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Three Rivers Region

Started by dedgren, December 20, 2006, 07:57:49 PM

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thundercrack83

And I shall be the second to extend my congratulations, too! Congrats, my friend!

And David, I hope you can find a solution to your "feature" there--I'm sure someone here will come up with how it's done though!

Dustin

Tarkus

#4401
Quote from: dedgren on August 14, 2008, 06:00:57 PM
Now, this first pic in the series shows the basic drawback of ploppable road signs- they can go in one of four orientations.  Only one of them is the one you want.  You have no control over which orientation you get, and so you just have to be patient until you get what you want.  So let's try again...

That's also similar to one of the main drawbacks to the Signage Piece Mod (SPM) approach I've been playing around with.  The rotations are actually okay control-wise (there's only two ways they can go because of the RULs), but the selection of the signs are tricky, as they are selected at random via prop families applied via T21, so replopping becomes necessary.

Ultimately, I think this ploppable prop method here actually will work better in most situations for signage placement.  It'll be easier to control 4 rotations of different signs than to control an SPM Puzzle Piece with 20 or more signs in its prop family.

Quote from: dedgren on August 14, 2008, 06:00:57 PM

...yeah, yeah- I'm showing my age.  I always hated those "new" red "YIELD" signs...

I've grown up in the age of red Yield signs, so I'm used to them, but I see the value of the yellow design . . .

I actually feel the same way with speed limit signs, though, having grown up in Oregon.  We have a bit of an "oddity" with our speed limit signs, in that 99% of them actually omit the word "limit". They kind of look like Canadian signs a little.



Our legislature "legalized" using the word "limit" on the signs a few years ago though, so some cities (especially--and ironically--Salem) have started using the "limit" signs quite regularly, much to my chagrin, I might add.  I've always been partial to the standard "limit-less" Oregon ones, and not just for sentimental reasons--without the extra text, they can make the numbers considerably larger.

[/end off-topic]

-Alex (Tarkus)

Edit:  Congrats to Marisa on reaching the double-0 club!  (Also fixed some grammatical stuff in my post.)

Ryan B.

#4402
This took me five to seven minutes to do in the BAT:



Please let me know if this is something you can use.

EDIT: I just blew a perfectly good glass of iced tea all over my monitor (out the nose, if you need really nitty-gritty details) when I read that, Ryan.  I'd walk to your house...

...barefoot...

...over broken glass...

...uphill...

...tonight...

...from Alaska...


...to have that sign.  Now the downside.  You need to take another 5-7 minutes and do a diagonal, and 18.4 and 71.6 degree variant.  And, oh yes, are they offset four meters to the left?  No whining, now- this is 3RR!  Mu-wahhh-haha!

You are fantastic, my friend
. -DE

deathtopumpkins

#4403
David: Glad my explanation made sense. I think 4 meters is the closest approximation to what ja/att's signs were offset.

Ryan (burgsabre87): That's a nice looking stop sign! Much better than the Maxis one.

EDIT: dtp- you will be suitably recognized in an appropriate ceremony over the coming weekend.  No, you don't need to bring Vaseline and bungee cords.  Watch this space, my friend. -DE
NAM Team Member | 3RR Collaborater | Virgin Shores

Ryan B.

David, look for an e-mail from me shortly with the SC4Model files of all the rotations you requested.

thundercrack83

Ryan, Ryan, Ryan! What a sign, my friend! And in 5-7 minutes, no less? Great work! Absolutely great!

Tarkus

I have to concur with Dustin here.  Ryan, you truly are the signmaster! :thumbsup: That's what I call a "quick stop".  :D

-Alex (Tarkus)

Heblem

#4407
David, i have benn making some signal props too, also a web site that includes many of US signals...
http://charm.cs.uiuc.edu/users/olawlor/projects/2003/roadsigns/list.html

You can download some of these signs here:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/2/20/800718/signals%20Mock.zip

If you need some more or different signals i can do some for you without no problem
Take care  ;)

Edit: Oh BTW i have been making some stoplights too, if you need some of these contact me ;)



threestooges

Great work with the sign Ryan. Sorry that I couldn't have gotten to the production sooner David, but it looks like things were taken care of nicely. I will have some time over the weekend, so let me know of any other needs.

Nice work with the signs and traffic light Helbem. I've been following your work with the Mock City, and you're doing a great job.

Congratulations Marisa on hitting the mark for the 00-club too.

Amazing production you're managing here David, and I'm always happy to help if/where I can.
-Matt

JoeST

wow, it exploded last night didnt it

those signs are ace. tho i am struggling to understand how to work them  ::) maybe I would understand if i could mess around with them  ::) ;D

only kidding

cant wait for more updates

Joe
Copperminds and Cuddleswarms

Simpson

I like to see new pics of you
You take a lot of time for each part of your city and it's good to see this  :thumbsup: &apls
BTW this is my 500thposts in this forum

My new city is now here
The région of Kaikoura

Teaser of Lopsas[+ How did I do it?]:Lopsas

girlfromverona

#4411
Good work, Ryan! And you too, Heblem - looks like you've been busy! I really should try to learn how to do this sort of stuff myself. Is it terribly hard?

P.S. Thanks for the congrats, everyone! I didn't even notice I'd hit the 00 mark. Do we have our own secret handshake or anything in this club?  ;)

metarvo

Burgsabre87, that sign looks real.  Too real, in fact.  Has your area seen an increase in sign theft incidents? ;D
Is this the end of the tyrannical reign of the Maxis STOP sign?

Heblem, that signal is very nice.  I have an appreciation for road signs, traffic signals, and pavement markings, so I can see that you truly have done your homework.

&apls
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

Ryan B.

Quote from: metarvo on August 15, 2008, 07:04:57 AM
Burgsabre87, that sign looks real.  Too real, in fact.  Has your area seen an increase in sign theft incidents? ;D
Is this the end of the tyrannical reign of the Maxis STOP sign?

I think so.  Also, if you think this is good - I hate to blow my own goal horn, but in the words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive . . .

you ain't seen nothin' yet.

;)

MandelSoft

Just looked at the last pages and what wonderfull stuff I saw there! Keep on going!!!  :thumbsup:

113395
Lurk mode: ACTIVE

dedgren

Whoa, Ryan...

I've got Ryan's (burgsabre87) stop signs that raised all the buzz yesterday and can tell you... well, I'll just show you, and let the pics do most of the talking.

* * *

I find it very hard, when I work on something for SC4 in another program, to really have a good handle on what I'm doing until I get some feedback from seeing it as the game engine actually presents it.  Most recently, that has been a huge challenge as I've worked on the textures for the Wide Curve/FAR/FARR stuff, which you'll be seeing more of shortly.

Ryan, working in a BATting program, and using the usual conventions along with the dimensions we discussed yesterday, produced a stop sign that is miles (forgive me the road metaphors here, please) better looking than the "game sign, seen lurking here yesterday.



He couldn't, however, see the output he created in the game... until right now.  He sent me .SC4Model files.  I hand-coded out in the Reader the .SC4Desc file needed to make his ortho variant into a prop...

...OK, OK, I am probably in the stone ages with this step- is there a program that creates the description file for you?...

...and then ran it through the aforementioned 3RR Plopperizer.  I then fired up the game...



You can almost read "STOP" on the face of the sign.  It is clearly octagonal.  The offset works perfectly.  Ryan has about nailed those attributes.

On the "still needs work" side of the ledger...

...hey, this is 3RR- idle hands and all that...

...we can see that there's some artifacting of some sort on the top of the sign.  While the face, as noted, has great dimensions for legibility, the post may look somewhat thick.  The sign also looks fairly tall.  Let's look at this in the context of one of ja/att's existing signs.



Taking the comparison of the sign standards (poles) first, I'd say ja/att's "crossroad ahead" sign is about the right height, and the standard is about the correct thickness "on-screen."  Those would seem to be fairly easy attributes for Ryan to reBAT in V.02.  I'd guesstimate reducing the height of the stop sign by between 1/3 and 1/2 would work visually.  Other than that, I see no further advantage in ja/att's sign by comparison.

Looking at the stop sign from the side, we see this.



Here, the visual height difference with ja/att's sign is apparent, but not so striking, leading me to think a 1/3 reduction in height might do the trick.  The edgewise view of the sign face of the stop sign at the southwest (lower right) corner of the intersection appears to be rectangular instead of octagonal, but whether that's true or just the optical illusion result of dealing with a tricky shape remains for Ryan to check out.

Zooming in...



Again, the sharp leftside corner in the southwest sign leaves me feeling like the octagon didn't take in this orientation.

I like the clean visual thickness of the edge of the southwest sign face.  I know, in my head, that it doesn't accurately represent the thickness of a piece of sheet metal, but my eyes tell me that that's OK.  There does appear to be an artifact on the left side of the sign face on the northeast corner.

So, all in all, Ryan- an amazing job.  I think we should focus on doing the best we can on this ortho variant of the stop sign before checking out the diagonal and FAR angle variants- let me know what you think about all this.

Oh, and even though we're not there yet, I thought some ploppable sign eye candy might be in order.

#1


#2


#3


#4


I've attached the .SC4model, .SC4desc and plop prop .dat files to this post in case folks would like to play around with these for yourselves.

Later.


David

113446
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

Ryan B.

#4416
I'm finding myself in agreement about the height.  I started with a pole from the route marker assemblies.  A 1/3 - 1/2 reduction would work, I think.  I'll also thin up the pole a bit.

Regarding the rectangular vs. octogonal appearance:  I'm not quite sure how to remedy that.  If anyone has any ideas or pointers, I'd be more than happy to hear them.

EDIT: LOL.  You ask for "ideas or pointers" around here, my friend, you'd better pack a lunch. -DE

Tarkus

Quote from: burgsabre87 on August 15, 2008, 11:45:58 AM
Regarding the rectangular vs. octogonal appearance:  I'm not quite sure how to remedy that.  If anyone has any ideas or pointers, I'd be more than happy to hear them.

The best way to remedy that would be a custom LOD.  Just take the octagon and the pole, clone them, and combine the clones into a Group, and rename the Group "LOD3".  Then just clone LOD3 and name the clones "LOD4" and "LOD5"--once that's done, just export it.  This should preserve the octagonal shape in-game.

Hope that helps! :)

-Alex (Tarkus)

thundercrack83

Like I've said earlier, Ryan--you've done a magnificent job already with that stop sign, my friend! To see it in the game like that is only icing on the cake!

Good luck with the rectangle vs. octagon conundrum!

Dustin

Chrisadams3997

Hmm, It'd be surprising to me if the LOD's would cause that.  But it's hard to say where it's coming from without knowing how you modeled it Ryan.  Did you actually make the octagon shape, or use a material with an alpha map on a square shape?

It looks like the top of an extruded rectangle that you placed an alpha map on where the top of that extruded shape isn't getting removed by the alpha.  But I can't really tell much without seeing the model or knowing how it's built.