ardecila

Date: 12/11/2005 7:40:44 PM Author: jrhnemo And here is a pretty picture: quote> That's the fakest thing I've ever seen. It's definitely a painted ceramic sculpture....

I think the key here is that we as a society don't realize that single-family homes with reasonable yards are possible without building the crazy effed-up subdivisions they build today. Look at any suburb built before the 1950s. Oftentimes, they're built along rail lines. They have great areas, chock-full of attractive single-family homes, that really do function as neighborhoods. Most of Chicago proper is like this, although the houses are probably too unattractive/small for the wants of most homebuyers now. My town was built along a rail line. Go through its central area, and you'll find plenty of this kind of neighborhood, but the houses are larger and more attractive/traditional than the ones in subdivisions. Same kind of neighborhood sense, sidewalks, and safety. Look at Chicago's North Shore towns. They are ALL like this. These neighborhoods used to be somewhat modest, but now they get some of the highest home prices in Chicagoland. People want this kind of community. A key component of all this, by the way, is a grid street layout. Cul-de-sacs, 3-way intersections and gated communities encourage isolationism and elitism, and discourage through traffic and efficiency in general. In response to Rob's point - yes, through traffic. A main reason for grids is to discourage everyone from taking the same route, which creates isolated islands between the heavily-traveled roads. By the way, kids aren't stupid. They can easily incorporate watching for cars into their street games and whatnot. They have to start looking out for themselves at some point. I guess the whole point here is that we can build new neighborhoods just like the old ones. Not New Urbanist, none of that. Just attractive, pedestrian-friendly and gridded. It's not too hard.

To get off topic for a little bit here - I understand the desire for land, but when we build sprawly subdivisions, we leave too much of the city behind us. Sidewalks, for example. Most subdivisions around here don't have sidewalks. The problem is, they're being hypocritical. They try to put parks in the subdivisions, because people liked them in the city, but the subdivision parks are always more empty, because no one can walk there. Subdivision developments in general are based on hypocrisy - they try to mix'n'match city neighborhood and country house/land sizes. The two don't mesh at all.

Ehhhh - I'm convinced this will never go anywhere. For those interested: Google Maharishi Tower. It was a cool-looking world's tallest, slated for Sao Paulo. Look where that went. Maybe this is one of those weird religious monk-type things: We'll begin raising money now for the tower. At our current rate of income, it will take us 8,000 years. Perseverance is the key.

Shhhhhh......

My favorite NYC building... hmmm, hard to say, since I've never been there. I guess I'd have to say Penn Station (the destroyed one). That way, you all can't blame me for never going there! Seriously, it was an incredible building. Lofty and open, it was like a palace welcoming travelers to the Big Apple. I guess it's change into the modern Penn Station reflects the fact that most inter-city travel has shifted to air nowadays. Train stations are something menial, simply a place to wait while you go home every day. Used to be, kids about to embark on a trip would get excited about going to the huge, noisy, interesting train station. Now, they get excited about going to the airport.

@zakuten - that's the 700-series shinkansen in the second picture. The Nozomi in the first picture is a 500-series. It's incorrect to refer to them by such names, because those are the names of different services, on which any model of train can be. Nozomi is a service that uses both 500 and 700 trains, and Hikari/Hikari RailStar can be almost anything. Sorry - I went through a phase a few years ago where I was obsessed with those trains. I still think they look kickass, and they do need to be represented more. I'd do it myself, if I could model something other than buildings.

Er.. that hasn't been decided yet. It will have to be part of a centralized mod like the NAM. However, bridge modds could be seperated from the NAM. Street and one-way bridges should be seperate from the NAM anyway, as they fill a hole in the game. The rest of the NAM just adds additional stuff, which the downloader might not want.

*Ardecila points to the part of his last post where he offers to do his own modding* I'm not requesting anything - I'm seeing if there's any interest.

Oooh - you know what'd be cool? A viaduct bridge. Google Arcos da Lapa - it's a good example, in Rio. I'd make it a little wider, however. It'd be an Elevated-Rail bridge, of course. I'm afraid I can't do the modelling right now. It's doubtful. Maybe if I have some free time on the weekends.... *hopes* I already did some preliminary work on the Arcos at the time of the SC-Brazil contest... but I gave up, since I couldn't make it into a bridge. I am, of course, willing to do the modding work myself...

Ah, animated S3Ds! This is my ballpark now. First of all, the 3ds importer doesn't work for animations. It simply nullifies the animation, and you get a static s3D. So, there's no way to create animated ones. However, you can animate S3Ds through the use of the EffDir. Example - the wind power plant blades. They don't have animation in the s3d, but they rotate through the use of the EffDir.

This HAS been done before, by select members of the BSC. The whole flag modification thing, which i believe Geoffhaw did, was essentially the same process. The only difference is, he simply repainted an existing one. Same basic process, though.

Wow, this looks great! I'll wait to see a rendered preview before I judge anything, of course. My only comment would be that everything is the same color; it might seem kinda dull and flat-looking in a game where each building uses many different colors. So, I'd change the walls to a medium gray.

Trestles I like the trestle idea; the problem is that the supports would need to keep widening the further down the bridge went, and if the widening extended beyond the bounds of a single tile, it might cause problems. If not, cool. I dunno, just a thought. If it does cause problems, though, I'd suggest that, as soon as the widening reaches that 16m-wide point, you just continue it down vertically. Adding Bridges to the NAM What happens if there's an entry in the BSPEC without models or an exemplar? Would the bridge still appear in menus? If not, then maybe the central BSPECs could be written to accomodate all custom bridges that are made, and then the exemplar and models come in a seperate package that the downloader can choose about.

Mexicanboy13r: That's a sidewalk prop. SG uses them so he can freely place the sidewalk and align it with the building entrance.

Bixel: First of all, it looks like you're getting some offset problems there. Select everything in gmax or Max, whatever you're using, group it, and move it to the origin (0,0). Then re-render the building. The building is now centered on its footprint when you go into the LE. Also, large growables can be done if needed. BSC figured out how to do it. You say you're gonna do some squishing, but it looks properly to-scale with the other buildings around it. Compare the window size of the Holliday with the window size of the building immediately to the left of the brown-and-grey one.

Date: 11/24/2005 1:53:28 AM Author: ryanb_sc4 I was looking at HoustonFreeways.com today, and I saw something that would be a great addition for SC4: braided entrance / exit ramps. Have a look here to see what I mean: http://www.houstonfreeways.com/modern/59n_2003-11-19.aspx < Look at the 3rd and 2nd pics from the bottom to see what I mean.quote> Er... this doesn't seem like it'd be useful unless we had an express/local lane system in SC4, which we don't.

Most Americans are dead-scared of color. Absolutely terrified of it. quote> I don't understand this. At all. I think it was definitely effected by the real estate industry, who tell sellers to paint their walls white and off-white in order to make it seem as neutral as possible. Then, whoever buys the residence doesn't bother to paint it in colors they might like. Ever since we moved to this house, we've gone through a process of adding vibrant colors to each room. We also seem to be terrified of actual historical architecture and anything remotely urban. quote> This is created by developers, IMO. Why deal with the problems of an old house, when you can have a brand-new one with all the features you want, and it'll be easy to fix because it effectively uses standardized parts. Also, workmen have codified their jobs so tightly that they have effectively squelched originality in home-building, in the name of safety. Not only that, but in many cases, they don't know what to do in an older house. (Ours was built in 1911.) I often laugh to myself that the workmen we hire actually have to do some thinking for a change, in order to do their job.

Ah, thanks. I didn't know that the sidewall textures change at zoom levels. I imagine it looks downright awful if you don't mix it up like that, though. As for the shadows - oh, thank god. I was afraid I'd have to modify the models and go through the whole lengthy rigmarole again. I'll get back soon with DATs containing the shadows, fixed textures, and preview models. If you wouldn't mind doing the EffDir for the preview, I'd appreciate it. Now - pathing concerns. I said earlier that I could round up the bitmaps to aid in the path-writing process. Are you interested in that?

Date: 11/20/2005 10:53:28 PM Author: smoncrie Ardecila, I had a look at your pieces, and I must say that they are very good. I would just tweak the road and wall textures, and add shadow FSH’s. For the preview I often just stick the separate pieces together in one S3d. I am willing to do it, but unless I hear differently, I am assuming that Querlix will be doing that, and the pathing, RULs and network props. quote> Road and wall textures? I turned off the alpha channels - in game, the concrete should show up underneath the road. As for the wall textures - what are you talking about? Oh, and how do you add a shadow FSH?

Well, here are the models: http://s55.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1XNPBCM3RP1L41CTGRBHYLUV8S There are 4 DATs, one for each puzzle piece. They are fully done, with Resource Key Type 3 used. They don't have preview models, because I don't like the method the Interchange Tutorial uses. Anyone know a better one? They also need to be pathed and RULed. Whoever is pathing them, please PM me so I can send you the appropriate textures to write your paths on top of.

Well, there are always these two Japanese ones: Download Download I particularly like the second one - it reminds me of Addison Station on the Blue Line.

Well, Qurlix already volunteered... I dunno. It's up to you guys. Right now, I'm rounding up the models from my HDD.

Ehhh... I'd be happy to give the models to someone, as long as they'd guarantee to finish it. I tried doing the whole thing myself, but due to the fact that I can't seem to find documentation on the RULs anywhere, I stalled after inserting the models as S3Ds into a DAT.All that's left would be for someone to write paths and do the RUL portions.

*sticks head in* Any questions about my puzzle pieces? I designed them so that the path files could be constrained to the road tiles. The parts in the corners wouldn't be seperate tiles, but rather an extension of the model for the center tile. The turns are as wide as I could possibly fit in that configuration.