Rural power lines

[tag_one]

haha  those look nice!
you see those are even more common  and you see them alot next to roads
i was planning to make such pylons aswell but now that you made them i don't think its neccesary haha

only im not gonna cable mine  because
1 i aint that skilled enough just yet(i think)
2 you see them alot @ hilly regions wich would be impossible for me to wire 

but i'm now gonna try to solve my problems *sigh*

edit: my god... its going from worse to a disaster    for some reason i only am able to start simcity one time.. after that i just don't want to function correctly it i start it it returns to desktop instantely while the icon is still at the bar if i click it again i have it function for like 2 seconds and returns to desktop etc etc etc its like simcity won't allow me to test out my stuff lol


btw how can i change the properties of a block or a cilinder or any other figure? because i want to change the radius of the wires of the corner wire to make them more realistic

The more poles the better, variation is always welcome
You can change the properties of cylinders and boxes with the properties button. It's the button next to the one you use to create boxes, spiles etc. The one with the blue bended thing.

I'm working one some power poles as well. Here's one of mine:

It's a bit like the one Metarvo made, but than with some slightly different details and less timber. I'm also making substations for those lines. Hope you like.

[MandelSoft]

WOW! These look gorgeous! 

[Buzzit]

indeed! those look really good!

anyways i made some new pylons

i also made a change to some older ones i made

as you can see i made the  'carrying part' a bit smaller wich looks better imo

[metarvo]

There's some good work going on here!    I have seen a number of poles that look similar to those tag_one made, minus the green isolators which we don't seem to have in the U.S.  I like the improvements to yours as well, Buzzit.

How did you get those to follow the street, Girafe?  Are they T21s?  They really do help to complete the rural look that is much sought after in SC4.

[TiFlo]

@ Buzzit,
Concerning your problem with sc4, I too suffer the exact same thing under Windows 7. However, it will only happen if I have another or several other applications running at the same time (ie WMP, Firefox, Skype, etc.).Closing all of them always gets sc4 to reopen full screen and not go back to the taskbar like you experienced.

Also, nice poles BTW! 

[Buzzit]

haha thanks!
i will try that aswell! it would be a waste if i model so much and can't even use them! but when im done i will upload them anyways
but that will take some time cuz there somany pylons out there!

here's what i got so far:


btw how can i add power to my pylons? to make them somewhat usefull for power?

edit
another ingame view from 2
now with starting pylons aswell


yeh i suck at rural area building i really gonna find some topics about that cause i like such areas more then big cities

[MandelSoft]

Well, there is a way to remove that base textures, but it involves slightly more advanced modding. Good work so far.

And if you don't place the power pylons too far apart, the actually carry power. In you current setup they would transfer power

[Buzzit]

Well, there is a way to remove that base textures, but it involves slightly more advanced modding. Good work so far.

And if you don't place the power pylons too far apart, the actually carry power. In you current setup they would transfer power

well i used your sign tutorial to get these in game so they now function as open grass lol

[tag_one]

^ So do the ones I made. You can mod them to generate power, but honestly who wants dozens of small power plants in their city. Have fun when they start aging
I prefer those items to be neutral lots (no cost, no pollution, no power/water etc). But that's just my opinion.

I love your poles. They look a lot (if not the same) as the ones in Germany as well. If you want you can add a taper modifier to the wooden poles. This makes the poles a bit thinner at the top. It adds some extra detail and some more realism to them

[Buzzit]

^ So do the ones I made. You can mod them to generate power, but honestly who wants dozens of small power plants in their city. Have fun when they start aging
I prefer those items to be neutral lots (no cost, no pollution, no power/water etc). But that's just my opinion.

I love your poles. They look a lot (if not the same) as the ones in Germany as well. If you want you can add a taper modifier to the wooden poles. This makes the poles a bit thinner at the top. It adds some extra detail and some more realism to them

wait what? i thought only concrete poles are a bit thinner on top!
a well i will try something like that tomorrow!

this is what i got so far

i got 2 other models done aswell but i will put them in the game tomorrow it just can't believe how many variations are out there!

btw now you mentioned it. i was planning to make some german ones aswell but that will be for later

anyways isn't it possible to change the lifespan of a powerplant(or pole in this situation)? if so why not changing it to a really big number?

Mod edit: Please avoid large oversize images and PNG files.  JPEG format is preferred.

[Girafe]

Good progress    .

However try to rework your textures above all concrete and wood textures, I am sure you can upgrate them for better rendering. 
I like the details you put one these items 
 

[metarvo]

Looking good, Buzzit.  I especially like the cables that go into the ground on the start/end pylons.

I agree wholeheartedly about the variations.  The RL counterpart of the metal 345kV pylon that I BATted has straight-line poles, a number of corner poles, and start/end poles.  This doesn't even include the two parallel sets that are sometimes used interchangeably with it.  I haven't quite put the entire set into the game, and I have tweaked it somewhat for the game, but I just about have it to the place where I'm satisfied with it after several retries.  That reminds me, I still have to get those substations going one of these days.  

Mine are neutral lots, too, only I have them in the Power menu instead of the Parks menu.  The Parks menu can quickly become crowded after even a moderate number of downloads, since it seems to be the most commonly used menu for custom lots.  Still, this is a matter of personal preference.  I've actually contemplated adding NIMBY effects like lower land values and the like to my poles to resemble RL, but not everyone would appreciate a set that nothing would develop around.  On the flip side, I've seen a number of power lines built next to existing houses, and even new houses built with power lines right in the backyards, so it's probably best to keep it neutral for that purpose.

Did you know that you can actually create a transparent base easily in PIM-X by editing the lot in the included LE-X and deleting the base texture?  You can actually save lots in PIM-X with no base texture at all, in contrast to the Maxis LE which doesn't allow this.  So, keep up the good work here.  It looks like you've already made a lot of progress since you first picked up the BAT.

[Buzzit]

Good progress    .

However try to rework your textures above all concrete and wood textures, I am sure you can upgrate them for better rendering. 
I like the details you put one these items 
 

haha thanks!
but what is wrong with the texture? are they to bright?(alteast thats what i constantly think lol)
so what do you recommend for the textures?

Looking good, Buzzit.  I especially like the cables that go into the ground on the start/end pylons.

I agree wholeheartedly about the variations.  The RL counterpart of the metal 345kV pylon that I BATted has straight-line poles, a number of corner poles, and start/end poles.  This doesn't even include the two parallel sets that are sometimes used interchangeably with it.  I haven't quite put the entire set into the game, and I have tweaked it somewhat for the game, but I just about have it to the place where I'm satisfied with it after several retries.  That reminds me, I still have to get those substations going one of these days.  

Mine are neutral lots, too, only I have them in the Power menu instead of the Parks menu.  The Parks menu can quickly become crowded after even a moderate number of downloads, since it seems to be the most commonly used menu for custom lots.  Still, this is a matter of personal preference.  I've actually contemplated adding NIMBY effects like lower land values and the like to my poles to resemble RL, but not everyone would appreciate a set that nothing would develop around.  On the flip side, I've seen a number of power lines built next to existing houses, and even new houses built with power lines right in the backyards, so it's probably best to keep it neutral for that purpose.

Did you know that you can actually create a transparent base easily in PIM-X by editing the lot in the included LE-X and deleting the base texture?  You can actually save lots in PIM-X with no base texture at all, in contrast to the Maxis LE which doesn't allow this.  So, keep up the good work here.  It looks like you've already made a lot of progress since you first picked up the BAT.

Hehe well i made a bit of mess with all the implementing into game stuff.. I had a couple of times that the i had twice the same model in game, or even trice! And stuff like  forgetting something and so on. My plugin manager is pretty full now lol

Wel that sounds cool! i think they would be better with a transparent base! Time to figure out PIM-X!

[Buzzit]

hmm.. i still dont understand pim-x that will so that will come in time

im rescaling all the models at the moment since i noticed that they where to small
i allready tested 1 in game that one looks better with its new size!
new screenshots will come in time!

[Girafe]

At first glance, Pim-X is difficult but it's a good tool.

For the textures:



it seems that you applied too small textures but I am not sure bacause I use 3dsmax. Try to scale up your wooden texture in order to cover all the pole.

For the others poles, apply a concrete texture: www.cgtextures.com is a very good website (you need to register I think)

But as I said your work is already very good for a beginning.

After I will teach you how to make cable which follow slope it's better visually   

[metarvo]

Gmax seems to have this habit of brightening any textures that you import in, so it's a good idea to import a texture that's darker than you actually want it to appear.  This will compensate for the added brightness.

[Buzzit]

well the textures are diffrent now and a bit darker
and i changed some models a bit! i will post a new picture one of these days but im pretty busy with multiple things i also make music on the pc (For education) i'm preparing for my introduction week and i also have a small moped project! so it could take a short while!

[Buzzit]

i suddenly got a really weird but maybe a somewhat good idea
while i was playing simcity i dragged a powerline and noticed that the lines dont have any shadows.
my own powerlines dont have wires for now so that gave me the idea and question: is it possible to change the line texture to something transparant? because if that is possible you can have your model as a dragable without the line issue and if you do it right maybe you can add a draggable model with lines already attached to it and than drag them in the right messurement and you will still have powerlines with wires with power flowing through them.. offcourse this would only work on flatland

its maybe a weird idea but it may work if the textures of the wires could be changed


and something else i made many new changes to some poles but when i load them into the lod editor most of the models look a bit 'stupid, just like myself' i mean they are really flat and smashed into itself (lol yeh i know it sounds weird). do some of you people have this aswell? and how can i fix this? did i do something wrong while rendering?

[metarvo]

Well, there have been a few replacements for the draggable power pole models, but no one that I know of has been able to make any changes to the wires themselves.  Unfortunately, the wires seem to be hard-coded into the EXE, and if they are, it means that they can't be modified.  The idea to make the wires transparent is a very good one, but it would still require a modification to the wires.  If something were to be done about this one day, I would consider it a groundbreaking discovery.

I can't see any pictures of your problem, but it sounds like you might be getting bad renders from the description you provided.  I had this problem too when I first started out, but it went away after I applied the ModelNames script fix [linkie] by ChrisAdams.

[Buzzit]

Well, there have been a few replacements for the draggable power pole models, but no one that I know of has been able to make any changes to the wires themselves.  Unfortunately, the wires seem to be hard-coded into the EXE, and if they are, it means that they can't be modified.  The idea to make the wires transparent is a very good one, but it would still require a modification to the wires.  If something were to be done about this one day, I would consider it a groundbreaking discovery.

I can't see any pictures of your problem, but it sounds like you might be getting bad renders from the description you provided.  I had this problem too when I first started out, but it went away after I applied the ModelNames script fix [linkie] by ChrisAdams.

so there isnt by any chance that it will work?

does it mean that if ints hardcoded into an EXE file that its completely locked away from us?
that would be screwed... and what if someone just  code the same kind of script/code for it?

anyways if it would ever be solved than we dont need anymore transparant pylons cause we could change the wires anyway hehe

but how did people changed the pylon model then? or is that something diffrent?


thanks for the link btw i hope it works now!