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Euro Commercial Block

Started by Sarlock, October 31, 2012, 02:36:00 AM

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Sarlock

I think I'm getting the hang of this blender thing!  This one only took me 4 hours:



Let me know what you think... more European?  Fit better with the pak128 style?

It's not fully complete yet, but I want to present it to see what your opinions are... I'd love to have a whole row of this along a road of various styles and configurations, it would look amazing!  I can leave a small gap to the east and west but close enough that when several are put together they join nicely as a unit.

It's not 100% centred properly on the tile and I might alter the scale just a tiny bit (the height isn't quite right, it should be a bit taller to separate floors 2-4), but it's good enough for presentation at this point.

I modelled this one off of a restaurant/residential complex in Cologne.

I think that once I get good with blender, I can probably do one or two buildings per week.

[EDIT:]

Minor texture modifications, added commercial street sidewalk texture.  Adjusted height for proper scale.

Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

mEGa

Very nice. I like it !
I'm sure it corresponds to the style of pak128.
I envy you for your control of Blender. Undoubtedly now, you are going to save time  when you will build houses (I think about 4 rotations...)

Current projects in progress : improvements of few designed french paks

Sarlock

Thanks, mEGa.  Rotations are very easy, the hard work is just getting the original model built with detail on all 4 sides.  Once that's done, you can easily make the 4 rotations and make small modifications as you go and it's easy to generate a new set of 4 rotations.  It was a little harder for the SFC that I just did because I had to do more post-blender work, but for single tile buildings I am doing hardly any post-blender GIMP work now.  Just removing the black background and replacing with E7FFFF background and sidewalk under the tile and removing a few errant pixels that don't look right.  Very quick to do.

The hardest work was creating an initial library of textures.  I took stock textures and heavily modified them for use in small models.  I added some blurs, light and dark spots (see the bricks on the side of this building) to make an uneven surface.

I'm not sure whether to add anything to the side of this building or leave it solid brick like this.  When it is up against other buildings you won't even notice, but if it's against a road or short building, it's a fairly big brick wall that sort of stands out.  Maybe a couple of windows on the 3rd/4th floor... not sure.

This building would look so much better as a 1x2... I could widen the sidewalk just a bit out front and put a couple of trees there (I love the look of tree lined sidewalks!) and I could extend the back a bit and put alley access parking, etc.

Maybe this can be a restaurant "factory" that consumes meat... hmm!!
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

Fabio

It looks nice! But I would extend its width to the whole tile, so that the effect when put in a row is seamless.
In order to make realistic rows, there should be a few different versions of the same building, with same level, time frame and so on, then the chances of having a row of buildings is higher (see my blocks, for example).
Variations can be textures, the awning color and this kind of details.
The brick side can be used to paste 6x3 m advertisings (~ 30x15 px), maybe of the consumer factories in Simutrans (e.g. a SFC adv). This also must vary among versions of the same building.

Sarlock

I definitely will expand it to cover the tile... or 98% of the tile.  I think I'll leave a tiny gap of 2 +/- pixels at the sides.  Or should I take it right to the side of the tile?

Great suggestion on the advertising... that's a perfect idea!  Hidden if it's rowed up but visible at the end of a block.

Creating variations is easy, I'll even change the facades/window style a bit too to make it a bit more varied.

On a different note, has anyone ever had success modeling snow in blender?
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

greenling

Sarlock
Those Building do rocks me. :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!

Sarlock

Updated version:



Add:

* SFC advertisement to sides.
* Increased scale vertically again to better match standard height scale.
* Expanded building to reach edges of tile.
* Moved tables and chairs in restaurant out front to be able to see what they are a bit better.
* Other minor adjustments.

I'll finish the back and then modify structure for additional types to build a row of 4 different types.
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics

Fabio

It looks magnificent. The best footprint for row buildings is 64 px wide (edge to edge without gaps) and 48 to 56 deep, aligned to the front with a small service backyard. This backyard could indeed be covered, but just 1-2 floors.
Each floor must be 15px tall (16-17 for grand old buildings), except for a taller ground floor (18-20 px).

sdog

on european look only:
The dormers look a little bit unusual. Being narrow but wide. This is sometimes done in post-war central europe, but then mostly the windows are also higher.

In general houses here in toronto are much deeper (dimension perpendicular to the direction of the road) than continental europe. From the overal dimensions it seems a bit more american then european, while the properties are typically european.

The brick face, where another building joins is also in a way very typical for north america. In central europe this is mostly only seen when the adjoining building was knocked down. But in such a case there are still remains from the old building left on that side (you see the floors and walls of the other bldg, sometimes wallpapers) or it is plastered over. Such gaps are also rather rare, with fewer very low bldgs or parking lots in a city.

Very good observation are the small windows for the staircase. If you want a modification: Glass bricks (also with diferent colours very 1955), just pull a narrow row of them up from the door to shortly below the eaves. Perhaps one more pixel wide than the windows now.


On textures:
i think you tried quite a bit with the new textures here. I think you can be even more bold with the bricks. The single stain is quite good. The frontal side has also good variation in dark patches, perhaps some high frequency noise would help make it look more plaster and less plastic like. Perhaps (partially) sharpening might do so aswell.

Sarlock

Thanks for all the input!

This is a pretty close representation of a building in Cologne that I'm modelling off of, but I can't see the dormers except with a top down view, so I agree, they seem a bit flat and long, especially after I stretched the building a bit to fit the tile.  I'll rework the dormers and see what I can come up with.

I also agree with the front wall texture.  The building I'm modelling against is a textured brick, but it's painted white and it has such a subtle pattern that you'd never see it zoomed out.  I might modify the outside texture to something else that can be seen a bit better.  I'll also add some lighter highlights to the brick and see how it looks.

I have to stick with the brick side because this building may be matched up to any other building randomly... so it has to look decent as a stand-alone building.

Fabio, I'm limited by the depth of the tile, so I'm a little stuck as to what to do... in looking at most row buildings it seems like the back area is fairly large (often wider than the main building) and is accessible through the lanes behind.  As I am restricted in this manner (unless I did a 2 tile "factory") I'll have to figure out what to do behind the building in the limited space I have.

I really appreciate all of the comments, I'll rework a few areas and see what the results are!
Current projects: Pak128 Trees, blender graphics