Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project (Big Dig)

[MiniMark 7]

Holy Christmas, I Can't wait for the next release any longer ! Great Job on the animated lights as well as making this more and more realistic.

[giorgos69 53]

um...omg.

Your like some freak of nature!!

THIS IS INCREADIBLE

[simzebu 20]

Oh my FREAKING GOD! That is AMAZING! That shot with the RL and yours from the same angle! I think if the road markings weren't raised I might not be able to tell the difference!

[Sim shady 12]

ditto to everything simzebu said! really is amazing what your are doing here just curious, with the OVDS animation, will we actually see truck automa moving down or some kind of truck animation?

[Swamper77 90]

Possibly.....

-Swamper77

[Frankie_Grove 32]

I so can not wait for these to be realeased!

[ICFan 0]

BW! BW!  Mouth Watering!

[blahdy 21]

also, once the curved ramps are completed, the 2nd straight, non-curved ramp will be made, this one will not be a curved one.

This one will be based on a real ramp again in Atlantic Avenue/Financial District, this time more accurately.

To create a nice stylish look, the ramp will be mostly straight, but slightly curved (slight enough to retain mostly 1x tile width), the real version's pic is below. 

You can see that this one is another type-2 ramp, where tunnel boat's walls become slanted as they approach the tunnel.  The picture was taken by someone on internet blog in early 2005 when they were still tearing down the remains of the old Central Artery elevated via-duct and this particular on-ramp was just completed.  You can see that VMS sign and lane control signals still have not been installed at this point, only sign post has been.  (though it's now installed today in 2006):

[zachos-prague 0]

Wow.You have done truly amazing job, blahdy.I can't wait for release

[blahdy 21]

Road surface UVW mapping for curved-ramp is complete.  You can see that tire/usage marks curves along the ramp as well

[Haljackey 17,398]

Just a comment about your off ramp (tunnel exits). You have "only" words and arrows marked on the pavement as to direct which direction traffic should go in a paticular lane. But, if Im not mistake, the road carries onward as a one way road, which is two lanes. Thus, there should be at least two lanes marked for going straight through or "only" going straight through opposed to the one you have marked here. You could mark the right lane as being both a straight and right turn lane by making a similar markings found on the NAM ave/ave intersection.

Anyways, a nice touch with the lighting and overhead signage. This will defineatly push the detail of the game as far as it will go!

[nycsc4 5,250]

amazing as usual!!! can't wait for its release!!!!

[blahdy 21]

haljackey: hrm... not sure... i'm just painting the lanes after the way Government Center I-93 SB exit is done in Boston.

Okay, the transition interface with SC4 road is completed and most adjustments are done.  couple fixes with lane paintings and lighting is the only thing remaining i think before handing this off to modding department:

[blahdy 21]

page flip error

[blahdy 21]

page flip error - 2

[Frankie_Grove 32]

SO AWESOME! i can't wait to plop that in my cities!

[ACEfanatic 7]

omfg ^ 2

For some reason, the signs look a bit underdetailed... I know they aren't, but they look like it.

-ACE

[blahdy 21]

ACE: yea... i changed them to less detailed ones, b/c the real-life version is simple just like that... it just says "NORTH END" and "GOVERNMENT CENTER" on each lane with down-arrow on them...

[Alfred.Jones 2]

These are amazing! You should be very proud Blahdy!

[matsw007 1]

Great work. This awsome.

[Ryan B 35]

I'm liking the lane arrows. Big time. Not the long " ONLY " letters, though? ( Sorry, that's me being a road freak. Disregard if you'd like. )

[blahdy 21]

ryan_sc: i may change it to length it, not sure yet

night lights done:

[Alfred.Jones 2]

That looks insane Blahdy! Cannot wait to see them in-game

[Ryan B 35]

In that case, I pulled these from the ' Pavement Markings ' section of the MUTCD:

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1272/lanearrowmarkingguidelinepg6.png

Hopefully that'll help with scaling, etc.

[blahdy 21]

Thanks to ryanb_sc4, MUTCD pavement marking for "ONLY" + one-way pavement arrows is now implemented as I prepare this model for modding work by Swamper77:

[ACEfanatic 7]

I think "orgasmic" sums this up pretty well...

-ACE

[Sir Gawain 1]

Looks great. Some of the most detailed models in SC4 I have ever seen.

[blahdy 21]

heh, speaking of orgasmic, updating work on curved on-ramp is now started:

Preview render... (yes i know about the green lights in the signals being crooked )

The VMS sign inside the tunnel has been replaced with two lane control signs (LCSes, the bright green arrows inside tunnel).  There is already VMS on approach to the tunnel so it's pointless to have another; and besides bright LED green arrows look cooler

[teddyrised 1]

Thanks a lot for these wonderful lots Blahdy! You're a machine!!! An awesome machine!

I was actually qutie satisfied at the first version of big dig lots... since in my country the tarmac and cement are of distinctly different colour and hue... but thanks a lot for catering to the needs of others. superb!!!

All the best!

[blahdy 21]

Thanks terry

Initial LOD testing by Swamper77 (picture provided by swamper).  The LODing needs to be corrected in a few areas and re-rendered (i.e. right side wall curvature, etc), so this test picture is in low quality... but DAMN... it looks beautiful in-game even in low quality picture