SAVAGExPHOENIX

While I love this update, the shadows really ruin it. If your computer can handle it, change your rendering mode from Software to Hardware. It definitely helped me. if not, just disable them. They really detract from the appearance. This last update gets 9/10, but ONLY because of the shadow issue. Otherwise, it's beautiful.

I've done a search of the STEX, but I can't find the streets that Rewright used in his CJ Oakland County. Does anyone recognize them? Seen HERE

Denton, TX. 'nuff said. I've been to both Seattle and Phoenix, and I much prefer Phoenix's culture. While Zulu hit the nail on the head about many points, Phoenix to me seems much more fun than Seattle. Especially if you live out in the Litchfield Park area.

Jack, I think you should add more trees. It looks a little too open to be a forest.

While the world of Therum uses a "Standardized World Credit", each country is permitted to print their own monetary designs. Here is a sample of the newest 2012 edition of Illium Bank Notes. All new Illium Bank Notes look identical with the exception of the numbers and portrait depicted. Seen here is the FRONT of the new Illium 50 Credit note. It shows a portrait of Princess Jasmin Sariah IV, who died in the attack on Callia. She was the daughter of Queen Alexis Sariah II, and heir to the throne. Also depicted is the Illium Coat of Arms (watermarked) and the Minister of Treasury's signature and the note's serial number. Security measures: Holographic beveled Illium National Symbol in the lower right corner Watermarked patterns and Illium National Symbol behind the coat of arms. Note Amount is watermarked on the white strip to the left, and the note amount is heat sensitive and will fade away when held near a heat source. Seen here is the Back of the new Illium 50 Credit note. Depicted is the Illium Coat of Arms, a watermarked image of the Sariah Palace and the note's serial number. Security measures: Holographic beveled note amount Watermarked patterns and Illium National Symbol behind the coat of arms. Note Amount is watermarked on the white strip to the right, and the note amount is heat sensitive and will fade away when held near a heat source. The Illium National Symbol in the lower right corner is actually a microchip. All notes larger than 10 credits are microchipped with the note's serial number and batch number. Each serial number corresponds to a particular batch number that is not shown or released to the public, thus making it impossible to counterfeit. Also not seen is a security thread embedded behind the white strip on the right that, when held to a single-point light source, will show the note amount in numerals spaced with stars.

Following Calistan's brutal attack on the city of Callia, the Queen of Illium conferred with her High Council. Today, Queen Alexis II declared an official state of war against the Federation of Calistan. Upon this statement, the Illium Wartime flag was raised over the capitol. The Red field behind the Illium National Shield symbolizes the absolute power of Illium, despite all odds. The Black field on the left stands for Illium's absolute resolution to be victorious. The divided white line symbolizes the continuing forward progress, and shows our ability to make distinction between power and resolution. The Black Phoenix stands for Illium's immortality and ability to rebuild after any crisis.

Ah, if only Follomer took place in the world in which Illium did. We would have immediately come to your aide. :3

haha, of COURSE it's SOMY. Thanks again, Yarahi. As for the rest, I really love these power plant complexes!

Azle, another rich neighborhood.

Where in the world are those "LNG" Storage tanks? I'd like to get a hold of them, and I cant find them on the Stex or the Lex..

:: REPLIES/NOTES :: Yarahi: Your help was so much appreciated in directing me places and helping me fix some things, so naming that coastal community after you was my pleasure! Emperordaniel: Thanks, as always! Blue Lightning: I absolutely LOVE road-geekery! I enjoy the challenges of making things fairly realistic, while still adding that fantasy element. I love to write, and this is the perfect opportunity to add a "setting" to my writings! Archean: Thank you so much. Your continued support of my CJ is always appreciated! Keep an eye out, as you will have a park in your name soon in an upcoming update. I must admit, _marsh_ and his awesome stuff inspires me to push the limits of SC4 and make things more realistic. <>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<> Notes: My lack of updates has been thanks to a fairly large update, and of course learning new techniques. Oh and I suppose real life had a play in it too, you know, Renaissance Faire in Houston, No internet where I'm at, and dealing with school. **WARNING** This post contains a large mosaic that may take time to load. Thankfully, ST forums resize images. I found that cutting the images up actually INCREASED load times, as total the images ran 5.5 MB. Together, the Image size is only 3.2 MB. :: WORLD UPDATE:: :: NEWS :: :: REGION UPDATE :: Region so Far: As you can see, Port Virmire and Jasmin have bloomed into existance! Regional Roadmap: Well, IH-8 is complete, and the city of "Plano" never came into existence. Instead, Port Virmire and the city of Jasmin took it's placed. :: CITY OF JASMIN :: Existance is Futile.. Unless This is Here: Well, Here we can see the entire reason that this area exists. Port Virmire is a medium-sized Naval Air Station. Port Virmire exists solely as the last Line-Of-Defense in terms of Naval Warfare for Illium City. Original planners did not want the port in Illium City, and set it some ways away. Seen here at night, Port Virmire is busy preparing for the upcoming assault on Calistan Territory. Speak up, young'un...: While Illium still holds Naval Superiority over Calistan, older ships are still used for combat support roles. The HMS Arcadia, one of Illium's oldest active carriers, is standing by to deploy with the 12th Support Fleet soon. She's currently taking on supplies for the upcoming deployment. So here's the big picture: Moving on to the town itself, I'll start you off with a beautiful mosaic of Jasmin. Note that the camera is facing westward. Virmire Ave runs north-south. West of the avenue sits Jasmin High School, home of the Tigers. The Tigers have an excellent football team, the other sports teams are coming up fast in the national rankings. JHS also happens to be within the confines of a very affluent neighborhood, and GPA's tend to be higher here. Illium's standardized test, the Illium Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (IAKS) committee has stated that JHS had the second highest scores in the region, boosting them to 5th place in National rankings. East of Virmire Ave runs Kieran Creek. On the south side (left) of the creek, is the neighborhood of Litchfield, home to Hanlon Park, a place where you can literally relax in the woods. On the north side (right) of Kieran Creek, you can find the neighborhood of Azle. This is the most recent addition to Jasmin, and also the richest according to Family Income Statistics. On average, Azle residents make around $350,000-$500,000SWC ($475,000-$750,000USD). **NOTE** Some browsers may cause the image to be "cut off", and if that's the case for you, a link to the image is -HERE-. The Trees Take Offense to Aluminum Bats: Here is a closer look at Hanlon Park. The Gazebo out back is a resting place for those who want to explore the trails that run along the creek. The baseball field is community maintained, and during the summer season, sometimes bald patches begin to show. This is not uncommon, and neither Litchfield residents or Jasmin city officials are bothered by it. Citizens voted several months ago on the issue of maintenance, however a vast majority felt that city resources should be devoted elsewhere. You Totally Just Got Trolled By Flowers: So this pretty little place sits on the south side of Kieran Creek, east of the Litchfield neighborhood. Alyssa Park is in remember of Alyssa C. McClendon, a young girl who was brutally murdered by her estranged stepfather 25 years ago. While the story is a sad one, her family chose to keep her memory as a happy one. Their strong will led city officials to clear the spot of woods where she was killed and built a beautiful wildflower park. You can also see just to the north (right) Kieran Creek, winding through the Virmire forest. Need a beauty shot? MYSPACE POSE, 1.2.3.GO!: This is just a closer nature shot of Kieran Creek as it starts. It runs under the town into the Virmire Bay. This can be seen in the "Show us your.. Nature." thread as well. Stickin' out like a sore thumb: So here is a very out-of-the-way, yet very important part of the Jasmin economy. A small industrial park sits in the far-northeast corner of the area, far from any other development. Originally, it was just a natural gas power plant, the Spencer Generating Station that provided power to Port Virmire when it was a small base. Once the town of Jasmin grew, Helfer Logistics built a large distribution center here, shortly followed by a military railyard. The rest of the industrial park expanded afterwards. The Spencer Generating Station is nearing the end of it's lifespan, and plans to demolish it are already on the city council's table. the SGS is no longer needed, as Port Virmire and Jasmin run off of the newly constructed Virmire Hydrogen Plant.. Coastal Livin' like a BOSS: This shot shows IH-8 running through Jasmin. The original part of the town developed south of IH-8. Development has expanded northward, somewhat stunting development in the older portion of the city. City officials and citizens are still voting and debating on spending $21.4 Million credits on a "facelift" of old-town Jasmin. (this means community input. What should I do with the southern portion of Jasmin?) The ORIGINAL Expansion Pack: Seen here is the first development for the city of Jasmin on the north side of IH-8. A commercial strip has recently developed after being re-zoned when a major road from the industrial park extended south then west into the town. Until Next Time!

Whoah, where did you get those sick roads from?! I'm loving this CJ

This looks amazing! I love that Bank of America Plaza. Now you just need to do the Fountain Place Building, and of course the Reunion Hotel and Tower.

I had that problem too. There's a quick fix to it. Press F10 (Render Setup) and go to the Renderer tab. Scroll down and change the Raytrace Acceleration Method from BSP 2 to BSP. This little trick fixed it without adverse affects for me.

So I deeply apologize for my lack of updates. I am not at home so I don't have regular internet connection. Before I left though, I did lots of work and hope to finalize my next update next week. So, to keep your interest, I will tease you with this Image Kieran Creek

Here's Kieran Creek shown on a foggy spring morning. Kieran Creek splits two of my affluent neighborhoods in the town of Jasmin (which will be the feature of my next CJ Update). Litchfield Park can be seen in the center.

You're saving money by moving out there, so the extra can be used in gas to drive back and forth to the city center. I suggest living further away. It'll be noticeably quieter, and if/when the city grows, you won't be surrounded by "inner city" slums.

This was definitely a brilliant entry. I love the change in point-of-view. Where did you find that chase bank?

well I've done that, but now I've run into a completely different and even worse problem... I've followed all instructions to the teeth. But when I go to open my building in lot editor, at certain zooms, it's completely distorted, and then when I zoom in, at certain directions, it's either completely invisible or only a small portion of the structure is visible.. Plus, it's LOD size dimensions are f**ked up like insane. the first time, when I imported into GMAX, I kept units. (one grid square in 3DS is 16 meters), but the LOD was insanely tiny. The second time, I edited units a bit in 3ds to 1 UNIT (not grid square) is 16 meters, and the LOD was still way off in size, BUT what tiny portion of the building that is visible is in the correct scale. It's odd. The entire structure should be about 14 tiles wide and 9 from front to back :/ I attached a screenshot of the end results. :/

Okay thanks. I'm a pretty accomplished 3DS Max modeler, but GMAX is foreign to me, seeing as GMAX is an ancient version of 3ds Max. Plus, GMAX and my computer have more issues with each other than Snookie and that guy that punched her in the face do. :/ I'm definitely not looking forward to importing the palace model I made into GMAX, seeing as it has 25,652 Polys. AND that's with simplified textures using baked. It used to have in excess of a million (The only reason I can run that high is I have a beast vid card.. but GMAX is so ancient that the new card has little effect)..

If you're serious about this, let me know. I was stationed on a variety of posts, including training bases, deployment bases, airbases, and of course when I deployed I went to several Forward Operating bases, ranging in size from several meters long to several miles. I can give you lots and lots and lots of pointers and direction.