[RRT Team] Road Re-Texture Team - initiative and project plans (looking for participants)

[MandelSoft 2,774]

Hello fellow SimTropolis,

Most of you know me from my various sign BATs but also the Euro Textures. I'd like to talk about the latter one, because there are some thoughts I'd like to share about that.

The "problem"

The members of SimTropolis come from various regions all around the world and quite a lot of them would like to re-create what they are familiar with. Not only does this include buildings, but also terrain mods and transit texture mods.

Currently, there are however only two flavours when it comes to transit textures:

• USA/American
  
• Euro/International
  

However, this is by far not enough to cover all regions. For instance, there are some regions where neither style fits completely, like in Israel, Ireland or South Africa. And you have oddballs like the UK and Norway. Moreover, even in Europe not regions all use the same markings (for instance the dutch DV road markings look totally different from the German road markings) In general, we would like to have more texture variations to cover more regions of the world and more nuances in the regions themselves.

The problem is that for now, I'm practically the only one who is really active with texture modding, mainly Euro Textures. This is a huge load that rests upon my shoulders and if I can't do the job alone to cover all regions. Not only because it's a huge amount of work, but also because I'm not familiar with every region's typical markings (though I try to research that). Besides, with a team, we could spread the work over multiple people, lightening up the work for everyone, or make more diverse sets.

Besides, this may motivate more texture modders that before this initiative, texture modding was too much work for them...

Who am I looking for?

I'm looking for people for this team who:

• can work well in a team and respects his other team members.
  
• are motivated and not afraid to edit hundreds of files (trust me, it sounds like more than it really is. You can do a lot with some copy-paste work).
  
• are skilled with either InkScape, GIMP, Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator (or any other image editing program for that matter, with exception of MS Paint).
  
• know something about road markings and such.
  
• who know how to mod textures, or are willing to learn how to do that.
  

If you are interested, please post below and let me know

Organisation

• The RRT Team would require some level of co-operation with the NAM Team (due to IID allocation and such), but since I'm already member of the NAM, this wouldn't be a problem.
  
• About sharing files: we could use a cloud-server like Dropbox. I have good experiences with that, but if someone knows a better one, please share your suggestions.
  
• Participation is always open, but it's advised to show your work first before we can add you to the team.
  
• We can make the development discussion private later on, but for now, it's open to public.
  

So, what do you think of this initiative? Please don't hesitate to leave a message

Best,

Maarten

[cmdp123789 710]

I really like this idea... Although, when it comes to the "flavours" I think there are some others that are already there but need certain details... let me give you an example: 1) In most of the countries in South America, if not all, the euro texture would be the one... now, the problem is that when it comes to "routes" the markings tend to look like the American ones... so basucally for the cities we have euro markings as well as highways, but when it comes to the routes which are found in the countryside... America is the one, is there a way to mix those? 2) Im currently living in the Caribbean, and something pretty similar happens in here... although certain avenues have American "textures" and the majority of the routes in here too... (Dominican Republic) and that is basically because the Americans were the ones that built them in the 60s... Basically what Im saying is... I lived in almost every country in South America... Now Im living in the Caribbean... and I go every 3 months to USA and Im about to move there in like 6 or 9 months... So if you are interested making Latin American roads... or need any help on that, I can help you with that.. about modding.. well I dont know much, but Im willing to learn. Im telling you this because I like your work, and I know that being part of the NAM takes a lot of time away and that you work on fantastic mods that I use in my cities... so maybe with a little bit of help, who knows... things might come along easier.. let me know what you think

[MandelSoft 2,774]

Do you mean the following?

- On undivided roads, the median lines are yellow

- On divided roads and motorways, the median lines are white.

If so, you basically got the Norway-situation (or at least, until 2012, when Norway decided to paint all median lines yellow). Shouldn't be way too hard to do, only the cross-linking between networks with an yellow median line and networks with white ones may require the most effort...

Texture modding is not that hard. You only need a few basic programs for it, and if you use the right naming format, the process can be greatly automized. You'll need the following programs:

- iLive's Reader 0.93: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=656

- FSH to PNG converter: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7127.msg321771#msg321771

- PNG to FSH Batch Tool: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2255

- Any good image editing program

NOTE: After installing the PNG to FSH tool, open the directory where you installed the tool and open groupid.txt. Replace the entire content of the file by 1ABE787D and save the file.

1. From this slightly aged tutorial: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4140.0

---

1. Extracting Textures

This section will explain how to extract any texture from a given DAT file including the MAXIS simcity_*.dat files. You will be using iLive's Reader and FSHman in this section. Extracting textures can be benefitial when making adjustments to existing textures, such as making a Euro Texture Mod.

We must start in iLive's Reader. First you must open the texture DAT that you are looking for in iLive's Reader, then select all the the textures you want and copy them into the Blank.dat as shown. Remember you dont need all 5 views of the textures, just the 04, 14, 24 and 34 textures (128x128 pixels). When you re-import the texture into a DAT later, you will only need the 128x128 pixel texture for all 5 zooms.

When you have all the textures you want goto File -> Export All Files.. Before you do this, I suggest that you create a "working" folder for you to extract the textures to. When you extract the files it will extract the files into two files, a FSH file and a TGI file. For us the TGI file is useless and you can remove it. The FSH files are what we are looking for.

Now we are done with iLive's Reader, you can close it and you don't have to save anything.

---

2. Now use the PNG to FSH converter to convert the FSH files to PNG files.

3. Delete the FSH and the FSH.TGI files. We don't need them anymore

4. Now re-name all files so they cointain only the Instance ID (IID). The instance ID is the last of the three IDs in the filename. Make sure you add the prefix "0x". You get file names that look like this: "0x5EB4B104.png". Why do this? Because the PNG to FSH batch recognises the IID and assigns the correct ID automatically

5. Edit the textures with the image editing program you like

6. When done, open the PNG to FSH Batch Tool

7. Drag you files all at once into the Tool.

8. Make sure you have "Automatically Process Mips" turned on.

9. Hit "Save DAT" and make a new DAT file for your override textures

10. Done! Now you have to test them in-game to see if it works.

Best,

Maarten

[riiga 234]

Sounds like a great idea, so count me in!

[ebrk 0]

Norway an oddball, but not Ireland with thei HQDCs?? What I miss the most - both in the Maxis and Euro version - are side markings on the roads though.

[cmdp123789 710]

Well yeah, its exactly like you said... and yes, of course there are certain markings... I guess it will depend on the country

[MandelSoft 2,774]

And that kind of nuance, is why I started the initiative of this team

[aaaling 83]

Also, here in Ontario, on most undivided roads there’s only 1 yellow line. Emergency turnaround lanes have the yellow lines going through the lane, not wrapping around. Also, on center turn lanes (like the TLA-5), the dotted lines are on the outside. And for plain flush medians, there’s only 2 lines, not 4 lines grouped into 2 pairs of lines, with crosshatch markings.

 

Anyway, I’d be willing to help.

[MandelSoft 2,774]

OK, we have currently the following members who are interested:

• cmdp123789
• riiga
• aaaling
• So, I know that Riiga can do transit textures, but are you to already able to do a successful texture modification in-game? A pic of one modified texture will do. Try the ones that you find that should be changed

  Best,

  Maarten

[riiga 234]

Is this proof enough?

 

[MandelSoft 2,774]

Yes, that would be enough

[aaaling 83]

Anyway, did anyone read my rant about Ontario road markings? Just goes to show you, even within North America, road markings can be different.

[Ryan B 35]

aaling:  I read it . . . and I agree.  I see those differences all the time when I come on up the QEW (more so recently - gotta love Jr. Sabres road trips!).

 

I used to be somewhat decent at editing textures . . . my first effort was the Two-Way Left Turn Lane cosmetic mod that ended up being one of the first steps of the TLA-5 / NWM.  I've lost my touch, but I've got some knowledge of road & pavement markings, which I'd be happy to lend to the team.  Anything I can do to help!

[aaaling 83]

I’ve made a quick and dirty retexture for the TLA-3 to be like Ontario style TLAs:

 

 

What do you think?

[MandelSoft 2,774]

I think you may get in to trouble once you come to the diagonals or intersection or any unmodified texture, since they don't really line up...

 

And how does it look in-game?

[aaaling 83]

Some in-game pics of my textures:

 

 

  Edited February 16, 2013 by aaaling  

[MandelSoft 2,774]

Do you see that your orthagonals don't line up with all the other textures? That was something I was afraid of...

[aaaling 83]

I know. You asked for an in-game pic, so I gave you two.

 

EDIT: My question about the IIDs for the TLA-3 have been answered by the pics.

  Edited February 16, 2013 by aaaling  

[Forthwall 1,118]

I'm interested in joining this project, even though I haven't done modding of textures, I have made road tiles for my lots. *needs to look through his old computer for the texutes due recently changed computers.*

[aaaling 83]

I’ve remade the TLA-3 Ontario style textures, and also made Ontario style RHW Turnaround lanes.

 

Pics:

 

 

 

 

Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/auH9r

 

What do you think?

[Jamonbread 222]

Being from Ontario I think its pretty sweet modifications. TLA-3's look legit. The turnarounds are kinda funny... I think the Ontario ones are wider the ones you made look more like Quebec. I think for the off ramps adding the splitter textures of ontario with collision props would be the coolest thing to make the highways more Ontario looking. 

 

Anyways dont have much time or knowledge to contribute really just giving my two cents, Keep it up guys!

[MandelSoft 2,774]

OK, that looks better indeed

[aaaling 83]

Here’s a widened turnaround lane, as per Jamonbread’s request:

 

 

EDIT: Some ingame pics:

 

 

 

Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/gIc7R

 

What do you think?

  Edited March 31, 2013 by aaaling  

[Magneto 316]

I'm interested, although I don't know much about road markings.

[MandelSoft 2,774]

Hey, you can always learn

By the way, I'm setting up a central database of all original NAM textures + the US version of the Cosmetic Re-texture Mod. All textures will have their filenames referring to their corresponding TGI-IDs.

EDIT: Done with conversion. I've 29 775 PNG files (excluding mipmaps) zipped into a 172MB zip. It's too big to upload right now, so I'll wait until tomorrow then...

[agunter999 200]

can I make a suggestion but is it possible to do it like sam so some streets are Dutch then others Russian. It would make this mod if not good look

[aaaling 83]

By the way, I'm setting up a central database of all original NAM textures + the US version of the Cosmetic Re-texture Mod. All textures will have their filenames referring to their corresponding TGI-IDs.

EDIT: Done with conversion. I've 25 745 PNG files (excluding mipmaps) zipped into a 140MB zip. It's too big to upload right now, so I'll wait until tomorrow then...

 

Will I be able to download it?

[Magneto 316]

 

Just for fun, American & Euro textures mixed. Only did straights & diagonals as you can guess

 

 

Here some  overhauling of your euro mod. I refreshed some SAM and less used connections situations, but kept some aspect of your older mod I like better, such as road/street intersections & transitions.

 

 

So, what do you think?

[MandelSoft 2,774]

If you keep the lines dashed on the top one, you would get the Irish-South African style!

By the way, I'm setting up a central database of all original NAM textures + the US version of the Cosmetic Re-texture Mod. All textures will have their filenames referring to their corresponding TGI-IDs.

EDIT: Done with conversion. I've 25 745 PNG files (excluding mipmaps) zipped into a 140MB zip. It's too big to upload right now, so I'll wait until tomorrow then...

 

Will I be able to download it?

Depends if your internet connection can handle it, but it already did handle the NAM 31

[MandelSoft 2,774]

OK, an update. The Road Texture Database ZIP is now available on Google Docs for download (171 MB):

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8Tb6LVuRM4QNHVIZGhaV1JQblk/edit?usp=sharing

It's good reference material and you can use it to construct your own texture mods

Best,

Maarten