Three Rivers Region

[hamsterTK 93]

Better have a fire extinguisher handy...

your computer is gonna explode!

[dedgren 830]

n.b.:  This post is a continuation of the previous two.  The first, which is where I recommend you start if you haven't been here for a while, is here [ click ].  The second starts here [ click ].

So let me show you some first shots from SC4 itself.  But, before I do that, let me explain the "game" environment a little bit, along with what I intend to do once I initiate all 256 "game" cities.

Oh, and my previous term "township"...

Well, in 3RR16², there are no more townships.  At least for now, anyway.  The new term for a "city" square is "quad." as in "quadrangle" and "topo quad."  You might be able to guess where that will ultimately lead...

So, 3RR16² consists of 256 quads.  Those quads are being created one at a time over several RH SC4 sessions in a game with nothing...

...that's zero- zip- nada...

...in the plugins folder.  It's just open the quad from the region view...

 

...asign it a temporary index number based on its position (the top row of quads is 1-16, the next 17-32, and so on) and click on save to region.  And then do it again...

255 more times.

The result, however, will be glorious.  Here's a few more pics of the process.

As you can see, the SC4TF output imports fairly smoothly.  I had to go back and add the index number and mayor name...

...actually, the regional poo-bah's name, since all 256 will start with it.  Any guesses as to what that might be?

We do the next one, then stop to watch the weird show as the third quad loads.

Pretty cool, eh?

Here's our region once we've imported a few.

Well looky who the regional poo-bah is!

Here's quad number 256 for all you remaining doubters out there.

I've had a really long day- I'm going to take a break.  I may get back to this tonight.  If not, I'll finish up with my thoughts as to next steps on importing all 256 quads tomorrow at zero-dark-thirty- the usual time.  So, if there's nothing besides "Later" after this, check back.  Have a great Tuesday night.

Later

UPDATE:  (10-25-06  7:25 a.m. AST GMT-9)  Here's a pic from Region Census that shows where the importing stands as of now.

It takes about 30 seconds or so to import each quad, so I've still got several hours of work ahead.

I'm going to start from here in a new post later today.  Before I go, though, I will touch on a few of the recent comments.

____________________________

Shadow_Assassin (Ensenada):  Shadow, just after midnight my time this morning (10-25) you recommended

you could just put your terrain mod of choice in and water mod - nothing else... it wouldn't make much of a dent in loading time, but it'd at least save you a helluva lot of time.quote>

In preparing for what I am currently doing, I checked out whether importing with cycledogg's Columbus mod installed made any difference versus simply installing it once all the quads are initialized.  It doesn't appear to.  Plus, I want completely bare (nude?) terrain right now in any event.  As for water textures, more later.  Suffice it to say that for now I want to maintain the more or less transparent (albeit radioactive

in appearance) "game" water color.  Remember, I've got a ton of additional terraforming to do after all the quads are in place, to include the subaqueous beds.

____________________________

Steve (hamsterTK - Run for your Life!):  On 10-24, you expostulated

Better have a fire extinguisher handy...

your computer is gonna explode! quote>

LOL!  Best comment on the page so far, my man!

____________________________

Daniel (tchaos713 - Ballet Fan Club):  On 10-24, you observed

 

256 Large squares! That would take me the better part of a year to develop (assuming I actually played every day - which I don't).quote>

...but I have a plan...

____________________________

Kevin (UnkleS27 - The Cities of Kevnia):  You made your first post here on 10-24.  Hey, welcome to 3RR!  Thanks for the kind words and hope to see you back soon.

____________________________

San (sanantonio - Coastal Bend):  You slyly remarked on 10-24

Hmm, not sure which is bigger - your region or your signature...best of luck with both!!quote>

Hey, thanks so much.  I've never been one, though, who ever thought size mattered much.  Large can equal good, but not necessarily.  Anyway, I've always wanted to have the opportunity to remark that you have one of the most beautiful avatars on ST, and that opportunity has finally arrived.

____________________________

Gaston:  On 10-24, your stream of consciouness went

This is some fanscinating stuff.   I know because I am having a hard time following the thaught train.   LOL   I had to re-read it several times and now I think I have it.quote>

Hang in there, my friend.  It'll be worth your while, I assure you.

____________________________

Matt (threestooges):  On 10-24, you insightfully inquired

...what does this "upscaling" do to the rivers and streams? Will this require a change to the scale of the bodies of water? Just a quick look at your scaled up map shows that one of the smallest parts of your streams now measures 1/6 of the distance across the new large map (this translates to about 1100 feet wide: row 7, column 5 from your recent post) I know rivers are wide, but... at any rate, I wanted to ask this now to avoid the potential for future problems.quote>

That is truly an excellent consideration to point out.  I will look into the issue of RL river width and it will rate an update of its own in connection with terraforming the imported quads.  Thanks!

____________________________

psteve (psteverific - Queenston):  On 10-24, you switched off the cloaking device [ linkie ] and noted

this is one massive project alrightquote>

It is, but it's really going smoothly so far.  And, like I assured Daniel back a few comments, I have a plan for keeping things moving along.

____________________________

Jacky (jacqulina - Paradise Falls):  You rode through on 10-24 and left us, as always, in a far better frame of mind.  You started commenting on the first page of this CJ, and your friendship and loyalty to 3RR through thick and thin has been one of the highlights of my participation here.

____________________________

tommiej: On 10-24 you preceded Kevin in making your first comment on 3RR.  I very much appreciate your thoughts- Welcome Aboard!

____________________________

That's it for now.  Off to work.

Later².

EDIT:  (10-26-06  6:30 a.m. AST GMT-9)  Corrected the link to jacky's Paradise Falls- thanks, psteve, for pointing that out!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

You know, you could just put your terrain mod of choice in and water mod - nothing else... it wouldn't make much of a dent in loading time, but it'd at least save you a helluva lot of time.

I'm looking forward to seeing 3RR16^2.

[jacqulina 162]

thats wonderfull david i love to see what results come from using the terraformer and they are awesome results

[bat 6]

very large region, but great pictures! I'm also looking forward to the "new" 3RR.

bat

[thundercrack83 0]

Everything looks fantastic. I've been in and out of here for the past couple of weeks and you never cease to amaze me. Very innovative!

[Gaston 0]

David my friend,   Hmmm you stated:

   

Gaston:  On 10-24, your stream of consciouness went

This is some fanscinating stuff.   I know because I am having a hard time following the thaught train.   LOL   I had to re-read it several times and now I think I have it.

Hang in there, my friend.  It'll be worth your while, I assure you.quote>

Wow I didn't even realize I had a "stream of consciousness".   I always saw it more as a "slip N slide  [linkie] of semi-consciousness".   Not really sure if the hose is hooked up to it sometimes.     You are right though.   I am sure it will be worth my while.

Later

---Gaston

[threestooges 0]

Wow, I inspire an update in 3RR16² (and yet 152 the LSATs). To tell you the truth, as I recall, the Truckee River (Reno, NV-Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake) was at most (don't quote me on that) 100-200 feet across whereas the American River (aka the one flowing through Sacramento) gets considerably wider (more so when flooding). Still waiting for that PM, but from what I see, there are many important things at work here (256 or so to be exact). Good luck with the grid.

[psteverific 8]

I really like your idea of using the city tiles to represent map gridlines, "quads", clever.
I've often refered to the tiles as 'wards', but this works even better, although on a more techincal level.
I look forward to seeing where you go from here
psteve

[Nik-nik 3]

 ...but I have a plan...quote>

 

Tell us of da plan. How in Earth (or in your cas 3RR² name are you going to fill those 256 large quads?

Keep the fire burning.

Nik-Nik

[seemurray2 21]

Hi, my name is Chris, and I"m a lurker, yeah - I just found that out today.  Just kidding, but seriously this is all very useful stuff, this is a great thing - I plan on putting some of your info to use once I stop being lazy and start a new cj.  Thanks for the info!

[dedgren 830]

Hey Chris (seemurray2)-

Hi, my name is Chris, and I"m a lurker, yeah - I just found that out today.quote>

Heh.  Some lurker.  Reference to the handy-dandy 3RR Table of Contents [ click here ] demonstrates that you were through these parts on pages 3 and 15 as well.

Besides, wouldn't you now be a recovering lurker, based on your post?

Anyway, welcome back!  Thanks for the great words!

Just stopping by before work- I want to make sure, though, that everyone is aware that our friend bat has his CJ- Capporth City up, and it's looking great.  Check it out!

UPDATE:  (10-26-06  8:58 a.m. AST GMT-9)  Here's a few more progress pics from initializing the quads.

#1

#2

#3

Things are moving right along.

David

p.s.:  A 3RR Tip- If you want to look up the nic of a 3RR regular...

...remember, a 3RR regular is anyone who has ever posted here...ever...as far as I'm concerned...

just do a browser search on the first page, hitting "find Next" until you get to the current page.

Have a great day!

[patfirefghtr 160]

wow David its been awhile since i was last around and to see what you have done so far with 3RR is something of total amasment and i sooooooooooooooooooooooooo love the mapping comparison of Bloomington / Normal IL i thought i reconized the area by 51/39 and to see it side by side what u did is WOW i will be lurking around again lol - pat

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Wow! 256 large cities! I thought I bit off a lot with 48! It will be interesting to watch the region fill up.

[Waz_Up_Tiger 1]

Great Man! Good Job

[dedgren 830]

Where we at?

Whoo, this is tedious...

...work, work, work...

Big non-3RR announcement tonight in the CJ forum .  Wonder what that might be all about?

Later.

[crazychickensc12 84]

Lurkers anonymous i went through this same process dedgren except with.....uhh..... 35 Tiles but I planted trees to , it is a wonderful region!!

[patfirefghtr 160]

ok i was checking back in and now i find out there was supposed to be annoucment ok what did i miss loll

[emilin 2]

Hmmmm... 256 large city tiles. Now, let's say you are a really fast builder and pay no attention to detail whatsover (yeah, right!). My guess is that it would still take at least 4 hours of playing time to fill up a large tile (at least if you want roads and water and perhaps some rails and services too). Now, lets say you play 8 hours each day, that makes for two tiles a day. That's 128 days just to fill it up, presuming of course that you just drag-and-grow. Considering your REAL level of commitment to this CJ:s details my guess is that a realistic time prognosis is probably tenfold that number.

*grabs pop corn

Looks like we'll all be here for a while.

[JLT-001 0]

Well Hello, This CJ is awesome, It's amazeing the details you put into everything you do.

The tutorials you did were also extremely helpful, Thanks.

-JLT

[dedgren 830]

Oh, No!  We're starting off with some more completely irrelevant but absolutely fabulous-

Alaska Eye Candy!

Well, yesterday was our first snow, about two weeks later in the year than usual...

#1

#2

#3

#4

"Skating rink" roads again this a.m.  I bagged the trip into the office and am working...

...uh-huh, working...  ...which client are you billing for this post?

...(I'll ignore that) at home.  Here's a final pic- my son in full Halloween [ linkie ] "Jack Sparrow" [ linkie ] regalia.

#5

Oh, to be young again...

...NOT!

Anyway...

_____________________

emilin (Province of Lazarus) remarked early this morning, after noting 3RR16²'s 256 large quads

*grabs pop corn

Looks like we'll all be here for a while. quote>

like I said...

...I have a plan...

...and here's a teaser (meaning I'm still thinking it through) as to what the plan will be.

My intention is to completely terraform the region first.  That will include fairly well thought through placement of particular types of trees, placement of all ploppable water, rapids and waterfalls, and lake, river and stream shoreline detailing.  I'm estimating about a month to do this.

This intention is based on the following exchange, back about a month ago in this post [ linkie ] with Lora (ldvger - apocrypha).  She had asked in a previous comment [ linkie ]

I have one major question for you. I noticed that in your tutorial (Update #10) that you have your road in place before you create your stream. It is my thought to continue to develope the natural landscape of my region prior to placing anything "built", including roads. My thought being, to build my communities around the existing natural features of the landscape, just as happens in RL. And so I woul;d lioke to be able to bridge streams and rivers after the fact, depending on how my communities grow, rather than trying to plan everything out to the "nth" degree ahead of time.quote>

I responded

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Lora. Were I to do it all over again, I would complete all but the very finest level of terraforming detail in 3RR before I would build the first road or highway. You are exactly right- the entire natural environment comes before the first thing is created in the built environment.

Little did I know that the opportunity to follow through would come so soon...

So, as an aside, thanks, Lora!  You've had a hand in shaping the future of 3RR.

After the terraforming is completed, I would develop a basic plan for the development of the region: such things as locate the urban and suburban city areas, outlying towns and villages, and place the skeleton of a pre-freeway era road system.  I'd also place main rail lines.

Then I would open 3RR to you-

With some fairly specific development guidelines (a set of common appearance standards and a well-thought through plug-in list at a minimum, there are many other things I will think of between now and then) I will solicit readers to undertake developing one or more quads within a reasonable timeframe.  If I found 50 folks and each developed two quads, that would represent major progress in a fairly short time.  I'd say by next spring 3RR would be well along, if such a collaborative approach would work out.

Now, if you're inclined to be interested in being involved in this, let me know...

...once, please...

...and I'll start a list.  Then watch 3RR for progress toward the point where quad development would start, at which point you'll hear from me.

That's the plan for now- it may change, but I like the idea.

_____________________

Finally, where we are at with initializing the quads.

We're getting there, slowly but surely.

Later.

[ElBarto92 7]

Whoa, snow. Cool. It was like 60 degrees here the other day, and everyone around town was all bundled up (including me). Heh, guess I'm never gonna live in Alaska, no matter how beautiful it is... Anywho, the rescaled 3RR looks like it'll be much more realistic size-wise, David. Good luck with filling all that up, though, should be one hell of a challenge. See ya around, Mr. Edgren.

-Andr

[Tommy_Vercetti3 3]

Snow...Looks good but I hate it. I'm the one that has to move it..... Great pictures though.

[jacqulina 162]

wow thanks for sharing those beautifull pics my friend there wonderfull,snow does make everywhere look so pretty,is that you in the pic

[WorfoSAUR 0]

This is a question for a few pages back, but how did you make your region in PSP?

[choco1 4]

Dedgren,

Now, you have been asking for a long time for lurkers to show themselves! And I'll admit, I ignored that for a while... but here I am, out of hiding! I think I have commented maybe three times in this Journal, but I have been here alot more than that so I guess I count as a part-time lurker!

I'll give you a quick rundown of why I like this CJ, the first time I came in here I was confused by this thing you had called "You've Got Mail". It had many links, and was all a' jumble, and it wasn't until later when I sat down and realised how interesting that, and many other aspects of this City Journal were.

I like that this CJ has become more than just a journal of a city, but rather a little Realm! Its a Realm of Dedgren's life!

Haha, It seems to be a mesh of your ideas, thoughts and basically anything under the sun! And wow, I just took a look at your Table of Contents, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone with quite as much dedication as you have put into that! Woah! I wish I had the time to do that.

Anyway, as for your real life eye candy, those images of Alaska are beautiful! You seem to have a knack for photography, I just love those snow covered trees, the closest we have here in Australia are snow gums, but its very interesting to see a different style of tree covered in snow!

Oh, and as for your Simcity updates, I enjoyed seeing you slowly import your region from the Region Editor, never used it myself but from what I've seen here it looks pretty amazing!

Thats one giant, and incredible region... nice work! I love how thought out the future of your region is, especially when it comes to planning out each road and how it will look and feel.

I look forward to seeing you start the region. Goodluck.

Cheers, choco.

[Rayden 7]

This is definately one of your best updates, those photos of yourfirst snow fall, wow. I've just booked and confirmed my snow holidays in January, 2 weeks in Andorra, snowboarding, and those photos of yours, just make me wish that was January already. If I could, I would change my sun for any of you guy's snow. I love it!

Cheers
Silvio, the Eskimo

[Tarkus 6,932]

Whoa!  That is one large region.  I've actually tried making them that large (and larger . . . we're talking 16,000 pixels by 16,000 pixels) but it would have taken a couple of days to import the terrain data.  It looks as if it might be quicker with the Terraformer program, which I've downloaded and think is a great idea . . . but I keep crashing it somehow.  I need more RAM . . . 512MB doesn't really cut it anymore.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

-Tarkus

[psteverific 8]

Well, you have quite a plan here. A month to finish detailing the terraforming, that's pretty tight, I should think. 2-3 large city tiles per day... that's alot of work to do in a short period, but at least there's no penalty for late completion of the project (I was reading in the paper today about how a two month delay in begining the work on our cities lightrail project has already cost the city 65 million dollars, maybe more)

Ahhh, but you can do it, you've astounded me before.

Now your plan for development, that's pretty intriguing. I assume you've already figured out all the angles, and have a plan for neighbour connections and such. I'd like to hear some more details about your plan, but I think I might be interested in giving you a hand with this.

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread (as always) to learn more about this planned colaborative effort.

   psteve

[cityhawk 12]

Hello, David!

I just looked over the past few pages that were past my last post. I have to say: 256 large squares!! I know it would take me FOREVER to fill up all of those squares. I see you have discovered the pain of going through each city to change the city tiles in the region view from the SC4Terraformer look to the regular game look. I did it with my Wannabe County region, and it really didn't take that long because I actually thought for a change and...

...wait, you thought?! What's this world coming to?!

Yes, I thought; I took out every single last one of my plugins and temporarily stored them somewhere else while I loaded and exited city tiles.

Anyway, I really liked those pictures of yours that showed the river and landscape up close; they were absolutely breathtaking, and I look forward to many more nature pics as well as city pics. Come to think of it, you haven't showed any city pics in a long time, and I was just thinking that I'd like to see some, but I guess that's impossible right now given the state that the region is in.

Well, I'm about to head off to bed pretty soon, so I guess I'll see you later.

P.S. Can you bring some of that white stuff down here to Alabama? It'd be really appreciated!