okay, 'fixed' that issue i had with the previously uploaded pic (different building heights, making the scale of both feel quite wrong) changed the layout of the corner building to be more simplified to use less lights as well (because i actually had already used that exact same building in another part of the map, and just duplicated it since it featured the desired characteristics, so this way as a heavily altered structure i am confident that i can use both without it being an obvious "hey wait a second i saw that building before..." situation. it now has far fewer brushes. polys went down dramatically, probably to about 60%, but then i put another 2 story tower on top, so lost that gain for the reason of better hiding the skybox seam and to vary the roof heights of the map as a whole.
i have still got to put an entrance onto that corner building tho, which will deviate the ground floor facade and break up the simplistic lines. also maybe some vehicle access roller doors. then some gardens and street lights, bollards, hvac, comms, electricity, water ~ utilities etc. have subtracted the outdoor carpark area and done a basic layout, performs the function i intended, which is; it leaves a large open space that features very little incentive for a player to enter or explore, it is essentially the same function of a 'waist high insurmountable wall' except it is a mental disincentive, rather than a player restriction. if one wants to enter it, there is an impassable gate, and structures which block the player in. but it does so in an acceptable manner ~ to my gaming style anyway, pic tomorro maybe.
just to re-stipulate my excuse for the jarringly bad graphics; textures are unaligned and unscaled. lighting is still in its infancy, also there is a zone light just so i can see in the areas not yet lit (a large percentage of the map), and i have it set at .6 brightness, which looks much nicer than this which is at 1.
that building doesn't have glass on the windows yet, due to my tex at 512x512 not scaling easily, which was an oversight on my part when i made the texture, still undecided if it should be hollowed out or not, will be enterable as a self contained map for explorers, i can hide my truck models, forklift, palletized cargo and whatnot. it would be great if it could be part of the street map itself, but too many polys for the pallet rack shelving, workbenches and interior detailing. and a ton of models of course, i imagine 3 to 5 meg total, load time will be negligible, reward will be minimal, ie. it won't be littered with a ****-ton of lockpicks and multitools, more or less it'll just be there for the sake of being there. with some loot as a thankyou for visiting
its still really high on earthy tones. got some neon (not for this part really tho) and a massive pain in the butt set of alloy scaffolding etc which would look just good on the corner building. will leave such things until later tho