London Recreation

[cmdp123789 710]

Hello everyone, and welcome to London!

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I would like to take the challenge and give you the chance to see something fresh.. 

 

Now, London is a very complicated city, and of course, no grid at all.. or at least in 90% of the city =0

 

Believe me when I say, this is very time consuming, specially to get the streets right.. so dont expect development for the moment.. everything will be about placing streets and landmarks, and of course with time, development will come..

 

If you've seen my CJs before, I like showing the step by step.. and show people that everyone can accomplish the same just by watching the pictures...

 

So first things first, I would like to show you my Canary Wharf practice.. I did this in order to get familiar with the area, and to make sure Im gonna get it right when it comes to the real thing..

 

BTW some of you have seen a picture of my London, but that was a previous version, this one will be way better since I used that one as a practice ground!!

 

Canary Wharf practice #1

 

 

I then finished it up by adding a little streets and buildings.. 

 

 

Im pretty confident about this area, not very hard, of course Im talking about that particular area and not the whole isle of dogs.. 

 

And to show you that I did start some of the actual City of London..

 

 

Hopefully this picture will make sense in a couple of updates =)

 

Anyways.. Hope you enjoy this, not a great start, but I wanted to share my humble start at this.. didnt wanna miss the chance!!

 

Criss.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Good luck with the recreation, and if you can't recreate London then emulate it!

[elavery 1,013]

Recreations are hard. Unfortunately laying the streets is the easy part. It is then building within them when things get really dicey.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Ohh that sounds very ambitious. And difficult. 

 

Good luck and I'm very curious of what you make of it!

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

What an interesting project!  I would like to see how this goes.

[jmsepe 2,039]

Nice project, seems very ambitious to me but nonetheless, good luck! Ganbatte!

[Hotwheeler 409]

Wow,a very cool and ambitious project.Also love the idea to show the construction of your CJ from the very first start.Very often we see only CJ`s where the shown area is alreay done,polished and everything sits right in place.It`s like seeing a newly build house only after the last bucket of dust was removed and the scaffolding is down.

About the interesting road layout in the last picture: are you planning to connect them with the smooth Roads Trick that was introduced in the last NAM (i actually love that,building FAR`s AND connect straight roads afterwards on it) or are you doing it Mosaic style like in the older NYC Journal you showed me?

Anyway,can`t wait to see the progress,keep calm and keep on simming

BTW,the last Picture shows the London Bridge Area,right?

 

See ya.

[cmdp123789 710]

Alright..

 

 

Good luck with the recreation, and if you can't recreate London then emulate it!

 

It's good that you mentioned it as I was going to say exactly the same... some parts are not gonna be possible to recreate because of game limitations, so emulating it would be the way to keep it up, in which case I will ask the people around for suggestions..

 

 

Recreations are hard. Unfortunately laying the streets is the easy part. It is then building within them when things get really dicey.

 

I agree.. streets are just following what Google Earth says.. but trust me, it is very time consuming.. and yes, recreations are hard, but I love doing real life cities!!

 

 

Ohh that sounds very ambitious. And difficult. 

 

Good luck and I'm very curious of what you make of it!

 

Thank you.. stick around and lets find out!!

 

 

What an interesting project!  I would like to see how this goes.

 

Thanks! Well I hope it goes good lol! I mean, London.. good ol' London.. Ive never seen one before, and based on the forums, people are really eager to see it happening!!

 

 

Nice project, seems very ambitious to me but nonetheless, good luck! Ganbatte!

 

It is, and it will take time, but hopefully, this will inspire more people to be part of it, and you know.. the more people to share the more fun, and the less work.. I say work because you feel like you are doing something that people are willing to appreciate, so its fun to see people spending time with you and your project!!

 

 

Wow,a very cool and ambitious project.Also love the idea to show the construction of your CJ from the very first start.Very often we see only CJ`s where the shown area is alreay done,polished and everything sits right in place.It`s like seeing a newly build house only after the last bucket of dust was removed and the scaffolding is down.

About the interesting road layout in the last picture: are you planning to connect them with the smooth Roads Trick that was introduced in the last NAM (i actually love that,building FAR`s AND connect straight roads afterwards on it) or are you doing it Mosaic style like in the older NYC Journal you showed me?

Anyway,can`t wait to see the progress,keep calm and keep on simming

BTW,the last Picture shows the London Bridge Area,right?

 

See ya.

 

Chris!! My german friend! well.. let me see if I can answer all of them!! Yes, showing it from scratch, and showing people what it takes is very important for me. Also, it is a good way to show people that the magic doesnt happen at the end, instead, right at your foundations!

The roads will be connectec, I use that as a "base" a "skeleton" if you will.. I tend to do that a lot to use as a guide.. some will be connected the way you say and some others will follow the mosaic style because of angle purposes.

And yes.. it is the London bridge area.. very good!

 

Lastly, because you read everything, let me give you a teaser of what Im doing right now as I answer your questions.. 

 

 

Remember the practice? Now thats the real thing =P

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Looks nice! Good luck with the project

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Here is a link to some British zebra crossings, of which there are tens of thousands in London.

 

[nathanthemayor 1,262]

Wow this is a city recreation I have never seen before! Good luck with this CJ!

[TekindusT 3,809]

This is what I call an ambitious project! Best of luck with it!

[cmdp123789 710]

 

REPLIES

 

 

Looks nice! Good luck with the project

 

 

Thank you! I need all the luck in the world.. To be honest, every step I take, I learn something new, and just with the Thames.. OH MY GOD.. Im still strugling with it 

 

 

Here is a link to some British zebra crossings, of which there are tens of thousands in London.

 

 

Thanks! Yup.. I got them already, but thanks for the link, if you find anything that can contribute with this, it is more than welcome! I need all the help possible from viewers... 100 eyes will be better than just my own.

 

 

Wow this is a city recreation I have never seen before! Good luck with this CJ!

 

Exactly! and that is the main reason Im doing it. I love London, probably my favorite city in the world, and almost 12 years since the release, and I have never seen a recreation.. So here I go!! Thanks for the support!

 

 

This is what I call an ambitious project! Best of luck with it!

 

I know.. I dont even know if Im up for it, but as I said, no one ever tried it, I have to give it a chance, right? Thank you for the comment.. you always support me in my CJs!! 

 

Now, done with replies, I have 3 pictures for today, not a lot, but some progress!!

 

This is Canary Wharf on the actual region tile.

 

 

Of course it is a WIP, but just wanted to show you how the buildings are looking, and how the area is starting to shape up.. of course all those roads are gonna go... Im still working the land..

 

 

And now, for the final picture, some progress on the city!

 

 

Hope you enjoy...

 

Criss!

[packersfan 666]

I loved taking a shot at doing Milwaukee, my hometown.  Of course, far easier than doing London as it had a lot of grid.  I gave up when I miscalculated where a freeway interchange was going to sit and I didn't want to re-render tiles and lose all the work and do it again...too frustrating...if you can avoid that, it is fun, right!?

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

The progress is great.  Kind of reminds me of the shots taken at Tokyo over the years.  I imagine that a lot of the older, Old World cities are going to be very difficult to recreate in the game.

[naftixe 131]

I've been doing recreations for 10 years now. What I find must useful when I get into non-grid cities is to just keep the major feel of the iconic parts of the city and not focus on minute details of lesser known streets. Areas can easily hide the small inconsistencies through the overgrowth of development. Lesser known areas, about 90% of your build can be off as much as 6 tiles and the casual observer will not tell the difference. I personally would not stress out and just stay within the confines of using straight, diagonal, curved and far angle pieces, but also weigh the fact of dead tiles in the far pieces that don't allow in game connections. I generally use gentle curving 45 pieces and space them out to reduce the amount of contants 1 tile lateral road movements. In short, have fun, just concentrate on accuracy for the iconic 10 % of your build and the other 90% can and will have to vary due to in game limitations. Great job so far and good luck!

[elavery 1,013]

I've been doing recreations for 10 years now. What I find must useful when I get into non-grid cities is to just keep the major feel of the iconic parts of the city and not focus on minute details of lesser known streets. Areas can easily hide the small inconsistencies through the overgrowth of development. Lesser known areas, about 90% of your build can be off as much as 6 tiles and the casual observer will not tell the difference. I personally would not stress out and just stay within the confines of using straight, diagonal, curved and far angle pieces, but also weigh the fact of dead tiles in the far pieces that don't allow in game connections. I generally use gentle curving 45 pieces and space them out to reduce the amount of contants 1 tile lateral road movements. In short, have fun, just concentrate on accuracy for the iconic 10 % of your build and the other 90% can and will have to vary due to in game limitations. Great job so far and good luck!

 

 

This advice is awesome. You have to remember the confines of the game when recreating real-life cities. You want things to look good in context of the game first and foremost. No one is going to worry if a street doesn't go at quite the right angle.

[Hotwheeler 409]

I've been doing recreations for 10 years now. What I find must useful when I get into non-grid cities is to just keep the major feel of the iconic parts of the city and not focus on minute details of lesser known streets. Areas can easily hide the small inconsistencies through the overgrowth of development. Lesser known areas, about 90% of your build can be off as much as 6 tiles and the casual observer will not tell the difference. I personally would not stress out and just stay within the confines of using straight, diagonal, curved and far angle pieces, but also weigh the fact of dead tiles in the far pieces that don't allow in game connections. I generally use gentle curving 45 pieces and space them out to reduce the amount of contants 1 tile lateral road movements. In short, have fun, just concentrate on accuracy for the iconic 10 % of your build and the other 90% can and will have to vary due to in game limitations. Great job so far and good luck!

 

Now that`s really a very good advise.

I remeber when i started my NYC Grid i sometimes started to curse just because i missed a spot by one or two tiles.

 

But back to Chriss London Recreation.

Your Canary Wharf Area is really coming together.This is where ther Canal Pieces are really useful.Imagine doing this with regular water fille canals...

Also the size is pretty impressive and i also notice one of my favorite modern buildings in London.Don`t know how it is named,but it is very easy t distinct by it`s uhm...rocket shaped facade.

Also the street pattern is coming together nicely.I can almost imagine those doubledecker buses (but the classic Routemaster Buses,the modern ones look like a highheel shoe did it with a ketchup bottle) and black taxis roaming the streets.

 

Keep on the good work my friend.

[El Argentino 170]

Looks good. But I would like do the canals with the terrain. Almost no use the BSC canals, i dont know why, but i dont like the colour of textures.