dresik

Hi, Welcome to my BAT corner where I’d like post my projects before uploading. I’m newbie when it comes to the 3D modeling so I may need some help at the start.

Hi, Here is a random screenshot from the testing in the game. I'm still not sure about the scale. Notice the 2 storey house on the left looks tiny compared to my pub. On the other side the Maxis little shop on the right looks about the same size but it has only ground floor. Is it like this with every Maxis building that commercial buildings are bigger than residential? I will be on vacation next week so I wont rush this to the STEX, I will finish the house when I come back and after that I'm looking forward to do some more projects.

Hi, Thanks for all the help. I've made a few changes yesterday thanks to your advice. 1. I've used ILL Tonkso's roof texuture and it's brilliant. Thanks! 2. I've scaled the building up a bit just like Jasoncw advised. 3. I've adjusted the LODs so the building is centered now. 4. Thanks to that I have been able to fit it to 1x1 tile. 5. I've made small holes in the chimneys so they actually look like chimneys. here is a PNG version - link And JPEG is here, sorry about the quality, I dont know how to make good quality Jpegs: It is just a screenshot from the Lot Editor, I will test it in the game if I have time for it today. I'm bit afraid it will be small compared to other buildings. ILL Tonkso: Thanks for the texture, it is great. patriots_1228: I absolutely agree with you, I'm in no rush to upload on the STEX before the house is complete. Good idea to change the occupant size, right now I'm still reading the tutorials so everything that has to be done after rendering is quite new for me. I will download the sc4tool. Thanks! jacqulina: That will be great to see it in your CJ, do you have some suggestions how it should look when finished? I mean for example the size 1x1 or 1x2, or growth stage or some special props around the building... Mr. Glamazon: I think when finished I will make it 1x1 without cars. Some people use custom car models so I dont want to use too much of the default maxis props. And I also dont want to let sims drive drunken when leaving the pub Jasoncw: Thanks, I adjusted the LODs and it is allright now. I also scaled the model a bit. Next time I will keep this in mind. I will thest the scale in the game today if it is underscaled I will try to correct it... cleaner475: Cheers.

Here is my first model I’m currently working on. It’s a small pub found in the Irish town Kilkenny. It is nothing special but I’m still learning so I wanted to start with something simple before advancing to the bigger projects. Here is the original picture: And this is what I have done so far - link. If you cannot see the picture here is JPG version, but much worse quality than the PNG: The model is far from finished, only the front facade is done so far and when finished I plan to make it on 1x1 tile so this is just a provisional lot. I also plan to do some nightlights. I will do some more details and the other sides of the building, but I’ve encountered couple problems already. The main problem I have is that I can’t fit the building into the centre of the camera and the centre of the lot in the same time. The result is either that I get only a piece of the building rendered or I get the model right but not in the centre so can’t fit the building into the 1x1 lot. I’m sure there is an answer somewhere in the tutorials so I will keep searching and reading but maybe someone more experienced could help. I also wanted to ask for any suggestions, this is my first BAT so any input is welcome. I wonder if the scale is right, maybe I could make the house higher – currently each floor has 3m. Another thing is the details. I noticed that when rendered and imported into the game, no one will be able to read the sign “Kilkenny house” or the Guinness banner or see the details of the flowers in the windows. Is it worth modeling it or shall I focus more on the roof as this will be the most visible part in the game? And what should the stats be? I think there could be 4-5 CS$ jobs but I have no idea about the others. How about the stage? Is it too big for stage 1? Thanks for any help and I hope I will be able to post about a progress soon.

Hi, Welcome to NEW DUBLIN city journal. I started plying SC4 just recently, few weeks ago I came across Simtropolis. Then I spent a week downloading from STEX and reading tutorials on forum. What inspired me at most were Gascooker's beautiful UK style houses so I decided to build a UK style town using them. As I used to live in Dublin (and I like the city), I decided to try to create my own version of this city. I know Dublin is not UK but I think I can still use Gascooker’s UK style stuff to build a nice Irish city without upsetting any Irish Simtropolitans. It is still a game at the end. Latest screenshot: The Region Before I started, I’ve made some preparation for making a Dublin-like region. Mainly I’ve been studying maps, here's the one I found most useful: First, I created a scaled Dublin region map. I have limited hardware on my laptop so I decided to have just one big city 5x5 with small 1x1 around it as huge regions would probably bring my machine to the boiling point. Then I spent 2 days digging waterfront using Smoncrie's hole digging lots into a Dublin-like shaped bay. Pity I haven’t done any screenshots, could be fun for you guys to see how much work that was. You can check the screenshot of the region just for overview. Then I made few cliffs (mainly on Howth peninsula) and gentle hills around the city, small island near Dalkey, Bull Island beach, few trees ant the map was ready. The plan is to build the city in the center 5x5 map and in future I can build suburbs like Malahide, Swords, Blanchardstown or Bray on the small 1x1 tiles around. [B]After the map was done I was ready for the challenge to build the New Dublin. Construction journal of New Dublin A snapshot from construction with my notes on it: New Dubin was founded on 5th June 2007 and the elected (ok maybe not) Mayor Mr.Ben O’Stuller (that’s me hehe) started his hard work to bring the happy Irish Sims to the new capital. Mr.O’Stuller received some initial funding grant to kick start the city – I have intention to build the best possible looking city I can build and to have fun with it so I cheated some starting money for the start (800000+ I think I’ll need some more for the port and Guinness Brewery), however there are no additional funding grants to be expected for the Mayor after the initial grant is depleted – I hope my city will work without cheats once is built. For the start of planning I've decided to try to copy the Dublin transit system, consisting of: DART commuters - passenger trainLUAS tram - glr Dublin buses Freight trains to port M50 highway around Dublin. I'll probably leave the Dublin Port Tunnel out as I'm only few meters above sea level in my game. As an addition to the existing transit In Dublin I'll make an extension of LUAS glr routes to make the city more interconnected. It is in compliance with reality as the city authorities also plan to extend the Luas network in future. I found an useful map of the train and tram routes, with planned extensions in it: As a next thing I've made a list of what I want from real Dublin in my game city. Few things that I’m clear how I want to build them: The Spire - Blam landmark by glenni - thanx O’Connell Street, Grafton Street, Henry Street - I plan to us UK high street lots by gascooker and barbyw Liffey & Canals - BSC brick canals by Simgoober The Port - I'll use BSC Industrial waterfronts and some other lots, lots of credit to emilin - Building a port - the hard way tutorial Poolbeg Power plant - just a normal Maxis gas plant IFSC - A complex of office and residential buildings around canal. Grand Canal Plaza - 3 office buildings – A must build place for me as I used to work there. Howth Fishing Harbor - Somi's fishing harbor Council Houses – Chavs paradise by ILL Tonkso and 50s Residential Estates by andreas roth Lansdowne Road Stadium – I searched STEX stadiums and I think the best will be to use the lovely Highbury stadium by franz ferdinand Other city features yet to decide how to build them or what lots to use: Dublin Castle Connolly Station, Pearse Station, Heuston Station Phoenix Park Croke Park Stadium Trinity College University Campus Guinness Brewery St Stephens Green park Christchurch St Patrick’s Cathedral Clontarf Promenade - some nice waterfront Bull Island Beach - some nice beach Dun Laoghaire Marina & Port Liffey valley shopping park Dundrum Shopping park Dublin Airport Botanic Gardens St.James's Hospital Some Golf Courses *the list is still growing so I wonder how will all shape up. Early stage construction journal: I started the construction the hard way – from the city centre. 8.6.07 First days: With the game paused, I plan to build a small part of the city centre before enabling first sims to move in. First I shaped The Port and surrounding areas – Liffey banks, IFSC, Grand Canal Dock. Then I planned rail (DART) connection From Howth – Connoly – Pearse – Grand Canal Dock – To Bray with interchanges to GLR (LUAS) at Pearse and Connoly. The rail connection took me two days to figure out how each track will go as it is a complicated Passenger Rail, Elrail, Glr & Freight rail system built around canals, roads, river and buildings. I wanted to make it perfect so I used different stations, transitions, and crossings to find out what will suit each place at most. For example I changed the old Pearse station for new modern Eastland Grand rail+glr interchange station as I extended the existing Luas line to Pearse. Other problems I’ve been cracking was elevated rail to normal rail changes (not very easy in high density city centre) road crossings under elevated rails, and avoiding using elevated rails on tracks that need to be freight enabled. Maybe I’ll write about my early transport building problems later, when I’ll actually see if it works. 11.6.07 Construction continues: After zoning first neibourhoods, I've let first residents move in. Then I finished the port so they have a job. Then my attention turned into finishing the river Liffey and canals. Southern Grand Canal was without problems, the harder part was northern Royal Canal beacuse I wanted to have railway next to it. First I made the rail on a elevated hill/embankment with road crossings as underpasses but then I realised it takes a whole 7 tiles with the canal,banks and rail so I decided to build the rail on ground and roads crossing over using the NAM modular stuff. After the canals were finished I started laying roads in the city centre. This was quite difficult because I wanted to keep the main streets in compliance with reality but I had to fit it somehow to the game grid. Then I started laying glr tracks but I've made a little progress as the game tends to crash when using NAM modular stuff. 12.6.07 Progress made After numerous game crashes the brave Irish,Polish and Latvian construction workers have finally finished both lines of Glr-Luas tracks in the city centre and the happy citizens of New Dublin can enjoy travelling with this new modern mass transit system. When this was done the mayor O'Stuller turned his attention into two important city features: Trinity College campus and finally the long awaited Guinness Brewery. You can read more and see screenshots in todays reply. 13.6.07 Getting shape After huge technical issues, caused by some new stuff in plugins folder and reinstaling the game I managed to get the Chicago tilest mod working (didn't work before reinstal). Thanks to this I'll be able to grow a beatiful custom style city. You may see how it is shaping up in the screenshots. I've zoned some more of the city centre and the population reached 30000. The city centre is allmost all filled now altough there is still huge amount of work to be done. I have to focus on growing the right stuff on some particullar streets (Henry,Grafton,Temple Bar) and not forget eye candy as well. The next big project could be the Phoenix Park. 19.6.07 Early Phase finished After adding St.Stephens Green, Phoenix Park, Dublin Castle and few other things and after the population reached 50000 I focused on city functions like budget, civics and transport. Now the city centre is allmost finished and the developement can progress to another stage. City development plan: The development plan for next stage includes: Adding some suburbs: Bray, Malahide, Lucan, Liffey Valley, Swords, Blanchardstown etc... Adding infrastructure: M50 motorway, Rail connections to Bray and Malahide, Airport, Dun Laoghaire Port Developing the city: Adding districts like Clontarf, Blackrock, Dundrum, Howth, Finglas Hope you like the start. I will be posting construction journals about next stages in later replies. If you have any suggestions please post.

Hi, Finally I have some time to update my CJ. Sim_Air: Thanx, I do enjoy it very much, it's only a lack of time. Schulmanator,jacqulina,cleaner475: Thanks, I will try to get through all the tutorials and then finish my first contribution to STEX. Might take some time though. bob.ie: Hi, thats great, another Dubliner is always welcome in Simtropolis. I wonder what do you mean "to see that as a top download". If you mean to upload the whole city somehow for others to play with, I wouldn't have a problem with that but unfortunately the dependancy list would be endless due to the number of custom content I used. pipishere: Thank you too. Today I prepared an update dedicated to the wonderful suburban town: BRAY Bray is a busy urban centre and seaside town, situated about 20 km south of Dublin on the eastern coast. The town is home for many who commute to Dublin by car or rail, is a market town for the surrounding area and still attracts tourists particularly from Dublin and at weekends. The town straddles the Dublin-Wicklow border, with a portion of the northern suburbs situated in County Dublin. The River Dargle enters the sea here, from a source near Kippure, in the Wicklow Mountains. The town is popular with visitors particularly from Dublin who come to enjoy the beach, the amusements, ice creams and fast food. Bray Head is the situated at the southern end of the promenade and a well worn track leads to the summit. The coastal railway line continues south from Bray along the seaward slopes of Bray Head. At the summit of Bray Head is a large concrete cross, visible from the famous Victorian promenade, which is regularly walked by locals and visitors. The Dublin & Kingstown Railway, the first in Ireland, opened in 1834 and was extended as far as Bray in 1855. With the railway the town grew to become the largest Irish seaside resort. Nowdays Bray is on the southern end of the DART Rail Network and also on the mainline Iarnród Éireann Rail Network which connects Dublin city centre on the north and Rosslare Europort on the south. There are four bus companies which pass through Bray; Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, Finnegan's Bray and the Glendalough Bus. There are also plans to extend the Luas green line to Bray. Today, Bray is a vibrant holiday resort and boasts fine hotels and guesthouse accommodation, shops, restaurants and evening entertainment. The town also plays host to a number of high profile festival events. It has a safe beach of sand and shingle to walk on, which is over 1.6 km (1 mi) long, fronted by a spacious esplanade. The scene is dominated by Bray Head, which rises steeply (241 m, 790 ft) above the sea, affording views of mountains and sea. Bray makes an ideal base for walkers, ramblers and strollers of all ages. Walkers can join the many locals who stroll the mile long promenade which stretches from the harbour to Bray Head at the southern end of the promenade from which a well worn track leads to the summit. Also very popular with walkers is the 7 km Cliff Walk along Bray Head to Greystones. The annual Bray Summerfest is the lead tourism event in the town. Held over six weeks in July and August each year, Bray Summerfest includes over 100 free entertainment events, including live music, markets, sporting entertainment, carnivals, and family fun. In 2006, over 60,000 visitors attended the main Bray Summerfest weekend in mid-July. Bray also hosts one of the largest carnival and festival events to celebrate the annual St Patrick's holiday. The Bray St Patrick's Carnival & Parade is presented by Bray & District Chamber and is a five-day festival of carnival fun, parades, and live entertainment. Bray hosts an annual international jazz festival in a weekend in May. Other attractions in Bray include the Old Courthouse (1841), Victorian seafront and Bray harbour (1891), St Paul's Church (1609) and Bray Town Hall (1881). Bray is home to Ireland's only dedicated film studios, Ardmore Studios. That's all for today, I will be looking forward for posting more.

Hello, thanks for all the lovely comments Unfortunatelly there will be no update this week as I had no time to play the game and build anything new. I'm really sorry for no update but I have a good excuse - I've started to try to make my own buildings. So far, I'm only going through the tutorials and playing with GMax. I will see if I'll be able to create anything usefull. If yes, maybe I'll create something nice to share with you guys in the future. But that's a long way to go and I really have barely some free time so dont expect any fast progress. Maybe you'd like to check my first model, I'm learning on the go so this is my first (yet unfinished)creation. This is the original, I chose it because it is simple. A nice little Irish pub. I will probably have to remodel and retexture everything if I'd like to use it in SC but this is just for me to learn how the GMax works. I dont have the BAT installed on this computer so sorry - no 3D rendered view. If I will see that my modelling is going somewhere I'll create a new thread as a support forum. New Dublin will continue, although I'm not sure If I'll be able to post regular update every week. Once again sorry, I hope I'll be able to post something next week.

Welcome to last update this week, jayo: Thanks, what exactly do you mean? That the piers are too short or that the breakwater doesn't fit together with jrj's seawalls or that the water underneath should be deeper? This might be a small update but there was a plenty to see during this week so enjoy the last part. Bull Island Bull Island or more properly North Bull Island is an island located in Dublin Bay, about 5 km long and 800 m wide, lying roughly parallel to the shore. It is less than two centuries old, having been formed by sand building up after the North Bull Wall was completed in the early 19th century to keep clear the channel to Dublin Port. The island is connected to the mainland by a wooden road bridge at the southern (Clontarf/Dollymount) end, and by a causeway at Raheny and forms part of Raheny and Clontarf districts. There are just a few residents, and in addition to the clubhouses of the two golf clubs, there is a Sea Scout den at the Clontarf end. Bird life on the island has been protected by legislation since the 1930s, and it was designated a national nature reserve in 1988. It is listed by UNESCO as a Biosphere reserve. Bird species on the island include Pale-bellied Brent Goose, curlews, oystercatchers, grey plovers and shovelers. There are 6 terrestrial mammal species on the island: brown rat, fox, field-mouse, hedgehog, Irish hare, and rabbit. The common seal and grey seal are also found in the surrounding waters and can regularly be seen hauled up on sand at low tide at the tip of the island near Howth. The island is also home to the bee, pyramidal and common spotted orchids. As well as two golf courses (the Royal Dublin and St. Anne's), the island also has an interpretive centre. Dollymount Strand, the c. 5 km beach on the island, is a popular walking and recreational area for Dubliners. In recent years Bull Island has also become popular with kite-surfers, with a declared kitesurfing launch area. The shallow water and long stretch of straight beach allows for safe kite-surfing. This has encouraged many beginners to take up the sport on the island. Due to limited space in New Dublin, there is just one golf course on the island in my game and the beach is just a few tiles wide, no space for huge beach lots. I have to work on the sea depth around the pier as you can see on this second screenshot: For the end I prepared a night shot from New Dublin Port for you today: Cheers

Hi another small today, Jayo: thanks,there's more seawalls to be seen in todays screenshots. penguin007: thank you too, the embankments are brilliant Idea, I hate how elevated rail and highway looks without them. today I'd like to present another suburban town, a most recent addition to New Dublin: Dun Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire is a suburban seaside town and ferry port, situated 12 km south of Dublin city centre, and is the administrative centre of the county of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. The town had been officially renamed Kingstown in 1821 in honour of a visit by King George IV, but reverted to its ancient Irish name by resolution of the town council in 1921, one year before Irish independence. The name derives from its founder, Laoghaire, a 5th-century High King of Ireland, who chose the site as a sea base from which to carry out raids on Britain and France. Dún' is an Irish word meaning 'fort'. King Laoghaire is famous for having allowed Saint Patrick to travel the country and preach Christianity. Dun Laoghaire Harbour The harbour, one of the largest in the country, and base for a major car ferry route to the United Kingdom, is notable for its two granite piers. The harbour is the main leisure boating centre serving Dublin and the surrounding area and also the terminal harbour for the Stena Line High Speed Ferry from Holyhead, UK. I have to give credit to Jeronij for Seawalls and breakwater sets, I love them. And also JBSimio for the buildings I used for Dun Laoghaire Town Centre. Hope you like it and you're welcome to post any comments.

Hi, as I promised, I'm bringing you next update. Today something about sport. CROKE PARK STADIUM Croke Park is the largest sports stadium in Ireland and the principal stadium and headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The Gaelic Athletic Association is an organization which is mostly focused on promoting traditional Irish sports - Gaelic Games, with Gaelic football and Hurling being the main and most popular activities promoted by the organization. Gaelic football is a contact sport that combines the skills of soccer, basketball, and some of the skills of volleyball in a high-scoring game in which players punch or kick the ball over the crossbar for one point, or kick the ball into a net on the bottom for three points. Hurling is a stick-and-ball game that combines many of the skills of field hockey, lacrosse, and baseball but pre-dates all three. Players can catch the ball and use a hurley to hit a ball between the goalposts using the same scoring system as in Gaelic football and on the same size of field. Croke Park has a capacity of 82,500, making it the fourth largest stadium in the EU. It is host to the annual finals of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and Senior Hurling Championship. During the refurbishment of Lansdowne Road the stadium is also hosting the Irish national rugby union and soccer teams. Music concerts by major international acts have also been held in Croke Park. U2 broke Irish box office marks in 2005 with ticket sales for three Croke Park concerts in Dublin, after more than 240,000 tickets were sold in record time. Few pictures from the U2 gig that I happened to be part of - working as a bar staff . The credit goes to Dmscopio for The New Anfield AKA Stanley Park I found on STEX. (Cheers to all the fellow Liverpool fans on Simtropolis! You never walk alone ) It doesn’t look much like Croke Park but I like the look so much I just wanted to use it in my city. In addition to reality I used some more eye candy for the stadium surroundings just to make it look nice and to add some transport access, you can see my extension of LUAS line to the airport, I’ve made it running on elevated viaduct in this part of city.

Another friday - another update. Hello and welocme to todays SPECIAL update. To celebrate 1000 views of my CJ I was prepared to come with a huge update. But then I decided that instead of posting one annoyingly long one with 30 pictures in it, I'll split it into couple smaller updates and there will be updates all week long. So there will be all week of celebrations instead of one huge just today. But first, I'd like to reply to last week's comments: MightyMugs: That's great. Nice to see you interested. I've been in Northern Ireland couple times, I've seen Belfast, Antrim coast and Fermanagh and I loved it. I especially liked the visit to the Old Bushmills Distillery. I dont think I ever been in Sligo but I once went to Donegal and I tell you some roads there were pretty scary. Funny thing was the road signs on every corner reminding you that there is only 80kmh allowed. But when driving on some of them, even Eddie Irvine himself wouldn't dare to go faster than 40. I have one picture so you can see what I mean: This was taken near Slieve League - the highest sea cliffs in Europe. Pitty I dont have a photo with the actual max 80kmh sign. But on the same day, when riding trough Fremanagh, I've discovered the most beautifull road I ever seen: So MightyMugs take care on those roads. 2ch.net simplayer: Hi, Great Idea. I'd love to be part of Mother Earth Project. How do I apply? Or what exactly I have to do to be in? I had a brief look at the forum but I'm not exactly sure how it works. Will I have to post updates also there or just link to here? Now back to Sim City and to todays screenshots. As I said there will be couple updates next week so I focus today on what I promised last week - to bring in region and transport screenshots. First, a real Dublin satellite map: You can compare to my New Dublin region: As you can see, there is much to be done with the suburbs, but the city centre is nearing completition very fast. And here's the Transportation map: You can see the main features - the Port, Airport and the new built M50 circular motorway. The motorway connection to suburbs is yet to be finished so looks a bit odd now. Black and purple colours represent rail and glr tracks. The best for the end. Check out the brand new Dun Laoghaire Harbour - at night. There will be a special update dedicated to it next week so dont miss out.

MightyMugs: Hi, the tunnels are part of Elevated Rail Embankment Pack made by morifari. It is great for elevated highways as well, here's a link: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=4446&download=http://www.stexserver.com/lots/morifari/morifari_elevated rail embankment 30 final version/ElevatedRai%20Embankment3%2E0%5Fupdate%2Ezip As for the road textures, I think the last mod I was downloading was the mod form jono01, there is a forum thread here: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=124&threadid=67128&STARTPAGE=4 But I also have some custom asphat sidewalk and euro road mod textures installed so can be that the result is kind a mixture. Irish roads are not exactly same as UK so I dont worry about that much.

jayo: It is CdS RT Palacio Cristalino made by ripptide, available on sc4devotion. Here's a link, you have to be registered: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=444

Friday is updates day! Hello again, I'm comming up with another small update. Mayor O'Stuller had no time to build anything in New Dublin for the whole week, so I'll just use the screenshots I have. The time is becomming a major issue so I wonder if it will be better to have just one regular weekly update. Anyway here are todays exiting updates. New Dublin International Airport Dublin Airport is by far the busiest airport in Ireland and is ranked as 17th busiest international airport in the world, with more than 21.1 million passengers travelled through the airport in 2006. The airport is located approximately 10 kilometres north of Dublin City, and is served by buses and taxis. A rail link has been discussed for many years and is currently planned. The airport is the headquarters of Ireland's flag carrier Aer Lingus, and Europe's largest low fare airline Ryanair. Dublin Airport has an extensive short and medium-haul route network: several domestic Irish routes, around thirty routes to its nearest neighbour, Great Britain, and a vast network of routes to Continental Europe. The Dublin-London international air corridor is the second busiest in the world (after Hong Kong-Taipei) with flights from Dublin to all five London airports. Aer Lingus, Delta, US Airways, Continental and American Airlines serve various destinations throughout North America. While Air Canada and Air Transat serve Toronto, in Canada. Dublin and Shannon (on the west coast of Ireland) are the only two European airports with U.S. border preclearance facilities which saves passengers a lot of time upon arrival in the United States. Full US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities are planned to be developed in Terminal 2's Pier E, which will allow complete US processing of passengers (Immigration, Customs and Agriculture) and obviate the need for any further inspection on arrival in the US. I've decided not to use any modular airport (maybe later when demand is high), just an ordinary Maxis airport with some warehouses,hotels and parking around it. Here is an overall view of the area: As you can see, the areas around airport are still subject to development. Shipping companies use the advantages of the nearby M50 motrorway and have build some large warehouses around. Closer look at the warehouses: As you can see I've extended both rail and glr tracks to airport as it is proposed in development plan. A detailed view on the motorway T-junction with rail link to airport over it: Next is another of Dublin's suburbs: Clontarf Clontarf is a coastal suburb on the northside of Dublin. It is most famous for giving the name to the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 during which Brian Boru, High King of Ireland defeated the Viking invaders. This battle, which extended to districts over several miles, is seen as marking an end to the Irish-Viking Wars. Nowdays it is a pleasant suburb with many sport facilities and a 40m wide and 3km long promenade for walikng or cycling. I've tried to escape the grid a bit. Hope you like it: And finally a greeting form: National Botanic Gardens These colourful gardens cover a total area of 19.5 hectares, part of which is the natural flood plain of the river Tolka. The gardens contain a large plant collection which includes approximately 20,000 species and cultivars. There are four ranges of glasshouses including the recently restored Curvilinear Range. Notable features include herbaceous displays, rose garden, rockery, vegetable garden, arboretum, extensive shrub borders and wall plants. That's all for this week, hope you like it again and comming up next will be Croke Park Stadium, Bull Island and hopefully some nightshots.

Hello again, Thanks for replies cleaner475: There is a region screenshot in the intro, it is quite old now so a new one could be usefull. But there is nothing special on my region - I've made it small as this is only my first city ever made, so just small region for New Dublin. Night pics sounds like a great idea, I'll definetely make some. Altough I don't expect to have time for Sim City until next week so I guess those will have to wait few days. granto93: Sorry I forgot the replies last time. Here is a little explanation of my intentions: I'm making lot of things as real as possible except some that can't be done in the game because of it's limitation and on the other side I'm using some of the game's advantages to make the New Dublin better - like extending the tram and rail networks or placing more eye candy. But the main idea is to keep all the landmarks, main buildings, streets, transport network and the feel of the city as close to reality as I can get. You can always compare with the real world photos I include in updates. jacqulina: Thanks, maybe I could show a transportation map if you like? Today just a smal update and few screenshots: SANDYFORD INDUSTRIAL ESTATE Dublin is internationally recognised for its large amount of high-tech industrial estates, business centres and financial centres - which have led it to be known as the "Silicon Valley of Europe". Sandyford Industrial Estate is a large industrial estate located in south of Dublin. The termination of the Luas Green Line is placed inside and it is best known because of offices of Microsoft Ireland which employ approximately 1,200 people are located at the estate, this is the EMEA Operations Center which was located in Ireland since 1985 and carries out a variety of activities including development and translation of Microsoft products. Other companies located here include American Airlines, Canon, Barclaycard, Novell, Vodafone Ireland. Above, main entrance to the Microsoft in Sandyford. A screenshot with the Luas terminus. Another screenshot of the Estate. A satellite view for comparison: HOWTH Howth is a neibourhood located in northern part of Dublin on Howth Peninsula. Originally a small fishing village, it is now one of Dublin's most desirable suburbs. Howth is very popular destination for short trips outside the city because it's beautyfull landscape and easy accessibility as it is the northern terminus of the suburban Dart rail system. Howth with it's fishing harbour above. Howth Head Lighthouse: One more satellite view:

PART 2 - The city grows Hi, first I'd like to thank you for all the interest, comments and advices, and I'd like to apologize for not comming up with an update for so long. The reason is that mayor Mr.O'Stuller was quite busy with no more than half hour a day time for SC, and as there is so much work to be done in New Dublin, the visible results of new development are showing up very slow. So for all who has been patient there is some of the work to be seen in the update. Planning: There was a sparkling discussion in New Dublin City Hall about the development going on for a long time, with two main topics: 1) What should be the main focus in near future - the building of suburbs OR focusing on finishing the city centre and surrounding areas 2) Conservative fractions wanted New Dublin to be exactly the same as the old - real world Dublin, while modern thinking liberal council members accompanied with the representatives from commercial sector would like the city to be modernised with more creative way. The discussion still goes on but the results seems to be leaning towards building the City first and suburbs in next phase, as for the second point the the solution seems to be leaving the zoning and planning and main landmarks to conservative parties while the actual implementation could be in the hands of the creative innovators. The development plan was made: Recognizing the main zones as the first thing: One of the maps retrieved straight from mayors desk. Colours explanation: This is the plan of real dublin industrial and agricultural zones, all that is not filled is residential or commercial. The authorities want to stick to this plan as much as possible. Another map showing the districts: The second part of development plan is a list of projects to be done: - Zones and neibourhoods: Clontarf, Finglas, Rathmines, Dollymount, Blackrock, Howth, Tallaght, Marino, Sandyford, Dundrum, Dun Laoghaire, Dalkey, Bull Island - Buildings and facilities: Airport, Dun Laoghaire ferry port, Howth fishing harbour, Croke Park Stadium, Botanic Gardens, Clontarf promenade, Portmarnock beach, Dublin City University, Liffey valley, Dundrum, Blanchardstown & Tallaght Shopping centres, Golf Courses (Dublin has 67 of them so at least few) - Transport: M50 motorway, expanding Luas and Dart tracks, Airport, Ports, main roads. Focus number 3 is the historical city centre: - finishing the city centre - reconstruction of some streets - adding some missing administrative buildings - eye candy - improving traffic Development: Who thought it is gonna be an easy task was wrong. With construction on virtually every corner and part of the city, budget slipping to red numbers, police and teachers striking from time to time, the progress went very slow but patient Dubliners were always behind mayor O'Stuller supporting his wise decisions. They are allready enjoying some of the results like education nearing 200, life expectancy 75 years and commuter times bellow 60 minutes. The fastest growing is the north eastern part of the city: Areas allmost finished include: Howth penninsulla, Bull Island with golf course, Clontarf promenade and residential area, Dublin Airport, Botanical Gardens, Croke Park Stadium, Marino, and works began on the M50 motorway South city is growing slower, main focus there was the Sandyford Industrial Estate: That's short description of what's new in New Dublin. New updates will be comming shortly with closer look at: - New Dublin City Airport - Sandyford Industrial Estate - Clontarf promenade - Bull Island - Howth peninsula - Croke Park Stadium - National Botanic Gardens Finally, one last screenshot to end todays update: Dart train leaving Connoly station on elevated track above Luas trams arriving from both directions.

Hi again, Not much building progress made just a small improvements, but I have finally managed to get some custom trams to work. Big thanks to CraigKingOfIreland - putting few zzz in front of the folder name really works There is a new problem now. If I change the look of a tram, it also changes the elevated trains look, so unfortunatley I wont be able to have both LUAS and DART together. Here you can see that I've tried in my city fukuda's Barcelona tram - it is similar type Citadis tram manufactured by Alstom as Dublin's Luas. Only if I could change the colour... I guess I will never be satysfied with the Dart looking the same as Luas so expect some more changes in future. I have one budget problem as well. I've been revising the expenses list and I've found that I'm paying 880 a month for two Saint Paul's Cathedrals altough I have none of them. I've built it (twice) in the past but after realising it doesn't fit into New Dublin I demolished it and decided not to use it. But somehow it stays in the buget expenses and I dont know how to get rid of it. I even tried to delete it from plugin folder but the budget stayed unchanged. Small teaser of what's comming in next days: I've stared building some suburbs. Here is the first: Lucan A suburban town located on western outskirts, 15km fromDublin city centre. Not much from real world in it as I've never been in Lucan, but I hope you like it anyway.

Hello, First I want to thank you for showing interest and for replies. CWLGAMER01: You can always visit Ireland, Its easy to get cheap flights nowdays. CraigKingOfIreland & E.J.C: Thanks, im trying my best to get some feel of real Dublin. So I'm lucky to hear you like it. I named my city New Dublin because I don't intend to create an acurate copy of real world Dublin street by street like I've seen in some other amazing CJs. My Dublin is scaled down, modyfied a bit and the buildings does not always look the same as in real, depending on the possibilities of the game (and stuff I find on STEX). For me personaly is a greater challenge and fun playing the game when I can add some creativity than just copying reality. And it can look better at the end - better transport, more eye candy, etc... E.J.C: No palm mod? Thanks for advice, I never heard of it before. I'll use it for sure. cleaner475: Yes, the U drive it icons. They are driving me crazy. I have to find out how to turn them off - I'm still a newbie to simcity as you can see I try to follow other CJs but unfortunately I dont have much time to write comments. What do you mean "once you've got a bit more then ask someone to review it"? jayo: I cant get any tram to work. I still see this green train on all tracks (glr,elevated,rail) no matter what I put into plugin folder. I cant find it in my plugins folder to do something with it. It's fine for Dart passanger trains but not for Luas glr. Btw: I had to get rid of the green Connexxion trains - they looked like if they were derailing when passing corners. belfastuniguy: Thanks. I made an extension of an existing Luas tracks - Red line from Connoly to the Port and Green line from St.Stephens Green to Parnell Square. This is compliant to the real world development plans I posted earlier. pipishere: Wow, I've never seen such a cool bus. Great pic. *****atoo: Thanks, the one way arrows are bothering me as well. I wasn't aware that there is such mod. I'll try it out, but I'm bit afraid that I wont be able to see wich way the road goes now. Today I'd like to show three other city features: The Dublin Castle Dublin castle is a major fortified complex, it was the seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922. Most of the complex dates from the eighteenth century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland. For the lack of space I've decided to make the Castle more simple in my game. I've used some walls and couple old looking buildings. I've kept the park inside. It is not very accurate but I hope you like it. St.Stephens Green Park and shopping centre. Stephen's Green Shopping Centre is a large indoor shopping centre located at a site of a former Dandelion Market, well known as the site of U2's earliest gigs and its array of stalls selling punk badges, clothes and posters. The centre officially opened its doors on 8 November 1988. St. Stephen's Green park is an inner-city public park of rectangular shape. I've used porkissimo's four saisons sc for the shopping centre and Peg ponds kit for the pond. Phoenix Park Phoenix park is one of the largest city enclosed parks in the world. It measures 712 hectares, it is larger than both Central Park in NewYork and Hyde Park in London. The park is also home to herd of wild deer. Significant features located in park: Residence of The President of Ireland, Zoological Gardens, Papal Cross, Wellington monument (on picture below), The Phoenix Monument. Residence of US Embassy in Ireland, The Phoenix Park Visitor Centre and Ashtown Castle, The headquarters of the Irish national police force and many sports ground for gaelic football, hurling, soccer, rugby, cricket and polo. It is occasionally used for open-air concerts and the annual Phoenix Park Motor Races. I've used the in game Washington Monument as Dublin's Wellington Monument, I also added some eye candy and a big pond. Hope you like the pics and I'll be looking to post more from New Dublin.

Jayo: thanx, you're a star. A brand new Dublin doubledecker bus on O'Connell street.

Hi all, todays theme is: Transport and vehicles I'm trying to figure out what mods,skins and other stuff to use for the transport. Currently I have two main transport netwotks glr - Luas and part elevated/part normal rail - Dart. I will add buses in a short time as well. LUAS GLR: This is Dublin's newest modern transport system. LUAS stands for "speed" in irish. It currently operates on two lines (Red and Green) and it is estimated that 80000 people use Luas daily. The Luas is also one of the safest transport systems in the world. Currently in the game, I can see some various tram engines with too many green carriages behind. I didn't find anything looking like Luas on STEX so at least I'm gonna try to get rid of the green carriages behind engines. I like London Docklands Light Rail very much and there is a glr skin of it from Ill Tonkso on STEX so maybe I'm gonna use it, but I havent been able to make it work yet atough it is in my plugins folder. DART trains: The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART), or Mearlíne Átha Cliath in Irish, is part of the suburban railway network in Ireland, running mainly along the coastline of Dublin Bay on the Trans-Dublin route, from Greystones in County Wicklow, through Dublin to Howth and Malahide in County Dublin. Part of the DART route, from the city centre to Dún Laoghaire, is of historic note - it was the first railway in Ireland, opening as the Dublin and Kingstown Railway on 17 December 1834. I searched STEX once again and among a few trains I've found a is only one green - Connexxion train by Tag One so I've put it into my plugin folder but again without effect. In the game I see now two sets of train on my tracks one is some blue modern and another is a default Maxis elevater train so I guess there might be some conflicts in plugin folder. I will have to take a closer look itno this. Just for fun, here is a brilliant advertisment motive from the Dart's taxsaving campaign: Dublin Bus: Dublin bus operates an extensive network of nearly 200 radial, cross-city and peripheral routes in the city and the Greater Dublin Area. It consist mainly of doubledecker yellow and blue vehicles. Unfortunately I havent seen any doubledeckers on STEX. Garda police cars: Garda Síochána na hÉireann is the police force of the Republic of Ireland. The force is headed by the Garda Commissioner who is appointed by the Irish Government. Its headquarters are located in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. I plan to use one of Peg cop car mod vehicle skin for it. Please if you have any suggestions just write I will be grateful.

Hi, Latest screenshots: This is the latest look at the south city high streets. You can see Grafton street, Dawson street and Kildare street in the back. Right is the corner of St Stephens Green Park, on the left is a piece of Trinity College sports field. Some problems with the wrong stuff growing: I have to get rid of this white Porkissimo building in my plugin folder. It's growing all over the city. Only if I knew how is it called. St Patrick's Cathedral is allready in place as you can see. (thanks to jule78) North city is looking good as well. The only problem is the missing texture of Bourke Street Public School by Mattb325. i have to check what dependencies I'm missing. You can see two of them with the black ground on the screenshot. As you can see Dublin Spire, CineWorld Complex, Parnell Monument & Parnell Square, GPO are al in place. I'll be working some more on the shops and buildings on Henry and O'Connel street, so that is in more provisional than final state. And definetely no Aral Gas stations on Moore Street market.

Hi, First, presonal replies: Revol: Hi, nice to see some Dubliner interested in. Thanks for advice. The Porkissimo brewery is the best. As about the Dutch houses, the main problem is that the Dutch houses have narrow roofs, Irish are usually flat on top (ideally with a roof terrace) but I've checked all Vanderaaps stuff on stex and I think I'll use some of it. About ill Tonkso - very nice buildings, I'll defenetly use some of his stuff. Jayo: Hi, I've tryed both block Maxis buildings tileset mod and the Chicago tileset mod but it seems to block everything, custom stuff included and nothing grows at all. I dont know what is wrong, maybe someone has had similar problem? I'll check for some custom water for sure. Thanks for reminder. I even plan to plop some rocks to creae a nice shore. Schulmanator: Hello, Me too. Last time I went was in April but only for a weekend. Before I lived in Dublin for more than a year. Today's topic: Closer look at the three of many unique city features New Dublin Port First a satelite map of a real Dublin port: As I'm creating scaled Dublin I've made the shore straight without the docks. I've used mainly BSC industrial seafronts set,Somi's and Nob's port stuff. Another features - JRJ Martime Control Tower, two freight train stations and some factories, Glr track towards the passanger ferry port. This is the latest picture, there might be some rebuilding in the future so I'll keep you informed. Trinity College Campus Trinity College is Ireland's top university. Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, Trinity College boasts some world-famous alumni. Just a few names: philosopher Edmund Burke, Jonathan Swift, Wolfe Tone, the man behind the 1798 uprising, Bram Stoker the author of "Dracula", or Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde. Trinity College has its share in the history of women's fight for equal rights: it was the first European University to grant degrees to women. Trinity College is also the home to two wonders of literature and arts - combined excellently together. The famous "Book of Kells" and the "Book of Durrow", two priceless manuscripts from the early Middle Ages ("Book of Durrow dates back to the 7th century) are on display behind thick glass. Every day, a page of Book of Kells is turned over for the visitors showing yet another masterfully illuminated page. An aerial view of the campus: I had to modify it a bit to fit it into my city but I'm pretty satysfied how the main complex and the sports field look. Check it out: I have to develope the area around now. Guinnes Brewery This is the coolest feature od Dublin city which, at least in the eyes of the Irish people, is not just another company. Truly. The brewery itself is not open for the public which is a pity, but those wanting to know the history of the company may visit the Guinness Storehouse. It has exhibits and the famous Gravity Bar on the roof of the building, giving your Guinness a special taste. It is said the closer to the brewery your pint is poured into glass, the better it is. I've used 4 main lots to create the brewery complex. The main is the brilliant Mistral jaune brewery by porkissimo, the export of beer is done via 9x2 small freight station by Tag One, third is a nice factory made by Jestarr, and fourth building will be the Wiessner Brewery by Marczar currently under construction. Let's all celebrate the grand opening with the glass of Guinness! Slainte!

Hi, this is a true paradise. Cant wait to see how it will look when finished. You are a terraforming genius. Thanks for the castle hint, I'll search for it on exchange.

Hi, thank you all for the interest. jacqulina: What castle pieces you mean? I might need some as the Dublin Castle is stil to be built. Amerikaner: Thanx, but 4 million a month would be too much. Only if it would be so easy in real life. Check out how the construction goes. On friday 8th June 2007 the gates to New Dublin opened and first residents moved in. Above you can see the first house built in the new city. And guess what was the first commercial building that grew up. Yes it can only be the first Irish Bar. I've made it historical. Now that I had first Irish Bar I started heavy construction so I could eventually build the Guiness Brewery. But till there it was a lot to be built: I finished a small neibourhood around Lansdowne Road stadium: While I was busy with that, a whole steet of council houses grew on the other side: Of course full of chavs with no jobs. This is how the same street looks now after rebuilding: When I had the first residents and neibourhoods I had to develope some plan. I decided that the best will be to first finish the river Liffey and both the northern Royal Canal and southern Grand Canal. After that I will have the city centre area within the canals. So the focus in will be to build the city centre within before building anyting outside the canals. A general overview to sum the first part today: This was taken before building the canals and Liffey. I've rotated the camera so you could see the Bull Island and Howth peninslua. More comming soon