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2x1 House Test

Started by Sarlock, August 24, 2013, 05:44:53 AM

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Sarlock

Been playing around with blender a lot in the last few days.  I was interested in the concept of 2x1 residential blocks as this gives a lot more opportunity to create a better looking suburban home.  As the game exists now this would need to be manually added public player feature (as an attraction), so it's not really suited for any other purpose than eye candy.  Nonetheless, I am having fun with the extra space and wanted to present what I've worked on so far.

I've also refined my blender tree process and should be able to expand this knowledge to the next round of tree updates for pak128 over the fall/winter (I want to finish the temperate trees and move to Mediterranean).



Mostly looking on feedback regarding what does and doesn't look good with the house... I added a lot of small details to see how the "clutter" looks.  I like adding more details to the pictures, it adds realism in my view.  Leaving the plot open for the ground texture to come through for climates is handy but I do really like hard-coding a lawn as well.  The base ground texture takes away from the aesthetics of the buildings.

The fence is an idea that likely won't work... I love the division between suburban plots that fences give but it would be impossible to mix and match every fence to fit together properly.  I could wrap the fence right around but then houses side by side could end up with double fences.  This may or may not look acceptable.
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

vorlon

Wow! That looks absolutely beautiful! :thumbsup:

If the multi-tile citybuildings ever become possible, this is what we need more. The detailed, realistic look somehow reminds me of Simcity... The only issue is that it might look out of place among the current low-level residential buildings, since they are more roughly-drawn.

There are a few things I would improve, though. The swingset seems to lack one support and is too small, as it gets visibly pixelated. Also, the roof-windows (or solar panels?) look a bit too bright in comparison to the roof around them. But these are just minor things, the overall look is very balanced and well-finished.

As for the ground texture, I totally agree with you. Having a building-specific ground is mandatory in detailed buildings like this one. Using blender should make creating versions with different climated much easier, which allows having a climate-consistent cityscape anyway.

jamespetts

This reminds me very much of the graphics in Sim City 4...
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mEGa

Hi,
Good creation, really.
I like accessories and details to assume realism as you explained. Great !
Perhaps, grass is too 'green' (saturation) to be integrated on pak128 texture ? Or owners of this house are genius gardener ;-)
Current projects in progress : improvements of few designed french paks

Sarlock

Quote from: mEGa on August 24, 2013, 03:54:27 PM
Perhaps, grass is too 'green' (saturation) to be integrated on pak128 texture ? Or owners of this house are genius gardener ;-)

Agreed!  I exported the image to Simutrans and instantly noticed that the grass was way too green.  Seeing it against a black background makes some of the colours look different.  Moving it into the game tends to show you new aspects that you hadn't noticed before.

Thanks for the comments, I agree about the swingset.  The fourth support is there but it was far too shaded in blender to be visible.  The pixilation is partly due to the type of anti-aliasing I used, opting for a more pixelated style to fit better with existing graphics.  I'll continue to play around with a few of the features to refine the image.

The nice thing about using blender is once I am happy with the final blender product, producing 4 rotations is super simple.  I can also make adjustments to the colours and addons to quickly make variations of the same building (such as making it for a desert climate).  As I produce more objects, future building will be easier as I can just export them to new projects.
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

Tazze

Bravo!!!
I have bereaved that a definition of hi-level buildings is not only tall but also large.
And expect that future simutrans will be able to make the city which is Stood partial residences and mansion in a row in stead of tall buildings.

sdog

It looks very good. I like especially the roof shading, that gives good plasticity.

I'm not so certain about the scale. Perhaps in a new pakset, where everything is new. But with current pak128 it has the footprint of two high rises. Two of those in one tile would fit the scale better.

Now this is some proof of concept from the graphics side of course. If all other houses would be scalled accordingly, it would again be quit in place. The question would become more one of the different scales in the game, which always has to be a compromise anyway.

Sarlock

#7
Absolutely agreed about the scale.  It's pretty close but I didn't make an effort to have it match exactly.  That's pretty easily fixed with resizing a few objects in the blend.  The scale with regard to just the openness of the tile, yes, it doesn't match very well to existing buildings.  pak128, as with the other paksets, was designed around the 1 tile constraint.

I've made some updates to the images and ported two (EW/WE) rotations to Simutrans to test it out.



I dimmed the green for the lawn down but I still think there is some room for further adjustment with the colours.  Dimmed the skylight colours and fixed up the swing set a bit (I just turned it a couple of degrees and the back post become more visible).

The fences aren't on the right side for the reverse direction (bottom right) but I didn't want to go through a lot of effort for a test case.
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

el_slapper

Excuse; I've got to find my jaw, it has fallen somewhere on the carpet.

greenling

Hello Sarlock
Those House do my very strong remember on EA´s Simcity 3 or 4. ??? :o
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Sarlock

Some more experimentation.  I used two different anti-aliasing methods.  The bottom (south) set of the houses is the Catmull-Rom method, which is usually what I use.  It produces a less dithered/anti-aliased and sharper picture (fits better with pak128 style).  The other method at the top (north) is using the Mitchell-Netravali method which produces a more refined but, in my opinion, blurrier shot.  See which method you prefer.

I also changed the colour of the siding for the south trio of buildings to a be a bit darker to show the windows more clearly.  I like it more.

I also lightened the grass a bit more and added a bit of yellow.  I think it looks nice now.



A larger view of the render, for fun and reference.  Some of the effects are a little odd when zoomed in, I deliberately exaggerated some items to be larger and bolder so that they show up properly at a small scale.

Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

Sarlock

Some further refinements and all 4 rotations alongside some existing pak128 buildings.

Instant suburbia!

Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

greenling

Sarlock
those photo make me flat how a flunder. :o
Opening hours 20:00 - 23:00
(In Night from friday on saturday and saturday on sunday it possibly that i be keep longer in Forum.)
I am The Assistant from Pakfilearcheologist!
Working on a big Problem!

sdog

looking very impressive! The scale also looks quite right, especially in comparison to the roads. It is the larger buildings on one tile, where the scale is more problematic.

having parallel roads at 4 tiles distance would improve gameplay and looks, by having less road-surface compared to used surface.

Last comment: Your grass looks so good, i'd hope the default ground texture would be very similar to it. (perhaps a little lighter green, out of pak128 tradition.

jamespetts

This thread does rather make one hanker for proper multi-tile buildings...
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Sarlock

Thanks for the positive comments... looks like a successful test of what is possible for multi-tile city buildings.  I'm already using it in one of my games as an attraction (placed with public player)... you're right sdog, it doesn't look as nice alongside taller single-tile buildings, it makes the house look much larger.  I am going to work on a few 1x2 and 2x2 apartment complexes to go along with it.  :)
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

waerth

I bow my head to genius!

OrvillePowell

#17
Quote from: vorlon on August 24, 2013, 08:50:14 AM
Wow! That looks absolutely beautiful! :thumbsup:

If the multi-tile citybuildings ever become possible, this is what we need more. The detailed, realistic look somehow reminds me of Simcity... The only issue is that it might look out of place among the current low-level residential buildings, since they are more roughly-drawn.

There are a few things I would improve, though. The swingset seems to lack one support and is too small, as it gets visibly pixelated. Also, the roof-windows (or solar panels?) look a bit too bright in comparison to the roof around them. But these are just minor things, the overall look is very balanced and well-finished.

As for the ground texture, I totally agree with you. Having a building-specific ground is mandatory in detailed buildings like this one. Using blender should make creating versions with different climated much easier, which allows having a climate-consistent cityscape anyway.


Just awesome work..There is plenty to learn..I will try to do similar modifications very soon.

Beder

Oh my god. More of those buildings and pak 128 will totally grow to a new level.
This is just a beautiful piece of simutrans-art.


Please, please, please start including buildings like these!!!