Raymond's Newbie Thoughts

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Anyhow, I have tried my best, still need to tweak some details and the night scene, @Terring Oh my captain, Do you have more better name than power plant?

Hiya My friends, whatever Futurist props or BAT in SC4 world, hope you could share the info or links to me, I need them for Lotting work, Thanks in advance! 

@Barroco Hispano, Hiya Alejo, Do you have any plan to make some Futurist sims or robots?

[BartonThinks 3,416]

I think @Terring will be very pleased with the results.

In terms of names, what about some variation on "Tokamak," like "Terring's Tokamak Tower."

[Terring 6,473]

That's a very beautiful power plan, Ray

Judging by the green liquid inside the silo, it looks like your plant uses a new generation of genetic engineered algae to generates energy and oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, and even act like a solar thermal fuel. Kind of like mixing this with this. So, your power plant could both produce energy and clean the area from air pollution. As about the name and the logo, I'm going with Thermal Reticulation System and using the Sun as a logo.

Keep up the great work

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

6 hours ago, BartonThinks said:

Terring's Tokamak Tower

 

6 hours ago, Terring said:

Thermal Reticulation System

They are both cool names better than mine,

Just a bit PS work, Distort-Twirl, Follow Create Work Path.

[Terring 6,473]

That's a very nice logo

[Barroco Hispano 26,695]

@Raymond7cn Yes, I have a lot of futuristic BATs but I still don't know when I can export them. 

[Terring 6,473]

@Barroco Hispano, considering the fact that we have plenty of modern and historic BATs but very few futuristic ones, you may wish to export them soon

And by "soon" I mean now 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

2 hours ago, Barroco Hispano said:

@Raymond7cn Yes, I have a lot of futuristic BATs but I still don't know when I can export them. 

No need to worry about me, Alejo, I knew you had a long list there, I'm very glad to hear that you have them, I can reLot my work at then with another version.  well however… we also should understand how eager for your splendid BATs Terring was, Pretty sure you will spoil him, Way to go, Master! 

[City_Slider 2,716]

That looks awesome Ray... cool...

[mattb325 28,880]

What a fantastic looking power plant! It's great to see some really futuristic ones available (there hasn't been much since the days when SOMY was active), and of course, it is beautifully modelled.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Thank you @City_Slider @mattb325, Ah, SOMY, he is a legend, Right? Frankly, I miss his little JP houses, Many Japanese batters used to have diverse and exotic BATs, Just a little pity most of them haven't been active nowadays. Well… some weird stuffs again: 

Have finished the modeling and will release them soon, I know some of them are strange and maybe not looking good, since those are my personal design. Thank you for helping, My friends! @CorinaMarie @Cyclone Boom @mattb325 @Barroco Hispano

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

ivy This is a good Plugins of 3ds max, I downloaded its new version today, haven't tried how to use it to make my plants in simtropolis building, However I think it's not bad, since it's recommended by @Girafe,   Though my teacher told me that Plugin is more dangerous than it is helpful to a Newbie, but I can make trees manually now, so why not try it on.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Future Learning Plan:

To know semi-transparent BAT clearer.

1.  Learn how to use mental ray connection decently.

2.  Learn the relationship of alpha channel and opaque or transparent map, for example:  if my map have 4 pixels with different gray scales, then which one will be exported to a 1/4 Alpha map.

3.  Need to fetch some in Google about diffuse and reflection and refraction.

Random thoughts.

1.  Matt made a beautiful reflection pool, really curious about the theory how does the game generate it.

2.  Saw a pic from a post about the water pollution, Can I use it to add some colors into the sea.

3.  CoriBoom™ 's splendid Lua code.

Oh my goodness, So much! 

[City_Slider 2,716]

A lot to do my Friend ;-) good Luck with it. And don´t let us wait that long :-D

Regards, Oliver

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

2.  Saw a pic from a post about the water pollution, Can I use it to add some colors into the sea.

Sure, as long as you like brown and know it doesn't save with the city when placing it as an effect.   Within the Lua code in the other thread you can add it to the function Cori_Starts_Effect_At_Specific_Locations() as:

sc4game.effects.create_effect("love_that_dirty_water", 1000, 270, 1000) -- Works! (make sure coords are over water)

Spoiler

One Click:

 

Two Clicks:

 

Three Clicks:

 

Several Clicks:

 

 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

5 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Sure, as long as you like brown and know it doesn't save with the city when placing it as an effect.   Within the Lua code in the other thread you can add it to the function Cori_Starts_Effect_At_Specific_Locations() as:

sc4game.effects.create_effect("love_that_dirty_water", 1000, 270, 1000) -- Works! (make sure coords are over water)

  Dirty Water Pics (Reveal hidden contents)

One Click:

 

Two Clicks:

 

Three Clicks:

 

Several Clicks:

 

 

Ha-ha I see, Ma'am, Will go to play with 2 and 3 together. Thank you!

[BartonThinks 3,416]

3 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Ha-ha I see, Ma'am, Will go to play with 2 and 3 together. Thank you!

JENX Poseidon also has a dirty water effect. It's included in the Poseidon Water Paint dat, which includes lots that make the water brown, emerald, or turquoise in color. Because the effects are triggered by lots, I believe (??) they can be saved.

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3077

Regarding Matt's reflection pool, I don't think the reflection is generated by the game. I'm pretty sure it's just a reflection he baked into the prop. (Though I might have misunderstood your question?)

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@BartonThinks Thank you Barton for sharing!

Inspired by this thread:

I added a bottom which is attached to vanilla's truck. (This truck has 3x100 frames of animation when I opened it, Don't know why it wastes so much performance of game. Anyway, I just kept one, and deleted the useless parts)

Can anyone teach me what's a U-HAUL?

[BartonThinks 3,416]

25 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

Can anyone teach me what's a U-HAUL?

It's a moving van (that you can rent).

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

1 minute ago, BartonThinks said:

It's a moving van (that you can rent).

Ah, Thank you Barton,  I only know people can rent car in my country.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,444]

6 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

@BartonThinks Thank you Barton for sharing!

Inspired by this thread:

I added a bottom which is attached to vanilla's truck. (This truck has 3x100 frames of animation when I opened it, Don't know why it wastes so much performance of game. Anyway, I just kept one, and deleted the useless parts)

Can anyone teach me what's a U-HAUL?

You also want to avoid driving near them, because most of the time they don't know how to drive large trucks, and have them overloaded beyond capacity, to save rental mileage. But if you buy stocks, they're a great buy right now, because everyone's moving. Good job on the truck.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

@SIM-ple Jack, Thank you Jack, Maybe you have downloaded it from UHAUL thread, here is the link of that truck again.

U-HAUL_2c050000.dat

I tweaked the color a bit, it'll replace that mixer truck of vanilla, I'm sure that you knew how to replace anyone you prefer. Just a pity that the game seems adds some light blue color on my map, I will try to figure out the exact value in PS in future, Anyway, Have fun!

[mattb325 28,880]

On 6/10/2021 at 1:09 AM, Raymond7cn said:

reflection pool, really curious about the theory how does the game generate it.

Visually, I think of SimCity as a giant trompe l'œil (trick of the eye). So, to make that reflection pool - I made sure that what it reflected isn't too crisp so that it can be used in a number of situations

This is the 3dsmax scene

 ....

which then becomes this once rendered....

....and the mask function means that even those black edges seen in the render don't translate to being visible once in game.

As you can see, it's mostly just angled cut-outs to do the work.

Setting the 'object properties' for those elements you don't want to be rendered out as:

------------------------------------------------

✓ Renderable

✓ Inherit Visibility

     Visible to camera

✓ Visible to reflection/refraction

     Receive shadows

     Cast Shadows

✓  Apply atmospherics

     Render Occluded objects

-----------------------------------------------

Produces the results seen in game.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Hiya Matt, @mattb325 Thank you for thoughtful elaboration.

Honestly, You and @BartonThinks were misled by a Newbie's slurring, I often speak very vague words when writing some learning notes due to an insufficient memory of head, Those words actually could only be understood by myself. @CorinaMarie sometimes as well, But I do know how kind you are by reading them carefully, Thank you so much!

Actually, I was referring to Shadow, when I saw the preview picture of your great work:

Pretty like your wonderful Lotting as well, since I thought those Shadows of the trees make this spot more harmony and real. Then I was thinking a possibility along with the name "Reflection" together, what if those shadows are not black but a semi-transparent map of itself, isn't it more perfect. 

I used to want to learn it as well, (misled Cori), I mean learn the process how does the game generates the shadow. Projection is the first thought there, whereas I couldn't figure out was that the game only knows the Lods, but the shadow is more complicated even with Non-customized Lod, Or maybe it generates the shadow by some angles with the Alpha map? I don't know, Furthermore, I was also curious about the color of shadows and wondering if I can change it.

Anyway, Thank you my friends, I will pay more attention to writing in future. Sorry!

Yours,

-- Raymond

Edit: Matt, what's the height of your pool? I dimly remembered that the props dosen't cast Shadows to other projects. but your pool can receive the Shadows. Interesting!

Furthermore, as you said that SimCity is a trick of the eye, and I know we can see through semi-transparent model (Alpha map), then I'm thinking this scene: a tree model is sitting near the sea, then I make an additional part of tree model which is a semi-transparent plane on the ground with the map of tree's projection, then we probably can see the sea through this semi-transparent and flat tree, if so, Doesn't it look like a reflection? 

[vw_oklahoma 308]

Just wanted to say 'thank you' again for the uhaul trucks. I'm having fun watching them drive all over town. 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

5 hours ago, vw_oklahoma said:

Just wanted to say 'thank you' again for the uhaul trucks. I'm having fun watching them drive all over town. 

Thank you @vw_oklahoma ! Very glad you like it as well, I have udriveit for a while. 

The U-HAUL Highway sign has been finished, I gave it to our staffs of simtropolis, they will confirm whether or not issues within and decide to upload it in a proper time, Ofc, I think they will beep you at U-HAUL thread as well, so please keep an eye on there.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[BartonThinks 3,416]

5 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Thank you @vw_oklahoma ! Very glad you like it as well, I have udriveit for a while. 

The U-HAUL Highway sign has been finished, I gave it to our staffs of simtropolis, they will confirm whether or not issues within and decide to upload it in a proper time, Ofc, I think they will beep you at U-HAUL thread as well, so please keep an eye on there.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

One tiny note on the U-Haul truck -- because of the mirrored textures, the name "U-Haul" is backward on one side.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

1 minute ago, BartonThinks said:

One tiny note on the U-Haul truck -- because of the mirrored textures, the name "U-Haul" is backward on one side.

I see,  Thanks Barton, how could it escape from such trained eyes.

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

It's so strange,  I have just realized all vanilla's Car relevant Automatas have 100 frames in S3D tab, and each mesh so, but they are static when I played the animation, it means those meshs have same coordinates of every verticals, But Isn't it a burden of game when it counts them during playing or moving? I made a test by replacing one True3d model from 100 to 1, couldn't see any difference than before, so I wonder if we can improve the performance of the game by replacing all of them (100→1)? 

Did anyone notice that the vanilla's car has some animation during moving? or there are some relations with Effdir? ( @CorinaMarie calling Effdir master)

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

On 6/10/2021 at 1:31 AM, CorinaMarie said:

Sure, as long as you like brown and know it doesn't save with the city when placing it as an effect.   Within the Lua code in the other thread you can add it to the function Cori_Starts_Effect_At_Specific_Locations() as:

sc4game.effects.create_effect("love_that_dirty_water", 1000, 270, 1000) -- Works! (make sure coords are over water)

  Dirty Water Pics (Reveal hidden contents)

One Click:

 

Two Clicks:

 

Three Clicks:

 

Several Clicks:

 

 

I just got an idea, My lady, I don't know if we can change the color, whereas do you think this is possible?

BTW, I used to dream a moon in SC4's world, Maybe pretty cool if it rises up from the edge of our cities, I know the plane can fly to there, so if i could control the path by Lua, then let this big circle flies over the sky. Ha-ha, Probably a daydream.