Cori's Beach Shoppe

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

Cori's Beach Shoppe  by CorinaMarie@Simtropolis

A picture catalogue of every known Beach Mod for SimCity 4

Note: I did not create any of these mods. This thread is simply to display each beach mod using the same city tile for easy comparison. If you find this useful feel free to use your browser's Save As function and do a Save Complete Web Page. This will give you an offline copy with all the pictures. My content is freely available for use by anyone. You can even make a duplicate thread on any other site if you like. Please, just be sure to give me credit for the original creation.

For peeps with 16:9 (or other wide screen) monitors you could open this thread in two separate windows side by side.  This would allow you to have independent scroll bars to compare specific mods. It would also work if you have dual monitors tho there may be some slight color difference between the two.

Other Threads in Cori's Shoppe Series:

• Cori's Rock Shoppe   (Linkys to and Pictures of every Rock Mod)
• Cori's Water Shoppe   (Linkys to and Pictures of every Water Mod)
• Cori's Side Water Shoppe   NEW! – March 2022   (Pictures and in topic Downloads of the Water's Edge for every Water Mod)
• Cori's Terrain Shoppe   (Linkys to and Pictures of every Terrain Mod)
• Cori's Jolteon's Ferrians's Tree Shoppe   (Linkys to and Pictures of almost every Tree Mod)

And see: C.O.R.I.M.A.P.S. - A Tutorial for SimCity 4   (Quick alternative realistic map making method)

 

Note: If you download a mod and have any difficulty with it and when all else fails, read the ReadMe instructions that comes with it.

 

Ok, let's start off with plain vanilla:

 

Now, let's extend the beach area a wee bit. Using Limitless_Beach.dat from Beach Modd:

 

Or, even more beachiness using Beach Extend Mod 1.0:

And for all of the following pics, the above Beach Extend Mod is installed.

 

White Gravel Beach mod:

 

Riverside Beach Mod:

 

HD White Sands Beach Mod:

 

HD Sandy Beach Mod:

 

Beach Modd contains 7

Arctic Beach:

 

Black Sand Beach:

 

Grass Beach:

 

Grey Rocky Beach:

 

Mud Beach:

 

Snow Beach:

 

White Sand Beach:

 

SMP Black Sand Beach mod:

 

Basaltic Sands Texture mod 1.0.0:

 

Gobias HD Beach Pack (v1.0) contains 8 (there's 4 tweaked for Lowkee and 4 for Gobias terrains) I'm showing the 4 Gobias ones.

GB Cape Cod Beach:

 

GB Nantucket Beach:

 

GB St. Lucia Beach:

 

GB Vancouver Island Beach:

 

LK_StarterSet (v1.0)

LK_StarterSet_Beach.dat:

 

Sudden Valley Terrain Mod (v1.0)

SV Beach.dat:

 

Berner Oberland Terrain Mod (v1.0)

BO Beach Mod.dat:

 

Coastal Modd contains 9

The Foreshores .dats are the textures for the beach terrain. There are also 6 Beach .dat files which are for ploppable beaches. Special thanks to @rivit for clarifying these for me cause I was confuzzled about them.

Here's just a quick sample. First vanilla for both beach terrain and a beach lot:

 

And here using GreySandBeach.dat with GreySandForeshore.dat:

On 17/10/2016 at 2:41 AM, RandyE said:

I don't think its been mentioned here that the transparent beach can be used with any foreshore to show any color through.

 

And now back to just the beach terrain textures.

Brown Rock Foreshore:

 

Brown Sand Foreshore:

 

Green Rock Foreshore:

 

Grey Rock Foreshore:

 

Grey Sand Foreshore:

 

Pink Sand Foreshore:

 

White Sand Foreshore:

 

Yellow Rock Foreshore:

 

Yellow Sand Foreshore:

 

Runamuck's HD Shoreline MOD v1:

 

CPT Painted Desert Terrain Mod

CPT_B_MoabBeach_Optional.dat only:

 

CPT Olympic Terrain Mod 1

CPT_B_OylmpicBeach_Optional.dat only:

 

CPT Missouri Breaks Terrain Mod

CPT_B_MissouriBreaksBeach.dat only:

 

Columbus Terrain Mod von Cycledogg

CPT_B_ColumbusBeach_Optional.dat only:

 

Socorro Terrain Mod [V. 2]

_beach_.dat only:

 

The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD.

Beach Mod contained in VIP Terrain Mod by Cédric. (Attached to this post on Devotion.)

Note: In addition to the Beach Mod there are also Terrain, Rock, and Water mods. The following pic has all 4 installed:

^ Thanks to @Indiana Joe for mentioning this one.

 

So, if anyone asks: Which Beach Mod should I get?, show them this thread so they can compare and decide.

 

P.S. If I've missed any Beach Mods, feel free to post a linky to them and I'll get them screenshotted and added here.

 

Attached is the city tile I used for these pics in case you want to make the same comparison. (Note to guests: You prolly can't download this attachment, but when I finish all my Shoppes threads, I'll also make a STEX download for all the tiles.)

City - Beach Mods.sc4

 

Return to SimCity 4 Ultimate Guide: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762954-SimCity-4-ultimate-guide/

[SecretMbr_735754 2,158]

Love these beaches, all beautiful.   The goofy Maxis seaport, not so much.  Can we get a re-work on that baby?

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

4 hours ago, RandyE said:

The goofy Maxis seaport, not so much.  Can we get a re-work on that baby?

Nope. These posts are the very earliest in my From The Ground Up concept and a lot of vanilla is there deliberately. I still have Terrain Mod Pics and Tree Controller Pics to do in my initial Shoppes series. Then having watched the awesome vid in @Scribosilyn's Phoenix Project, Tutorial : create a river 2, I feel I'll want to do a Next Step series for all that ploppable scenery stuff. After that I might get around to the custom made buildings. Or I might explore some more in depth iLive Reader tweaking of the Terrain Properties Exemplar for my map making tutorial. Or, whatever seems like the next best thing for me to learn about. (I'm making this all up as I go.)

[TakemeThere 5,834]

Thanks for compiling all these, they make for a great resource to us all. I've tested nearly all the water and rock mods in game (over the last 10 years) though I never thought to post the results online, that was a great idea! But I never really thoroughly went through all the sand mods, now I can!

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

7 hours ago, Takingyouthere said:

But I never really thoroughly went through all the sand mods, now I can!

Yay!

And scroll thru post one again, I added 9 more I'd forgotten.

[TakemeThere 5,834]

15 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Yay!

And scroll thru post one again, I added 9 more I'd forgotten.

Awesome, keep at it! Here's another one for the list that I found some time ago and was recently using;

 

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

1 hour ago, Takingyouthere said:

Here's another one for the list that I found some time ago and was recently using

Got it and shot it and edited it into post 1.

[rivit 3,402]

The "beaches" in the Coastal Modd are for beach lots so that they can match the Foreshore colors.

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

3 hours ago, rivit said:

The "beaches" in the Coastal Modd are for beach lots so that they can match the Foreshore colors.

Thank you! Now I understand. I've updated post 1 to reflect this information.

[SecretMbr_735754 2,158]

On ‎2016‎-‎09‎-‎17 at 2:44 AM, CorinaMarie said:

Nope. These posts are the very earliest in my From The Ground Up concept and a lot of vanilla is there deliberately. I still have Terrain Mod Pics and Tree Controller Pics to do in my initial Shoppes series. Then having watched the awesome vid in @Scribosilyn's Phoenix Project, Tutorial : create a river 2, I feel I'll want to do a Next Step series for all that ploppable scenery stuff. After that I might get around to the custom made buildings. Or I might explore some more in depth iLive Reader tweaking of the Terrain Properties Exemplar for my map making tutorial. Or, whatever seems like the next best thing for me to learn about. (I'm making this all up as I go.)

I'm only seriously working from your Shoppes now, assembling a new combination of mods.  I have selected from your examples, water, beach, and rock, as well as the extender and foreshore to match the Maxis beach park.   I'll have to go through the various terrains to match something up.   I've decided I like the Maxis tree controller for God mode planting, a variety of the MMPs (ploppable scenery stuff) are best for landscaping, especially the massive @Girafe collection, most of which I think is on the LEX.     Okay, as for the Maxis seaport, tonight I'm loading it into the LE and doing a rework with the Maxis props.    I had to revert back to a previous version of iLive Reader that works in XP (3) compatibility mode under windows 8.1.   Are you able to use the most recent version on your XP machine?

[rsc204 21,865]

3 hours ago, RandyE said:

I've decided I like the Maxis tree controller for God mode planting, a variety of the MMPs (ploppable scenery stuff) are best for landscaping, especially the massive @Girafe collection

Obviously it's up to personal preference, but IMHO, I couldn't think of a worse contrast. The Maxis trees are so low res and lacking in detail, whilst Girafe has the highest quality tree/flora models I know of in SC4.

Personally I'd recommend checking out the two excellent seasonal HD tree controllers, either Aerden by Vortext or Cascadia by Epic Blunder. Both of which use a lot of Girafe's flora. If your PC is not up to plopping thousands of HD seasonal trees, you don't have to use them liberally.

Otherwise, one of CPs tree controllers (I think only on LEX too), would contrast a lot better than the Maxis trees. Even so, if I found myself using one, I'd probably refrain from using Girafe's trees too much, because even there the difference is so huge, they just don't look right together when mixed.

[Fantozzi 4,068]

On 17.9.2016 at 8:43 AM, RandyE said:

Love these beaches, all beautiful.   The goofy Maxis seaport, not so much.  Can we get a re-work 8similar ton that baby?

That's also on my todo/wish list. Want to make a lot pack that unifies CDK and wmp rural docklands - and add two new functional seaports. But I have to get into the CDK seaport controller first and there are still other things before on my list.

[SecretMbr_735754 2,158]

2 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Obviously it's up to personal preference, but IMHO, I couldn't think of a worse contrast. The Maxis trees are so low res and lacking in detail, whilst Girafe has the highest quality tree/flora models I know of in SC4.

Personally I'd recommend checking out the two excellent seasonal HD tree controllers, either Aerden by Vortext or Cascadia by Epic Blunder. Both of which use a lot of Girafe's flora. If your PC is not up to plopping thousands of HD seasonal trees, you don't have to use them liberally.

Otherwise, one of CPs tree controllers (I think only on LEX too), would contrast a lot better than the Maxis trees. Even so, if I found myself using one, I'd probably refrain from using Girafe's trees too much, because even there the difference is so huge, they just don't look right together when mixed.

Yeah tonight after re-configuring the terrain and water mods in HD I found the Maxis controller didn't fit as well, especially at thicker planting at lower elevations.  I've tried the Cascadia and its too dark toned and not enough variation for what I've got now.  I need something that adjusts better to different elevations and is more of a mixed-forest, not too much dark green that looks blotchy.   I'll try the ones you've suggested here until I get it looking right.   I tend to avoid the seasonal flora because even when I'm designing more than game-playing I usually run the sim at cheetah speed, so I keep the day/night cycle off and don't use seasonal flora.    I hope Cori does do her Shoppes for terrain and trees as the one's she's done so far have been very useful.   Thanks for the suggestions.           

[SecretMbr_735754 2,158]

10 minutes ago, Fantozzi said:

That's also on my todo/wish list. Want to make a lot pack that unifies CDK and wmp rural docklands - and add two new functional seaports. But I have to get into the CDK seaport controller first and there are still other things before on my list.

I look forward to especially the functional seaports and variety of docks, and more integration of the available port works you mention.   I've also been looking around for as many ship and boat models as I can find, especially ones that are converted to replace the Maxis automata.   It would be awesome if we could make ships and boats actually travel from place to place.  My project tonight on the relot of the Maxis seaport is just going to be my usual style of making the most I can from the stock Maxis props and textures, depending mostly on the existing lot, and hopefully providing a quick and easy alternative to the drab looking vanilla version.       

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

9 hours ago, RandyE said:

I'm only seriously working from your Shoppes now ...

Woot! That fulfills my desire to create some useful reference threads.

As I mentioned here (or in one of my other Shoppes), feel free to do a complete web page save of them so you have them available offline in case Photobucket ever decides to bork the pictures. Ideally I'd also like to see them in self contained PDFs along with the attached city tiles in a Zip that could be tossed onto the STEX and maybe uploaded to other exchanges if peeps consider them worthwhile. All I'd ask is that I'm given full credit for the original creation. Otherwise my stuff is intended to be free to everyone. I don't subscribe to the in-case-I-ever-have-a-hissy-fit-someday-I-reserve-the-right-to-delete-all-my-content philosophy. I do these under the freeware (or whatever the right term is) concept.

 

9 hours ago, RandyE said:

I had to revert back to a previous version of iLive Reader that works in XP (3) compatibility mode under windows 8.1.   Are you able to use the most recent version on your XP machine?

I currently use version 0.93 cause I remember reading somewhere the latest version (1.4?, 1.5?) sometimes corrupts the files. When I finally finish up all I want to do with Shoppes and other map related guides, I'll be looking into the various tools with an eye to explaining each one to my younger, less knowledgeable self. My long term (may be a very long term) goal is to explore everything I'd want to know about the day I joined ST.

[rsc204 21,865]

11 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

...along with the attached city tiles in a Zip that could be tossed onto the STEX and maybe uploaded to other exchanges...

That's pretty much against the rules. You can only release non-rendered regions.

I'm not really sure what benefit it really has in this context either. Since it doesn't really matter what city you use to check out such texture-based mods.

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

That's pretty much against the rules. You can only release non-rendered regions.

See @Cyclone Boom's post here. It appears that outdated rule is being reconsidered.

Edit: And here. (Where CB specifically said it might be handy to attach the city tile file to my posts.)

 

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

I'm not really sure what benefit it really has in this context either. Since it doesn't really matter what city you use to check out such texture-based mods.

The reason is that if other mods are found that I didn't know about (or are created subsequent to my pictures) peeps could create the exact same image for better comparison and/or to update my posts if I'm not around to do it. If that's not something peeps would want to do, then yes, it is irrelevant. If, however, even one person would benefit from their inclusion, what harm is there? Those who have no need for them could simply ignore them.

[rsc204 21,865]

On ‎16‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 1:31 PM, CorinaMarie said:

peeps could create the exact same image for better comparison and/or to update my posts if I'm not around to do it

Thing is, differences between rendering setups (i.e. videocards/drivers) will distort such images, so you'll never truly be able to replicate your results for accurate comparison.

For example, I noticed a huge difference on my machine after a driver update, and that was just in region view where you could see the difference between newly saved cities and ones which were yet to be updated. I did have an image for comparison, but wouldn't you know it, one day after I clean up my PB account and remove it, it comes up!

On ‎16‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 1:31 PM, CorinaMarie said:

See @Cyclone Boom's post here. It appears that outdated rule is being reconsidered.

As for rendered city tiles, I'm a little shocked about the potential rule changes. Take a properly developed region and it's not just the hosting/bandwidth issues that need consideration. Although, NAM aside, I can't think of a single mod that even comes close to the potential file size of a region.

For example, I've a very simple test region, simply 4x4 Large tiles. The save files currently amount to 136MB, which with the best compression I know of (7zip), still comes in at 88MB. Now imagine a very large developed region, are we seriously going to allow such gigantic uploads (potentially 500MB-1GB and beyond), whilst the site is running out of money to keep going? Doesn't make sense to me.

Not to mention, the dependency list would be huge for developed regions. Obviously it's not my decision to make, but I really don't think it's a good idea nonetheless. Frankly, what are the benefits of uploading such regions anyhow? Do we really have so many players that don't want to make a region but want to play a ready-made one? What's the point of that? Again that's my opinion, perhaps others feel differently, but if they do, use Google Drive, MS OneDrive, DropBox or another service. Nothing stopping you linking to it on the forums or even as part of an STEX submission, without having to inflict the costs of such onto the community.

I could simplify some of my mods for example, put multiple versions into just one installer. But I've avoided so doing to prevent incurring additional costs for hosting/bandwidth. I believe being responsible with the resources we are offered is important.

 

 

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

... are we seriously going to allow such gigantic uploads (potentially 500MB-1GB and beyond) ...

The 3 city tile files I've included (one per Shoppe thread) range in size from 426kb to 1057kb.  Presenting extremes for a completely unrelated concept (totally built regions) is so far out of kilter with the intent (and the allowance for unbuilt tiles in the posts I linked) that I feel your argument is simply side tracking this thread.

If the staff here decides there's no need for my city tiles, they are free to delete the attachments and warn me not to include any more in the future.

[rsc204 21,865]

Well I only mention it because it was brought up here, but I see your point. I agree it probably isn't an issue in this case.

Just to be clear, my intention was not to suggest you shouldn't upload any such maps Corina. Merely to point out that it may not work as intended.

In line with @Cyclone Boom's comment below, I just wanted to point out a potential concern the discussion brought about. But I'll leave it here, not wishing to derail this thread.

  Edited October 16, 2016 by rsc204  
Clarification of intent.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

2 hours ago, rsc204 said:

For example, I've a very simple test region, simply 4x4 Large tiles. The save files currently amount to 136MB, which with the best compression I know of (7zip), still comes in at 88MB. Now imagine a very large developed region, are we seriously going to allow such gigantic uploads (potentially 500MB-1GB and beyond), whilst the site is running out of money to keep the site going? Doesn't make sense to me.

There are a few things to consider, and should the policy change, I think a clear line must be drawn to prevent such large files. For sure, anything that large would be counterproductive. Yes, it's becoming easier to download, and data is becoming cheaper. But when any file is available on a large scale, bandwidth still racks up very quickly. Unsurprisingly, the STEX is already the greatest cost to keep running, all because of bandwidth and storage.

Cases where we may allow them are for basic city tiles, or small cities which fall within a size limit. The example on the STEX was one of these -- just a simple tile less than 1MB, and the same also applies to Cori's attached saved tiles. Surely there's no harm in those at all, and there are many other uploads much larger (BATs especially). It's all part of encouraging creativity, while at the same time, finding the balance between accessibility.

Anyway, a rule change was just an idea in response to the upload in question. Let's get back to topic...

[MeMyself&I 379]

These are terrific comparisons, many of which I haven't seen before and it really helps to see them literally side by side so we can all see which ones might suit our individual beaches and coastlines best.  I thank you for taking the time to put these together for an easy reference!

[SecretMbr_735754 2,158]

On ‎2016‎-‎09‎-‎18 at 7:04 AM, rivit said:

The "beaches" in the Coastal Modd are for beach lots so that they can match the Foreshore colors.

Thanks for the Coastal Modd and clearing up how it works, its a very versatile and comprehensive package.  I don't think its been mentioned here that the transparent beach can be used with any foreshore to show any color through.      

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

1 hour ago, RandyE said:

... and clearing up how it works ...

Those thanks go to @rivit

I was totally baffled by them and said so originally. I then edited post 1 with the info provided.

(And I edited in your comment about transparent beaches.)

[SecretMbr_735754 2,158]

9 hours ago, rsc204 said:

In line with @Cyclone Boom's comment below, I just wanted to point out a potential concern the discussion brought about. But I'll leave it here, not wishing to derail this thread.

Maybe we should move this discussion to a new thread of its own.

The bandwith and storage space issue is important to all of us as we who are using this site freely need to keep in mind that somebody has to pay for all these freebies we enjoy.   So I'll say no more, and I usually don't start threads, but would be interested in discussing the city tile upload issue further elsewhere.

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

Having finished up my Terrain Shoppe there were 5 unique Beaches within various terrain mods and I've added those to post 1.

Post linkys to any beaches I've missed so this can be the most complete picture catalogue ever created.

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

Post one updated with:
 

The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD.

Beach Mod contained in VIP Terrain Mod by Cédric. (Attached to this post on Devotion.)

Note: In addition to the Beach Mod there are also Terrain, Rock, and Water mods. The following pic has all 4 installed:

^ Thanks to @Indiana Joe for mentioning this one.

[gviper 922]

I definitely don't want jam if ya know what I mean! lol. well done on the guide, oh man I remember testing and installing beach and water mods back in the day. It's so much easier to run "semi-vanilla" now, I'm enjoying it...with a few mods. ha. 

[AsimPika3172 1,155]

Nice looking beaches!