BCS Street props

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Trenton Shaffer   (Nov 15, 2007 at 04:13 GMT)   Resource Rating: 2

Urban Pack
garagegames.com/products/60/

Pretty much just the Urban Pack with a few extra/different models. I think these packs are cool, but seriously, who can't create a cylinder, octagon, rectangle mesh and slap some textures on it. Take your digital camera out, or visit one of the millions of sites on the Internet and get yourself some textures. I walked 10 feet outside my condo door and took two pictures of a stop sign, opened 3DSMAX and made an octagon, extruded it, made an elongated rectangle for the post, editied the photos in photoshop and saved them as my texture, applied the texture to the model and had a photo realistic stop sign in about 5-10 minutes.

With that said, if you don't have the tools or resources to make your own, this is a good buy.

Robert Brower   (Nov 15, 2007 at 09:35 GMT)

Trenton, If people were discouraged to do something just because someone else had already done something like it then we'd still be slinging rocks at sabre tooth tigers and sucking albumen out of dodo eggs. To answer your question, I'm sure there are plenty of game making hobbyists who don't have the first clue about how to model a stop sign and don't have the patience, time or money to try. This creates a market for just about any kind of game ready art and where there is a market there is potential sales. But I agree with most of your last sentence except that I think this pack is slightly overpriced.

Andy Hawkins   (Nov 15, 2007 at 13:20 GMT)

Nice work Tim. It's always good to have these sorts of objects ready-made. Yes they are like the Urban Pack but there is still more there making it a better buy.

Aaron E   (Nov 15, 2007 at 13:25 GMT)

Hi guys, just some thoughts from a slightly different perspective . . .

@Tim

I was wondering about you the other day. It seemed like I hadn't seen you around here lately. This looks like a nice pack. Although I'm not a C4 user, it's nice that you added that format in. From your post, it seems like you are providing assets that are not in some competing products, like normal maps, for example. That's cool.

@Trenton

As you know, making game-ready models has a number of facets. Sure there is the modeling, which can be pretty simple, depending on the authoring tools available and the skills at hand. But another issue is appropriate UV's and believable texturing. That aspect alone has stymied lots of beginner artists out there. Making normal maps can also be a daunting task for some people. However, probably the most frustrating thing for some neophyte modelers is exporting their stuff into a game engine. I know I struggled with that early on. I now have the tools and skills to build these on my own, but that wasn't always the case for me and I'm guessing a lot of other people out there.

@Robert

I see where you're coming from on the pricing, but there are several other issues that I consider when looking at a content pack. If Tim has a generous EULA that allows for the models to be used on more than one game, then I would have to say his model pack is priced very well.

Weston's urban pack (sold through GG) is very nice, but the EULA only allows for use on one game (per license). Also, his urban pack has an alternate Commercial license of $100 for people making educational games and simulations -- and the commercial license is still on a one game basis.

Some of us are trying to reach learning markets with Torque and happen to be on a tight budget. For us, we are still considered Commercial users, even though we often make way less than $250,000 annual income. Because of our status, we must plan ahead and budget for 'commercial' versions of everything from code addons (like Faust Logic's nifty AFX) to art packs (like Todd Pickens' excellent environment packs). While I don't begrudge these developers from making a little extra money from their work, I'm just pointing out the financial realities of using their packs.

Tim's urban pack may eliminate that potential headache for potential content licensees.

Tim Heldna   (Nov 15, 2007 at 22:48 GMT)

Hi all,

Yeah your right I haven't been around much lately. I've got a new job and that doesn't leave me much spare time for now. I've been working in C4 a lot lately and made some serious progress, thats why I've created the second max file with the C4 option.

@ Arron
I never thought of the EULA aspect, cheers for the extra selling point and some good points raised!

If people think that 30 big ones is too much I will reduce the price to make it more competitive.

Stuff it... the price is now $25.00

@Trenton
This pack is designed so that even someone who can model these geometries who doesn't have the time, programs, skill, or just can't be bothered. As far as the models go, I spent a lot of time making sure each model is clean, everything named, clean UVW mapping, no STL errors , transforms, 3 texture maps with all layers that I used for editing intact, collision, rigged for export and fully tested in game, 2 formats, somethings that couldn't be done in 15 min and the models definitely don't have a photo slapped on a model and calling it textured. I'd never release something created in 15 min, its my reputation on the line and creating a quality product is my main priority. The way that I look at it is that the simplest model in a level deserves as much attention as the more detailed and that takes time. Even more so on simpler objects to make the model appear more detailed than what they are, by layering on things like rust , dirt, wear, etc.

I'm not trying to compete with the Urban Pack, I'm just trying to generate a little interest in a product I have created. I've exported it to Torque, so I'm letting the Torque community know that this is available.

But you know, your entitled to your opinion as I am to mine and thats fine, no harm done.


@All

Cheers for the comments all!!

Andy Hawkins   (Nov 15, 2007 at 23:21 GMT)

Very cool. You know I would need like 30 misc objects like this. Add more and you could charge $40.

Tim Heldna   (Nov 15, 2007 at 23:31 GMT)

As we speak I'm working on my next series, this one is focused on interior objects. 1 done 14 to go. =). I will create another street props pack, but after this one. I also want to update my rocks set, that is to add more models also C4 directory structure has changed so I need to change that to suit.
Edited on Nov 15, 2007 23:39 GMT

Trenton Shaffer   (Nov 16, 2007 at 17:21 GMT)   Resource Rating: 2

Definitly don't stop Tim, you do good work and your models are professional and clean looking. I wasn't saying your models took you 15 minutes, I was saying I could duplicate your stopsign model in 5-10 minutes with good UVW mapping, collsion, clean, professional, etc. Short of testing it in game, which would really only be about 5 more minutes for a stopsign model. This is merely because I have been creating 3D mesh models since the early 90's, both for video games and still renders. I have 3DS MAX, Maya, Photoshop, Premier, Milkshape and many more software titles that make the job simple. I own a killer digital camera and HD video camera, plus a great computer system / environment at my disposal to bring it all together. I also live in Phoenix, AZ. I can easily go out and get urban photos to use as textures.

So as you can clearly see I fortunately have the tools, resources and know-how just as you do to create my own models. If you can sell them and make a profit, more power to you brother. :)

I also don't mind buying models every now and then. I've actually purchased the majority of the character packs and model packs here at GG. However, I typically only buy packs that include the source art (such as your pack). I love being able to add my own style to these packs that way my artwork doesn't look like the majority of the artwork out there.

Stephan (viKKing) Bondier   (Nov 17, 2007 at 19:20 GMT)

It looks really good and support of Diffuse, Normal and Specular is quite a good idea.

I have one question though: why an air conditionner needs a 512 x 512 textures?
Of course, new computers have video cards embedded with more memory than some machines (!), but does such a small model require a so large texture?

Tim Heldna   (Nov 18, 2007 at 14:25 GMT)

@Stephan

The way I look at it its not hard to scale the texture down to 256 x 256 if you like and re-save it. If I leave it as 512 then you have the option of leaving a more detailed texture if you like.

@Trenton

What version of max did you start on? I remember my beginnings in the early days using max 4.

Trenton Shaffer   (Nov 21, 2007 at 02:11 GMT)   Resource Rating: 2

@Tim
3D Studio MAX R2.5 was where I picked it up. It was pretty solid back then, had MAXSCRIPT and good plugin support. I currently use MAX7. I've tried the newer versions and they are great, but MAX7 works sooo well, even on my Vista machine, I've yet to upgrade past that.

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