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Xander Bass Live Area

Discussion in 'Projects' started by xanderbass, Feb 25, 2015.

  1. xanderbass

    xanderbass Skilled Worker

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    Hello!

    I wanna announce my future mod series. It's calling "Xander Bass Live Area". This series will contains some mods with typical and modular architecture for creating live areas, industry complexes and so on. I attached some models for first mod. It will contain 18 modular sections and 9 sidewalls for creating residential blocks by "П-44" series. Also I'm planning to create many others typical Russian residential series.

    All models are drawing in Google SketchUp. Now I need 3D-modeller working in 3DS Max, who can help me to convert those models into SGBIN. All models have multi-material textures. Ideally I'm searching collaboration for working out this project.

    1.PNG 2.PNG 3.PNG
     
    sgon, Peter912, Alex24 and 3 others like this.
  2. Radiant Dawn

    Radiant Dawn Elite

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    Looks like it will be promising.
     
  3. pauliaxz

    pauliaxz Mayor

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    Well I suggest you using 3Ds Max yourself, because UVW mapping (texturing) needs to be done, which is different than in Google Sketchup.
    Sketchup cover only modelling part (not 100% of course, because there are things to adjust in 3Ds Max) while you need to do other parts in 3Ds Max
     
  4. bobqwerty

    bobqwerty Executive

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    Thus the game doesn't support multi-materials since they waste a lot of draw calls, one for each material and sub-material. You will have to pack the textures into single maps, like you would do with a texture atlas. You will be better off doing everything in 3ds max, so you won't have any trouble later on.
     
  5. xanderbass

    xanderbass Skilled Worker

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    All textures are doing in Adobe Photoshop for UVW mapping. I know that the game doesn't support multi-materials. But models themselves are doing in SketchUp because it's more simple for me. Of course I'll work in 3DS Max when models will be ready as 3D objects. Now I don't know where buildings will be placed (in what category - T1, T2, T3). 10-floors building would be in T1, 14-floors buildings would be in T2 and 17-floors buildings would be in T3. But now it's just theory because there are too much polygons in the models.
     
  6. pauliaxz

    pauliaxz Mayor

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    10-story building in T1?? No way, It's T3 and all others are too.
    T1 should be from 1-3 stories, T2 - 3-5, T3 - 5-any size.
    But my suggestion is that you should do exporting yourself, because from my experience I could tell that exporting will take multiple times because some problems and typos in buildings are encountered.
     
  7. Alex24

    Alex24 Moderator
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    great so far :)
     
  8. gbojanic

    gbojanic Governor

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    You should only make the models in SketchUp with no textures/materials and then export them as .3ds format and import into 3DMax and do the mapping there. Textures are made in Photoshop or Gimp.
    Also you need to center the buildings to your scene. Not like they are now.

    xPlGE3Y.jpg
     
  9. xanderbass

    xanderbass Skilled Worker

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    Main problem is in the base size of buildings. Straight section - 24 * 30 meters. Corner section - 30 * 30 meters. So I'm not sure that 10-floors building must be placed in T3. Moreover 10-floors must contains 1 citizen unit (85 citizen), 14-floor - 2 citizen unit (171 citizen), 17-floor - 3 citizen unit. It's important for maximal reality.
     
  10. pauliaxz

    pauliaxz Mayor

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    Show me any original CXL T1 Building which is more than 5 floors? T2 too.
    10-floor building houses 85 ppl?? For example soviet styled 5-floor block with two staircases has 40 flats. In one flat can live from 1 to 4 persons. Let's take 2.5 for average, so 40*2.5 = 100 ppl for a 5-floor block! 10-floor or more of course should be in T3 (5 citizens, as per original CXL ratio) 16-floor or more cold be even T4.
     
  11. xanderbass

    xanderbass Skilled Worker

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    Dimension of PPL in class is game PPL unit. One game PPL unit in CXL eq 85 citizen. 2 units eq 171 citizen. 5 units eq 428 citizen. There are 68 flats in 17-floor section. So in that section can live from 68 to 272 citizen. More questions? =)))

    It looks like I'll make T3 building with less then 5 game PPL units (GPPLU) by section. For example I'll try to write 1 GPPLU for 10-floor building. If the game won't crash there will be next:

    10-floor - 1 GPPLU
    14-floor - 2 GPPLU
    17-floor - 3 GPPLU

    Otherwise this buildings will generate colossal traffic. Remember, they will have little base (24 * 30 and 30 * 30 meters). By the way 5-floor building from one of existing on XLN mod is T2-building.
     
  12. pauliaxz

    pauliaxz Mayor

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    There is weird formula applied to the game. Where one citizen unit in game could be 85 ppl, when there is hardly any population in the city, but when your city has ~2 million ppl - 1 citizen unit will be like 2000 ppl. To be more precise if you place 3 houses you will get ~5000 ppl, well, I don't know real values. Somewhere on the old XLN, I saw that graph corresponding population increase.

    EDIT: I tested it in my 768k city: plopping 1 T1 house will get me +186 ppl

    Anyway these 3 original buildings are T3 and all three contain 5 citizen units. While in real life that skyscrapper would have 10x more ppl than those first two on the left.

    gamescreen0034.jpg
     
  13. nicko2u

    nicko2u Governor

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    0 - 40m is usually T1,T2
    40m - 60M+ is T3/T4

    So that would place your models in T1/T2 section, seems like you may have to resize them? not sure.
    also if you use custom size base sure you use the NOZAC tag, stops it reproducing in zoning

    also you base looks more like 40x60.
     
  14. xanderbass

    xanderbass Skilled Worker

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    nicko2u, resizing isn't possible because each section is a module. Whole building sets from sections. More information you'll find on the internet by query "П-44". One look at the founded pictures will make my point of view more clear. Of course all buildings will have tag NOZAC.

    pauliaxz, it looks like those buildings will generate big traffic anyway. As "Metallica" sings, sad but true. So it means that I have to set PPL to 1 game unit. I hope it's possible to set this value in T3 custom building.
     
  15. Mr.X²

    Mr.X² Moderator
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    sure you can set this. copy-pasted from my tutorial:
    "Hint: be careful when changing the line <citizenhome>. The number in <maxcitizens> does not mean the number of citizens. Confusing? Indeed, it really is confusing. I tried different values some time ago and didn’t really get which mathematical calculation is behind that value. It’s exponential. That’s all I can say :D. Some examples: Value of 8 means max 25 inhabitants. A value of 20 means max 103 inhabitants. A value of 100 means several thousand inhabitants. Yes, that’s ridicules and confusing. I suggest to leave this value as it is or at least test your mod in an empty city and having a look at the inhabitants before releasing it ."
     
  16. Monty

    Monty Governor

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    Just a tip: Use FBX format to export from SKUP to 3DSM, it won't triangulate the mesh and it will be easier to work with it.
     
    Mr.X² likes this.
  17. xanderbass

    xanderbass Skilled Worker

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    Monty, thank for a tip. Does it mean that triangles count in final model may be less then if I export SUP format in 3DS format? For example L4-model contains 96 poligons, but after export it contains 408 triangles.
     
  18. pauliaxz

    pauliaxz Mayor

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    Polygons are not triangles. One polygon can have any number of triangles, be it 1, 2, 10 or even 1000
     
  19. metrocity345

    metrocity345 Elite

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    Will you make this work in Cities XXL?
     
  20. xanderbass

    xanderbass Skilled Worker

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    LOD data for mod "XBLA: П-44".

    10-floors: LOD1 3891 trg. / LOD2 2227 trg. / LOD3 360 trg. / LOD4 138 trg.
    14-floors: LOD1 4867 trg. / LOD2 2563 trg. / LOD3 360 trg. / LOD4 138 trg.
    17-floors: LOD1 5599 trg. / LOD2 2815 trg. / LOD3 364 trg. / LOD4 142 trg.

    10-floors wall: LOD1 490 trg. / LOD2 490 trg. / LOD3 52 trg. / LOD4 52 trg.
    14-floors wall: LOD1 618 trg. / LOD2 618 trg. / LOD3 52 trg. / LOD4 52 trg.
    17-floors wall: LOD1 714 trg. / LOD2 714 trg. / LOD3 52 trg. / LOD4 52 trg.

    All buildings will be placed in standard menu. It's for compatibility to XXL. But there are no category tags for it (comp. to XL). Blue colored buildings designed for unqualified workers, brown - for qualified, yellow - for executives. 10-floors contains 1 PPL (as T1), 14-floors - 2 PPL (as T2), 17-floors - 3 PPL (T3 contains 5 PPL). All side-walls will be placed on city environment menu. Cost for 10-floors - 200 C, 14-floors - 250 C, 17-floors - 300 C, walls - 100 C.

    Icons in menu:

    0_0.png 0_1.png 0_2.png 0_6.png 0_7.png 1_0.png 1_4.png 1_5.png 1_6.png 0_3.png 0_4.png 0_5.png 1_1.png 1_2.png 1_3.png 1_7.png 2_0.png 2_1.png

    Now alpha-version (10-floors buildings) tested on 2012 and XXL. No problems found =)
     
    sgon, MuxLee, Fisher92 and 1 other person like this.

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