A Mod Idea

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello hawkpride147,

cmdp123789's "sc4Roadformer" is not really so far fetched or impossible - given that we now have the SC4Terraformer, and harking back to the old SimCity Urban Renewal Kit (a.k.a. SCURK), the main requirements are understanding of the transit systems - and decoding of the transit "map" portion of the SimCity-saved-city-files. The NAM team definitely could provicde the necesary understanding of the transit systems - leaving only the transit "map" (vs the terrain "map" that is modified by the SC4Terraformer) decoding to be accomplished.

While the required decoding (of the "transit map" portions of saved-city-files) is not trivial - and will require a dedicated enthusiast to carry the project through - it is do-able. Once this decoding is finished all that would be required is a programming savvy modder to put all the pieces back together - into a region wide "sc4Roadformer" program.

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.

[boon1234 9]

What I was trying to say the mod should be was just simple top view of a selected city tile with the ability to place road, avenue, or highway anyway and then that transit rendered in game normally.

[hawkpride147 1]

yeah a top view is not possible...i knew what you meant...as wonderful as it would be, it would require as simrabbit said, access to the source code...and complete remakes of all the buildings in the game...

[thevinn 0]

Since we are daydreaming, if there is sufficient interest (i.e. developers) I would be more than happy to help implement the pathfinding algorithm using a parallelized method that is suitable for off-loading onto the graphics card (since SimCity isn't particularly graphics-card intensive). There have been a number of research papers written about this subject. Search for "GPU Pathfinding".

Personally I think SimCity is awesome the way it is, I the only changes I would make would be in terms of performance, interface, and slight functionality:

- Faster pathfinding

- Option to hide buildings from the view, showing only their foundation (allow bulldozing, unlike Zone view)

- Customizable, hierarchical menus

- Customizable quick-toolbar, option to show the last 10 tools used

- Improve the TE enabled lots so the pathfinding doesn't shortcut through lots

- Properly set Transit Switch Cost on all lots

- Expand TE lots to better support multiple network types, for example have separate capacity values for each supported network

Better integration of plugins with the game:

- in-game facilities for downloading new content

- dependency resolver that retrieves required dependencies for you in the background

- enhanced BAT/DAT format that provides links to EA-hosted site where each plugin/BAT author gets their own free web page and mod hosting

- quality assurance program that certifies BAT/DAT files to have a basic level of quality, polish, and function

- expand the City Ordinance system to allow for unlimited add-on ordinances with a good programming level interface

- improve the programming level interface to accomodate the new network types (glr, high speed rail, etc)

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello hawkpride147 and boon1234,

Actual SimCity4 source code - with reasonable limitations observed - would not be required for a "sc4Roadformer" program.

By reasonable limititations - I am thinking of limiting the program to working with pre-city city-tiles only, allowing one to provide regional transit prior to incorporating a city, under the presumption that once the city is incorporated (i.e. Started - with a name and a mayor) all such development would fall under that city's jurisdiction. Thus - no buildings (or other developments) would be present to complicate the issues.

For such a limited project - ALL of the parts are available - one just needs to know enough about the saved-city-files to be able to plug the right transit codes into the save-city-file's "Transit Map". At which point some of our more computer savvy folks could provide a UI to allow us to "plop" or "drag" the pieces into place. Then again - one might consider asking for this (i.e. the "sc4Roadformer") and a power-line/water-pipe placing program - as plug-in-additions to the SC4-Terraformer program - so as to allow for a NAM-like-consoladatoin-of-resources.

thevinn:

- Improve the TE enabled lots so the pathfinding doesn't shortcut through lots

- Properly set Transit Switch Cost on all lots quote>

The "Transit Switch" property (when properly configured) already does this. And I, for one, prefer the ability to set the transit switch cost(s) to whatever I would like them to be (over the idea of having a User-Friendly over-ride constantly re-setting these to whatever the not-so-user-friendly over-ride considers to be "proper").

Most of the rest - IMHO - are (as thevinn put it)

... daydreaming ...quote>

-NetPCWorks

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.

[Marcin Z 0]

Maybe it is not good idea: You know that in NY is Central park. I heard, that under it there are tunnels with streets, and you don't need to drive around CP, but you can drive under it. If it would be in Sim City, It would be great. Sorry if my propositions aren't realistic.

[TheCrybKeeper 287]

The ideas in this thread are great ideas. Only SC4 is not a 3dimensional game. The renders are 2D photos. This feature(or fiasco), negates all of these ideas, as impossible within SC4 with it's current code.

Even if you had the source code, in order to do the things you all want, you would need to trash the entire game and make an entirely new SC4.

Thus the comment, "pipe dreams" on page one of this thread.

Flawless City Design?

The reason grids are flawed, when they are also the mathematical answer to utopian city conditions is, The city needs to be gridded left and right horizontally, but must also be gridded up and down vertically.

Think of the 3D chess board in the Star Trek TV program? The experience is on many levels.

Geometrically, a flawless city plan in the real world, requires flawless traffic(All drivers need to be, uni-laterally consistant in their performance). Then you add in multi-level grids, left, right, up and down.

The Borg ship in Star Trek The Next Generation, is a flawless grid system and the Borg would also make quite the perfect commuters too. A perfect city would be a 3 dimensional sphere or box. Nothing else would be successful.

Sorry about my, Star Trek on the brain, but it seems to make a good example of flawless transit design.

[Xyloxadoria 1,099]

Doing this could be possibe if you used an external program. Landscape Designer is similar to Terraformer, but it uses a top down view. The top down view is then made into a format that can be transferd to the game.

That is the only way that something like this could be done. If you could make a seprate program that allowd you to place roads, avenues etc, then used that data and somehow transferd it into the game, it could be done, however i dont see how that could be achived.

[TheCrybKeeper 287]

You are possibly correct Xyloxadoria.

But you are still talking about a brand new render frame being made, for every additional object in the top view. The terraformer is top down because it is just the landscape. Once you add even one building, you must re design the entire building with a new frame render added. This means to make a top down view of the entire game, every building and structure would need to be re-created with an extra view. all STEX material would have to be trashed and re-created. The Plug-in for Gmax would need modifications.

Xyloxadoria, it takes so much time and process, that it would be WAAAy easier to just re-write a new game code.

Again, "Pipe Dreams"

[Pooka 2hot4u 0]

Actually seeing how some of the things on the STEX are made, I believe it may be possible to make roads/highways/railroads/etc. go under a bridge section.

I see that it is possible to create a, for example, 1x1 lot. The buildings will have to be limited to the edges of the lot, but it seems props aren't, they can extend over the edge and overlap with whatever is over that edge.

This can be used to create a 1x1 lot which looks like a regular road/rail/highway/etc. section. Transit enabled and connects to the regular network of that type. But off the edge of that lot will extend a prop of the road or rail surface for 1 or 2 tiles (since maximum width of a bridge is 2 tiles). now you drag a regular road to one side of the bridge, place the lot so the road prop continues under the bridge and continue the normal road on the other side. Now would it be possible to actually make that extended prop to be transit enabled so that traffic can continue along it to the other side of the bridge?

Something to perhaps ponder about for whoever may be interested in making this.

[Marcin Z 0]

Do You remember Sim City 3000? There were lots of funny news in news frame. It was making cities more sentimental for me. I know that in sc4 there are some news like these in sc 3000, but they're boring. I know that some people hates these news but I quiet like it.