The Great ST SC4 Players Challenge

Although this is an interesting concept, and i look forward to seeing what people come up with, i have some questions.  Some of your stipulations seem needlessly constrictive.

 

 Entry MUST contain the use of the PARIS Quais de Seine Summer Tree....can only be used ONCE

Why?  Mandating the use of a particular deciduous tree immediately limits the scope of natural ecosystems, ruling out a plethora of possibilities, thus greatly limiting submitters' creative license   Also, requiring something that has a 55Mb dependency for a tiny tree that can appear exactly once seems a little silly.

 

Images must be taken from Zoom Level 6

Again, this seems to greatly impede possibilities.  Yes you can do some interesting things at zoom 6, but it's not the best for showing off a natural scene.  When combined with this point...

 

images of 2048x1536 pixels each

...it's a little odd.  What's the reason it needs to be so wide?  When posted in your column space, the site software will shrink it down anyways.  In effect, the submitted 2048x1536 zoom 6 will be little different than an 800x600 zoom 4 except for the slight deviation in perspective angle.  Even when we click it to view full size, i doubt many people are running a screen resolution to see a 2048 wide image in all it's majesty on a single screenwidth.  So why do you want such wide images?

 

Just curious to understand the reasoning and purpose behind your rules.  Thanks,

Interesting, but I would've probably thought of a more free-for all kind of competition. And yeah the rules seem a little restrictive...What if someone wanted to create a Pacific Island style scene? It is still natural. Just a thought here.

 

You sure you couldn't bend the rules a little? And the zoom 6 requirement seems a little off along with the image dimensions. Couldn't it simply just be a normal pic size (1024x768) ? Then you have to mirror the image from the opposite direction? That's really kinda difficult to get the exact pinpoint of the area...seems rather pointless...

 

Won't be joining at this moment since I'm sunk without any ideas for those specific criterias, maybe in the next competition. :P

There may seem to be some confusion in thinking that the criteria is the rules. The criteria is not the rules. The criteria will change for each tournament, and all the criteria including image size, zoom level, night/day, what specific buildings/trees (if any) must appear in the scene, etc. will be chosen by the winner of the previous tournament. Obviously, I have chosen the criteria for the first round as there are no previous winners, and it may seem a little constrictive, but I wanted to make it somewhat 'challenging' since this is a challenge. 

 

For example, it's like someone gives you three specific items, and says go create something out of these three things. That is much more challenging and requires even greater creativity than if someone says go make something out of anything (which I feel would be the case if it was just a nature scene of any size, any zoom level, and any content). 

 

2048x1536 pixels is just 4 1024x768 images stitched together. Zoom level 6 is more challenging because it may require the creator to seek out content that is in 'HD' and not pixellated at zoom level 6, like the JENX Paris tree. There is MMP content out there that looks good at zoom level 6. 

 

That is why it's called a challenge...because if it was too simple and too free to do whatever you want...well we already all do that in our own CJs where we are free to make whatever we want out of anything. That's not to say this wouldn't still work and still be fun if this had less criteria, and I am open to that.

Fair points. I'll try it out then :P

it seems very interesting

when the tournament will be finished will you say who the images belong to? it should be a good way to let know less popular CJs...

Interesting, Do I have to enter all of them or can I just enter certain round, Nature is not my thing

@starmodem - yep, when the tournament is finished then it will be revealed who the images belong to

@agunter999 - you don't have to enter a tournament unless you want to, but the first one now is going to be a nature scene and there won't be another tournament until after this one is finished. it will be impossible to enter in a certain round because all submissions must be submitted before the rounds/voting actually start....and I haven't totally figured out exactly how the voting is going to work yet because I don't know yet how many people will be playing

It's an interesting idea but. . 

 

2048x1536 pixels is just 4 1024x768 images stitched together. Zoom level 6 is more challenging because it may require the creator to seek out content that is in 'HD' and not pixellated at zoom level 6, like the JENX Paris tree. 

 

First of all, the dimensions make it incredible hard to get the exact same shot in opposite direction. If it were just one picture, one could just rotate. . 

Secondly, JENX has actually replaced the Paris Quay trees with HD models. ;)

Meh, when I read nature only I was interested, but the other criteria will probably keep me from participating. I'd be fine making one image like that, but two of the same scene with just the direction flipped seems pointless to me. 

 

It's an interesting idea, and I'll check future challenges, but this one seems a bit too tedious for my liking.

Too much conditions, it would have been better if you only conditioned what type of scene should it be.

Also you are contradicting yourself, what if I want to make a volcanic nature scene, or a desert scene, I'm quite sure that there are no Paris trees in there.

You may call it a challenge, but these restrictions restrict the actual creativity regarding the theme too much. Let go of these rules and use less strict ones like:

 

- The mosaic needs to be at least 1600x1200 large (for you know, if you can't precisely stitch together a mosaic, or if you're playing on a different resolution)

- The pictures must been taken from Zoom 5 or Zoom 6 (there's less HD stuff out there than you think)

- No Maxis Trees, water or terrain allowed (instead of overly specifying a tree, rule out the standard trees)

 

I won't be competing this round, because I'm participating into a larger CJ project over at SC4D.

I like the challenge, especially the part where the conditions might seem restrictive. Seems that a lot of people would have to leave their comfort zones to meet these criteria, and I think that's a good thing. I can't wait to see some of the entries. Unfortunately, I will not compete in this round as I have several ongoing projects that require my attention, but I look forward to future ones. Kudos on the idea!

@vortext - correct, the Paris tree is in HD, that's why I chose it. The way I worded what you quoted me on sounded like I was saying that it wasn't. 
 
@IL - Actually, if you want to make a volcanic nature scene and stick the Paris tree in there, then you can. The criteria does not say what kind of ecosystem, etc. the scene has to be.

But, then you would be trying to compare apples to oranges. Example: how can you decide that someone's volcanic nature scene is better than someone's farm scene? Those are two entirely different things, and harder to judge which is the best/favorite/etc.

Ultimately, we are going to stick w/ the original criteria for this first tournament since some people have shown interest in creating something to fit this criteria. The winner of this tournament will be allowed to choose whatever criteria they want for the next tournament, which is one of the rewards for winning :thumb:

What do you mean we can't show pictures of our cities?Isn't that what sc4 is all about?

Sounded very good in the beginning, but then.....it got spoiled...... pics of 2048x1536 and view 6 only. View 6 ??? Who plays in view 6? Not enough good stuff around in HD to make something decent looking without becoming monotony.

Nah.....I wait for a better challenge. ;)

 

Good luck everyone, I'll be watching.

 

mrb

@KonstantinII - the criteria for this first tournament is to create a nature scene only, that is why cities are not to be seen

Interesting idea, but I'm no good with nature :P So I will keep it to the professionals on that! Good luck!

This sounds promising but the rules are way too constrictive for me.

 

For image size, why not just 1920x1080 (1080p)? That provides enough detail and many players have this as their screen resolution.

Seems like a good idea, but the "criteria" is way to restrictive to allow for much personal creativity. And using one single tree from a 55mb prop pack seems silly to me. I'll wait to see what the next challenge is to see if it allows for more freedom and creativity. Good luck to those who enter this round, I'll watch for ideas.

While only getting to use the Paris tree once is obviously not very popular at this point lol, I really don't believe it limits creative options because you are free to use however many other trees you want of some other kind. Or you don't even have to use any other trees...that is up to you. It's basically just saying that the Paris tree must be in the scene, and only once. I find it challenging to have to create a scene that works around it while still using it to enhance the scene and make sense in its surroundings. 

Don't give up on this yet everybody! Many of you may be surprised by what some people come up with for this..the results may show that the criteria for this one was not as 'constrictive' as you originally thought. And being able to submit 4 images stitched together allows you to create a larger scene and also everyone's entry will be of the same size for more fair competition  :thumb:

Well, personally I really dislike zoom 6 images... But I'll be very curious what people come up with to meet the required 2048x1536 at zoom 6 - that needs a bit more than a HD tree collection.

 

I'll be watching this, with popcorn and all ;-)

While only getting to use the Paris tree once is obviously not very popular at this point lol, I really don't believe it limits creative options because you are free to use however many other trees you want of some other kind. Or you don't even have to use any other trees...that is up to you. It's basically just saying that the Paris tree must be in the scene, and only once. I find it challenging to have to create a scene that works around it while still using it to enhance the scene and make sense in its surroundings. 

Don't give up on this yet everybody! Many of you may be surprised by what some people come up with for this..the results may show that the criteria for this one was not as 'constrictive' as you originally thought. And being able to submit 4 images stitched together allows you to create a larger scene and also everyone's entry will be of the same size for more fair competition  :thumb:

 

My problem isn't with the tree choice, though I hardly ever use those trees. What will keep me from participating is the image size requirements, especially because you need two different angles. I might do all that mosaic work once, but twice for the same scene is a bit tedious.

Sorry, but a picture competition thread like the one at SC4Devotion would do a much better job at this.  This is more like a plugin scavenger hunt game.

I think this is a really cool idea, although I won't participate my self, I'll be very interested with what people come up with.

Maybe for the first round of the competition it would have been easier if the rules weren't as stringent. But I do like the idea of what can be created out of such a controlled set of rules an regulations.

Hope to see this take off!