MallowTheCloud

Date: 4/24/2005 1:21:45 PM Author:cogeo STEX: Uploading / Title: The name may not contain accented characters, as the comment suggests (though I do not like this, It's not that bad either), but why not allowing punctuation? (slash, dash, point, comma etc). This would make names much more readable. To make things worse, the site just deletes all punctuation symbols without warning. If you insist not allowing punctuation, the form should not allow the characters to be typed, or alternatively issue a warning (otherwise titles can indeed be mangled).quote> I completely agree. I have tried to put - I don't know how many times, and every time I forget that I can't, so it takes it out. Now, I have a map called Portland Oregon City of Roses. If that's not cluttered, I don't know what is.

No problem! And, great map!

Well, since my computer crashed I've been practicing, and I think I have improved since the days of Duthford and Esta Yew (with the help of lots of mods, and looking over and over again at Jeroni's Sculpting Columbia River). So, I think it's about time for me to try my hand at another CJ. I downloaded the map for Nehalem Bay (an area on the Oregon Coast). So, logically I named my city Nehalem. However, as the map is not to scale (the map on the STEX is actually much bigger than the real thing) I am not doing the actual city. In fact, this is one of my first real metropolis areas. I am using a lot of mods and other STEX items, and it would take awhile to name them all... but I would like to thank Simtropolis and all those modders, batters, and other creators for making City Journals possible in the first place. Alright then, on with it. This first update is a long one to get us started. First, an elevation map of the city of Nehalem. Now, a few of the early terraforming and city layout images. That last one ^ shows the grid layout for a small part of downtown. I know many of you don't like grids, but have no fear. Only a small portion of downtown is layed out in a grid as you shall see. Anyways, early on I got a cruise port... so here it is. One of my favourite parts is my park downtown, as seen below. First is an earlier version, then I made the light rail line run through the park (wouldn't you love to be on that light rail line?) And yes, these are Jeroni's parks! Thanks, Jeroni! A couple of other light rail pictures are seen below. First, an interchange. The second one is kind of hard to see because the buildings are in the way... but it's a loop of one way road, and the only access to it is the light rail. Next, we have some earlier views of downtown before I started adding some residential areas. Finally, we have the latest versions of Nehalem that I have made so far. And, just for those that may be wondering... I have a temporary city next to Nehalem to add demand so I can build my downtown first. As everything in Nehalem is slowly completed and I start going elsewhere in the region, I will gradually delete the temporary city. So, any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!! Thanks.

Ay, ay, ay!!! Sorry, I forgot all about it! I feel soooo bad!

Yep, I have started Mallorca already. I'm also still looking in to working on all these requests, so if you have requested something already, know that it's not forgotten.

Very good (and hard) work! Nice job, keep it up!

So will I... but keep in mind Daylight Saving Time... For me it says -8, but because of DST it's actually -7 (which means I'll be going to the meeting at 15:00 my time).

Hmm... sorry to hear that. Ummm, I know what we could try. Upload the jpg/bmp file here. I will edit it so it has water, and show you how I did it. Does that sound like a good idea?

Ok... so, the water is not showing up. Let me try to explain how the maps work. Each shade of grey represents a different elevation. The closer to white a grey is, the higher in elevation. The closer to black, the lower the elevation. There are 256 total grey colors... starting from black, which is 0 Red, 0 Green, and 0 Blue. The last is white, which is 255 Red, 255 Green, and 255 Blue. So, the lowest elevation you can get is black, or 0 RGB. Likewise, the highest elevation you can get is white, or 255 RGB. The sea level just happens to be between 83 and 84 RGB. So, if you make something at 83 RGB, it will be barely underwater. If you make something at 84 RGB, it will be barely above water. The problem that you are having is that your darkest grey (lowest elevation) is ABOVE 84 RGB, and therefore above water. That makes your entire landform dry. This is why the three solutions that I gave to you above work. If you follow the instructions, they will give you an RGB below 83 (I suggested 75).

Hmm... well using one of the above methods will put water in to the region. There is no reason it shouldn't... unless you didn't follow the instructions. Is the only problem with the water?

Very good update! And, global warming eh? Well, nobody said every aspect of global warming was bad, right?

Ah! I see. So the first image is of the terrain you're working on, and the second is when you invert it, right? Ok, well first of all, you will not want to invert the image. The one on top is correct. The only problem is that this is an inland region. So, everything is above sea level (even the rivers). Unfortunately, SimCity4 only puts water at sea level. You have three options... one is to go in to paint, and using a grey that is about 75,75,75 (Red,Green,Blue), paint the river in by hand. The second is to go in to an image editing program like IrfanView, and darken the entire image. There are a few problems with this. One is that rivers might be too wide and/or shallow. The other is you have to know just how much to darken your image. The other option is more accurate, but MUCH harder. So, what you will have to do is a bit confusing: actually I have just recently created a tutorial for just such an issue... here's the part that you will need... though it's the hardest part of region creation... First, the tools: Landscape Designer IrfanView iDraw Character Maker MS Paint And of course, Sim City 4 On to the hard part. You have to go to google and find a map where the water in the area is a solid color. If you can find one with a scale that's even better. Here's what I found for Las Vegas: Now, do a printscreen, paste it in to IrfanView, select and crop the image like we did with the dlgv32 Pro image. Save this file as LasVegasTemplate.bmp so your screen should now look something like this: Now, we want to go to Image on the menu, and Decrease Color Depth... Choose Custom and set it to 64 colors. This will make it easier to select the water color later: Now, save the file again. We also want to find out how many pixels the scale is... see the scale at the top of the image? It says five km. Well, when you select an area in IrfanView, at the top it tells you how many pixels it is. It turns out the 5km scale at the top is 38 pixels wide. Close IrfanView, and open your LasVegasTemplate.bmp in iDraw. We want to make ALL the water the same color, but right now there are some words and stuff covering parts of the water. So, using our handy tools, right click on the water color to select it, then draw over the words. Also, we want to paint with a different color over the interstate symbols, in case they share any colors with the water... here are two pics... before, and after: Now, we want to set the water color to a grey, with 75 for each RGB. So, right click on the water to select the color, then double click on the color to change it: Next, we want to set ALL the other colors to white. So, the easiest way to do this is to set the first color to white, set the color before the water to white, set the color after the water to white, and then set the last color to white. Then, using the gradient tool mentioned above, fade the white to white... see the images below: Notice that I forgot to paint over one of the interstate symbols, so I have a ring of dark up near the top of my image. I will fix that by hand painting white over it. Now, save your LasVegasTemplate.bmp, close iDraw, and open the file in IrfanView. We want to increase the color depth to 24BPP, and then convert to greyscale like we did with the other file. We also want to resize the image like we did with the last one. Remember the 5km scale? Well, 5 x 64 is 320, so it should be 320 pixels wide... but ours was only 38. So, we need to find out what scale we need to resize it to... Using Windows calculator, 320 divided by 38 is about 8.421. So, we need to multiply our image by 8.421... right now the template is 461 pixels wide, and using windows calculator to multiply 461 by 8.421, we get 3882. So, we need to increase this template to 3882 pixels. Save your image. Keep in mind, my template is from MapQuest and was at a zoom that makes it to where the water when resized will be very blocky. If you have your monitor resolution a lot higher, and you find a bigger map at a closer zoom, your water will not be as blocky. Finally, we need to merge our images. For this we can use our trusty MSPaint which comes with all Windows computers. First, open your LasVegas.bmp... then go Edit in the menu, and Paste From... . Choose your LasVegasTemplate.bmp and if it says it's too large, do NOT resize your image. Now, on the left there will be two little image icons under all the tools... select the second one. This will drop all the white to the background. The next part is easiest to do when you can obviously tell where a river should go. With Las Vegas, I am going to have to guesstimate... What you need to do is drag the pasted image to where the water is in the right place: IMPORTANT NOTE: Often, the scale of the template map will be off. So, you will almost always have to do some tweaking with the size of the template. Do this in IrfanView. Make sure you deselect Preserve Aspect Ratio when resizing, because sometimes the water will need to be stretched vertically or horizontally. This is where you have to use your best judgment to get the water in the right place. It will take a lot of trial and error, and may even take some research. Next, you will want to save your LasVegas.bmp again. Now, reopen it in iDraw and make sure there's no water in high elevations... on my LasVegas one, I do have to fix one such area: After fixing those water-in-high-elevation issues (which are rare, I might add)... we are almost done! Open Landscape Designer. Select Region Name DB and in the bottom right, type the name of your region. Then click the Write Region.ini button. Now, select Terrain Generator. Hit CTRL-R and open your file (mine is LasVegas.bmp)... it will then ask you to choose a size. Click Nearest Dimensions and then click OK Now, hit CTRL-O, create your config.bmp file, hit CTRL-C, and quit Landscape Designer. Finally, open your SC4 game, open your new region, hit CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-R, go to the region folder (likely C:\My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\), go to the newly created folder of the city we're working on, and select the .jpg file that was created. This should start the rendering, and you should have your region!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You've done it.

Date: 4/21/2005 5:02:53 AM Author: jeronij MTC, Gracias por la bienvenida amigo !!! quote> De nada, amigo! Y gracias a usted por las ciudades maravillosas! I always love seeing new updates from you, Jeroni! Keep it up!

That means that the scale is off. You need to darken the image... sorry I can't explain it any better than that.

Ok, well I can help you with the config.bmp creation! There are two methods... the first is with the program your working on now, and the second is with a different (I believe better) program. 1) I believe your problem is that it needs to be 1023 by 1023... not 1025 by 1025. However, you will want to crop out the scale bar first. 2) You will want to crop out the scale bar first. This program can help with many different aspects of SC4 terrain creation. Once you've downloaded and installed the program, open Landscape Designer. Select Region Name DB and in the bottom right, type the name of your region. Then click the Write Region.ini button. Now, select Terrain Generator. Hit CTRL-R and open your greyscale file... it will then ask you to choose a size. Click Nearest Dimensions and then click OK Now, hit CTRL-O. This is where the program allows you to create your config.bmp file, hit CTRL-C, and quit Landscape Designer. Finally, open your SC4 game, open your new region, hit CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-R, go to the region folder (likely C:\My Documents\SimCity 4\Regions\), go to the newly created folder of the city we're working on, and select the .jpg file that was created. This should start the rendering, and you should have your region!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You've done it. I hope this helps. If you need pictures, I'm sure I can take some screenshots for you.

Date: 4/20/2005 6:49:58 PM Author: SC4 meister Looking good dude! Although I prefer to have to full pictures in the post itself, I'm too lazy to click on all of the thumbnails.quote> I think I can arrange that from now on... And, thanks for the comment!

Great update!!! but.... lol.... the first image has palm trees galore!!! In Alaska... It's ok, it's still a wonderful update.

Great update as always!!!! And: Page 50!!! Congratulations!!!!

Hello all! EDIT: Oops!!!! I almost forgot to thank EVERYBODY who commented after the last update!!! SC4 meister, Mexicanboy13r, jacqulina, PhilsCafe, Shadow_Assassin, sloppet, and also Granthos for commenting on this update--thank you ALL for your great comments! Is it time for an update? Of course it is! I just wanted to show Damascus, the mountain village, and Moro from slightly different perspectives: And next is the heavy traffic on the highway between Moro and Nehalem. The first is early morning rush hour, and the next two are afternoon rush hour... Finally, why is there so much traffic, you ask? Well, here's a census of the cities on the region! And as always, any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!!! Thanks.

Las Vegas has been released, and is slated to show up soon!