Creating a station for Cities Skylines with Blender 2.81 [Timelapse]

[@simongeard4824]

I do love the way you've replicated all these different stations. In the real world, no two stations are identical, and often don't even much resemble others in the same city - but in CS, there's only a tiny number of train (one) and metro (surface and elevated) stations, so things do end up being somewhat unvaried. So nice work!

[@Sportsmonkey]

Really cool modeling / mod building for cities skylines

[@eliandean9806]

I realize I am kind of randomly asking but does anybody know of a good place to stream new series online ?

[@adrienjairo6750]

@Elian Dean I use Flixzone. Just google for it =)

[@barteener2341]

great job, mate!

[@owiejuan4397]

what an amazing build!

[@yanntuto5654]

woaww ... bon travail bravo

[@ChiChungHu]

Great work! What is the addon that displays object dimensions in the video?

[@randompolygon]

Thank you. Do you mean the edge length? It is not an addon. In older blender versions you can find that option in the viewport overlays button. In blender 4.0 there is a new button in edit mode, right next to the viewport overlays button, where you can enable edge length and other measurement options.

[@ChiChungHu]

Thank you! 😊

[@tkokflux6322]

so fucking cool

[@DaJeanius]

great work.

[@C.I...]

6:49 Could you explain what you're doing with nodes and stuff? I have no idea how when you delete nodes the model retains the settings. And how do you know that Cities Skylines will respect the things you do, when it uses non-standard texturing methods (like having white be 140RGB etc.) I'm about to start texturing my first station asset, and I don't want to get it all wrong.

[@randompolygon]

Hey, nodes are really hard to explain in a few sentences, if you never worked with them before. But they are really awesome! Maybe you try watching some beginner tutorials (I learned it that way too). But I basically use PBR textures mostly all the time which you have to connect with the Principaled BSDF shader. Sometimes I do some tweaks manually. At 6:49 I am just using a "texture" I created myself with Inkskape to do the handrails. The textures has only black and white parts. Luckily in blender and in-game the black parts will be transparent, using the alpha channel. I had to arrange and zoom the projected handrails-texture - that is what I am doing with the Mapping node. I hope I could help a little bit. Since there are more of these questions recently, I am thinking of maybe doing a tutorial. But I am not very confident to record my voice and especially my English yet :D

[@C.I...]

@@randompolygon I would really appreciate a tutorial, even in broken english - I'm just really interested because you're doing it so differently to the CityWokCityWall tutorial, yet you're still getting results. I'm particularly interested in how much of the BDSF settings actually work in cities - CityWokCityWall implied that cities does it differently to blender, so what works in one might not work in the other. For instance, does setting a different material to specific parts in order to very specularity work in Cities? I thought you had to make a special specularity map texture.

[@randompolygon]

​@@C.I... I'll think about it :) PBR textures always worked for me. Of course there are some maps like height/displacement or metallic where C:S does not know what to do with. But the diffuse, normal or specular map you get from the PBR texture pack always works.

[@C.I...]

@@randompolygon Also, quick question - do double sided faces work in CS? I've been doubling and flipping 2d faces I need to see both side of so far.

[@randompolygon]

@@C.I... exactly, you have to double side the faces (the ones you want to see from both sides). otherwise one side will appear transparent in-game

[@coomtard8218]

Looks amazing. Definitely downloading this on the workshop!

[@colinm1170]

can you make or do you have a video on how to import models from blender to skylines

[@randompolygon]

I thought about doing a video that shows all important steps from modeling to importing to Cities Skylines, making a simple residential building. But I will need some time

[@vercauteren81]

@@randompolygon would be helpfull

[@EggsBennett1973]

How do you snap the station to the train tracks? please reply asap. thank you.

[@randompolygon]

Do you mean in-game? I’m not exactly sure if I understand your issue. Please try to be a bit more specific. I hope I can help then

[@MatokAKAM]

@Random Polygon - Nice timelapse. Sadly this does not help me with my own train station I m making. I am stuck getting the textures on it. I am also using Blender, but I drew my station using SketchUp.

[@randompolygon]

Thank you :) Maybe watch some UV mapping tutorials. That's how I have learned it. But I have also planned to do a short series on how to make a simple building in blender for cities skylines (not a real tutorial, but a follow along). If I only had more free time atm... :(

[@MatokAKAM]

@@randompolygon I have seen a lot of videos on how to use Blender. Frankly, I find many of them confusing and not very helpful. I have found others that do steps a, b, and c then jump to steps g, h, i, without explaining or showing steps d, e, & f. I have gotten everything on my UV Map, and right now I am just trying to figure out how to do the next step.

[@randompolygon]

@@MatokAKAM ok i think i understand. you made the texture using SketchUp. so the texture is already finished? and now you want to put in on the object in blender right?

[@MatokAKAM]

@@randompolygon - Do you have Discord? I can explain what I have done and show my progress so far there much better. If you do have a Discord, please add me. My name there is Matok1971#6137

[@wangzig9800]

cool modeling, would you please, demonstrate how to export from blender and import into skylines? I know other ways using 3ds max. but UV is different in blender. thanks

[@randompolygon]

Thanks. I export the model as .fbx file with default settings and in Cities Skylines I set the object's scale to 100. Do you know how to bake the UV textures in blender? If so, you just have to save them with different name endings, e.g. objectname_d for diffuse, objectname_n for normal etc. The fbx file and the PNGs must have the same name of course. I'm working on different stuff atm but maybe I have some time in the future to make a tutorial including all steps of how to create a simple building in blender and how to import it to Cities Skylines.

[@ercanasker1]

@@randompolygon hello ı'm a new creater as assets in cities skylines. but ım using sketch up and 3d max (auto desk) for export. but my problem is ı can't export all groups or metarials in one file as fbx. if u know that please tell me.

[@randompolygon]

@@ercanasker1 Exactly. The fbx-file only contains the mesh of your model. So it will appear all white in-game. You have to bake your materials on a texture map. Do you already have UV unwrapped your model and baked the texture maps? If so, export your texture maps as png-file and put them in the import folder, there were your fbx-file is. The game will recognize it automatically. But the texture map has to have the same name as your model. So e.g. for "building.fbx" name it building_d.png. "_d" means that this is a diffuse texture. This one gives your model the base textures and colors. There are other kinds of texture maps as well, like alpha, illumination, specular and normal map ("_a", "_i", "_s", "_n"). I hope I could help a bit. Maybe I'll make a tutorial one day.

[@ercanasker1]

@@randompolygon ı think u understand wrong little bit, ı know that already ı have created 2 asset now. but this is not my problem. maybe ı must show that as a picture but unfortunately there's no picture option for sharing. so for example ı came 3d max as import and opened the file and ı see a lot metarials and groups. ı'm doing ungroup for metarials and they just going, then without metarials the main model not enough for export. hope u understand this time.

[@ercanasker1]

@@randompolygon so ı'm saying maybe u know a way for them with all metarials in one file ı can export them together. without any lose on my model.

[@Lucrativecris]

Aye bro you should make the blue line stations since it is one of the first lines to be built in LA

[@randompolygon]

Is there a particular one you would suggest?

[@Lucrativecris]

@@randompolygon i actually love the stations you made! I wish there was more LA trains i would love to see the nippon sharyo P865 and the breda A650 It would be cool to see them have the classic paint and the modern one i suggest Slauson Willowbrook station.(Trasnfer point Ground and above ground station connecting Blue and Green line) Downtown Long Beach Pacific or 5th st station (Single track station) And maybe put some Red/Purple line underground station I know its alot but I dont mind having any of these suggestions. Btw is there a way to add announcements on the train it would be perfect having them.

[@randompolygon]

@@Lucrativecris Thank you for the suggestions! Willowbrook/Rosa Parks station sounds great. I will add it to my list. Currently university keeps me busy, so it will take some weeks untill I have time for new content :/

[@Lucrativecris]

@@randompolygon Thats awesome! The station is built on a freeway and on the ground!