Vandy

VANDY's Piano Players Unite!! Introduction Hi, All. My name is Gary and I go by Vandy on the 'net. I'll answer to either name. I'm a 58 year old male living in North Carolina, USA. I've been playing piano since I was 10 years old (1960) and now, 49 years later, still enjoy it tremendously. I have a Yamaha DGX-500 Keyboard (shown below) that I dearly love to play. It is a full 88 key keyboard and allows me to record up to 5 tracks plus accompaniment. It has a very large choice of voices and styles to use and a great library of prerecorded songs. This model is no longer being made by Yamaha but if you're interested in learning more about it, you can click on the DGX-500 link. I also have a Yamaha M500F 45 inch upright piano which I also dearly love to play (picture below). I got it for Christmas 2006. It has allowed me to really expand my piano playing and become the player I am today. Sorry for the grainy pictures. I took them with my camera phone this morning before I left for work. I'll try and take better pictures this weekend with my digital camera and repost the pictures. I took lessons from January, 2007 through May, 2007 and did one recital during that time period. I played Chopin's Opus 28, Prelude #4. For those of you who know this piece, it was fun and a bit challenging to learn. I was ready to go for my recital and was doing pretty good. Then, I got into measure 17 and met my Waterloo! Well, I just stopped after butchering the measure, look at the audience and said, "Sorry about that." I backed up a few measures and played the piece through to its end. I started taking piano lessons again this January, 2009 and will be taking them through May, 2009. I plan on taking off the summer and returning to the lessons in September, 2009. We are having our recital on 2 May 2009. I will be playing the "Flower Song" from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet. Music I Enjoy Playing My tastes in (listening) music are very eclectic -- classical, 1920s-40s standards, jazz, blues, big band, gospel, folk, rock, popular, alternative, house, dance, grundge, etc. However, when it comes to the piano, I really enjoy playing classical, standards, gospel, jazz, blues and pop. Here is a list of music that I've been playing since starting lessons again this January: Chopin's Opus 28, Prelude #4 (I wanted to "brush up" and get better playing it)The Toccata part of Bach's Toccat and Fuge in D minor (arranged for piano)Handel's LargoJim Brickman's Winter Peace Bizet's Flower Song from Carmen (my May recital piece)Grandos' OrientalBeethoven's Violin Concerto, the First Movement, Second Theme and Second and Third Movement Themes I'll see if I can record some sound bites of the above pieces and post them in this thread. Well, that pretty much details me and my piano background. I very excited to have you post your backgrounds as well. Have a great day! Regards, Gary (Vandy)

Hello, Demolisher. Assuming you are downloading a "standard SC4 map (grayscale image and config.bmp files), follow the instructtions in the Installing a Region Downloaded from the STEX article in the OmniMaps section of the Simtropolis Omnibus of Knowledge. You should be able to install a region without any problems. Regards, Vandy

Originally posted by: Duke87 Originally posted by: ironicepitome do u happen to be a duke fan?quote> Depends on what kind of "Duke" you're talking about. Duke University, no. Duke Nukem, yes.quote> Careful, my freind, careful...

Hello, Lora. I see you're an "old timer" as to your time as a Simtropolis member. It's good to have the chance to chat with you. I've read through your message and believe I have some information for you. It won't necessarily be the answer you desire, however. Let me try and answer your questions in order. Before I do so, you might want to read througn my series of articles in the OmniMaps - Mapping and Terraforming Information section of the Simtropols Omnibus of Knowledge. Specifically, the articles that detail how to create an American Southwest, Monument Valley terrain have an embedded SC4Terraformer tutorial in them. 1.) So far I have not been able to figure out how to print screen or save a snapshot of the game with the contour tool engaged. This MIGHT help, but really, for my needs, I don' think it would, much, but maybe.quote> This is possible to do but the results leave quite a bit to be desired. I will assume that you know how to use SC4Terraformer and its various commands and shortcuts. A) From the 3D view window, position your terrain so that you are looking top down on the entire region. (This is done by using the cursor keys in conjunction with the Ctrl and Shift keys as I explain in my SC4Terraformer tutorial mentioned above.) B) Pressing the "G" key will toggle between contour lines and grid lines. Display the contour lines. C) From the 3D view window, click on File - Take a Picture (or, Ctrl + Shift + S). D) Name and save the picture. You will now have a .PNG file of your region top down showing contour lines. Simple? Yes. Useful? Maybe. If you have a very large region, you may have difficulty differentiating between contour lines. The only way you are going to be able to get a picture that clearly shows your contour lines is to take many pictures of your region, a small section at a time. 2.) There seems to be some distortion between the horizontal axis and vertical axis of the game in regards to game contours, but this may be perception only on my part. Game contours seem to be 132m apart. I have no way to draw a line straight up and then straight over to check and see if the vertical/horizontal is on a 1:1 basis (or at least I have not discovered how to do that, yet). But, over all, the in game contours seem a bit "flat" or compressed to me, on the vertical. There could be some very good reason for this and maybe, like other folks into mapping, I am going to have to multiply my verticals by some unknown (as yet) factor, to compensate for this real (or percieved) flattening.quote> This may very well be true but I must be honest with you and say that it is not something that I have ever bothered to determine or, for that matter, has ever made a difference to me when making maps. (Implied question) How do I get a birds eye view when using SC4Terraformer?quote> In SC4Terraformer, from the 3D window, click on File - Show Overview (or, Ctrl + V) and an Overview window will open showing you a top down view of your entire region. You can save an image of the region but it will not have grid lines or contour lines. Clicking anywhere on this image will immediately take you to the same part of the region in the 3D window. Finally, Lora, you might want to spend some time looking through the forums at Cartographers' Guild. While this Website is not SimCity 4 related, there are many very good threads that cover many aspects of mapping as well as river placement, mountain chains, etc. I hope this information will be useful to you. Regards, Gary (Vandy)

Hey, All. I spent four years in the US Navy (Aviation) from 1969 through 1973 then another five years in the US Naval Aviation Reserves from 1980 through 1985. I very much enjoyed my time serving and believe I am a better man for it. Regards, Gary (Vandy)

Hello, autroy29. This can be done, although, I don't honestly know how good the results would be having never done it myself. First of all, how was the map made? Was it made as a grayscale image and config.bmp file or was it made with SC4Terraformer? If it was made with SC4Terraformer, you're going to have a problem. You can create a new config.bmp file that is 3 large city tiles by 3 large city tiles (the file would be 12 pixels x 12 pixels). The problem is that the .SC4M file that was created with SC4Terraformer cannot be resized to the dimensions by the new config.bmp file. If the map was made from a grayscale image and config.bmp file, you can resize both. You'll want to resize or create a new config.bmp file that is all blue (RGB = hex 0000FF) and that is 12 pixels by 12 pixels in dimensions. The grayscale image can either be resized to the dimensions required by the new config.bmp file. This means you would need to use some graphics editor application to resize the grayscale image to 769 pixels x 769 pixels. Another way to do this is to use SC4Terraformer. Once you've launched the application, fpllow the below steps: 1) Click on File - Open a region. 2) Navigate to the folder in which you've saved your new config.bmp file (the resized file) and click the OK button. 3) In the Report dialog box, you should see a representation of your new config.bmp file. Click the OK button. 4) A blank region is shown with the dimensions taken from the config.bmp file. 5) Open the Global tools. 6) Click on the Import image button. 7) In the Import image dialog box, click on the browse button ( ... ) and navigate to where your ORIGINAL (not a resized) grayscale image is located. Highlight the ORIGINAL grayscale image file and click the Open button. 9) In the Import image dialog box, click the OK button. 10) You will get in Impart warning message letting you know the dimensions are not correct and do you wish to resize the image. Click the Yes button. 11) At the "You have selected a 8bit image" dialog box, click the Greyscale button. 12) You will see the resized region in SC4Terraformer. Bear in mind that you've imported a 8-bit image. Consequently, what you are viewing may look a bit "rough" and will require some work to get the terrain to look proper. Good luck. Regards, Vandy

Thanks to Laser Cats -- er, SWAT-MEDIC, CaptCity and tungston for helping to answer zioburosky13's question. Regards, Vandy

Thanks to io_bg and CaptCity for their help in answering SimmyMaster's question. Regards, Vandy

Hello, zcg4755. I am assuming you are using the Winzip application. If so, below is where to find the "Use Folder Names" option: 1) Using Winzip, open the zipped archive. 2) Form the open archive window, click on the Extract button. 3) From the Extract dialog box, navigate to where you wish to extract the files. 4) There are a set of checkboxes below the navigate window of the Extract dialog box. Make sure the one labeld "Use folder names" is checked. This ensure that the proper sub-folder structure is recreated when the files are extracted. If you are using some other kind of extracting application, it should have a similar choice within it. Good luck. Regards, Vandy

Hello, zcg4755. I would suggest you read the following article: Downloading, Installing and Running SC4Terraformer You'll find that you are not suppose to unzip the library archive. Regards, Vandy

Hey, All. Since we've got a new "Post your Pictures Here" thread, I thought it only appropriate that I post some pictures of myself in case anyone was curious as to just who is Vandy? This first picture was taken in 1973 while serving aboard the USS Wainwright somewhere in the Med. It shows a much younger Vandy with a great deal more hair than he has now... The next picture is also from 1973 (and still in the US Navy) while performing at a coffeehouse in Palma, Mallorca: This next picture... WHOOPS!! Wrong picture. This next picture is from August, 2008 and shows myself and my wonderful wife of 35 years, Christine: Hope y'all enjoyed this little bit of phtographic history. Regards, Gary (Vandy)

My very best and hearty congratulations to Tarkus and Zel -- two very deserviing people for the MOTM and EOTM awards. You both deserve this award for your dedication not only to the SimCity 4 game but for the support you give to Simtropolis members as well as for just being really nice people. Oh! By the way, Zel... Shaoi dan, Hwiiy Vorta Voren lagga. Khnai'ra. (My apologies if my grammar is not 100 % accurate.) Regards, Gary

Hello, gamezrule44. How to use Terragen is well beyond the scope of the Simtropolis Mapping Community Board Room. Nonetheless, you've posed a very valid question. One of the easiest ways of creating Terragen regions is to simply run the application and "play" with the settings until you're comfortable with them and like what you've created. There are a number of Terragen resources on the 'net. A quick Google search will be quite useful for you. I would suggest spending some time at the below resource page as you will not only get some great information but a wealth of great Terragen plug-in sites. Planetside's Terragen Resources Page Good luck to you and I look forward to seeing what you create. Regards, Vandy

Hello, gidget123c. I would suggest reading the article entitled Downloading, Installing and Running SC4tTerraformer. It is located in the OmniMaps section of the Simtropolis Omnibus. I believe it will answer your installation questions. Regards, Vandy

Interesting question, gamezrule44. Depending upon the mood I'm in, the phase of the moon or what I'm trying to accomplish, I'll do any of the following: Hand-draw a map and scan it in. Use Terragen to create a terrain. Use World Machine to create a terrain. Use a combination of both Terragen and World Machine to create a terrain. Use Wilbur to create a terrain. Use Paint Shop Pro or PhotoShop to create a terrain. Use SC4Terraformer to create a terrain. Finally, regardless of the original method used, I always use SC4Terraformer to completely finish my maps. I leave the in-game terraforming tools to the person downloading and using the map. Regards, Gary (Vandy)

Hi, All. at 0730 18 FEB 09, I was able to download this map file and open it without problems. I will comment, however, that the file as uploaded is named Nicés.zip, however; the file downloaded is named Nics.zip. There may very well be a problem with the original file name using the " é " character. It would be a good idea if Johan (Jawzz) reuploaded the zip archive without using this special character. Regards, Gary (Vandy)

Hello, rumy-2. Make sure you understand the relationship between your grayscale image and the config.bmp file. For example, if you have a grayscale image that has the dimensions of 1025 x 1025 pixels, then your config.bmp file must be 16 x 16 pixels. The actual formula is shown below: (grayscale image width - 1) / 64 = config.bmp width (grayscale image height - 1) / 64 = config.bmp height likewise, (config.bmp width * 64) + 1 = grayscale image width (config.bmp height * 64) +1 = grayscale image height It would be a good idea for you to read through the following articles in the OmniMaps section of the Omnibus: Creating Area Strip Maps and Multiple SC4 Regions (The first section) Config.bmp: How to Make it Yours Good luck. Regards, Vandy

Hello, rumy-2. If I understand you correctly, you've taken the .SC4M file from the Matinenda map and saved it out as a grayscale image. If this is what you've done, be aware that the .SC4M file is 16-bit and any grayscale image saved out of SC4Terraformer is only 8-bit. Consequently, you are going to lose much detailed "information" as to the height map information for the map. Any map you try and render from the grayscale image WILL NOT look like the original. Regards, Vandy

Hello, gabamago936. Hmmm. This is an odd problem you are describing. Whenever you get a size error message, this typically means that your grayscale image or config.bmp files are the wrong size. The message you got doesn't make any sense as far as the reported size is concerned. 1250 is not evenly divisible by 64. I would have expected the size to be either 1280 x 1280 or 1216 x 1216 -- both evenly divisible by 64. What map are you trying to install? Know this will be quite helpful to me in trying to get you an answer to your problem. This may be a "last resort" attempt but you might want to consider uninstalling and reinstalling SimCity 4. Good luck! Regards, Vandy

Hi, Joetropian1. Be sure that your grayscale image is truly a grayscale -- that is, only 256 different shades of gray. If it anything other than that, it won't work. Also, depending upon how large your region is, it could take an appreciable amount of time before you see anything happening. Good luck! Regards, Vandy