Show us your city, road or transit maps!

[JaneJacobs 1]

Many people have made some great maps for their cities - either road maps, subway maps, Mapquest-style maps, or something else. I thought it would be cool to have them featured in one place and couldn't find a thread like this already in existence (my apologies if one exists somewhere.)

So if you've made an interesting map of your city or region, show us! To be clear, I don't mean "map" as in a terrain you've made or imported or whatever, but a how-do-I-get-around, top-down type view of your city or transit system.

Here, I'll get us started with a work in progress, a map of a city that  may or may not someday see the light of day in a CJ. If you can't tell, it is based on the look of Google maps.

Here's a closeup of downtown, which is mostly done except I haven't gotten all the street names and the subway stops marked yet.

[Sticksboi05 2]

MetroTransit Map for Lexington Metro Area:

If anybody needs a transit map done for their CJ just give me a PM or visit the Simtropolis Map Service Thread.

[JaneJacobs 1]

Thanks for posting, Sticksboi05. Interesting map, looks like the kind you'd see in any big-city subway or other mass-transit system.

Everyone, please feel free to comment on the maps. Also, don't let me limit the kinds of maps you post. I have seen people do maps of their SimCity airports, university campuses, proposed roads, general city neighborhoods, whole countries they place their SimCity cities in, etc. I find these maps interesting and if others do as well, I think it would be great to see any such maps here. So post away.

[luker91 0]

The Skytrans Light Rail and Monorail Map Made for the Skyline Mass Transit Authority

Map made by STMS

[SIMMANIA 4]

For the 2007 Winter Games, here in Novaya Tulsk.

[Mulefisk 15]

JaneJacobs: That map looks awesome! You gotta tell us how you did that.

[hamsterTK 93]

Here's a map i made of a city i never finished. as you can see its not a true map because its got curves but rather a concept....

As for the city, i decided to quit that cj so it was never built. Next city i build i'll map a good map of it though.

[JaneJacobs 1]

luker91, thanks for posting. Looks like an interesting system.

SIMMANIA, thanks for posting. Those maps area amazing. I love the 3D look to the second one.

hamsterTK, nice map. I look forward to the map(s) you create in the future then, since this one is for a city that is no more.

Mulefisk, thanks for the compliment on my maps. You can kind of tell from the first picture how it's done, since it sort of shows the stages. Basically I take a picture of the traffic view, draw the roads, avenues, etc over it. Then you can link all the road lines together and do a "stroke" on the outside, which will give the roads a light grey outline (this is in PhotoShop, btw; the method may be different in other programs.) Then I can color in the background the colors that Google maps uses, for basic background, water, parks, etc. Finally I add street names etc.

[hamsterTK 93]

luker91, you oughta build a short green line extension to West Hills Plaza station so that sims from New Haven and Millwood dont have to transfer all the way at Glenwood to get to the Technology center and the Orange line

[luker91 0]

hamsterTK - thanks for the suggestion.... now that you say that i probably will do that

[jacqulina 162]

hey thats some great work on those maps guys

[Palpatine001 57]

Hey looking good.

Here is an older Regional surface transit network map of Southern Solaria for you.

Now anyone being paying attention to my CJ (search Solaria or Palpatine001 in CJ thread of the forums) will know that there are over 1.1 million sims in the region now and  have to get a move on in getting a new pic up of my updated regional transit network.

Sticksboi, I'll be passing on pics of my subway and and surface rail system for you of Southern Solaria hopefully today for you to do.

[dedgren 830]

I just arrived home from a weekend of camping and saw JaneJacobs (hmmmm- we're in good company here [ linkie ]) invite to this topic.  There's some great stuff here, and it's about time the fantastic mapping efforts many CJers and others have going had their own showcase.

I just have a mo', so here's a recent map from my CJ, Three Rivers Region, where I have a region wide map [ linkie ] under development.

I'll be back to post again later.

David

[hamsterTK 93]

I just arrived home from a weekend of camping and saw JaneJacobs (hmmmm- we're in good company here [ linkie ])quote>

omg zombie jane jacobs!

nice map

[xiziz 11]

cool, il post my airport map when i get back home. im at my cousins place right now(and have been since sunday).

Janejacobs, Btw, what program do you use to make your maps, just Photoshop or some mapping program? I used Excel for my map, which really isnt designed for anything remotly close to the task ^^

[JaneJacobs 1]

I used PhotoShop.

[PhilsCafe 8]

Whoa, some great maps there... compliment guys.

On JaneJacobs invitation, I'm posting a couple of different maps from my CJ.

Some pre-building planning...

A D.C. inspired rapid transit map:

A regional map of the metro area, after the map expansion. Click here to enlarge.

A Google Maps inspired hybrid view...

And finally, a Google Map inspired road map of the city.

[JaneJacobs 1]

Nice maps, PhilsCafe. Thanks for contributing.

[MrFingers 0]

jacobs, I really like the way you developed your road network, it looks very realistic.

[JaneJacobs 1]

Thanks. I'm shooting for realism and sort of based it off Manhattan, with the oldest part of the city at the point of the peninsula with windy streets, then some broad avenues that head off toward wherever, and then a grid taking over for much of the urban part of the city. Eventually there will be a transition to more suburban style development.

[MrFingers 0]

I was about to say in my last post that it looked similar to new york because of the sim's pathfinding it is very hard to replicate a real city and make it functional.

[Camaron 1]

Outstanding work, very realistic transit maps.

[RHMgerards 7]

they all look fantastic, very realistic, looks just like a real map.

[anubis89 108]

wow, they are excellent!

how much time do you need to make such great transportmaps?

[jacqulina 162]

awesome maps guys

[woodb3kmaster 342]

At your request, here's my Nyhaven Metro Rail map, based somewhat on the London Underground maps (though to scale, unlike the real ones):

I made this in Photoshop, though I think I'll change the lines to use the vector-based line tool, which it appears you've used in you road map.

EDIT: I've been wondering just how folks like PhilsCafe and Mr. Beer take the game-angle shots and turn them into top-down versions. I think they looki great that way, like real satellite images!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Hmm, I think I should show Savannah City - I had to reupload this map.

This is of Savannah International Airport.

The entire city, as of June 06.

Link to full size here

Enjoy.

--SA

[JaneJacobs 1]

Awesome maps, guys! I guess I'm weird, but I can sit and look at these kinds of maps for a long time and find interesting things about them.

woodb3kmaster, your system is interesting and I'll be following your journal to see how your characters deal with the challenges of growth and tie the whole sytem together. And I'm hoping there'll be more maps.

I don't use any vector tools myself because I don't know how. I'm using PhotoShop so I don't even know if that's possible. I made all my curved roads by putting down smaller straight pieces at different angles. I'm sure there are easier ways but I was just making it up as I went along.

To get the satellite images, I believe people use RegionCensus then skew the picture into a top-down view. I read a technique for doing this in a CJ but can't remember which one right now.

Shadow_Assassin, those maps are stunning. You've got a really interesting and I think realistic pattern of streets. I'm glad you decided to post these maps.

anubis89, you asked how long it takes. That's probably different for each map and mapmaker. As I said above, I didn't use a tutorial or anything, I just sat down one day and tried to figure out ways to do it. So there was a lot of trial and error and there are probably easier ways to do things. I probably spent the better part of a weekend producing my map, but could do it faster now that I figured a lot of it out.

[Camaron 1]

That is one excellent map Shadow_Assassin, yours is good too woodb3kmaster.

[jacqulina 162]

excellent maps guys