Show us What you're Working On

[CT14 2,486]

On 9/26/2016 at 5:49 PM, DavidDHetzel said:

Some random shots from a new Tile I'm working on.

These are very realistic views of auto-centric development, nice work. I really like the way you worked in this one. I've been searching for this kind of BAT, thanks.

I second the suggestion to give RHW (and Symphony/MHO!) a try, but I also feel the standard Maxis highways are a decent fit for mid 20th century highways and their too-small ramps and merging lanes.

In the earlier rural scene, it seemed like some diagonal fillers would clear up the jaggies. I often use the SFBT Diagonal Filler lots (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1197) and SPAM Single & Diagonal Fields.

There are also some nice diagonal fences here:

 

@T Wrecks I switched from Maxis props to the MushyMushy 40ft trailers and they match the tractor now, thanks for emphasizing it.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

So I did rework the onramps into something a bit more realistic.

Also I reworked the section at the bottom.

 

[_Michael 2,681]

@DavidDHetzel The highway looks so much better! I would use an at-grade crossing for the railway though.

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

the by-pass and railroad are supposed to be heavily used, so it would be better to have an overpass IMO.

[Dreadnought 8,231]

20 hours ago, DavidDHetzel said:

 

@Dreadnought Where did you get those big boats in the first pic and the waffle house park in the third?

Yo, David --

THE BIG BOATS --

I presume that those would be the white, yellow, and green -- very large -- cabin cruiser yachts that are mostly tail - moored to the quays.

I downloaded a bunch of stuff a couple of years ago -- and, of course -- never got around to using it.  I have never seen the cabin cruisers in any download on the exchanges as stand-alone ploppable ships.  But I DID see them on an old project started by "Benoit" over on the LEX several years ago.  It was a "Mediterranean Motif" resort/ marina/ village.  Benoit evidently lost interest (or got busy with "RL") and he wound up publishing all his data and files to the thread so interested parties could used them.  I loved the quays and boats and the basic idea of functioning, tourist-centric marinas -- but disliked the Med-theme.  So I downloaded all the files and data, tracked down all the dependencies (pretty much), and then shelved the project for about 6 months.  Eventually, I got around to doing complete re-lots and turned them into my custom Nordsee Marina Lots you see in the pictures.

Now -- that was the very long way of telling you that I downloaded so much stuff -- so long ago -- it's very hard to figure out where they came from. 

AS NEAR AS I CAN TELL --  (looking at Benoit's old and incomplete prop/dependency list) -- they are Callagrafax material/bats/props -- possibly found in "BSC/CAL Ships Prop Pack Vol 01".  They're fairly easy to find in Maxis Lot Editor with a simple prop search if they're amongst some props you loaded without knowing it.

WAFFLE HOUSE --

The original lots were "BLS/cnut WFK Addons" -- I think -- but they may have been based on some original work by SimGoober.  It might take a bit of looking about, but I'm fairly certain you'd be able to locate them under the "commercial" category on LEX or STEX.  

They were lotted as waterfront restaurants and business lots with boardwalk-like piers on the front ends of the lots.  I simply went into Maxis Lot Editor, removed the boardwalk pieces, rearranged the furniture a bit -- and "Bob's Your Uncle"!  The surrounding park path pieces are by BSC and were dropped to build the park effect.

I know I'm rather useless when it comes to my download history -- but I do hope that will help.

 

[matias93 7,535]

More crazy intersections, just because:

Note the beautiful draggable arrows for OWR intersections, all praise our overlord, Tarkus!

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

Added another funky interchange

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

 Decided to resurrect some far and forgotten grid-buster friends of parking lots.

[Tyberius06 12,267]

Hello!

Well, my origianal idea was that I make an updated second version of the Seaport Project expanded with the already showed CDK3 Docks. Now I change my mind, I'll still make an update (because some of the already uploaded lots got a little touch) for the Set and a separate upload make an expansion set which will contain the CDK3 Docks and three other SP Rail Yard lots. I started to put together my plugin folder to playing with the game finally when I realized that something is missing. Well not for me, but maybe other players can use these new lots.

1. Something familiar? Something different? This is ready!

2. And going along this line... Still Work In Progress...

3. Well I don't use the original SimGoober set, so I made for myself a similiar lot...

4. I started to make a sideproject for my city. There will be a long straight elevated rail line (but not from the Elevated Havy Rail Pieces) in that city and wanted to use something different than the usual slope walls. It's a little set with path and without path which can go along next to the rail but actually it can be placed many other places, I guess. I'm thinking about public releace, but I'm not sure yet. I put seasonal woods, on the picture the empty side is the freshly placed, the other side how it sould look like after a little game time.

 

- Tyberius

[Dreadnought 8,231]

On 8/26/2016 at 10:09 PM, kingofsimcity said:

It's facelift time...

Yo, guy --

Did this really, really, good facelift stuff ever get posted to the exchange ??

Alhambra !!  (Ha!)  In a previous life I used to live in Torrance -- in a galaxy far, far away.

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

@Dreadnought: Yeah, I released them a couple of days ago. Here you go:

 

[Dreadnought 8,231]

WORK IN PROGRESS --

THE JADE BIGHT --

WILHELMSHAVEN:

(Click to make bigger.)

 

Yo --

This is just something I've been experimenting (goofing) around with.  I'm always trying to find techniques that will better replicate the coastal zone along the North Sea.

These are a few pics of a salt marsh / inlet.  I threw the boats in there for looks -- but mostly for scale (please disregard the grid -- right now it's just an experiment).

 

 

 

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

On 9/30/2016 at 10:20 AM, DavidDHetzel said:

Added another funky interchange

Update!

Also University of West Hixon

 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

@Dreadnought: Wow, the marshy water effect is great! However, the tallest points around the coast will typically be dikes, and behind (and in front of them) you will find marshes and meadows - salt marshes at the sea side, cow pastures at the land side. Some drainage canals, some deciduous trees, some fences, much reed, and certainly no firs or pines. Just in case you really want to go for that North Sea look - your coast in itself looks certainly great.

But now for something completely different - it happens rarely enough that I post pictures in this thread, but here is one:

Nope, not final - yet.
Yes, it is meant for eventual release.
Yes, more IRM stuff is coming.
Somewhere between 100-200 lots (but closer to 200) are in different stages of completion, but the first packages are ready to go, and others are shaping up slowly.

[matias93 7,535]

I think we all have accepted by now that the IRM was over, this is gonna be great. I'm only sorry for my RAM, because the plugins folder is already doubling its capacity! 

[Manuel-ito 322]

Nice! More IRM!

And this one already looks amazing! For some reason it looks familiar too. Is it the BRT Clay pit, by chance?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Yup, it sure is. However, it looks like some of the actual mine buildings - namely the crusher that you see to the left, the processing unit to the right and the elevated conveyor between those two - have never really been used on a lot although they come from the same prop packs as the pit itself and all the ancillary stuff. I know of a lot with the pit and some of the smaller maintenance buildings, and another one with the pit and the brick factory (that one is still on my list), but none that actually used it all. I really felt like a treaure hunter opening a chest of booty when I browsed through those prop packs and saw what else (other than stuff I knew from existing lots) was inside!

EDIT: Scratch that last part - the mine props have been used for an open-cast coal mine before. That's why there were coal dump trucks in that pack, too. I didn't realize at first that the pack also contains the coal mine because it's so huge. Only discovered it by accident while checking out another huge lot...

[DavidDHetzel 1,816]

a little thing I'm working on.

COuldn't find a texture that would work for the inside corner ;_;

 

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

If all goes to plan, the little spec of a town off to the west will eventually be tied together with the humongous city in the bay along the avenue between them. Most of the city will extend westward, because of the relatively flat terrain.

[matias93 7,535]

On 30/9/2016 at 9:25 PM, Tyberius06 said:

4. I started to make a sideproject for my city. There will be a long straight elevated rail line (but not from the Elevated Havy Rail Pieces) in that city and wanted to use something different than the usual slope walls. It's a little set with path and without path which can go along next to the rail but actually it can be placed many other places, I guess. I'm thinking about public releace, but I'm not sure yet. I put seasonal woods, on the picture the empty side is the freshly placed, the other side how it sould look like after a little game time.

I forgot to mention, but I'm loving this concept and can envison a hundred uses for it. Public release would be great

[Dreadnought 8,231]

On 10/2/2016 at 3:53 PM, T Wrecks said:

@Dreadnought: Wow, the marshy water effect is great! However, the tallest points around the coast will typically be dikes, and behind (and in front of them) you will find marshes and meadows - salt marshes at the sea side, cow pastures at the land side. Some drainage canals, some deciduous trees, some fences, much reed, and certainly no firs or pines. Just in case you really want to go for that North Sea look - your coast in itself looks certainly great.

Yo, guy --

Thanx for the kind words -- much appreciated.   And your comments are MOST welcomed.

I do like the "shoreline style" -- but agree with you that it is far from "authentic".  (Hence the work with salt marshes, etc.) 

My last two regions (abandoned due to dissatisfaction) were almost at sea level because of the need to employ docks, piers, and marinas that required ground prep.  This tied in with the North Sea tidal plain nicely -- but prevented digging a "dry" hole for any reason. 

My "urge" to create terrain -- rocky outcrops, promontories, even a hill -- would have been unrealistic.  So I've had to live with the "fantasy" aspect of elevated terrain that would never be found in the region.  I like lighthouses on top of headlands -- but that would be equally unrealistic.  Rocky cliff faces are also a fantasy.  In order to raise the terrain level (for future valleys or mining operations) I've hit on the idea of a shingle of beach front backed by cliffs or slopes (see above picture).  If I want a little variety in my terrain, I'll simply have to live with the fantasy concepts. 

The idea of salt marsh / dyke / drainage canals and paddies / is accurate -- but would involve vast areas of a map tile to accurately reproduce.  I could modify some lots to get the drainage canals -- but I have never figured out a way to duplicate the gentle curves of a grass covered earthen dyke.  Straight, diagonal, or right angle dykes could be terra-formed easily enough -- but not the curves.  So I gave up on dykes.  (Anyone have any ideas on that??)

Trees are another problem.  I'm afraid the pine trees are blatantly borrowed from the extensive marshes along the coast of the Carolinas and Georgia -- and they make a good-looking tree mix that is relatively easy to lay down.  I've not had good luck finding a deciduous tree mix and some people urged me to include pines (mainly because she likes them).

Sooooo -- to make the longer story much shorter -- I'm still working on ways to look more "North Sea", while living with the constraints -- and the salt marsh was a step in the right direction.

ANY suggestions would be welcomed.

[metasmurf 705]

On 2016-10-02 at 9:53 PM, T Wrecks said:

@Dreadnought: Wow, the marshy water effect is great! However, the tallest points around the coast will typically be dikes, and behind (and in front of them) you will find marshes and meadows - salt marshes at the sea side, cow pastures at the land side. Some drainage canals, some deciduous trees, some fences, much reed, and certainly no firs or pines. Just in case you really want to go for that North Sea look - your coast in itself looks certainly great.

I'll give you coastal pines

edit: and fir

 

 

[feyss 1,981]

Working on Alijstar:

- first use of those diagonal CAL canals from @rsc204. I plan to use more of them where the city is not already built.

- extending my concept of tree-lined avenue with those awesome parking lots to an urban motorway leading to a bridge over the harbour (yeah because there is going to be one).

[T Wrecks 10,210]

@metasmurf: Good point, and of course you're right. I should have written about the German North Sea coastline explicitly - the area around the real-world Jade Bight, where the real Wilhelmshaven is located. Things sure look pretty different in Sweden! We don't even have rocks, at least not on the mainland...

@Dreadnought: I see your reasoning behind making the coast look the way it looks, and I agree that recreating all those dykes and salt marshes would be tedious and consume lots of real estate on your region map - basically a huge MMP battle.

As for curved dykes, I guess I'd simply raise a part to the desired height and trace the line of the dyke with individual street pieces plopped next to another. The result will, without doubt, look "pixelated", but after bulldozing the street tiles and carefully smoothing over the dyke, it might just turn out OK. Just in case you're interested, there are some decent photographic impressions of the German North Sea coast on this site . It deals with flood protection, but some of the pictures are incidentally rather good representations of the typical coastal landscape, at least at the sea-facing side of the dyke.

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

All my progress so far on a suburban area near the CBD of Monroe. Upper middle class housing and IT-related jobs dominate the scene. 

[TakemeThere 5,834]

Currently working on some waterfront scenery for the next CJ entry;

Was hoping to be done this work today but it's taking longer than expected. Seems I can't help but be very deliberate with the mmp spacing.

[Lost Realist 762]

15 hours ago, Takingyouthere said:

Currently working on some waterfront scenery for the next CJ entry;

Was hoping to be done this work today but it's taking longer than expected. Seems I can't help but be very deliberate with the mmp spacing.
 

 

Second picture looks like a different game, jesus! Looking like tons of tedium paying off.

[Dreadnought 8,231]

WORK IN PROGRESS --

THE JADE BIGHT II --

WILHELMSHAVEN:

(Click to make bigger.)

Well -- after much internal struggle and a ton of planning -- I'm officially abandoning the original "Jade Bight". 

I've gone with a new, 8x8 large tile format provided by "rsc204" (Thank you, Sir) and I'm going to plunge into a major effort to make the "regional  Play concept" work for me.  More open space and less clutter -- with commuters moving between the "city-neighborhoods".  Being really creative -- I will call the new region "The Jade Bight II".

I'm largely sticking with the idea of using smaller tiles (suitably placed) for places to dump trash and supply power.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first "utility town" -- Schillighorn.  The theory is that the place was once no more than a small fishing port linked to a little village farther inland.  As time passed a city center and marina grew where the fishing docks used to be -- the development spurred by the construction of a nearby nuclear power facility (yet to be built).

This is my first full scale experiment with the JENEX style "old fashioned" buildings and the "Pedmalls".

 

 

[6StringShaman 112]

1 hour ago, Dreadnought said:

WORK IN PROGRESS --

THE JADE BIGHT II --

WILHELMSHAVEN:

(Click to make bigger.)

Well -- after much internal struggle and a ton of planning -- I'm officially abandoning the original "Jade Bight". 

I've gone with a new, 8x8 large tile format provided by "rsc204" (Thank you, Sir) and I'm going to plunge into a major effort to make the "regional  Play concept" work for me.  More open space and less clutter -- with commuters moving between the "city-neighborhoods".  Being really creative -- I will call the new region "The Jade Bight II".

I'm largely sticking with the idea of using smaller tiles (suitably placed) for places to dump trash and supply power.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first "utility town" -- Schillighorn.  The theory is that the place was once no more than a small fishing port linked to a little village farther inland.  As time passed a city center and marina grew where the fishing docks used to be -- the development spurred by the construction of a nearby nuclear power facility (yet to be built).

This is my first full scale experiment with the JENEX style "old fashioned" buildings and the "Pedmalls".

 

 

Man,

You knocked it outta the park with this.

The balance of natural areas here is superb. Just the right amount of vegetation.

The water flora is awesome.

Building selection, streets everything, just looks GREAT!

Love the marina!

Cheers to ya !

On ‎10‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 1:43 AM, Takingyouthere said:

Currently working on some waterfront scenery for the next CJ entry;

Was hoping to be done this work today but it's taking longer than expected. Seems I can't help but be very deliberate with the mmp spacing.

Very impressive indeed!

On ‎10‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 4:21 PM, feyss said:

Working on Alijstar:

- first use of those diagonal CAL canals from @rsc204. I plan to use more of them where the city is not already built.

- extending my concept of tree-lined avenue with those awesome parking lots to an urban motorway leading to a bridge over the harbour (yeah because there is going to be one).

Awesome, awesome canal work. Great shot here!

[Dreadnought 8,231]

4 hours ago, 6StringShaman said:

Man,

You knocked it outta the park with this.

The balance of natural areas here is superb. Just the right amount of vegetation.

The water flora is awesome.

Building selection, streets everything, just looks GREAT!

Love the marina!

Cheers to ya !

Very impressive indeed!

Awesome, awesome canal work. Great shot here!

You are far too kind, Sir. 

But I DO appreciate the compliment.

Good feedback is the thing that keeps me going -- and on the right track !

Cheers, mate --