District of Wenzel | Update 116 - (Ouisconsin County) Morgan Town: Rival to the South

[simlink 1,098]

Superb update, really cool seeing the area as it sprawled out. Gives a nice sense of history to your work.

[coolwiththecool2 827]

Stunning! I hope this cj stays alive when SC 2013 comes out....

[_marsh_ 1,118]

Wow, how the city has grown since the last time I've checked in. I regret I lack the time to read every update until now, but it looks like you're doing a great job as usual. Keep up the good work, and most importantly, keep having fun!

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments:

City_Master: Your suburbs are just beautiful!

Thanks. Hopefully my game still works, so I can continue!

wwetom1: Wow! I love those mosaics

Thanks, mosaics are fun.

vivapanda: I like the subtle editing you apply to every picture.

Magnficent suburban scenes and side information!

Thanks, trying to get better with the side information. Yeah, I'm always worried I edit the pictures a little too much.

sim_link: Superb update, really cool seeing the area as it sprawled out. Gives a nice sense of history to your work.

Thank you, always like to do some time-lapsing.

TayMay27: Stunning! I hope this cj stays alive when SC 2013 comes out....

It will, if my game continues to survive, I'm having trouble loading any of my tiles!

_marsh_: Wow, how the city has grown since the last time I've checked in. I regret I lack the time to read every update until now, but it looks like you're doing a great job as usual. Keep up the good work, and most importantly, keep having fun!

Thanks, I'm trying to keep it going, but I'm having trouble with my game loading!

Game Not Loading!

Suddenly, none of my tiles will load. I don't know what is wrong with my computer or game. I made no changes to my plugins or anything, just suddenly the game won't load! CRAP!

[MTLT_17 27]

My guess would be lack of RAM. Open your task manager and see how much RAM is loaded when you click. That will tell you if you need more or not.

[packersfan 667]

How much do I need? Lately my computer has been running sluggishly...I have 8 GB of RAM. Could you be more specific what I should look for?

[SimCoug 5,977]

When is the last time you cleaned up your hard drive and defraged? If it's been a while, it may help.

[packersfan 667]

My hard drive cleans and defrags every week automatically. I ran CCleaner, cleaned up registries, etc, freed up space on my Root Drive (C:) and then for an extra measure increased the page file for RAM...I have 8 GB of RAM (and I had no problems with SimCity after I upgraded to that)...and I increased the page file to 12 GB or something. So far, I have been able to open medium city tiles (the other day, I couldn't get ANYTHING to open)...now to try to open a large city tile (specifically the one that has been giving me the most issues lately [surprisingly it is a tile that contains just farms and roads, so I bet opening the downtown tile might not have worked]...

FINGERS CROSSED THAT PERFORMANCE ISSUES ARE SOMEWHAT SOLVED!

[packersfan 667]

Mad-Scientist Picture Editing?

I think you guys will really enjoy my scheduled next update. I plan on showing you most of, if not all the parks, in the Martin County Park System, SO FAR. Some of the parks are tricky, though, because they are in the corners of the tiles where nothing else will really fit...SO I am making composite pictures sometimes using images from 4 different city tiles. I completely messed up the first attempt...as somehow I misaligned a path in-game. I fiddled around in GIMP and edited the existing picture and came up with a rather unique picture that I think is really a change of pace! Now I'm excited to just mess around with more pictures. One word: PERSPECTIVE. Hopefully, I don't go to far, HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH.

[packersfan 667]

Update 85 - Martin County Park System: Northside Part 1

Welcome to the Martin County Park System. Today I will showcase nine parks from the northside (of Brittany River). I hope you enjoy the tour.

Peach Park, located on the northwest side between West Fremont Road, North 34th Street, West Chambers Street, and North 37th Street. You may not realize it, but this picture is a composite of pictures from three different city tiles. I actually messed up the alignment of the bike path, but did a little editing in the photo editor instead of going back and fixing the problem. Then I had some fun with the perspective tool.

Sunport Park, located on the very south side of the City of Trinity, just north of I-55 and West Clement Avenue. It is bordered by North Frontier Hills Drive, North Locknell Drive, and West Sun Port Lane.

Henne Park, located just south of Henne Park Medical Center, bordered by West Townshend Avenue, North 29th Street, West Concordia Avenue, and North 32nd Street. At this point, I started to learn that in order to use the perspective tool well, I needed to stitch together multiple mosaics horizontally in order to provide enough material for a picture to be taken.

Concordia Park, located between North Clement Avenue and I-55, bordered by West Concordia Avenue, North Clybourn Avenue, North 18th Street, West Morgan Avenue, and North 21st Street. The normal SimCity perspective seems a little boring now, doesn't it?

Rutland Park, located between West Locust Street, North 13th Street, West Bayleaf Avenue, North Clement Avenue, and North 16th Street. This picture took at least four or five mosaics from two bordering tiles composited together. If you really look closely, you can see where the composite is not perfect due to terrain differences, cut off shadows, etc.

Morgan Park, located just south of Ulysses Rutland High School, bordered by West Morgan Avenue, North 6th Street, West Orchard Avenue, and North 7th Street. Another "boring" Sim City perspective picture, haha.

Lookout Park, located across the street from Eternal Rest Cemetery, bordered by West Fremont Road, North 14th Street, West Vine Street, and North 16th Street. This picture is a composite from four different city tiles. Unfortunately, it is brutally apparent that I did not match up the grass between the west tiles and the east tiles...oh well...I'm lazy

Clara Park, located in the City of Jefferson, bordered by West Henry Avenue, Austin Avenue, West Fulton Avenue, and Tripoli Street. We just saw this park within the last two updates.

Erie Park, located in the City of Jefferson, bordered by West Hudson Avenue, Lenox Street, West Fremont Road, and Pryor Avenue. I believe we saw this park at night in the last update.

You are here.

I planned to show ALL the parks of the Martin County Park System, but I've barely scratched the surface, since I really focused on hiding the borders. Many of my parks are located on the edges of maps and in some cases cover the corners of 4 different tiles! Luckily, I've now got making mosaics and composites down to a science, haha. I am working on a mosaic/composite of the Orchard Creek Parkway. Discovering a good use for the perspective tool has really opened up possibilities for showing off more of my city in a much different way than just mosaics. A mosaic is just a slice up and down the Sim City perspective, but with the perspective tool I can see more area than just that slice. I'm really looking forward to showing off the whole parkway all at once!

Tell me what you think...oh, who am I kidding, of course you will tell me what you think of the perspectives and the composites. Looking forward to the conversation.

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Oh my! That is some great use of the perspective tool!

Park's covering 4 different tiles? Oh my! It would take for ever to get everything aligned!

[SimCoug 5,977]

Neat stuff! I've fiddled with the perspective tool a little bit, but I think combining it with the blur effect is brilliant. You are right though, you need a pretty good chunk of terrain to make the perspective tool work. I may steal a few of these ideas for New SorGun

[vivapanda 422]

The Sunport Park picture is just stunning! The other perspective pictures are aswell

[coolwiththecool2 827]

Great job with the pics! And for some reason the Townshed/29th Ave. just looks super real to me, I don't know why, but it just looks real...

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Dang! Your map and park rock my world!

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments:

City_Master: Oh my! That is some great use of the perspective tool!

Park's covering 4 different tiles? Oh my! It would take for ever to get everything aligned!

Well it took a little time, but usually I do a good job of having everything aligned already when I play the game (though I screwed up the alignment in the game for the first pic!). In the future, I will make sure to keep more detailed records and pictures, so everything matches up much better.

SimCoug: Neat stuff! I've fiddled with the perspective tool a little bit, but I think combining it with the blur effect is brilliant. You are right though, you need a pretty good chunk of terrain to make the perspective tool work. I may steal a few of these ideas for New SorGun

Yeah, need a big chunk of picture...bigger than what you want to finish with (you can always scale down). Actually I did some perspectives on two pictures in today's update, but all I did was just not scale down the picture to 800 pixels wide until AFTER I had fiddled with perspective, then I cropped it down. All depends on how much you want to show and how much perspective warping you want to do.

vivapanda: The Sunport Park picture is just stunning! The other perspective pictures are aswell

Thanks. Ironically, Sunport Park was one of the "afterthought" pictures. I didn't really spend much time on it. Just didn't want too many standard Sim city perspective pictures in the update.

TayMay27: Great job with the pics! And for some reason the Townshed/29th Ave. just looks super real to me, I don't know why, but it just looks real...

I actually posted that picture on Facebook, and my mom thought it was a plan picture for redevelopment around 29th and Townshend in Milwaukee! Yeah, that one really blew me away when I completed it.

Schulmanator: Dang! Your map and park rock my world!

Thanks. I waste too much time playing this game!

Update 86 - HAWTHORNE: Eisenhower Park Neighborhood

Now down to the southwest side and the City of Hawthorne. It seems like this is our first look at Hawthorne. This is the newest area of Hawthorne that I built at least six months ago. Much of it is a recreation of an area in Chicago. Even schools are placed in the same spot, and the parks are similarly designed. I hope you enjoyed this more conventional update that I put together today. In-game projects limited my preparation this week.

Hawthorne was named after pioneer Josiah Hawthorne who first established a settlement on the west side of Penelope River. Solomon Hardee established a competing settlement on the east side of the river where Downtown Hawthorne now ironically lies. Four District highways cross in Hawthorne, D29, D31, D34, and D100. National Highway 45 runs through the city bearing the name, south of Penelope River, South Baylor Avenue as Baylor is the next major destination for the highway. N45 travels along Hawthorne Avenue in the City of Martin. The City of Hawthorne has its own independent school district which consists of two high schools (Hawthorne North, Eisenhower Park) and four elementary schools (Eisenhower, Dwight, Dominion, and Wrenn). Hawthorne's current population is about 32,000.

As you can see, I've included picture numbers again for the first time in over a year or so, for easier reference by you guys.

The school labeled Dominion Elementary is in fact Dwight Elementary of the Hawthorne School District.

I built this area a long time ago, pretty much recreating a section of Chicago, complete with school placement and everything.

The school labeled Dominion Elementary is the actual Dominion Elementary

The picture that alerted me to the fact that I had labelled BOTH schools Dominion Elementary. Dwight Elementary is on the left side of the picture, and Dominion Elementary is on the right.

I could not resist the call of the perspective tool. I know some people expressed dissatisfaction with my use of it, but I think it really spices things up and gets rid of the repetition. I used it on the first mosaic slightly, too.

Eisenhower Park High School of the Hawthorne School District, effectively the "south" high school in the City of Hawthorne currently.

You are here.

This week flew by didn't it? I lost a bunch of time re-working one of my large city tiles into 4 medium city tiles and being very conscious about all the borders lining up correctly, so future composite pictures look even more slick. It was hard coming up with something to showcase today. I was planning on showing some images from around I-380 just north of Hawthorne, but I didn't want to have a sort of incomplete feel to the update, since I don't know what the exit numbers are yet. Hopefully I will be able to determine that sooner than later.

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Yet some more great use of the perspective and photo editing tools!

And those mosaics! Wow!

+1!

[coolwiththecool2 827]

the 3rd and 5th pics are my favorites!

[vivapanda 422]

Keep these perspective pictures coming, they are AMAZING!

[Jack³ 291]

Fantastic update. I am from the Chicago Area and this is incredibly realistic. You really captured the look and feel of those neighborhoods. The perspective pictures are very nice, too!

(I like how you used Des Plaines and Dekalb, which are both towns near me.)

[SimCoug 5,977]

Great update - I always love how you do schools. You can tell that you take time to make it a realistic looking layout.

I waste too much time playing this game!

Don't we all, my friend.

[packersfan 667]

Computer Scare!

The last two days I have been having difficulties with my computer. It is running more and more sluggishly (age is becoming a factor - 2 years). Today, I started it up, a message flashed quickly before I could see it and then Windows loaded, but for some reason it wasn't really running (no CPU usage, only 2% RAM usage when usually it is about 20% at least running just Windows 7. Nothing seemed to work. I tried system restore and was informed that the hard disk had corruptions, uh oh. Restarted and ran chkdsk. Lots of cleaning and everything seems to be back to "normal". All I know is that I must do a major backup session of SimCity and other essential irreplaceable files tonight, JUST IN CASE THE CLOCK IS TICKING.

In other news, I am flying to America on February 2 and spending a week around Milwaukee, my hometown, and the Wisconsin, Chicago area. Wing really wants to go to NYC, so I've been trying to figure out the most convenient and cheap way to do this. Hard work...travelling on a budget, argh!

Thursdays are my worst day for teaching at school. My two classes are just awful. My first class of the day is made of ten 7-11 year olds who are apathetic and prone to anger and retreating into shells of refusing to participate...and oral English classes require participation. My second class is slightly older in terms of how long it has been running, but the same age kids, except this class has 6 terribly behaved boys along with 5 or 6 behaved girls (one girl is more often then not drawn into the misbehaving). I implemented some changes to the latter class. No bookbags in the classroom. The bags tend to be a distraction for them and often they just have toys in the bags which they constantly play with. Second, I place ALL the boys on one team and ALL the girls on the other. My TA was initially shocked by this (she had been placing the kids boy-girl-boy-girl to keep the boys separated, but all that did was make it harder for the girls to survive as the boys fought over and around them). The boys were still a handful, but it was contained to their side of the room and it was easier to punish them as a team and reward the good girls. Eventually, the biggest troublemaker boy started to take command and tell the other boys to sit down so they wouldn't get beaten by the girls. Let's see how it goes the next class period.

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments:

City_Master: Yet some more great use of the perspective and photo editing tools!

And those mosaics! Wow!

+1!

Thanks. I'll try to not overuse the perspective tool, though.

TayMay27: the 3rd and 5th pics are my favorites!

Thank you very much.

vivapanda: Keep these perspective pictures coming, they are AMAZING!

Thank you, I need to make sure I don't overuse them, though.

jack3oh3: Fantastic update. I am from the Chicago Area and this is incredibly realistic. You really captured the look and feel of those neighborhoods. The perspective pictures are very nice, too!

(I like how you used Des Plaines and Dekalb, which are both towns near me.)

Do you know the neighborhoods? I copied the feel all except for alleys. Hawthorne has more trees than Martin or real-life Chicago.

SimCoug: Great update - I always love how you do schools. You can tell that you take time to make it a realistic looking layout.

I waste too much time playing this game!

Don't we all, my friend.

Thanks, always trying for as much realism as I can pull off without lot-editing, etc.

Update 87 - HAWTHORNE: Wrenn and Dakota Neighborhoods (Neighborhood of W's)

We continue our mini-tour of Hathorne on the east side of South Baylor Avenue (N45, D29). The streets in this area parallel South Baylor Avenue and do not follow the North-South street number grid. However, all the north-south streets have W names. Often the area is referred to the Neighborhood of W's. (I should have used that as the title of this update, ha). Dakota Park anchors Dakota Neighborhood which is bordered by South Baylor Avenue, West DeKalb Avenue, South Hardee Drive, South Mayers Road, and West Eisenhower Avenue. Wrenn Park anchors Wrenn Neighborhood which is bordered by West Eisenhower Avenue, South Mayers Road, West Farragut Avenue, and South Baylor Avenue. A pretty straight forward update. Hope you enjoy it.

You are here.

Well back in a rut where I never seem to have enough time to play SimCity. Hope you enjoyed this update. I admit the last mosaic, I went a little too far with the perspective again. Still trying to find the perfect variety. The next few weeks, DOW will be on hiatus. I am travelling home to America and will not have any time to play or update.

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

[SimCoug 5,977]

It looks like that last mosaic must have traveled through 3 or 4 tiles! Great work.

[coolwiththecool2 827]

nice! love of DOW has so many parks in it!

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Loving these perspective effects! They cover such a vast area!

[Ol' Michiganian 6]

I'm liking how you managed to replicate the Northwest Ordinance road grid even though it's not even in the U.S. and especially the perspectives on your latest update! Where did you get those alleys and why isn't the street map loading any more?

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Lovely Picture you have here, keep it up. 

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments:

 

SimCoug: It looks like that last mosaic must have traveled through 3 or 4 tiles! Great work.

 

Nope, just one tile, and only a mile between the top road and the bottom road.  So hard to show a large area in close up detail without using mosaics.

 

TayMay27: nice! love of DOW has so many parks in it!

 

They help fill space and they reflect my hometown of Milwaukee.

 

City_Master: Loving these perspective effects! They cover such a vast area!

 

Not sure if they cover a greater area.  Actually these last few updates, I just tilted the mosaics a little bit.  Earlier perspective pics and a planned future one sometimes require multiple mosaics stitched together and then warped.  Those cover a far greater area than a traditional mosaic like these.

 

Ol' Michiganian: I'm liking how you managed to replicate the Northwest Ordinance road grid even though it's not even in the U.S. and especially the perspectives on your latest update! Where did you get those alleys and why isn't the street map loading any more?

 

Well I grew up in the "Northwest" in Milwaukee.  I really need to keep a record of where I got these alleys, since it seems I always get questions about them, haha.  Let's see, first I use thegrindre's most often.  The alleys I used behind the commercial strips are from Paeng's  As for the street map, I have no problem loading the street map website (and I checked it immediately after reading your comment when I arrived in China...so my Chinese internet loads it...)

 

Aaron Graham: Lovely Picture you have here, keep it up.

 

Thanks.  I will try.  I think updates will resume next Monday as I am still recovering from the most exhausting trip home to America ever.  Multiple flight and airline troubles, fights with the girlfriend, Milwaukee, New York, Washington D.C., all in less than two weeks.

[packersfan 667]

Update 88 - Duncan Hill Interchange

My project this first week back was connecting I-680 and I-380.  I-380 is a six-mile stretch that runs between the cities of Hohler and Hawthorne.  I-680 bypasses the City of Martin, and I plan for it to serve the larger Martin Metro Airport to the south.  I'm really trying to get into using the RHW, though I need to find the proper signage.

 

This is Duncan Hill Interchange.

A few farm houses on a dirt stretch of Axelrod Avenue.  Things are about to change.

Exit 4B to County Highway A - Axelrod Avenue.

Duncan Hill Interchange

You are here.

 

Sorry about the lackluster update and no region picture.  I am rebuilding the a large 4x4 tile adjacent to this Duncan Hill tile.  Hope you enjoy my first documented foray into the world of RHW interchanges...(I do have an RHW interchange north of Brittany River).

 

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.