Dimensions of SimCity

[bwong 36]

Hello simtropolis,

I've been in the planning process of a large-scale transportation project, and have been working with designs, blueprints, and numbers for the past month or so. During this time, an issue arose rather quickly, and this was with the dimensions of the game.

Numerous sources have indicated that the standard square length in simcity is 16 meters long, but upon further investigation, I have found that this length is usually inconsistent. 

For example, the standard soccer field in SC4 is 3 tiles long, indicating the maximum length is a mere 48 meters while the standard minimum should be 100 meters. Either that Maxis got lazy or one square is roughly 33 meters. 

In my projects, I am heavily basing my designs on Japanese stations and standards.  Using the E231 series as my base model for a train, a standard consist will have 10 cars. Each car being 19.5 meters, this would result in a consist of 195 meters or 12.18 game squares. Any station of such length would look incredibly large and misfit. 

Hence, my question is, what is the importance on maintaining real life resemblance to detail versus maintaining the questionable 16 meter per square rule.

Thank you.

[His Divine Hand 244]

That one tile in Sim City 4 is 16x16 meters is fact. But whether Maxis or everyone else always followed this. . . I guess sometimes people just eyeball dimensions rather than be accurate. . .

[harishna 847]

1 square is roughly 16 meters, Maxis have different scales for their models that are inconsistent with each other. Things like stadiums, airports and power plants are definitely under scaled, most good batters tend to model things according to real life dimensions however sometimes it is necessary to adjust things to the game dimensions. About eyeballing...umn I really don't like putting eyeballing and modelling in the same sentence. About the train station you are modelling try to use real life dimensions, but rather than eyeballing you can cut part of the station if you feel iy is too big for the game (personally I wouldn't mind having a long station...

[bwong 36]

Okay, thanks for your feedback. The only thing that hindered me to go straight into modelling without the opinions of others was that you would have your standard intermediate station at 13 tiles haha. Oh well, hopefully others may respond so I can have a fuller/better understanding of the issue at hand.

Thanks again!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

As a developer, they had to make certain elements more intuitive and practical than realistic. If you had to build a real power plant for a real major city, you'd be talking massive amounts of land and capitol (which doesn't really translate into thrilling game play). We, the community, have aimed to compensate for this with things like the NAM, hundreds of BATs, and numerous other mods.

The spirit of the community is such; if there is something you don't like about the game: change it!

[bwong 36]

As a developer, they had to make certain elements more intuitive and practical than realistic. If you had to build a real power plant for a real major city, you'd be talking massive amounts of land and capitol (which doesn't really translate into thrilling game play). We, the community, have aimed to compensate for this with things like the NAM, hundreds of BATs, and numerous other mods.

The spirit of the community is such; if there is something you don't like about the game: change it!

Alright, thanks for your help sire!

Another quick question, when developing parallel train stations, as such:

What should the distance be between the two platforms?

Thanks.

[SimRabbit 48]

Not sure if I am right but "sidewalks" are 2m wide. So I would assume the distance will be 16+4=20. That is if you use the standard 1x1 tile for the tracks.

[cogeo 960]

The offsets of the automata paths in the straight rail network tile are at ±2.0m. The passenger car is ±2.10m at its widest. That is they actually overlap a little! But they still look OK. And these max dimensions are about in the middle of the car's height; at platform level they must be less than 2.0m, some 1.8m or so. So my suggestion is that the platforms start at ±4.0m (off the middle of the tile) and be 1.0-1.2m tall (you can experiment, of course). Be careful when placing them on the lot. Tip: in the LE, you can drag the building or prop to one of the corners of lot (as far as it can go) by using the MOUSE; then you can move them to the desired position by using the KEYBOARD: press and hold the <Shift> key and move the model with the arrow keys; this moves the model by 1 meter exactly, thus easily achieving a precise placement.

You can check my Rural Rail Stations on the STEX, they have platforms made and placed this way.

[bwong 36]

Alright, Thanks Cogeo. In fact, I'm quite an avid user of a lot of your work! haha. (big fan lol)

So from what you're saying:

Distance between platform edges - 8 meters (4 meters from center of tile)

Floor level for train + platform - 1.13 meters

Correct?

Thanks again

EDIT: Another question. Whats the maximum platform length between two track tiles?

Would it be, 8 meters?

  Edited January 6, 2012 by bwong  

[cogeo 960]

You are right about the distance between platforms. And the "maximum platform length between two track tiles" (I guess you mean width) is 8 meters (4 in the one tile and another 4 in the other).

As for the "Floor level for train + platform" being 1.13, I didn't say this specifically (1.13), I just said that a platform 1.0 - 1.2 meters tall would be OK. You can test how automata interact with the platforms, by using a special prop; you just need to make a prop using the passenger rail car model (check my SC4 Automata As Props tutorial) and place it in your lot.

[bwong 36]

Alright, thanks haha.

The 1.13 Floor height was extracted from dimensions provided by the train manufacturer.