Three Rivers Region

[Giligone]

Nice photo! What kinda camera do you have?

[vegeman]

Hello David,

I am truly amazed at the realism and beauty of what you have created so far. Have you thought of creating some "National Parks" to preserve some of the natural areas of Three Rivers before they are developed.

I love simcity and astounded by what creative people can do with it.

Keep up the great work...

Steve

[beskhu3epnm]

The best thing about 3RR is the cleverness used while posting. Some CJ/MD entries have more personal replies, but we must understand that they don't generate the traffic that this one does.

There is a wide variety of posting styles, here, not just update/reply. I've now learned a thing or two (even more so) about the scaling of SC4 with regards to tiles, and city sizes, etc. I can get a better picture in my mind as to how something should look now, especially after reading the wide array of information posted.

I generally lurk here... I can't bring myself to generalize comments in my posts (such as: "Great job.") over and over again. Nevertheless, simply know that I am in fact, a fan of this. I don't see it ending anytime soon, and I see that you are personally responsible for adding quite a few members to this site.

Incredible!

[ACEfanatic02]

*steps out of the shadows*

I've just finished reading your... thesis on rural division.  Very, very interesting.  Makes a whole lot more sense in this context than it ever did when we studied it in US History.  (This may be due to Mr. Wonneberger not being the most in-tune teacher...)

Lots of useful info there. (Finally, I know how big an acre is!)

Can't wait for more.

*slinks away*

-ACE

[Tarkus]

Hi David-

I finally made it over here to SC4D . . . nice site!  Glad to see 3RR alive and kicking over here, and I'm still continually amazed by it.  The amount of detail you're going into is great.  Being somewhat of a realism freak, I can definitely appreciate it.

Looking forward to seeing where you go with 3RR here.

-Tarkus

[vab423]

lurk mode off
Wow, my brain is stuffed full of math and acres and trees - note to self:  read 3RR on a daily basis otherwise you'll go into information overload.  Oodles and oodles of good great stuff here!  My "fantastic work, David" pales in comparison to your regulars' comments but please know it's always a treat to read the updates.  -later.
lurk mode on

[dedgren]

Well, I managed to injure my eye.  Really stupid way of doing it, too.  Taking out my right contact Friday night, I did the usual "poke, rub and pinch" routine.  Let's just say, without going into detail, that it went horribly wrong.  I thought I'd just irritated my eye pretty bad until mid-day Saturday, when the feeling that someone had stuck a sharp stick in it just wouldn't go away.

About a day and a half later, the miracle of modern medicine has me pretty much restored to normal, although I spent most of the last 24 hours or so in enforced darkness.  I've worn contacts for 25 years or so...

...first time I've ever done that.
______________________

So, instead of the planned continued discussion that's been so rudely interrupted, let me just post, without a whole lot of explanation, some pics I've taken as I've fine-tuned the mix of seasonal trees on the large "convenience" lots I've created for ease of plopping.  I'll hold the post I had been writing responding to the many great recent comments in abeyance a bit longer.  The pics that follow raise several issues I intend to deal with at greater length in future posts- I'll note them briefly as we go whizzing by.

Without further delay-

#1


A little town- population 500 or so.  Nothing special- all Maxis buildings as I have put nothing other than BSC, BLS and CSX farm stuff, a bunch of tree stuff, the NAM and a few mods and specialty items into the plugins folder yet.  I really dislike the small lot, low-density "game" commercial buildings and lots.  The farm at the SW corner is on a 5x6 or so zone, and grows beans.  The rest of the field is uroncha's ploppable SG seasonal pole bean 1x1 lots.  The field to the NW corner is also made up from one of uroncha's ploppable lots, this time SG seasonal wheat.  More about farm fields- much more- in a few posts.

#2


Early fall.  Compare the fields with the previous pic- only the calendar would tell you that it's harvest time.

#3


Just about high fall.  What was SimGoober (don't get me wrong, I worship the ground he walks on) thinking of when he did that pole bean lot?  I mean, what's so seasonal about random parts of the field turning reddish-brown?  All the pole vines I ever grew turned brilliant yellow and then lost their leaves by late summer.  I know this isn't SimLegumeFarming, but I think this needs another look.  The wheat, on the other hand...well, heh- it must be winter wheat.

#4


Everything's turned, now.  Once you've seen a full quad of seasonal trees properly placed, it's mighty hard to go back.

#5


Early "game" November.  Pole beans are completely mutated turned.  Most of the yellow-leaved trees are bare.  That wheat's hangin', though.

#6


December before the first snow.  Leaves are all down (except for some tree from some other planet that Maxis plants on its lots).

That really must be winter wheat!

And look at those pole beans- why, we're going to have a bumper second crop round about February or so.

#7


Yup.  End of February, lookin' good for beans.  Lookin' real good right behind the water tank- must be over the septic system or something...

#8


Shifting gears a bit- there's nothing like the fresh, clean aroma (i.e.: none) of a dump in mid-winter.  Darn seagulls spoiled my pic by eatin' all the garbage.

No, c'mon- tell the truth.

Okay, okay.  Actually it was the two waste-to-energy plants I plopped just off the pic to the east when things got way out of hand at "cheetah" speed while I wasn't looking.  Man, there was SimTrash everywhere for a bit.  Took care of it right quick, those plants did.  Emptied the dump, though, too.

Ever wonder why Maxis didn't take the 37 seconds needed to create a decent "empty landfill" texture?

Cycledogg must buy his grass/groundcover from the same Feed & Seed SimGoober gets that wheat.

#9


Spring at the dump.  Those seagulls must know something we don't.

#10


Summer.

Don't they ever land?

#11


I've been amping up the red and orange fall colors, but still am beholden to a strong yellow-leaves component.  That's north-central U.S/Canada fall, in my book.

#12


Down to Wildcat Creek.  I'm working on some other "super-detail" ploppable stuff, and didn't spend any time doing this, but I'm pretty happy with the way this sort of scene comes out with a little effort.

#13


Further downstream.  I'm wondering about the ability to submerge animated props...

I've taken to sticking "dead" (leafless) trees in here and there.  I like the look, and it's one more item of "superdetailing" furniture in the tool kit.

Now that's mixing a metaphor!

#14


A cold fall day along the Wildcat.

#15


I'd redo the pile of plop rocks here at the lower left- otherwise this is fine.

#16


Yep, those have to go.

#17


So, back to the fields from a little further out.  Late spring, and that wheat's still going strong.  Those are SG corn fields next to the wheat and at the top of the pic- all uroncha ploppable.  A field of "zoned" hay is off to the left.  Like I said, I plan to unload my thoughts about fields in an upcoming post.  I presume you can tell I'm not real jazzed about what I feel I have to work with.

Oh, the high-tension towers (at least that's what we called them in the midwest- elsewhere they may be termed power pylons or the like).  Those are fukuda's.  I like them much better than the "game's" towers.

I have never seen a red-and-white pattern high-tension tower, anywhere.  Not even after those spoiled enchiladas I ate once.

fukuda, though, if you're reading this...

First, hi!  Great job on those bridges- they are to die for.  Plan on seeing them somewhere in 3RR, prominently placed.  That said:

   1.  High-tension towers are generally not found on a concrete slab.  I haven't run them through the LE yet, but if that's just a texture and could be made invisible...you could certainly lose the slabs and just plop them letting whatever is underneath show through.  Nobody will miss this unecessary detail.

   2.  If a gridsquare = 16 meters/50 feet and, at viewing level "3" on my computer is displayed about 32 pixels across, this means that the finest possible detail at that level, i.e.: something that can be represented by one pixel, is one-half a meter, or about 20 inches across.  I have it on good information that the wires on high-tension towers, depending on the voltage carried, are 2-1/2 to 5 cm/one to two inches in diameter.  They are, for all intents and purposes, invisible in this game at any view level.  And, they are not black, being metal that is, well...

...metal-colored.

I'd love to see the towers and not the wires.  I know you'd have to think up some way to visually indicate connection, or perhaps we could just finesse that and say any tower within 10 gridsquares of another is wired to same.

More on electric towers and poles later.

#18


Coming on high summer and that wheat's starting to look like one of those humungous bar codes they use now.  Ditto the pole bean field toward the bottom of the pic.  Wha were the otherwise brilliant folks who modeled this stuff thinking this would simulate?

#19


...but here it comes roaring back!  And look at them pole beans!  Break out the grist mill and salt pork, my darling- it's bread and beans for dinner tonight!

#20


Now that's what I call efficient farming.  It doesn't look like they harvested that corn so much as graded it dead level.

#21


December, again, and...

...looky that, Elmer!  I had no I-deer corn would grow so nice at 3 below...

So, I have to leave you there.  I have a major brief-writing day tomorrow, so I need my beauty sleep...

...lot of good that'll do...

Anyway, enjoy!

Later.

[kalanc69]

PLEASE READ THIS!!
It only takes a few minutes to set these up once you've created some.  I'm by no means finished- I plan to put in some "ground clutter" (stumps, maybe some spring and summer shrubs, a few (very few, as they get overused easily) rocks and boulders in finalizing these lots up.  If there's any interest, I'd be happy to do a tutorial.

Personally, I would LOVE to learn how to make my own lots of trees...is there any chance you could do a tutorial on how to make these trees? Also, where do you get these customizable trees?

Kalanc69     [move][move][/b]/move][/move]

[thundercrack83]

First, let me extend my condolences about your eye problems. As a contact lens wearer myself, I know it can be rather painful when something goes wrong. When you said that you had to spend 24 hours in darkness, it reminded me of that episode of M*A*S*H when Hawkeye was blinded and had to wear patches on his eyes...

Anyway, onto the latest update!

I really like the pictures where you show the seasonal differences in the trees. Personally, my favorite is still the fall shots (#11 in particular), when all the different colors come out. As a Pennsylvanian, it reminds me of...well, Pennsylvania.

Down to Wildcat Creek.  I'm working on some other "super-detail" ploppable stuff, and didn't spend any time doing this, but I'm pretty happy with the way this sort of scene comes out with a little effort.

If that's little effort, I can only imagine what actual effort is going to look like!

Take care, and I hope your eye is doing better.

[Shadow Assassin]

Very nice work, David. Seagulls, of course, are known for hanging around... maybe there's just some invisible trash hanging around there?

As for the power lines, unfortunately, the concrete bases cannot be removed - the model is controlled by the .exe itself, and well, Maxis really did drop the ball on this one. It'd just look weird if the base was set to invisible, because you'd have the structure hovering in mid air.

I agree, it'd have looked a lot better without that concrete base. You can always try PSPing it out, though.

[bat]

Wonderful development! Great town and farms! Fantastic river!

[Air6]

I love how you use Cycledogg Trees. It's very nice.

[Elektra]

Hi David,

And yes I am stalking following your MD, just like I did over at ST.  Just not one to post the "great job", "nice work"......etc every other time I come to read the updates.  I just lurk around and soak in all the information you put out there. 

Though I guess I should comment on how well this is looking and how far it has come from the beginning.  I do enjoy reading all the humor information, I have learned tons.  I am sure I have tons more to learn.  I do appreciate all the time you put into this.

I would like to say that your seasonal trees have come along way from the first set you did, looks great, very evenly spread out now.  I will continue to follow along and step out of lurking every once in a while.

Thanks for a great MD. 

[mightygoose]

  " it says here your gonna get more trixies this year....

[Fred_Ginger]

Hi David, I use to wear contacts so can empathize with your problem (at least you didn't scratch your eye putting makeup on like I did once! ), I've since had Laser surgery and all I can say is "I wish I'd done it sooner!' 
Anyway on to TRR, sitting here in the Sacramento Valley of norther California we don't get all the seasonal changes that happen further north, but we do get the foliage changes (although not on the same scale) so I really appreciate your use of the seasonal trees.  Your little creeks make me want to take up painting again.  (*make note to myself, look for paint supplies one day soon*)   I'm sorry, I just had to laugh at your 'complaint' about the farms, you're trying so hard to make TRR as life like as possible when something as silly as pole beans trip you up!

[Gaston]

Afternoon / Morning David,
       I can understand what you mean about the farm fields.    I have to say I wish they were better .     At the same time I am truely impressed with the effort that the folks that made them have put in to them.     It is very difficult for me to have any kind of complaint about any lot when I have no clue how to even start creating something like that.      I will continue to be thankful for all the great stuff people are willing to spend time making.   That of course doesn't stop me from asking questions or making suggestions.         Thanks for posting some great pics.


---Gaston

[Tarkus]

Hi David-

Wow that's quite the update . . . and the amount of detail about the farm fields.  I had kind of wondered about those harvesting cycles myself, but I concur with Gaston, too, that it was at least nice for someone to create some better looking ones.  Heck, the Maxis ones don't even harvest at all. 

Of course, I am in the modding end of things as well, and from what I can tell, there's probably some way to change the time cycle on those, likely in the Reader.  I'm actually planning undertaking an experiment in the near future with some of the Transit Modding that I'm doing, which will probably involve messing around with those time cycle things, so I may know some more on that end soon.  And if the experiment is successful, there may be a rather nifty addition to the RHW mod as well.

Looking forward to more 3RR as always.

Sorry to hear about your eye as well--hope everything is going well on that end. 

-Tarkus

[bulldog2010]

Man, I always love reading your updates, you always present the information you gathered in a funny, non-boring way. I really liked the joke about the striped poles and the spoiled enchiladas  .

Anyway, great update and I have a question for you. Do you plop those seasonal trees one by one or do they have some kinda brush that you use?

[NikNik]

David,
auch! You've been surprised by the infamous red-eye monster. Guess you looked more or less like this?



Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, this is one of the reasons that I do no longer wear those lenses.

Interesting update again David. Did you know that besides great farm stuff SG made also Goober_gen industry lots (of course you do). Is there a connection between the mysterious winter wheat, the pole beans and the genetic modifications at Goober_Gen? 

Love those seagulls. After watching "Finding Nemo" my view on seagulls will never be the same again. I guess after sheep they must be the stupidest animals around, well they were in the previous mentioned movie.
Sorry about that, but having 3 young children means you realy, REALY get to know Pixar's movies.

I love that stream you made. That curve just after the bridge looks so very natural. WOW!

Finally about Fukuda's Power lines. I live in the Netherlands and we regularily have rivers running out of their....what's that word....course? Well, when too much water goes through the river the water level rises (there has to be an english word for that). In the fine mazed system of power lines there are always some poles near a river. So we build these on big concrete slabs sometimes 3 or 4 meters high. Others are just on big slabs or on 4 slabs of concrete.
Some other great power lines are:
SFBT Rural Power Lines By Spocky
and
HV Transmission LineSubstation by Jestarr.
The later one is brilliant in fields:



Unfortunatelly it does not distribute power like Fukuda's does. It's mere eye Candy.

Have fun.

Nik-Nik

[Darmok]

Hi David,
This is one of the most realistic setup you've made so far...!
The small pumping station not to far from the stream...
The only thing I like less is the dump near the river BUT... unfortunately I've seen such thing in RL!!! so... good points for realism but personally I would have liked it in a secluded place far from the water.
The power lines....
I don't mind the concrete slabs, in my "enduro" days (trail bikes) one of our favorite ride was to follow the power line through the forested area, and each pylon was placed on a concrete slab... so to me it looks OK, I agree though that they could have made it a little bit less obvious...
Just love the ambiance of this small community!
See you!

John