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CoriBoom Better EPIC Screenshot Technique (Pixel Aligned City Pictures)
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
Better Exact Position In City Screenshots Technique (Pixel Aligned City Pictures) This is useful for before and after pictures as well as a progression series. I've discovered a previously unknown cheat code in the vanilla game which makes the EPIC technique so much easier. CB and I then worked together to figure out exactly how to control it. (Without his help, I'd've dismissed it as bugged.) This new tutorial replaces my old one here. I'll use my Farmhouse in Corillion as the sample again, but then the rest will all be new. Cori's Farmhouse in the Year 884: Cori's Farmhouse in the Year 1924: ^ Click an image and then use the right and left arrow keys to flip between them. Tutorial If you already have development in your city tile then you can use buildings or roads or such for positioning. For the above I used the Broquard's Cement Plant in the lower right as my guide by noting how much shows and where the edge cuts off part of the silos. (This is for double checking in a later step.) For this little tutorial, I'll start in an empty tile with a rail line running thru it. First I positioned the world how I want it for later pics. Then I plopped power towers in the lower right so one of them is nearly touching the taskbar and the edge of the game's window border. Next pull up the cheat code box using Ctrl+x. Type in sizeof 200 and press the enter key. ^ Note: There is a space between the sizeof and the 200. Open the cheat code box again (Ctrl+x). Type in TerrainQuery and press the enter key. Click the Query Tool. Change to the Zones DataView and hover the query tool in the center of the image. Make note of the values for x, y, and z. If they have a number to the right of the decimal point, include the decimal point and number too. If that's a zero to the right of the decimal point, then you need not worry about it. Using those numbers, type in SetViewTarget CoriSaysGoTo 2120 267 697 and press the enter key. (The numbers are obtained from the above query, ofc.) Also note that there is a space between the SetViewTarget and the CoriSaysGoTo as well as between the Numbers. Zoom out to the size which you started with. ^ Notice the power towers are right where we want them to be and can now be bulldozed. (This is the double checking the position part I mentioned before.) Do copy that command (the SetViewTarget CoriSaysGoTo 2120 267 697 (with your own numbers, ofc)) to a text file and save that so you have it anytime you want to take a later screenshot which will be perfectly pixel aligned with prior images. Cori Edit Start: Special Note About Decimal Points in the Coordinates Let's say you have this instead of a simple one like I showed above: ^ In this case you'd use SetViewTarget CoriSaysGoTo 2116.3 309 1900.1 Cori Edit End. Sample Progression Series Here are example pics of how this can be used. I'm showing the progression of how I grow a small farming town which has a wee bit of industrial. Click an image and use your right and left arrow keys to flip between them. More Info Check out the next post where @Cyclone Boom uses this technique to show the expansion of a growing town. He also presents some tips and tricks he discovered while we were testing. Additionally: Thanks to CB for creating the Banner Pic up top of this thread.- 13 Replies
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- simcity 4
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tutorial EPIC Technique for Centered City Screenshots
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
See here for a much easier way to do this. Old tutorial: Exact Position In City Technique for Centered City Screenshots (This is useful for before and after pictures.) This is a technique I discovered a long time ago and both @Cyclone Boom and I use it. We've been intending to write up a little tutorial for it and I'm just now getting around to it. The basic idea is that peeps do have incremental saves of their cities and might at some point want to show before and after pictures. Here's an image I posted a year or so ago and I was curious what that area looks like now. Cori's Farmhouse in the Year 884: I go to the same location in Year 1924 of my current play version, press Ctrl+X to bring up the cheat dialog box and type in terrainquery then press Enter: ^ Note: Neither this cheat command nor the upcoming sizeof require the Extra Cheats DLL, but it's ok to have that mod installed. To activate said Terrain Query, click the Query button: Edit Start: @Cyclone Boom has found this should be done in the Zones DataView. Sometimes when centering on the coordinates and having the trees and buildings visible, it can be off by 1 to several pixels in the final screenshots. When using the Zones View, this little glitch does not occur and the images will match up pixel for pixel. End Edit. Next mouse over a location where the image is to be centered. Write down the X and Y coordinates. (In this case X=2143.9 and Y=2716.2.) Right click to center the city there: This gets it really close, but it's way too easy to wiggle the mouse a fraction of an inch and not really be centered exactly where it should be. So, Ctrl+X again and type in sizeof 13 in the cheat box: After you press Enter, the city will be zoomed in more than you can do with the mouse scroll. It'll get all pixelated, but that's ok. Find your exact position again for X and Y and right click. Because you have some wiggle room where the X and Y doesn't change, this'll be more precise: Save the city: As soon as the save finishes, the zoom is reset: Exit the game and copy in your prior saved version of the city. (Be sure you have a separate saved copy of the current one, ofc.) Center that roughly the same as the other image: ^ This won't be lined up perfect yet. That comes next. Do the terrainquery and sizeof 13 cheats, then find the exact position for X and Y that you wrote down, and right click the mouse to center this one the same as the other: ^ Note: You can use a larger number than 13 (up to 64) for sizeof. I picked 13 for this tutorial as a balance between precision and still being able to make out the location visually. It is the X and Y coordinates which are the important part. Save the city and now you are ready to grab the screenshot(s). I did several zooms for each picture and then re-numbered them so they are in Before and After sequence. (To best see how precise this method is, click one of the pictures below and use your right and left arrow keys to flip between them.) An additional use for the sizeof cheat is to use sizeof 0 to zoom out one more notch when you want to see more of a large city tile.- 10 Replies
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- simcity 4
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Seemed to remember seeing this "show us" a while back, but couldn't find it, so i figured i'd start a new one! Anywho, i'll start! Show us your areas the way they looked before and the way the look now! First off, this is the east part of downtown. BEFORE: AFTER: And this is my whole downtown area as seen from the west. BEFORE: AFTER:
