non-asian branch of SimFox' pixel torture chamber

[callagrafx]

wow, there's a hell of a difference in shadow density...And I haven't had artifacts like those, just a complete burn through of a highlit area, which I don't think was much to do with this and more to do with a problem with MR 64bit rendering, which they fixed with SP2.

I haven't done anything really with the ortho perspective with a GI rig so that's probably why I haven't come across it yet.  Good that you found the cause and the solution 

P.S.  Reflections look much better now btw....obscure definitely works better for the game.

[bother_me]

Wow wow wow! That moscow stalin building is one fantastic building! And your BAT is one fantastic BAT  I can't wait to get the game going again so I can download it!

It looks more impressive than any skyscraper I have seen  It really deserves a special place, like a plaza in front of it or something. Your other BATs are nice too 

Bra jobbat 

[SimFox]

Just couldn't resist and doodled new res tower today:

[autoVino]

how do you doodle and come up with that?  Amazing design and color 

[SimFox]

I also like those colors, actually that was what have drawn me to that building in the first place.
But mean wile something a bit more simple, eg for the masses.
First in a new series of Commieblocks - mass produced residential buildings constructed with massive prefabricated modules:
P44TM - very romantic name isn't it:

[Heblem]

I realy like that last BAT, very beautiful and impressive, excellent work 

[Glenni]

Nice work simfox.

Oh by the way, ever thought of doing the Moomin house? Now that would be funny to have in sc4.

[SimFox]

Oh I love Moomie Dål!! Was my favorite fairytale!! But the house is very small and would be totally lost in SC4 Scale...

[autoVino]

Lovely, something about the desing especially attracts me to them.  I don't know what, though.

[Krio]

Oh I love Moomie Dål!! Was my favorite fairytale!! But the house is very small and would be totally lost in SC4 Scale...

Isn't Muumitalo / Moomin House 5 stories high in the comics and in the series? 20 metres and about 1 square wide.

[SimFox]

and you assume muumies being hight of a person?? I think more of the size of large cat...

[Krio]

and you assume muumies being hight of a person?? I think more of the size of large cat...

Well, that Nuuskamuikkunen (wears green hat) apperas to be human. And trees and other stuff appears to be normal height, so Moomins are as high as humans.

[SimFox]

hm... well, may be...
Basically I'm not comfortable of making some totally fantasy thing, not yet.

Here is a first attempt (well result of whole Saturday tinkering) at the making appearance of brick surface what do you say, folks:


btw does anyone has any knoledge of FSH file format? How does compression work and is there any other way to make FSH files then FSHtool? It seems that it does rather ppor job with it...
I assume it got to be something like 256 color PNG.
Here is how it is relates to other SC4 structures in terms of size, color etc and also to show how FSHTool had degraded the quality:

[callagrafx]

Don't really know if there's a way around FSH compression, and if there was, it would probably make the model file too big to use in game realistically...it's the same principle as web design, small file sizes are good, large file sizes bad.

On to the brick texture...can't really see the bond, but that's not an issue for a building of this scale.  However, it's too saturated and too orangey.  Try desaturating a little and adding some yellow in.  I'm presuming it's a procedural texture with some colour variance.

[SimFox]

well it is an orange brick...
as for bond - sure you can not see it - there is NO way to see something so small in game view!! I specially put it next to another brick building to show how does brick look in SC4.
And yes it is a procedural but not tiles. I'll try lower saturation levels ...
But here is that building (well one of its variants) in real life

[callagrafx]

Aha...That RL pic does explain what you're trying to achieve, although the bright sun under dark sky does skew the reality of the building somewhat. As for the bond, most BATers exaggerate the brickwork to be visible (can't say I 100% agree with this but hey  ).  However, there's enough of a variance to give the impression of brick, so nice one 

[SimFox]

well...
but about FSH files... you know that different some compression algorithms do produce better result then others and given the size of FSH's produced by FSHTool I would say it uses the worst I've ever seen - quality is really c...p while size of individual  FSH is rather high

[jmyers2043]

Nice building. There is a lot of geometry which makes it interesting to look at.

Regarding the brick. I usually put a gradient on everything. Even brick. The Maxis building you compared yours too has subtle variations along the tall brick facade as well. So I would recommend the same for yours. Perhaps a 10% gradient? If your goal is to really make it look like brick, then you will probably have to exaggerate the size of the bricks slightly. As it stands now the casual gamer will probably decide that the building has a stucco surface. Which is not a bad thing as it is a nice building so far. 

I'll not comment on anything else as it seems that the purpose of the screen grab is to look at the facade. The roof and ground floor textures (I assume) are on your 'to do' list.

[SimFox]

yep Roof and ground floor are on the to do list. I'm currently considering should I keep roof green or go for more "fresh" bronze look
Bricks... well those exaggerations by some BATers (and general disrespect for some common sense truths under the notion of "it is a game it doesn't need to be realistic" and "suspense of disbilief" are to blame that some casual gamer may consider such a surface to be a stucco. And I'm not playing that game In fact I just try to do opposite. And I more and more see that original game content was in fact MUCH more realistic that it is commonly given credit to be!! Of course there are some significant variation in that with most "modern" building being of significantly lower quality then Chicago/NY set.

JMYERS2043: please do say on other things... even if this is far from being finished (or actually because  of it) you comments could be more important and practical!!

[realdimension]

  Nice bat!

In the last screenshot 3dsmax really give the impression that this is a real building!