Breaking Ground: Terrain and Waterworks

[Gobias]

Noah, Willy, Whatevermind:  thanks!

Noah:  True, in those pics the water line isn't quite clear - you're right it has more to do with the transparency settings and also the 14+13 shore textures used and not the beach itself which is just a straightforward beach texture.  But I also think those pics make the transition look a little more transparent than it really is - if you were to zoom back one it's a little more defined.  Plus most people like a little transparency.  So the problem with transparency is that the settings are in the Terrain Properties which is something that most people (including me) choose to include in a terrain mod as there are other key settings in that exemplar.  So were I to release a water mod with a transparency setting change in the Terrain Properties the exemplars would be in conflict.  Which means the water mods I make will probably just be straight on textures:  water, shore textures, the gradients and the glare alpha.

Willy/whatevermind:  I've prepared a version of the beaches for both Lowkee and Gobias tiling.  It is a chore to have to maintain both but I want the mod-packs of beaches/rock/water to be useful to ALL users.

But I will continue to use my tiling factor of .097x which after working with both (Lowkee's is a .048x) I feel the .097 is more versatile and puts far less "stretch" and strain on the texture.  I get more sharpness out of a .097x when combined with a 1024-pixel texture whereas once you stretch a 1024 to a .048x it starts to look a little blurry at close zoom.  It's also easier to add detail to a texture - like a boulder or a flowery meadow - because with a .097 the game doesn't zoom in as close on the texture... when I try to add these things at a .048 I either wind up with flowers as big as a house or I have to make those details so small for proper scale that they don't appear to be anything other than specs of color.

Ok - so here's what I've been playing with this morning before work:  a little test on a shore texture to see if I could add a little surf to my beaches.  Mixed results.  You be the judge.

On the one hand it's a nice little wave effect (and yes those waves on the top half of the pic are texture - not the maxis wave effect):



But the problems with something like this is that when rotated sideways the surf-line rotates too:



The BIG problem is that this is the #14 texture which I usually reserve to be WATER and not beach... if you use it as a beach texture then in the shallow water you get this mess:



... So it's a nice effect but I probably won't stick with it... no way to make that work consistently like in pic#1.

The next week or so will be busy life-wise for me but look for a whole plethora of releases in November.  The beaches are done and ready for release but I'm working on a set of water mods to go with them and I'm planning to release them both at the same time.

I also have a pack of HD sidewalks ready to go and I've included an optional plugin that replaces the MAXIS plaza base and overlay textures with new HD textures that blend the sidewalks into the bases.  I think that's key in making a good sidewalk so that they don't look out of place next to a lot.  I'm finishing up the companion piece for that too - a pack of retaining walls and foundations that will go with the sidewalks/bases.  Once that's done I'll release those three together.

Meanwhile I'll continue to work (sloooowly) on the asphalt streets and the next two terrain mods.

Cheers,
Daniel

[epicblunder]

Not having any experience in tiling factors and beach textures i have no input to offer there, but i have to say that i love the vancouver island beach mod and i can't wait to get my hands on it.   

[Simcoug]

epicblunder beat me to it - count 'two' for the Vancouver beach mod - although all of them look great 

[FrankU]

Hey Daniel,

Good work!

[Gobias]

The Beach Pack and the first of three Water Packs are up on the LEX.  I'll have the other two water packs up within the next couple of days... just need a little time to pretty them up for release!

All of the Beach/Water mods will include two scale-versions: compatible with either Lowkee's or the Gobias tiling factor.

More to come soon...

Cheers,
Daniel

[Swordmaster]

Great! They look very neat in the game. I'll be experimenting which one is best.

Cheers
Willy

[Gobias]

Not sure why I felt compelled to mention this but... those shots at the top of this page (page 5) of the shore/surf test... the texture I made for that shallow surf started out as a sampled image of the Jersey shore.  I was in NY just a few weeks ago and stood on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights looking down at the ocean.  Click!  Some heavy photoshopping and it's a beach texture for SC4.

From what I hear from family that live in the area and what I can see on the news Seaside Heights and the boardwalk I stood on while I snapped that shot are pretty much gone.  Destroyed by Sandy.

The night before I took that picture I met a couple near Times Square who owned a candy store on the boardwalk.  We talked for an hour waiting for the last bus from Port Authority back to Toms River.  The next day I woke up and headed out to the beach to take the shot that became the surf texture above.  To my surprise the moment I got out of the car at Seaside there was the fellow I met last night way up in Mid Town Manhattan minding his shop at Seaside.

I can only assume at this point, knowing what's become of Seaside Heights, that his store likely no longer exists.  So strange to think that this all took place just a few weeks ago and it's still fresh in my mind.  I'm still working today with beach textures of the same sand I just sampled days ago from a boardwalk that I hear is no longer there.

Deepest sympathies to the families affected by Sandy.

[Gobias]

Sorry for the delay but I finally posted the third and final water pack on the LEX.  This one's more of a specialty pack with a very deep "green" Chicago River, a Pacific Blue "Inside Passage" shaded to match the straights up near the BC coast and a Loch Lomond variation which has an almost-black surface color you might see in the lochs in and around Scotland.

Also uploaded a pack of 10 HD Sidewalk Textures which also contains a set of MAXIS plaza base and overlay texture replacements.  I think it's important when creating a sidewalk texture to blend it properly into the base textures of commercial lots so the sidewalk doesn't look out of place.  The original MAXIS plaza textures are far too pink and bright for my taste and I think these replacements suit a good NY or Chicago-styled city pretty well.  There's a heavy emphasis on 19th century brick and cobblestone texture that also works in a European urban city.

Now I discuss this in the readme but figured I'd go into a little more detail here:  I created two different versions of the MAXIS texture replacements.  The first is an HD-version and it blends much better with the HD sidewalks.  The second is the exact same set of base textures but in a 128x128 pixel set - I did this because I found that the Lot Editor will not display base or overlay textures in it's menu of texture choices unless the texture is 128x128.  Unless anyone knows a way around this I had to resort to including two versions of the plugin - one for use in the lot editor and the other for HD-in-game play.  Up to you how you'd like to use them.  It's perfectly fine to just use one or the other in-game or in lot editor but just please be aware that if you just use the HD set you won't have the textures available to choose from in LE.  They will DISPLAY in Lot Editor if already placed on an existing lot... they just won't show up in the menu to add from scratch.

I'll post a few screenshots of the sidewalks this afternoon... meanwhile they're up on the LEX if anyone wants to give 'em a shot.

[Gobias]

A few screenshots of the sidewalks/base textures:

Various brick and cobblestone sidewalks alongside lots with some of the MAXIS base replacements:






The effect of using the MAXIS base texture replacement on a plaza scene:



... now, one thing that I created but didn't include in the mod was a selection of 1x1 open paved plaza lots using some textures I sampled in Chicago last month.  If you can name the building whose plaza features these textures you win a prize.  If anyone is interested in using them let me know.  I thought they'd blend well with the darker tones of these new base textures:

An example:


I also did the same with some of the base textures in the pack (but again these lots weren't included in the release) to be able to use them as 1x1 plaza extenders - here the sidewalk blends into the open paved plaza lots on the corner.


Anyway that's it for sidewalks and bases.  I'm still cleaning up some retaining wall replacements that fit the same style of 19th to early 20th century and work esp well in NY/Chicago themed cities.

Pretty soon I'll turn back to terrain.  I'd like to work on something more "standard" for a terrain mod since I know the bright-green of the Berner Oberland is geared mainly towards middle-European regions and is more of a specialty mod.  I find that the Appalachian is a pretty dark/olive palette and the Berner Oberland is especially bright - so something in between, a darker green mod (but not quite as dark or olive/brown as the Appalachian) that blends better with lots/deciduous trees might fill the gap between the two styles.  Also the tree-rock transition at higher altitude was intentionally very abrupt in the BO mod to replicate the sharp tree line in the Alps so something with a more gradual transition would also probably be useful.

[sunv123]

Hey, i just downloaded them and they seem to look not very good. They are look awesome! They defiantly look way better than those old Maxis ones.

Keep up the great work!

[vortext]

Textures look great! 

But just for my understanding, I was under the impression herringbone bond was typical European?! 
Maybe one of our American friends can clarify as I've never been to the US.

Your plans for a new terrain mod sounds promising, pretty much sums up my wish list. 

[Gobias]

But just for my understanding, I was under the impression herringbone bond was typical European?! 
Maybe one of our American friends can clarify as I've never been to the US.

Hmm - good question.  I can't say I know the origin of the style, but it is pretty commonly used in older (hehe, older by US standards) plazas and walkways in many parts of the US, especially New England, older areas of New York (esp around Central Park) and Boston or Portland Maine and I even find it used in "exploration" settlements in the midwest around the Mississippi River.  But like most things we probably borrowed/stole it from Europe!   

I think that's why I'm drawn to cobblestone textures for SC4.  It's versatile for both NY/Chicago and European themed cities.

[noahclem]

Wow Gobias, far be it from you to create anything other than something exceptional! I haven't had a chance to investigate your most recent uploads but the timing is great for me trying to create a mostly Zoom 6 update in Siilijoki. I must say I'm extremely interested in your more mainstream terrain mod that you're mentioning. I like to play on mountains and a variety of other places and I've been using your TM for all non-autumn, non-winter scenes since it's been released, but a more urban friendly standardized version of your terrain work could be very useful. Be careful with your Midas touch

[Swordmaster]

Looks like my sidewalk-induced worries have been put to rest for now. These will find their way into PSC.

But just for my understanding, I was under the impression herringbone bond was typical European?! 
Maybe one of our American friends can clarify as I've never been to the US.

Richmond, Virginia. I could post hundreds of examples like that from the US.


Cheers
Willy

[vortext]

For some reason I always imagined US sidewalks either to be concrete slabs or plain asphalt. Guess I should've known that would be highly unlikely (and a bit biased as well, I might add).

I think that's why I'm drawn to cobblestone textures for SC4.  It's versatile for both NY/Chicago and European themed cities.

While on the subject I've got some nitpicking to do.
Cobblestone and herringbone are two distinct types of paving. The difference being the former uses natural formed rocks (or rocks carved from natural stone) while the latter uses fabricated bricks which allows for neat patterns, like the herringbone pattern you've made amongst others.

[jmyers2043]

For some reason I always imagined US sidewalks either to be concrete slabs or plain asphalt.

   99% of the sidewalks are concrete. But the herringbone block pattern is not unusual. Most likely to be seen in front of some CS$$$ storefronts.   


- Jim

[Gobias]

For some reason I always imagined US sidewalks either to be concrete slabs or plain asphalt.

   99% of the sidewalks are concrete. But the herringbone block pattern is not unusual. Most likely to be seen in front of some CS$$$ storefronts.   


- Jim

Yep, essentially what Jim said.  Most urban/suburban sidewalks in the US are concrete or asphalt.  I wasn't really looking to represent the majority of the US at all with the pack, but more or less find interesting textures available to me that would work well in the game and could be versatile and useful in different styles of cities on both sides of the pond.  And I'm a 19th Century guy, not a modernist, so I gravitate towards the historical locales that we haven't paved over.

So while most of American sidewalks are not cobble/herringbone or brick I wound up looking in old port towns, historic districts, city parks and places that were well-preserved to work with.  There are many places in the US where you can find these patterns and they're usually either historic (again, old by OUR standards isn't all that old  ) or it's a wealthy suburb where we've tried to replicate the European style.

Vortext - yes, I stand corrected on the herringbone/cobble distinction.  You're correct.  I suppose I always thought of true herringbone as being represented in a pattern specifically like this:



... by the way this is a texture I sampled at the Bethesda fountain in Central Park in New York:



But I find that in the US since we do mostly have paved sidewalks most refer to anything that isn't concrete/asphalt or poured cement to be "cobblestone" by default even though you're right to make the distinction that a synthetic brick worked into such a pattern isn't true cobble.

[Gobias]

sunv123, noah, vortext, and all - thanks for the comments on the sidewalks

I've started work on the "standard" terrain mod and I'm pleased to say it's coming along very nicely.  Made rapid progress over the weekend.  Sorry I don't have any images to show just yet but in the next week or so I'll put together some screenshots.  This mod should bridge the gap nicely between the darker Appalachian and the bright green Alpine Oberland.  Stay tuned.

[noahclem]

Great to hear that progress is being made and I look forward to screen shots soon    Filling the gap between Berner Oberland and Appalachian would be very useful. Out of curiousity, how would you describe the color scheme relative to Meadowshire?

By the way, I'm really enjoying your sidewalk and texture mod 

[Swordmaster]

Yes, good to hear. I've been toying with your textures as well, giving some nice results - check tonight's update in my MD. I'm curious to see where exactly you're going. You could make all my modding useless.

Cheers
Willy