Show us What you're Working On

[Kel9509 1,483]

6 hours ago, Null 45 said:

It took me a while to get the patch working, but once I did it confirmed my theory about where the 'build all styles at once' bug was located. As you can see in the above image, that feature now works as intended.

I can't tell from the picture since there are several houses that look like they're in many places.  Is that picture supposed to represent a quadrant with the four default building sets growing at the same time?  If you got that working, that'd be incredible!  

[Null 45 3,116]

4 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

I can't tell from the picture since there are several houses that look like they're in many places.

You can click on the image to open a page with the full size version.

4 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

Is that picture supposed to represent a quadrant with the four default building sets growing at the same time?

Possibly, IIRC all 4 styles were present when checking with the advanced query tool. The R§ styles look fairly similar for the Chicago 1890, New York 1940 and Houston 1990. The R§ Euro-Contemporary are the easiest to spot, they include the tan boxes with 4-5 windows and no visible door.

A few more things I omitted from my previous post (this is mostly quoted from my SC4 Reddit post):

The growable algorithm code checks building styles for both lots and buildings, but the building portion of the code only supported the Change styles every N years mode. The growable code is unsurprisingly doing quite a bit of work. A 22 second run with my logging code produces a log file of over 15,000 lines. A lot of that chattiness appears to be the lot selection portion, the game presumably checks the building styles to eliminate lots whose buildings are not part of the active styles from consideration.

I should also now have full control over the building styles portion of the game's growable selection algorithm, which may enable some interesting possibilities like expanding the building styles to include the industrial categories.

I am attaching a zipped version of the above mentioned 15,000+ line log file, it includes the exemplar IID and name of every lot and building the game checked the building styles for.

BuildingStylesLog.zip

[Null 45 3,116]

I took a break from working on the DBPF INI reading to work on the industrial building style INI record entries themselves.

In my opinion, the game's DBPF INI configuration files appear to have been an afterthought for Maxis. With as many major systems that use them I would have thought that they would assign a dedicated type ID and a resource manager class to decode them. The fact that they didn't do this makes a lot more work for me.

But because having the industrial zone building styles controlled by DBPF INI entries is the most user friendly method that doesn't involve breaking the game, it is worth the effort.

If the record entries are not found or the Enabled value is set to false, the industrial buildings in that category will be treated as compatible with all building styles, preserving the base game behavior.

[ncamferdam 1,504]

Lots of MMP dress-up that's going to need to happen, but I love a good spaghetti bowl

[Null 45 3,116]

This image is showing an empty IR zone, the game can't build anything due to not having items that match the active building styles.

 

[Wallibuk 1,966]

i saw these beautiful textures, so i had to use them, , great for industrial areas, i guess...

[Samu64d 360]

So after a long time I near "completed" a city in SC4. It's not perfect sadly I'm not an expert of base textures and I dont know how to properly produce they in large quantities but this is the final result I think:

[junspud 1,069]

A mostly low wealth city with lots of row houses and dirty industry (thus a special SAM 11 build to go along with it).

Started off as a dumping ground for the regions trash, but I've been trying to get rid of the accumulated landfill tiles, as some nice commercial lots sprung up around the area and I'd like to keep them, but not next to a landfill.

Shame the game is unplayable with shadows enabled.

[jestarr 3,423]

While playing the game yesterday evening I had a 2x2 commercial spot that didn't grow anything related to what I wanted. The town is meant to be fairly small and not very modern looking. Since I couldn't find what I wanted without searching for something to add to my plugins folder I made this, this afternoon. It's a simple C$ building in HD. I'll upload it tomorrow after I get the documentation done.

[Barroco Hispano 26,932]

@Wallibuk I have no words to describe how good those textures look. Perfect! 

 

[mitsos 12,969]

Mattville

[TheTimvh1 939]

7 hours ago, mitsos said:

Mattville

Lemme guess, the mayor is Mattb325???😏👍

Speaking of which, does anyone know anything about his sudden and abrupt departure from the community more than year ago?🤔

[Dreadnought 8,231]

4 hours ago, TheTimvh1 said:

Lemme guess, the mayor is Mattb325???😏👍

Speaking of which, does anyone know anything about his sudden and abrupt departure from the community more than year ago?🤔

His rendering system license arrangement expired.

He had a unique style -- simple but elegant -- with an excellent choice of colors, textures, and a landscaper's eye.  AND -- no one could "night-light" a building like he could !

And I have missed him every day he has been gone......

[Ssaidd 1,368]

[TheTimvh1 939]

6 hours ago, Dreadnought said:

His rendering system license arrangement expired.

He had a unique style -- simple but elegant -- with an excellent choice of colors, textures, and a landscaper's eye.  AND -- no one could "night-light" a building like he could !

And I have missed him every day he has been gone......

Damn, that does suck.  And I agree his BAT collection was a true gem among the community.  Very few could replicate the level of detail he went into when creating new content.

[Kel9509 1,483]

7 hours ago, Dreadnought said:

His rendering system license arrangement expired.

I'm not sure what that means or why it'd mean he'd have no online presence anymore.  I hope that just means that he decided to do other things.  During COVID, if someone went away online and never returned, I always had grim thoughts.

[TheTimvh1 939]

35 minutes ago, Kel9509 said:

I'm not sure what that means or why it'd mean he'd have no online presence anymore.  I hope that just means that he decided to do other things.  During COVID, if someone went away online and never returned, I always had grim thoughts.

I'm guessing it refers to 3DSMax and it's sudden outrageous price hike following the end of its relatively inexpensive trial period or whatever it was prior.  Besides Covid was already over before Mattb325 disappeared abruptly.  I'm guessing the expiration of his usage license and the sudden price hike that made renewing it unaffordable to the majority of people destroyed his enthusiasm and motivation to continue modding.  Corporate greed on steroids, especially when it affects everyday people in the worst possible way, can have that effect.

[Dreadnought 8,231]

42 minutes ago, Kel9509 said:

I'm not sure what that means or why it'd mean he'd have no online presence anymore.  I hope that just means that he decided to do other things.  During COVID, if someone went away online and never returned, I always had grim thoughts.

He's fine -- at least he was the last time we exchanged messages (about 8 months ago).

Some people make BAT's using the old Maxis system -- and they do very well with it.  It takes a natural talent -- or engineering skills -- and an almost extreme dedication -- but excellent models can be made with the Maxis system. 

Other's have access to expensive 3-D programs built for commercial/engineering uses -- and they start at $10K for a one-year license arrangement.  Some of these are offered at greatly reduced "trial" period costs -- but they expire sooner and are usually only available through a commercial or educational connection.

I never inquired into Matt's specific arrangement -- that would have been improper of me.  But I suspect he did not want to go back to the primitive Maxis system after doing such lovely work with his professional system.  PLUS -- his "home" forum was SC4 Devotion.  He was active on Simtrop -- but never quite "at home" here.

He seriously increased his output of lots in an effort to finish all the projects in his hard-drive before the license expiration -- and my guess is he is, more or less, finished with SC4.

It was, and is, a great loss to the community and I cherish every one of his creations.  He did not waste time with "mundane" buildings, nor did he go in for towering skyscrapers or "over-the-top" architecture.  Each one was a UNIQUE building, beautiful, symmetrically balanced, and textured with a skill no one else has yet mastered. 

He is missed......on several levels......

[Dreadnought 8,231]

5 minutes ago, TheTimvh1 said:

I'm guessing it refers to 3DSMax and it's sudden outrageous price hike following the end of its relatively inexpensive trial period or whatever it was prior.  Besides Covid was already over before Mattb325 disappeared abruptly.  I'm guessing the expiration of his usage license and the sudden price hike that made renewing it unaffordable to the majority of people destroyed his enthusiasm and motivation to continue modding.

Your analysis is, I think, quite correct......and you beat my answer by a few minutes......

[TheTimvh1 939]

Just now, Dreadnought said:

Your analysis is, I think, quite correct......and you beat my answer by a few minutes......

Yeah, as I just added to the end of the above, corporate greed on steroids, especially when it affects everyday people in the worst possible way, can have that effect.

[Dreadnought 8,231]

5 minutes ago, TheTimvh1 said:

Yeah, as I just added to the end of the above, corporate greed on steroids, especially when it affects everyday people in the worst possible way, can have that effect.

War is only a lesser evil -- corporate greed, most especially -- and the pursuit of political power by any means will eventually destroy civilization.

[TheTimvh1 939]

8 minutes ago, Dreadnought said:

War is only a lesser evil -- corporate greed, most especially -- and the pursuit of political power by any means will eventually destroy civilization.

True.  I just hope he's doing well, wherever he is, and I wish him luck in his future endeavors, whatever they may be.  And a heartfelt thanks for his wonderful contributions to SimCity 4 and the community it has fostered.  To Mattb325, if you should ever return to Simtropolis and manage to find this brief minithread....

Thank you.

[jestarr 3,423]

I've finally finished remaking this model and started on texturing and lotting. The brown roof texture needs some major work to be viable. I also need to reposition the building to remove the visual glitches.

 

[pclark06 12,073]

 

Next up will be some new hotels.

[SneakyDeaky 1,130]

On 9/15/2024 at 7:12 PM, Dreadnought said:

His rendering system license arrangement expired.

He had a unique style -- simple but elegant -- with an excellent choice of colors, textures, and a landscaper's eye.  AND -- no one could "night-light" a building like he could !

And I have missed him every day he has been gone......

Wow many thanks for giving us a bit of an explanation for @mattb325's absence. I was worried when he vanished completely, but the most important thing is he sounds like he's fine "IRL" and that's what matters.

 

For me, he's the best! The most consistent, the most legendary output. There were periods he would release multiple bats weekly. He always tried new things and would introduce some of his work with "I saw a request for this and realized there was a need for this" ect. He was always trying to fill in any gaps we had in the game, and he did a little bit of everything, to the point where it would take me forever to list, but whether it be simple rowhouses, to intricate landmarks, he also lotted everything so elegantly that his lots are nigh on impossible to "improve." 

The greatest! 

[Rott 2,399]

MattB was great, and it wasn't just the great lots he did that were such great contributions, he was super helpful to me when I was learning BAT. It's sad they took the abilities of a great artist away like that but even still he left us with enough to last a lifetime.

[EffTheGrid 3,726]

3 hours ago, pclark06 said:

 

Next up will be some new hotels.

Love this style! Cool to see you exploring more urban projects. I'll have fun using this set!

Could you do one with no, or very minimal, branding? This building could be really useful as a nondescript apartment building.

[pclark06 12,073]

18 minutes ago, EffTheGrid said:

Love this style! Cool to see you exploring more urban projects. I'll have fun using this set!

Could you do one with no, or very minimal, branding? This building could be really useful as a nondescript apartment building.

I have a few more hotel models as well that I am going to try out, and then there could be an apartment pack.

[SneakyDeaky 1,130]

4 hours ago, pclark06 said:

 

Next up will be some new hotels.

Can't wait to see what those signs look like with nightlights!!

[Barroco Hispano 26,932]

Rock