Philadelphia, PA

[Joe887 0]

Hello everyone:

My project is to create a realistic interpretation of Philadelphia.

I haven't visited Philadelphia, so please let me know if there are any errors.

Note that here is another Philadelphia Journal here:  https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=86182

Now the pics!

Initial Render

The region is 8x8 large city squares.  I created the map from USGS data following the7trumpets' method, except I set the water depth to sea level and I used the erosion mod by moganite to prevent the land from being distorted.  Of course, this means that I have to edit the terrain afterwards.

Also note that I rotated the map 9 degrees counter-clockwise so that most of the main streets would line up with the grid.

I think this weird hole is a gravel pit or something

This is how the water looks before terraforming

And after

Edge reconciliation is evil!  I do everything by eye.

Terraforming is (mostly) complete and I am ready to start construction.

I will plop in all the streams, etc. later on.

Next step, transit networks!

[Amerikaner 42]

ohh my that is lookin pretty sweet...you have some god-gifted terraforming talents i couldnt do stuff like that lol good job my friend cant wait to see more lol

[granto93 4]

wow, looks pretty cool! Philadelphiaish terraforming is great. cant wait for some development. i will be back!

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Cool!!! Now all I need is a scratch n sniff screen for the cheese steaks!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PennDOTguy 5]

I'm from the Philadelphia Area. I'm looking forward to see what you do with this.

[Cleaner475 150]

looks nice, good start but put your pics of the page instead of having links bvy using the brackets (note: if you don't know how to do this see the creating a city journal thread)

good work, keep it up,

Richard

[sims co. 0]

Wonderful work, I love the terrafroming. Can't wait to see some development!

[patriots_1228 51]

woah dude can you tell me how you rotated the map? im recreating boston, and im having making the streets cause of the angles.

[jacqulina 162]

great start and intro my friend,nice work on the region there great pics

[ODST_27 1]

Oh, wow! Terraforming looks great. Good luck.

[Joe887 0]

Thank you for the replies, everyone.

Originally posted by: cleaner475 looks nice, good start but put your pics of the page instead of having links bvy using the brackets (note: if you don't know how to do this see the creating a city journal thread)

good work, keep it up,

Richardquote>

I will do that except for the region shots, which cannot fit in 800x600.

Originally posted by: patriots_1228 woah dude can you tell me how you rotated the map? im recreating boston, and im having making the streets cause of the angles.quote>

I use the GIMP for image editing, found here: http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

After installing, click on File --> Open to load your map

Then click on Layer --> Transform --> Arbitrary Rotation to rotate the image

Click on Image --> Canvas Size to get rid of the corners

Click on Image --> Flatten Image

Then click on File --> Save As to export the finished map

You can also use the GIMP to scale your map, etc.

Photoshop will do the same thing, but that program is too expensive for me.

[Schulmanator 5,787]

I use paint.net. It's quick and easy. You can resize and change to jpg in a flash!

Looking forward to your next update.

[Hester 699]

OH man..I am in hog heaven! First, I have Trenton (N.J.) and now Philly!!!!!!!!!!!! I learned to drive in Philly! Now that was an experience! I am not FROM there but I am familiar with the City. Good luck. Don't forget Independence Hall.

[Abc987 3]

good luck!!! many of the great CJs out there are recreation CJs, maybe this will be one of them!

[beachfrontproperty 0]

im from south philadelphia, terraform is a thumbs up, lets see how you do with the city...

[penguin007 27]

looks a great region with a lot of attention to detail

Will

[Joe887 0]

Quick update:

I've put in a lot of plopped water.  Here are some streams.

There's the reservoir.

Has anyone else had these mismatches in the terrain texture?  That's the Meadowshire Terrain Mod hosted on SC4D.

I've started laying out the downtown area.  I'm not going to have the exact same grid because SC4 doesn't scale accurately.  The super-blocks will be 14 by 14.  That lets me do this--

--so there will be three blocks of row houses in each super-block.

[FissileBread 0]

Whoa, looks great! Very nice terraforming and good job with the ploppable water.

[scififan68 23]

 WOW!! That is some nice looking terraforming. Great work

[lucky7 73]

Excellent use of ploppable water and very good terraforming!!! I like your idea of changing the maps angle to lay out the streets easier. Looking forward to more,

lucky7

[jacqulina 162]

great use of the plop water nice results there my friend

[patriots_1228 51]

nice terraforming. i hope someone makes the comcast cneter for this.

[Joe887 0]

I want to make sure everyone is clear:  this region was imported from a scale-accurate image generated from USGS data.  I did not terraform it, aside from some touching up.

That is all

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Good progress. This is gonna be sweet! I still want my cheese steak!

[Hester 699]

Row houses...YES!

[Curtis78 2]

looks great, I used to live near Philly in a suburban town called Doylestown

[AceofSpades 1]

The ploppable water looks awesome. Great job on the region because it looks awesome too.

[osirisg89 0]

Originally posted by: Curtis78 looks great, I used to live near Philly in a suburban town called Doylestownquote>

I used to live in Philly, but moved to the burbs.  Thats funny you say you lived in Doylestown, as I live 5-10 mins away and know many people who live there.

Anyway, I hope to see this city thrive because I love Philly.

[Joe887 0]

Update 2:

The grid is starting to take shape.

[tomdapom 79]

I can't believe no-one has posted yet?!?! Anyway, that is looking pretty good. Keep up the good work!