-
Announcement
-
Simtropolis Returns! 05/26/2026
See here for details about our site recovery efforts.
-
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'mmps'.
Found 52 results
-
Version 1.0.0
620 Downloads
Plane trees by Girafe This is a set of plane trees flora for the mayor menu. You can find these creations at the beginning of the list of this menu. This plane trees series includes evergreen & seasonal versions. These trees are available in Lot Editor props section under the name: Grfe_plane_tree... The LE and MM props have been datpacked into two files: Grfe_props_pack_LE_plane_trees.dat (for the Lot Editor files) and Grfe_props_pack_MM_plane_trees.dat (for the MMPs). Special thanks to Orange, Simfox, Badsim, Carl and all BSC members. MOD Details and information Mayor mode version / props Menu position UP mayor menu Plop cost $ 0 Buldoze cost $ 0 Note: for fitting with other seasonal items, props need to be planted the 1st September. We do not recommand you to use seasonal trees on growable LOTs. We do not recommand you to use the props located in Flora's section under the LE. Compatibility This download is only compatible with SimCity 4 Rush Hour or SimCity 4 Deluxe. Installation Installation: copy/extract the BSC parent folder into your plugins. If you extracted the _Documents folder into your plugins, too, it's highly recommended to keep it, but move it out of the Plugins folder. Un-Installing: To un-install the files, simply bulldoze every lot from this download in your cities and delete the files from the plugins folder afterwards. Dependencies There is one dependency concerning the flora tuning parameters: BSC Seasonal Flora Patch for All Terrain Mods Notes about Nightlighting Effects Night light fix: you will not see any lighting effects on any custom buildings unless these two updates are installed. First, install the EP1-Update 1 1.1.638 for Rush Hour/SimCity 4 Deluxe to see nightlights. Then install the SC4-Update 1.1.640. You may have to accept the End User Licence Agreement. Disclaimer The usage of this download is on your own risk. I try to test my mod extensively, so they should work properly, but errors may still exist. Feel free to modify the mod for yourself and show them in your city journals, but please don't distribute them without asking first. Credits & Feedback Thank you all for having downloaded this mod, I hope it will give you satisfaction. For comments, questions and/or supports, please see my thread in SC4Devotion. -
Its a little bit of a bugbear for me - MMP's that might look really nice zoomed in, look janky and messy when zoomed out (see picture below). Is there anyway to make them look nicer? Does anyone have any that they recommend (especially for use on coastal scenes) that show up well when zoomed out?
-
Double click bug in "Windows XP" compatibility mode
TheMurderousCricket posted a topic in SC4 Bugs & Technical Issues
Perhaps it is an already known aspect of the game. If not, consider it a discovery or a warning. It involves, what I refer to as "cycleable MMPs". These are MMPs which you can place in your city and then click on them multiple times. Each click, results in different variation of the first object or in different objects appearing in lieu of the original one. Now, on to the bug. I ran my game on Windows 8.1 with the Windows XP compatibility mode enabled. When I tried to plop some of my cycleable MMPs in this mode, I noticed that odd instances of cycleables were always skipped. It was as if the game read my single click as two clicks at once. I don't remember how I ended up in the Win XP compatibility mode in the first place. I probably tried to resolve some other issue this way. The bottom line is you should probably avoid it! -
Entry 81 -- Pratchit's Top and the village of Kingsley
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 81: Pratchit's Top and the village of Kingsley Welcome back to another entry from the countryside- a rather mountainous one! Featuring mosaics and a few other special things too. This is the last time I use PNG for the pictures- this is due to all the HD flowers which would come out blurry or smudgy if rendered in JPG format. Let's get started! Note: The mosaics, pictures 14 and 24 respectively, where too large to upload in PNG form for Imageshack and Imgur. Thus I uploaded them onto my own Google Photo album, the reason for this is too fully capture the fidelity of the imageshack and the photoshop work, which is somewhat lost when rendered in JPG format. The link to the Google album is right here- https://photos.app.goo.gl/bk3M5MHek883TED88 {---} 1. The mountain being explored today is Pratchit's Top. 2. This is a mid-level mountain which borders the western starting point of Maular Valley. 3. The village of Kingsley at its southern-most point. 4. 5. Night-time and diagonals! 6. 7. 8. Moving up Maular Valley we come to Kingsley, the village which both marks a watershed between two major valleys and also a mountain pass. 9. Starting from Pillar, one of the three tallest mountains in the Cindersville area, we move eastwards towards Kingsley. 10. From the village of Kingsley, Pratchit's Top appears quite small. 12. Though from further away it is a dominant feature of Maular Valley. 13. Starting from the north, from Pratchit's Top and moving southwards until we hit the northern fringes of Cindersville's city centre. 14. Going from south to north. High quality version can be found here- https://photos.app.goo.gl/bk3M5MHek883TED88 15. 16. And now for a closer look at Pratchit's Top. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. This is going from west to east. 24. Going from east to west. High quality version can be found here- https://photos.app.goo.gl/bk3M5MHek883TED88 25. Having a look at the western moorland around Pratchit's Top. 26. 27. The eastern and northern slopes impose themselves upon the vilage of Kingsley. 28. The main road running out of Kingsley and moving on to the northeast. 29. Having a look at western Kingsley. 30. There are several paths which start from the village of Kingsley- in all directions. 31. A picture taken from the slopes north of Kingsley (north of Pratchit's Top). 32. Going from south to north. 33. The furthest western extent of Kingsley. 34. 35. Going from north to south. 36. 37. {---} The entry will be returning back to the city. Until then- stay safe and have a good week.- 12 Comments
-
- 26
-
-
Entry 80 -- Maular Valley Thanks a lot for your comments- I knew you'd like an entry full of grid-busting. This entry has further grid-busting but of a rural kind. Since most of these pictures use girafe's roses which come out as a blurry smudge when the image is converted into JPEG, then this entire entry is in PNG form. This is a one-off though. May God have mercy on your CPUs. {---} 1. Maular Valley starts from the north and gradually descends downwards into the Cindersville city centre. 2. It's called Maular after a youtuber who does great (comedic) commentary on recent films, in particular the Star Wars films. 3. The entire dark grey street is MMPed. 4. For those wondering about the sharp RHW-2 corner, it could not be smoothed as the turn was built on both a slope and it was next to an intersection. 5. The winding RHW-2 road is another one of those original features which I first included in Cindersville about two years ago. 6. 7. 8. In this entry we start from the bottom of Maular Valley, in the south, and move northwards all the way towards the top. 9. Sloping suburbs. 10. 11. Going from north to the south. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. This odd-shaped house was featured in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off- this has been recreated by Mattb325 and comes in a 6x6 lot. 17. This is why these pictures are in PNG format- due to all the rose meadows. We're starting from the west BTW. 18. Unfortunately in JPEG format the roses look like like a faint red smudge which would destroy the look of these pictures. 19. From north to south. 20. 21. We at last come to this bridge, this is another one of those happy accidents. 22. I was dragging the road across this small valley dip when the placeholder turned green- indicating that a bridge or tunnel can be built. 23. Another mosaic, this one starting from the east and ending in the west. 24. Instead of MMPing a stream, I decided to create a dried flood channel. 25. Everything tainted by the brown had been created by a flash flood. 26. Another happy accident was how MMPs could be placed UNDER the bridge. 27. The houses we see here are the southern-most extent of Kingsley- a village which I'll be showing in the next entry. 28. The village of Kingsley and the surrounding area will be featured next weekend. So until then have a good week!
- 10 Comments
-
- 25
-
-
-
Entry 79 -- Grid-busting in East Awnsale
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 79 -- East Awnsale Welcome back to another entry! Thanks a lot for your comments! If there are stretches of time between entries it is simply because I've busy with story-writing and my accountancy course. But you'll like this entry as this is all about grid-busting: diagonally and fractionally angled too! {---} 1. Today's area which this entry will explore. 2. The FA highway, the M6, was the first feature of Cindersville. Thus the first areas developed were right next to this highway. 3. For the FA buildings I used a mixture of C.P.'s and mattb325's FA buildings. 4. Cindersville has the greatest number of grid-busting city blocks of any city I have created thus far. 5. Even orthogonal zoning can have grid-busting if there are diagonal or fractionally angled buildings within the lots. 6. 7. Of course not only is there grid-busting but the countryside is fully MMP-ed up as well! 8. 9. Pure diagonals. 10. 11. The buildings to the right represent the western extent of the southern half of Cindersville's city centre. 12. For the back-alleys I used MMP cobble textures. 13. 14. Further MMPing, this time creating the houses' back gardens. 15. It took a long while MMPing both the street textures and then positioning the cars. 16. Orthogonal, diagonal and fractionally angled! 17. Another overview of Eastern Awnsale. 18. What we are seeing (up top) is the southern half... 19. Now it's time to explore the northern half. 20. But one more look at those FA buildings! 21. This roundabout happened by accident, by chance I realised that there a roundabout could be used to transition from FA-2 to FA-3 roads. 22. It's a great little accident because gives the appearance of the main road splitting in two. 23. The FA buildings here are C.P.'s industrial buildings. 24. Much of the northern half of Eastern Awnsale is built upon the mountain slopes. 25. There are villages further up the slopes yet only trees, ferns and paths separate these two distinct urban areas. 26. As can be seen here: to the bottom is the mountain village, on the top is Eastern Awnsale. This mountain village WILL be explored in a later entry. 27. The bottom of the picture shows the upper slopes of Pillar, one of the three highest mountains dominating the Cindersville skyline, the other two mountains being Mount Hefnall (already explored) and Rock of Heaven. 28. 29. Why use one of the parks from the menu when one can create said park with MMPs and a tree controller? 30. This park came about due to much of the area appearing very dry and rocky. 31. I emphasised the rockiness with gravel and rock cluster MMPs. 32. 33. I deliberately chose to use ferns for the lower elevations. 34. Zooming out we catch a glimpse of the western fringes of the northern half of Cindersville's city centre. 35. And this is where we get to the really good stuff! Note Pillar in the bottom right- that WILL be explored in a future entry. 36. Nearly all of the FA buildings were created by mattb325, they form his FA civic building series. 37. This area was MEGA fun to complete! 38. It's as if SC4 is no longer a grid-based building game! 39. It also took careful use of fillers to give each one of these FA buildings a notable presence. 40. You see these FA buildings usually come in the form of a building or an overhanging building- which leads plenty of space to create building grounds, car parks and other features... 41. This would never have been possible three or four years ago. So it's amazing to see how much this game has evolved thanks to new mods, buildings and fillers! 42. And the last picture for this entry. {---} Where next? Maular Valley! This valley is a VERY special area for it is a blend of suburbs, MMPs, grid-busting and some other unique features! For next Sunday as I have Thursday and Friday off to extend out my birthday weekend. See you then!- 17 Comments
-
- 30
-
-
-
New Year's Entry -- Mount Hefnall
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
New Year's Entry -- Mount Hefnall Welcome to 2021! For this entry I present a combination of old and new pictures from both Hefnall Forest and Mount Hefnall itself. The next entry will be in a different area of Cindersville but I really wanted to show how Mount Hefnall connects to the nearby areas and to Cindersville itself. With that said, goodbye 2020 and hello to some more SC4 goodiness! {---} 1. 2. A square mosaic I cobbled together about two weeks ago. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Mount Hefnall casts it shadow on Cindersville. 8. Mount Hefnall extends westwards thanks to it's L-shaped ridge. 9. From south to north. 10. From west to east. 11. The scree-strewn top of Mount Hefnall 12. 13. Mount Hefnall's eastern slopes. 14. Had to upload this square mosaic on Imgur because Imageshack wouldn't accept it! 15. {---} For the next several months I'll be posting one entry per week due to revising for the last of my accountancy course exams. Sometimes there will be two entries in a week if I have holiday time. Aside from that, have a great year everyone! For the next entry it'll be an end to the scenes of forests and mountains, instead it'll be back to suburbs and roads. Next weekend I'll be showing you Awnsale, the area west of Cindersville's city centre.- 8 Comments
-
- 14
-
-
Entry 76 -- Hefnall Forest East
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 76: Hefnall Forest East Welcome back to some more scenes from Cindersville! Thanks alot for all of your comments- much appreciated! This time the eastern parts of Hefnall Forest will be explored. Also, to reflect the festive scene, I've included at the very end of this entry a special "present" for your SC4 viewing pleasure. Let's get started! {---} 1. 2. During the Spring, Summer and Autumn this dirt car park can become quite full as many drive from Cindersville, park up and walk around either Hefnall Forest or Mount Hefnall. 3. From the eastern slopes of Mount Hefnall we move eastwards (downwards). 4. 5. From north to south. 6. From west to east- follow the paths! 7. Where the ground is drier or even semi-arid I ensured it be devoid of trees. 8. The Sudden Valley terrain mod has some amazing dry textures! 9. 10. 11. Can't have a forest scene without the clouds! 12. 13. 14. A crossing of trails and paths. 15. The southern borders of Hefnall Forest meet up with the area of Hefnall itself (a town within the Cindersville urban city area). 16. 17. 18. 19. A herd of deer in the mist... 20. 21. A super close-up of those horses. 22. East Hefnall Forest folks! {---} Coming this Saturday- THE tour of Mount Hefnall, one of three major mountains dominating the Cindersville skyline. {---} And here's that present! The square mosaic! Link below if you can't on this page expand the image- https://imageshack.com/i/pnNum5Lfj- 11 Comments
-
- 16
-
-
-
Entry 75 -- Hefnall Forest West
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 75: Hefnall Forest West It's been just over five weeks since the last entry, during that time I had another accountancy exam to complete and this was one of the biggest modules of the course. I also had various bits of cleaning and housework to be done, but this week I booked time-off work which is why I'm going back to Cindersville to take further pictures. This entry and the next two explore the north-eastern part of the Cindersville city tile, so expect a lot of greenery, trees and mountains! Thank you for all of your comments too! For the wait I've thrown in some extra mosaics too. {---} 1. As always with Cindersville we start with an overview of the area being explored- there are at least twenty distinct areas. 2. This street is the eastern-most extent of the village of Kingsley. 3. Starting from the western ridge of Mount Hefnall we move downwards (north direction) towards Kingsley and the western fringes of Hefnall Forest. 4. From the top is the western boundary of Hefnall Forest, we sweep eastwards when scrolling downwards. 5. Mount Hefnall, in the top-left, has one prominent ridge which sweeps out westwards. 6. 7. Herds of deer are daily seen in Hefnall Forest. 8. This entry has a lot of mosaics to help gain a close-up perspective of Hefnall Forest. This one covers Mount Hefnall's western mountain ridge, from the top (east) we move downwards in a roughly western direction. This mountain ridge forms the southern boundary of Hefnall Forest. 9. 10. Another sweep from West to East. 11. A sweep from South to North. This one starting directly at the top of Mount Hefnall 12. Trails... Trails everywhere! 13. To the right of this picture are the western parts of Hefnall Forest. 14. The rest of this entry will be a selection from various parts of this forest. 15. After creating the landscape the first thing which came was using the ARDEN Tree Controller to create the core forest. 16. Next was destroying parts of this forest where the terrain was either looking dry or rocky or even muddy. From these gaps I then laid the trails and paths using Heblem's gravel MMPs. 17. The paths helped to divide up the MMP work which had to be extensively performed. For the coniferous areas I used a variety of bushes, desert flora and additional coniferous trees to beef up the woodland areas. 18. In the lower part of the coniferous woodland there are ferns (or bracken), this had to be created based on both terrain height and the preponderance of the bushy, brighter-green trees embedded in the pines. 19. For the upper parts of the coniferous areas this had to include thick shrubs and bushes, rock scree and (when closer to mountain faces) exposed ground (bedrock) with numerous bits of rock strewn over the slopes. 20. On the highest mountains the flora density substantially decreases as do the number of trees. It should be noted that all flora seen in these pictures is based on several flora themes determined by: deciduous/coniferous, height, rockiness, ground dryness and proximity to rock faces, crags and/or cliffs. 21. 22. An overview with the western part of Hefnall Forest to the left and Mount Hefnall dominating the picture. For the Mount Hefnall entry I will be creating a "square" mosaic with a close zoom for everyone's viewing pleasure! {---} Next entry, this Tuesday, will be exploring East Hefnall Forest! Enjoy the weekend!- 12 Comments
-
- 20
-
-
-
Entry 71 -- Progress Update on Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 71 -- Progress Update on Cindersville So I've made a huge push on the north-eastern corner of Cindersville. I can say it is definitely halfway done as I move around the mountain which dominates this area, eventually I will tackle the very top of the mountain itself. Finally, if you're wondering why the teaser picture is taking longer to load up that is because it is a PNG image. I deliberately used PNG to preserve the image quality as the JPEG version caused the flowers to blur. Anyway, here are further pictures from the new areas I've been working on. Have a good weekend! {---} 1. I'm working on the areas around this mountain. 2. I had to extend some areas to flesh out the villages and some outer parts of Cindersville. 3. 4. The first thing I start with is laying down the trails and paths. 5. Then I work on the MMPs within the area defined by each set of paths. 6. One of the major northern routes leading into Cindersville required a lot of work. 7. MMP street... 8. The dark green plants are MMP ferns I use from the VIP Rural Pack. They are slow to place down and this adds time to the whole process. 9. I also had to extend out the meadows as well. While that dry river bed is actually not a dried-up river/stream, instead it is the aftermath of a flash flood which caused severe top soil erosion and a mini landslide. 10. Another PNG picture to showcase the brillance of Girafe's roses. 11. And here is Mattb325's Ben Rose House. And this is why I go crazy on the MMPs because in the end they start to blend with the trees, plants and textures of actual lots. 12. The transition between deciduous and coniferous forest. 13. There are four MMP types: flora, water, rocks and props (sims, cars and the little things like that). I reckon the hardest MMP is rockwork. 14. This picture is pure MMPs! 15. I actually added MMPs, forests and brackon to the bottom half of the mountain as before all this it was simply a sheer rock face which didn't look right. 16. I've had this winding road for almost two years. Only now is the area around it complete! {---} Right, that's it for today. I'll be back in late September as by then Cindersville will be complete and one outstanding project can be crossed off! Enjoy the weekend!- 8 Comments
-
- 19
-
-
-
-
Completing the Eastern Parts of Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Vigilante1987: I often work two city tiles, though I alternate via weeks. It keeps my interest levels peaked! This week will be focused on Cindersville, next week the focus returns to The Big Mango and Midtown Manhattan. mattb325: Thanks! A good 75% of the buildings are New York, the rest are USA-themed with a few sneaky European sections here and there. I'm also using the BATs of sgt_pepper, darknono35, jasoncw, nofunk, reddonquixote and many others! Ke|is: Cheers! Next week I'm going to make a massive start on Midtown Manhattan and hopefully have it complete within a few days! Belfastsocrates: Thanks! The whole of Manhattan, what's seen on the city tile, should be done by next week. {---} Entry 55: Completing the Eastern Parts of Cindersville Taking a break from the Big Mango, I returned to Cindersville to work on a hill in the southeastern part of the city tile. Here are the results! {---} 1. One of the things I had to was complete the eastern parts of Cindersville. 2. Mattb325's new Parking Garage and London W2W Set were most useful for this! 3. Split two-avenue equals cranking the suburbs to eleven! 4. The southeastern part of Cindersville was tricky to complete. 5. It required a mixture of open areas, wide lots, diagonal buildings and woodland to finish. 6. There is woodland and open areas there are paths! 7. Divided between a road and a street I decided to turn this area into pasture land for the cows. 8. With the suburban areas complete my attention turned to the hill. 9. The terrain textures of the hill were great and I carefully pruned the woodland in places to ensure dry textures had no woodland or vegetation upon them. 10. Heblem's paths (made smaller by FrankU) are, as ever, very useful! 11. The hill completed. 12. I realised this had to be a city park and thus placing the original, pristine Stonehenge (Simmer2's creation) was the centrepiece to this entire area. 13. To complement the coniferous woodland I used a desert flora scrub MMP. 14. For the lower-lying areas, in particular deciduous woodland, I used Weed B (from Chrisadams3997's RRP Pasture Flora) for the dense slopes of bracken. 15. Having found a flora theme it was very easy to finish the woodland. 16. The bracken clusters are inspired by those found in the hills of England! 17. Once I placed Stonehenge I started creating a series of paths. There are entrances from all sides: North, East, South and West. This is the Southern entrance. 18. The dry textures of the Sudden Valley terrain mod area amazing! 19. I still need to plop in some Sim MMPs to complete the scene. 20. But I'm finally happy with how this area turned out because for the longest time it was a big blank in my mind wondering what to do! 21. The cracked earth represents my favourite part of the Sudden Valley terrain mod. 22. All paths lead to Stonehenge... 23. The big picture. 24. The southeast of Cindersville is all one large sprawling, hilly suburb creeping upwards towards the hill on the left. {---} For Saturday it's either going to be update from The Big Mango or another entry from Madison Plains. One of those two!- 4 Comments
-
- 13
-
-
I'd like to make my evergreen trees into a MMP, but can't find a tutorial for that (really ? there should be one somewhere ?) There is the jeronij tutorial on how to make ploppable props, (now that tarkus as translated the html code...)but the pictures are gone... and I am not sure that is what I need. Those evergreens were made from some CP trees, among other, so that they're not seasonal anymore but always Springy -- they still have to be stacked in the L.E., which, from a lotter's perspective, is a pain in the fanny, but the hopefully happy player only gets the end result ! Still, it would be nice if they were also MMPs, or at least, to begin with, ploppables. Since they come from a megapack (CP 1 and 2), I assume I would have to extract the Spring model and work with that, right ? In the meantime, does anyone know of a tutorial with pictures ? I'm better with pictures !
-
The Mega Mix -- Best of Pictures Plus Nature Video Montage!!!
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Goldman Sachs: Thanks for that! Hopefully you get more released and your vehicles and buildings will be used in my future projects! Vigilante1987: Cheers! Yeah- the layout was good but hard to get right as I had to use MMPs for the gravestones! Belfastsocrates: Thanks a hell of a lot for that! Yeah, I'm good with the MMPs but I still think Korver and Fasan are better. ByeByeBayou: I use rsc204's Terrain Grass NAM mod to unify terrain textures with lot textures and road grass textures; I also take care with city blocks to make sure the textures mesh together well. Plus I go out of my to remove and disguise any and all jagged edged textures when building diagonally. mattb325: Each farm field takes about 15 to 30 minutes to complete; I think I created twenty to thirty fields so that's probably ten hours of MMP work at least! Simmer2: Thanks a lot! bladeberkman: Thanks- I pay attention to every area, every city block, every building and every square on the city tile. That's how I get the detail. Whilst completing a large city tile takes about three months; on good years I can crank out three or four city projects. Tyberius06: Cheers! I like my countryside and I like grid-busting whenever and wherever possible! PaPa-J: Thank you very much! The fields are all created using MMPs, each one takes between fifteen to thirty minutes to complete. Where possible I avoid using crop lots. dawangjia2003: Much appreciated! Thanks. {---} Entry 51: The Mega Mix -- Best of Pictures Plus Nature Video Montage!!! This entry is a reflection of all the entries that have come before it. There are three pictures, the very best of, from each entry 1 to 50. We shall see cityscapes, industrial complexes, suburbs, downtowns, power plants, forests, mountains, lakes, farms, fields, railways, railyards, villages, rural areas and much, much more. PLUS, as a bonus there is a nature video montage I put together. So enjoy! {---} Entry 1 -- Reintroduction of My SC4 CJ Scrapbook Entry 2 -- Developing Pololomia's CBD Entry 3 -- Diagonal City Blocks Entry 4 - Ploppable Residential Abandonment Problem now SOLVED! Entry 5 -- Further Development of Pololomia Entry 6 -- Going Rural Entry 7 -- Dealing with Prop Pox Entry 8 -- Scenes from the City Entry 9 -- More Scenes from Pololomia Entry 10 -- Video Montage 1 Entry 11 -- Back to Rural Again! Entry 12 -- The Christmas Entry Entry 13 -- New Year's Entry Entry 14 -- More Rural Development Entry 15 -- The Village Entry 16 -- Some more New Areas Entry 17 -- Hardcore Industry Entry 18 -- One Final Preview of Pololomia Entry 19 -- Mission Accomplished - Pololomia is Complete! Entry 20 -- Welcome to Pololomia Entry 21 -- Pololomia - City Centre North Entry 22 -- Pololomia - Southern Chester Entry 23 -- Pololomia - Langley Plains Northeast Entry 24 -- First Steps in Cindersville Entry 25 -- Pololomia - City Centre East Entry 26 -- Pololomia - Shap Entry 27 -- Experimental Industrial City Entry 28 -- Pololomia - Chester Entry 29 -- Developing Cindersville Entry 30 -- Pololomia - City Centre South Entry 31 -- Industrial MMP Experiments Entry 32 -- Pololomia - The Village of Clotsley Entry 33 -- Going FA in Madison Plains Entry 34 -- Pololomia - The Village of Stokesley Entry 35 -- Finishing off Madison Plains Entry 36 -- Pololomia - City Centre Southeast Entry 37 -- Pololomia - Granger Industrial Estate Entry 38 -- Gridbusting in Cindersville Entry 39 -- Pololomia - Langley Plains East Entry 40 -- Pololomia - Kendal (North-east of City Centre) Entry 41 -- Northeast Pololomia Entry 42 -- North of Pololomia (Industry) Entry 43 -- Madison Plains - Northeast Entry 44 -- The North of Madison Plains Entry 45 -- Introducing Thirlmere Entry 46 -- Working the Hills in Cindersville Entry 47 -- Pololomia - Mowden (East and North of Chester) Entry 48 -- Pololomia - M7 Highway (South-eastern part of city tile) Entry 49 -- Pololomia's City Centre Entry 50 -- The Village of Skeeby (Pololomia Finale) {---} And now for a special bonus- a video montage! A collection of rural and countryside scenes from this CJ set to a video and some soothing forest ambient music. So enjoy a blissed-out four minutes! Note: for those seeing the entry for the first time, the video quality may be lower due to it having been initially released.- 8 Comments
-
- 18
-
-
-
Replies: Vigilante1987: Thanks for that! For the parks I use FrankU's Dutch Parks (found on Simtropolis). mattb325: Cheers! For some reason the city centre part of Pololomia is really prone to CTDs. Tyberius06: Thanks a lot! PaPa-J: Yeah there were quite a few CTDs. It was even more annoying when building the area and then infilling certain pavements with MMP Sims; plus there were CTDs when saving! {---} The 50th Entry Special For this entry I showcase the last area of Pololomia; the village of Skeeby. I used a very different approach and instead plopped in relotted parks which contained houses to thus give me more flexibility with designing the area around the houses. {---} 1. The area being show in this entry is at the top of the picture; the village of Skeeby. 2. 3. 4. This village was surprisingly quick to make and it only took four or five hours. 5. 6. 7. Making use of the extended Diggis streams set. 8. 9. For the house property perimeter walls I largely used Simmer2's stone wall set. This gives Skeeby a very distinct appearance. 10. The fun part was deciding the layout of each property: clumps of woodland, gardens, greenhouses, waste areas, play areas, etc. 11. 12. 13. For the various random mmps such as sheds, planters, swings, playparks, bikesheds, gazebos, etc. I used Ernestmaxis' MMP Project which has a massive amount of MMPs extracted from props (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3493). There are dozens and dozens of dependencies but it's well worth getting! 14. I also plopped in 1x1 farm tiles for vineyards and large vegetable patches. 15. 16. An inflatable pool by the gravel and waste... 17. 18. Sheep pens! 19. 20. And of course the substation which powers the village (centre of picture). Next to the substation I even added a public toilet MMP (part of Ernestmaxis' MMP Project). 21. I plopped in all of the gravestones. Most of them came in rows so it was easy to plop in. The harder part was laying out an aesthetically pleasing spread of gravestones... 22. Nearly every village, at least in the UK, has a church. Skeeby here is no exception. 23. The church is actually a park lot which I relotted. 24. And here's a mosaic to indicate just how far Skeeby is from the west main road. 25. And another mosaic showing how the countryside emerges from beyond Pololomia's outskirts... 26. Since Simmer2's stone walls are really MMP friendly, then it's easy to bunch up bushes next to the walls. 27. 28. Nearly all of the flora MMPs are HD, all of the gravel MMPs are HD too. Thus we get a really clear superzoom picture. 29. Another overview of the area and of Skeeby. 30. And an even larger overview showing how these areas are connected. 31. 32. And a few final pictures to end this entry! 33. 34. And that's it! The last entry from Pololomia! {---} For the next entry there will be a montage of the three best pictures from each of Entries 1 to 50 PLUS a video montage too. After that there are further entries from Madison Plains. Beyond that any future entries will be from either Cindersville or Thirlmere; whilst a future project I'm planning is the Big Mango- a loose recreation of Manhatten.
- 12 Comments
-
- 22
-
-
-
-
Entry 48 -- Pololomia- M7 Highway plus MMP Fields Tutorial!
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: mattb325: Thanks for that! Also keep on churning out those BATs; it makes my life easier when I infill cities. Vigilante1987: Cheers! Yeah, this next entry I'll explain in brief how to use MMPs to create fields. raynev1: It's a good slope mod and the fact it comes with three different maximum slope adds flexibility. I personally use the middle one. This mod is a must-have for creating sloping city areas. Garbanzo: Ha ha! Thanks for your comment. PaPa-J: Thanks again for the comments! The houses are largely a mixture of C.P.'s Early 19th Century Residential Housing and Victorian Houses plus Simcoug's Diagonal houses. {---} Entry 48: Pololomia- M7 Highway This entry is largely a rural entry and I explain once again the basics of using MMPs for the creation of farms and fields. Please keep in mind that creating fields with MMPs is a slow process, each field takes about 15 to 30 minutes to complete. This also takes a lot of practice, and a steady hand, and this method does not come naturally. It took me two years to work out how to use flora MMPs for fields and pastures and forests; even now I'm still learning new techniques and new combinations. But when done right... You get great grid-busting rural scenes! Enjoy! {---} 1. For MMPs I reccomend downloading all of girafe's flora and Chrisadams3997's Pasture Flora (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1886). 2. Most of the fields you see here use girafe's and Chrisadams3997's flora MMPs. 3. This field is created by first laying down White Flowers (Chrisadams3997), then green grass (Chrisadams3997) and then dirt (Ionionion's OMCO gravel- https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/25709-omco-filling-gravel/ 4. You can place the MMPs right next to the road without any soil and it will look good. 5. The olive yard is created using kergelen's Mediterranean trees (https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27973-mmp-mediterranean-cp-trees-krg-selection/); next I add in Heblem gravel (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3102)to make the olive yard more distinctive. 6. 7. Sometimes the original Maxis fields can be used by plopping them in; just make sure to MMP over the edges if you're creating a grid-busting field! 8. The wide gravel paths use the original Heblem gravel MMPs (https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/24399-hbs-tropical-flora-pack-mayor-mode/), then Heblem's small gravel MMPs (see the link below picture 5); the overlap of Ionionion's OMCO gravel is an added bonus! 9. The secret to MMP fields is mixing two or more flora MMPs together and then adding in some MMP dirt for the earth textures. 10. 11. 12. Rose fields are easy to create: first lay down grass (Chrisadams3997) and then start painting in Girafe's rose MMPs. Add in some dirt and the job is done. 13. 14. The field to the left is created using green grass (larger grass MMP and Chrisadams3997) and then yellow flowers (Chrisadams3997) and then OMCO dirt. 15. There are dozens of different combinations of flora MMPs and thus dozens of different kind of fields. 16. It is slow-going though but the end result is that organic look! 17. Another MMP technique I use is the creating of dirt field perimeters. First I lay down some bushes (Girafe) and berry bushes (Girafe) I use Heblem gravel and OMCO dirt to complete the scene. 18. There also ways of bringing to life the bush MMPs. 19. For the darker green and red bushes I use sparaxis (Girafe) flowers, which are red and purple, to improve the look; for the lighter green berry bushes I use narcissus (Girafe), these are white and yellow. 20. For the pasture land for the sheep I use simply Chrisadams3997's grass and then OMCO brown dirt; plus some sheep MMPs! 21. {---} Well I hope that was informative! This Saturday, for the next entry, I take you to Pololomia's city centre. See you then!- 3 Comments
-
- 17
-
-
-
- simcity 4
- residential
- (and 7 more)
-
Entry 47 -- Pololomia- Mowden (East Pololomia)
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: mattb325: That's all I do- use what's given from the content creators. I don't use the Lot Editor you see and that's my motto. Anyway, thanks for your comment and I'm looking forward to more of those FA buildings, they're a <real> gamechanger! Tyberius06: Thanks! Just wait until I've added a sprinkling of small rocks and wildflowers in those forests! raynev1: Thanks for that. FYI I use Ennedi's slope mod; it comes with three different maximum gradients and I use the middle one. Link here- https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1512 kschmidt: Thank you! The rock and dirt textures in the Sudden Valley mod are gorgeous and mattb325's houses are gorgeous too; I carefully designed the areas so that there wasn't any retaining walls to be seen. You are right about the industrial retaining walls; I will explore some more natural looking cobblestone ones, unfortunately these retaining walls don't have fences which adapt to the slope and so it makes it look weird. Garbanzo: Thank you! The core city of Cindersville is almost done; the last half is sprucing up the forests with a sprinkling of small rocks, wildflowers and forest scenes. Bayyne23: Thanks for that! Also- welcome to Simtropolis! VicRusty: Cheers! But it will be even more beautiful once the city is complete and I've finished putting into the forests all those little details: rocks, flowers, etc. Vigilante1987: Most of that fencing comes from the retaining walls next to the road; I use them to hide the cliff face. I like to think they're there for safety and to prevent rock falls onto the road. BlueCloud: It's my most ambitious city because I usually build on flat tiles, it's also ambitious because of: fractionally angled city blocks, buildings and roads; massive sloped suburbs; every single building plopped in and/or carefully selected to give each area that right look. Thanks for your comment! 911Diva: Thanks! And... That's Mr. The British Sausage! {---} Entry 47: Pololomia- Mowden (East Pololomia) In this entry we go back to Pololomia and to one last suburb which hasn't been shown yet. This suburb is on the outskirts of East Pololomia and on the fringes there emerge farm fields and pasture land; so this entry is chock full of greenery! {---} 1. And this is the Mowden suburb. 2. I named it Mowden because there is an area in my home town of Darlington called Mowden. 3. Most of the zones are 3 by 3 squares wide or 3 by 4 squares wide. 4. Where there are gaps in the zoning I use tree fillers. 5. With each suburb I lay out a large city block and it is defined by the main roads (in black). 6. And most of the main roads link up to the cities transport "arteries": avenues, motorways or two-laned roads (like the one in the bottom of this picture). 7. 8. 9. Railway lines are one of the main ways I divide up cities- just like in real life. 9. These 5x5 apartment blocks are lots created by T Wrecks: they are very useful and very slope-tolerant! 11. The trick with creating varied suburbs is creating an interesting street layout within the suburban city block. 12. It's not enough to lay down a grid of residential zones... 13. One way is to go diagonal, but there are other more subtle ways too... 14. A realistic feature to add is cul-de-sacs; streets which lead to dead ends. 15. Diagonals and Simcoug's Diagonal Houses can help break the grid-like monotony too if one is feeling adventurous. 16. But the best suburbs should have a real labyrinth of streets and dead-ends... 17. The next tricky thing about suburbs is when they bump into the countryside. 18. But there are ways of creating realistic transitions from suburbs to countryside. 19. The most obvious way is to create farms and large fields. 20. Now the zoneable farm fields are decent, however I am often put off by how uniform they look. 21. Thus I use MMPs: I plop in various plants/flowers to create farm fields. I'll explain more about the advantages of this method in the next entry where you can see this method in full action! {---} This Saturday we're having a look at the M7 motorway which runs into south-eastern Pololomia. Along the way there are plenty of fields and MMPs! Enjoy, and thanks again for all the comments and interest in the last entry. From here on outwards the next several entries are going to be very interesting and very different from each other: I've got a city centre entry to show, a rather unique countryside village, the 50th entry milestone of this CJ, the 51st entry being a best-of where I select the best three pictures from each entry and talk a bit about them, then four more entries from a newer city tile called Madison Plains. Once I'm done with all that then Cindersville should be ready. And after Cindersville what then? Two projects: one is Thirlmere and a Lake District inspired area, the other is what I call "The Big Mango"- a loose recreation of New York where I go 100% urban; this ain't Korver-style uber-realistic, but, you'll see in a few months time... That's the schedule!- 5 Comments
-
- 11
-
-
- simcity 4
- residential
- (and 5 more)
-
Entry 46 -- Working the Hills of Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Garbanzo: Thanks! I still need to add in streams, paths, pasture fields and some villages! Jackspital: The terrain and forests are now done. The next bit is adding streams, paths, additional mini rocks and small flora in the forests, villages and some pasture fields. Evanjs: This is the ARDEN Tree Controller, one created by Vortext. It can be found on the BSC LEX. Simmer2: Actual campsites will be created to! Thanks for your comment! {---} Entry 46: Working the Hills in Cindersville You are in for a treat with this entry: sloping suburbs, diagonals galore, inner-city sights, townhouses, mountains, deciduous forests... It's been at least two months since I worked on Cindersville and in the back of my mind I knew something was wrong: I was using too much of C.P.'s Early 19th Century and Victorian housing. They're great lots and buildings but I needed more substantial-looking houses and ones which had a late 19th / early 20th century look to them. Thankfully Mattb325 had exactly what I was looking for. I have been going around parts of Cindersville (around the outskirts of the city centre and along some of the major roads leading into the centre) rebuilding various suburbs to reflect these beefier-looking houses (see the teaser picture above). Furthermore, I talk about how I managed to achieve God Mode tree, road tree and residential tree harmony. With that- enjoy! {---} 1. This is the western fringes of East Cindersville. 2. Dragging streets up the slopes has been fun because it requires a whole bunch of trees, retaining walls and smooth slopes to create realistic-looking sloping areas and mini-hill passes. 3. That fractionally-angled building is Mattb325's Urban High School- https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3770. Though I should warn you for this is a <hard> building to use and requires a large amount of fillers to bring this incredible building to life. 4. More mini hill passes. 5. The grassy area stumped me because I wasn't sure whether it should be a grazing area, fully-forested or become a public park. Though I did find a solution later! 6. This week I will be finishing off the suburbs which circle around the hill at the bottom left. 7. The mountain looked good but I was not happy with the tree controller- I was using the wrong type of ARDEN Tree Controller (it comes in five different varieties all compatible with each other, but only one can be used at a time). 8. Once the western, south-eastern and eastern areas of Cindersville are complete, that's it. The core city is complete. Then I will work on the south-west corner (bottom right) and the north. 9. Nearly every house/flat/apartment/terrace you see in this picture are Mattb325's buildings. 10. Mattb325 has recently released and remastered some of his old housing BATs on the BSC LEX; right now these are perfect for what I need right now. 11. The reason these houses are great is because they work better with the zone density transitions. They are also deliberately placed just beyond the city centre to reflect traditional patterns of city growth: these houses are those created in the Industrial Age (and very early 20th century). These houses are on the highest level of low density and hence form the perfect transition towards medium density: terraced rows, townhouses and apartments. 12. They thus complete the pattern of city growth. In this picture we see the late 20th and 21st century houses: the townhouses and five floor apartments. This reflects urban renewal in the city centre and suggests old terraces have been knocked down, or perhaps old factories and mini warehouses, or perhaps an old commercial hub which fell into abandonment, decay and decline. At last the great variety of modern city architecture is complete in its own disjointed, fragmented and cyclic process. 13. Having found the means to properly finishing off the core city, I then tackled another problem which was my dissatisfaction with the ARDEN Tree Controller I was using. The picture above reflects the new ARDEN TC I'm using (Coast Extended). 14. Coast Extended means the elevations levels for the deciduous-coniferous-alpine decrease and allow for greater variety with correspondingly smaller changes of elevation. This is how I managed to create this massive deciduous forest which perfectly completes the layout of the south-west corner of the city tile. But I didn't just stop there... 15. The Sudden Valley terrain mod comes alive with slopes and high terrain. At higher altitudes there is a greater amount of drier terrain and grassland which looks almost brown. Thus in terrain areas which were light green, browning, dirt or rocky grass, I did not place any trees and carefully demolished any trees which accidentally spawned on those particular terrain textures. 16. This thus creates a consistent theme and enables portions of grassland to emerge from the forest. 17. The ARDEN Tree Controller is very... eager. Sometimes trees will spawn on rocky textures and ANY non-rocky textures. Thus I had to carefully demolish any flora which rested on rocky/grassy/dry texture areas, and the result? 18. This. 19. This is also a very useful feature of the ARDEN Tree Controllers: there are five of them and you can potentially, one at a time, use all of them in one city tile without any CTDs. 20. And there's an even bigger plus with the arrangement I've devised: the deciduous trees the ARDEN TC spawns are all Cycledogg's trees which C.P., Mattb325 and Simcoug ubiquitously use with their buildings! Thus there is flora harmony because I use those three creators' houses for nearly all of my suburban areas. 21. Before today I have <never> achieved this level of tree/flora continuity/harmony before! 22. With flora harmony now achieved I don't have to go crazy MMPing the God Mode forests for now I let the terrain show the "details". All I have to do now is add some paths, a few rocks and any other small, miscellaneous feature. 23. I will be reforesting the south-east and northern parts of Cindersville- I can't wait to see what happens! As you can see the bottom-right forest (south-west) fits in really great now. 24. The customary eye-popping, visually-packed, it's-so-dense, mouth-drooling end picture. {---} Later on this week the next entries will be wrapping up the last few suburbs I haven't shown from Pololomia; finally there's the city centre to show and one rather special village (the final entry from Pololomia) to wrap up that city.- 12 Comments
-
- 15
-
-
-
- simcity 4
- residential
- (and 7 more)
-
Entry 45 -- Introducing Thirlmere
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Simmer2: Thanks! Your work has helped bring some of that about! 89James89: The grey concrete words really emphasise the grid; thanks for your comment! hammysonata: Cheers! Takingyouthere: Thanks! It's why it takes so long for them to be completed! {---} Entry 45: Introducing Thirlmere So it's been a while since I posted an entry, almost two months ago! I came back to SC4 because I wanted to briefly experiment with the ARDEN tree controllers and terraforming. An idea soon came to mind where I would loosely recreate the area of Thirlmere in the Lake District, England. I will be coming back to Thirlmere in the coming weeks and months, but in the immediate future I will be posting the last of the entries from Pololomia, what remains to be shown of Madison Plains and of course updates from Cindersville (which is my current big project to complete). Anyway, enjoy some rural goodiness! {---} 1. We have Thirlmere Lake and to the bottom right a loose recreation of Helvellyn; England's third highest mountain! 2. The break in the mountains will be used as a mountain pass. 3. Creating gullies and ridges is kind of hard in SC4! 4. To create crag-like and mound-like mountains (which are often seen in the Lake District), I used the mesa tool after I dragged out hills and mountains. A bit of erosion and softening helped too... 5. Only the erosion tool can provide so many mini gullies. 6. I changed the tree controller to ARDEN Coast extended, the reason being was to increase the diversity of the trees and to enable the creation of meadows in mid-level areas. 7. The meadows above are the coolest feature of the ARDEN extended tree controllers: it saves so much MMP work and they appear in a very natural way. 8. I can't wait to drag some a road through to create a mountain pass! 9. An overview of most of the city tile. In the top left is the very large Helvellyn mountain. 10. There will be village next to Thirlmere Lake, this will be the largest settlement on the city tile; the rest will be smaller villages or hamlets. 11. The main part of Thirlmere is the lake itself. I plan to have several rivers/streams run into the lake. 12. I used the water terrain brush from the JENX Poseidon mod to plop water textures onto the flat ground. 13. To expand out the lake's shoreline, I used a mixture of gravel and stepping stone MMPs. 14. Yet another overview... 15. Trees encroach upon the bottom and top of this crag! {---} This Saturday I will be posting another entry. This one will be an update concerning Cindersville.- 4 Comments
-
- 17
-
-
Entry 44 -- The North of Madison Plains
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Silur: Thank you! Thank you very much. PaPa-J: The house's are part of C.P.'s Early 19th Century Housing set. The street texture is part of the SAM (Street Addon Mod) which comes with the NAM. I'm glad you're liking the pictures! AndisArt: Thanks! Tonraq: Thanks for that! {---} Entry 44: The North of Madison Plains It's been a little longer because during the last weekend I was getting into my story-writing, watching films and getting inspiration to write. But I'm back today with yet more from Madison Plains! For those wondering, the Ikea store is one of Mattb325's recent creations: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3738 {---} 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. {---} This Friday it's back to Pololomia!- 4 Comments
-
- 16
-
-
-
- simcity 4
- residential
- (and 8 more)
-
Entry 39 -- Pololomia- Langley Plains East
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 39: Pololomia- Langley Plains East This is an agricultural entry and since it's a big area and since the fields are so big, this entry will be a bit more shorter than usual. Anyway- enjoy plenty of massive greenery! 1. The area being viewed. 2. All the fields are created using MMPs. 3. A small field takes about ten minutes to create. 4. While a large field can take up to twenty minutes to create. 5. I add in fencing and dirt which adds time to the process. 6. The MMP fields are strictly themed- that is they are made with a certain combination of MMPs. 7. This creates organic repetition! 8. The fencing and dirt is crucial to ensure the urban/rural transition looks convincing. 9. Mosaics are the only way to best show how these fields connect together. 10. A lone cabin by the woodland. 11. 12. A neighbourhood so small it may even be considered a village on the outskirts of Pololomia's suburbs... 13. Another overview. 14. 15. In the next entry we explore a rather wealthy suburb, called Kendal, which is north-east of Pololomia's city centre. That will be for Friday! The area being explored this Friday: -
Entry no.45 - The Transfer pt.1
TakemeThere posted a City Journal entry in Pretoria Metropolitan Area
Hey guys it's been long time since the last update, a very very long time actually... Hard to believe it's been almost two years since the last entry and tbh, at one point I wasn't sure if there would ever be another one. But after a long gaming and internet hiatus the SC4 itch came back and it came back hard a couple months ago and I've been diligently working towards updating the CJ ever since. So without further ado welcome to Today's entry will cover another one of the regions signature interchanges - the south crossing of highways 702 & 705 colloquially known as The Transfer and the areas immediately surround it. The interchange is the primary focus however this update will also features mmp's landscapes and some urban elements. Pretoria has 13 major highway interchanges, 6 of which are considered signature interchanges known for their sprawling and complex designs. The 702 is by far the most important transportation link in the entire region so it's no surprise that the largest interchanges involve it. Meanwhile the 705 is more of a coastal highway largely passing through industrial areas, it's most important section is when it loops back around and meets the 702 a second time further north in the downtown core of the region. *Fun fact; The 705 crosses highways 700 & 702 twice!* Recently updated map of the highway system, color coded based on total lanes. More of the system lies further north but this covers about 75% of the region. Elevated/non-elevated system map; The Transfer is one of 3 major highway interchanges within the city of Calgon itself, the first of which was shown entry 44, that being the Five Points Interchange. While the 5 points is the largest of the three interchange in the city and in fact the largest by size in the entire region, the Transfer is no slouch size-wise and is actually another 5-way interchange though not between three highways but rather two highways and roundabout junction of several avenues. While it may not be the biggest, tallest or most efficient design it's arguably the most unique interchange in the region even more so than looper junction and you remember how weird that one was right? (If not see here) This interchanges unusual design can be directly attributed to the physical characteristics of the area. It's boxed in by two large bodies of water, the Cisco Bay Bridge and several rail lines. Highway 702 has to rise up high enough over Cisco bay in order to have sufficient clearance for ocean going ships to pass underneath it into the port of Calgon and other points further East down the Trueno River. Because of this highways 702 & 705 cannot interchange directly and a mini connector highway is used instead to connect the two, you'll see what I mean in just a moment. It's further complicated by having a roadway, pedestrian/biking pathway and a creek all passing through the center of the interchange. Admittedly there are some safety concerns with this interchange but overall I'm quite satisfied with the results, this is just about as compact I could make it without sacrificing too much in the way of safety & realism. Statistical comparison to the other major interchanges; Here's a city map of the interchange, this should give you an idea of what's in store for you below. The west side of the interchange is 300m from east to west and 500m north to south and the eastern portion extends out another 400m by 200m. It takes about about 875 square spaces in-game equal to about 225,000 sq/m which is comparable in size to real world intercity interchanges. That's actually not the correct way of seeing the interchange on a map as north should be pointing towards the top but is actually pointing to the left side of the map. However I've always viewed the West side as the 'bottom' of the interchange and the east side as the top. Below is the "correct" orientation, but I think you'll agree it just feels more natural to look at it the first way. This type of indirect connection between interchanges is sometimes seen at locations where two highways meet near a tall bridge. A few IRL examples in the spoiler below; Walkthrough We'll start our journey heading eastbound on the 705 approaching the junction in the area highlighted in red below; 1 (Image numbering does not include maps) 2 3 The small neighbourhood of Portos is just to the south of the interchange. There is no onramp to the 705 or 702 to connect this neighbourhood to the rest of the city which is why Lunasaida Drive was to be built through the interchange to provide access to the people that would live here. 5 Next we enter into the "Trichange" which could very well be a small self-contianed interchange on it's own. 7 8 9 Super zoomed views of the pedestrian bridge 11 12 Lastly we have a pano of this section of the interchange Next we'll switch things up and approach The Transfer from the 702 heading northbound, the area highlighted in red below. The 702 enters the city from the Cisco Bay bridge bringing with it traffic from Dresden & the South Shore district of Pretoria. The bridge itself is a 5,408ft long 6-lane suspension bridge, the longest single span is 3,546ft. When built in 1951 the bridge was the longest in the world but is currently the 17th longest on planet Azura. Though it is still by far the longest and the most important bridge in Pretoria. In 1979 Gideon St. was extended and a small two-span single lane suspension bridge was built to give the residents of Portos another means of reaching other parts of the city as Lunasaida Dr. was often congested and occasionally blocked due to accidents. Views of the two bridges; 15 A small park is squeezed into the space between the highways 17 18 The path extends further north along a bridge transversing the entire interchange just to the west of Lunasaida Drive. Originally an elevated LTR line was proposed to run through here which would've connected a couple of waterfront neighbourhoods to downtown Calgon. The project was initially approved and construction begun in earnest until the 2012 elections. There the Neoconservative party swept into power booting out the big spending Five-Unions party and this project was one of several public transportation projects that were immediately terminated, all deemed a horrid waste of taxpayer funds. To be fair a 3-stop 850 million dollar line to serve a population catchment of little more than 30,000 is hard to justify. Though the idea might be revisited in the future should the Five-Unions return to power . Still 120 million dollars had already been spent on preliminary work including the shell of the first station of the line which we'll see shortly. However Lunasaida Dr. had always been a rather dangerous road to use for pedestrians and cyclists to use and so the space formerly allocated to the LRT line was instead used to build this bridges which connects directly to a nearby subway station located just to the north of the interchange. The bridge passes over some marshy floodland which connects to Dawson's Creek along its way. This section has the only potential weaving zone in the interchange - and area where traffic from two separate entry lanes may want to change into the other. In order to prevent this there are restrictions in place. Vehicles entering into the transfer road from the left(in the image directly below) are not allowed to change lanes as indicated by the solid white line and in fact there is no need for them to do so because they can get to every route via the lane they are in. Only vehicles entering from the right would need to change lanes in order to access two of the routes. 20 21 22 Alright lets jump right into the very heart of the interchange highlighted in the area below. Hold on to your hats! things are about to get complicated Closeups 24 25 26 27 28 29 Zooming out a bit, give you a bit more sense of the bigger picture... 30 31 32 33 34 A little further north beyond this point we reach the northern portal of the 'transfer road' which connects 3 avenues allowing local traffic to connect to the 702 & 705 and the interchanges signature... Though personally I prefer this angle 37 Here is the aforementioned shell of the cancelled elevated LRT project. A commercial building that the station was built into was finished and the station itself was repurposed as the starting point of the pedestrian bridge. Escalators and elevators had already been fitting into the station and remain operational so that one can use either or to reach ground level. Which brings me to the last section I wanted to show in this entry, the shoreline of Crater Lake; The interchange takes up most of the space between highway 702 & the shore of Crater Lake, which you guessed it was created by a giant meteor impact(approximately 42 million years ago). There'll be more about Crater Lake in a future entry so for now I'll just show you some images of what the area looks like. Here we can see the transition from highways & urban areas to a wood lot and the shoreline. The shoreline of Crater Lake is almost entirely rocky though a small beach was created in this spot by importing sand. The main section of the beach and area's beyond will be shown in a later update. 41 A wooded area next to the shoreline was preserved, sim can go for casuals stroll along the paths here which continue halfway around the Lake. 43 South of here the shoreline transitions to a rocky outcrop. 45 46 47 *Edit Ah yes I really should throw in a pano of what I've shown so far, here it is; And with that this entry is concluded, I hope you enjoyed viewing this update as much as I enjoyed making it. There's still a lot more to see in there area around the interchange, including the eastern portion of the interchange and how everything all fits in together plus a few other neat little features and surprises I have in store, luckily you won't have to wait two years for the next entry- 21 Comments
-
- 31
-
-
-
- highway
- interchange
- (and 4 more)
-
Replies: Haljackey: It's like poetry... They rhyme... nicoliani: Thanks a lot! tonyr: Cheers! dabadon5: Thanks a lot for your kind comment! fighterfungus: Thank you for liking the previous entry! feyss: Thanks! And yeah- they are olive trees. lemonLemon: Thanks for your comment. Though I don't understand your question about the shadow graphics... I mean I photoshop my pictures... ? Entry 23: Pololomia -- Langley Plains (Northeast) Yes it's been a while since the last entry but I've been busy with that teaching and also focusing on story-writing. Anyway here are some more rural pictures. No captions, no comments. Enjoy! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. For the next entry we go to the east part of Pololomia's city centre...
-
One Final Preview of Pololomia
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Bipin: Thanks! dabadon5: Cheers! Simmer2: Thanks. I know a lot of combinations to make everything fit together almost seamlessly, the trick is to get the ground textures right. fritzfarlig: I use Gobias Sudden Valley terrain mod and Gobias HD Pavement textures. TekindusT: Without Simmer2 I would have ran out of mileage with railways and railyards. tonyr: Thank you! SC4L0ver: A lot of industry is always surrounded by grassland and fields. kingofsimcity: Thanks a lot! Batman96: You can check previous CJ entries from the URS, plus there will be new ones coming too. raynev1: Thank you very much! Entry 18: One Final Preview of Pololomia Now that the Easter Holidays are around I finally have time to finish off Pololomia very quickly. So this is one final teaser entry. 1. All that is left to do is to complete several outer fields on the corners of the city tile. 2. One of the first areas I created, I had to go back to it to tweak the buildings on the street as some of the houses were getting abandoned due to the "no job" zot. 3. So I added some NYBT ABBT buildings which are great for creating grungy brick settings. 4. NWM gridbusting. 5. I reckon at least a fifth of the urban areas in Pololomia are diagonal. 6 As with any diagonal area the textures must be seamless and they must flow. 7. One of a couple of railyards which are dotted around Pololomia. 8. The railways in Pololomia really divide up the city and the area. 9. I came back to this area to add in a few more tree fillers- also a few squares were empty. 10. The diagonal neighbourhood green. 11. A few more fields I finished off. 12. I used a different combination with blue lillies and clover, throw in some Ionionion OMCo brown dirt to give the top field some earthy texture. 13. Simmer2's stone walls work really well with bushes and other small flora MMPs. 14. Creating the rose field took a while as the girafe rose MMP takes a while to cover squares with dense saturation. 15. Another outer periphery of Pololomia. 16. The biggest feature of Pololomia is the urban/rural transition. 17. You will see it in future mosaics but Pololomia is one of the most... organically flowing cities I have created. Everything fits in, there are clear divisions of areas and a real variety of areas too: heavy industry, retail estates, mini industrial parks, farms, fields, villages, highways, railways, suburbs, W2W apartments, medium-density areas and a few high density areas. Hopefully everything should be ready for this Friday or Saturday. See you then for the grand tour of Pololomia.- 8 Comments
-
- 20
-
-
-
Replies: feyss: Thank you very much! Simmer2: Thanks for your comment. Also please tell me how add MMPs onto transit tiles? Tyberius06: Cheers! They're a most welcome addition, I tried the MMP versions though they are not quite as versatile... SC4L0ver: What really made me like Simmer2's new walls were the gated sections and the ruined walls- perfect for breaking up orthogonal and diagonal walls. _Michael: Thank you! I use a few different layers to make the tracks more rougher and organic. sejr99999: Correction- painting with MMPs. kschmidt: Thanks! What do you mean by the stone side road? tonyr: Sure! JP Schriefer: Thanks a lot! Sciurus: I used the LE to take a simple grass park texture lot and add a prop family of C.P.'s houses. Then I went to ILive's Reader to make the new lot have a transparent texture. As for the pictures, yes they are a little darker than usual, it is something I noticed a few days after posting the entry. I guess I overdid the contrast a little... Entry 16: Some More New Areas Here is one more small visual feast. Giving how things are getting busier this half term with the teaching then it will be four-five weeks to finish off Pololomia and there are only three city tile corners which need to be completed. Anyway- enjoy! 1. In the centre of this picture there was this blank area to be filled in. 2. By adding Simmer2's Bricks and Blocks Building Supplies I realised how I could complete the area: mixed light industrial/commercial combined with a small park. 3. 4. And yet more fields finished off. 5. Given the large areas to MMP, each finished field feels like a marathon. 6. And now it takes longer to finish off the field edges/walls/fences. 7. When I create these fields the first things I include are the fences/walls and the tracks. 8. This helps tell me exactly where everything should go. 9. I also try not to repeat myself when creating fields. Sometimes there will be areas with similar MMP combos, other times each field has a different MMP combo. 10. 11. MOAR grid-busting! 12. The Maxis Highway Override FA pieces are surprisingly MMP friendly! 13. The boundary between the urban and the rural... 14. Some time in late March Pololomia will be fully completed. And then the complete city tile tour can commence! Thanks a lot for the comments and the suggestions. I'll see you in late March!
- 7 Comments
-
- 17
-
-
-
Replies: kschmidt: Cheers! rathefalcon: Everything I do with these city tiles is to create rural/urban transitions. Prophet42: UrbanConstanta: Did you manage to download those fields? TekindusT: Worth the price of admission! Kim Sunwoo: I call that mosaic the city centre to rural transition. simbasc4: Thank you very much! Entry 14: More Rural Development So this month has been a busy one, but in the last two days I have been working some more on Pololomia and finishing off areas to the north. I reckon finishing every area could take anywhere between a month and six weeks given all the MMPs I am using, but it is slowly coming together. 1. Gridbusting on a MASSIVE scale. 2. I'm experimenting with mixed field/woodland areas. 3. Rural areas in England often have many fields with patches of woodland throw in the middle. 4. While Diggis river extension pieces form great boundaries for the fields. 5. And the river banks are SO MMP-able. 6. Another feature of English farmland is the line of trees bordering fields. 7. The other thing I am developing is a better blending of tracks with the dirt perimeter of fields. 8. And a new MMP farm combo (using Chrisadams3997's RRP MMPs): wild white flowers combined with clover textures. Throw in ionionion's OMCo brown dirt and we have a rich, organic field! 9. And a close-up of that field. 10. Rivers make for the most interesting boundaries... Sometimes the fields will be bordering the river banks and other times there is a clear separation between river banks and fields. 11. By using the wide version of Heblem's gravel MMPs, and placing it in the centre between two lines of gravel MMPs, it gives the tracks a rough boundary- which helps them better blend into the landscape. 12. While the field edges look dirty and as messy as possible, which is just the look I'm going for with plowed fields. 13. Another overview of the area I'm working on. 14. 15. Simmer2's stone paths MMPs are SO good! Plus this is another exercise in varying MMP densities: high to the left, medium by the river and low to the right. 16. Blending the street, river, diagonal fillers and MMPs all together in one cohesive package. 17. Fields must be YUGE! 18. And with that I will end this entry. Next entry- next week? Two weeks from now? See you then.
- 9 Comments
-
- 20
-
-
