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PakSets and Customization => Pak128.Britain => Topic started by: Sarlock on October 23, 2013, 06:51:03 AM

Title: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 23, 2013, 06:51:03 AM
As discussed, this building may work also for pak128.Britain.  It may prove too ornate/detailed, but it's worth a try.

I've made some quick adaptations to the colours, let me know if you think this style of building will work for this pak and we can continue to work on it to get it to fit the pakset style.  Being my first building for pak128.Britain, it may take a few attempts, but I'd certainly be interested in sharing some of my future material with multiple paksets, especially as I work on a bunch of buildings in the 1850-1930 range.

I changed the bricks to more of a brown colour, lowered the intensity of the blue awnings (maybe these need to be a totally different colour to better match), darkened the slate roofing and increased the door colour.  It's getting late for me, so I'll leave it here for the night.

Tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/century_building_6.png)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on October 23, 2013, 07:08:04 AM
Windows should be completely black (with white frames), pavement texture needs changing, roof slates could even do with more darkening. Otherwise looking very good! :)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: wlindley on October 23, 2013, 10:22:36 AM
Lovely!  As for being a little ornate, perhaps dat-file parameters of a slightly lower probability and a unique density level would make it a bit of a "jewel" in our cities?
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 23, 2013, 10:13:32 PM
Thanks for the comments and suggestions.  I agree, I lowered the probability for pak128 for the same reason.  Making it more of a rarity would be ideal for this design.

Implemented the suggestions and made a few other modifications.  I've included both a front and rear view.  Fitting in quite nicely, now.  Any other suggestions?  There are likely some subtle things that you experts will notice that my novice pak128.Britain eyes can't see :)

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/century_building_7.png)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on October 23, 2013, 10:23:23 PM
Looking very good - minor niggle is that the brick texture used on the building sides has different scales on the different rotations - I prefer the one with smaller bricks. Great job :)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 23, 2013, 11:00:25 PM
Nice catch!  Very subtle difference and I agree.  Was just a slight difference in the UV mapping for each side.  Fixed:

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/century_building_8.png)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on October 23, 2013, 11:04:10 PM
Excellent :)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: jamespetts on October 24, 2013, 01:18:31 AM
That does look rather fine.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: sdog on October 24, 2013, 02:38:49 AM
Now, it's really difficult to decide which looks better the 128 or 128.britain version. Perfect fit to the pak style. And what a lovely model.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Milko on October 24, 2013, 07:18:17 AM
Great work!

Thank's

Giuseppe
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 26, 2013, 05:33:14 AM
And the snow version:

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/century_building_9.png)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: jamespetts on October 26, 2013, 10:44:36 AM
Lovely!
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: greenling on October 26, 2013, 08:59:11 PM
Hello Sarlock
Those Building looks very hot out. :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 28, 2013, 04:48:53 AM
And done... maybe :)

I set the date for 1880 but you can change as desired to better fit pakset.  I set level at 24.

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/century_building_10.png)

PNG file, optimized with optipng -o7:

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/com_00_32/1880-shop.png)

DAT file (http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/com_00_32/com-1880-2.dat)

Edit as you see fit.  You can also use for pak128.Britain.Experimental, of course.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on October 28, 2013, 07:59:50 AM
It really does tower over houses! Hopefully it will only crop up in the centre of big cities :)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 28, 2013, 02:29:13 PM
I hope so... I lowered the chance, we could lower it even further.  We could also consider raising the level to 26 which puts it 1 past the last office building at 25 (which is actually a bit taller than this building).
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: jamespetts on October 28, 2013, 10:21:19 PM
Thank you - added to the Experimental Github repository now.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on October 29, 2013, 05:42:52 PM
Problem with chance is that (if I remember correctly)  it is the chance spread across buildings of that level available at that time. So if you make it level 26, and it is the only level 26 building then even if chance is 1 (out of 100) then it will always be built. That needs work on city building code though to solve that!
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 29, 2013, 05:52:24 PM
Absolutely agreed: in a high density city it will become overwhelmed by this very building.  Perhaps we could set it to level 25, the same as the other commercial high-rise, and with a low chance.  Then it will only be a small percentage of the level 25 buildings overall.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on October 29, 2013, 06:00:46 PM
Yes, although then different heights being the same level might cause people complain about that... can never win!
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: AlexSmith on October 29, 2013, 07:38:43 PM
it's stupid remark, but is there a fountain on snowy image?
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on October 29, 2013, 10:21:11 PM
Yes it matches city pavement as it should :)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on October 30, 2013, 06:06:09 AM
Fountains?

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/com_00_32/big_export.png)

This is kind of fun...

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/com_00_32/big_export-2.png)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: jamespetts on October 30, 2013, 10:02:16 AM
I think that the "fountains" are actually streetlights...
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: wlindley on October 30, 2013, 10:44:49 AM
I love the alley image.  You can almost smell it...
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: The Hood on November 01, 2013, 02:05:27 PM
Always nice to be offered good quality work, but I'm worried it still doesn't quite fit the style - it seems too pale/washed out compared to the existing buildings. Also the vertical scale seems too big. Assuming this image wasn't created in blender (in which case easy to change some settings and render with the pak128.Britain tools) then it might be worth trying to play around with saturation of colours and squashing the building vertically (if not blender does it exist as a layered image file eg gimp xcf?)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on November 01, 2013, 02:36:36 PM
It is made in blender, so any of those changes would be easy to do.

I hesitate on the vertical rescaling as this building does have larger story heights, especially on the first two levels, as many buildings of this generation did (thus becoming nice high ceiling/loft apartments in recent years).  I'll try and see if it has a negative effect on the overall proportions of the building.

Thanks for the feedback!
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on November 01, 2013, 07:46:19 PM
I had similar thoughts when first looking at it - it's worth pointing out that the front of the building is actually set back a fair distance from the pavement compared to other office blocks. This has the effect of making the first story look higher than it actually is.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on November 01, 2013, 08:38:50 PM
Great observation, kieron.

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/height-test.png)

It's actually almost perfectly to scale with this building.  Being set back in the tile perhaps gives it a bit of an optical illusion.  I think also the detail tends to make it look taller than it is (probably a specific design feature done on purpose on the real building).

EDIT

Modified building, most textures receiving significant darkening:

(http://ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/century_building_11.png)

I killed a lot of the contrast with the white trim, I could slightly increase the white brightness a bit to bring the contrast out a bit more again.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on November 02, 2013, 04:03:36 AM
I'd like to see a version with the white whiter again :)

Thanks for your patience Sarlock :)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: The Hood on November 02, 2013, 10:46:51 AM
Looking much better. Did you render it with the pak128.Britain tool? That always helps get consistency. If you are getting fed up of our stylistic nitpicking then I'd be happy (when I get time of course!) to make the alterations in blender myself. I'd also be tempted to make versions with fewer stories too...
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on November 02, 2013, 11:29:42 AM
Versions with different stories would be a good idea also different colour awnings for shops etc all gives a bit more variety :)

Another thought I had would be to make a corner version of this. I'd be happy to join in tweaking too i needed...
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on November 02, 2013, 05:32:30 PM
I'll keep poking away at it and present a few drafts, it's a good way to learn a new graphics pak style and some of the nuances.  I don't mind the nitpicking, it helps me learn :)  It doesn't take long to do this in blender, lightening and darkening textures is super easy.  My time is a bit limited for the next few days, but I'll have more time during the week to pump out a lot of different samples to see if we can get closer to an optimum.

I have thought about doing a corner building as well, kieron.  It wouldn't be hard, just mirror the building on each side and then build an angled section at the corner with shop doors.  Different coloured awnings would give nice variety as well.  My only hesitation on doing this was whether we wanted this building to appear frequently enough in cities for the variation to even matter or not.  I am concurrently working on some similar era buildings that are less ornate that may be a better fit for this adaptation.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: kierongreen on November 02, 2013, 07:10:14 PM
Smaller versions of this building are relatively common in Britain at least so I wouldn't worry about how often it appears too much.

And yes, it's useful how quick things are to change in blender :) I've huge admiration for artists who paint images pixel by pixel with the amount of time that takes!
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: jamespetts on November 03, 2013, 10:48:33 PM
Ahh, splendid, it looks even better now. Do you have the final source graphics files that I can use for Pak128.Britain-Ex?
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: greenling on November 10, 2013, 03:44:28 PM
Hello Sarlock
it´s be planned to make more of this buildings?
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: Sarlock on November 11, 2013, 01:00:59 AM
I do intend to make a few minor modifications and then see about making different versions, though I have to see whether more of the same style building would fit the pakset or not.
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: greenling on November 11, 2013, 04:44:05 PM
Hello Sarlock
More from those building as addon it great. :)
Title: Re: Century Building - pak128.Britain Style
Post by: AlanwaiLun on November 22, 2013, 04:30:27 PM
Would you like to send this pak128 file to me ? Thank you!