Given that generally, 25 squares equals 1 mile in SimCity 3000, I divided 5,280 ft (1 mile) by 25, which equals 211.2 ft. If you query a single tile, it will say it's 1 acre. One square acre equals 208.71 ft on all sides -- pretty close to my above calculation. The inaccurate thing here is that if you look at one of the low density residential houses, you will see that they take up the whole tile alone! To put this in perspective, a football field is 300 ft long from goal line to goal line. How many common suburban houses do you know of that almost stretch an entire football field?

See also
Generating custom terrain from bitmaps
Generating terrain from USGS DEM files
Simple terrain editing for dummies
Realistic terrain
Real terrain creation supplement
Terrain elements: a guide

(Originally published 17 August 2001.)

As you are probably aware, with SimCity 3000 we have ability to import 65x65, 129x129, 193x193, and 257x257 grayscale BMP format images into the game for use as new terrain to create new cities.

What you may not know is that GeneRally, Monster Truck Madness, Railroad Tycoon II, Tropico, and the old DOS games Terra Nova and Transport Tycoon Deluxe also have this image importing capability (Monster Truck Madness, Terra Nova, and Transport Tycoon Deluxe require third-party utilities), so the information in this article can be used for those games as well.

What this means to us is that any terrain creation or editing utility created for these games can also be used with SimCity 3000. There are also quite a few other utilities that can be used to generate completely new terrain, as well as create new terrain from USGS 7.5 minute DEM and NGDC real-world data.

The scope of this document is not for step-by-step instructions on actually creating these terrain images (nor for converting from one graphic format to another), but rather for links to the required utilities for creating them. Some of these utilities you may not have even known you could use with these games.

Here is a list of all of the freeware utilities that can be used with any of these games to create or edit BMP format images for importing as new terrains. Note that a few of these links may be outdated. If that is the case, simply do an Internet search for the specific utility.

BMP2SV0

Converts 256x256 BMP or RAW format images into Transport Tycoon Deluxe scenario files. Note that this utility does not have an option to export terrains to any standard image format, but is mentioned in this document because it also deals with terrain creation.

More information about BMP2SV0 can be found at http://www.geocities.com/c3p1models/bmp2sv0.html.

Daylon Leveller

Creates new terrain images with a variety of terrain tools with full 3D rendered views. Supports loading BMP format texture images to superimpose over the 3D rendered viewing window. Generated terrain images can be copied to the Windows clipboard, and then pasted into any image editing program.

More information about Daylon Leveller can be found at http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller.

Daylon Life

Cellular automata generator that creates random organic heightfields with a variety of terrain options, inspired by John Conway's "Game of Life" program. Generated terrain images can be copied to the Windows clipboard, and then pasted into any image editing program.

More information about Daylon Life can be found at http://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller/demo.htm.

DEM2BMP

Creates BMP terrain images from USGS 7.5 minute DEM real-world data.

DEM2BMP can be downloaded from http://www.sc3000.com/archives/dem2bmp.zip.

DEMtoBMP

Creates BMP terrain images from USGS 7.5 minute DEM real-world data.

More information about DEMtoBMP can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/5366/demtobmp.html.

DLG Viewer

Viewer for SDTS DLG, DLG-O, DRG, GeoTIFF DEM, GeoTIFF DOQ, USGS 7.5 Minute DEM, GTOPO30, TerrainBase, and SDTS DEM cartographic data.

More information about DLG Viewer can be found at http://mcmcweb.er.usgs.gov/viewers/dlg_view.html.

Information about using DLG Viewer to create PCX terrain images can be found at "The Red Mountain RRT2 Station" at http://www.thegrid.net/redmountain.

Firmament

Add-on plugin for Terragen (see below), allows importing USGS 7.5 minute DEM real-world data directly into the program.

More information about Firmament can be found at http://mclusky.cjb.net/firmament.

GeneRally Greyscaler Greymap Editor

Creates new BMP terrain images with a variety of terrain tools.

More information about GeneRally Greyscaler Greymap Editor can be found at http://www.pedra.altervista.org/genrally/grayse.htm.

GeneRally Height Map Editor

Creates new BMP terrain images with a variety of terrain tools, as well as viewing the resulting terrain in full rendered or wireframe 3D. Supports loading BMP format GeneRally land maps to superimpose over the 3D rendered viewing window, as well as directly loading GeneRally track files.

More information about GeneRally Height Map Editor can be found at http://www.mlynki.host.sk.

GeneRally Height Map Viewer

Java applet that displays any 256x256 grayscale GIF format terrain image in a moving 3D world enviroment in your web browser. Note that the height maps that are exported from GeneRally's track editor are 64x64 BMP format images, and must first be resampled or resized to 256x256 pixels, and then converted to GIF format using an image editing utility in order for them to work correctly with the viewer.

More information about GeneRally Height Map Viewer can be found at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/RichNagel/grstuff.htm.

GeneRally Terrain Maker

Creates new BMP random fractal terrain images with a variety of terrain options.

More information about GeneRally Terrain Maker can be found at http://home.iprimus.com.au/cragwolf/apps.html.

GeoVu

Creates PCX terrain images from NGDC real-world data.

Information about GeoVu and NGDC real-world data can be found at "The Riptrack" at http://riptrack.iwarp.com/tools.html. Note that NGDC data files for use with GeoVu can be a massive download.

SimCity 3000 Map Editor

Creates new BMP terrain images with a variety of terrain tools, including random fractal terrains.

More information about SimCity 3000 Map Editor can be found at http://www.tenermerx.com/sc3maped.

SimCity 3000 Terrain Editor

Creates new BMP terrain images with a variety of terrain tools, including random fractal terrains.

More information about SimCity 3000 Terrain Editor can be found at http://www.cyberwyre.com/Products/sc3te/index.html.

SimCity 3000 Unlimited Fractal Terrain Generator

Creates new BMP random fractal terrain images with a variety of terrain options.

More information about SimCity 3000 Unlimited Fractal Terrain Generator can be found at http://www.sc3000.com/files.

SV0 Creator

Converts any grayscale BMP, JPG, PNG, TGA, TIF, or RAW format images into Transport Tycoon Deluxe scenario files with a variety of terrain options. Note that this utility does not have an option to export terrains to any standard image format, but is mentioned in this document because it also deals with terrain creation.

More information about SV0 Creator can be found at http://www.geocities.com/c3p1models/sv0creator.html.

Terragen

Terrain rendering utility (similar to the commercial program Bryce). Creates new terrains that can be exported to BMP or RAW image format, or with full 3D rendered views.

More information about Terragen can be found at
http://www.terragen.de.

Terra Nova World Editor/Terra Nova Terrain Generator

Exports PCX terrain images of the maps from the game Terra Nova, and imports Terragen (see above) PCX or RAW format images.

More information about these utilities can be found at
http://www-wjp.cs.uni-sb.de/~jofis/tn/tnwehp.html and
http://www-wjp.cs.uni-sb.de/~jofis/tn/news.html.

Traxx (for Monster Truck Madness)

Creates new random fractal terrain images with a variety of terrain options. Generated terrain images can be copied to the Windows clipboard, and then pasted into any image editing program.

More information about Traxx can be found at http://malibuco.hostme.com/DriveToTraxx/traxx.html.

Sources for 7.5 Minute Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Data

Data for DEM2BMP or Firmament (FTP) ftp://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/DEM/7.5min.

Data for DEM2BMP or Firmament (WWW) http://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/DEM/7.5min.

Data for DEM2BMP or Firmament (Indexed map) http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/bin/maptest/coords=55.000000+-130.000000+20.000000+-65.000000/scale=24/type=dem/zoom=8.

Data for DEM2BMP or Firmament (Indexed map)
http://www.gisdatadepot.com/dem.

Data for DEMTOBMP or DLGVIEW (Indexed map) http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/glis/hyper/guide/1_dgr_demfig/index1m.html.

Have fun!

See also
Generating custom terrain from bitmaps
Generating terrain from USGS DEM files
Downloadable terrain editors
Terrain elements: a guide

A great, real-life addition to any downtown area is a convention center. There are currently many impressive ones, such as in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, to name a few. But SimCity doesn't include a convention center in its building collection, nor does it offer one as a reward. I'll show how you can build one very easily. (Note: Building this will not help your land value or anything like that. This is purely for aesthetic purposes of adding a realistic-looking component to your downtown area.)

First, make sure you have the "plop" cheat activated (see article Access all buildings cheat, #0094).

Set aside a 9x6 area in your city grid. Don't be afraid to close a few roads up in the process, as it is used in many real cities.

With the building list, choose "airport terminal." It may not sound like it'll work, but if you make sure the terminal building can be built with it's canopy in a straight line, parallel to one of your streets, it creates a realistic-looking facade for your convention center.

Next, choose the "airport terminal connector" building and place it in every other square of your 9x6 grid. While the terminal building works as your facade, these buildings work as the guts of your convention center.

You're not done yet, though. Bulldoze a 3x3 area of what you just put in and add a "hotel" to your complex. Some good options for creating a realistic-looking hotel include Villars Apartments, Comfort Towers, or go big with the 4x4 Brick Arms Apartments.

Next, add a lot of parking structures to the area around the center, as a normal convention center will need them. These can be surface lots or "parking garages", either will work.

Finally, to top the effect, add high-density commercial buildings, such as Kate Foundation, to the area surrounding your convention center. Sit back and admire the realistic-looking commerce center you've just created.

1. Place the Grand Central Station landmark 2 tiles away from the railway track.
2. Place a railway station in the 2 tiles left.
3. Place parks, fountains, etc., for beauty.
4. Connect the station with roads.
5. If you have a bus system, place a bus stop, too. Apply the same thing for the subway system (sub-to-rail station).

 For example:

x = Grand Central Station
y = railway station.
t = track
r = road
f = fountain
p = park
s = subway-to-rail station
b = bus stop

          r r r r r r r
          r x x x x x r
          r x x x x x r
          r x x x x x r
          r x x x x x r
          r x x x x x r                          
          r b y y p f r
          r s y y f p r
    t t t t t t t t t t t t t

See also
Building railyards
Build a useful and beautiful railway system

As we know, all cities need to have a softball complex for those of us who still believe we are 19, when we are really.....well, not 19. Build 4 Ballparks, leaving 2 tiles between each one, and 4 empty tiles in the middle, where you will have Fountains. Then, in between the Ballparks, zone for high-density residential. This will create your walkways, using the Gazebos and such.

BBBBDDBBBB      B=Ballpark
BBBBDDBBBB      F=Fountain
BBBBDDBBBB      D=Dense Residential
BBBBDDBBBB
DDDDFFDDDD
DDDDFFDDDD
BBBBDDBBBB
BBBBDDBBBB
BBBBDDBBBB
BBBBDDBBBB

The area around this will have your land value up to Astronomical. And it also creates a nice place for your Sims to have a little fun.

See also
Build a realistic-looking campus
Create a nice-looking school
Creating bike paths
Use the Amusement Park to diverisfy your skyline
Create a beach
Build a fountain park

To add a realistic touch to your villages in the farmlands on the outskirts of the city, you can build a dull hangout for festivities and dances. This requires the "building plop cheat".

Plop a row of 3 or 4 "Sea Walls", or make a T-shaped form with one sticking out. This will be your 'stage'. Put a "Seaport Pier Base" behind the it (optional).

For the 'dance floor', you can plop any of the tarmac-looking 1x1 units, such as "They Paved Paradise" or "Compact Only".

As a final touch, plop "Ben's Diner" next to the dance floor, where your hillbillie lovebirds can go for a dinner after a night out.

See also
Creating a farm country
Create a beach

Warning! This is an extremely expensive exercise without the "i am weak" and "plop" cheats! It has the advantage of moving the bad aura of your jails away from the Sims.

Create an offshore island using "Raise" and "Level" terrain tools. Make sure that you make it large enough for future needs. (I made mine about 15x25, with the long side facing the existing coast).

Plop a power supply and a couple of water towers on it and power lines to cover the island. Zone a seaport at one end, with a short road to a small industrial zone at the other (this will stop the seaport failing to work due to "poor transport to other zones"). Un-pause the simulation. When the piers appear, pause the simulation, and demolish all the zoned buildings except for the pier and its attached seawall. Dezone the seaport and the industrial zones.

Now, if you put your jails on the island, they will fill and empty as if they were in the city itself. You can add all sorts of detail using the "Plop" cheat. I built a larger island, and have the "Maximum Security Prison" on it, plus the two Alcatraz landmarks and half a dozen jails. You can surround the whole of the complex with the "Wall" segments from the Berlin scenario for added realism, added to by the "prisoner transfer boats that regularly call at the pier.

See also
Make a realistic prison
Build a very big wall
How to develop seaports

Wouldn't your city look great having a skiing slope, or even a whole resort? There are no special skiing features included in the game, so that needs a little bit of creativity:

• Create a nice slope or mountain, start building on a realistic height, where chance of enough snow is reasonable, for example at 1200 metres.
• Make it free of trees, use them just to border your ski runs (pistes).
• Create a lift by planting the power lines one by one, about three or four tiles separated from each other. Keep in thought that a ski lift is not always located just beside the runs, but sometimes crosses them, or stays in the woods, only neighbouring the runs at the beginning and the end.
• With the "All Building Cheat", you can choose the entrance and exit buildings, placing a shed or a restaurant.

Of course the reality cannot be driven to the maximum. You'll need a snowy terrain to make it more realistic, and skiers won't appear. Also the lift cabins or chairs aren't there. This doesn't mean that it's not realistic, considering that in the summer there is no snow, no skiers, and no cabins attached to the ropeway. At least, you'll have a nice-looking beginning of a new Innsbruck or Aspen.

See also
The beauty of trees
Make your mayor's house into a nice resort
Creating a national park
How to build a national park: The Robertian way
Build an observatory

Every city has a nice, private neighborhood. These communities also have very nice entrances and exits. Here is how to make one.

This requires the “building plop” cheat described in article Access all buildings cheat (#0094). Put two roads, one for the entrance, and one for the exit; make them around 4 tiles apart. Now use the building plop cheat to put some fences in the front of your entrance (make sure your road is going the right way as some of the fence parts aren’t in the plop list). After this, put a "Utility Muffin Research" close to the fences in the front for a guardhouse. Surround your UMR with deciduous trees (any size will do). Put green lawns in the remaining spaces between the roads. In past the lawns make the entrance and exit roads closer together, about 2 tiles between them. Fill the space between the roads with deciduous trees that are the same size.

Put an any-size block of "Camino de Verdes" along the entrance and exit roads (make sure they are the same length as the fences). Now, put some "Parque Aire Frescos" along the inner borders of your "Camino de Verdes". Then put deciduous trees, at their maximum density, along the outside borders of the entrance (remember, everything is symmetrical). Demolish one of the "Camino de Verdes" in the center and replace it with a "Gazebo" (it’s about two or three buildings down plop list from the "Parque Aire Fresco").

There are many different ways you can do this, be creative!

See also
Creating a wine country
Build a realistic-looking campus
How to build a nice golf course
How to build a nice vineyard or fruit farm

To create the park, first plop 4 Historic Statues (H) at the corners of a 4x4 box. Then in the center 2x2, place 4 fountains (F). Partially fill the remaining area of the 6x6 with plopped "Concrete and Trees" (C). Fill the remainder with plopped "Lawn in Concrete" (L). For Example:

    LCLLCC
    CHCLHL
    LCFFCL
    CCFFLC
    LHLCHC
    CLLLCL

Using other park items and plopped tiles, and different sizes and shapes for the area, there are infinite possibilities!

See also
Creating a national park
Creating bike paths
Build a softball complex

This is what I like to call a "Road Construction Project." You first must use the building "plop" cheat, then place the "1x1 dirt-looking industrial construction" (C) parallel to your 2-lane road (R), 2-tiles wide as shown here:

RCC
RCC
RCC
RCC
RCC

If you want a change after some time, transform this area into a "large boulevard" or 4-lane road like shown below:

RMR
RRR
RMR
RMR
RMR

Be sure to put crossover roads (R) in the median strip (M) so sims can get to the other side.

See also
Road aesthetics

1. Raise the terrain on outside edge of city.
2. Use "create surface water" and cover edge of raised terrain.
3. Level terrain back to normal height.
4. Now you will see a big "waterwall" but an impossible to remove wall. It is hard to explain so see for yourself!

See also
Build a very big wall
How to create forts as starter towns

Note: this requires the techniques described in the Knowledge Tree article #1018 "Build a very big wall", and the Seedy Knowledge Tree article #0926 "The starter town money trick". Please read those articles before continuing.

Step 1, build a really big wall around the city.

Step 2, create the inner fort.

Step 3, turn into a starter town.

Done.

See also
Build a very big wall
Build a wall around your city with surface water

Some possible uses for this wall are:

• a prison compound (as pictured above)
• a military base
• an enclosure for a nuclear meltdown area (because Sims are silly enough to think the wall will keep them safe!)
• sea walls, flood walls, and dikes
• city walls
• the Great Wall of China

Start by making stretch a highway that is 3-tiles wide (so build a highway, then build a second one overlapping it by 1 tile). Next, bulldoze the central strip of highway tiles leaving two strips of highway pieces. Finally, bulldoze out whichever of the two strips you do not want to keep. The remaining strip of highway pieces is your new wall!

Now to add a "gate" in the wall, follow the image below:

1. This is the strip of highway bits forming your wall. (The red pointer is just to indicate the viewing direction.)
2. Build one click's worth of highway as shown.
3. Build a road (or rail) into the side of the highway, one tile deep. This makes the gate.
4. (View is rotated 180-degrees.) Bulldoze the two extra highway bits, and continue the road (or rail). Note that although this side of the gate appears "closed", traffic will still travel through the wall.

Enjoy!

See also
Build pretty landscapes for any building
How to create forts as starter towns
Build a wall around your city with surface water
Build an island jail complex

To create a rail yard place roads over railroad tracks, thus preventing parallel sets of tracks from forming the default "spaghetti" of junctions. Build the "roaded" tracks first, and then build the plain tracks. This technique allows you to make convincing rail yards that appear to have concrete pads along the tracks. Many variations are possible with the size of the yard, the number of lines converging there, the shape of the yard at the ends, the placement of structures such as train stations and "engine houses", or the amount of concrete pads used (roads).

Note that vehicles and pedestrians will use the sections of road placed on the tracks. This creates some interesting animations and causes the trains to stop frequently.

I have no idea what effect these rail yards will have on transportation efficiency. I build them purely for aesthetics.

See also
Build a dream railway station
Transportation infrastructure

This is the companion article of the city, "Bigas Himpilan."

You have probably heard about how people in mountainous regions of eastern Asia grow rice by dividing the mountain faces into flat layers, or terraces. These structures, most of which are very ancient, are very beautiful and breathtaking, and can be recreated to a certain extent in SimCity 3000.

If you do not mind cheating, you can do this by plopping the rice on pre-terraced mountain slopes, but it is possible to do it without cheats. This article is about the non-plop method.

If you intend to do it without cheats, it is absolutely essential that you master farms first. Read the other Knowledge Tree articles on farms, then experiment with them on a flat surface.

If you're using SC3KU, set the building set to Asian. If you're using SC3K, try to install the BATPATCH from SimCity.com. If it works, use BAT to make some rice tiles to replace the wheat and ploughed fields. You can do custom textures, or just do rice by placing a flat field of 1x1 blocks and painting it with grass, then doing a rice paddy with water. If the patch won't install, pretend the rice is ready for harvesting and the water is very muddy, or something like that.

When you're ready, start thinking about what kind of terraces you want to build. The easiest ones are straight, but they tend to have less visual appeal than curved ones. If you do curved ones, corners can be a real pain because you need eight tiles of flat terrain to get a farm. Try to make any edges touching your neighbors straight right angles. I hadn't learned this when I did Bigas Himpilan, so the corners are really slanted in places.

Also, you'll need to decide on the width of the terraces - thick ones are easier because there will be less levels, but thin ones are more realistic, generally speaking.

If you want to start with a pre-formed mountain, you can do it that way, but I prefer to start with flat terrain. You could start with high terrain and work your way down, although I haven't tried that yet. In Bigas Himpilan I started with a flat island and worked my way up.

When you've decided what kind of terraces you want, what width you want, and whether you want to go down or up, start by laying a rough outline of trees over where you want to put your first terrace. Now go to the end you want to start from and zone the first farm. Place a dense residential area around somewhere, preferably at least ten tiles from the farms, with utilities and transportation. Build a tree barrier between it and the farms.

Place some trees around the zone. You might have to wait a while for a farm to appear, so save and reload the city to speed up the updater and get farms faster - thanks to Smack for this trick. Bulldoze any industry that appears.

When the farm appears, trim off the tiles you don't need, based on the tree outline, and remove any tiles that will get in the way of the next farm. You'll also want to remove any farm buildings unless you decide to build transportation to the terraces, which doesn't usually work very well. Now turn off trees and zoned buildings in the view and make all of the remaining tiles historical.

Keep building farms until you get to the end of the terrace. Then edit the terrain to create the next level. If you run out of cash, try the Starter Town trick (at the RTS Palace and in the city description). From here it's basically the same thing over and over until you're finished. From time to time, test whether all of the tiles are historical by saving the city, bulldozing everything, and looking for yellow tiles. If you find any, make them historical when you reload.

When you're done, try building a few farms at the base of the mountain. Then just leave the farm buildings.

Tips:

• If industrial demand drops, zoning a lot of supplied dense residential and waiting a few years should help.
• You may want to cover the slopes in trees or leave them - this is entirely personal preference.
• You can build roads to the rice, but I left them out because there are no half-tile dirt roads in the game.
• Crime will be hard to control unless you place police stations on the mountain. I replaced the ones in Bigas Himpilan with the 3x3 Grain Silos from the European tileset.
• When windmills are invented, use them to power any buildings beyond the flow of the power from the rice. You can replace these with tourism-related buildings if you want.
• Real rice paddies need water, and not from pipes (although I did water them with pipes in Bigas Himpilan). Usually, water is supplied by mountain springs. In Bigas Himpilan, I used the Geyser Park and Country Club as springs and tourist resorts, and made a small stream with waterfalls. This is entirely eye candy, except for the effect of having the buildings, but then, that's how it is with the rice terraces.

Have fun, experiment to your heart's content, and save often.

Introduction

This article assumes you have your real world terrain bitmap ready to go, freshly converted from the DEM file. If you don't have the BMP file, please refer to Real terrain part I: Get and convert the terrain (Knowledge Tree article #0166). All programs and assumptions mentioned in the introduction of Part I carry over to this article.

By now you're familiar with the requirements of the bitmap you're going to import into SimCity 3000. If you're not familiar with these basic requirements, please refer to "Generating custom terrain from bitmaps" (Knowledge Tree article #0057).

In the next step, we will play around with our bitmap and get familiar with its features, and discuss some of its limitations and how to get around these limitations. After we've made any basic modifications to the bitmap, we'll rotate and crop it to prepare it for importation. Finally, we'll actually import the map into SimCity 3000.

Step 4: tweak the bitmap

Because details are sometimes lost in the conversion process, or the USGS data we imported isn't complete or fully accurate, or the world just doesn't translate well to elevation maps in some cases, we'll have to look over our map and check it for accuracy. Are the lakes where they should be? Are they complete? Are there lines in our map that shouldn't be there? Is the elevation correct? These are just some of the issues we'll want to deal with. It might be that you won't have to deal with any of these. But just in case, this step in an intermediate step that should be considered. Whether or not you need to do anything during this step will depend on your map and how well you know the terrain.

Load the bitmap into your paint program. The very first thing you'll notice when you load your terrain is probably that it appears to be one solid color (refer to figure 1). Obviously, this doesn't help us much since we need to see the features of the terrain or we won't know what's what. In the case of St. Paul, the only visible color changes are of the Mississippi River basin. Depending on the elevation changes of your particular map, and the contrast/brightness of your monitor, you may see more varied colors or none at all.

Paint Shop Pro (and other programs) have tools that exaggerate the seams where colors (or shades of colors) change. This is what we'll want to do so that we can see the contour of our terrain. So here's what to do:

1. Make a clone of the bitmap you're working with. We don't want to "damage" the master bitmap.

2. Select the cloned bitmap and apply an edge enhance filter on it. With Paint Shop Pro 5, this is done by going to Image...Edge...Enhance. You may want to select Enhance More or perhaps just repeat the process until you can see contour (as seen in figure 2).

Figure 2.

As you can see, we can now see the contour of the map (figure 2). Every line essentially represents a change in elevation, or perhaps a man-made feature such as a road.

This is where things get tricky. If you look within the river basin, you'll see the outlines of the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, the river is broken up and not continuous. Also, there are a few lakes I know should be there, but they don't show up. Why? Because water doesn't always represent enough of an elevation change to be picked up by the USGS. Or at the very least, we lost detail during the conversion process. Whatever the case, we're going to have to reference an actual map to fill in the details such as lakes and missing parts of the river.

Figure 3.

This is where your painting skills and knowledge of your program come into play. You either have the skills and knowledge or you don't, and practice is the only way to obtain the skills you'll need. I can't possibly teach anyone how to detail a map, so if you're not familiar with your paint program or you're not skilled, you'll have to keep at it. In other words, don't come to me asking for help--I'll simply tell you what I just told you!

In figure 3, we're back at work on our master bitmap file (not the cloned, contoured map). I've lightened the entire map a bit to see things better. In addition, I've used the fill tool to exaggerate the river (by darkening the entire river so as to see its outline better), referencing the features on the contour map. By using the contour map, I was able to tell where the river was so that I could change its entire color on the master bitmap. Before changing the river's color, however, I made a note of the palette index value of the river. This is important to know because we'll need to change the river back to its original color where we're done tweaking. Through trial and error (i.e. using "undo" a lot) you should be able to exaggerate any terrain features you need to.

After filling in the river, I used a printed map for reference and drew in the missing parts of the river. I also drew in lakes where they're supposed to be. Note that the lakes or features you draw don't have to be perfect--you can tweak them later in the game itself.

Tip: always set your fill tolerance to 0 when filling in shades of color on your map. This way you won't flood the entire map with the same color.

Tip: for drawing in the correct elevations, you will want to have SC3000.COM's Elevation Palette loaded. This palette is downloadable from Knowledge Tree article #0057.

To summarize the above, we have:

• Chosen a recognizable feature of our map (in our case, the river).
• We made a note of the feature's color shade (i.e. palette index).
• We picked a darker color to fill the river in with so we could work with it.
• After modifying the river, we'll want to fill the river (or whatever feature we worked on) back in with its original color.

Step 5: adjust the map's elevation

There are two ways to adjust the elevation of our map. We can lighten or darken the image in our paint program, or we can just import the terrain immediately and then use cheat codes that raise or lower our entire map. For our purposes, we will adjust the map's color as best we can and perhaps tweak the map's elevation after we import.

Now that the map has been detailed, we're ready to adjust the map's overall elevation. This is essentially just another tweak, but it's pretty much necessary for any map you're going to import. The basic procedure is to chose a point on your map where you know what the elevation should be. For example, identifiable water on the map would be elevation zero (such as the sea, the ocean, or a river). Or maybe you know the middle of your map should be about 39 meters high. After you choose the desired elevation of a feature on the map, use the color picker tool to find the palette index of that feature as it is on the bitmap. Next, using the SC3000.COM Elevation Palette, locate the index value that matches the desired elevation. For example, if we chose 500 meters as our target elevation, we would want index 69. Now you'll want to compare the actual index value on the map with our desired index. The difference between the numbers represents the change we have to make to the map. If we want our chosen point on the map to be index 69 (500m) but the actual index on the map is 92, we need to darken the map to lower the terrain. If the actual index was, say, 49, we would want to lighten the map. We would stop adjusting the map's brightness when the index value was within 1 or 2 of our desired value (or preferably when the index values matched).

Tip: programs like Paint Shop Pro let you adjust how much to lighten or darken an image via a slider. You'll have to guess how much adjusting you'll need to do to match up your values.

Figure 4. Map is darkened to desired elevation.

The following step-by-step procedure explains how I set St. Paul's elevation:

1. First I chose the river as the feature I know the elevation for. I know the river's elevation should be zero.
2. Using the Elevation Palette, I find that the elevation of zero for water is palette index 30.
3. Now I use the color picker tool to find the index value of the river on the bitmap. The value turns out to be 46, so I'll have to darken the image a bit to lower the river to an index value of 30.
4. Using the brightness/contrast image filter in Paint Shop Pro, I guess how much to darken the image. I darken the image and then recheck the index value of the river. The value is now 25, which means I darkened it too much.
5. I undo the darken filter I applied, and then move the slider a little bit to the lighter side and re-apply the darken filter. After rechecking the river's new index value, I find that the river is at an index value of 31. This is a wee bit too high, but after subsequent tweaks, I find that I can't reach an exact value of 30. No big deal. I have two options: I can fill the river in manually with my fill tool so that the river is at index 30, or I can just import the terrain as-is and lower the elevation within SimCity 3000. I will opt for option 2, because it will be more precise.

Step 6: optionally rotating the map

This step is really up to you and will depend on how your city is structured. First of all, DEM's are oriented such that north points up toward the top edge of the bitmap. SimCity 3000's north, however, points toward the upper corner of the square map. This means that if you import the map as-is, true north will actually be northeast once imported into SimCity 3000. To make the map's true north equivalent to SimCity 3000's true north, you need to rotate your bitmap 45 degrees counterclockwise (i.e., 45 degrees to the left, or course!).

So do you want to rotate your map? It's entirely up to you. Most city streets in the US run north-south/east-west. Unfortunately, running streets true north in SimCity 3000 means you have to run your streets at an angle in SimCity 3000, which in turn means none of the buildings will face the streets in the game. If you leave the map as-is, however, you can run your streets based on your map's true north and have your buildings face the streets, which will look more realistic in the game.

St. Paul's city streets run northwest, which means I lucked out. Because of this, I can rotate my bitmap 45 degrees counterclockwise, making the bitmap's north match SimCity 3000's north. At the same time, my city streets will run in the correct direction and the buildings will face the streets. Of course, the streets that do run true north will have to be angled in SimCity 3000, but that's the price I pay. I chose to rotate my map so that I can have a truly accurate orientation and a realistic downtown area.

To rotate the map 45 degrees left in Paint Shop Pro:

1. Select Image...Rotate.
2. Click Left for the direction. For degrees, click Free and then type in 45.
3. Click OK.

Step 7: crop the map

The final step before importing the map into SimCity 3000 is to crop the map so that it fits into SimCity 3000. Actually, we could import the map as-is and have SimCity 3000 determine how to bring it in, but we don't have much control if we do that. The first step in cropping your map is to chose which size city you'll be importing into. Using the city size table, find the map size

Figure 5: map cropped and ready for import.

you want to use for your city. For most cities, you're probably going to want to use the largest map size unless you want to focus your city on a particular area. The bitmap size you're going to want will have one extra pixel of width on the side and bottom. For example, if you want to use the large map (256 tiles by 256 tiles), you will want your crop area to be 257 pixels by 257 pixels. The area you crop will depend on which area of the city you want to build upon. For large cities it's probably best to get the downtown area to be toward the center of the area you crop. Note that if you rotated the city, you may have empty space in your map. You can always fill this empty space in with the same color shade that surrounds the empty area.

After you've cropped the map, all you need to do is save it to disk. Then we'll be able to import it into SimCity 3000!

Step 7: importing the bitmap into SimCity 3000 and making final tweaks

Windows

1. Start a new city having the correct size (see aforementioned size chart).
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + C all at the same time. A text box pops up the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
3. Type "load terrain <path to your bitmap>" into the textbox. For example, "load terrain c:\bitmaps\coolcity.bmp".
4. If the file was found and was in the correct format, your terrain should load. Note that you may need to rotate the city before the lower right-hand corner map will update with your new terrain.

Macintosh (thanks to Christopher Ison)

1. Start a new city having the correct size (see aforementioned size chart).
2. Press CTRL + Open Apple + Shift + C all at the same time. A text box pops up in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
3. Type "load terrain <folder path to your bitmap>"
   Important: On the Mac, the path should be formatted as follows:
   Folder1:folder2:Folder3:...:file.bmp. Do not use drive letters (as in "C:\..."). Problems may arise if trying to use the desktop folder. Use proper spaces and punctuation.

If everything went according to plan, you should now see your realistic, relatively accurate RealCity terrain stretching in front of you. Congratulations! You can now start building if you're satisfied. However, if you don't see the river, lake, or ocean you wanted, or the elevation is off, or perhaps the entire city is flooded with water, you can further refine your map by increasing or decreasing the elevation of your map within SimCity 3000.

To adjust the elevation of your map, press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + C at the same time and type any of the necessary codes below into the text box:

• terrain ten up
• terrain one up
• terrain one down
• terrain ten down

The codes above are pretty self-explanatory. If you don't see the river in your city you were hoping for, you can slowly lower your terrain with "terrain one down" until your river bottom floods with water. Or, if your city is flooded, you can raise the terrain one elevation until your city is "out of the water". For more heavy duty moving, you can move the terrain up or down by ten elevations at a time. If you want truly accurate elevation, you can always use the query tool on any tile of your terrain and note its elevation. Then you can raise or lower the elevation to meet your needs. Keep in mind that one level of elevation in SimCity 3000 is 13 meters.

That's it. Well, give or take. You may want to further tweak your bitmap and re-import your terrain, or you may want to crop a different portion of your bitmap. Nobody said modeling your favorite city was easy. Experiment, practice, and practice some more. Then experiment again. And practice even more. You get the idea!

Before I close, I want to stress again that this article doesn't try to cover all the various software out there, and I realize everyone has their own style and ability. If nothing else, use this article as a stepping stone for your own methods. If by some miracle you were able to follow it step-by-step and successfully import your terrain, then bravo! But if you didn't achieve the results you were seeking, don't give in. Try it again and throw in your own twist. This is no easy task and it may take you many attempts. Just don't forget to have fun doing it.

This concludes Part II. For reference, see also Part I: Get and convert the terrain (Knowledge Tree article #0166).

See also
Generating custom terrain from bitmaps
Generating terrain from USGS DEM files
Real terrain importation Part I: Get & convert terrain
Terrain generation with Photoshop 4.0
Real terrain creation supplement

Introduction

SimCity 3000's ability to import grayscale bitmaps, which are, in effect, "elevation maps", has given SimMayors more power and flexibility than ever before when it comes to creating their own terrain. This ability to import bitmaps means that SimMayors can now model their SimCities from real world terrain with virtually pinpoint accuracy, thanks to the ability to convert USGS topography maps (or DEMs--Digital Elevation Models) to grayscale bitmaps, which in turn can be read by SimCity 3000 and translated into SimCity 3000 terrain.

Unfortunately, the process to import DEMs into SimCity 3000 is somewhat complex, and even with a step-by-step procedure, the task can be very demanding on the SimMayor. What this two part article does is go through the procedure step-by-step using an example city--St. Paul, MN. Along the way, it will provide tips and suggestions in hopes that the information can be used as a model for other applications.

In this article, it will be assumed that you have a basic understanding of the process of bitmap importation. If not, see the predecessor of this article, "Generating custom terrain from bitmaps" (Knowledge Tree article #0057). It also assumes that the end user has a paint program and is fairly skilled in using it. In other words, you can crop, rotate, lighten, and darken images with no problem. Also, for the purposes of this article, the program Paint Shop Pro 5 (available as downloadable shareware at http://www.jasc.com) will be used. Most other paint programs will work about the same, but the steps may be a little different.

In addition, this is but one method for importing and editing real world terrain. There are other DEM programs, paint programs, zip programs, and perhaps even other terrain sites to use. By no means does this article cover all of these things, but again--the goal is to give you a general procedure that can be applied to other programs. This article is simply restricted to certain programs and routines because they are tried and true. As more is learned about other methods and programs, this article will be updated (or other articles will complement it). So without further hesitation, let's get terraining!

Step 1: get the DEM to BMP program

Windows

Kahmyong Moon has put together a simple Windows console program (i.e. a DOS-like program) that reads ddf files (DEM files) and translates them into a BMP file. This is the program that we will use for this article.

1. Download dem2bmp.zip (42K). If you are reading this article from a printout, the full URL is: <http://www.sc3000.com/archives/dem2bmp.zip>.
2. At this point, I will suggest making a terrain directory on your hard drive to store all of your terrain files and such. For this article, I will make my directory on drive C: and call it "terrain".
3. Extract the dem2bmp.zip file to your terrain directory. You'll need WinZip (http://www.winzip.com) to extract this file.

Macintosh

1. Download and install MacDEM (thanks to Jeffrey Jakucyk for the link):
   http://www.treeswallow.com/macdem/index.html

Okay. Now you have a tool that converts DEM files to BMPs, so the next step is to get a DEM file to convert. After all, what good is a DEM program without DEMs?

Step 2: go and get the terrain

The first thing we have to do is go out and grab the terrain we want. In other words, we have to grab the correct DEM file from the USGS FTP site. As the name suggests, USGS is confined to storing only United States terrain, although you may be able to find similar governmental agencies in other countries that store similar data. The particular DEM files we'll be after are 7.5 minute DEMs. These files use a UTM projection and the data corresponds to approximately 1:25000 scale topographic quadrangles for the US regions. 7.5 minutes is equivalent to 75/600ths of a degree, which is about 5 miles. Coincidentally, SimCity 3000's largest map is 5 miles on a side. What this means is that the scale of these files is almost perfect for SimCity 3000 terrain.

So let's go get that terrain. There are two methods: the easy way and the manual way.

The easy way (US data only; thanks to Jerry Greene for this link!):

1. Point your Web browser to http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/bin/maptest/coords=55.000000+-130.000000+20.000000+-65.000000/scale=24/type=dem/zoom=8
2. Click your mouse on the desired locations on the map of the US. After continuing to zoom in the desired location, you will be presented with a directory listing link.
3. Once at the directory listing, download the .tar.gz file and save it to disk. Now skip down to "Uncompressing the .tar.gz file" on this page.

The manual way:

1. Point your Web browser to ftp://edcftp.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/DEM/7.5min/ (if that doesn't work, try this alternate method).
2. You should now see a directory listing. This is an alphabetical list of cities by first letter. So for example, the directory called "B" contains all cities in the US that start with the letter B. Click the appropriate letter for the city you're after. For this article, we will choose S because we're looking for Saint Paul, MN.
3. The next screen lists all the city directories that start with the letter you chose. The format is [city]_[state] where [state] is a 2-letter state abbreviation. So we must locate the city we're after. In our case, we will choose the directory "saint_paul_east_MN". Depending on the size of the city you choose, you may have to choose east, west, northeast, etc. We could have chosen "saint_paul_west_MN", but I know that I want east because I am well acquainted with St. Paul. It may take a few tries to locate the part of the city you want. For all practical purposes, just pick one. Later on if it turns out to be the wrong part of the city, you can repeat this process until you find the right piece.
4. After selecting the city directory we want, we should now see a link to a single file. The format of this file isn't important, but for you techies, it is as follows: [resolution in meters: 10 or 30].[level: 1 to 3].[version number].[unique file ID].tar.gz. Click this file to download it. I suggest saving it to your "terrain" directory. Just don't forget where you save it.
5. Since a .tar.gz file won't do us much good, we need to uncompress the file. This process is highlighted below.

Uncompressing the .tar.gz file

• Windows users: if you are unfamiliar with extracting .tar.gz files, you will want to refer to Knowledge Tree article #0148, "Uncompressing tar.gz files". Use that article to get to the point where you can see the contents of the DEM file archive you just downloaded.
• Mac users: the MacDem site provides instructions for extracting tar.gz files and also has links to applications to do the job. The MacDem is, again, at: http://www.treeswallow.com/macdem/index.html.
• Once you can see the content of the DEM archive you downloaded, you will want to extract only one of the files: the file "????CEL0.DDF" where ???? is the unique identifier for the file. This file is usually the largest file. In our case, the file was called "1039cel0.ddf". Extract the cel0.ddf file to your terrain directory. Or you can extract all files but ignore the rest. It's up to you.

Step 3: converting the terrain to bitmap

Now we're going to make use of that DEM2BMP program we set up earlier (or in the case of Mac users, the MacDEM program, although you will have to use this program on your own as I don't have any routines written up on it yet. If you are using MacDEM, skip down to the link at the bottom of this page). The steps below assume that the dem2bmp.exe program is located in the same directory as the .ddf DEM file. If both files aren't in the same directory, just move both into your terrain directory.

Windows users

1. Open an MS-DOS prompt window from within Windows. The MS-DOS prompt shortcut is usually located somewhere in your Start menu.
2. Navigate to your terrain directory or wherever dem2bmp.exe and your terrain file reside.
3. Once in the correct directory, type:

   dem2bmp [DEMfilename.ddf] [BMPfilename.bmp]

   and allow several moments for the process to complete. Ignore the scrolling gibberish on your screen. It will eventually stop.

   In our example, we would have typed
   "dem2bmp 1039cel0.ddf stpaul.bmp". This would create the file stpaul.bmp in our terrain directory. Note that a .tmp file will also be created. You can discard this file after the import routine is done.

Macintosh users

1. Open the DEM (.ddf file) with MacDem
2. Turn "Lighting" off.
3. Change the color map to gray.
4. Use the Export PICT option and save the DEM to a PICT file.
5. You may need to use a graphic converter to convert the PICT to a BMP file, if SimCity 3000 for Mac requires a BMP file.

You now have a BMP/PICT file suitable for editing. You could, in theory, load this BMP file directly into SimCity 3000, but there's some tweaking you'll likely have to do beforehand.

To continue the process, please continue on to Part II: Prepare & import the terrain (Knowledge Tree article #0167) where we will prep the file for importing into SimCity 3000. This concludes Part I.

See also
Generating custom terrain from bitmaps
Generating terrain from USGS DEM files
Real terrain importation Part II: Prepare & import terrain
Terrain generation with Photoshop 4.0
Real terrain importation & file edit tips (Macintosh only)
Real terrain creation supplement

SimCity 3000 doesn't ship with a workable terrain editor like SimCity 2000 did. You're basically limited to the landscape tools found on the SimCity 3000 toolbar. Unfortunately, these tools can only shape small amounts of land at a time, and boy are they expensive to use. While they are great for quick terrain modifications, they just don't cut it for large-scale terraforming.

No fear! SimCity 3000 comes with something even better than SimCity 2000's terrain editor and the not-so-powerful landscape tools in SimCity 3000. SimCity 3000 lets you "paint" your own terrain by importing special bitmaps. Using this method, you can make virtually any kind of terrain you want. This even includes sharp cliffs (almost vertical, in fact!), realistic volcanoes, rivers, or even faces! Or import USGS data and you have instant, real-world terrain.

The bitmap

First you need a bitmap that can be imported into SimCity 3000. Here are the requirements for the bitmap:

• Must be an 8-bit grayscale BMP file (can't be a GIF!)
• Must not contain any color (because the file is grayscale, of course!)

In addition, the size of the bitmap (its physical dimensions) should always be 1 pixel greater than the size of the city you're creating the terrain for. Here is a table:

You can use bitmaps of other sizes, but they may not fill up the entire map (if they're too small), or they will be truncated (if they're too big).

How does SimCity 3000 read the bitmap and generate the terrain? Well, think of each pixel in the bitmap representing a tile in SimCity 3000. In effect, it's a grid of the city. Varying shades of gray in the bitmap (ranging from white to black) are interpreted as certain elevation levels. For example, white pixels in the bitmap represent the highest possible level of terrain (2939 meters above water level) and black pixels represent the lowest possible level of terrain (391 meters below the water level). The lighter the shade of gray, the higher the elevation.

To elaborate, there are approximately 256 levels of elevation in SimCity 3000. Coincidentally, there are 256 shades of gray available in an 8-bit grayscale bitmap (BMP) file. Each of these shades of gray has an associated index value ranging from 0 to 255. The index value of 0 represents black (which in turn represents 391 meters below water level in SimCity 3000) and the index value of 255 represents white (2939 meters above water level in SimCity 3000). The index value of 30 represents the first level of water (water level), with values less than 30 representing greater depth. The index value of 31 represents the land level closest to water level, with values greater than 31 representing greater elevations.

To help you chose the correct elevation, SC3000.COM has developed an elevation palette that you can use while generating your bitmaps. All you need to do is load the image below into your paint program along with the bitmap you're working on, and use your "color picker" tool to select the appropriate color for the elevation you want. You can then use your paint program to apply this color to your bitmap with whatever paint tools you're using.

Save the GIF image above to disk for personal use A German version is also available (thanks to the SimCity 3000 Zone).

Load it up, Scotty!

Once you have created your bitmap, all that's left to do is to import the file into SimCity 3000:

Windows

1. Start a new city having the correct size (see aforementioned size chart).
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + C all at the same time. A text box pops up the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
3. Type "load terrain <path to your bitmap>" into the textbox. For example, "load terrain c:\bitmaps\coolcity.bmp".
4. If the file was found and was in the correct format, your terrain should load. Note that you may need to rotate the city before the lower right-hand corner map will update with your new terrain.

Macintosh (thanks to Christopher Ison)

1. Start a new city having the correct size (see aforementioned size chart).
2. Press Shift + Option + Apple + C all at the same time. A text box pops up in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
3. Type "load terrain <folder path to your bitmap>"
   Important: On the Mac, the path should be formatted as follows:
   Folder1:folder2:Folder3:...:file.bmp. Do not use drive letters (as in "C:\..."). Problems may arise if trying to use the desktop folder. Use proper spaces and punctuation.

Below are some bitmaps (created in Paint Shop Pro 5 using the paintbrush, soften, and smudge tool) and their resulting terrain in SimCity 3000. You can click on the images to download the BMP files for your own experimentation!

	=
	=

Additional tips

I used Paint Shop Pro 5.0 (available from http://www.jasc.com) to create the bitmaps. Almost any paint program will do as long as it will save 8-bit grayscale bitmaps. Note that this site does not support any paint program; it is up to you to be familiar with your program.

If you are using Paint Shop Pro 5, here are some pointers that will make creating bitmaps easier:

• The easiest way to start a new image suitable for SimCity 3000 is to go to New... from the File menu and then specify the appropriate information for your image: the width and height (referencing the chart that appeared earlier in this article), "96 DPI" for the resolution, black or white for the background color, and "Grayscale (8-bit)" for the image type.
• When saving the bitmap, be sure to save it as a Windows BMP file. The default save options for this file format should work fine (Windows format and RGB encoding).
• Use the freehand soften tool to smooth out your terrain, or the freehand smear tool to "push" terrain.
• When using the color picker tool to select a level of gray, Paint Shop Pro's color palette reports three index values for red, green, and blue (RGB values). These values will all read the same since the image is grayscale. So for example, it is safe to assume that RGB values of 31,31,31 would be equivalent to index value 31.

In closing, I would like to thank Sean Breazeal for getting me started in experimenting with SimCity 3000's terrain importation feature and providing the basic knowledge used to get this article going. You can visit Sean's terrain importation page here. I would also like to thank Yoda of the SimCity 3000 Zone for creating the German version of the SimCity 3000 Elevation Palette.

See also
What is a mile?
Get certain terrain types with SC3K terrain generator
Real terrain creation supplement
Generating terrain from USGS DEM files
Terrain editing (in German @ the SC3K Zone)
Real terrain importation Part I: Get & convert terrain
Real terrain importation Part II: Prepare & import terrain
Real terrain importation & file edit tips (Macintosh only)
Downloadable terrain editors
Simple terrain editing for dummies
Terrain importing utilities and resources
Notes on scale
Raising elevation by 352 meters

You can change any SimCity 2000 city or scenario into a SimCity 3000 city, starter town, or real-world terrain map. Just change to the extension of the SimCity 2000 file to the desired file type by using the chart below. After the file extension has been changed, the file can be loaded into SimCity 3000 as usual.

Note: SimCity 3000 files can't be opened with SimCity 2000, even if you rename them with SimCity 2000 file extensions.

Matt Brockman writes:

If you're like me, your SimCity 2000 cities have many powerlines placed over roads which connect one buidling to another. In SimCity 3000, power lines have a larger area of effect and placing powerlines across roads is not necessary if there are buildings directly on either side of the road.

The effect of these two facts is that a city imported from SimCity 2000 into SimCity 3000 will have a bunch of useless powerlines strung across roads. In SimCity 3000, these useless powerlines appear as a small group of power cables floating in mid-air above a road tile. I don't know whether or not these extra powerlines use up electricity needlessly or not, but they sure look bad. You will probably want to get rid of them.

To get rid of these extraneous powerlines, you will have to either edit them out before importing the city or after importing them. If you wait to get rid of these powerlines after importing the city, you'll have to bulldoze the road tile underneath them and then rebuild the road.

One tip when bulldozing all of those road tiles with powerlines above them: be careful. The isometric perspective can make you think that you're aiming your bulldozer on a powerline and only too late do you realize that you've destroyed a hospital or school. When bulldozing, you'll know when your aiming is on target when the powerlines that you want to get rid of will turn light blue, indicating that they're selected. With a little patience, the skies above your roadways will be clean.

See also
Importing cities from SimCity 2000

First of all, to import SimCity 2000 cities into SimCity 3000, simply select "Load City" from the "Change Settings & Exit" menu of the toolbar. Locate your SimCity 2000 city and load it like you would a SimCity 3000 city.

Once your city is loaded, you'll want to do some repair work. Here are some tips by fellow SimMayor Kevin Gridiron:

• If you have SC2000 Urban Renewal Kit, you can save your city funds by editing your old cities before importing them into SimCity 3000.
• It is suggested that you convert all water pumps located away from a fresh water source into water towers.
• Destroy all road inclines not on a natural surfaces (these will not import into SimCity 3000).
• Since highways will not import, destroy all highways and then replace the roads that cross them. There should be enough space to lay new highways in the space of the old ones once you're in SimCity 3000. Just be sure to make room for the larger on-ramps.
• If your city has over 100,000 people, clear space for rewards such as the Stock Exchange, Theme Park, Mega Mall and Performing Arts Center. These rewards will be available almost as soon as you import your city.
• Make sure you have enough space to handle garbage.

For more information on importing SimCity 2000 cities, see the reference card that came with your software.

See also
Additional SimCity 2000 to 3000 import tips

Whenever I want to shoot for the stars and build a nice fat city, there is nothing more frustrating than forgetting to turn off disasters and having it all burn down. Or when a scenario calls for quick fire control and the fire won't stop spreading.

The advice I give should work across all platforms, but best whenever you can pause and edit the city at the same time.

Whenever you hear the proverbial boom, or crash sound, follow these steps:

1. Pause (if you can't, change speed to the slowest possible)
2. Demolish all roads, and buildings immediately surrounding your fire.
3. Make a river surrounding your fire not leaving any open spaces for fire to escape.
4. Turn up the speed to its fastest setting and wait for it to burn out.
5. You could either leave your island, or raise/lower terrain, then level it out to regain your precious real estate.

Have you ever seen a scenario city that made you say "I wish I could have that city to play with, but without the disaster/scenario?"

Well, you can. Simply copy the scenario file and change the file extension (.scn) to ".sc2" (without the quotes).

I suggest you try it with Silicon Valley. It makes over 100,000 (I think) a year!

See also
How to skip scenario disasters
Make your own scenario

If you want your sims to give you a parade (not really much benefits but it means they are happy) then here is one of many ways.

Create your terrain like this:

1. Everything must be flat.
2. Have an ocean.
3. Reduce your shore line to 4 or 5 tile rows wide on it's side.
4. Create forests everywhere you can.
5. Make a large river with many extensions of smaller rivers going outwards, a very watery terrain but make sure you still have much building space.
6. You should have an island effect, many little or a few big islands.
7. Start building your city.
8. Keep industrial sections small.
9. Leave the occasional square(s) free and plant as many trees on them as you can.
10. Build at least two parks on each island.
11. Have all of the islands attached with the most costly bridges.
12. Power your city with a fusion power plant.
13. Don't have a military base.
14. Make sure everyone has power and water.
15. You'll have a parade in no time.

Of course I just planned out a city for you in some respects and taken the fun out of it. This is just one example, basically just build a city that you would want to live in.

See also
Boost mayoral rating

Want to boost your mayoral rating? Read all the newspapers. Your sims may even throw you a spontaneous parade!

See also
Have a parade

Use a highway to mark where you desire your fountain, bulldoze it and make a three-tile, L shaped pond inside where the highway was, with the center tile being on the to-be fountain. Build a "bridge" of some sort from one end of the pond to the center. If you did it right, the effect should be strange. Clear the "bridge" and build a piece of highway on the flat tile, clear the highway and put water on the slanted tile.

This may be more of a "cheat" than a trick, but at any rate, here's how to prevent the "real" disaster from occuring in disaster-realted scenarios (this trick has not been 100% verified to work):

When you start a scenario, move your cursor over the speed menu and press enter/return key immediately following clicking your main mouse button. Then go to the disaster menu and select fire. After you put out the fire, the original disaster won't even occur.

See also
Have a scenario city without the scenario

Getting rid of fire is easy! Just lower the burning terrain to the water level! This could be destructive, but it's better than not having a fire station and the fire burning out your entire city! From Ashton Bennett: Just bulldoze the buildings and structures around the fire. This creates a "fire break". Then just let 'er burn and rebuild.

Before proceeding, you must have ResEdit, downloadable from www.download.com.

1. Pick a city that you want to make a scenario of. The best is to have a city which covers the whole map.
2. Choose "GET FILE/FOLDER INFO" and pick your city.
3. Change CITY to SCEN, nothing more.
4. Close ResEdit. You will see that the icon has changed to a scenario icon.
5. Open a scenario with ResEdit (from your SimCity 2000 CD). Make sure to user "OPEN" and not "GET FILE/FOLDER INFO".
6. Copy all information by selecting "Select all" from the "Edit" menu and "Copy".
7. Open your city with ResEdit, and once again selecting OPEN and picking up your city. You should have two windows opened now.
8. Your computer will make a fork for it, so choose OK. Paste (from the Edit menu) in your information into your city within ResEdit.

   Now it's time to mix.

9. Open PICT by double clicking. Double click on the picture. Copy the picture to your painting program, and draw a tiny scene for your scenario, just like the other tiny pictures you can see when you open scenarios.
10. Open the SCEN "button". Open the text "button". It should look something like this: "Disaster type: 7". It continues with location XY and, city size goal and more.
11. Now, the number of disasters in the menu in SimCity 2000 is 8. So I think number 1 is Fire, Earthquake 5 etc. Now listen up! In the instruction book of SimCity 2000, it says that there would be some disasters you would see later with time. So I'm not going to tell what other disasters there is for numbers, but I can say that 9 is Nuclear Meltdown, so you have to have a nuclear power plant to make this work.
12. Change your city goal to what you want somebody to reach. You can change how long time that person has get and more.
13. Now we have came to the last IMPORTANT "Button". It's named TEXT. Open it. There should be two "text buttons". Open the first one. This is the short description of your scenario which you can see when you're going to choose a scenario. The next "text button" is the long description that will appear when you open your city.

If you don't understand what I'm talking about, you will after you have learned to use ResEdit. Give it some time!

See also
Have a scenario city without the scenario