Crystal Junction

[thatmonkeysim 8]

wow shark this looks great!!

i can't wait for the new area to develop!!

[Llama_Sim 0]

WOW! That will develop very nicely! (but I would have opposed the changes too, lol) But this is SC4, and Mayor Knows Best... And I love that big apartment building near the Sandstorm Expressway!

[+Guest]

Great reconstruction, Whiteshark! I like the way the Downtown looks now.
May be you should use no-arrow mod for oneways, I think that will looks better.
Hum.. But in closer view arrows looks great, no doubt

[your_adress_here 11]

yeah...
i'm with sgtcasey, how DID you do that, i mean, its just so awsome
p.s.
you have the best city EVER!!!

[whiteshark365 563]

I used one of marrast's underpass and overpass lot mods.

[sgtcasey 0]

Date: 5/16/2004 1:24:49 AM
Author:

I used one of marrast's underpass and overpass lot mods.

quote>

Thank you! I'll have to go looking for it.

Dave

[Casper3141 60]

the underpasses are in the LEX as well...but man thats a great region all houses....with that and the desert all you need is some farms and it could be home town...lol keep up the good work

[SODATWIN 7]

what program did you use to make this map??

[MTLT_17 26]

BTW do you ever have cars run through your city or did you turn off the car automatta?

 

-MTLT

[ak72 54]

WWWOOOWWW!!! How did you make that map?

 

 

[whiteshark365 563]

Date:4/24/2004 7:28:22 PM
Author:whiteshark365

Creating this map took a number of long tedious steps, and a couple of programs to complete. Here is how I made the map.

 

First I created a blank white jpeg file about 1500x1500 pixels

I then opened each and every city tile and took a screen shot of the traffic map view and then pasted them into the jepg, placing them pixel by pixel together. Medium and small cities i scaled the map by either 50 or 25% the origional size to get all of the map grids to be the same size.

 

After I pasted each map in, I kept sim ciyt opened and manually taced over each highway, avenue, and major road. I then cropped the file so that onle the filled map for the region showed.

 

Next I saved the file uncompressed, and imported it into an autocad file.

 

Since I work as a computer aided drafter, I decided to use my skills at it to create this map. I manually digitized the map on top of the jepg file. I scaled the jepg file so that a large map was 4 x 4 miles in size. I would do kilometers, but miles seemed to be a more realistic size, based off of how many people live in each building.

 

I created a master template of the file after tracing over everything, and then had to add freeway and highway names and so forth on the file.

 

I then created 4 screen shots of the file, and pasted them into a new jepg file and matched each shot up. I then saved the file with as low compression as I could make it.

 

Because I digitized on top of the map, if you were to compare it to the actual simcity files, every water edge, cliffside, and road would match up to that of the actual file.

 

I will be refining the map some more as posting it exclusively on a web site. When I am complete with it I'll be posting the link in the next update. This way there won't be an extremely large file on this post, which will make reading future posts easier. The link will probably be posted sometime later on today, since the refining work is only going to be minor, but the final map will be uncompressed and uncropped. My goal here is to make the map look as if you were panning thru the city on a map program such as rand mcnalley, streets, or on yahoo.

quote>

Users asking about the map:
Answers to Questions. Here above is the eariler post in their fourm about how I created the maps.
This particular map was a modified version of the metro area of Crystal Junction map. It was created by another simtropolis member as a proposal for a beltway, which I am still deciding if I want to build or not.

MLT:
I play the game with all the automata turned off. Since I have large maps almost completely developed, even on my 256M Video card, with half a gig of ram is taxes my system so much whereas to make the cities unplayable if it is on.

[Casper3141 60]

i just love this region

[Overlag 0]

Could you put this region up for download (before city placement?) I like its style Great work o the CJ...Cant wait for next update.

[rewright 804]

Nice detail you have. I have used the overpass/underpass in a couple of places also and they do look good.

[whiteshark365 563]

Wednesday, February 1, 3029

Crystal Chronicles40

[thatmonkeysim 8]

wow this is getting better and better i cant wait for that Sandstorm Expressway Project goes well and the expansion to the commerical district

[lilo & Stitch 0]

You darn region is one of the best out there. You have given me a lot of ideads for mine.

[thatmonkeysim 8]

Date:4/29/2004 4:27:35 PM
Author:whiteshark365

 

Freeway 511 South Right Before Freeway 348 Exit. Freeway Sign.

quote>

 

 

that was your magnifcent freeway signs and it inspired me to try to do it on my own...(using MS Paint)

 

it may not add up to yours but i tried!!

THANKS WHITESHARK!!!

[kabctv 3]

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but for those who are interested in making a wonderful freeway sign, please check out this website: SignMaker .
Once there, make your sign, use Print Screen to save it, then edit it in a paint program to meet your specific needs. It is a truly wonfderful program! By the way, I always enjoy reading this journal, keep the updates coming!

[whiteshark365 563]

Update Status:

Over the rest of the project of Crystal Junction, there will probably not be as many newspaper updates as there have been. Since the city is growing at a steady rate, I'll probably only be posting newspapers updates to note significant occurrences in the city. Most of the updates will now be city updates instead, showing pics of developing areas, and population stats, as well as regional views.

For those of you who have been waiting and wondering when will some skyscraper and high density development occur. That may not be very far off. The city is at 230,000, and as soon as it hits the quarter million mark, I'll be zoning small clusters of high density zoning downtown.

Here is a brief history of the world and where my inspiration comes from for my cities.:

The world of Frontier Point's history begins in 2850 when a group of humans set out from the known explored realm. They went in search of a new world distant from any other contact with humanity, and one where they could practice their beliefs of living a simpler life, like that back in the beginning of the 3rd millennia.

In 2891 after nearly 41 years from setting out from one of humanities inner rim colonies, they found this would on the boarder of a massive nebula, still in the early stages of formation. The atmosphere was 100% breathable, there were few dangerous organisms, or diseases, and a small section of the surface had a low enough level of seismic activity that it could be settled. They named the Planet Frontier point for it being a world in the true frontier of the galaxy, and it being one of the farthest distances any human explorers had explored away from earth.

Frontier Point is a planet about the same size as Earth, same atmosphere, but is much younger then Earth, and it orbits a hotter star then Earth does. The world is only about 1.5 billion years in age, still very geologically active. Most life however is evolving at a faster rate then it did on earth, already there are vast ecosystems, both in the water and on land. The planet also orbits a class F9 star and has no axis tilt. The warmness of the sun, combined with equal daylight on the equator and the poles keeps Frontier Point from having any artic zones, no polar ice caps, and most of the world being either a tropical or desert like environment. Less of the surface is covered in water as well. Roughly 53% of the surface is land and 47% is water. So there is no threat of rising as.

The world is still very different from Earth, especially with it's unique geology. Much of the surface is either towering mountain ranges, massive canyons, craters, deep valleys with incredibly dense jungles, and endless deserts. There is little in the way of snow on the world, except in higher elevations. Rain is only present along bands to the north and south of the equator and along coast lines. Meteor impacts are quite common near the polar regions. Most areas have temps in the mid 90s to 120s year round, without any seasons. Some of the more desert like regions can have high temps all the way to 155

[xiziz 11]

Now that is some real deep story realy nice reading, even for me who dosent do much of it...

Good Luck to you, And may the force be with you!

 

Cheers

[whiteshark365 563]

City Update 17:

Crystal Junction continues to grow at an ever increasing rate. Most of the growth is now primarily commercial business, which are building larger and larger offices downtown. The industrial boom to the south still continues at a steady pace with an overall 58,961 industrial jobs being providing to the metro area. Commercial growth has produced nearly 98,072 jobs. The overall city has reached a metro area population of over a quarter million with 258,714 residents living within the metro area, 228,666 of those within Crystal Junction City limits itself.

The start of high density zoning has begun in 4 block of downtown between First Rd, Market St, and Sapphire Rd. Even though, there has yet to be any large sky scrapper development. Due to most of the growth being along the freeways, there is no plan for any addition highways or freeways to be built for the time being. At the current rate of growth, Crystal Junction is expected to hit 300,000 within roughly 10 more years.

Crystal Junction Regional Satelitte View.

Crystal Junction Regional Transportation View.

Downtown Crystal Junction During the Day.

Downtown Crystal Junction During the Night.

Please as always feel free to comment.

[davidhogan 1]

the growth of this city is some of the most realistic i've ever seen in SC4.

 

too you had to leave earth to pull it off. 

 

dave

[Overlag 0]

i have to say it again, but this is one of THE best CJ's ive seen on these boards...almost like a real city the way its going.

its a shame its growing up, but all cities need to do that, and at least its progressive, and not instant skyscraper land like most peoples cities (including mine)

[whiteshark365 563]

Sunday, May 12, 3034

Crystal Chronicles
40

[vlaz 2]

nice! although i think the parking spaces for the stadium are too small for the thousands coming to the game

[Raziaar 0]

Once again, I really love this city. By far the most interesting CJ I have ever read. Makes me always excited about the game whenever i'm feeling rather bored with it

Just wish I had the ability to create cities like this. I tend to get ahead of myself and sprawl out rather fast, trying to rise ever skyward(maybe because I have *NEVER* achieved really tall buildings)

[thatmonkeysim 8]

wow i cant wait for the skyscrapers!!!

[steveg 0]

As always, I am thoroughly impressed by the urban sprawl of Crystal Junction. It's absolutely amazing. Keep up the awesome work!

[sc4ky 1]

Finally! High Density zoning. I can't wait to see how this turns out. I hope your city doesn't get sky scrappers as you mentioned up there, i hope it gets skyscrapers