JBSimio Inc.

[Pat]

Hey Jb if you dont mind a NoOb throwing in some comments?
First off I would like to say to you that you are dang goood and i love the school packs 1&2 and so cant wait for that 3rd one.
wow talk about some awsome works even your other stuff i seen and still trying to grow the Acme Boiler, well should say cant wait to play the game some good long time to see what grows lol.
Only one suggestion that i do have is in reguards to the garages is to see about changing the look alittle bit cause the color is way to brite, maybe dirty them up a bit?
other then all my babblings great stuff JB cant wait to get me little paws on them - pat

[spa]

Hey JB, You've been making some great progress here. The rowhouses are looking great. From the looks of things the medium wealth version will fill a niche on my computer perfectly. I use the SFBT's 1x3 lots but they only grow in the Euro tileset. The rest of the time the 1x3 lots sit empty waiting for them. This will give them some competition. As for Lockwood, since you asked, I think the brown brick is fine. I wouldn't change it. I think it works nicely with the grey stonish texture around the front base.

[jacqulina]

hi jon my friend as allways your progress is awesome
take care

[JBSimio]

Rayden:  Thank-you!  Everything I release is "as soon as I can."     I guess this is the problem with trying to do 5 projects at once!  (Not sure how some of the other BSC people do it!)

Goin2chicago:  I went with the white benches because they're meant to represent those cheap plastic/fiberglass things (I think that was Maxis intention anyway)  I'll try the stone ones and see how it looks.  The alley texture will certainly change.  I grabbed the wrong one when I started and didn't really notice it until I got into the game.  Thank-you!

Threestooges:  The layout for these is actually based on the real apartment where my friend lives in Chicago.  My understanding is that the garages are in fact extra.  I think she said something like $200/month for a garage... actually for one car spot in the garage.  You're right, there wouldn't be enough space for everyone to have one... but such is life in the big city.  (I guess... my "city" is all of 400 people!)  Thank-you.

Patfirefghtr:  Thanks!  Volume Three is just waiting to see if we can resolve some Mac issues with 1&2.  Hopefully, we can get them fixed and move on, but until then, I'm holding off.  Thanks!  The garages are actually just Maxis props.  I'm debating making some of my own both for the reasons you mentioned and also to make the doors line up better.  (If you really look, you'll see the fence falls between windows on some, overtop of them on others, etc.)  So we'll see... I want to look through some other prop packs first to see if I can find some there as well.

Spa:  Thank-you!  I noticed while lotting these that there really isn't much in the 1x3 category too.  Never really dawned on me until I started.  Thanks also for the color input.  I'm still going to give the other color a whirl and see what happens.  (I just don't want to get stuck on all browns!)

Jacky:  Thanks!  It's always nice to hear from you.

Whew... thanks for all the input everyone!  I really do appreciate it.  I figure you're using the stuff as much if not more than I am, so it can't always just be about me!     Back to the ghetto for a moment.  (It's daytime... don't be scared)  I mentioned a 2x2 lot the other day.  This isn't finished yet, but I got a start on it.  This will also use prop families so that what shows up on the vacant lot will be pretty random.  The building will always be one of the Sheffield colors, but the vacant lot might be an abandonned building, burned out shell, asphalt covered in garbage, or parking.  (I think those are enough options unless I'm missing something)  Here are two of those:

The abandonned building is in the lower left.  It goes with the building on the corner.



The burned out shell is pretty obvious.  It goes with the building on the corner.



(These aren't set up to be corner lots... it just happened that way)  That's all for now!

JB

[goin2chicago]

wow, thats pretty awesome. it's always the little things like that that keep me coming back for more. i'm looking forward to seeing the two other variations you mentioned.

[spa]

Well all I can say is that I have never seen such a beautiful burned out building! It's a tough thing to do. Much easier to make a functioning structure instead of the randomness and ugliness of disaster. You've nailed it though. The textures and the falling in roof beams are great.

It actually makes me think of that one building that every city has that has just been left to fall apart by an uncaring owner. Usually there is a battle on by the neighbourhood and city government to have it repaired or demolished that tends to go on for years or until there is one final fire. Here in Halifax, there is actually one wrecked facade in the downtown on Barrington Street that has been there for years and years right next to the city's main theater. I keep waiting for it to finally go but no signs of activity yet.

[threestooges]

Well that certainly makes sense (the garage thing). I think the building with the burned out shell looks pretty good, but I am also interested in seeing the other variations (and also, as always, what you come up with next).

[JBSimio]

Goin2chicago:  Thank-you!  I'll post pictures of the other options as soons as I finish them.  I need to dig through the game files and find the props so I can make copies and twist them to my will! 

Spa:  Thanks.  I'm really happy with how the burned out shell came out.  It wasn't hard, but really time consuming.  I basically made wall studs for each wall like I would a window frame.  Then under "splines" I deleted segments, moved vertices, etc etc etc. before doing the edit mesh and UVW map. Time consuming for sure!  One of the side angles looks pretty cool too!

Threestooges:  Thanks... I'd like to see it too!

I spent a few hours and made new garages as suggested.  There are six of them... 4 brick colors and 2 with siding.  I didn't have the patience to wait for them all to group themselves into one picture frame, so you'll have to just judge from this if it's better or worse.  I also redid the alley textures (both wealth versions now match... for whatever that's worth)  Still more fine tuning to do... but getting closer!



JB

[goin2chicago]

haha, that ninja smiley's awesome. as for the garages, they look realy good. i never even thoguht about the garages but very cool that you did them. they're lookin great!

[threestooges]

Now that last pic really shows the parking situation as it would likely be (when I saw the other pic there didn't seem to be as much room for non-garage parking). Sad to see that the neighborhood isn't exactly crime free though, guess the police need to step it up (coming up next for the small town series...).

[Cali]

well done. love the garages

[JBSimio]

Goin2chicago:  Thanks!  I agree that the garages were definitely worth doing.

Threestooges:  I'm still tinkering with the placement/number of garages to find a good balance.  As it stands right now there are two versions with the garage and fence furthest back (like the one on the right), one version of the garage with the fence forward (on the left) and one version with no garage at all (the two in the middle)  So three out of every four lots "should" have garages on average.  Obviously, it doesn't always work out that way...  The first shot was mostly just to test the theory and make sure it all worked.  Now I just need to move things, take them out, play some more, move things back, play again, put them back in, play some more, eat, move things, sleep, find a new job... you get the idea!   

Cali:  Thanks!  Glad you like them.

Well, I don't think the parking idea is going to happen for the 2x2 vacant lot that I've been working on.  I will still make something along those lines, but it won't be part of this particular lot.  The problem is that I can't switch between a building (like the burned out shell) to a line of parked cars and still have it look good.  The parking area ends up off center, facing the wrong way, and pretty empty looking.  So I think I will save it as an option for the medium wealth version.  In the meantime, I did finish the other vacant lot in all its trashed out glory:



So, basically... the lot switches between this, the burned shell, and the vacant building.  (There are actually 2 sets of trash, so the random ratio is "Trash, Burned, Trash, Vacant")

JB

[Rayden]

Nice and realistic lotting. It will look superb on a suburban neighbourhood, low wealth and slummy neighbourhood
Keep it up man

[goin2chicago]

very nice!

[nofunk]

Oh hell, you get a dancing elephant for that! 

That burnt out shell is just fantastic! (Well, fantastic as burnt out buildings go lol.) You keep discovering the details that get missed in the game, like school bus yards, abandoned and demolished buildings, etc. Great, great, great!

[rooker1]

First off, I have missed so many new post.  I never thought you would get so much work done so quickly.  I no longer feel like the loyal fan........ , But I'm here now and what I see looks amazing.

The Lockwood Arms looks great.  As for diiferent textures, I don't know.  What you have already looks great, but something different may look great as well.  If we had choices, maybe we could narrow it down.

The Brownstones, well I won't complain about the first set because you have fixed everything.  Although, I do have one suggestion.  Instead of making a two car garage, how about a 4 or 5 car shed with a flat roof.  (two sides a back and a roof on a slight angle with parking lines on the inside.)  Also can we have some junk on the belconies, maybe a satelite dish and some cars in the alley.  Other than that, I love it.

The 2x2 ghetto buildings are super fantasticly amazing.  I can't wait for thier release!!!!  I wouldn't change a thing on these. 

[bat]

Your houses are looking very great!

[JBSimio]

Rayden:  Thank-you!  Nice to see you stopping in.

Goin2chicago:  Thanks!

Nofunk:  Glad you like it.  These cool details are starting to mess with me though.  I fondly remember a time when I made a little shop and that was that.  But no!  Now I force myself into entire sets.  Why make one apartment when I can make a whole set of 12???  I must be nuts! 

Rooker:  You and your good ideas... there's a picture just for you at the bottom of this drivel.  Thank-you!  There is junk on the balconies... towels hanging off the railings, patio chairs, even the occasional bike.  Unfortunately, a lot of it gets lost in the shadows.  Fortunately for all of you (unfortunately for me) I'm going to have to re-export all of these at which point I will make the stuff a bit more noticable.

Bat:  Thank-you!

OK... I have a couple things to show tonight.  For starters, I finished off the 1x2 R$$ version as well as the 2x2$$ with parking version.  This picture is slightly outdated, and I'll explain why in a minute.



The outdated part is quite minor, but I'm going to fix it because I'm a bit of a detail freak.  (What?  You already knew that?   )  The problem is the fences overlapping the building wall in some spots (bottom right for example).  I'm not going to go into all sorts of detail, but the issue (in short) is that the buildings all have slightly different centers.  Basically that means that the red version of a building might be further to the left than the light brown version of that same building when it grows.  So... there is no way for me to match up the fences perfectly and have it work for every building.  The solution is to put part of the fence into the BAT and use that to center everything.  Not hard, but it will take some time to render them all again.  The plus side is that I will be able to make these slope friendly in the process.  Anyway... moving on.

This picture doesn't show the fixed version yet, but it does show what the new fences will look like and also shows what I came up with thanks to Rooker



I'll probably make the shed slightly shorter... but how does this grab you?  Those are Maxis cars inside by the way, so they will come and go like any other parking area.   See you later!

JB

[Cali]

thats one thing the game is definetly missing...Carports!...thank you, and great work

[Rayden]

Fantastic man. Can't wait to show them off on my Shosaloza