timcravey

Natural growth is great and all but the only sure thing is to stop the game and start ringing doorbells -- make those houses historical that you do not want to upgrade.

I'm still around but I've been pretty busy with other things. For one, I lost much of my CJ region to the necessary cleaning up of BATs and lots; so I've been rebuilding in a new region. I've actually been ENJOYING the game again! Also I have many downloads of regular SC4 lots that I wanted to play with, so I switched back to the other Plugin folder for a few weeks and gloried in the greens for awhile. I think I was in to SM too much and had lost my inspiration. I'm presently studying SciFi movies and TV series and such and trying to get a feel for the details that make their models work visually; problem is, so many of the recent releases seem to think the future will look like 13 century Europe! I do have a new space station but I haven't shot it yet -- preview render takes over an hour; full render will probably be about 50! It probably wont even make it into the game but the adventure of creating it has been quite stimulating. I've also been working out some other artistic themes in stone. And of course there's Facebook! My new addiction! Maybe we should contact Andi and see what we can do to lighten the load on him and speed the new release -- I was hoping to have something out before the Trixies but it's his first semester at his new school so let's not pressure him. We've done an amazing amount of work this year and I expect there'll be some Trixies for us anyway. As for Shoji's latest -- I liked it but it does need some texture work. Rather than calling it 'awful' you might consider sending him a texture you think will work better; his parents have enabled filters on his computer to block many image sites. Do him a kindness. Now I've said my peace, I'll go and brush the dust off my computer (Honest stone dust!) and try to work out a few more BATs.

Gay people have kids too. But modern marriage customs have very little to do with reproduction and are mostly used to determine the legal distribution of property when partnerships dissolve.

The full NAM is not compatible with SimMars; we simply don't have the models yet to replace much of the new content (overpasses, wide radius curves, etc.). So why bother with the NAM at all? Traffic Simulator Z!!! One of the worst deficiencies of the vanilla SC4 was the stupidity and laziness of the Sims. If the bus stop was even 1 tile too far away the whole neighborhood could go under; Sims that wont walk two blocks to a job will drive halfway across town to commute to the city next door, tying up traffic and creating city management nightmares; an otherwise perfectly crafted Road may have a single tile long Street branching off it which will become the preferred route for every commuter on the Road, causing the Advisors to pop-up constantly to complain. In any case, Traffic Simulator Z solves many of these problems and makes the game run more smoothly. Also, since the NAM is an on-going project with several active team members we can hope that they may someday create a SimMars specific NAM if demand is high enough. To install the NAM, download the latest version and any necessary updates. Be sure you don't have your normal, full-install version in your plugin folder. Run the installer. You will want to select either Right-hand or Left-hand drive mode, uncheck ALL Plugin options and Menu icons, choose the textures for viaduct and railbed options (I think I used Dedgren's), and uncheck all Roundabouts, Wide Curves and turning lanes. You can now set up the Automata Controller and Traffic Simulator to your preferences. Since the installer would not allow me to install without the Canal Add-on I opened the NAM folder in my plugins and deleted the files Can-Am Plugin and Can-Am Props and the Overpass Update. Change the name of the NAM folder to help you distinguish it from the full-install version so you don't have both in the game at once. I find this installation to be very effective but future Updates to the NAM may require additional adjustments. The NAM fixes most of my troubles and I would normally play on through - I like a fairly slow development rate that allows me time to fine-tune neighborhoods. But to show off some of the new content I'll also install Nilo's RCI MultiMod to jack up demand. I choose 10% Work at Home (realistically this will probably be much higher in the future) and all RCI are set to Active Demand.

CAM is available on the LEX at SC4Devotion.com -- you will need to register in order to gain access.

I don't know an exact date for release but I was hoping we could get something out there before the next Trixie Award! Bug Report: bd's Bottomless Landfill - I love the look of this BAT but it crashes to the desktop when I close the query box. This was a very well thought out lot with reward pop-ups. Ledah's Magneto-Hydrodynamic Power Plant is a good looking model but has way too much power output and monthly cost -- I wonder if we could re-lot it as an alternative Waste to Energy plant? Shoji and Sean -- your parks are looking good but you still need to work on the glass texture. Here's what I do for glass - Diffuse and Specular both have the same bitmap (ODMSky but you could use one of your own skymaps). Because the Opacity is set so high you may need to put a light inside for day as well as night. You might also consider using the Lattice trick to easily create more visible supports for the glass panes. Here's a link to my short tutorial on Lattice -- https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=107&threadid=81305&STARTPAGE=7&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

Sounds like you need to adjust the histogram of the map you're using - too much contrast between the highs and lows. You can do this easily in any image manipulating program or you start over with a better a map. Try downloading one from the STEX - they're usually pretty good. If you like, you can post the map image up here and I'll take a look at it.

You will have to show us a picture - maybe we'll recognize the file. Is it possible though that your chosen maps had no terrain low enough to read as water? Almost no mods change the sea level so this seems most likely. But the truth is - you will have to locate any terrain mod you've installed and take it out if it's the problem.

Those are cool Shoji!

Here is a new one -- CO$$ Tarragon Place

I know you hear this all the time but I wanted to add my praise and appreciation for the work you do - I fell in love with your style through your work with LBT. Still loving it!

Don't give up E. You've got real talent and imagination. Maybe you just need a vacation.

All images are 256x256, although some were not exactly square. Intended use is terrain mod. I have had some success but I also have some further questions - What are all these additional files ( .TGI) Also, I editted Groupid.txt but output is not consistent - my Group ID is now Instance ID for all output files and Group ID is 00000000.

Here is screenie of problem - I have tried both SaveDat and Process method - both return this same error.

May I ask what your monnicker means to you and how do you feel it relates to the stylistic contradictions evident in the pictures you posted? Is Wlecom the name of a city or the whole region? By the way, Welcome (Wilkom) to Simtropolis.

Would someone please take the time to explain how this tool is used? I managed (apparently by accident) to convert a png to a fsh. But on a second try (and two dozen tries later) I can not repeat this simple task. I do not understand the interface so I can't begin to analyze the error statement -- "Index was outside the bounds of the array" -- ??? This means nothing to me. As far as I can tell I'm doing the same thing now as I did on the successful try.

Actually, I want to put 3 different terrains in the next beta - the original, with all red rock and sand and frozen water; terrain 2, with some water but still no green; and terrain 3, which will be approximately what you see above. Terrains are not easy to mod, though; and I think Swat has started back to school too so e has limited time. Water will probably come from the poles but also may be imported from Jupiter and Saturn.

Nice stadium. Big complicated models like that give me fits - mostly after I start adding textures.

I'm guessing the more mature Sim City players hang out at SC4D but I haven't done a survey over there; certainly the quality of work is more professional in general and it's my theory that once people have learned to BAT and mod well enough here at Simtropolis, they go over there so they aren't bothered by as many newbie questions and juvenile personality conflicts. The 40+ demographic did not typically grow up with computers and many still feel intimidated by the complexity and technical language of 3d modeling and game mechanics. They may also have grown out of the essentially anti-social 'gaming' mindset and moved on to more interpersonal entertainments. The 'missing' demographic of 25 - 40 year olds are probably engaged in experimentation with drugs and alcohol, competing for mates or career opportunities and other similar Real Life distractions.

I lost your private topic thread, Swat, so I've posted this here - I am making some progress in modifying THL's Green Beaches Mod to fit with the Mars Terraformed theme. This terrain requires the SimMars Mars-terraine.dat (essentially as a rock mod), THL's Sandy Desert Mod, and the edited Green Beaches mod (raising sea level from SimMars 0m to 75m). It was kinda hairy changing the sea level in a region that was already settled (250,000 Sims) but they really didn't seem to mind. You can see that even at 75m, there is very little water surface. Can you give me some pointers on how to convert JPEG into FSH so I can work on the textures? This is actually very pleasing terrain but I would like to change the water surface and maybe some of the rock.

Way cool, Shoji! I'm embarrassed now to show what I've been doing - middle and low wealth CS - here's one to give you an idea of just how unimaginative and dull they are: I've also been cleaning up old files and playing the game.

Not at all, Ledah. Just export on High. It doesn't take that much time and it really does make a difference in quality.