There is a significant lack of high level buildings, so downtown of the biggest cities are cluttered by the same few buildings.
I'm painted a set of high level residential blocks. Check this out:
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr27.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr27.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr28.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr27.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr29.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr27.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr30.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr27.png)
The set has 450 objects from level 16 to level 60, in two rotations, snow images will be added soon.
There are 10 base layouts.
Each layout goes from 4 to 12 floors of 16 px.
For each number of floors there are 5 color schemes with progressive level.
4 floors --> levels 16 to 20
5 floors --> levels 21 to 25
6 floors --> levels 26 to 30
7 floors --> levels 31 to 35
8 floors --> levels 36 to 40
9 floors --> levels 41 to 45
10 floors --> levels 46 to 50
11 floors --> levels 51 to 55
12 floors --> levels 56 to 60
Here's a test pak: RES_TEST_20111006.zip (7.4 MB)
DOWNLOAD OF THE LATEST VERSION (December 22nd, 2011):
SOURCES:
res_20-21.zip (22 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
res_22-23.zip (18 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
res_24-25.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
res_26-27.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
res_28-29.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
res_30-31.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
PAKSETS:
res_pak_20-25.zip (23 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_pak_20-25.zip)
res_pak_26-31.zip (24 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_pak_26-31.zip)
They look splendid - and mostly those with flat roof. But I would like to suggest adding of more colour schemes - mostly some more bright ones.
They look bit & beautiful!! That will help cities look like cities instead of big towns in advanced games. Thanks a lot for sharing them :)
PS: This deserves a new city in my current game in your honor, would you like it to be named "Fabio City" or "Gonella City"? ;D
fabio the building looks good out.Gives from your building the Png and dat´s too?
Quote... the set has 450 objects ...
! oO
Make nothing.I have space on may Harddisk!
Wow! Dare we hope for a pak128.Britain treatment of a few of those splendid buildings?
Wow... ahh... painting slowly, now I see what you mean... painting all the time!
Assuming it's still a WIP, no complaints from me :)
Here's the release of the project, including winter mode:
sources are split in 2 zips for hosting reasons.
blocks_111010_src_1.zip SOURCES PART 1 (18.4 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/blocks_111010_src_1.zip)
blocks_111010_src_2.zip SOURCES PART 2 (16.0 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/blocks_111010_src_2.zip)
blocks_111010_pak.zip TEST PAK (12.6 MB)
blocks_111010.xcf.bz2 GIMP SOURCES(12.2 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/blocks_111010.xcf.bz2)
Fabio your building looks good out.
Thanks.
Fabio, your pak is a gold mine :) I already use the building to embellish my cities and this makes them very nices. Thanks for your release and go on like this to feast us with yours creations.
Here's a new screenshot, made after a complete redesign of the pak:
(http://i44.tinypic.com/kcy1k0.png) (http://i44.tinypic.com/kcy1k0.png)
Now it counts about 540 buildings from level 25 to level 60, each in 8 rotations.
(The current .pak is 300MB)
More updates will follow...
On the right you can spot an office tower inspired by Chicago's AON Tower 8)
300 MB is a bit... extreme.
I know, I just don't know what to do about... These buildings need 8 rotations, in order to look nice on corners. They have 5 color scheme which will go with climates: white/brick red, white/green and white/blue for temperate, med, desert and jungle; brick red/green and brick red/blue for temperate, alpine and tundra. It's hard to reduce the number of images. I wish winter image could be a (smaller) front image leaving the back unchanged. Any advice? do you like the visual impact and the layout?
fabio
you have be make many new modeles that without your modelles pak128 be get broing!
Fabio: what you wrote about better face in corners is right - but is it needed everywhere? I am not sure with it. I would suggest choosing only few ones for all 8 rotations - but which, that is a question.
you hand-painted 8 rotations + snow?
Different question, you hand-painted and copy-pasted 300 MB of gifs?
How did you fit half a lifetime required for such a task into a few months. You happen to have a time-machine! ;-)
Quote from: fabio on November 04, 2011, 05:57:05 PM
The current .pak is 300MB
Uhm.... you *do* mean 300MB of sources... don't you?!?!
Otherwise, are there 30000 buildings in the pak or...? :o
A few quick answers, developed later... (Again smartphone isn't so writing friendly...)
300 MB: this is the compiled pak. It's 540 buildings in 8 rotations, so 540*8*2=8640 single images (half of which 2 tiles high).
Time: a few days,not too much. Imagemagick is awesome (and i spent half my time learning it and coding the scripts). Basically i paint a big gimp file with one floor per tile painted in 8 rotation. Buildings are modular, in 4 to 12 floor buildings i don't use more than 5 floor types and they are shared by different buildings. The layout is saved in excel. A first script cuts the tiles and applies the textures, a second one assembles the floors. Every time i have major changes in gimp i compile and test, the scripts run in 15+15 minutes to create all the sources. After that i makeobj them and test the pak.
Rotations: when buildings were full tile just 2 were needed. Now i shrank the depth from the curb to allow an inside block small courtyard and 8 rotations are needed.
What is the max size i'm allowed to?
Fabio, Wow! ...The ImageMagick script approach sounds like an excellent way to build pak sets... I am still hoping to jump-start pak128.USA one of these days, but it's such a huge task, this could really cut that.
Although Blender is cool, it seems unsuited -- without much more automation than we have -- to making Simutrans buildings, all the magic colors and then having to use TileCutter... I would much prefer seeing factory complexes built from numerous stand-alone 1x1 components... which of course also should means lower memory footprint because those 1x1's can be reused within multiple rotations, or multiple versions (e.g., 1850s factory 1x1; 1880s factory = 1850 factory + new 1x1; 1920 factory = 1880 factory + 1x1 + 1x1 = 2x2; 1950 factory = 1920 factory + 5 more 1x1s = 3x3 factory)
Will you post some of your scripts? As a Perl programmer from way back I would love to uber-automate things.
Sure I'll post them. To be more precise, now I have a MS Excel workbook with the layouts and two macros reading the data and writing two .bat files with the IM instructions. Then it runs the batches :-)
obviously you could convert it to perl, there is also an IM library.
imagemagick always astonished me for being so brilliantly good.
uber-automation +1
n hours spent for a script that saves n-m hours of work is time well invested (for n>m).
"learn to program or get programed yourself" -- Jörg Kantel
There is no doubt to the quality of these buildings, but obviously you can generate more and more on a whim ;) I think it would be beneficial to see first how well the buildings compress, and base any limits on that. Pak128 is still less than 30 MB to download, so not going over 100 MB with the whole pakset is a good target for now :P
edit: After thinking about it and a bit of research, there are a few things that could be helped.
First, it seems that windows are same everywhere. That isn't exactly usual. (http://i.pbase.com/o4/14/344614/1/60458148.IMG_0007.jpg) But it does not hurt nowhere as much as #2.
Second, the colours are a bit... dunno. The "green" as you called that wouldn't exactly work for me, I'd replace that with something closer to yellow, maybe. It's hard to imagine who would ever want to use such colour on a house. And pak128 has been always a bit on the brighter side, if you consider esp. all the renders.
Third, these all create blocks, which is... good, except that they also really easily dwarf the other buildings that are supposed to be skyscrapers. Come on, for a city's skyline there will be the baseline, and then the few exceptional buildings that rise above that. Having all of these same height as the exceptional buildings is just wrong, they drown in them and look comical at best. Look at the green skyscraper or beige conical tower. Either the roofs of blockable houses stay down, or everything else needs replacing too. That isn't to say they need a lower pax level, that's ok at 60 too. Cities shouldn't get to final levels with skyscrapers licking each other :-/
I hope the last is understandable...
(1)
Good news: I tested this morning to zip the pak file, and it compressed very well (about 26 MB)
(http://i41.tinypic.com/r9n79d.png)
So, as long as I stay within this boundary I can assume it's ok.
(2)
The concern with the height is understandable (too bad you didn't say it earlier ;))
I'll look through it reducing max height to 10 floor for most of them (and seeing how hard it can be to reduce the floor height from 16 to 14 pixels (in my scale, I assumed 16 px = 3 m and i dimensioned everything accordingly; 14 px would mean 1.70 m anyway, which is often used as a floor [internal] height for most of new RL housing)
I will test some more...
(3)
Unfortunately I cannot access the pic you linked, so I can't get what you mean about the windows.
(4)
Colors: beside the whites (which I made personally) I took the other textures from the latest PARTS_*.PNG available in pak128 documentation. I really like the brick red. The "greens" and the "blues" could be easily be replaced with better textures, I'll research into it, too...
Compression: That's some very good news! I had a suspicion they will be well compressible :D I know I'm a bother, but could you try and see how it works, if you compress them unmerged?
Height: Yes, it took me too long to respond... sorry ::( Anyway, as you generate these, it should not be so much work... or not? (And the question sneakily implied a possibility to answer "so let's make skyscrapers, too" :P )
Colours: It's just the green that doesn't work, others are fine. Imho it has some poop-like quality that makes it quite natural, but ugly.
Windows: The picture just showed a city and every house had somewhat different windows. I can't access it any more, either. Anyway, forget that. I suppose changing that only now would be uneconomical.
Quote from: VS on November 07, 2011, 08:44:41 AM
(And the question sneakily implied a possibility to answer "so let's make skyscrapers, too" :P )
Sure! If high level/highrise RES were thought with a max height of 2 full tiles, COM skyscrapers were thought up to 3 tiles tall :D (see the three AON towers on the right of latest screenshot) Also supertalls are considered (4 tiles or more!!! but coded as attractions; I would also like some REAL supertall like Empire State Building, Chrysler, Chicago's SEARS tower, etc, coded as MON in order to have one and only one around a map...)
Quote from: VS on November 07, 2011, 08:44:41 AM
Colours: It's just the green that doesn't work, others are fine. Imho it has some poop-like quality that makes it quite natural, but ugly.
I'll try some other texture, do you have any to advise? ;)
Here's a new screenshot with the blocks created with a max height of 140 px (10 floors of 14px each), whereas they previously had a max height of 192 px (12 floors of 16px each).
(http://i39.tinypic.com/wv7ryh.png) (http://i39.tinypic.com/wv7ryh.png)
Although lower, they have the same pax level.
Double post: something changed!!!
That's certainly better! Looking at this, however, it's clear that high buildings probably need some space around them, and that is currently impossible.
Great, so i'll keep these proportions.
Quote from: VS on November 07, 2011, 01:08:32 PM
it's clear that high buildings probably need some space around them, and that is currently impossible.
It *IS* possible, if we code them as attractions or monuments
Also, for their "odd" shape, the green and the yellow towers would look much better if fewer instances were added to the map. What do you think?
Or some gardens with low enough chance as buildings in between.
The OT on building constraints has been split and moved to Extension Requests (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?board=9).
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=8415.0 (http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=8415.0)
New update with more color schemes and climates:
TEMPERATE
(http://i41.tinypic.com/1zf4oiw.png) (http://i41.tinypic.com/1zf4oiw.png)
bird view of a big city:
(http://i43.tinypic.com/b8pwk9.png) (http://i43.tinypic.com/b8pwk9.png)
TUNDRA/ROCKY
(http://i40.tinypic.com/igivc4.png) (http://i40.tinypic.com/igivc4.png)
MEDITERRANEAN/DESERT/TROPIC
(http://i39.tinypic.com/23t2jk0.png) (http://i39.tinypic.com/23t2jk0.png)
EDIT: added the bird view picture
Fabio
you have be make a very good work!
New screenshots, with modified scheme colors and ground floors.
TEMPERATE:
(http://i44.tinypic.com/mtma7p.png) (http://i44.tinypic.com/mtma7p.png)
TUNDRA/ROCKY:
(http://i44.tinypic.com/2lne63d.png) (http://i44.tinypic.com/2lne63d.png)
MEDITERRANEAN/TROPICAL/DESERT:
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2cp40wg.png) (http://i41.tinypic.com/2cp40wg.png)
Awesome! When will there be a final release (just curious)?
I quite like the new colours, they're not so sad anymore.
New screenshots, with roofs:
Climates: Temperate and Tundra
(http://i42.tinypic.com/dnf50i.png) (http://i42.tinypic.com/dnf50i.png)
(http://i40.tinypic.com/242vgas.png) (http://i40.tinypic.com/242vgas.png)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/n3rojn.png) (http://i44.tinypic.com/n3rojn.png)
The highest level buildings (levels 55-60) are a bit higher, too: 15 px instead of 14, yet the ground floor is 21 px.
The pre-existing towers are dwarfed a bit more, but still better than at the beginning. After the release of this blocks set, I could rty to make them a bit taller, or I could paint also residential skyscrapers.
Commercial skyscrapers instead, are planned from the beginning.
Wowza. That's really, really good :)
As to residential buildings not being skyscrapers, you're right. Actually that somewhat negates the whole deal with "drowning" skyscrapers, too :) There are three buildings for residential lv60, two of them rather sub-par, the remaining one is the beige conical quad-tower. And three parks, but you know what...
Mr Gonella, is it possible to put somewhere latest version of this pak? Or (if I'm blind) could you show me place where I can find downloadable version of your latest work?
Quote from: ave616 on November 25, 2011, 04:53:57 PM
Mr Gonella, is it possible to put somewhere latest version of this pak? Or (if I'm blind) could you show me place where I can find downloadable version of your latest work?
Not yet released. :)
News screenshots for Temperate:
(http://i41.tinypic.com/oupevq.png) (http://i41.tinypic.com/oupevq.png)
(http://i44.tinypic.com/35ndgn7.png) (http://i44.tinypic.com/35ndgn7.png)
* Changed roofs (still lack some more details, especially flat roofs)
* Snow for winter
* More color schemes, with more recolored details (roofs, balcony floors)
Big work !
Just an idea for winter viewes and create the snow effect:
can be to represent the snow melt on the roof by creating an edge rounded like this (Vaclav will recognize this ;-) :
I also think that the thickness of snow is a little light, isn'it ?
What do you think about it ?
Thank you mEGa!
The snow is actuallt 1 px high on roofs, which is about 20 cm. I could double that, with a little effort.
The snow effect you posted is lovely. My doubts are: the same effect applied to tens of buildings doesn't became clichéed? Probably it's better reserved to a few individual buildings (which are out of the scope of this set). But I will consider it (maybe for a second release of the set, who knows?)
I see the conical tower is kind of ugly when many instance of the same appear it the same city. After this set is included, I would transform it in CUR or even in MON. It's also completely out of scale, with floor of 9-10 px. I tried to make it 14-15 px, but the result isn't good enough. Making it an attraction would indeed be better choice. I also think I should make a few parks as well (now in my TODO list together with office blocks).
Here's the release of a pre-release pak, for testing purpose (double posting is intended)
the paks are split in 2 zips for hosting reasons
blocks_1_111206.zip TEST PAKS PART 1 (19 MB)
blocks_2_111206.zip TEST PAKS PART 2 (18 MB)
Please, try them and give me a feedback in order to prepare the final release. Thanks!
mEGa, of course. :D
But currently I am too busy with anything else to continue in work on that house.
Quote from: fabio on December 06, 2011, 03:35:47 PM
The snow effect you posted is lovely. My doubts are: the same effect applied to tens of buildings doesn't became clichéed? Probably it's better reserved to a few individual buildings (which are out of the scope of this set). But I will consider it (maybe for a second release of the set, who knows?)
I understand what did you want to say and I am agree with you. It's rather delicate to create the effect without having a repetition of the pattern which would be too mechanical. Perhaps it's for the same thing youy didn't apply an antialiasiang effect for edges of flat roofs ? May be, this is just a little detail because in fact it is not very visible but a little improves the block. See the joined picture.
I think that I shall adopt this design philosophy when I shall try the kind of working : buildings series or other mass objects.
Finally, my first test of the part one of the set is very positive nothing else to tell about it.
One more time, good work, really. More realistic aspect in the Simutrans cities coming soon ! Great !
I have already know effect of antialiasing - but its effect is rarely visible. And this roof is one of such examples where antialiasing has not been well visible.
Quote from: fabio on December 06, 2011, 03:57:21 PM
Please, try them and give me a feedback in order to prepare the final release. Thanks!
Really good work. Fabio - master of urbanization ;-) I have nothing more to say.
Here's the release of a release candidate pak, for testing purpose
the paks are split in 2 zips for hosting reasons, I invite you to install and try both of them in the same time
[ UPDATED VERSION RELEASED ]
Changelog:
ADD Antialiasing (mEGa, you might wish to check it ;) )
CHG Smoother snow on roofs
CHG New (darker) yellowish texture
ADD Both lighter and darker windows, less lit at night
Screenshots:
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr57.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr57.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr58.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr58.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr59.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr59.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr60.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr60.png)
Fabio please check your Downloadlinks the be have a bug!
Fixed, I believe.
Thank you greenling for spotting.
Finally I think the set is ready for release.
I'm posting here some stats:
| Total number: | 504 | RES buildings | | | |
| 42 | for each level from | 19 | to | 60 |
| 72 | for each number of floors from | 4 | to | 10 |
| 231 | for mediterranean, desert and tropic climates | | | |
| 392 | for temperate climate | | | |
| 273 | for rocky and tundra climates | | | |
| 84 | appearing from year | 1950 | | |
| 168 | appearing from year | 1960 | | |
| 168 | appearing from year | 1970 | | |
| 82 | appearing from year | 1980 | | |
| 24 | different color schemes | | | |
SOURCES:
res_20-21.zip (22 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
res_22-23.zip (18 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_22-23.zip)
res_24-25.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_24-25.zip)
res_26-27.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_26-27.zip)
res_28-29.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_28-29.zip)
res_30-31.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_30-31.zip)
PAKSETS:
res_pak_20-25.zip (23 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_pak_20-25.zip)
res_pak_26-31.zip (24 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_pak_26-31.zip)
Changelog:
ADD 42 new buildings
CHG Some color schemes (yet again!!!)
Screenshots:
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr61.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr61.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr62.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr62.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr63.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr63.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr64.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr64.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr65.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr65.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr66.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr66.png)
(http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr68.png) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/simscr68.png)
That. Is. Stunningly. Amazing. Work.
All I can say. Wow.
:fireworks:
Quote from: fabio on December 22, 2011, 09:36:47 AM
SOURCES:
res_20-21.zip (22 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_20-21.zip)
res_22-23.zip (18 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_22-23.zip)
res_24-25.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_24-25.zip)
res_26-27.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_26-27.zip)
res_28-29.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_28-29.zip)
res_30-31.zip (30 MB) (http://public.gonella.eu/simutrans/blocks/res_30-31.zip)
Fabio, I'm afraid the links are all to the same file only (=res_20-21.zip).
----------------
Oh and anyone got an idea why the reply-button opens the full editor (as intended) and the quote-button only fills the quick-reply field (which I never use, especially not when quoting)?
Thank you Dirk, now it's fixed (also in your quoting).
Hi,
@Fabio :
You work faster than us to test !
So first joined pakset :
I tested with 110 and 111. No notes.
Great work ! That what I say ;-)
The combination of different blocks to create quarter is so realistic. Brilliant, really !
Snow effects are fine too.
Tests in progress for another paksets .
Thanks mEGa!
AntiAliasing was the hardest part to achieve. In the end I generated a mask before applying textures, then I applied them and use a selective blur for the masked parts...
You completely changed the face of pak128 this year!
VS, in Fabio's screens above is a beige building, strongly tapered, with a cruciform cross-section and red roof repeated very often. I think it now is a bit distracting, and looks a bit out of place. Perhaps it could be changed to an Attraction? (Theorist's ivory tower; A generoug gift to the university allowed it to build an ivory tower for their philosophers, mathematicans, theoretical physicists and quantum chemists. The large open spaces at the top allow them to have their heads in the clouds, when weather permitts.)
That's one of the previously highest level houses... I'm not sure what to do with it now...
I'm agree with Sdog. It should be transformed to attraction.
Imho, built alone, it is fine. But when it is repeated too much time, it makes a bizarre and unrealistic effect in a town.
All blocks available in next nightly!
Quote from: sdog on December 23, 2011, 05:00:27 AM
VS, in Fabio's screens above is a beige building, strongly tapered, with a cruciform cross-section and red roof repeated very often. I think it now is a bit distracting, and looks a bit out of place. Perhaps it could be changed to an Attraction? (Theorist's ivory tower; A generoug gift to the university allowed it to build an ivory tower for their philosophers, mathematicans, theoretical physicists and quantum chemists. The large open spaces at the top allow them to have their heads in the clouds, when weather permitts.)
Quote from: mEGa on December 23, 2011, 10:08:41 AM
I'm agree with Sdog. It should be transformed to attraction.
Imho, built alone, it is fine. But when it is repeated too much time, it makes a bizarre and unrealistic effect in a town.
I agree, too.
This building repeated countlyssly is one of the main reasons which made me think of creating this set ;)
Quote from: VS on December 23, 2011, 10:27:28 AM
All blocks available in next nightly!
Thank you very much, VS! So I'll move this thread to Incorporated.
By the way, when do nightly batches make paksets? Weekly?
Nightlies were generated on friday + sunday some time ago. Now I think they're done in sunday or monday only, but I'm not sure.
Poor Werner will get a heart attack when the file is twice as big :P