My SC4 CJ Scrapbook | Important update and news!

[BossDragon 220]

Really nice city you got there

[sirrus1980 41]

Another great work. I can only watch and learn. I try make my citys realistic but your work its higher level for me Maybe you can see my last work and give me some advice ?

https://community.simtropolis.com/journal/5241/entry-25340-ninanu-complete-project/

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Replies:

 

Mymyjp: BATs with signs on the side of the building are good, thanks.

 

Titanicbuff: Thank you.

 

kingofsimcity: Cheers!

 

sizequeen: I use Gobias' sidewalk mods and zone medium to high density to get the pavement showing on the avenues.

 

takemethere: It's a great powerline set of Mandelsoft's that I use- I think they are German powerlines.

 

Schulmanator: It doesn't work.

 

Sexysark:P: Thanks.

 

TekindusT: Thank you.

 

Belfastsocrates: That's good to hear.

 

tonyr: Thanks.

 

Vitor13: Thanks a lot.

 

Snugies: I presume some kind of rod is partially embedded up the cat's anus.

 

BossDragon:

 

sirrus1980: You need shadows, more traffic, complete removal of all ingame UI, more building variety, large detailed parks, carparks, alleyways, diagonal buildings and more varied fillers. That should do it.

 

 

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Update 84: GIMP Experiments

 

My first foray into photo-editing, towards the end it gets trippy. This is a WIP update on the city of Annuq.

 

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The overview of Annuq and the only picture not edited.

 

 

 

Horizontal flipping.

 

 

 

Film noir plus horizontal flipping.

 

 

 

Higher contrast.

 

 

 

A mild "LSD" transformation- shift the general colour hue and exaggerate the brighter colours.

 

 

 

Negative colours followed by tinted light green to create a trippy film noir effect or an X-ray effect.

 

 

 

Very high contrast with higher light settings. Gives the appear of a sun with two or three times more luminosity.

 

 

 

Strict grayscale.

 

 

 

Threshold. This turns everything into two colours: black or white. Shift the levels to highlight more black or white and switch between linear or logarithmic levels (on GIMP) to fine tune what you want to highlight. Very cool in my opinion.

 

 

 

 

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All in all I found that horizontal flipping, threshold and negative colours are the most interesting photoediting options. It makes for a good one off.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

Really sweet!!! I am still putting this new "learning curve" on hold...But so many wonderful things can be done with this program. This will definitely enhance the beauty of your journal!!!

[Prophet42 1,503]

Now that's a power plant!!  Great attention to detail.  The power plant facility is very realistic.  Excellent work!  (speaking of the previous update).

 

Also nice work on the photo-shopping.  The horizontal flipping and the high contrast seem to be the most useful as far as CJing goes, imo.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Agreed with Prophet, two simple tricks like increasing the contrast and flipping the pic are extremely useful to take the picture "out" of the SC4 world. Keep experimenting and you will surprise yourself on how your CJing reaches new quotas just with photoedition.

[tankmank 853]

I like the use of photoshop, some cool effects 

[RipRap 4,400]

HAHAHAHAHA trippy

 

Looks nice though, just remember to not get overboard

[Huston 5,800]

Nice photo-editing experiment! It'll be interesting to see how this changes your future updates

[NielsC007 499]

Some of these look really cool!

[packersfan 667]

As I've learned and been told, photo-editing is best if done subtly.  My go-to edit for every picture basically is setting the contrast to somewhere between 5 and 10.  Saturate the picture + 5 to 10.  Mess with the hue and color balance if you want to give change the time of day or the way the sun is shining (cloudy days look different).  I also put a gaussian blur of .6 px.  With that you have a nice picture that isn't just raw SC4.  Occasionally throw in a lens flare (I usually just put this off the edge to give the illusion of the sun being over there).  Another nice one is the soft-glow effect.  Really gives the picture a different look.  I never do the horizontal flip (would be great, but it literally flips the city to a mirror image that would not match my map at all).

The greatest photo-editing trick of all is stitching shots from the edges of your city tiles to avoid ever showing the SC4 edge.  I will be posting a tutorial on this in the future.

Playing with the perspective tool also changes up the SC4 view monotony.  I had a stint where I did that a bunch ... and maybe when a little overboard, though if you get it just right, the results are quite amazing and satisfying.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with GIMP.  Good photo-editing just adds another level to the GREAT SC4 stuff you already have.

[jerseybison 6]

Amazing. What is the building under the Weckman Museum of fine arts with the Cody's Monkey business on the side? Also what is the large colorful building under that picture?

[jerseybison 6]

Lastly what is the Hess building with the blue awnings?

[aegian 182]

Playing with the perspective tool also changes up the SC4 view monotony.  I had a stint where I did that a bunch ... and maybe when a little overboard, though if you get it just right, the results are quite amazing and satisfying.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with GIMP.  Good photo-editing just adds another level to the GREAT SC4 stuff you already have.

 

Remember that, looked great and was a nice surprise. 

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Replies:

 

Mymyjp: Thanks. I'm considering posting a separate CJ dedicated solely towards mosaics and various edited pictures.

 

Prophet42: Thanks a lot. I agree, horizontal flipping and high contrast are the best tools available.

 

TekindusT: If I am going to experiment more with GIMP then I'm going to post the pictures in a separate CJ.

 

tankmank: Thank you.

 

Tonraq: I intend to abuse GIMP and produce the occasional psychedelic picture now and then.

 

Huston: Any photo-editing will be posted in a different CJ.

 

NielsC007: Thank you, it could be handy material for a montage video...

 

packersfan: Agree with a subtle approach but it can take pushing various levels and settings to extremes to produce something... subtle. Cutting out the city tile edges would be great for massive landscape mosaics though.

 

jerseybison: It is one of Simgoober's shopping malls, you can find it in one of his commercial packs on the BSC LEX. The second building is Citymax's Commercial Centre-

 

 

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Update 85: South Downtown in Weckum

 

Last entry I had fun tweaking the pictures but ultimately I just love raw SC4 pictures! Maybe there is room for them in an another CJ...

 

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I love the W2W progression of the tower blocks / skyscrapers.

 

 

 

W2W is the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another one of SFBT's petrol stations.

 

 

 

 

 

Reddonquixote's St Paul's Cathedral (in Melbourne, Australia), lovely BAT that one is. Church/cathedral/minster BATs are always the best.

 

 

 

Just google "paeng modular graveyard" and the first two pages will have everything, and more, on display in this picture's graveyard.

 

 

 

Diagonals are easy peasy now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vitoraju 675]

I think your CJ so cute! is one of the best I found the cool cemetery, you made it realistic to the church next door. I also loved the way you deal with the diagonal, leaving the city very well made! You seem to have the talent of a great engineer! hahaha

[sizequeen 2]

What do you use for water mods and such?  I notice that you have what looks like 2 tiers of sea walls/retaining walls in this city but in the previous update your industry was literally right on top of what looked like ploppable water.  However I noticed the industry had red or brick walls that were almost entirely submerged.

 

Once again, you're amazing!

[TPB 563]

Another incredible update from a master of realism. Great job Ln X.

 

I think your GIMP experiments were promising, the trick is the keep them as subtle as possible, to just bring out the beauty of the images, but stop before it becomes too glaring.

[jacob814 16]

I keep seeing these fillers everwhere that complement the road sidewalk textures. What are those fillers and what road re-texture are you using?
 

[jerseybison 6]

Thank you. Very inspiring. I hate to ask for so many things. What is the 2x2 brick building with the red and white awning in the diagonals picture and that Hess building in previous entry?

[Mymyjp 1,052]

Very nice entry. Love that row of house in the 6th before last picture...looks like a low wealth strip. Very well done.

[packersfan 667]

That is a great church.  The W2W to towers progression is perfect.  I have yet to get my areas to look that great.  I think your raw SC4 photos look slightly tweaked despite maybe no tweaks at all...just the great content of the picture!

[tankmank 853]

I like the update, the different buildings,they work so well

[kierkegaard 0]

I really like this my friend. You blend custom content and maxis very well together. In think I see some mas71 river

[Titanicbuff 1,262]

The roundabout parking lot is cool.

[Benedict 3,119]

Congratulations, your CJ is number one on BTT again.

[Major from Bajor 24]

Hey dudes, n..b. here, kinda:) This is beautiful beyond belief, can somebody help the brotha out, how do I get those houses that line up with diagonal streets? and that roundabout with parking in the middle?

[Benedict 3,119]

Another week, another update, another number one on BTT.

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Replies:

 

Vitor13: Thanks, that small cemetery is one of my favourite areas of Weckum.

 

sizequeen: I use Mas71's river banks and Simgoobers' canals.

 

TBP: Thanks a bunch!

 

jacob814: I am using SFBT's diagonal fillers and the road retexture comes from NAM 32's standard Euro textures.

 

jerseybison: Tell you what, you state exactly which picture these buildings come from in the two entries and then I can accurately track them down. Alright? Send me a private message if you are interested.

 

Mymyjp: That row of diagonal houses are Simcoug's diagonal tenements.

 

packersfan: Thank you! The only tweak I make to my raw SC4 photos is changing the file format from PNG to JPG. This smooths the pictures and very slightly dulls the colours. I do this conversion to save on file space!

 

tankmank: Thank you.

 

kierkegaard: You are correct, that is Mas71's river.

 

Titanicbuff: It sure is, this is one of my favourite roundabout fillers created by murimk (called roundabout underground parking).

 

Benedict: I had a good run but it will be coming to end very soon!

 

Major from Bajor: Alright brotha! The diagonal houses are from Simcoug- and that roundabout with parking is from murimk- I hope that helps. Also you would not happen to be Kira Nerys by any chance?

 

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News: On hiatus

 

To all who follow this CJ,

 

The last fifteen months I have really enjoyed SC4 and showing various cities, areas and landscapes to you all. Your comments spurred me on to continue to improve my style and to gain valuable feedback to polish up certain rough areas. It's been a great journey and one coming to an end.

 

The reason is Cities Skylines and for me it is the long-awaited SC5: the massive one, the curved roads one, the complex interchange one, the great graphics one, the 3D one, the-plays-smoothly-at-launch-with-barely-a-glitch one, the-moddable-from-launch one and you get the idea. Cities Skylines is by no means truly complete or as detailed as the heavily modded SC4, however the core game of CS is far more substantial than the vanilla SC4 was and already there are numerous mods to improve the CS visuals and improve building diversity. It has barely been a week since the game was released and already a heavily modded CS looks quite different from its vanilla predecessor.

 

I say this CJ is on hiatus because I am not going to arrogantly state that I am never going to play SC4 again, but it could be a couple of months maybe even a year before I do because there is so much to do in Cities Skylines. I am focusing on my Cities Skylines CJ because I can create cities like this...

 

 

The journey continues but with a different form.

 

 

 

Ln X

[TekindusT 3,809]

Understand that perfectly. I also gave a break to SC4 after I laid my hands on CS. For me, we could just begin calling it SC5; it is the real deal, and it will keep being when quality mods are released with time.

 

Keep making us enjoy!