SC4Terraformer, a tool for regional handterraforming

[wouanagaine 83]

Any comments for the version in the Modds&downloads should be done in the Support thread

Edited for fast link

v1.1 uploaded on page 28 ( beginning of the page )

v.09c uploaded on page 22 ( post by me in the middle of the page )

v.08c uploaded on page 19 ( post by Ynterboy near the end of the page )

v.07c uploaded on page 14 ( post by Ynterboy in the middle of the page )

v.06g uploaded on page 13

V.06 uploaded on page 8 ( Third post )

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Some interesting posts:

jplumbley has made a mall tutorial on river/hills and mountains

Rayden has made a post on installing DirectX

I made a quick basic tutorial ( a bit out dated )

SmackSims made a quick review of some landscape generators

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Hi everybody

I'm in the process of making a terraformer tool for sc4

here are some shots

my own region

timbuktu

a map made by desz ( Desz Compact Region V12  ) with some sunken highway

the sunken highway in wireframe

this one is edited

I'm willing to know if there is enough of interests in this kind of tools

What is actually done, is the displaying of the real elevation from savegame, you can freely move in

It's in python with C/C++ code, the display is done in opengl but I consider moving to DX as I've done a lot more stuff with DX.

What I plan is to provide tools ( via plugin ? ) to mimics those in the sc4 so anyone can do hand terraforming in region.

Also I plan to have an import/export of the elevation data so handterraformed region can be exchanged.

And if there is still some interest, provide specific tools like 'build a sunken highway from there to there', etc...

Any comments suggestions, etc... are very welcome

[jacqulina 162]

interesting idea. but i would like to see what sort of comments you get and if any ideas nice work by the way

[Simen 1]

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!! This is AWESOME!! I love it! I LOVE IT!!! Nice! finish it! release it! QUICK!!!

[shadow the hedgehog 0]

i know i dont comment a lot in forums but THIS!!!!

YOUVE GOTTA FINISH THIS!!!!

IT WILL BE SO DAMN COOL!!!!!!

yea ill be interested

[PhilsCafe 8]

Wow, awesome idea. It's a revolutionary project, I'm definitely interested in this. It would exceed some more limitations of the game.

[Pekaan 0]

A brilliant idea - getting the corners right when terraforming each town individually can be a bit of a nightmare, so being able to terraform the whole region at one will be a big improvement.

[soldyne 111]

very impressive. I would like to see how these maps look when loaded into the actual game (how the city boundaries look and everything). but otherwise this is a spectacular project. this could revolutionize CJs !

[jasperdeman.nl 1]

OH MY! That looks awesomely promising! But we need some ingame shots to see how it looks (as soldyne said). But this would add another dimension to our regions and cities!

[cowcorn 11]

Great work! I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I'll finaly be able to do my own maps.

[sloppet 3]

that looks great! good work!

[Rayden 7]

I'm definately interested in this one. It will ease a lot the terraforming work when starting a new city, if you do it, it will be a hell of a good job.

[spa 970]

I hand terraform my regions and this would certainly make my life easier. No more carefully making all a city's edge cities before reconciling and no more funny bumps at the corners. I'm quite interested in this.

[Fred_Ginger 1]

I too, would like to see you continue and finish this tool! Please keep in mind the computer (programming) phobes and see if you can make it really easy to use.

[wouanagaine 83]

Ho great number of replies

I've just done a small test for validating the writing code

I've a region build using the CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-R

and a city view

Now I ran the tool and algorithmically ( correct english ? ) scale elevation that are above 300m by 10

I reload the city

it works

but the region view is not updated

so I relaod all the city one by one

and that the updated region view

EDIT : forget to show you a pic in the tool

so I plan to do something about that, updating the png int savegame file should not be that hard

Fred_Ginger, I'm planning to have the same controls as in game, so it should be userfriendly.

Is at ok for everybody ?

And for the phobes part ( I'm not english so I may not have understood it well ) but I was a professional game-programmer and now I have move to military simulations, so I think I can handle it

Well as there is a lot of replies, I consider that I need to get coding right now

[baabaaloo 0]

*jaw drops to the floor* s... s... sw... sw... swe... swe... swee... swee.... sweet!

[Barf 0]

Wow. This thing looks downright awesome. The implications of such a program being available for map making are huge, and it makes me wonder if it's possible to compress the terrain data into some portable format. I imagine it's not possible, even if you omit buildings, trees, etc.; yet, if people are capable of this, then who knows what's possible?

I applaud not only your accomplishments thus far, but those that you will make--and I wish you luck in making them.

[wouanagaine 83]

I've conduct a test on the above region (513x513 ) zipped data is 51ko ( the elevation data )

Unfortunatly the timbukty region zipped is 3.5 Mo.

That's just mean I need to find a dedicated compression scheme. and as the maximum elevation is 3500m, I don't need that much space.

[prince_of_sims 0]

w....o....w

sure will prove useful to mapmakers, CJ designers, and just the average joe player!

i can't wait for a release date... or when i reinstall SC4 on my system...

[subedei 3]

A very nice project. I'm sure it will be a big heit here in the SC4 community. Keep up the great work.

Subedei

[topcliff 1]

this is quite possibly THE GREATEST THING I HAVE EVER F@#$ING SEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TopCliff

[Praetorian Cohort 0]

Wow. I can't wait for this to be finished. Thank you so much.

[choco1 4]

Let the revolution begin....

This is a stroke of genius, and it must have taken alot of work and talent to make this.  I will follow the other comments of this thread and say you must finish this because it would be amazing and fantastic tool, which would change simcity forever.  We will be able to terraform our own regions!  Amazing.

Cheers mate, and good luck, I will follow your progress closely.

[DJGspinNhitz 7]

wow this is really awsome! Can't wait to see how it progresses. I hope there will be terrain tools that are easier to use that the game ones in terms of creating edges for ports and sunken highways.

GQ

[_MostlyHarmless 17]

dude, this looks awesome. Maxis really dropped the ball on this one by "forgetting" to add a region view terrain editor. Nice work so far

[bourneid 13]

holy ((bleep) this is ((bleeping)) great.....ahhh

sorry...my emotions kinda got the better of me...  So let me get this straight...a 3d terrain editor for use with SC4?

will there be preset formations that you can then edit...or you have to do it from scrach?

Of coarse there is interest....I mean come on.....!

 

[hamsterTK 93]

geez! this is cool

[diablo_del_bano 3]

I love it, but I have one question: is it a stand alone app or is it in-game?

[Weird 0]

Originally posted by: chocolatemax285

Let the revolution begin....quote>

Only possible description.

Nuf said.

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

this is a great project indeed!!

[Keiran Halcyon 0]

Hold on now... You mean to say that this program of yours edits and outputs the actual (blank) city files, and not just jpegs? This calls for a custom smilie:

If you can work out a good custom file compression for this data, you need to create an additional tool to extract this data from an existing, possibly developed region, so that people who terraformed with the in-game tools can share their regions without using an unreasonable amount of bandwidth.