City of EDMONTON

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

Edited : Former Page Header

[6459978. 106]

Hmmm I think you've really struck on something here!... You suggested ploppable props, which, with the exception of flora and water I don't believe I've ever seen before. From what I hear, the process to make an object mayor mode ploppable isn't that tough. And small models like tables would be a breeze. Perhaps you could even place them in a prop group so that they would have a random distribution.... If this gathers momentum and you find someone who can make the props mayor mode ploppable, I might be interested in whipping out some BAT models as props.

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

City of Edmonton
How the accuracy is made and the roads are laid.

This city journal is over 2 years old now. I would like to show exactly how the regions begginings where made. Later in the CJ I will show how the buildings, parks, and other areas are accurately placed.

To show how the scale is used I will use Sherwood Park. The current area I am working on and expanding. This will also give everyone perspective of just how accurate this City Journal is compared to all others. And also explain why in 2years only half the city is done. To lay roads out for just the area of 1 small city map takes around 1 hour.

Here is the Sherwood Park area...

Here is a scanned picture of my old beat up map. This shows exactly how the scale works. I will often measure from grid lines and other roads several times to get it exactly where it should be.

And here is the scale I use. The scale took about 3 days to come up with. This is the most important thing when your remaking a real city. If its off you can run into alot of headaches down the road.

This is an in game picture of a half finished area. I lay power lines down every 64 tiles so the grids shown on my map show up. From there I use these as markers to measure from. Its alot easier then taking huge measurements.

An in game picture of the transportation map in progress.

And last a map from yahoo to use to compare with...

Any questions please ask....

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

Edmonton cracks 500,000...
The real city of Edmonton Metro is 1,014,000 and the recreation should easily pass this number. 500,000 isn't much in the game of sim city... but 450,000 of this is residential housing with a good percentage of those marked historical so no housing will grow into the larger R$$$ lots. Imagine laying out a few hundred thousand in housing and having to check off the historical box on every 3rd house...

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//City%20of%20Edmonton%20Expanded7886.JPG align=baseline>

[Simen 1]

Im getting more n more impressed by this every day! But I must ask, what is the trick to making the streets fit so exactly to the map when as far as I know, there still only are straight and diagonal streets to build with?

[sloppet 3]

your're da man!! great work!

[E.J.C 9]

it's cool to see a view in the kitchen of Edmonton

 

 

really admire your work, I mean.. I have to have patience with my new york city but this is just stunning

 

 

by the way, how large is your region (without the sherwood area)?? 5x5 large city-tiles??

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

E.J.C. - The city in small tiles is....

Edmonton - 19x20 small cities (1216x1280 lots) 1,556,480
Sherwood Park - 6x8 small cities (384x512 lots) 196,608
Elerslie Road - 8x2 small cities (512x128 lots) 65,536

So 444 small city tiles to fill, or 1,818,624 tiles to fill...

Simen - If you look at the picture above with the roads and power lines you'll see how its done. The roads and avenues slowly stagger in areas and then sharply turn in others...In the small picture you can't always see how it curves and turns... But when you step back and look at it and use proper measurements the big picture resembles the real thing quite well.

[louisville327 0]

Thank you for outlining your use of scale---it's very interesting.

How much expansion to the map are you planning? I'm sure there are other portions of Edmonton that fall outside of your allotted region map (like Sherwood Park used to). Can we expect more outer areas to be added in the future?

As always, amazing CJ. Keep it up!

[Simen 1]

okay, so including the brilliant way you have of measuring areas, you use sort of the same teqnique as in the curved highway tutorial in city-building concepts?

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

louisville327 : I'm not planning anymore expansion right now..... but there is always the chance. It is easy to expand to the south and the east...but to the north and the west I would have to export and place every city back in place after a new jpeg is made.... but with going east and south you just add to the jpeg and go on playing. This is true for any region.

Just north of the map is a large military base and landing strip. South is the Internation Airport and a few towns. To the West, North, And North East is a couple more towns of various sizes. In real life there within 10minutes of Edmonton. But to include them in the region I would have to expand quite alot.


Simen : I haven't checked out that tutorial. But making up curved roads in any style of region isn't that hard. You just have to use simple math and keep to a pattern. As for remaking them in game...Its just using the game to its limits and taking measurements to double check and line all up....

[1ajs 49]

hey devil txs for your numbers lol nice job though see what i have done to -*TDK*- latly lol great job youy changed my bias on your city

[ChicAgo333 2]

Ah, it's been a while since I've seen Edmonton, and I'd have to say, I'm really glad to see simtrops #1 voted realistic city on the site once again! Everything looks great, looking forward to more

[1ajs 49]

umm what do you mean?

.but to the north and the west I would have to export and place every city back in place after a new jpeg is made.... but with going east and south you just add to the jpeg and go on playing. This is true for any region.

[your_adress_here 11]

Wow, awesome job there TJD! Keep up the great work!

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

How to extend your region in SimCity....

1. Open your region file.... (Example)
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\City of Edmonton

2. Open up your config file with MSN Paint. You should see  a picture like so.... (when magnified / zoomed in).
This is a picture of the original City of Edmonton config.

3. Now when you go into your attributes (picture dimensions) you will see your config size/region size. For Example the picture above is 19x20. Each is number is equal to one small city in the region.

4. Why is there different colors?
Red - Small City (1x1)
Green - Medium City (2x2)
Blue - Large City (4x4)
When you add to your region you must use these colors. Aswell as use them in the right sizes for each city size. For each color the value must be 255. So for red the amount of red must be 255 with the green and blue saturation being less then 255 each.


5. How do I expand it?
If you have a 19x20 Region go into your attributes and change them. For Example I changed Edmonton to 25x22 for the expansion. Now you will notice a blank white area added to your  config. Depending on what city sizes you want you can add the proper color and size for each lot as shown above. You can add to make different shapes if you wish. Any white area left wont show up in the game.


Note : When you add to the attributes (size of the config) it always goes to the right (east) and bottom (south). So this limits how and where you can expand.
If you wanted to expand in the other directions you would have to move all of your previous config into the expanded area. But to do this it gets complicated. You will need a second copy of the region (old copy). Now when you enter your new altered region you will notice all maps are blank and moved. Now you will have to hand copy and place every city in its right spot. On the bright side you would have new land to the North and the West but you would have to do alot of work.

6. Now this is Edmonton Expanded. And shows how it should look if you expand your region.

7. You can also fill in colored areas with white to take areas out of your map, or even shrink your region if you want.
Also before rendering maps you can change your config (exsisting cities only, no adding land at that point) to get different city sizes.
And if you do change city sizes in an exsisting regions or already rendered regions you will end up with flat blank maps in the altered areas. Loosing previous land or cities.

Please ask any questions if you have them. And back up any region you are going to try this on.

[1ajs 49]

heh that help but whats the maxium size you can make lol

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

Ajs : Pending on your computer you could make any size. earth if you wanted.

Edmonton : here is a look at the Edmonton Expanded Map as shown just the other day but with a google earth picture at somewhat the same angle. Edmonton is also done in half winter and summer if your wondering about the colors. How fitting lol.

 

[louisville327 0]

Thanks a ton for that tutorial on expanding regions! And as for YOUR region, it looks fantastic as always.

Here's to another Trixie!!

[jacqulina 162]

very nice updates looking really good

[Justin82 0]

Hey TDJ, a great job once again.  Hope this all pays off in the end with a cozy seat in City Council and some sort of city planning position!

[____----____ 37]

i just wanted to say i feel your pain with the historical markings

every residence in my entire region is historical so i can relate

to the task, anyways again this looks great

 

Alek

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

Edmonton and Alberta....

Many on Simtropolis know me to be very proud of Edmonton and Alberta (Canada to if it wasn't for the east). And many of those who follow this City Journal know I like to add real life content to the recreation to give everyone a feel for the real Edmonton.
Edmonton and Alberta are among the strongest and fastest growing economies on earth. And with no debt and nearly 10billion in surplus each year our future is looking very bright. Alberta is home to more Oil then the United States has of there own and rights to. But to think Alberta only has oil is out of the question. Edmonton is host to Canada's most diverse economy. Everything from construction to nanotechnology.
Also having Canada's highest rated health system (capital city health by MacLeans Magazine) and the worlds second best school system (Alberta 2nd to Hong Kong by the United Nations).
With so much oil and extra money each year the Alberta government has also decided to give every man women and child $400 each at the end of this year. There is over 3million people in Alberta...
Now only if we could have our 25C summers for more then 5months..... I'm not looking forward to winter...

Here is an article that stood out today at work. It gives a good perspective of where our economy and standard of life stand vs anywhere else.
https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Alberta%20Boom.jpg align=baseline>

[hyped_up_boy 15]

so cool, i wish i could do something like this.  keep up the good work!

[Alakazam 3]

Stunning! Great work here buddy, that region view look so realistic.
Even more realistic than life O_o XD

Realy good work! Thank you for sharing this to us!

[Oilers1988 0]

Great looking City, once I get the hang of creating buildings I'll see if I can create Rexall Place, or the entire Northlands complex. It would also be nice to see a Spruce Grove/Stony Plain area, I'll see what I can do there as well, gimme a holler, a__m__t@hotmail.com

[Chris M 406]

Nice! I really like the pics of the whole region, and of the Google earth shots. Cool idea of comparing them.

[GingerBlokey 30]

Your way of working is fantastic. Im really inspired by you to recreate my home town, I probably wont, but you have inspired me to think about maybe perhaps doing it

[Fabiocb 1]

Hey man, i got to tell you, this is awesome and the planning is so precise, really great

 

[TheJerseyDevil73 13]

Oilers1988 : I've started work on the Coliseum area. one reason I haven't show it yet is I need many more lots that fit the real thing before I relase one of its edits.

Gingerblokey : If you do decide to your own hometown I'll be happy to help if you have any questions.