Beach Bleeding up Rock Face

[MattSB77 30]

Hi

I restarted playing SimCity 4 Deluxe after a few years and I picked up where I left off in terms of adding custom content, etc. I am though a novice really! I have used in the past and I am doing so again the Lowkee Appalachian Terrain Mod. I don't recall ever having issues with it. However I started a new city and I noticed a very odd affect with the beach texture bleeding up the cliff face. The odd thing is there are no beaches although there is likely to be sand under the water. Note that this a standard San Francisco region I am using. Ignore the small settlement that is not staying!

 

Another thing is I have not used the Lowkee Starter Set as recommended but instead have chosen other water, sand and rock HD textures. If it helps they are:

Water - SHK_Brigantine_2.0 by shokthrpy

Sand - HD White Sands Beach Mod by Marsh

Rock - SHK HD Rock Mod by shokthrpy

I have looked through all my plugins and cant seem to identify if there is another mod that is causing a conflict! I have tried even removing the Appalachian Mod out of my plugins but that doesn't appear to solve it, which would suggest that it isn't the problem.

Also note how the water line is jagged, sharp and is beyond the waves. I don't think I have had this before.

My conclusion is, is I have a file somewhere that is causing the issue. I just don't know what! I would like to know if others have come across this before, know what it is or could suggest reasons why it is happening?

My problem is I'm a perfectionist and it clearly doesn't look right!

Thanks

[MattSB77 30]

Just a thought! Having browsed around I believe I have posted this topic in the wrong forum! If someone can let me know how to move or suggest where it should go please it would be great!

Thanks!

[thingfishs 417]

Hi Matt,

I would be interested as well if anyone has any advice beyond what I know (maybe different rock mods behave differently for example - I would be inclined to try swapping yours for another one to see if there is any difference).

What I do in these situations is do some subtle terraforming to improve things. The game will automatically add sand/beach at certain angles of slope where the land transitions into water. Because your terrain is quite steep out of the water there isn't a convincing beach as such, but the game is still attempting to put it there. I would recommend enacting God Mode (hold ctrl/alt/shift and click on the mayor mode/tree icon). This will bring up the terraforming options otherwise only available prior to Naming/beginning a city.

- If you wanted more beach, the angle of the land wants to come down a bit. Try the Soften or "valley with gentle slopes" (or whatever it's called) tool for this (and press shift +1 or shift + 2 to reduce the radius of its effect - or else you'll effect too much terrain).

- If you want less beach (as it seems you do), then you'll need to gently raise the angle of the land where it meets the water. You'll have to experiment with different raising options to see what works for you. This takes quite a bit of trial and error, and you'll have one bit just about perfect when a slight adjustment makes everything revert to beach (or cliff). Be sure to save beforehand and be prepared to take a little while to get it 'just right'.

BTW, If you haven't got it already, I would recommend this to add more options to your terraforming menus (it may or may not provide tools to assist in this process, I've had it so long I can't actually remember what it adds):

 

 

However, I think if you really wanted to get into the nuts and bolts of it, that the way to go would be adjusting the cliff and beach properties in the terrain mod. Have a look at points #2.  MaxNormalYForCliff & 3.  The Beach! in this tutorial if you're interested:

(But there's always a pretty good chance I'm overlooking something, so if someone has better advice, by all means bring it on... ).

Good luck!

[MattSB77 30]

Hey Thingfishs

Thanks for your reply!

I have now tried multiple things to no avail 

I have removed the mods I mention in my post but that doesn't change anything, removed Lowkee's Appalachian Mod but that doesn't change anything, I have removed some additional content that I added recently but that didn't change it either! I opened another region but that is the same too! So I'm stumped. I'll keep looking...................

Thanks for the advise about terraforming. I may have do go down that route but it's just really frustrating me as I don't remember having to do this before! still better that I guess than never playing the game because I'm obsessed in trying to find the answer.

I will look into the extra terrain tools! I wasn't aware there were any so thanks for pointing them out to me. I'll also look at checking out the tutorial as it may help things.

thanks again for the advise!

[thingfishs 417]

To be certain of whether it's something you've added, remove everything from your plugin folder - is it still like it? (this may be tricky in an established city as having all your plugins suddenly missing can cause "crash to desktop"s - if this is the case, try checking it out in a new city).

If the terrain looks normal then try adding in half your plugins, if the problem is still resolved, add another half of your remaining half and so on until you have found the collection of files within which the problem lies. Now start the same process with that smaller bunch: divide in half, check etc. Eventually you will be able to find the specific file causing the issues.

Are you sure it's not just the steep terrain/water's edge combo you have in that city? Does it look weird in less steep situations?

[MattSB77 30]

I had never thought of doing it that way before! 

I have a big plugin folder so it may take a while but it will be worth it if it works. 

I thought I had solved it yesterday by swapping Lowkees mod with Gobians Sudden Valley mod but it turned out the same so it would seem it’s something else lurking in the dark on my plugins! 

It does go away if I slightly alter the terrain but I only need to tweak it again and it comes back. It is def linked with the beach as it doesn’t happen with deep water next to the land. It also goes if I make the land too steep. It seems ok if I flatten the land and create a beach. I need to do more testing. I may be missing something very simple here!!

Thanks again for helping!! 

 

[thingfishs 417]

8 hours ago, MattSB77 said:

I had never thought of doing it that way before! 

I have a big plugin folder so it may take a while but it will be worth it if it works.

 

I think you might be surprised at how quick this method is. Say you have 6GB of plugins to check, in only one loading of the game you have reduced that to 3, then to 1.5 etc. (plus loading times get progressively faster, with less plugins to load each time). I've found (at a guess) it only tends to take 10-20 minutes to find an offending file.

[rsc204 21,863]

Looking at the screenshot, there really isn't anything wrong here.

The visual problems are caused by the custom Terrain mod, which handles the settings for when which texture types are displayed. Maxis set all the default values and the included maps are all built around those. Of course, removing your custom settings would "fix" things, but a better solution, assuming you prefer the new terrain mod, is to adapt the region to it using the various terraforming tools.

Even when using custom maps, some tweaking is often necessary for optimal results. Of course you could change all the properties of the custom terrain mod to those of the Maxis ones. But i wouldn't take that route, because the creator would have gone to great lengths to tweak them for their textures to look their best.

This really is the best guide to getting things as you want. For example, if you don't want beeches so high, that should only involve altering one value. It's not that customising a Terrain mod is a bad thing, but you should take it slowly and only alter those things you understand. But there will still probably need to be some terraforming that goes hand in hand with this process.

[MattSB77 30]

On 30/05/2020 at 5:02 PM, thingfishs said:

I think you might be surprised at how quick this method is. Say you have 6GB of plugins to check, in only one loading of the game you have reduced that to 3, then to 1.5 etc. (plus loading times get progressively faster, with less plugins to load each time). I've found (at a guess) it only tends to take 10-20 minutes to find an offending file.

I know I don’t have 6GB of plugins so it should be ok!!

On 30/05/2020 at 5:37 PM, rsc204 said:

Looking at the screenshot, there really isn't anything wrong here.

The visual problems are caused by the custom Terrain mod, which handles the settings for when which texture types are displayed. Maxis set all the default values and the included maps are all built around those. Of course, removing your custom settings would "fix" things, but a better solution, assuming you prefer the new terrain mod, is to adapt the region to it using the various terraforming tools.

Even when using custom maps, some tweaking is often necessary for optimal results. Of course you could change all the properties of the custom terrain mod to those of the Maxis ones. But i wouldn't take that route, because the creator would have gone to great lengths to tweak them for their textures to look their best.

This really is the best guide to getting things as you want. For example, if you don't want beeches so high, that should only involve altering one value. It's not that customising a Terrain mod is a bad thing, but you should take it slowly and only alter those things you understand. But there will still probably need to be some terraforming that goes hand in hand with this process.

Ok it does make sense. It just doesn’t look right! Seeing it like that I assumed that something was wrong. What’s confusing is I have used the terrain mod before and I really don’t recall it acting like this but my memory might not be what it used to be. If doing what thingfishs recommends doesn’t work I may have a little tinker with the settings but I am leaning towards just standard terraforming!!

Thanks guys. 

[MattSB77 30]

On 30/05/2020 at 5:37 PM, rsc204 said:

Looking at the screenshot, there really isn't anything wrong here.

The visual problems are caused by the custom Terrain mod, which handles the settings for when which texture types are displayed. Maxis set all the default values and the included maps are all built around those.

Ok, I have now removed all my plugins and it would appear that rsc204 you are right. The same thing happens but with Maxis textures, etc.

I am now going to slowly add my plugins but I believe there is nothing to find.

The above makes me realise how far things can be out. I had to raise the land quite a bit to get the rocks to show and the beach to disappear from it. It then raises another question. You can obviously get low lying land next to the sea that is just rock no sand. Hence a rocky shoreline! What is the easiest way of showing this? Plopable rocks? Just deepen the water so the beach is nowhere near the rocks? or by adjusting the settings in the terrain mod? Just curious really! Does anyone have any examples of how they have done it?

My problem is I love realism and the above doesn't cut it in my mind neither did the example I started this thread with.

Sorry if my 'issue' is annoying and an obvious one!

[MattSB77 30]

This is probably my last post on this subject now as I think I'm happy that nothing odd is happening!

So, I decided to start a new region and just modify the coastline.

It's not complete but it works. It seems such an obvious thing now! Just need to get adding stuff!

Lots to do!!