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I noticed we're both using the same map (spykerbrook) toxicpiano! Interesting to see someone else's take on it. Inspired me to share my WIP shots. I've been nowhere near as aggressive as you with the terraforming though :). Overview: I made the gap between the two land masses in the harbour larger so I could fit in Shroomblaze's fantastic Brooklyn Bridge in there. It is perhaps a bit unrealistic considering cars can get across the two land masses by passing through the downtown area and thus an expensive bridge would probably never be approved, but it looks too good not to place it there! Port area. Mostly complete, just have to fill the gaps with more RICO warehouses, industrial zoning and prop details. Cargo rail line entering the port. I love the way this turned out. It tunnels nicely below the highway interchange and supplies both the container yards and the bulk terminals. Another close look at the port. Just gotta add in the little details. Downtown. The sunken highway feeds the whole area. I plan to make the area in front of the skyscrapers a large park/botanical gardens that looks out towards the ocean. The capitol building will be the centerpiece of this garden. You can see it towards the left of this image - it forms a nice ending to the sunken highway and the main avenue. Sunken highway - my favourite part of the city yet. Complete album here: https://imgur.com/a/xUAdY University and hospital campus. I'm bit concerned it's too close to the tall dense skyscrapers, producing a large height difference. But I love the way the trees add such life to the area so I'm keeping it! Next step for now would be to expand the other side of the brooklyn bridge (as you can see in the first image, the beach side of the bridge is empty!). I will make that area into a nice touristy resort area with a casino district.

The Jade Bight 27 Nuenburg 03 Beautiful Downtown Nuenburg I WILL SAVE US ALL A LOT OF TIME -- I HAVE INSTALLED A "NO PALMS" Mod -- TO BE USED IN MY NEXT CITY !! (Nuenburg was too far advanced to go back and rebuild ALL the roads with palms stuck on them !!) This week, our tour of Nuenburg continues. We move from the Alte Bibliothek neighborhood north through the mid-rise condos, flats, and luxury apartments on the south side of the business district. It is at this point that I usually mention the goals and guidelines I had in mind while building the city. I think I’ll skip that part of it in this installment. If you’re really all that interested in the “nuts and bolts” of the thing, you can look back at the last entry DOWNTOWN OVERVIEW : # 01 This is, roughly, the area we will be touring. In actuality, it extends a bit to the north east of the picture NORDSTROM MALL # 02 We’ll start off with the Nordstrom Shopping Mall. It started out as the North Point Mall a couple years ago, with a descent assortment of small shops under one roof. But then Nordstrom came in and offered to build a large “anchor” store for the mall. In addition to the two focal shopping points, we have a “five star” Italian Restaurant, a pretty good “Denny’s” for the more mundane taste in food, and a really nice little breakfast, brunch, and lunch restaurant. SIMON & FRANKS ASSOCIATES # 03 Just across the avenue from the mall you see the building owned by the financial services of Simon, Franks, and Associates. This one is a bit higher than I like, but it is an unusual building, so I decided to let it stay. LIBRARY OF L’ ASSOMPTION # 04 This is one of my favorite buildings and forms the terminus of the tree-lined Center Street that runs north into the heart of the downtown. CENTER STREET # 05 TRANSITION # 06 In this shot, we are moving from the residential area into the downtown business districts. You’ll note that I used a series of small parks to separate the residences from the business. Here we have the Belgenny Luxury Hotel and a block further on, there is the Holbourne Complex. I keep experimenting with small office buildings – trying to devise some sort of practical office park arrangement. HIGH STREET SHOPPING # 07 Off the north corner of the Nordstrom Mall you will find “The High Street”. This is where all “the very best” shopping is done. They’ve got several fine shops to choose from in addition to Marks & Spencer and the Luis Vuiton building. LUXURY CONDOS # 08 Here you see another view of the transition between the residential and the business. The green-roofed condos are perfect for the setting. You’ve got the tree-lined Center Street on the right and the barrier row of parks in front with a few “McMansions”. HELSINKI BANK # 09 # 10 This is (I think) a bank building found in Helsinki. I came across this lot some time ago, and I’ve been looking for just the right opportunity to use it. It looked too dull as a simple square – and enlarging the square would have taken up too much room in the heart of town. So I elongated the square instead, and included subways, parking, landscape – and placed it right off the city center. I’m especially pleased with the landscaping. CITY CENTER # 11 #12 This is an extrapolation of the City Center Park theme I’ve been working on. I used a fountain as the centerpiece (just for Tariely) and expanded and improved the landscape a bit. EAST END # 13 I think I’ve just about hunted down enough med-rise buildings to give my cities a good mix of custom content. I’m still determined to mix in the Maxis content because it will help to keep the traffic patterns and RCI balance all in order. But I think it is turning out to be quite a good “mix and match”. Note the parks along the diagonal avenue. OPERA HOUSE AREA #14 #15 #16 Note the extensive use of landscaping and especially the Paeng park pathways. These come in very handy. My city center has been built on the principle of the visual axes (Remember “Odainsaker’s” comment.) The city sort of spreads out as a large “X”. The Paeng pathways are very good for landscaping the points, corners, and along the diagonals where possible. The big, gaudy statue is probably someone like Emmeline Pankhurst. But I find it of interest that it wound up right next to the “Déjà vu” Club. Leave it to Maxis to grow the club in the center of town. And then it pops up a pharmacy next to the club. Strikes me there’s something “Freudian” about having Emmeline Pankhurst, a “whoopee club”, and a drug store all in a row. GOLDEN STATE INSURANCE BUILDING #17 A very nice diagonal corner lot by “Matt325” – looks good there. WEST END #18 The Sunwin House and Trowbridge House in a very nice grouping. NORTH EDGE # 19 Here’s the north edge of the downtown area. I’ve used another one of my favorite buildings, the Lever House – and tried out a new one, the Qiu Tao building. #20 #21 This is on the east edge of the downtown and uses the “Jean Canfield” building and the Talin Bank buildings to fill in another diagonal zone. The Canfield building is quite interesting to place and is a large over-hanging structure that allows you to place filler lots up under the edges. Note the use of the Paeng pathways at the tip of the diagonal. The pale grassy surface of the “diagonal” seems to blend perfectly well with the park arrangement. CASCADE CENTER # 22 Here’s a shot of the Cascade Center with landscaping to the left side and rear of the building. And another view of the small parks used to separate the residential from the business. NIGHT SHOTS: It was brought to my attention that I had neglected to provide night shots for the last entry. My apologies. Consequently, I have gone back and taken a few night shots from the last entry to add in here. I’m especially fond of # 29 and #31. Enjoy !! # 23 # 24 # 25 # 26 # 27 # 28 # 29 # 30 # 31 # 32 # 33 # 34 # 35 # 36 # 37 OKAY -- !! That puts another one in the can! ALL COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS WELCOME !!! ALL COMMENTS ENCOURAGED !! (ESPECIALLY SUGGESTIONS !!) NEXT WEEK: Nuenburg 04 – the conclusion.

Crosstown mosaic of a portion of Avantasia.

Today's update is a little more, shall we say, utilitarian than usual (okay, you can stop groaning at that pun now). I've shown Nyhaven and Kendall's transportation infrastructure here plenty of times, but until a couple of months ago, I had neglected the even-more-important electric infrastructure. After all, without a constant supply of electricity, what would power the metro area's economy? (Okay, I'll stop punning now. ) I recently finished working on my first modular nuclear power plant, the Marshland Nuclear Generating Station. While most of Lower Columbia's old uranium-fueled nuclear plants have been decommissioned or converted to thorium-fueled reactors, this beast of a power plant is still active, just upriver from Nyhaven International Airport. Here's another view of the plant, showing some of the high-voltage wires carrying its gigawatts of power to the whole region. I recently replaced the wired pylons I originally used with these larger, wireless ones; this change allowed me to increase the spacing between them to something more realistic, while the invisible transmission lots I added keep the lines functional. The only catch is the lack of true FA3 pylons; I've substituted the turn pylons to simulate them, since they're at roughly the same angles. Some of the power lines running from this plant follow the railroad west past the town of Marshland (which, as you might imagine, is the plant's namesake). The town rail station was greatly expanded when the nearby industrial park was built. Marshland sits at the edge of the metro area (for now). But it isn't the edge of the region anymore! The Marshland quad used to be in the southeast corner of the region, but thanks to my painstaking efforts, the Nyhaven region is now twice its former size - 99 large quads instead of 49 (or roughly 44x36 km vs. 28x28 km). In fact, the first two pictures above wouldn't even have been possible before I expanded the region, since they cross the border into two of the new quads. Now I can build Kendall's suburbs as far out as I want - and as you can see, I've already done a lot of work on them. In all, the region is now home to 3.3 million people, thanks in part to those new suburbs. What's with that big black box labeled "SECRET", you ask? Well, you'll find out before long. Suffice it to say, though, that it will be no flight of fancy...

AKARI - 灯り GINKŌBORI - 銀行 Heiwashima Tower - 平和島タワー Gobanboshi - 五番星 Heiwashima Tōkyū Station - 東急駅 Heiwashima Hankyū Station - 阪急駅 Sayonara !

@sachizm Ok buddy, I think you just need to relax and go for a nice walk...(hehe you see what I did there?) But seriously, ped malls are next on the release list, though, as you can see, I am still creating them. While this will be the bridge to the dirt road, it is also a sneak peak at boardwalks which I plan to explore more broadly later...WIP. Bark if suggestions you have. ETA wanna say end of week. Sorry for delays RL happened...feeling better though .

Replies @T Wrecks - Thanks! It's actually not an illusion - the cars/trucks/buses all have an interior that include seats, a dash, and a steering wheel (visible on the renders in which the windshield is visible). My guess as to why the side windows appear almost black is a combination of shadows inside the cars and the fact that the interior texture is a mid-grey color. The windshield (and back window on sedans) is angled quite a bit on almost all of the cars which I would imagine allows light to flood into the car from that side, making the interior visible. The side windows on all of the vehicles are either vertical or reasonably close to it, which probably makes more shadows. The other possibility I can think of is the side windows are reflecting more due to their angle. I suppose significantly boosting the brightness of the interior texture would make it more visible, but at the same time, most of the cars' interiors I've seen aren't exceedingly bright. Either way, that would require replacing the texture on so many scenes (I'd probably guess between 200 and 230) that I don't think it's feasible. I looked up aerial parking lot photos just now, and it seems like in most cases the only windows that the interiors can be seen through are windshields and and the back windows of some sedans. I'm not really sure what causes this. --- So I've spent the past few days put some finishing exterior touches on Firehouse No.21. I still need to do some basic interior modeling and then I'll address the night lights. The thing at the top of the tower is a tornado siren (Memphis is right on the border of tornado alley). I tried to get the roof junk to be pretty close to the real thing, though it was difficult since all I had to go on was Google's satellite images and what little I could see from the street. Right now it's looking like it'll sit on a 3 wide by 4 deep corner lot. The lot will have custom textures. Here's a Zoom 5 HD render of all 4 angles (click for full size (large file)) Thoughts?

Following up, planetree + gantrys are really nice.

Welcome to my SimArt journal! I decided to put all my city art together into one journal, so I can have them all in one place! This journal will have mostly SimCity-related art, (or just regular cities), and possibly some sneak peaks of future CJ updates (Million Sims challenge anyone?) A little background: I've been drawing cities since 6th grade (2008). My first City building game ever was SimCity Societies late 2007, (which was fun) and then I got SimCity 4 for the first time months later and got hooked to it. I was let down by the lack of 3D at first, but I accepted it since the game was so fun. It became my go-to game for a long time. Around 2008, I started googling SimCity 5, and I would wonder if it would ever come out. I decided to draw my idea of what I wanted "SimCity 5" to look like. A lot of the drawings were done while I was at school bored or during free time. I've been drawing cities even until this day. I was all to familiar with the phrase "Put that drawing away" I got from teachers! Anyhow, without any further ado, Let's get started! I will save my most recent art for last (on the bottom). The top of the drawings contain the title and the bottom is the description/meaning. For most of my older middle/High-school drawings, I wrote what I feel they mean to me now and what they symbolize. First drawing: Blue Republic City: Main Street South (Commercial District) (Partial, will show the rest next update!) (Completed in November 2013; Senior Year of HS) SimCity 4 in 3D; Two MAVE-6's intersecting, note some of the Maxis CO$$$ buildings, and a R$$ on the right City From above Started in late 2011, beginning of my sophomore year of HS (10th grade). With only 4 blocks complete, it was put away in a pile of papers for over 6 MONTHS before I dug it out when I was throwing away other papers. Have I not found this, this drawing would've been thrown away too. It was finished just before my sophomore year in May 2012. Highway From Hell RHW-6C highway that leads to Woodland City Completed May 2013, this drawing took about two days to complete; The majority of it was worked on in my pre-calculus class (which I was failing miserably). My junior year was my worst year in all my 12 grades of school. This drawing symbolizes my "Junioritis." The storm represents my finals that I would still face before the end of that year (in June) and the city out in the distance represents summer. The clear towards the end represents the light at the end of the hell that I call, my Junior Year. The exit you see to the right (Exit 255) represents a break. Speaking of Storms... Here Comes my finals! I had to take the exit to the right of the previous scene (Highway From Boredom) to brace for the violent thunderstorm. The conditions became way too dangerous to drive through. I made it out, thankfully: Elm Street; Completion date around 2013 More Art! I dubbed this one: Good After-School! (Get it? 'Cause it's the afternoon and...school..*laughs awkwardly at silence*) Completed my sophomore year of HS (Early 2012); Represents students walking home from school after dismissal. We travel back in time! Some random house I drew in 7th grade Completed in 7th grade (January 2009) This drawing symbolizes...some random house. Generic Neighborhood From Above Completed March 2010 (8th grade), note the massive wreck just by the hospital, which symbolizes the only time that I would EVER got in trouble and written up in middle school, for the most ridiculous reason ever. Hence why the hospital is right there, to symbolize the ridiculousness of the whole situation. A SPRING SERIES OF 8TH GRADE DRAWINGS Highway To High School Similar concept to "Highway from boredom," except that things are much happier Completed in April, 2010, towards the end of my 8th grade year and also the end of middle school road! The late afternoon setting symbolizes the fact that I am in my last few months of my middle school career. The storm clouds out towards the right however suggest that there are still obstacles to face before the end of my middle school career. There overpass out in the distance is the FCAT test. The rush hour traffic symbolizes all the graduates who would soon walk the stage, marching along... Now I go under the overpass from the previous drawing, symbolizing that I have passed my FCAT (2009) Same highway from above, just further along the road, and a bit later I finally reach the Cloverleaf (in the distance) Completed in late May 2010, the last full month of my 8th grade year, the traffic is heavy with graduates. The cloverleaf (it's still far, I know it's hard to see lol) symbolizes the different directions people will take in their lives from here. Some will go to other schools that are not in their zone, and others will keep going to the high school they're called for. Some friendships will end here. The late evening setting symbolizes the setting of my middle school, and the few hours left in that day, just as my days as an 8th grader, are numbered, soon to end. The highway past the clover leaf represents a new chapter in life. -------------------------------------------------------------- Fast Forward To High School Senioritropolis Completed May 2014 my Senior year of High School; Senioritropolis. What does it symbolize? Here are the pieces: Seniorit-tropol-is. You put it together, I think it speaks for itself (Still don't get it? Take "Tropol" away) SimCity 4 3D Concept Art (from 2013) More SC4 3D Concept Art Now for the Most Recent SimArt Oh yeah, and one thing I need to mention... After Playing SC4 for almost 24 hours straight, I went to go take a shower and as I looked over to the living room I saw this... Yes, if you play SC4 with the 3D Mod for too long...this happens. The bathroom is to the left, parent's bedroom to the right, the side door is right towards the end, and my front door is to the right of where the right wall ends. To the left of the left wall is the dining room, which leads to the kitchen and back door. My parents definitely not happy when they saw over 500K tiny sims blocking any way out of the house with their metropolis. Note: If you want 3D SC4 graphics, download the latest version of SC4 3D Camera mod (April Fool's Edition) Disclaimer This is known to be duly noted that I am not responsible for any power outages, crashes, the destruction of your computer, or the Sims-colonization of your living room. Please download at your own risk Before I get to my latest drawing, let us go back to 6th grade one last time (At least for this update)... Blue Republic City: Main Road North (2008) Completed in May 2008, this was my last drawing as a 6th grader. It is the same city as the first drawing in this entry. Blue republic City is a young, growing city. It is the future capital of the Blue Republic senate and Capital. (more to come in future CJ) 8 Years Later... Blue Republic City: Main Road North (2016) Yes, this is the exact same scene and angle as the previous drawing, except 8 years have passed. The buildings under construction were complete, and the AVE-4 was widened into an MAVE-6. I wanted to see how much I improved since 6th grade, so I went and re-drew one of my old middle-school drawings (kind of like re-mastering a ps1 game with modern ps4 graphics) with my modern technique. You can see the difference 8 years makes! Practice makes perfect! That's it for this update, I hope y'all enjoyed it and don't worry, there is more to come. Much more! I post a lot of my art/works in progress on Instagram too. Mods, am I allowed to post a link to my Instagram account here? Thanks!

@takemethere Woot! Thanks for that wonderful little tutorial. I love this. Now I don't have to have my towers every 3 inches. ^ And it works in plain vanilla.

In case someone is interested, you will find a line like this in your output_log.txt: [LoadingScreen] Textures / Materials / Meshes loaded: 207 / 75 / 70 referenced: 45 / 15 / 20 Here, the first three figures are the number of resources loaded from the disk. The remaining three figures are the loads that could be skipped because identical resources were found in memory, based on check sums. Later, I might add an option for a rather detailed HTML report of the loaded and shared resources. Mainly out of personal interest but asset creators might benefit from it, too. Players don't need such information.

Interiors certainly do look better now. Not a fan of you ground plane though. On the sloped walls the effect doesn't really look good, it looks like it's standing in the middle of an industrial/low commercial park surrounded by 1-floor buildings.

Yes Judazz, I tried it and it worked flawlessly! Wooop! I love this mod

Well ultimately, no on can (legally) release to you the files needed to run the game. Bear in mind too, most games simply won't work if you just move the files to another PC, you need to run the installer on the new machine. Whether a game comes on a disk or as a digital file, you should keep the original media, in case you need to reinstall it. For most digital services, you only need to log in to the account that purchased the item to re-download said media. So if you don't have either to go back to, your only option would be to purchase the game once more. Digital versions are a bit pricey for such an old game, but if you can wait for a sale/offer, usually it goes for around $5.

thanks. well my main influence was actually copenhagen, but i spent a lot of time looking at other coastal european cities like rotterdam, antwerp and hamburg. additionally i looked at inland german cities like hamburg and cologne. it's a bit of a mix because there's unfortunately a lot of gaps in the content available on the workshop, you can do half german (central anyway, not much hansa stuff around) or half scandi but i think it's quite hard to do one exclusively atm. here's a current overview looking south: i'm hoping to keep the main built up area within the trees and then having some light suburbs outside of that. closeup of south of the river which is like a planned new town (similar to dresden's) to come i'm planning a (small) la defense district for offices and commercial activites, a baroque palace and gardens (will use up a good amount of empty countryside) and big uni campus (and obviously an airport)

The small farms of Kanalet are served by this small substation

So, there doesn't seem to be a thread for this in the past 6 pages. Here we have from low to moderately high security. (Those Ranger Stations are Guard Towers.) Depending on the individual's criminal record they are put to work in the dirty sanitation department, on the farms, in heavy industrial, or (for the elite crooks) in the commercial offices. Recently there have been suggestions for adding an educational curriculum (and the associated buildings) for the unschooled inmates. The city council feels it would not be cost effective. Oddly enough, most of the council members just happen to own the various businesses in town where the prisoners are put to work. (Not that that should be a conflict of interest. Right?) Imagine Shawshank Rredemption style.

Nice entry , everything looks to be blending well . The no palm mod , cool . Have you had any negative side effects from it's use ? I was going to give it a try but still a little edgy on messing with tree mods . I use a lot of custom content already and my game is getting a bit sluggish . Deciding on a favorite image would be difficult as they are all very nice . Fine job , keep it up . looking forward to your next entry .

check your profile...

Attracting R$$$ can't happen if there are none in connected cities. You are best to create them by educating your Sims yourself. This takes a few Sim-years. If you figure out the RL progression to a high education you'll find that education consists of formal schooling plus experience. Just to achieve a bachelor's degree it takes eight years of primary, four of secondary and usually four of post-secondary formal education which is 16 years altogether. So if you started Grade I at age six, you will be 22 or 23 at the time you get your degree unless you are brighter than the average bear. For example, I retired as a professor of computer science from a public college, but I never achieved a baccalaureate even though I attended several universities as an undergraduate in several disciplines. My some thirty years in the computer industry counted more than any formal education I achieved, but I do have credits in basic engineering, banking, accounting, computing, security, mathematics, arts (languages and music mostly). I have eclectic interests but lack the perseverance to slug through things that don't interest me to acquire a chunk of parchment which then goes in a drawer to be forgotten. I don't think this kind of career is possible any more due to the fact that society is more in love with formal education than it was when I got my first real job in 1959, when I went to work in retail banking. Can you imagine taking a job these days at $1,900 per annum? Times and expectations have changed.

This is the central question of course. Like you said, it varies. My limited experience is that the gain in loading time and RAM usage is about 5%, sometimes 10% but not more. I was hoping for more but as I am optimizing software here without access to sources, I will settle for this. GPU memory is another thing. My 2 GB is always immediately consumed, so any relief with that must be a positive thing. Luckily, the prefab-based approach taken in Unity explicitly supports shared meshes, materials and textures.

Had a small population influx with the creation of office towers on each side of the river and the results look nice at night time from the outer town that is now named Susi Ympyrä (Finnish for Wolf Circle). It looks awful during the day. Also ended up creating a few levels of buildings towards the river to capture the land value and squeeze in more people to preserve the dense tree covers. The federal and regional government visited again and were amazed as soon as they came over the hills as the towers were quite visible. The entirety of the city blew their socks off. Someone suggested reassigning me to a quieter town since I wasn't obtaining too much of a surplus. They laughed at that and someone else agreed, but I am sure it was all in jest.

Interesting to see shared resources. Anything to reduce the overhead on asset loading would be welcome. Now if I can only get into game to try it out.

Yay! So, here in an adjacent tile we have better* accommodations for those insane inmates who seem to think they still have human dignity rights: *better = isolated from the submissive subjugated guests (It causes problems when those vocal proponents are allowed to mix with the other incarcerated residents.)

What Terrain Mod is this, looks nice

Thanks Mr Maison, hopefully soon. I keep thinking about this and what tweaks Id like to do. Im swamped with work right now though lol, not that im complaining! Still... it would be nice to get more than 24hours in a day and have sleep be purely for pleasure/optional. haha.

Small update, I have been so busy with work ive only made some progress. ive refined the windows and arranged them around the building where they need to be, they're instances of a group so I can easily edit the main one to improve them all. I also did the front pillars/arches and started the back arches, pillars & other windows are next, then the fireplaces and detail trim on the various faces & edges of the building. And i simply must have the gargoyles too! I cleaned up a bunch in the main building, still mostly quads and ive yet to decide on how I want to UV so i've not added seams and all yet. Something tells me the texturing will be the most difficult part of this asset lol Its a good thing this is a "modern" classical building, so there are lots of repeated design elements. PS: look at the little Cim down there next to the pillar hahaa! This thing is huge! ...and this is only 1/3 of the main building that will come as one, and... not including the other modular grounds areas either.

From one of my test cities.....at sunset

Oh you know, just some realism. Specifically, I'm trying to achieve OCD-level realism: Enjoy!

Have you ever thought, "Geez I really wish Mandel's hydro pylons came with wires..." Wait, wuttt?

Well, it is always nice to get away the urban chaos and relax near a beach. Still, does anybody know where I can get some neat MMP's to add to this scene, like sims and like that? I will appreciate that very much!

Working on a old european prison, suited for urban environments. Based slightly on 'La modelo' from Barcelona. Started with 40k tris but reduced details and block buildings to the current 18k for a 10x8 building.

Tributary Bridge

I guess it depends: buildings with a prominent spire or crown that is an integral part of the design often beg to be lit (not only applies to classic skyscrapers, modern ones can have it too, like the Figueroa at Wilshire Tower in the Workshop), but I don't like the Asian approach, where at night even the blandest of steel and glass boxes look like a neon rainbow has thrown up all over it. Most of the buildings in those screenshots belong in the first category (mostly classic designs), so I don't mind it too much. I did ditch or locally edit a few buildings that went overboard, though - no need to have an entire block lit up in orange because the creator of a small asset went haywire with the lights. Also, the fog in the last three pics really exaggerates the lights (look at the first two for a good comparison).

when is it gonna be released? i heard from you like half a year ago, and you said soon...

Good idea! Yeah, I second that.

I can't tell you how promising this mod could be. Besides fixing bugs, I hope modders can find ways to enable the upgradeable City Hall. Well, functional railyards were supposed to be included with Rush Hour (source: old official SimCity 4 website) but were scrapped for whatever reasons.

Did a small fix on the Jatibonico Reservoir--there's some PEG Pond pieces I didn't know how to use properly; also took the chance to show the completed transmission power line corridors: As well as another very similar nuclear power plant on a much more convenient location: the Drakonfaucem Atomic Generating Complex!! The power plant is located at this narrow, snaking peninsula, more exposed to the sea on this elongated bay. The area is serviced by an avenue, planned for a future expansion with a bridge connecting the two snaking peninsulas: This power plant has two main transmission corridors, which go out towards the mainland as two twin rows of transmission lines: The facility has heightened security: a levee against both high waves from storminess and tsunamis, topped by a security fence. Only access points are through bunker checkpoints under the levee: Finally the power corridors branch out towards the corresponding neighboring cities beyond:

A new heavyweight bit of energy infrastructure has arrived!! I present you... Jatibonico Hydroelectric Dam and Reservoir!!! Specifications: * Dam height: 90 meters * Reservoir maximum depth: 75 meters * Spillway height: 87.5 meters * Installed power generation: 4 turbines providing 41.6 megawatts (30,000 megawatt*hours per menth) Dam and hydroelectric power plant: Hydroelectric complex, dam and downstream side of reservoir: View with just about all the reservoir and surrounding mountain rainforest: View of the reservoir with the dam and hydroelectric power plant in the foreground:

Been meaning to post in here for a while. This is a little story from my region I call From Generation to Distribution. It also serves as a tutorial for power infrastructure. Below is the Dresden Generating Station the regions largest power plant. It's coal powered and has 4 units with a maximum capacity of 2,240MW. I've already shown it in great detail on the CJ(probably more than enough I know lol) so I'll limit the amount of pics of it here. Power plants are measured in size with mega watts(MW) and not with mega watt hours(MWh) as the in game power plants are. The difference is MWh is the amount of power produced by a power plant over a period of time. Where as the total MW is the maximum capacity a plant is capable of producing in a given moment. Both have value for different reasons but when comparing plant sizes and how much power a plant adds to the grid MW are used. 1 megawatt is equal to 1 million watts. 2,240MW would be enough to power 22.4 million 100 watt light bulbs simultaneously. The in game maxis power plants are hugely under scaled. In real life thermal power stations are some of the largest buildings in the world. Multi-unit plants are typically several hundred meters long and the structure which houses the boiler(s) are typically over 20 stories tall. Fossil fuel power plants also have large stacks hundreds of feet high to vent exhaust fumes. Here are links to some of the best custom made power plants for SC4; https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2361 https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=928 https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27942-paengs-modular-nuclear-power-plant/ http://www.simcitypolska.pl/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=198 http://www.simcitypolska.pl/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=196 And SOMY's replica of the Fukushima power plant - Direct link (Not meant to be an all-inclusive list) For oil & coal power plants for its important not to forget to add storage facilities on site or nearby in the form of large oil tanks or a large coal pile. There are many different storage tanks located on the exchange. As for the coal pile this is the one I use https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/19978-bistagne-coal-tailings-pile/ In addition all power plants have electrical switchyards. The footprint of these switch yard is usually even larger than that of the main building itself. e.g. the switch yard at Dresden GS; The transformer lots that I use are all relotted from other people's creation so unfortunately I can't really provide too many links but here's a couple of lots that I used and relotted; https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/21685-peg-power-substations/ https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/12629-power-transformer/ https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=928 From Dresden GS power is transmitted through three 250kV circuits towards central Pretoria. As in real life, the hydro corridors are clear cut of trees and very little vegetation is allowed to grow in a hydro right-of-way. Small bushes, scrubs and different kinds of grasslands is fine though and is more realistic than complete empty lots. This is important to keep in mind for those who are looking for added realism. A more detailed explanation for this can be found here; http://www.hydroone.com/Projects/VegetationManagement/Pages/OurTransmissionCorridors.aspx Occasionally even soccer fields are placed in hydro corridors. I like to use a modified version of the in game power lines. https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/21686-peg-power-tower-pylons/ My region features some very rugged terrain so I can't really make use of many of the great mods out there as most of these require level ground to use so that the cables connect between the towers. links to other custom made hydro pylons/lines; https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/29312-150kv-tubular-pole-set-hd/?tab=comments#comment-647484 https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/28920-dutch-electric-pylon-set-380kv-donaumast/ https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/20387-power-line-set-1/ https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=563 https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27551-french-20kv-medium-voltage-poles-hd-overhauled-and-wireless/ and a couple of rural sets - https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/13897-sfbt-rural-power-lines-by-spocky/ https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2344 I've seen a few others out there but I didn't have the links for those. Hopefully others can add them onto the thread I was/am also in the process of making my own custom pylons based off the Pylons of Cádiz; Unfortunately the process has stalled because I haven't been able to get 3ds max to properly render models for me. The Hardack hydro corridor continues for many miles, eventually reaching a transmission substation where multiple hydro corridors converge and spit up. Transmission substation can sometimes be as big as a switch yard at a major power plant. Here after lines continue on through several new hydro corridors into different areas of the city passing over residential, industrial and recreational zones. It's important to not have actually have the power lines cross over buildings themselves - generally speaking that is. There are always a few exceptions. But it is typically very rare in real life due to the obvious hazard that it presents, though parking lots are perfectly fine though. Unlike being inside a building you can actually see if the lines are down and cars are insulated. Eventually the lines reach distribution substations, where the voltage is reduced prior to being distributed to the local community gird. Local power lines are underground in my region(the SC4 default), which is in fact becoming more and more common these days for aesthetic and safety reasons but many area's if not the majority of the world still have above ground power lines along streets. There is one mod I'm aware of that can add these to your cities as well - http://hide-inoki.com/bbs/archives/sc4_0856.html And that concludes the story; From Generation to Distribution Hope this post was informative/helpful