Show us What you're Working On

[matias93 7,535]

[placeholder for an relevant image that could emerge eventually]

I'm working on an historic background for my upcoming CJ, creating a page in Alternate History. All of you are invited to contribute if you want, keeping on the premises of realism, checking the wiki page

[jmsepe 2,039]

That's a great port. That ships looks very good.  

[feyss 1,981]

Had some time for playing

[_Michael 2,681]

@feyss Looks great, I always love seeing your, 'raw' in-progress cities!  Quick question, which canal set are you using, and what is the large quad building in the centre? They both look so good!

[matias93 7,535]

That's CAL remake of Simgoober Canals, its base pack is:

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=979

[simmytu 605]

The current city that I'm working on.  Its Geranda, named creatively after Geranda Mountains. They're the hills on the bottom south of the city tile.
Its far from finished, just finished detailing in and around the historical city centre as I'm speaking right now. Got some pictures to show my current progress.

Description of the pictures inside the spoiler from top to bottom.

No.1: The historical commercial and apartment buildings are strongly contrasted by buildings like Het Strijkijzer (The Flatiron), the tall dark blueish building on the bottom right.
           Also included in this picture is the regional train station and general hospital complex.
No.2: Zooming pit and you can see the mixture between the historical town setting and modern European architecture scenery that I'm trying to recreate.
No.3: The farthest I can zoom out without the game crashing, because the game is crash happy lately .

Spoiler

Feel free to leave any suggestions or criticism on how to develop this city further.

 

[TakemeThere 5,834]

@simmytu Nice work, one thing I would suggest is adding a little more variety with the trees adding seasonal trees for instance. Also that line of tall trees by the interchange looks a little strange, is it just a place holder?

5 hours ago, simmytu said:

No.3: The farthest I can zoom out without the game crashing, because the game is crash happy lately .

I have the same problem though there is a solution I've discovered. Try going as far off-screen as possible, past the city edges and then zoom up from there. Wait a little and then slowly move back towards the center of your city, pause when ever you see parts of the city still 'loading'. As long as I don't come back into the city too quickly that almost always works for me.

[11241036 5,115]

@simmytu That's in fact a fine city layout that looks organic, like a city how it would have grown over the centuries.

About the game crashing issues while zooming out: I had these issues for a long time until I found out a solution. See my post here.

Edit: How can I actually tag a user like takemethere did? I know that he/she will get notified.

[rsc204 21,866]

Just showing these here too, since I know a lot of people don't always check development threads:

[simmytu 605]

11 hours ago, takemethere said:

@simmytu Nice work, one thing I would suggest is adding a little more variety with the trees adding seasonal trees for instance. Also that line of tall trees by the interchange looks a little strange, is it just a place holder?

I have the same problem though there is a solution I've discovered. Try going as far off-screen as possible, past the city edges and then zoom up from there. Wait a little and then slowly move back towards the center of your city, pause when ever you see parts of the city still 'loading'. As long as I don't come back into the city too quickly that almost always works for me.

Yup I do use seasonal trees and yes the interchange trees are a place holder. The idea that I had there is to recreate this part of A12 (E30) highway. The freeway makes space for the tall trees that are rooted in the median. 
About the crash, I was running the wrong shortcut without the cpu priority and affinity set, that stuff happens around one o'clock in the morning
 

8 hours ago, 11241036 said:

@simmytu That's in fact a fine city layout that looks organic, like a city how it would have grown over the centuries.

About the game crashing issues while zooming out: I had these issues for a long time until I found out a solution. See my post here.

Edit: How can I actually tag a user like takemethere did? I know that he/she will get notified.

If you want to tag someone place the sign @ followed directly by the user name. For example: @simmytu which turns to this  @simmytu

[TakemeThere 5,834]

@11241036 The CPUCount:1 solution doesn't solve the issue for everyone though. My large tile still crashed when using that fix, perhaps not as frequently but it didn't stop it as I hoped. But that other trick I use works nearly every time. Additionally while it shouldn't make a difference since SC4 was never designed to run on multi-cores, my game did run a little slower when set to one.

[matias93 7,535]

Just because it could help others with the same problem: a common issue I have is when saving a city, the game get freezed. Forcing the game to close with the task manager causes the save to get lost (jumping to the previous one) or even corrupting the file (universe forbids it).

A solution is to use the task manager to create a dump file of the freezed game (on Process tab, right click on Simcity4.exe and select Create dump file); even if the task manager gets apparently frozen, it will create the file and allow to save the city tile correctly. You can resource to Ctrl+Alt+Del to recover focus of the task manager and check if the dumpfile is ready (it takes a couple of minutes to be created). After that, you can safely force the closing of the game, having a functional saved city tile on your usual folder.

To avoid overspending of HD space, check the /Users/[username]/AppData/Local/Temp/ folder and delete Simcity4.dmp, which is the dumpfile task manager created, and which you don't need unless trying to debug the game.

[TakemeThere 5,834]

@matias93 Never knew you could do that, I'm sure that could really come in handy for many people. Though I'm not familiar with how dump files work. To load the city from the dump file do you just place it in the region or do you need to separate it out of the file?

I have different solution for the saving problem which has worked for me about 99% of the time, though one member said that it works somewhat less frequently for them. I always save my city in zoom level 5 and over a part of the city with as little development on it as possible(water/undeveloped land). Then I save the city using ctrl+S as I recall reading some where that saving using the menu option will add some extraneous data onto the save file. This has also drastically reduced crashes from loading a city for me and reduced city loading times.

[matias93 7,535]

29 minutes ago, takemethere said:

 

@matias93 Never knew you could do that, I'm sure that could really come in handy for many people. Though I'm not familiar with how dump files work. To load the city from the dump file do you just place it in the region or do you need to separate it out of the file?

You don't need to do anything with the dump file, the process of creating it somehow stabilizes the frozen saving, and helps the game to save the city tile correctly, so the usual savefile can be used inmediately. As I said, unless you want to make debugging, the resulting dumpfile is useless and very space-costly, and my advise is simply deleting it.

 

32 minutes ago, takemethere said:

I have different solution for the saving problem which has worked for me about 99% of the time, though one member said that it works somewhat less frequently for them. I always save my city in zoom level 5 and over a part of the city with as little development on it as possible(water/undeveloped land). Then I save the city using ctrl+S as I recall reading some where that saving using the menu option will add some extraneous data onto the save file. This has also drastically reduced crashes from loading a city for me and reduced city loading times.

I didn't knew about the problems of saving with the GUI, but Ctrl+S is also faster: more reasons to prefer it. 

That method of changing the focus to an underdeveloped site, BTW, is also useful to help the game runnning more smoothly, which can be convenient when you need to run the simulation for several ingame years. As you can already concluded, it works avoiding the computer the burden of calculating the graphical operation of the game (automatas, growing buildings, timed props, etc.). For the same motive, you should avoid putting the focus over a non developed zone that has animal automatas though.

[Socold 120]

Ive got the SC4 loader set to save every 10 mins, can be a pain some times but has saved me from loosing hours of work as I can never remember to do the saving myself. The auto save seems to always hit when you just finished scrolling through and about to place something. 

My new little bug ive noticed is if ive been in a city for a while, when I hit save and exit to region it saves and exits the game. 

[MushyMushy 3,618]

The Photoshop Challenge  playing field seems kind of sparse - not many entries so far. I do intend to join the party - I'll just post these two images and let you work out what I'm gonna do. Should be interesting once it's done... Photoshop is great for sticking 3DS max models into the game that let you (visually) do things that are impossible due to the limitations of SC4.

Still very early WIP:
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[_Michael 2,681]

Just been doing this:

Thoughts?

[vortext 573]

Obviously gridbusting is a good idea but imho it's a bit overkill atm, the warehouse & road area especially. Try thinning it out: e.g. through road at a FAR angle, diagonal access road branching off into industry and one or two strategically placed diagonal warehouses. To a lesser extent the same goes for the railyard: 1 huge one has more impact visually than 3 imho. I guess what I'm trying to say currently it looks too cluttered to me. Or the other way around, I think less clutter would have more visual appeal.  

 

The farms and meadows are great though, don't touch them!

  Edited July 20, 2016 by vortext  

[_Michael 2,681]

26 minutes ago, vortext said:

Obviously gridbusting is a good idea but imho it's a bit overkill atm, the warehouse & road area especially. Try thinning it out: e.g. through road at a FAR angle, diagonal access road branching off into industry and one or two strategically placed diagonal warehouses. To a lesser extent the same goes for the railyard: 1 huge one has more impact visually than 3 imho. I guess what I'm trying to say currently it looks too cluttered to me. Or the other way around, I think less clutter would have more visual appeal.  

 

The farms and meadows are great though, don't touch them!

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'll redo the warehouses with those points in mind. As for the number of railyards, I'd view it as one yard. If you look, the line that goes to the power station is a through line, so there are railyards parts coming off of that line, and then the other through line at the top, also has spurs. It just has different angled sections.  Thanks for all of the advice, I'll bear it in mind.

[simmytu 605]

Here's my progress so far at Geranda. Quite a lot has changed (for the better of course ).

I think a large recreation park across the newly built regional business centre and next to the college fits this area the best. In my opinion the generic offices and residences or a parking lot wouldn't do this huge green square justice.

I did place more and larger variety of seasonal trees, flowers and bushes near the highway and suburb, only thing needed is a park path that goes through the forest and some minor details; like dead trees and park benches. On a side note: I love these modular parking lots @kingofsimcity they're fun (but sometimes overwhelming) to build.

One thing that bugged me is the low density buildings near the CIS centre. It felt (for me) odd how a monolithic blue building is placed at a low density suburb. After consulting Google Earth and looking at for inspiration from cities like Rotterdam and The Hague I noticed that there aren't any detached houses to be found near the tall skyscrapers. In fact most of the neighbourhoods are covered with low height apartment blocks and terraced homes. So you can see what I did there compared to my previous post. Rip dozens of happy little trees /s

This should wrap my current progress up and I think this is a good opportunity to build the neighbouring city up to solve the unemployment issue at Geranda (It's getting pretty bad outside the main development zone).

I'm as usual open for any suggestions and constructive criticism.

[Manuel-ito 322]

Fantastic work on that city

I have been doing some re-lots of Maxis' ploppables since i felt they didn't age well in comparison with the great stuff made by the community. Right now it's a personal project, but I may share them in the future:
Some of the civic services:

Toll booths. I wish there was a prop that matches the PS Highways:

Freight train station, Grand rail and parking garage. And thanks to my image cropping skills, a bit of the passenger train station:

Sportsfields, large plaza and the open area lots:

Three of the landmarks. Not so sure about these ones, since I used aerial views of Google Maps as a reference and i had to guess some of the details:

[dlsni 156]

working on a european inspired region at the moment. i dont have a lot of time to play at the moment but hoping i will see this one through

 

heres the wip centre for what will be one of the larger towns

 

feel free to give me some suggestions. i'm looking for more diag-orth buildings to deal with some of the curves

also if anyone is willing to send me Gobias' water, sand and sidewalk packs i would greatly appreciate it. i seem to have lost the folders

[_Michael 2,681]

1 hour ago, dlsni said:

working on a european inspired region at the moment. i dont have a lot of time to play at the moment but hoping i will see this one through

 

heres the wip centre for what will be one of the larger towns

feel free to give me some suggestions. i'm looking for more diag-orth buildings to deal with some of the curves

also if anyone is willing to send me Gobias' water, sand and sidewalk packs i would greatly appreciate it. i seem to have lost the folders

I'm afraid it's against the site rules to redistribute files without the original authors permission. Since Gobias actively deleted his accounts, that indicates he didn't want people having his files, so redistribution is also not allowed for that reason. There are old thread on both ST and SC4D covert this issue. 

 

For your your city, check out @Glenni content. There are some really good European buildings including curved, which I don't see you currently having.

Maybe also check out simcitypolska.pl and Simcitykurier, although unless you can read polish and German, but type the URL into google translate and the site will appear translated into your chosen language, or use chrome. 

 

In terms of feedback for your city, I'd say more trees. It is common in many of the European cities I've seen to have some foliage inside the centre, something which at the moment you are lacking, imo. 

I'm not sure if your planing it, but an integral part of any European city is good public transit. A central station, usually but not always a terminus, in the heart of the town. Also, play around with NAMs GLR, since trams are pretty common in European cities and small towns. 

I can't think of anyother feedback points, just keep looking around, both in the SC4 and real world for inspiration. @feyss has made some truly inspiring towns and cities. 

Good luck, I'm looking to see the finally product!  

[rsc204 21,866]

8 hours ago, Manuel-ito said:

Toll booths. I wish there was a prop that matches the PS Highways:

That would be very easy to make, happy to do it for you, but... The tool booth wouldn't fit because it's not wide enough. That problem is harder to fix, but perhaps a RHW-4 prop (if such exists) would work. Since MHO (PS) uses RHW-4 for the road textures.

[Haljackey 17,398]

Offramp expansion

 

Bonus usage overlay

[Socold 120]

Update on the progress on Humboldt.

After building some RHW, deleting it, re-building it and deleting it again, I've decided to go with MHW of the sake of my marriage and own sanity. I accept that MHW are not realistic but I just couldn't produce what I had in-visioned and it was driving me nuts. 

I will say that I do appreciate what the people behind NAM have done for the game and I may revisit it one day if I have the time. 

I basically have just building the city populations up and getting new ones started, all three main cities are now up too 50k population with the towns around them decreasing in size the further they are away. I have only added a little bit of detail in various locations. 

Greatnorthern

I have pushed the population of this area a little further than the other areas, I have plans to make the northern end of the main city the main CBD and population area with plans the run a 3 lane avenue and canal across the top of the city. 

Port city

It still has some RHW in this city as I finished this area before deciding to go back to MHW. I still havent come up with any great plans for this area yet, Im hoping if I just keep on building something will just show itself.

And finally Crystal City

The only plans I have for this area so far to to put some canals in the low laying areas coming off the top of the harbour into the residential area and across the below the main train station.

[Fantozzi 4,068]

WORK IN PROGRESS

This will be another part of my next upload to the Stex (any opinion/critics welcome):

 

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

@Fantozzi: That's a great lot in itself, and you know it. There seems to be a base texture glitch on the footpath in the upper left corner, though. That sometimes happens when you directly replace one base texture with another. It can be fixed by removing the base texture altogether and adding the desired one afterwards. I'd recommend proceeding like this all the time to avoid that glitch because it can sure be annoying and it doesn't appear in every perspective and zoom level, which means it can go unnoticed for a long time.

As for the lot design itself, the execution looks great to me, but I wonder if such a lush green park really complements the building in the best possible way. I think a bit more emphasis on plaza rather than on park atmosphere might be worth considering.

@Manuel-ito: I really like what you did there! New lots for existing buildings are sorely needed, so these additions would be most welcome. I think my personal favourite is the small police department. It looks utilitarian and realistic, but still full of details and visually appealing. The other police departments are very good, too. On the fire departments, I think you overdid it with flora a bit.

Among the landmark lots, Amalienborg is the one I like best so far. IMO, it's not even necessary to go that strictly by realism as long as the lot looks good for the game, but of course that's just one approach, and I see your reasons for choosing a different one.

I dig your texture work on the Grand Rail Station, but I think the platforms are really too short - a shortcoming that was already present on Maxis' original version. There used to be a mod that fixed that by adding another double track running through the entire lot.

[Socold 120]

Nothing to add, I think it looks great. I'm guessing some sort of amphitheatre/outdoor performance area?  

[11241036 5,115]

@Fantozzi: Looks great! On a minor note, if you want your Sims to only enter this building from one side (I assume so, due to the entrance booth-like buildings at the bottom of the lot and the fact that there's only one pathway for the Sims to get onto the lot), you might want to add hedges or fences surrounding this lot. But other than that, great work.