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To define the area:

- Go to "Scene" properties panel (Right panel with many icon tabs, third tab). Change units to "Metric"
- In 3D View, open "Properties" panel (hotkey N)
- In "Display" section: change "Lines" to 4 (this define a 4x4 grid area), "Scale" to 8 (this mean each tile measures 8 meters), subdivisions as you wish (8 for each 1m for example)
excuse and for 3ds max ?
Png8w7B.jpg
 
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excuse and for 3ds max ?
Png8w7B.jpg

I don't know, i'm new in 3D modelling software. Anyway... lookink at your screen capture, i guess must be one of these 2 options:

- Grid Spacing: 1m (meter); Major lines every...: 8. This means each "Major line" means a cell ingame (8m each cell). Each line means 1m.

Your maximum space for non-ploplable sizes (the RCI -Residential, Commercial and Industry-) will be 4 "Major Line". For plopables, must see the specifications on the wiki, in a ratio 1:1 (each unity = 1 "Major Line").

- Grid Spacing: 8m; Major lines every...: 4. Each line means a cell ingame (8m each). Each "Major line" it's the maximum for RCI buildings. For plopables, must see the specifications on the wiki, in a ratio 1:1 (each unity = 1 line).

I don't know what "Perspective View Grid Extent" means.
 
Hi guys! I had a little weekend hobby project and modeled and textured a building and also made a LOD model for it. I posted the info on reddit with a link to the file in my Dropbox account. I did it to be used for learning purposes if someone is unsure of how we (well, I) do 3D buildings for the game.

More info can be found here: HenkkaArt's fantastical weekend hobby project AKA "How I made an example building, shared it and learned to love it!"/
When I was looking at the files, I was comparing it to what I learned in my 3D modeling class. I am very glad to see many similarities! I can't wait to start making my own assets! ^_^
 
Thank you! :)

I am just missing one bit of information. Can we identify/mark one spot on the footprint that needs to be at ground level? Like if we don't want steps up to the front entrance?
 
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Thank you! :)

I am just missing one bit of information. Can we identify/mark one spot on the footprint that needs to be at ground level? Like if we don't want steps up to the front entrance?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "footprint" or the identifying part but if you want to have the front door starting directly from the 0.0 meters aka the ground level, it is possible. However, I would not suggest to have any polygons going horizontally flat at 0.0 meters since it can cause Z-fighting between the "floor polygon" and the ground mesh itself. Example: You have a building that has a doorway that has a decorative paneling on the ground in front of the door. Rather than setting the decorative panel to 0.0 meters it is wise to lift it at least 10 cm off the floor/ground level to avoid Z-fighting.

Not sure if that answered your question but if not, please elaborate on the subject matter. :)
 
Hi guys! I had a little weekend hobby project and modeled and textured a building and also made a LOD model for it. I posted the info on reddit with a link to the file in my Dropbox account. I did it to be used for learning purposes if someone is unsure of how we (well, I) do 3D buildings for the game.

More info can be found here: HenkkaArt's fantastical weekend hobby project AKA "How I made an example building, shared it and learned to love it!"/

Thanks!!!! I just stumbled upon this post as i try to read all topics here. This should get mentioned also in the Wiki. This is really helpful.
 
Not sure if that answered your question but if not, please elaborate on the subject matter. :)

No it didn't, but that might be because *I* am making a false assumption. I have been assuming that when we make a house, it might be built into a slope, meaning that we have to provide a foundation under the "grid" on our meshing tool that will become partly exposed when the house gets placed. If the front door is half way along the wall, it may therefore be above the ground with a large step down. If that is how houses are placed on a slope, then I would want to place a mark on the house to show, please sink the house so that this point matches ground height in this place.

On the other hand, if the game levels the entire land parcel before placing the house, my question is completely redundant.
 
No it didn't, but that might be because *I* am making a false assumption. I have been assuming that when we make a house, it might be built into a slope, meaning that we have to provide a foundation under the "grid" on our meshing tool that will become partly exposed when the house gets placed. If the front door is half way along the wall, it may therefore be above the ground with a large step down. If that is how houses are placed on a slope, then I would want to place a mark on the house to show, please sink the house so that this point matches ground height in this place.

On the other hand, if the game levels the entire land parcel before placing the house, my question is completely redundant.
I see. The game auto-generates the foundation for any building if there is a slope. All it needs to generate the foundation is that the vertexes that are on the ground level as exactly on the ground level, not 0.01 m above the ground plane. Also, the game tries to level the lot so that the side that is towards the road aka the front of the building is always flat. This ensures that in most cases the front door doesn't have a steep drop even if the building is situated on a slope.
 
Ah right, thanks. It might have been fun to specify our own foundations in case we could use stilts or pillars etc, but at least this clears up the riddle :)
Well, technically if you have the "beginnings" of stilts that are the only things that are at the zero level/0.00m on the ground level, then the game will generate the base using those stubs as the basis for the foundation. Granted, the color will still be the rather neutral grey/cement element style but I suppose it is better than nothing. :)
 
Ah brilliant, that's nice and flexible then. I think we can do a lot with that :)

Now, related, supposing I *did* put some part of the mesh below ground grid - maybe steps from the back door that would become exposed if the back door was above ground. Would the game "cull" that part of the mesh because it had been brought in as below 0.0 metres, or would they show up in this situation?
 
Many thanks, very helpful. It's just what i needed. Very informative the "READ_ME" too, specially about lod.

It's time to start building things!

Summarizing the "ground" objects:

- all ground vertexes must be at 0,0 coordinates
- in case there's any flat area at ground level (for example a patio/courtyard), must be elevated some cms to avoid "Z-fighting"

It is right?
 
Ah brilliant, that's nice and flexible then. I think we can do a lot with that :)

Now, related, supposing I *did* put some part of the mesh below ground grid - maybe steps from the back door that would become exposed if the back door was above ground. Would the game "cull" that part of the mesh because it had been brought in as below 0.0 metres, or would they show up in this situation?
I have to say I am not sure what happens. But in case it didn't just cut out of the part of the mesh, I'd say it would be quite hard to get it look nice most of the time, you know, it being buried halfway below ground.
 
It also occurs to me that, provided there was no culling of below-grid mesh on import, we *could* get our own foundations to show in game by not starting them till below -0.01 in the modeller, and then making them slightly bigger all round than the house itself. Then if the game created cement foundations to match the footprint of the house, they would be covered by our slightly larger mesh. All apart from a very narrow band of cement between the house and foundation. So it all depends on culling.

I have to say I am not sure what happens. But in case it didn't just cut out of the part of the mesh, I'd say it would be quite hard to get it look nice most of the time, you know, it being buried halfway below ground.

Well, with steps often the bottom step is on a slope and the ground may partly cover it. Certainly happens all the time on beach huts lol! There will be modellers who don't mind playing about with this. Maybe we can get some definitive answer about the culling some time.
 
Many thanks, very helpful. It's just what i needed. Very informative the "READ_ME" too, specially about lod.

It's time to start building things!

Summarizing the "ground" objects:

- all ground vertexes must be at 0,0 coordinates
- in case there's any flat area at ground level (for example a patio/courtyard), must be elevated some cms to avoid "Z-fighting"

It is right?
Yes, patios should be elevated although how much is something that requires testing. I'd say that 10 cm above ground should work, even 7,5 cm, maybe. However, I'd take a look at the asset editor where you prop the buildings since there are a few tile textures which combined with the pavement tool can create pretty nice looking patios. If you do a large patio in the building model it can look weird when the building spawns on a slope since the patio will also create the foundation "cement" and look rather funny, so my advice is to keep the patios in the building model to a reasonable size to avoid the issue with the foundation.
 
I've got a question that's also related to the building placement in what will be the "lot editor".

Is it possible to include the lot's ground with the model (if we make the ground the exact size of the lot we want) and specify in the editor that there will be no "normal" ground texture but only the model ?? I ask it in case we want to model a garden with pathways and little pounds or so.
 
It also occurs to me that, provided there was no culling of below-grid mesh on import, we *could* get our own foundations to show in game by not starting them till below -0.01 in the modeller, and then making them slightly bigger all round than the house itself. Then if the game created cement foundations to match the footprint of the house, they would be covered by our slightly larger mesh. All apart from a very narrow band of cement between the house and foundation. So it all depends on culling.



Well, with steps often the bottom step is on a slope and the ground may partly cover it. Certainly happens all the time on beach huts lol! There will be modellers who don't mind playing about with this. Maybe we can get some definitive answer about the culling some time.
There's a tool in the lot editor part where you can cut a hole on the ground in a cell area (the hole will always cover one cell and cannot be cut halfway between two cells i.e. half of the cut is in one cell's area and the other half is on the other cell's area - however multiple cuts will combine into a large cut if they are in adjacent cells). This allows "underground" structures such as cellar doors that are a bit lower than 0.0 to be possible but it requires a lot of planning when modeling to get the underground parts in the correct location. It is also a similar way we created the metro entrance where the escalators go below ground. But it's not exactly the same as what you are describing even though it is in a way similar.
I made a mockup on 3DS Max of how the cutouts will appear when done on a 4x4 cells lot: Mockup of the lot cutouts.