Alien_397

Scotty222 and Jacky: Thanks guys, I kinda needed that. It's just nice to know sometimes someone cares. brtm2: Indeed too late on the track as I'd be rendering for another week if I decided to change them all now, but that's actually something I decided on from the beginning. If I tried to make them too much smaller, the lines would have all just blured together, particularly through the turns I'm afraid. So I chose to make sure they look clean rather than to scale. I love your description of that one field by the way, lol. It's one of them that came from a member over at SC4D, here's the sat. photo he posted. The one with the checkered endzones I wasn't planning on using in my lots seen here, but Travis will be releasing some lots largely using my fields and will have one just for that one.

Rather cool, way outta the realm of what would go into my region, but that's what's so cool about custom content. It allows people to make something specific to the area they are recreating, and this is an area that has been quite overlooked. The only thing I can say is that many of the textures, roof textures in particular, are a little flat. they would look much better with some gradients and weathering and/or gradients on them, but the models are looking great. Hope to see more, Chris

Well, I've almost given up posting this project here, as there has been little interest, so I've been continuing it at SC4D where it's been actually quite lively, but I'd like to show for any who've at least been watching(though not commenting) what I've got done so far. At the top of the first pic you'll see the original fields from the project, while the bottom half are the result of pics and feedback from folks over at SC4D that I'm quite satisfed with. Hope somebody finds this interesting. Chris

I appreciate everyone looking in on me here . I've been here and there, and a few places in between, and while I've been here, I've been working on the football field project, which keeps getting added to. I've got a bad tendancy to do that . Here's a quick teaser of something I started playing with tonight. This was really just testing out new textures and techniques, and once I get organized I'll have a lot more pictures to show where I'm going with this.

maddogmark: Watch the STEX over the next week, alright, maybe two. Here's the link for the thread https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2513.0 You could look up my thread for it here too, but no one really gave a d*** here, hence I've only continued it there.

Hi SCKid, glad you like it. None of it is ready for release yet, and I'm diligently trying to finish another project(see my post above) before I move on back to these. The fences and paths will be ready for upload probably within the next 2-3 weeks, but don't quote me on that. Chris

Love that beach, very cool.

That's why it's titled 'Late Night after the Game'

While I appreciate the credit smstevenms, that second to last one was Hiigarar's Hiigarar: Nice job again, my favorite part is the courthouse looking building with it's grounds around it that really helps break up the crowded streets around it. The subtle variation in buildings across different blocks gives it the feel of different districts, or like the buildings were built at different times. The streets could still use some life though, and It would look better with shadows turned on, really helps the depth of a photo 7.8/10 (I'm only rating one, as that is the theme of this thread) Crusin_King: Not bad for starting out. The harbor is well laid out, and I like the rail layout in it, There are certainly many more things that could be done with the area however. I'd watch what others do, maybe look over a few CJ's for inspiration as you develope your own style. 7/10 Here's something I cooked up in some free time(some photoshoping here by the way). Sorry if it's the stadium again, but my pictures kinda reflect what I'm working on since that's I generally have time to mess with. And yea, it's intentionally that dark. 'Late Night after the Game' Chris

Wow David, that's absolutely mind blowing. Some excellent work.

hmm... good a place as any

hmm, looks like you've grown Houma just a little bigger than in real life, just a little. Needs a couple of good bayous though to live up to the name sake. Good job on those universities by the way.

aaah, and have learn an all new browser? lol, what's the format of the image that it won't show up in ie?(some of us still us it you know) El Burro: That's cool, great use of color to give that gloomy look. 9.5/10 on a side note, I love your avatar, makes me smile everytime I see it Crusin King: like gabry said, as I believe he said it best. Oh, and welcome.

Aye, I've seen a couple of source pics I've looked at like that. The stadium Albriet is based off of is actually of a similair configuration, though I've modified it considerably, but I won't get to any more stadiums until I get a few things done with the RRP

Shadow Prophet: I like those tubes! really adds another dimesion to it. I'm a big fan of the second pic. Even while the roads are griddy(which I assume is a present limitation of the SimMars beta), the tube layout opens it up and gives a real sense of flow. Also, the repetition here seems to work, looks like something built hurriedly and methodically by settlers just trying to get something built for survival. 9/10 Gabry: Wow, as promised, and a fine start. I love the lights on the buildings in particular. The open, green filled layout really accentuates the tropical, touristy feel. The only thing that really hurts it(well a better water mod would make it stand out a little more perhaps, but not a big deal) is the jagged edges of the beach. still: 9.3/10 Hiigarar: have confidence hiigarar, the layout is really good. As has been said before, it's best to minimize the menu and remove the pause bar(I always take pictures at the slowest play mode, but there's a mod on the stex now that removes the pause frame when paused as well), and of course(not applicable here, just a reminder) with the grid turned off for the most professional appearance. Also (only constructive critisism to help you out ) notice that theirs no real life on the streets-no cars, no people. This is common where most of a city is plopped, but there are automata(or car if you will) generating lots that can give some life in these situations. I know Mikeseth has made a few, and there are some others besides, just look around. oh yea, got to jabbering and forgot to rate: 8.5/10 Dsrwhat: Pic 2 is nice, but not really inspiring, but given this is rate one image, I usually only rate one, and I'd like to discuss your first pic. I really like the terraforming(though Lord help these folks if they live in hurricane prone areas! lol) Great use of color(those lighted palms are classic) and the construction lends a bit of realism. The only thing I don't like is the middle island with the mansions. The green grass contrasts sharply with sand around it to make a bit of a patch work pattern, but that's not major. 8.6/10 Nerd_Guy: Aaaahhhh! I can't see your pic. not even the dreaded red 'X', just And here's my contribution: quote> then nothing The Sanderson: One thing I always lamented about vanilla SimCity was the lack of options with parks, but in this case you've used them to quite good effect, and while just Maxis stuff gets old over the course of a whole city, the quality of the individual pieces really is good and works well sometimes for making closer up settings, and this is a good example of that. Collectively: 8.7/10 Glenni: Always love to see your Bats, and this one is no exception. They fit in really well with Peg's OWW, did you lot that into it or is it just placed next to it? At any rate, it show's the model admirably, along with it's color variations, though as a stand alone picture it could have done without the repetition, but the scene is still nice. 8.3/10 AND, here's an old picture of mine, Albriet Stadium in the town of Meridian, with a little perspective change.

I've certainly considered it, though I'm curiose as to what format would work the best for everyone, or if there are enough people interested to justify a release of the textures and models(if you truly choose to call it that, simple rectangle with a UVW map.) Here's the present problem, I don't want to release .bmp's or .jpeg's as they'd be very hard to modify. I use an older version of JASC Paint Shop Pro (ver. 7), and thus all my layered textures(the real meat of this discussion) are in .psp format. I can save them to a Photoshop format, which would no doubt accomidate more people, but I haven't tested(and can't for that matter since I don't have it) how the saved files would work in photoshop, e.i. what information and layers would be carried over. So ultimately I'd like to get people's input on the matter of what type of file/files they'd like to see. Also I'd like someone to test it in photoshop to see how it would work. Until then, I can send out files to individual's as they request them and am more than happy to make adjustments and modifications. I've been working closely with Travis at SC4D in making several field textures for a football pack he's working on right now, some of which I've showed above. So just let me know what you have in mind. At any rate, I'm all but done at this point (last render just finished an hour ago , then redo a few Ltexts, and readme's ), so here's some, well, almost finalized pictures of my lot's I've put together. Any criticism is quite welcome and encouraged . These three are a prop family on one lot. Not a prop family, separate lot. And here's some new pictures of Albriet Stadium, which I haven't really showed in this thread yet, though you might have seen it around. It's kind of my baby. My first major Bat project. Finally about to be released . Till next time, Chris

Ah, finding good source pics, always such a pleasure....

Well I started contemplating ways of working these into fields a few weeks ago when I was doing the daigonal fillers. Of course doing pieces for every farm texture out there is quite impossible and unrealistic timewise. Let's take a straight diagonal piece with trasprent textures on one side, and one of the maxis lettuce fields on the other. There are actually two ways the lettuce field can run in relation to the fence, so that requires two lots, same thing if I put a straight ortho piece on this texture. That's already four lots for one field and very minimal use of my fences. As you start adding basic curved pieces and fields, the number of lots goes through the roof. Instead I'm contmplating making a couple of nondirectional, nonspecific textures(just dirt, no rows, etc.) that could work with multiple fields along with flora to soften those diagonal edges. But that's still a ways off right now. In case anyone's wondering why I hadn't been around here much, it's because I'm trying to finish an old project of mine from back in april real quick(and it is actually getting close ). You can see it at this link: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=37&threadid=87760&enterthread=y if you hadn't already. Or you can go here for a little more discussion on it(it's been kinda quite on ST guys) Chris

That's some nice improvement in just a few days. A note on the textures. While you followed Autovino's advice admirably, you've reflected a scene that's one story high in of itself across a much larger area. Essentially what he meant is that from the perspetive you see buildings from in SC4 you will see reflections of nearby buildings and ground on the windows instead of the sky as you'd see from the ground. You have to pay attention to the scale of those reflections, trying to keep it realistic in terms of the size of the building your making. Look around at a number of the better BAT's on the STEX and you'll find examples of this. It's all coming along nicely though. Chris

Well, not sure if anyone is really watching this, but seein's as I'd updated it a couple times at SC4D, I figured I post up a couple new pics here as well, starting with some ingame pics of the press box for bleachers. I'm finally starting to get some of the new fields into the game, which has me a little excited. I've added one more field to the prop family for my lots and updated the original one a little. It's had some more blue tones added, lightened a bit, and most importantly I backed the markings off a little bit to match in with the newer ones better(compare with the picture just above): And here's the Track and Field I just put together for new field(big time closeup) I think the colors compliment each other quite well on this one. Think I spent an hour just tweaking the orange in the track to be just right:

Alright, time to revive this thread folks. Having gotten back into the swing of things and taking a short break from the RRP, I'm trying to get this project ready for upload. Besides the lots I've discussed back in april here, I'm preparing a prop back that will include a number of additional fields for lotters to use. A number of them will be in a pack of lots Travis at SC4D is working on right now that will be released likely at the same time as my lots. Others will be there for anyone else to use in lot editor, or I might eventually release additional lots. At any rate, enough talk. Here's what's in the works: This one will actually be in my lots in a prop family with the ones already seen. One for Travis, with it's source pic: One based around Nomad's old field on the STEX: And an update of the $ Dirty texture: And finally an update on the Albriet Stadium field: Lastly(actually the last one this time) a press box for the metal bleachers: Last thing I'd like to say is that I can make custom fields for anyone if you get me a good RL source pic of what you've got in mind, doesn't take me too long. Chris

Alright, so I'm a day and a half behind my update on SC4D, The formatting's easier there. eh. Diagonal Fillers At Ennedi's suggestion, I've added some diagonal filler lots as shown below. At present they exist for the diagonal 1x1 pieces and the 2x1 curves in several different configurations, but I've got several more I would like to add. Slope Friendly Pieces Also, I think there was some confusion about the sloped pieces I'd made from where I'd showed them placed on level ground. This is something that would never be done in practice and was only shown there to give an idea of just what I'd done. So here's a better example, showing my pieces next to pieces following a more traditional approach used by many fences I've seen. While the 'one size fits all' traditional approach isn't bad in urban settings, I think it's more realistic in rural areas that it should try to follow the terrain as closely as possible. Basic Set Since my first post, I've filled in a few voids on the basic fence lots that I've come across or that others have pointed out, so here is a view of all the basic pieces, minus gates(which are all shown in a previous post): New Curves One thing that is not readily noticeable in this picture is the improvements made to the 2x1 curves and all the pieces built around them. I've done a better job of getting a smooth transition between these pieces into the next(thanks to Gaston for bringing this up), and have used the same approach to improve the 's' curves, plus I've added a diagonal 's' curve, which I've found to be really handy. Here's a picutre of the orignal, note how the angles just don't line up, it bows out a little bit: Here's the new curve, along with the diagonal 'S's And an example of these new and improved pieces in practice(plus an excellent illustration of why men should be sober when constructing fences ) As far as the gravel paths go, I've got a couple of transitions I need to get around to making, then they will be finished for all intents and purposes. Need to do list SO, here's a quick list(not necessarily complete) of what I have to complete before I can get this ready for release: 1. lot icons for new fence lots 2. additional diag filler lots 3. Correct positioning of diagonal gates This is a biggy as it will require rerendering all ten diagonal gate props 4. additional transition lots for gravel roads(to dirt farm roads, and possibly one or two other things) flora These will be released wholly separately when they are completed and are primarily on hold until the fences and paths are done. On that note, I have actually started with something after I accidentally got an interesting result and decided to improve upon it, but it's something I wanted to try to do from the beginning. There's never really been a good way to make a ditch before, that was slope tolerant. What I've done is combined the ideas of plobbable water and my recent experiments with flora. Here's the basic idea I was going for: And here's the results thus far: Let me know yall's thoughts on it so far, and any ideas on variations or improvements. Thanks everyone. Chris

Thanks darmok. Their coming along, though I'm still filling some things in and working on some technical issues of the slope tolerances. Big progress report tomorrow. Oh yea, and a quick picture to tide folks over Chris

mpol: Not entirely ingame if that's a clue ky72x: That's a really nice manufacturing area. Really avoids that typical cluttered appearance simcity tends to produce in industrial areas. 8.5/10

Shadow Prophet: I was thinking something that made more of a 'scene' than just shots of random square zoned areas. I do like the rough 'martain' terrain in the third shot, but the city could have been developed to better take advantage of it, too many hard edges in the zoning. Just think you can do much better with it. 6.5/10 As a side note, I do like the use of the tunnels in it The_Sanderson: It's a really cool complex and I like how the lots work with each other. Only problem really, as previously stated, is the unrealistic slopes the avenues take up to it, 8/10 SeaHawk Fan: Tough spot with that one over at SC4D, lol. It was a good pic it was up against. I think this one is nice, but it's just not spectacular. I guess maybe just too much of something we've seen before. But it still maintains a certain scenic look to it. 8.8/10 I guess while I'm here I'll post an older pic. This is downtown Meridian.