the light fixtures by the end of next week.

[Pat]

Im still tweaking and what not trying to figure out what if anything might be conflicting XD,  I cant wait to see the screenies on the parkinglot lamps...

[XiahouDun]

Im still tweaking and what not trying to figure out what if anything might be conflicting XD,  I cant wait to see the screenies on the parkinglot lamps...

I can't think of any conflict. I tested it on an empty plugins folder, and the textures before worked with the same IIDs in the past. I thinking I messed something up with the BMPs, or some kind of error occured when the texture pack was created. If nobody has any ideas I'll have to plunk around in photoshop to see if I messed up somewhere. Definately going to take a break from texture packs after this one

[Pat]

LoL naw you shouldn't at all unless you want an ulcer lol.... No really XD I love the parking lot textures and it took me for ever to figure out how to set that layup, well maybe simpler and easier textures next time would be better cause it seems parking lot textures are a nightmare lol.....  I have noticed one thing though that look by the one tile to the left of fountain the yellow texture seems to be shooting across the whole tile and also one tile down from the fountain same issue... Hmmm OK it is weird that last textures I tested seem to work with out a problem, I do hope you can figure it out or someone with knowledge stops in...

[XiahouDun]

I have noticed one thing though that look by the one tile to the left of fountain the yellow texture seems to be shooting across the whole tile and also one tile down from the fountain same issue... Hmmm OK it is weird that last textures I tested seem to work with out a problem, I do hope you can figure it out or someone with knowledge stops in...

Yeah, I noticed that too, but thats more a LE issue. When you tested the textures before that showed up, but not in game. There shouldn't be anything there on the texture itself since both the texture and the overlay for those pieces have nothing actually there.

[jeronij]

You must pay special attention to the texture ID. Can you tell us this information pls ?¿
Anyway, the fifth digit in the ID texture is related to the lot wealth. This means that if you used a wrong value in that digit, and it does not match the lot wealth, the textures wont show up.
Once I can see the texture ID I can try to help more 



ops. I forgot this:

http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9.0

[XiahouDun]

Thanks Jeronij, now I know exactly where things went from. SC4Tool wasn't working for me, so I sent the textures to a friend along with my range. Forgot to tell them about wealth levels... The first texture was assigned the IID 0xF3700000. Well ok then, thats an easy fix. Thank you.

Also, light cones for lighting props, anyone experienced out there willing to help me out with those? I've got my light poles modeled, but reading the steps of how to turn them into lighted props has me thoroughly crosseyed

[Pat]

Hey XD when lotting you can add light cones from Peg in and its in the STEX but since its down atm i cant get it but its the MTP resource vol 1 and it has light cones in there....

[XiahouDun]

Now that I think about it Pat, thats a good idea, I'll just go with the KISS method.

[Pat]

K =  Keep
I  =  It
S =  Simple
S =  Stud <---- Edit for family friendly site lol


Is that about right XD???

[XiahouDun]

After much delay, a preview of my parking lot props. I have a few more ideas for the islands on top still:



I'm pretty happy without things turned out. The handicapped signs didn't turn out like I thought, and the base of the Stop sign on the left didn't show up on the preview render, but it is there

[jeronij]

This is a nice collection of props. Very complete. My only suggestion would be to use more elaborated textures, I mean, all the pieces look too clean and nice  . Perhaps some degradation in your textures woud help to give them a more realistic look. There is a (very basic) tutorial about creating your own textures here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4.0
Oh, for the handicaped marks you can use the Maxis one. It looks right, it fits in every world's parking, and it is a dependency less.

I hope my comments can help you to improve an allready excellent props set 

[XiahouDun]

Thank you for the reply. I was thinking about touching up the grass and curb textures, along with the roofs of the covered cart returns still, and fixing the textures on the larger light poles. As for the tutorial, I actually used a bit of the technique in the process of making the speed bumps The only reason I threw in the handicapped signs was to give it a little bit of variety as well as match it with the rest of my props, and since its only two small inclusions I figured it wouldn't hurt too much to involve them . Have I missed any kind of obvious prop that could be added? Should I add a few more of the longer islands? Your comments (and praise) help a lot, I'm always looking to make things better, as well as soak up whatever advice I can get.

Edit: Reworked the textures, quick sample