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Experiments in Road Textures and T21s - Untouched snapshot, no MMPS in this scene.

@Fantozzi Outstanding work! Continuing to add to the next prop pack..... This is an old (turn of the century) factory which was converted to a metal coatings facility in the early 70's but after a few short years it was abandoned. All props minus the vegetation are custom made by me. 1 2 3 4 Simmer2/Nick

Hello simtropolis, it's been awhile but after a long adjournment I'm finally back with some new content. For those who many not be aware back in October my SC4(and windows) hard drive(SSD) crashed. This eliminated everything I had created after entry 35 on this Journal. Feb 2016 was the last time I backed everything up(plugins, cities, pictures, etc) on a separate hard drive. Foolish, I know. It's not that I overlooked the possibility of a hard drive crash, in fact all my important personal stuff is backed up on separate drive and some of that is even backed up a second time on bluray discs. I backed my SC4 cities on weekly basis but for some strange reason at some point in time, I can't recall why (or understand), I moved that backup folder onto the SSD drive. So while I was still well prepared for save file corruption I was not prepared for hard drive corruption. The rest of what follows would probably qualify as TMI so I've have put it in spoilers since most of it is not exactly SC4 related and it kind of bogs down this entry. Most of you are understandably here for pics so this way you can get right to them. Note; Entry number 43 is reserved as a placeholder in case I'm one day able to recover the data that was meant to be shown in that entry. Now onto today's subject matter which will cover what is probably going to be the largest and most complicated interchange in the entire region of Pretoria - The 5 Point's Interchange. This interchange is located in the City of Calgon which is just west of Baycole and north of Dresden. It think I came up with the name Calgon from Calgary, but at this point I can't remember The interchange is the junction between Highways 700, 702 & 707 and as it's name suggests it is a 5 way interchange. This is the first RHW rebuild of this interchange. I say first because there is a second rebuild of the interchange which features no tunnels and is much more streamlined in appearance. But it's so different from this one that it's basically an entirely different interchange and this version is so massive that it would be a shame to not showcase it. edit* For a better understanding of the network I'm adding the regional highway map here; This entry was incredibly difficult to make. It seems the save file for the city is highly unstable/incompatible with my current plugins folder or something. In the process of rebuilding this interchange the game crashed about 50 or so times in the last several weeks which severely hampered my progress. I've encounter errors and crashes which I had never seen or even heard about before. The numerous ways the game crashed on me are listed below, I've also placed this in the spoiler to shorten the dialog that is relevant to the point of this entry; So where to begin with this one... how about with a map of the entire interchange and how it compares to the previous record holder of the title of the regions largest interchange - Spaghetti Junction. All maps are the exact same scale. Spaghetti Junction(newest & more compact version) vs 5 points. And the old Spaghetti Junction which was larger vs 5 points vs The 5 points <---- is north One of the reasons why creating maps of interchanges interest me so much is long ago even well before I ever played SimCity when I was maybe 10 year old I was completely mesmerized by city maps and the most interesting part of those city maps were where all those squiggly and curved lines which converged in tiny areas - interchanges. Afterword I would create random huge interchange designs on paper, wish I still had those but they disappeared long ago most likely throw away as junk by my parents Ok let's go through the interchange from south to north starting from the 702 Northbound at the south portal. Highway 702 comes from Dresden and the South Shore borough of Pretoria. There is also one other(very large) interchange between the 5 Points and Dresden in Calgon that I'll show later. The 702 is highly congested at this point being only 4 lanes across. In the final version of 5 points this section has been upgrade to 6 lanes. The Fastraxx ME(Middle East) Commuter Rail line can be see at the top running underneath the highway in a tunnel before reaching Calgon (Central) Station while the L(Loop) line runs over the highway at the bottom of the image. For a refresher on commuter rail the network click HERE. Meanwhile ICR's freight line is on the right hand side of this image. Now here is where things start to get messy. The first lane at the top of the image is a local off ramp from the 702. Next is the EB 707 to SB 702 ramp. Then a local on-ramp, followed by 4 lanes of the 702 itself, then the NB 702 to EB 700/707 & NB 707 ramp and then finally a local off ramp. 4. (note: image number count does not include the road maps) The next off ramp is the NB 702 to WB 707 which takes you directly into downtown Calgon. Overview of the Southern portal to the interchange. 7. 8. The NB 702 to WB 700 ramp is the tallest ramp in the interchange and is 45m/148ft above the lowest part of the interchange about 50m/164ft above the lowest tunnel. 9. Crossing over the 700 Overview of the Eastern portal of the interchange. The 700/707 is up to 13 lanes wide in this section and from here continues on to Spaghetti Junction in Lindin City. Next we come to my favorite portion of the interchange, the central section. This maps shows the 7 levels of the interchange + arguably a 8th level for one of the tunnels. What little help this may be, it explains the purpose of each overhead ramps and the routing of the tunnels which are functional for cars and buses but not trucks. Yup it's a little on the complicated side 12. 13. 7 levels of interchange in one image. Can you make out all the height transitions in there? Hint; there's 13 Moving further north we get to the point where the 700 crosses over the 702 And then we get to the second big section of cluster of ramps. I'm not sure it would help to talk about which ramp goes where, probably best just to look at panoramic shots at the bottom of the entry to make sense of it all. 17. 18. The 700 crossing over the 3 rail lines with exit ramps going both over and under it, one of my favorite images 19. This would be the western portal of the interchange. Back to the 702 which now turns into a collector/express highway system. 22. This leads us to the final part of the interchange the northern gate and the boundary to Astoria, which takes us to the downtown area of Pretoria. 24. 25. Aside from those sharp level 3 RHW curves, which hopefully will be smooth out in the future, I'm quite satisfied with the look and compactness of this section. 27. You may have noticed a few other unusual things up there and kudos to you if you noticed all four The most obvious one is probably that one way bridge in there which might seem odd because it looks a little different from the rhw roads above and below it. I could've used a rhw overpass but then there wouldn't have been enough space to transition into the one-way road tunnel. I suppose I could've just built the rhw bridge just for eye candy purposes but I wanted to show the interchange in it's functional configuration. That is every path is usable by sims, although I'm having a heck of a time trying to get them to take some of those paths, seems they'd rather be stuck in traffic on local roads then take the express out of town. I had to use a subway portal where the level 3 RHW crosses the the 3 railway tracks. It might look a little strange but it's much better than the alternative. Seems the level 3 RHW can't cross over 3 consecutive rail lines, it drops to a ground level crossing for the one in the middle which would of course look ridiculous. Meanwhile the subway portal ensure functionality on the railway line in the middle since passenger trains can turn into subway turns and vice versa without issue. The freight line on the top remains functional as well. It was very difficult to create this interchange because of all the grade changes over it's length, which resulted in the irregular ripples on the maxis highway curve. For those who don't know grade changes and the RHW go together like oil and water, thankfully with each version of the NAM terrain stability continues to improve. The original footprint of the maxis interchange that came before was much smaller so the city was originally built without realizing that one day I would need much more space for an interchange. For the final version of the 5 points I'm building I completely leveled out the terrain and started from scratch againt to build a fully accessible version without the use of tunnels. Lastly I had to use one of the old 45 degree flex fly ramps because the new piece is one zone large(5x5 as opposed to 4x4). That tiny little difference would otherwise have resulted in major changes to the interchange and a large expansion of its overall footprint. I know many rhw users might of been fine with that since highway interchange are space consuming objects, but I pride myself on building the tightest possible interchange while using smooth curves and transitions as much as possible. I had to modify the NAM files in order for this legacy piece to still show up in game. While I can't plop them anymore they won't disappear, which is what would happen if I didn't modify the file and more importantly they are still completely functional. Next a few night shots to show that there is sufficient lighting around the interchange. Even though you may not know how to get to where you want to be you can at least see where your going! 29. 30. 30. 31. Now time for a little something I call the "eye spy" section... Let me know if you like this new section. 33. 34. 35. And finally, of course the mosaics. For reference sake I put the the original maxis version of the interchange that I set out to replace long ago in the spoilers below. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. Forgot to add the interchange Stats! Levels - 4 All Highways total entrance lanes - 41 Bridge Structures - 15 Total Crossings, time sa highway ramp crosses another - 37(not including tunnels) Tunnels - 5 Ramps - 26 FlexFly Ramps - 8 (2 - 90 degree/6 - 45 degree) Height Transitions - 33 Thanks for stopping by, it feels good to get the CJ up and running again.

Nominations Open March 13th - The Trixies are here, the Llamas are here, and this time we're heading back in time! It seems like an eternity since the Trixies were last held, and we can't wait to go all the way back to the start of 2015! The Trixies are a celebration of all types of community contributions, ranging from STEX uploads to CJs, all the way to forum posts. It's the perfect opportunity to celebrate all the amazing content shared over the past two years, and give a special 'thanks' to your fellow members. We last held the Trixies for the year 2014, so understandably, we have a lot to catch up on. So this year, things will be a little different. We won't be holding just one ceremony, but two at the same time: One each for 2015 and 2016. Since the previous awards were such a long time ago, there will be a prelude in the run-up to the start of nominations. Here we invite everyone to discuss content shared during 2015-2016. What were your favourites? Alongside this, we will also be posting special features, including retrospective lists of uploaded content, and interviews by some members, highlighting their experience over the last two years. The purpose of this build-up intends to help everyone make informed decisions, with a broader perspective. Not be told who to nominate, but just reminded of who could be potential nomination candidates. The Prologue Over the next 3 weeks we will be holding a series of events to celebrate the content uploaded over the past two years. This will start here in the Trixies Forum with a community discussion of memorable content which you can recall, or may otherwise be overlooked. The discussion will be complemented by retrospectives on uploaded content, where we post summaries of 2015-2016 content. There will also be interviews with members, giving their thoughts of notable contributions over the period. Community Discussion I can hardly remember what was for breakfast, let alone the memorable items some 700 days ago! So when trying to remember what happened in 2015 my mind goes blank. That's why we are hosting a way which everyone can discuss uploads, CJs, forum posts or just members in general who have shared amazing creations from the past two years. The principle behind this not to form a consensus on who or what is deserving of a Trixie. But instead, a place to discuss content we have admired over this time frame, or items which we think might be overlooked when thinking back on all the amazing creations from the past two years. Use the link below to discuss content from the past two years. Retrospective Lists We want to make sure that there is a place which you can go to find everything that has been uploaded from the past two years, specifically in 2015 which is a long way to look back through in the STEX. In the coming days we will feature a series of lists which highlight content uploaded to the STEX from each year. CJs were harder to list, so we ask that for CJ retrospectives the Community Discussion topic is the best place to remember your favourite CJ. These lists should help you find STEX uploads, and remember items which you may have forgotten about. Member Interviews There will also be a series of interviews with different members on their experience with content from the past two years as well as their involvement with Simtropolis. We've tried to interview members which we haven't interviewed before, and these range from people you will have heard of and talked to before, to some members you might have only seen in passing. These interviews will try to highlight content which they have valued from the last two years, usually focusing on areas of the site which they are involved in. These are, at times, subjective, so we ask that you don't take their opinions as definitive fact, but rather as another view on what has been uploaded in the past two years. You'll find these uploaded in this forum, where you can comment on their interviews and they may respond to comments and questions that you have. These are just opinions, and your final nominations can be of whom ever, and what ever, you feel deserving of the award. Award Category Ideas As part of the build-up, a suggestions topic will be opened for the award categories. Here we invite you all to share ideas for the various awards you'd like to see make up the default set. Last time the list was greatly simplified, and looking back, this may have actually made the process more restrictive. So now, let your imagination run wild! There are BATs, but what about styles? There are CJs, but what about variations? We can't promise all ideas will be selected, but whatever they are, we'd love to hear them. Changes to Nominations For these Trixies we are changing how to nominate members, and how many times a member can be nominated. Since the site upgrade of 2015, the old nominations system was made incompatible. So this year, things are going to be slightly different. We will expand on these changes closer to the nominations opening, but a summary of the major changes are listed below: Forum Nominations Previously nominations would be submitted via a dedicated page with a category selector and a plain text description box. But this time, nominations will be submitted in a special forum which will open at the start of the nominations. This forum behaves differently than others, in that no one else except the Admins are able to view your submissions! So post without hesitation in that forum knowing that your nominations will remain incognito. A major benefit of this method is that you are able to edit any of your posts throughout the submissions period. So as you keep remembering people to nominate, you can continue editing or adding new nominations until the closure date. While in previous Trixies you could continue submitting new nominations, this method means you see all of the nominations you have made, so it's easy to remember what/who you have or haven't nominated yet. An simple and straightforward way to stay on top of everything. So say goodbye to spreadsheets! Once the categories are finalised, we'll provide a full list so that you don't miss any awards to choose from. Of course, you may also create custom awards which aren't included in the default set. It may seem weird at first, but everything will stay private, we promise. Rule Changes This year we are making a slight change to how many times you can nominate a member. Traditionally you could only nominate any given member for one award. But this time, this rule is being expanded. It used to be that someone would only create amazing buildings, or only write beautiful CJs. However, now we have members who cover lots of different parts of the site, for the previous Trixies it was increasingly difficult to nominate them for just one award. This year we are making the change to allow you to nominate a member for up to 3 different awards. We hope that you submit multiple nominations for a single member to awards in different sections of the Trixies, but we aren't making that a specific rule as there are awards in sections which relate to very different skill sets. Use this new ability wisely… Cities: Skylines It's time to welcome the latest city-builder to our great Trixie Awards! This will be the first year C:S participates in our great ceremony. Just remember, the Trixies are a celebration of Simtropolis contributions, so only items here on the site are eligible to be nominated for an award. Understandably, there are thousands of Workshop items, so C:S content on the STEX is only a fraction of the overall selection. Considering this, Workshop items can be nominated, as long as they're created by an author who is a member here at Simtropolis. We can't wait to start sharing the love and celebrating what our community has to offer! Here's to another memorable Trixies, let the party begin!

While I work on completing the last 2 prop packs I managed to finish up some other work I had on the back burner. Stones MMP ! There are now 3 different color of "Muro Secco", its a type of "dry wall" made of local stones and are prevalent in some European countries such as Italy, France, Spain etc. The country side is dotted with them. Used as a type on fence to mark property boundaries and to hold livestock within while out to pasture. I also made 4 different color slate stone pathways, also seen in those countries to go with the ensemble. And finally I made 2 different sized and colored bedrocks. I should be able to pack them for release by tomorrow. Here are a few sample pics I quickly put together. 1 2 3 Simmer2

Instead of nitpicking other peoples' work, I reckon I could also post some of my own stuff. As I mentioned, more IRM is on the way. Still some way to go, but I'm chugging along. Had some fun with lots that may represent different stages of development of a factory: The right one is still unfinished.

There is one more thing.. 1 And this is what you can achieve... Simmer2/Nick

@DavidDHetzel, oh I am! As a matter of fact, I got some more work done on the Lindsay Bros. factory building:

@T Wrecks The IRM lots are great, i love the whole set and cant wait for more! I have been trying to 'build' a mmp river with land bridges, a couple of shots. Think i'm on the right track but if anyone has any extra pointers / suggestions they would be great to hear:

Thanks for all the nice replies! I worked on the pipes some more but didn't have enough ready to justify images. Instead of that, I have an image of another set of substitutes for jes stuff. Along with the flatbed carrying the front end loader (from my previous post), these are intended to replace these models: --- On a side note, I don't recall if I posted this or not. I'm replacing the two different sizes of oil storage tanks from NBVC's set, and a while ago I got pretty close to being done with the smaller one (fits in a 2x2) - it just needs an external pipe hookup and more detailing on the floating roof-thingy (as well as variations that simulate various levels of fullness). The larger one (3x3) wouldn't be hard to make from it. -Mushy

Thanks everyone. I worked on it a little bit this afternoon but of course it's not possible to finish a BAT so quickly. But I did get most of the terracotta textured. Some of the terracotta remains. The terracotta is a bunch of Tiles maps with different uvw maps and stuff to align the lines onto the blocks correctly. I also did the glass. Tomorrow I'll be back to working on the Guardian Building, so this will have to wait until later. But it would make sense to finish and release this with the other art deco department store, since they're both art deco department stores (in fact, the file name for this is "newnew department store" with the other one being "new department store" ). @matias93 The massing on this works and so I won't be messing with it, but I'll keep that in mind for future deep buildings.

No worries, it's not done yet and that's something I still need to add. I'm actually most excited about replacing the storage tanks because NBVC's tanks are probably the part that shows the 'gmax bleaching' effect the most. His set is very useful and versatile but the brightness of it has always bugged me. --- Different view of the truck with the pipes to better show some of the other details, as well as the little set of employee's cars and the 5-to-2 pipe transitions (2-pipe pieces will serve as the connections to stuff). The employee vehicles gave me a little trouble because I needed to mess with scale. They came from my full set I'd like to release at some point, and having discovered that there were some scale discrepancies, I'm going to go back and scale them all properly in relation to each other at a uniform just-a-bit-bigger than reality.

Hey guys just another day in the office. Released an update. -Fixed the mod options spilling out of the window -Added basic roads with median (striped, concrete, grass, trees) -Added trees back to promenade

It's been a while... I put away a little bit the lotting things (I guess I burnt out a little bit), I'm just enjoying the game. Now I show some pictures from the last 2-3 mounts. I work on two city Noir City - North Harbour Distric (first few pictures) and Noir City - CounterPoint District. During the next month I'm gonna open the 3rd and 4th cities. Each city tile has different styles as you can see on the pictures. I wanted to show these pictures 2-3 weeks ago, but before my holiday (a very nice and interesting journey mostly by train across Western and Midle Europe - from London to Cologne (via Brussels)-Strassbourg (France)-Zurich-Lugano-Milano-Budapest (my home city)-Vienna-Salzburg-Munich-London route) I didn't have time, a lot of RL stuff came into my way. Since then I moved a new flat, I needed to establish my computer system again, so I was quite busy. Well... Pictures... Noir City, North Harbour District 1. Older W2W style. Well I still keep fighting with the lots, because sometimes hard to grow the proper looking buildings. (Therefore in my next city, the housing and lower commercial sites will be all custom made). (Probably I will replace those brownish Common Court low-wealth residentals some point) 2. Noir City - CounterPoint Well, that it for now. I started to work a few new Lots as an expansion to the SeaPorts, so probably there will be some lotting WIP in the next few weeks. - Tyberius

R.D.E (Rural Docklands Expansion) - WIP, Update 5 - three more lots.

Not for the first time a request for Kazuki's Underbridge lots had me thinking, these would be so much better using my 3D models. Only this time, because Kazuki's files seem to be lost now, I actually started work on them. Initial discussion can be found here: As you can see, not the most positive of endings, but having had a while to think about it and in no small part thanks to @Tarkus for helping me to find a workaround, the project is alive and kicking. So that's the basic Road-based Underbridge lot in action. Both the sidewalk and road parts will adapt Automagically™ to match whatever mods are installed. As you can see, they are already functional too. Now for the science bit... warning Math incoming... So the previous problems were due to me "layering" the textures for the network on top of the sidewalk. Easy enough to do, but it led to the shadow part of the bridges, which is actually just a texture applied to the ground under such models, fighting with the underbridge textures. This is known as z-fighting, because two objects exist at the same height and the game doesn't know how to display them together correctly. That was that I thought, but then Tarkus had the suggestion that instead of layering the textures, they should be split instead. So imagine that the sidewalk is one model, which only covers the edges, with a cut out in the middle. A second model (group technically), then covers the gap and shows the network texture. Something to do with how SC4 works with such models means that the cut-out solution works, where layering did not. However, using cut outs leads to problems, because now I need to line up the textures correctly, including getting the UV Mapping correct so they don't look stretched or squashed. At first I thought that might once more tank the whole idea, because that's a lot of work and needs absolute values for good results. Then I realised I could do everything with Math. Cue opening of Excel, working out a simple formula and now Excel will generate everything needed for me to make any piece I need. In essence, I tell Excel how many pixels wide the sidewalk is on the left and right sides. It takes that, converts it to meters (where 128 pixels = 16m) and calculates all the necessary Vertex and UV mapping values for me. So now I can re-assemble all the remaining props (OWR, Street, Ave and Rail), to finish off a complete set to replace Kazuki's pack. Which I'm off to do now ... ...Oh wait a minute, I almost forgot, there are other uses for this method too: Those are replacements for the models included with Paeng's Bikepaths and Parks 205 series. Now these extenders can match your sidewalks/overrides too. The Parks extenders will support any TGN (or other) overrides you may have installed. Much more extender/filler stuff is planned. Eventually this will all be combined into a single package.

WORK IN PROGRESS -- THE JADE BIGHT II WILHELMSHAVEN WEST: (Click to make bigger.) Yo, guys -- Southwest of the main city I had this region of "finger lakes" and marshes and I wasn't at all sure what I could do with it. Then it hit me -- Wilhelmshaven is located on land bought from the Duchy Of Oldenburg. And what's a "duchy" without -- a castle ! This is Castle Rastede, hereditary home to the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg. Abandoned since 1931, the poor old thing was wasting away to a ruin -- until His Royal Highness Christian Nikolaus Udo Peter Herzog Von Oldenburg decided to turn it into a tourist attraction, banquet hall, and corporate meeting venue. This is the tourist car park -- note the public restrooms to the right of the path, and a ticket kiosk to the left. And here we have a small restaurant with some sidewalk tables to one side and an even smaller gift shop behind the restaurant. Parking for the tour buses is at the far end of the complex. Only 6 Euros for an hour tour. And -- for those of you that are interested -- a shot of the approach bridge.

If you think it's interesting, here's where I found an amazing old book about the Singer Building, it's worth reading it: https://archive.org/details/historyofsingerb00semsrich But wait, did you say 500 Fifth Avenue? Old renders: I'll take advantage of the fact that I'm showing off this old render from 500 5th Avenue to say something I should have said earlier. In recent weeks I have received messages from some members asking about some models that I have not shown for some time, such as Maracanã, Copacabana Palace, Hearst Tower and that residential building. My apartment has been undergoing renovations since November of last year - yes it's a huge renovation - and it's so messy that we've been staying at my aunt's house for all this time. However, when we left home I forgot to sync my Dropbox from the other computer where I usually do the BATs, where I keep my files, so I only have old versions of some of them and I prefer to wait to go home to continue them. They are: Maracanã, Copacabana Palace, Hearst Tower, 500 5th Avenue, Prypiat Azure Pool, Parc Avignon, Colégio Loyola, Mineirão, German Apartments, Skatteskrapan, Palácio Tiradentes, Sophia Building. Basically all the recent projects I've been showing I started in the last months.

First set it out, now its time to play at the beach....or somewhere also if you wish.. While rummaging deep in my gmax playpen storage I also found these items. I made them back in July before I went on holidays. ..One sec......sorry I had to remove some sand from my eyes... So its time to release some new sand brushes. 8 new sand brushes in MMP, plus 8 more of the same but with a smaller foot print, for a total of 16 new brushes. I also made a single sand clutter brush (twigs, branches and tiny rocks) And there is one more I left out (I will reveal it when ready.) Here they are, the names are in descending order. SM2 Sands ™ Simmer2/Nick

Building/planing coastal town

@Simmer2 To be true: you and @rsc204 lately gave me the feeling I'm watching a hospital serial. And there is a patient in a room and many highly worried people around and every thing in the movie makes you believe: this patient is going to die. And then Dr. rsc204 steps in. Dr. rsc204: "What's your name sir?" Patient: "My name is Sim City. Sim City 4." Dr. rsc204: "How old are you?" Patient: "I don't remember. But very, very old. I'll soon have to die" (last sentence he says towards the camera) Dr. rsc204: "Crap! No one dies on my section. But let's hear the opinion of Dr. Simmer2 first." (Dr. Simmer2 steps in) Dr. rsc204: "Your opinion, Dr. Simmer2? Can we heal this tired man?" Dr. Simmer2 (with a short gaze on the patient): "This man needs some fresh blood." Dr. rsc204: "That's what I think too." And you both hunker over the patient and for a while nothing else is seen than your backs. And then you step back and - (music!) - the patient is young again. Magic! And apart from hospital series - thanks to you, this kind of magic only happens here. Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Hey everyone! Sorry for being away for awhile. Anyway I just completed the base's plants. It's a lower quality but rendering is starting to take a lot longer. I'll upload a higher definition of the whole building when I get everything for the day part. (which I'm very close to completing) I have a lot more done other than the base, you'll see in the next upload.

A scene in the works. Definitely going to be in my next CJ update, .

So I was talking to nofunk last night and decided to try to make a really really (like a few hours) fast BAT to upload in time for January. Of course BATs take much longer than that especially because the BAT I started wasn't as simple as it should have been, so I went to bed with a lot done, but it still being unfinished. Then it turned out that there was actually another day left in January than I had thought when I decided to make a fast BAT, so I kept on working on it today and I'll keep on working on it tomorrow, and I'll TRY to finish and upload it tomorrow. Needless to say it's turned out amazingly well for a BAT that I started 25 hours ago. I wanted to make a building 3 tiles deep, and because you don't get enough natural light for a building that thick to be an office building I decided to make a department store (why are all of my BATs department stores?). The top floor is a restaurant and the little courtyard is outdoor seating. For those curious about the Guardian, when I stopped working on it yesterday afternoon I had a good chunk of the base finished. I'll resume work on it on Wednesday, and on either Wednesday or Thursday I'll be at a good spot to do a preview render to share. I'll be posting that in the mipro thread though.

As part of the upcoming Trixie Season, the Staff team have been interviewing various prominent members of the community and asking them about their favorite STEX files and City Journals over the past two years, inspriation and creative workflow, along with life outside of Simtropolis. So without further ado, please welcome our third guest: An Interview with Korver Thank you very much for taking part in this interview korver. Sure We all have our own unique Simtropolis story. How did you first discover this community? I first found out about ST actually back in late 2009. I finally got a computer that could play SC4 (I was playing SC3KU before then), so one of the first things I did was buy it and see what it was all about. I wasn't too impressed with the graphics at first.. well, until I discovered ST and started seeing all of the stuff people were making. Once I downloaded skyscraper's Burj Dubai.. I was instantly hooked. For a while, at least. I was off and on with the game over the next couple years, slowly improving my skills, but never really accomplishing a whole lot. Finally, towards the beginning of 2016 I rediscovered ST/SC4 and started to take it seriously for once. I finally built up enough courage to start a CJ, something I always thought about, but never thought I would be able to do. What areas of the site do you tend to visit most frequently? Currently, I tend to visit the CJ section the most, constantly seeing what everyone's up to and on the lookout for inspiration. I still browse the forums regularly - I used to participate more actively, but then RL and my CJ started eating up more time so I slowly became more of a lurker. I hope to become more active in 2017. You usually create amazing realistic CJ entries. Outside of this genre, what is a work you have been very impressed with which is thematically at opposite ends to your style? One very unique CJ which I have been very impressed with has been Utopolist's CJ "Utopolis". It's one of a kind, creating truly unique surrealistic scenes through SC4 and PS. Sometimes you don't really know what's going on, but that's the fun of it. You really have to think about each picture he makes and what it might possibly represent. What are the steps in your creative process? The first step for me is to pick out a scene that I think is going to be visually interesting. Usually, I want to pick out something that hasn't been done before, or will make the viewer say "wow!". So I'll do some research, digging through atlases, online lists, and then try to pick out the best scenes possible. From there, it's a matter of trying to recapture that feeling in the game, which can be difficult. Nature scenes are generally easier, as it's usually a bunch of MMPing. City scenes are much more of a time sink, as everything I do is custom lotted to ensure the highest level of realism possible in SC4. Some things like people and cars occasionally are MMPed after the fact, but generally the rest is lotted. After that, I'll make some adjustments in PS to make it seem more authentic and to bring it to life even more. Your work is a source of inspiration for many. Who’s work inspires you? I take my inspiration from many. It's something that I do in all phases of my life - I start off by doing some serious research, seeing who's the best in each aspect of whatever, and then putting my own spin on it in the end. So for SC4, that means my lotting is being inspired by the likes of Badsim, elavery, & Bastet. My MMPing is inspired by Yan077, Benoit, and Ln X. My photoshop is inspired by Huston, MilitantRadical, and marsh. So on and so forth. But.. If I had to choose one name, i'd have to go with SimHoTToDDy. His SBU is still one of my favorite CJs ever - everything in that CJ simply seemed to come together perfectly. What advice would you give to a CJ newcomer, who was planning on creating their CJ? I can think of two pieces of advice that really stand out to me above the rest. The first being, don't get too ahead of yourself. I actually struggled with this concept for many years. I'd always download entire region maps and try to complete it all, or make a recreation of an entire country, etc or something similarly overwhelming. As a result, I got very little done and it really slowed down my progression. Now, I just make recreations of smaller scenes (Well, except for Sydney, but I only did it once I knew I was capable of something like that), and it works out great for me. My second piece of advice would be to find a way to stand out from the crowd. Do something really unique and interesting, I think this is one of the best ways for people to really notice your work. So overall, it's all about finding that fine line between constantly pushing yourself, and not overdoing it. Tell us one of your favourite pieces from the STEX in 2015 and 2016 and explain what it is about and why this is your favourite piece? Favorite from 2016: Heblem made a surprise appearance in 2016, and this building was well worth the wait. It's truly one of the most detailed, beautiful, and majestic looking buildings I've ever seen before on the STEX. Few buildings take your breath away when you first see them, but this is certainly one of them. Favorite from 2015: To me, this building was certainly the best of 2015. First off, it was in production for over 2 years and went through a number of revisions to make it absolutely perfect. But that final rendering time though, 332 hours! Now that's some real dedication. Not to mention some of the best nightlights I've ever seen before on a BAT. I just hope one day I'll be able to put it to good use in an update! What's a quality piece of work on the STEX from the last two years which you think has been overlooked? I'd have to go with Flunight Props Vol 01 MMP. For the longest time, Girafe has supplied us with great deciduous MMPs, but there hasn't been the same level of quality and variety when it comes to tropical MMPs. This pack changed all of that, and I've been using it extensively since it was released back in late May. Has anyone's content surprised you from the last two years? In what way was this a surprise? I think the biggest surprise to me was seeing the progression of Scribosilyn's work in his CJ, "Phoenix Project". From the summer until the end of the year, it was truly amazing to watch how fast he progressed and how realistic his scenes got. It takes most people many years to become that talented with MMPs, and he got there in a couple of months. He sorta came out of nowhere and now has one of the best CJs on ST, in my opinion. Who is an up-and-coming member that we should look out for next year? I'd probably go with Krisman here. I'm a obviously big fan of custom lotted cities, and I think he produces some of the best ones here on ST. He produced a string of very detailed updates towards the end of 2016 in his CJ "Principauté de Caravella-Guatalaga", and if he keeps it up in 2017 he could have a big year. What are your favourite Simtropolis moments? For me, my favorite moments are always seeing the comments and support I get after working really hard putting together an entry for my CJ. It really motivates me and makes the whole process worth it. Thank you again for taking part in this Korver! I wish you the best! Same to you, and thanks for letting me take part in this interview! I hope you enjoyed reading this interview - We can assure you there will be more to come during the build-up! - _Michael, Staff and Trixie Team

Hi there! It has been a long time since my last post. Events in real life, the state of the world and of the political situation developing in my own country and elsewhere have made games seem a little pointless to me. I have been checking in to the site quite frequently and although I post rarely, i really value the community here, so I would like to dedicate this post to all of you reading (and those not reading). However, I do want to give a couple of special shoutouts for people who have really helped inspire / create some superb content to this wonderful game: RSC/MGB204. All the texture unification work is incredible, but what really counts are the really detailed replies to my (and many other people's) questions in all the forums, I could not have got all these Japanese overpasses and whatnot working without your wonderful tutorial on installing them. LnX - just for mindboggleingly consistent uploads that I try to copy (badly - please see images below). Finally Fasan, who may be gone, but the pictures that remain on SC4D are for my personal preferences, the best pictures ever created using the medium of Simcity 4. Enough about me, here are some pictures: This is an overview of the city on the shores of Lake Pointless. Last Entry covered the suburban area to the right of this image and the fields beyond. This time we are looking at the northern end of the lake and the town around it in more detail. Ok, it's a highway interchange, but it was a slightly unusual one, so here is a picture Simcity 4 doesn't have many aggressive youths, but those that have a bit too much aggression can run like crazy on these football pitches, which should keep them out of mischief. There is some need for a fence to stop the ball going into the busy road, but times are tight! First 'flipped' image. I really like the totally different feel you get from doing this to a picture. A railway, some retaining walls overview of the area more flipping. Here in the suburbs the other side of the highway. suburbs giving way to industry crossing the bridge now onto the other bank of the river I wanted to try something a bit clever, and i'm not sure it has been wholly successful, but here is a combination of game water and MMP water, and lots of retaining walls. I guess the MMP side will improve with practice. A jumbled little neighbourhood of mainly working class homes. railway crossing. I really enjoythe reskinned japanese overpasses. This is not the most spectacular use of them! A local school surrounded by suburbia. Looks washed out because i forgot to change the contrast Old mills on the edge of town by the lake shore Now we get into the proper city centre. Trying to keep the shapes interesting! I know there is quite a mix of building styles but diagonals are really hard to find! close to the station are some very grand buildings wider overview of the city centre The Cricket ground (Americans and other Europeans, if you don't know what this is ask an Indian/Pakistani/Sri Lankan//English/Australian etc.) the library, the station and then the waterfront in mosaic. Different perspective. I love the distinctive library BAT in the middle. Now back across the river to finish off the rest of the city centre. I dont know why I couldn't make the water look nice here with MMPs, but once I had built everything was too scared to take serious remedial action in order to spruce up the water! closeup of the same area. why not stop for a coffee (or Tea if that way inclined) in the waterfront coffee shop. More quayside Finally my favourite of the lot, horizontally flipped mosaic of the small station down to the quayside, taking in some parkland and diagonals en-route. Hope you enjoyed

So as part of the upcoming Trixie Season, the Staff team have been interviewing various prominent members of the community and asking them about their favorite STEX files and City Journals over the past two years, inspiration and creative workflow, along with life outside of Simtropolis. So without further ado, please welcome our first guest: An Interview with Ln X So thanks very much Ln X for agreeing to take part in this special Trixie 2015/2016 Interview. Sure. I'd first like to talk about the community as a whole. We all have our own unique Simtropolis story. How did you first discover this community? I think about four or five years ago. I came across it by accident when I was looking at custom SC4 content, I had been playing the vanilla game but decided that I wanted more skyscrapers in the game. I'm sure many have had the same experience! And your work here, specifically your City Journals have definitely inspired me and I'm sure many other members, so they question is, who has inspired you over the years? And do you feel and competition in your genre has helped you personally improve? I have always liked @paeng's CJs, his special detailing was always impressive. He said something, in the now gone PLEX about how he focused on every single building, how if it didn't fit in he would try something else. I have gradually adopted this strategy. Other inspirations were @Fasan and @korver. Fasan began publishing his Krokanien MD, on SC4D, in 2014. The pictures were incredible as was his MMP work. He was a lotting/modding meistro who did unbelievable things in the game. He inspired me to pursue a MMP approach to rural areas and also urban areas where necessary. The city tile of Ravensworth, in my CJ, was my first emulation of his work. The link is here for all those interested- https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16683.0 Finally @korver... Need we say more about his totally jaw-dropping entries... He started last year with incredible MMP scenes from around the world. He inspired me to go nuts with the MMPs for the last city I created-Erinsberg. As good as they are they can't be replicated in game. They involve taking 3D models in Sketchup and using huge amounts of photoshopping to transform most of the SC4 out of SC4. Note: Any model imported from an online resource (including Sketchup) may be functional in game, and not necessarily Photoshopped. So going back to the point of competition... I probably felt it in 2014 but now I don't really think about it anymore. In 2014 there was @Benedict's top ten CJs of the week, that's gone and so I did it all purely for experimentation. Now competition can only arise if members are updating and creating City Journals. Many though, may be fearful of starting one, so what would your number 1 advice be to someone wanting to start a City Journal? Plugins, plugins and more plugins. But I think number 1 advice is misleading and too arbitrary. It can't be condensed down to one point. Indeed, and with custom content being one of the cornerstones of this communtiy, who do you think has shone brightly during the past 2 years, in relation to custom content creation? This could be a BATer, Mapper, or LOTer. Anyone really that has made and published custom content. Mods are massive game changers since it helps to unify the grass textures, it is subtle but powerful. Others would be @kingofsimcity's parking sets and NAM. A huge shout out must be given to @rsc204. His Terrain Grass relots, another huge gamechanger. @T Wrecks is still going strong with his wall-to-wall industry. @InvisiChem created the CAM 2.0 (Colossos Addon Mod) to fix the buggy, but legendary CAM of 2007. Also @Simmer2 has made waves last year with his lots, RRW (real railway) work and modular sets- like the pipelines... And do you think there is content that you have used that has been overlooked by the community? That question is a tough one because of how old Simtropolis is. I would say content has been overlooked due to age: @Glenni, IL Tonkso, @Pegprod and other oldies, they did some fantastic work. I also think a lot of good work is found outside the STEX such as the LEX, PLEX, Simcity Polska and Working Man Production. My CJs would not have been the same without having downloaded nearly all the content from the WorkingMan Productions website and scouring the LEX for fillers and civics. And has anyone from the STEX surprised you with their work over the past few years? The quality of it, what it does etc. @JP Schriefer... When he first started I thought what he was doing was a novelty. But now he is cranking out content which is just as good as @Reddonquixote. I do agree - those buildings are truly wonderful. Another person would have to be @rsc204, his mods are subtle but very useful. So now moving slightly away from the community, but what do you do when you're not playing SC4 or C:S? Right now teacher training in the further education sector in England. Spare time: story-writing, listening to music, reading religious stuff, walking, skateboarding, reading the news, browsing Simtropolis' current events and watching films. Such a varied selection! That's the usual week for me. Busy Busy! And to top the interview off, what has been your highlight of this community over the past 2 years? My SC4 CJ Scrapbook. Such a great thing as well! And continuing from your personal City Journal, what inspires you when creating? The countryside and Teesside... Such diversity and variety in that part of the country. I build large industrial areas because every Sunday of each week I drive through Teesside, and past the industry, to get to a skatepark in Redcar. Did you know that the sci-fi movie BladeRunner was inspired by the steelworks in Teesside? Large cities in one direction, beautiful countryside the other. I did not know that. Now your City Journal has been highly important over the past two years, but what City Journals do you feel have been incredibly important? is a great one because of his CJ @Takingyouthere's lotting improvisation, I think he has definitely inspired many people with his experiments. I really admire @Mymyjp's CJs and her content, she has a great style of blending various mods and together. @philforhockey51 has done great work, the fact he uses Maxis terrain and makes it work is rather incredible. and photoshopping CJs @Huston's sci-fi has always been good to see. @Scribosilyn, of SC4D and who now posts here, has done incredible MMP scenes. @Tonraq pumps out great Japanese scenes And finally @korver has at last created a CJ which truly feels global. I think's it safe to say that Korver can create any area on this planet. So that's it for the CJs... The quality definitely improves each year thanks to the new mods, BATs and LOTs. Even though the activity decreases a bit each year... It's the issue with ageing games. But as we know, a brand new city builder has been released was in 2015. So how has Cities affected the community? It's given SC4 a competitor. Some famous community content developers such as @Bipin and @xannepan have "jumped ship" so to speak and gone to Cities Skylines. is definitely the future and it exists largely on Reddit, C:S Youtube and the Steam Workshop community. C:S, with all the mods and custom content, has beaten the modded SC4 game by a mile and then some. The STEX can't compete with the Steam Workshop. With the range, diversity, size, quality? Just about everything: accessibility, popularity, quality, size... See, SC4, with all the mods, has become a great city painter. It's not about the simulation anymore, it's about creating beautiful cities and countryside with these great mods and BATs and LOTs. I must say, that's what I use SC4 for. And this is why Cities: Skylines has such a big community. What I have seen on Youtube, and on Reddit, it has become the most highly-detailed city painter to ever exist in the world of computer games. You can plop in decals (textures) for concrete, grass, skid marks, dirt... You can drag in props and place them anywhere. Or pick up any object and move it, and rotate it and shift its height... While SC4 cannot compete with this I do think there are certain areas where it can stay fresh. And still carry on despite Cities: Skylines being so detailed. There is hope, and I do believe the SC4 community on the Simtropolis and SC4D will be around for at least another ten years. I very much hope so! The modding which community members such as @Simmer2 and @rsc204 do have helped keep the game fresh and alive. They given everyone new toys and that is very important. But for the future I think SC4 needs something to the decals of Cities: Skylines and believe it not SC4 does have something similar. It has "paint" textures found in a mod made by https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3077 xannepan, this HIGHLY overlooked mod is I believe the future for SC4 since it imposes a texture on top of current textures. Link to the mod in question. If there are more variations of textures then it could truly transform the game. Also more diagonal and FAR buildings would be nice too! I agree with this being overlooked. I only found out about it a few months ago. But this is why I'm hopeful. There is definitely more interest and development happening with SC4 mods, there are a few more movers and shakers out there (@rsc204, @Simmer2, @kingofsimcity, @T Wrecks, etc...) I dunno why but two years ago the STEX and LEX felt stagnant. It felt like everyone had ran out of ideas but 2015 and 2016 proved me very wrong. So that's why I'm hopeful for SC4's future despite there being a better game out there. And that's all I have to say about that. Well, thanks very much for participating. Thank you! Have fun with interviewing the other community members and I look forward to the Trixies coming out. C ya! I wish you the best, and the community a very good Trixie season! I hope you enjoyed reading this interview - We can assure you there will be many more to come! - _Michael, Staff and Trixie Team

Stuffing Decatur with mmp's.

Thank you everyone! Well, the wait is over. Click and plop! Here are a few more examples. 1 2 Enjoy! Simmer2/Nick

Our friends at GOG.com had a special City-Builder discount sale! (Closed as of February 13, 2PM GMT) As part of this, Simtropolis has been given a bunch of free keys to selected games to give away! Winners announced here! If you want one of these games, simply reply to this thread by answering ONE of the questions below: What's your favourite city-building game, and why will you always be fond of it? Write a creative and entertaining review (good or bad) of any city-building game. The ways in which custom content has transformed the city-building game you play. Tell us about your most memorable city-building experience, funny, tragic or otherwise. There is no minimum or maximum, but aim to write at least 50 words. FAQ Q: How are prize winners selected? A: The Admins will pick their favourite replies below, so don't delay, post away! Q: How many times can I reply? A: Just one reply per person please. Q: Can I add images or video to my post? A: Sure! Feel free to be creative to make your post stand out. Q: Does it have to be written in a certain style? A: No, not at all. Just aim to make it creative and entertaining, whether fact or fiction... Q: How long does this run for? A: The closing date to enter is Monday 13th February at 23:59 (EST). Prizes Winners will be able to select ONE of the following City-Building classics, to add to their personal collection: Caesar 1993 SimCity 2000 Special Edition 1995 Caesar II 1995 Pharaoh + Cleopatra 1999 SimCity 3000 Unlimited 2000 Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom 2002 Banished 2014 Tropico 5 2014 Lethis - Path of Progress 2015 Urban Empire 2017 Whatever your experience with a City-Builder, we'd love to hear it.

Kaijo Metropolis update. The metropolitan city has now breached the 2.0 million population benchmark. This is a huge milestone for me as this is the first time in my SC4 journey to reach 2 million sims in one region. Another milestone is Hakata Ward reaching 900k residents. This is also the first time that I reached 900k in one city tile. Hakata Ward is also the most extensive city I build in terms of transportation networks. It's so huge that now SC4 freezes once in a while, it's true. Here is a throwback of how it had evolved. This was how the city looked with 1.18 million people. (December 8, 2016) A few days later, with 1.77 million residents. (January 7, 2017) And now with 2,07 million residents. (February 14, 2017) The city has so much concentration of tall buildings but I'm trying to keep it balance with medium and low residential too to make it more realistic. Here is how the transportation system in the city looks like. Now that a I have quite a stuff in my city, this means a future Teiko update is probably coming soon. Make Teiko Great Again.

Just finished making SM2 Gantry Container Crane and here are some pics with it at work. I should have the prop pack and a starting set of lots made soon enough. The Real 3D Rail set will not be included in the pack at this time, I will release them on a more detailed lot I have been working on. 1 2 3 4 5 Simmer2

BOI THiS iS SOME CRAZY NeWS

Yeah, I thought the same thing when I saw it. More Guardian progress: We're probably going to be in this area for a while. The left part of this area repeats a bunch, but it also has a complicated arch area that I should do before copying. And then there's the still missing ornament and windows. The windows will be tricky because I'll have to try and figure out how deep they're set into the walls. On the rest of the building I could count bricks, but in this case I'll have to estimate. How deep windows are can make a big difference on how a facade looks, so I'd like to get it right.

@Fantozzi Nice job, keep it up! About the offset cranes, if you are interested, a while ago @rsc204 taught me how to offset props without messing with the model file itself, using the S3Ds and the RKT property of the prop exemplar (you can redistribute modified versions of those with different IIDs). So, I'm not technically working on this right now, but there's no "Show us what you were working on" thread, so this one will do. This was going to be my entry for the Modular complexes challenge a few months back, but I got nowhere near the finish line. It's a modular apartment complex using Glenni's fantastic Nokkebekken condos, the beauty of these is that they come in orthogonal, diagonal and even FA!, I experimented a little bit with CP's SCILT textures which match the orientation neatly. 6x9, 9x6, 6x12, and 6x6 lots. I'm not a fan of huge parking lots, and the parking space didn't seem to be enough, so I put some underground parking entrances. And a few individual pieces, 5x5, 6x5, 6x6 I'll be working on this on and off and they'll get eventually released. I think the concept came out really well, there's also the low-rise condos, but that'll be for another post.

Some more suburbs from Fairplain.

For creating river docks/inland ports I started to expand DocRorlach's Rural Docklands with additional lots. I thought this is something easy to do but I ran into several problems with the seawall props which aren't easy to use as tailored for his own lots. I must confess - I'm close to shipwreck with them. So I'm probably giving this up. Now here are two pictures with what I got so far - including all the poorness I don't get right. Ah .. *grief*. (as I used RTK4 values to offset the cranes the shadows are wrong - left side, first picture - and so on).

It's an old town of mine, and I think the time has come to finish it

I'm trying to create an MMP-based beach with a pine forest next to it. Comments are welcome.

This is a preview of my new CJ, it has a lot of sprawling to come, but here are a few shots... The Pacific Circle In the heart of Pacific Bay, a census designated area in south San Joaqin Beach, lies the Pacific Circle and plaza. The intersection and surrounding town was founded in 1918 and has become host to annual events such as "The International Food Festival" the first weekend in May, as well as the "Harvest Festival & Oktoberfest" in September. All six streets are blocked off for each event and local restaurants cook outdoors. Most of the businesses in and around the circle are restaurants; health food, gastropub, pizza, mexican food, and diners. At Christmas, lights are strung from building to palm tree and palm tree to building. Many of the buildings around the circle have been deemed local landmarks, and the old overgrown trees have plenty of hearts with initials scratched in their bark. Pacific Bay is a close-knit community, and the circle is the meeting point. Canary Palm Estates Upscale neighborhood in north Pacific Bay. Median home price: §1.5M San Joaquin Beach Civic Center & City Hall The center for city management and administration. Some events are held here like the annual Taste of Los Reyes, the 4th of July City Block Party & BBQ, and the April 20th Smokeout for Freedom and Date Shake Festival. Further down is Grizzly Bear Park, packed on the weekends with kids sports. Little Manila An area of Serrano with with highest population of Philippine-born residents in the US Old Spanish Station At Picante St. and Los Reyes Rd. Pacific Bay and San Joaquin Beach Lots of drunk drivers on the 101 freeway... The Circle from another angle For more like this, check out my last CJ California 2: Thanks

Get a load of this little pond. There's a lot of coke bottles and cigarette butts in it.

You got it! Congrats! On the eve of 18 years since the release of SC3000... Without doubt, this isn't just about one individual file, but the landmark figure combined as a whole. In a way, this is a more significant milestone than total downloads, since after all, files are the driving force. While it's stating the obvious, without them, the STEX would merely be a desolate chamber of expectation. Instead, what has flourished through many years is the direct opposite: one of the largest and longest active exchanges for SimCity 4. This huge library has transcended the game to levels beyond people's wildest expectations, players and developers alike. To all the 2,793 authors, who have shared over 40GB's worth of content between the games, you are the sole reason for this achievement. It doesn't matter whether you've created a simple Money Tree, or BATted numerous 1,000ft skyscrapers. It doesn't matter whether an item has evident flaws, or is perfect in every way imaginable. It doesn't matter whether you've created one file, or 358 like the great @Pegasus. Each item is unique and special in its own right. They have together laid the very foundations for the community to grow and sustain for well over a decade. For this we are truly thankful. Maybe it won't reach infinity... But here's to the 20,001st file and beyond...

These are some of the relots that i have done and plan to release over this week. All of them except for Lidl arr ready now to upload, Lidl just needs some more work i have realised to fill in some blank spaces. I apologise for the rawness of the images