Cockatoo

The ICC eh? Well if there's one person I'd trust to pull that off, it’d be you. I wonder if it would be possible to have reflections of Bixels Harbourside on the towers left hand side? Here's just a little reference picture I found for you- doesn’t show much detail but gives a good look at the overall shape of the thing. And we’re finally gonna get your new The Bank of China... awesome! Can’t wait.

Originally posted by: T Wrecks The problem is that when I look at my plugins folder, what's missing most these days is medium-size apartment blocks and Chi+NY style buildings. By now we got tons of rowhouses, tons of single-family homes and mansions, tons of modernist skyscrapers, and thanks to you, masses of modern residential highrises. I think I need to pick a nice, mediocre German apartment block.quote> I've noticed this heaps when trying to re-create cities. That's why I started my little Hong Kong block project... and look at those pencil towers. I'd bet Bixel could make all three of them in under an hour with his hands tied behind his back using only his mind.... But seriously, the more gritty pencil towers, the better! Lets see how long it is between the time that he posts the picture and the time it’s released…

Wow... how did you do that! In all honesty that's one of the coolest city I've seen in the CJ section all year so far. Inspirational stuff, I'm really in awe, wish I could do that.

Originally posted by: jstriker Wow, this looks gorgeous like all the previous works! Colours and texture look very realistic. BTW, ever thought of BATing the Star Ferry Pier (the recently demolished one) and Queen's Pier?quote> Hmm, I've wanted someone to do that for a long time, really long time. I might have to give it a crack myself if nobody else wants to.

SPECIAL NOTICE: Before I start with the update, I’d like to thank all of you, my readers for taking the time to nominate me for the ’07 Trixie awards. It really does mean a lot to me to receive 6 nominations in just the CJ section alone for Best City Journal, Most Aesthetically Pleasing City, Awe Inspiring City, Most Realistic City Journal, Best Use of Custom Content in a CJ and Best Use of Added Graphics in a CJ. Unfortunately, Hong Kong didn’t win any of these awards but if you look at the CJ’s that did win you’d know why so I’m still over the moon to even be considered to win. Maybe next year eh? Anyways, on with the update. Over the past week I’ve been constructing the area around Hong Kong’s old and now un-used airport, Kai Tak. It was officially closed when Chap Lap Kok took over as the main airport in the 1990’s because Kai Tak only had one runway and would be well over capacity as Hong Kong continued to grow. Now days, It’s just a large construction site with a little of the old airport remaining. There are plans to build over the site but that hasn’t happened yet. One interesting feature of this airport was that the runway was built on a peninsular that stretched out into Hong Kong harbor, so that overgrown thing in my re-creation is the past site of the runway. Here’s the update: If you haven’t figured it out yet, click the pictures, their bigger than normal… Thanks, replies will be in the next update.

Well done Paul, Simfox and T-Wrecks! BAT of the year! Woo hoo! I'm thrilled that a HKABT work made BAT of the year! A bit of my nomination made it into the final thing too... And congrats to Hotdogs for taking out the prestigious Awe Inspiring City Award, very well deserved! And to everyone else, I’m sure this was a very successful Trixies for many members! And wow, I got one lol... didn't expect that and especially didn't expect to get it for what I did... Thanks anyway, I’m over the moon to win one! Oh and how could I forget Bixel, Highest overall quality in custom content, well ha, no surprises there! Well done! By the way, I think Dirk just changed the top banner as I refreshed this page, looking very cool!

Wow, It's about time Pegasus won one of these awards, long overdue in my opinion.

Bixel, thanks! And as for the banded box section, I'm still working on that. Scotty222, Damn it, sorry man. If I knew you had plans to do it, I wouldn't have done it. But your 3D modeling skills are far superior to mine so why don't you still give it a crack. Paulvmontfort, Strange, everyone else seems to think that the shape is spot on but I can see where your coming from. HONG KONG, Again you just saved my life with that shot of the roof, and yes I already had the floor plan. And on the marked picture don't worry, I've fixed the roof and that little thing hanging off the striped side tower is still to come. DragonAnime, I think I'm gonna stick with the texture I have now but thanks for the help anyways! The real life tower is incredibly reflective on a sunny day anyway. I've re-done the roof and fixed a few other problems. Apart from a few things left to do on the striped tower hanging off the right hand side I think the tower is done. Only have to do the base now... CLICK FOR FULL IMAGE

After hunting around for a window texture that matched the AIG tower and being un-successful, I decided to make a new one (from scratch). I tried to re-create the texture shown in the first picture of my last post (The sort of dull green-blue one) but hyped up with reflections like shown in some of the street level pictures given to me by HONG KONG. I NEED your honest opinion, is this better or worse than my first texture or do they both suck and I should try again. IMHO, I think this one will look suitable once the model and base are complete. Here are my results:

Wow, you have excellent Euro city building skills and I really do like the way you present your CJ with all the little text boxes on the images. All of the images are just so colorful and lively... fantastic job! I'll be taking a lot of inspiration from this CJ. And even though you defiantly deserve one don't you think that Trixie advertisement is a little... lol By the way, how did I never notice this CJ until now? What a great surprise I got when I found this.

HONG KONG: Thanks so much man! You're a life saver. Also, what do you think I should change? DA, I'm not really convinced that if I actually modeled all the little window frames and details on the tower body that it would actually look all that different. I know it's just a wrap around texture, but because the real tower is almost flat glass anyway, I think that if I can make a good texture, I can make it look close to the real thing with just a texture. And Bixel, on the subject of textures... HELP! Where do you get your textures for real life buildings from? I just made this in Paint Shop Pro from scratch (I mean a white background....) but I'm afraid this is about as good as I can do. Is there a website somewhere that offers textures for glass windows ect, (something I can modify a little to look like the glass on the AIG tower?) Thanks. And thanks to the rest of you for your nice and helpful comments.

Wow, that really is an awesome area you've got decked out there around the stadium, I'm impressed.

Oh my god... you should win a Trixie for that or something- the most pawnage to all other mosaics ever. Thanks very much, I'll take alot of inspiration from this one.

Get your transport networks planed out before you do ANYTHING. Then if you get them right using google earth then just fill in the correct buildings and away you go! It really is easy once you've got down the transport networks.

bigberta: Very realistic! 9/10 Really great work.

Originally posted by: cleaner475 no update for over 7 days, I'm hoping this is still a project as I really want it, good work so far its look great a weird building but the details are nice, Richardquote> Hmmm, I was going to keep the last week’s project a secret but I guess if I'm getting comments like then this... AIG tower, the mostly glass and steel 280 something Meter high (40 Floor) tower that is located right in the heart of Hong Kong's financial district. It’s probably best known for being that tower that has the rainbow lights running down the side in the nightly laser show. Here's what I've done so far: I know it's not perfect and I still have to do the base but it's a start: Here's the model so far... CLICK FOR FULL IMAGE

Well, until Cities Unlimited comes (maybe), SC4 is still the greatest city simulation game ever made and I'm 110% sure that until a more advanced game comes along, the SC4 journal has no reason to die out and I can say the same thing for custom content.

What a beautiful city! All of those green street trees really fit in, I should really get that mod! I'd really like to see that palce at night too, I'm sure it would look amazing.

connorc24: Nice effects! 8/10 Shadow_prophet: Yea, ghetto areas! Very well done and in my opinion the sun effects are great. 9/10 Shnigure: Realistic but a little small a bit boring. Still very good though so 7/10 wwentom1: You could have made that in about 8 clicks. Looks good but it's a little simple. 6/10 khoianh94: Nice, looks kinda similar to some of my cities, 7.5/10 (Because some of the buildings don't have night lights) Amerikaner: Personally I don't like the horizontal black stuff that you added in Photoshop but the city building is excellent! 9/10