A Rally fan in troubles

[kih3n 40]

Hi builders , my name is Kih3n and I want a rally track in SimCity 4...
but kih3n, you can play another game for rally races... I know I know...

Recently I discovered some videos of how use NAM (I´m already practice some curves) and see another videos of detailing (some cities looks like paintings, and I love them)
So... with my love for SimCity 4 and my love for Rally races, I want to make a good looking track... and play with it (the automata mini game its awesome)
I already have some lots and props, but I dont have many for make a good track
(I recently start again in SimCity, so consider me a noob in the mater )
Can you recomend any good prop/lot for this project?
Or have any idea for make a better looking for this?

Thank you dudes for reading me

Some shots of the city I made for this first track project

The Track is in a ghost route of old farms (its the lore-idea)
The mayor of the three towns (at south) wants make it part of the national Rally da car... sponsor maybe give him simeolons for improve the towns

A detail view of part of the ghost route/ track... I dont have any texture or rocks... or any good looking props... or car-props... remember 

[Paulo S.M. 321]

You can look for some terrain mods or tree mods/lots.
You can also try and add some water to the circuit. Like the left overs of some rain.
There is a good variety of water brush tiles you can download and use.

A little observation from a Gran Turismo addicted, your track reminds me of Pikes Peak  

[kih3n 40]

13 hours ago, Paulo S.M. said:

You can look for some terrain mods or tree mods/lots.
You can also try and add some water to the circuit. Like the left overs of some rain.
There is a good variety of water brush tiles you can download and use.

Can you recomend me some mods/lots? I saw some trees in videos, but I dont have any idea wich are

I have the pegasus ponds for make rivers, maybe I´ll add that detail in the south of the track, in middle of the forest nearby one town
 

13 hours ago, Paulo S.M. said:

A little observation from a Gran Turismo addicted, your track reminds me of Pikes Peak

I have the another track in the other side of the sierra/mountain, with normal road, but that road is bussy with freight transit

[Paulo S.M. 321]

11 hours ago, kih3n said:

Can you recomend me some mods/lots? I saw some trees in videos, but I dont have any idea wich are

I have the pegasus ponds for make rivers, maybe I´ll add that detail in the south of the track, in middle of the forest nearby one town

I don't have a good head for names and stuff, but I have some trees made by @Gn_leugim and some other trees by PEG, and water by SM2 (simmer2) and also look for his muro seco pack.
I do remember this prop pack that was made for LOT creation but you can plop therm around your city. It's called Dutch Prop Pack (very useful for park creation). 

I've used some and created a some sort of rural path/road/circuit.
It's not much, it¡s just to show you what I've suggested you to create

Have fun  

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

Hello @kih3n,
Welcome to Simtropolis, you should have lots of fun here.

11 hours ago, kih3n said:

but that road is bussy with freight transit

One thing you could do for the unwanted traffic is get this mod 

Granted you provide other means for the sims to get around or the freight to the edge of the map in this case, this mod will be very handy. It will stop the specific traffic you don't want from sections of road you choose.

Here is a good place to browse through https://community.simtropolis.com/files/category/35-mtp-mountain-theme-pack/ 

And just cause...

 

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

track decoration props

Any tree by @Girafe, the dude rocks at foliage. Try feeding this into Google: 'site:https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/ girafe'

General Shrubbery: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1886

Good water props for making fords for the cars to splash thru:

Also @dedgren's Plopable Waterfalls and Rapids:

I dont have any recommendations for car props, and I've been looking for years for trackside stuff like pits, stands and track markings. I do remember that there was one set back in the very early days of sc4 modding (2004-2006), but it looks awful compared to modern stuff now.

[kih3n 40]

Thank you very much!!

I downloaded some props and lots (I spent the day find them), also a terrain mod (and textures)
I´ll check the recomendations, thank you again dudes

but... right now I have new issues
Fitst: I dont know how to make a proper bridge (and useful too, with NAM, no decorative for the mini game with automata)
Secod: I want some little sims in my scenes (in a rally race always people come to see the show)
Thirt: I dont have any idea of how use props in prop-packs (poptable use for detailing more)


I made a new map for ejercises, this one is a pikes peak race I guess (Its rally at all)

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

To make a overland bridge you will need @Teirusu's rain tool. Create a tiny depression in the ground (I think its Shift-F1 to get tiny brush when using the tool) and then add a single click of 'rain' on the same spot. This will drop temporary game water into the hole allowing you to then build a normal road bridge over that spot. Save the tile, exit then reload. Any rain water will have disappeared meaning you can now MMP paint near-freely under the bridge.

Warning: Over use of the Rain tool can completely flood a city tile. No joke. Have a very light touch when using this tool.

Good Luck.

[kih3n 40]

In this zoom view, you can see more detailing work
I put some cars in that intersection (a Chicane turn, its a ¨Z¨ turn)
and as I mentioned, I need a bridge to cross the river

Oh yeah! another problem its the Rally car, you know any automata rally mod?
or any tutorial for make them? (automata editing or making from zero)
the car props works good, but you know, some rally cars in the finish line will be awesome

[City_Slider 2,716]

30 minutes ago, kih3n said:

Fitst: I dont know how to make a proper bridge (and useful too, with NAM, no decorative for the mini game with automata)

I made a Tutorial for this: 

 

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

Here is a good list of plopable items. 

For MMP people, here is 

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3448 But you need an account for this site, but easy to obtain. And worth it!

 

[kih3n 40]

Updated:
With the tutorial of @City_Slider (thanks dude) I realised the bridge
and add diferents details, from the props you recommended
Right now I think  try to learn some lot edition or prop edition(?) 
for making the little adds like groups of people like in the races or warning/sponsors/containment  barriers/ribbons... (I made a version with fences , but i dont really like it)
maybe a ribbon ¨fences¨ with people lot/park?

[kih3n 40]

I made a ¨park¨in Lot editor... with animated audience with a road-barrier, I have problems with it...
I saved it in a new 1x1 grass park, but when I open the park section appears like BSD park 1x1 ( I have that collection, but why appears with a new project?)
oh well....
my idea of making a track is like this old arcade game (a video for more specific):

World Rally Championship

I change the view, you can see the audience group (two parks with the same)

[kih3n 40]

Returning to the first map:
I made some details and discovered the Offroad mode when you drive in the minigame
I love the dust cloud effect!!!! But the car move too slow...
anyone can help me to modify the velocity in offroad path?
Or only modify the velocity of certain cars?... I downloaded cars for automata driving mode, but no ones are rally models

I made  an offroad mini track using plopable terrain and little rocks

Changed the top of the road with gravel, and added two ruined farms, with the lore of the town

A pair of camping zones, in the start and the end of the track, next to the ruined farms

I Screenshoted this with Impr pant... because the shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+S) didn´t work in Free Drive mode... in a Renault (but not a rally model after all )

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

18 hours ago, kih3n said:

anyone can help me to modify the velocity in offroad path?

It'll be for anywhere you can drive rather than only offroad: Vehicles_LUA_10x_KPH.dat

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

18 hours ago, kih3n said:

rally models

Can't say I remember seeing any, not saying there are not any. But you could ask in the "Can't find it?....Ask here!" thread, can't hurt! Maybe even someone might want to make them, never know!

[kih3n 40]

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

It'll be for anywhere you can drive rather than only offroad: Vehicles_LUA_10x_KPH.dat

x10 speed?
I used it and its too hardcore to drive any car, hahahahahhahaha (its a good mod)
I downloaded Ilives reader for modify the BAT, can you explain me the speeds?

 

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

21 minutes ago, kih3n said:

I downloaded Ilives reader for modify the BAT, can you explain me the speeds?

The way I'd do it is to first rename the file while it's in Plugins. So, if you want to try 4x speed instead of 10x, you could call it: Vehicles_LUA_4x_KPH.dat

When you open the mod in Reader 0.93, you'll first see:

 

Notice on the left the LUA file entry is highlighted since it's the first one and on the right you can see the Lua code, however the Edit button is missing. (I'm not sure if it happens like that for everyone or just me.)

Next single click DIR file entry on the left:

 

Then re-click the LUA file above it and now the Edit button appears over the code:

 

Click said Edit button and now you can edit the code itself. The only part I changed from the Maxis original is circled:

^ Those numbers shown are 10 times the originals.

To make a 4x version, use:

kSpeedExotic = 480
kSpeedSporty = 420
kSpeedNormal = 320
kSpeedTruck = 280
kSpeedBus = 260

Then click the Apply button above the code and then the Save button in the ribbon bar up left.

So, for reference, the original 1x Maxis speeds are:

kSpeedExotic = 120
kSpeedSporty = 105
kSpeedNormal = 80
kSpeedTruck = 70
kSpeedBus = 65

Certain ones do apply to certain Automata groups. Trucks and Buses are obvious. Others need peeking in later code and sometimes other Lua entries in SimCity_1.dat, but for simplicity I changed all five for the draft file I attached.

[rsc204 21,866]

As I think you are finding out, Racing in all its forms has received little attention over the years of modding. But as with any scene, sometimes a little bit of ingenuity can make use of existing props to get the effect you're after. For example the Maxis Stadiums are modular and props exist with the seating areas that can seat animated fans, but that's probably pretty rare to see in Rallying. The great thing about Rallying though is that most courses are in actual fact just normal roads, so they just need a bit of 'dressing' to give the effect of a rally taking place. Plenty of great props exist that would allow you to create rural style roads, most of the MMPs you might use for making attractive rural scenes are going to be very useful, plenty exist. I'd highly recommend most of the VIP MMPs, especially these Aubrac walls, along with Girafe's trees. Bear in mind that whilst the list by Marsh is pretty comprehensive, it doesn't cover a lot of newer packs.

It seems to me you'd be missing three really key elements from what's currently available, Rally Cars, Sponsorship (signs mostly) and some more general racing items.

Any automata you can find which has the right car model, can be re-skinned (editing the texture), to the rally livery. This is something you can do for say Touring Cars also, since the vehicles used in such events are just tuned versions of road cars. You'd need to have some texturing skills to pull this off, but it's pretty easy in the grand scheme of things. Essentially you just need to extract the texture (inside the .dat file containing the Automata), edit the texture and replace/override the original. It would be possible also to create a new unique instance of the Automata model, so you'd have an additional Rally version. Note however that most models (Props) are not actually 3D models like Automata, so you won't be easily able to change non-automata models in the same way, practically speaking you will be limited to Automata. You could of course make new cars, but that requires being able to use a 3D modelling application, SC4BAT isn't really setup to create proper 3D models like this though.

I don't know of any really suitable props for the advertising, I'd imagine some track barriers to cover straight, diagonal and various curves would make a huge difference. Such models are at the easy end (3D modelling wise) and could be created with SC4BAT with a little learning. It totally depends how much work you might be willing to put in to this. You can find sites on the internet where others create 3D models and share them, usually in 3DS format (which can be imported into SC4BAT). It may be you can save a lot of time/effort by making use of things that others have created, but there are caveats to that approach. The most important thing is really the texturing, if you have some skills/interest in photo-editing software or similar, that will prove far more important than the modelling, especially if you could get some existing assets to make use of.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

I'm just starting out on learning to make my own mods, so have no objection to trying to make some of the stuff we are needing. Would be useful training material from the look of it.

So, what do we need?

1: Pit complex type stuff. I'm seeing two things here, first a transit enabled pitlane complex for F1/track usage and second, an MMP type set with the tent/marquee things that the WRC uses. Team Buses/Motorhomes could be dual use,

2: Rumble Strips for track racing, made to fit the existing normal and wide radius curves.

3: Grandstands. Given that some tracks have a capacity of over a 100,000 people these will probably be huge/modular.

4: Barriers. Both tyrewalls and armco barriers, maybe some tight-to-the-track walls for city circuits like Marina Bay and Monaco.

5: Track People MMPS. things like tyre runners, marshalls (Passive and flag-waving),  Safety Cars.

Any more suggestions?

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

For Batting, y'all might find the SimCity 4 Prop and Texture Catalog created by @nos.17 useful for seeing what all is available.

And via the regular menus, it can be found here:

[kih3n 40]

On 5/5/2021 at 6:37 AM, rsc204 said:

It seems to me you'd be missing three really key elements from what's currently available, Rally Cars, Sponsorship (signs mostly) and some more general racing items.
Any automata you can find which has the right car model, can be re-skinned (editing the texture), to the rally livery. This is something you can do for say Touring Cars also, since the vehicles used in such events are just tuned versions of road cars. You'd need to have some texturing skills to pull this off, but it's pretty easy in the grand scheme of things. Essentially you just need to extract the texture (inside the .dat file containing the Automata), edit the texture and replace/override the original. It would be possible also to create a new unique instance of the Automata model, so you'd have an additional Rally version. Note however that most models (Props) are not actually 3D models like Automata, so you won't be easily able to change non-automata models in the same way, practically speaking you will be limited to Automata. You could of course make new cars, but that requires being able to use a 3D modelling application, SC4BAT isn't really setup to create proper 3D models like this though.

This!!! I´ve Photoshop skills in advance (I´m Graphic designer since 10 years ago)
but I don´t have any idea of how export from BAT and edditing textures of the models ( I made some texture mapping for GTA5 with some friends, and I have idea of how to do that)
I saw the catalog of driveable cars, only some pegout and renault maybe pass like coupe-rally cars
maybe another japanese models can fit in the ¨suit¨ (the mitsubishi lancer evo...)

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

2 hours ago, kih3n said:

I don´t have any idea of how export from BAT and edditing textures of the models

Go FSHing!

 

That's where I started. Follow @rivit's tutorial in the docs that come with it to change the color of the Maxis bus. There you will go thru all the steps from extracting the image, to manipulating its color, to putting it back in the file. (And while doing the color change in Photoshop is when you could do any other tweaking, ofc.)

[rsc204 21,866]

19 hours ago, kih3n said:

I saw the catalog of driveable cars, only some pegout and renault maybe pass like coupe-rally cars

Maybe look at the Automata made by mikeseith (amongst his other car-related mods).

19 hours ago, kih3n said:

maybe another japanese models can fit in the ¨suit¨ (the mitsubishi lancer evo...)

Try Jim's Automata from this page.

Given Rallying tends to be dominated by EU/Jap vehicles, all these sets should at least give you some options, although it's unlikely you'll find many modern cars. On a personal note I'd loose it a bit if someone made a Lancia Stratos HF Intergrale in Alitalia livery, my all time favourite rally car. However with a bit of ingenuity like using a generic hatchback for a Lancia Delta HF, you could probably do a lot with what already exists.

19 hours ago, kih3n said:

I made some texture mapping for GTA5 with some friends, and I have idea of how to do that

UV Mapping should already be in place if you alter existing assets, you just need to extract and suitably modify the textures in the first instance. But with your experience I think you'll have no troubles 'reskining' such models. As Cori states GoFSH makes the process of extracting/reimporting textures very straightforward.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

Think I've found the gold mine! PC Mega Props 1 in the props and Texture catalog contains a Lancia Stratos, Subaru WRX, Mitsubishi's, Nissan's etc.....

https://www.simtropolis.com/library/SC4PropTextureCatalog/images/PC Mega Props 1.png

Posted it like this coz the image is huuuuuge.

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

@kih3n would you be interested in something like this? It's five roadside lots with cheering fans from 8am to 8pm. One lot is blank with just barriers. And one with three cars that come and go(it's 2x1). And another with a billboard that's is random each plop(2x1). There are two car billboards props available if you just want those instead, or none at all, its up to you. I am open to any suggestions, just let me know. 

So, these have no costs but one or two Simoleans to plop. No park effect or maintenance costs. Very neutral.

I would like make it with a transparent ground texture, but have no clue how. Would like anyone's terrain texture to show through. I can not find any good info. Help here, anyone!

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

6 minutes ago, Kloudkicker said:

I would like make it with a transparent ground texture, but have no clue how

In Reader, go to the LotConfigurations exemplar, Control+Click each LotConfigPropertyLotObjectData which starts with 0x00000002, then right click and select Delete property. Next, right click again in the right hand pane and select Reindex LotConfig. Save.

The 0x0000002 of Rep 1 indicates those are textures. (0x00000001 is a static prop and other numbers mean other things.) There's no way to tell in this part which are base textures and which are overlays, but you want to remove them all. (Leaving overlays without a base texture causes the water bug.)

Sample:

[Kloudkicker 4,565]

OK, TY Cori, I will give it another try. I never indexed them after trying that and so no objects appeared in game. It was just a completely blank lot.
There are no overlays so I am good there. 

[CorinaMarie 29,891]

1 minute ago, Kloudkicker said:

I will give it another try.

Keep in mind if you re-open it in LE after removing the textures, LE will refuse to save it again. (I believe PIM-X is ok with no base textures.)

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

3 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Keep in mind if you re-open it in LE after removing the textures, LE will refuse to save it again. (I believe PIM-X is ok with no base textures.)

Good point is this, and so removing textures of a lot is really best to be considered as a post-production step after completing lotting.
 

@Kloudkicker

Of course, if wanting to continue lotting in some form...

Just give a temporary base texture to all cells of a lot, and after saving in LE as normal, close the program. Then edit in Reader to remove them again. Oftentimes programs can lock down a file while loaded into memory, so it can be necessary to close another program which is currently loading it (which includes SC4 itself also).