GaryReggae

Fantastic work!

Looking good, did I hear you were planning to do Southampton? I made a start on it once, it's quite tricky! But good luck anyway!

Wow, this is looking great Frogface! I love urban renewal projects, for me they're the most exciting part of city development!

Hmmn, yes, roads, a subject that interests me a lot despite the fact I don't drive. Here in the UK, there are some significant differences to the US network. First of all, roundabouts (circular junction for normal roads) are used a great deal here. Freeways/highways are normally called Motorways while what are referred to in SC4 as 'Avenues' are normally called 'Dual Carriageways' in the UK. It is rare for Motorways to have more than three lanes, three being the most common although parts of the M25, the motorway that circles London (an outer ring road if you like) has up to five lanes. There is a fairly comprehensive system of Motorways throughout the UK although environmental concerns mean that very few major roads are constructed nowadays, most of the current network was originally constructed in the 1950s. Here are some of the main ones: M1 - London - Leeds M2 - London - Kent M3 - London - Southampton M4 - London - South Wales M5 - London - Exeter M6 - Rugby - Carlise M25 - London ring road M40 - London - Birmingham M11 - London - Cambridge After Motorways, the next most important type of road is 'A' Roads , so called because the number of the roads begins with A, eg A27. These can be anything from three lane dual carriageways to single lane country roads. The numbering system used for the UK road network is interesting. The single-digit A roads, eg A1, A2, A3 etc all radiate out from London and the road numbers are taken clockwise from the nearest A road for example a road between the A2 and A3 would have a 2 as the first number. On a more urban scale, the layout of UK towns is cities is usually very different to the 'Grid Iron' pattern commonly used in US cities. Some Victorian built areas and new Towns have grid patterns however the roads in cities always have names rather than numbers (except in Milton Keynes, a New Town which DOES have a US style grid scheme with numbers for all the roads), roads are usually named after local councillors (ie Harryman Road) or have a theme such a tree names, poets or Roman emporors. Common suffixes for road names include: Road Avenue Close Way Court Grove Street Lane Generally, the urban road layout is hard to describe as it varies tremendously but roads are rarely straight, seem to run at random (usually a legacy of building new areas around existing settlements) and cul-de-sacs (dead end roads) are common in residential areas. That's the general picture, now I'll go into a bit more detail about the roads in and around Southampton, my home city. Southampton's main arterial route is the M3 motorway that leads directly to London. However, the M3 ends just North of the city, visitors can either go Eastbound or Westbound along the M27 at the end or along the A33 (Bassett Avenue), a wide 'boulevard' style road that leads directly to the city centre. M27 Eastbound leads to Southampton Airport (which is actually in the neighbouring town of Eastleigh) and then on to Portsmouth before joining the A27 which goes towards Kent. The M27 Eastbound provides another link into Southampton by means of the M271 spur motorway which branches off the M27 at the first junction. The M271 is something of a strange motorway, only having three junctions and two lanes and there is not a proper gerade-separated intersection where it joins the M27 - just a roundabout which causes a HUGE traffic bottleneck at peak times. After the M271 junction, the M27 Westbound is downgraded to an A-Road - The A31 - which leads through the beautiful New Forest and then on to Bournemouth and the South West. Back on the M271, the middle junction leads to a local suburb and the final junction, in Redbridge, joins onto the A33 - Westbound this leads to Totton (voted one of the UK's worst towns in a recent book called 'Crap Towns') and the New Forest and Eastbound it goes to the City Centre. This is the only Primary Route A-Road serving the city centre. Other arterial routes out of the city centre include: A3025 - (Portsmouth Road) - Goes over the Itchen Bridge, the furthest crossing point of the River Itchen Bridge to Goes over Northam Bridge through Bitterne to Junction 8 of the M27 (Bursledon). A3024 - (Northam Road/Bitterne Road) - Goes over Northam Bridge through Bitterne to Junction 8 of the M27 (Bursledon). A3057 - (Shirley High Street/Romsey Road) - Goes via Shirley (local shopping area) to Romsey and then Andover. A335 - (Thomas Lewis Way) - Goes through Portswood (another local shopping district) to Eastleigh before joi9ning the M3 at junction 12. On a more reigional scale, the other major roads in the region include: A3 - London - Portsmouth A30/A303 - London - Cornwall A31 - Guildford - Southampton - Poole A32 - Gosport - Fareham - Alton A33 - Southampton - Reading. A34 - Southampton - Oxford & beyond A35 - Swaythling (suburb of Southampton) - Bournemouth - Exeter A36 - Totton - Salisbury - Bristol A27 - (near Salisbury) - Southampton - Brighton - Hastings Sorry, I got a bit carried away there but as you can see, the British road system is very interesting! There's great website for anyone that wants to find out more, see this very comprehensive website: http://www.cbrd.co.uk

Southampton, England

I think London';s Lloyds Building is a great example of this style:

A viaduct is a long bridge used to carry a means of tranport (usually but not always railway lines) across a valley. A bridge is used to carry same route across a river, estuary or other obstruction. Viaducts are commonly used to enable railway lines to traverse difficult terrain that would otherwise be too steep for trains, the top half of the hill is often cut out (ot tunneled through) and then the viaduct is used to fill in the 'gap' that is caused by the valley. Here is an example:

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//DSCF0018.JPG align=baseline>Nice Portsmouth buildings there Tonks! There's another building near Cosham station I like, I think it might be a telephone exchange or something? It's got a 1950s look about it. Anyway, I was in Winchester today so here are a couple of pictures of Winchester's most Brutalist building (by far), the Council Offices complex: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//DSCF0017.JPG align=baseline>

Hmmn, try reducing the Intensity setting of the omnis, that should make them a bit less dazzling! That's the thing with Omnis, they take a lot of tweaking to get right but it's worth the effort as they look a lot more realistic.

They look good UW - I'll certainly be downloading them when I go home.

Date: 7/14/2005 3:17:21 AM Author: Lord_Bertrum Gary, do they make it look as if there are lights on inside the room as opposed to a wall of light.quote> Yes, that's right, Omni lights act in much the same way as real lights, ie throwing light in all directions wheras the standard Maxis nightlighting just adds a bright texture to the surfaces it is applied to. Where buildings have transparant windows, Omni lights look far more realistic. The disadvantage is they increase rendering time and can require a lot of tweaking to get the effect right.

I would say The Armadillo was Modernist/Futuristic.

Nice work UW, the houses have a kind of 60s look to them!

Looking good Glenni, maybe you should use Omni lights for nightlighting as I think they'd make it more realistic (although they can be a pain sometimes!!!)

Modernism in its various guises, definitely. Particularly seaside style architecture and Brutalism. As for my favourite buildings, they would be Portsmouth's Clarence Pier or Tricorn Centre (now demolished ) or London's Barbican Centre.

I'm afraid I'm not a fan of Postmodernism but there are some interesting examples of the style in Southampton: De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel: http://www.garyreggae.co.uk/southampton/images/bbb_devere002.JPG align=baseline> Virgin Megastore: http://www.garyreggae.co.uk/southampton/images/ddd_abovebar007.JPG align=baseline> Marlands shopping centre: http://www.garyreggae.co.uk/southampton/images/bbb_marlands002.JPG align=baseline>

http://www.c20society.org.uk - A website dedicated to preserving 20th century architecture with some great articles and photos of specific buildings.

Well done folks! It's fantastic to have a place where we can discuss different architectural concepts and urban planning/real world cities.

Sorry to 'bump' this thread but I've been out with the camera tonight to photograph some more interesting Southampton buildings: Fantastically Brutalist student tower block, Swaythling: Walk-up flats, Townhill Park: A beautiful Modernist (50s I guess) church in Bitterne (I am going to BAT this when I get round to it!): Sainsbury's supermaret, Bitterne: A lovely 1930s library, Bitterne: The old Meridian TV studio, Northam. Meridian moved to Whitely earlier this year and this place has remained derelict and boarded up ever since. No doubt the bulldozers will be in soon : Millbank House, Northam and some tatty shops: I hope these pictures are interesting and inspiring! I'll be taking more regardless as it's part of a Geographing project I am taking part in!

Wow, very nice row houses UW! They're very Modernist. One comment though, the front doors need to be a lot taller, as they're not 'door shaped' at the moment, I would say the top of the doors need to come up as high as the ground floor bay windows. I generally use 1.75M x 3M for doors although I'm not sure that's 100% accurate.

Good work Glenni! One suggestion, I still think the large full height windows on the jutting out section look a bit plain. Either you need to add some internal detailing (this type of structure would probably contain a stairwell in a real building or change the opacity of the glass on that section so it's not so transparant.