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Breaking Ground: Terrain and Waterworks

Started by Gobias, May 29, 2012, 07:08:32 PM

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Gobias

adfiver / sunv123:  The sidewalk mod includes a base texture replacement but not a retaining wall replacement plugin.  I'm still intending to release some retaining walls but not quite there yet.

So, surprise!  Just got the "Sudden Valley" Terrain mod up on the LEX.  Forgive the lack of a better name, but it's the looks that count, eh, and at least it pays tribute to my user-name.

Apologies for not bothering to beta-test with users here but I got to the point where I felt the mod was in a state I was happy with and I think mostly I'd be getting feedback based on color/brightness - some users would prefer something darker, some brighter, maybe redder for some or blue-er for other?  Ultimately I just decided to take Willy's excellent advice and focus on making something that would give reasonable contrast with flora and MMPs and match well with lots - and in the end I hope the mod satisfies both my desire for something a little darker but also blends well with content in circulation.

After a LOT of regrading of color/brightness, re-running FSH files and reloading the game.  Over.  And over again.  I probably created over a thousand different FSH files to keep tweaking color.  Red +1?  Too red.  Red -1?  Not enough red....  I think I'm color-blind now!  But at some point one has to say "DONE"!  INI tables?  Probably re-made that thing around 50 times before I settled on a good blend.

So here's how the mod turned out.  I'll throw up a few images now and maybe if time permits tonight I'll stop by for a little explanation on the strategy I employed here.  But alas, dinner is in the oven and I've got to run:






Uzil

Congratulations for your new terrain mod, he is simply perfect but I have a question :



How to avoid this problem of diagonal ?

Gobias

Quote from: Uzil on December 30, 2012, 04:31:26 PM
How to avoid this problem of diagonal ?
Well if you're referring to the grass color along the roadside, that's unfortunately something that can't really be helped without a road/street texture mod.  The grass color along roadsides is part of the road-tile itself.  That's an issue I ran into with the Berner Oberland mod too, but unfortunately, unless I only make terrain the same color as road-tile grasses or recreate every road/street tile to match the terrain then it's not really solveable with a terrain-mod alone.

Gobias

Ok, maybe I do have a few minutes before I have to head off to dinner...

So here's basically my strategy for the mod:
For starters, there were a lot of elements in the BOTM that I liked and as I started working on the mod I decided I didn't have to waste a lot of time remaking 100% new textures from scratch only to come up with roughly the same grass, dirt, rock appearances I already had... but I knew I wanted to get dirtier and darker with these textures so I employed a few different methods to be able to use some of my old work alongside new textures but give it all a different look:

1) New Textures:  Around the tree-line the C9 texture blends snow and dirt with more variety.  The C6 and C8 textures where the tree-line ends are new rougher clumpier grass textures.  D8-DC textures are all new mossy/dirty detail textures and DD is a new dry-grass texture.  C7 texture is a new pasture texture.
2) Texture Hybrids:  To get dirtier I blended several of the old "pure" grass textures that I liked from BOTM with dirtier textures to create variety.  Less of a clean-grass look.  The C5 texture is a good example – a photoshopped blend of two older grass textures.  So I wound up with none of the grass textures I borrowed from my past work remaining in their original state. 
3) Color-Grading:  Any texture that carried over from BOTM was heavily color-graded to fit the new palatte.  Darker, redder.
4) Zoom-adjustments:  I found that I could remove my furthest zoom-texture in some cases to create a little more noise on the landscape at furthest zoom.  Again, this eliminates some of the "clean" grass look that was present in the BOTM.
5) New INI:  totally re-wrote the INI to blend more detail and dirt textures into the slopes.  The tree-line is less clean cut and rock/dirt textures appear even in gentle slopes of the lower-elevations.

Other details were changed including new base-textures for grass lots, a different transparency for the shore.

So that's about it.  Hopefully the color-palette works well with the MAXIS content – I spent a lot of time reloading the darned game and scrutinizing the color of these grasses trying to achieve something that would look proper with both summer/fall flora.  Hope it turned out well enough.

I've only briefly had a chance to test out the download off the LEX so if there are any issues just let me know.

Cheers,
Daniel

Uzil

Sorry, but you don't have understand my problem , I wanted to talk about that  :

Swordmaster

I'm impressed, Daniel. From my first glances I'm certain this will be a very popular mod, so all the effort you put in will pay off.

You know my tweaked textures are a lot lighter, so it would be unfair of me to say this mod is too dark or too this or too that, but I'll certainly be playing around to find any new options I've gotten. I think I'll render one of dobdriver's map with it and see what happens.

Thanks for all the work!


Cheers
Willy

PS: Uzil, that's caused by a different MaxNormalYForCliff value in the terrain exemplar. Look at the mod you used before and adapt the new one with the old value. Should work out fine.

epicblunder

Wow i didn't even know this one was close to being done.  I've just tested it out a little bit and i have to say that I'm loving up.   :thumbsup:  Very nice job Gobias.

Tarkus

#127


There has to be a better way to say that . . .

It may sound like a salad dressing, but this looks like an absolutely phenomenal mod--and as an avid Arrested Development fan, I love the name of it. :thumbsup:  I've picked it up and plan to give it a whirl.  Thank you for all your efforts on terrain modding--having done a little bit of it myself, I know it's no small feat.  Wishing you the best for 2013.

-Alex

Uzil

Quote from: Swordmaster on December 30, 2012, 05:47:42 PM
PS: Uzil, that's caused by a different MaxNormalYForCliff value in the terrain exemplar. Look at the mod you used before and adapt the new one with the old value. Should work out fine.

How I can fix that ?  ()what()

Indiana Joe

Uzil:  you need the Reader tool to fix that problem. http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=656

In the Reader, you need to open the Terrain Parameters file of the terrain mod in your plugins folder.  In that file, there should only be a few entries.  Click on the one that says "Exemplar...Y..." and has the most text.  In that entry, you need to find the MaxNormalYForCliff value.  Change that to 0.85 and it will fix the diagonal problem.

However, a side effect of doing that is that more rock textures will show up throughout your terrain.

Hope that helps!

Uzil


whatevermind

Glad to see this was released! The pictures look great, and I'll definitely have to try this out as soon as I get a chance.

Gobias

Sorry I haven't had much of a chance to be around the boards the last few weeks since the Sudden Valley release but I appreciate all the comments thus far and hope you all enjoy the mod.

January's been a busy month and I've been trying to spend the little SC4 time I've had actually playing the game, which as many modders can surely understand, often feels like it doesn't happen as much as it used to!  But I think I'm going to take a little modding break to clean up some plugins and start a new region.  Perhaps an MD once I get a little further along.  I'm nuts about tweaking all my growables so that they grow naturally in tilesets without any building growing too often or not enough (I keep a NY/Euro/HK set) and I try and keep my menus squeaky clean.  And I just finished what feels like a never-ending 10 year quest to clean up all my sets.  So now I feel like it's time to just sit down and play.

That said I'm actually making a street-side mod today as my last project before starting a region - wasn't anything I planned for release, just a personal project - to use Girafe and CP's beautiful seasonal flora for street-trees.  Just got finished adjusting my make-shift godmode seasonal flora brush to add Girafe's Lindens and Ashes and I created a MAXIS flora/prop replacement mod to do the same (unfortunately I can't find a way to replace MAXIS flora with seasonal - only evergreen - but it's better than still having MAXIS trees everywhere).  T21 modding is painfully slow for the street trees and I'd like to also work in some better planters and benches... so it's rough but I'm getting there.

Thanks again for the replies!

Swordmaster

A maxis replacement mod sounds very good. In fact Noah and I had been planning to make one, so that's easy ;)

If you run into issues with the T21s, I can always help out.


Cheers
Willy

Vizoria

First of all Gobias I just want to say what an amazing job you've done with the Berner Oberland terrain mod, it is absolutely incredible!  :thumbsup:

However I wonder if you are creating a Berner Oberland tree controller? I have downloaded the VIP Girafe flora (Subalpine Fir, Serbian Spruce, Conifers, Abies Grandis) the ones which you said where the most compatible (visually so) with the Berner Oberland Terrain mod and I was wondering if you ever considered a Berner Oberland tree controller which uses the four tree types I mentioned above?

Since the Berner Oberland mod is designed to simulate the Swiss Alps, I think it would be really cool if there was a tree controller to go with it; where the trees resemble those found in Switzerland. Plus I've just downloaded the incredible Zurich Switzerland mod by blunder from Simtropolis, and because the map is so huge a tree controller which would spawn trees native to the area would be really handy!

I have no coding experience or modding experience, but as a fan of your work please could you create a Berner Oberland tree controller mod?

Gobias

#135
Quote from: Vizoria on April 10, 2013, 04:14:16 AM
First of all Gobias I just want to say what an amazing job you've done with the Berner Oberland terrain mod, it is absolutely incredible!  :thumbsup:

However I wonder if you are creating a Berner Oberland tree controller? I have downloaded the VIP Girafe flora (Subalpine Fir, Serbian Spruce, Conifers, Abies Grandis) the ones which you said where the most compatible (visually so) with the Berner Oberland Terrain mod and I was wondering if you ever considered a Berner Oberland tree controller which uses the four tree types I mentioned above?

Since the Berner Oberland mod is designed to simulate the Swiss Alps, I think it would be really cool if there was a tree controller to go with it; where the trees resemble those found in Switzerland. Plus I've just downloaded the incredible Zurich Switzerland mod by blunder from Simtropolis, and because the map is so huge a tree controller which would spawn trees native to the area would be really handy!

I have no coding experience or modding experience, but as a fan of your work please could you create a Berner Oberland tree controller mod?
Well as it just so happens I do have a tree controller I made for personal use that plops ONLY evergreen alpine/coniferous trees (so basically Girafe's conifer, serbian spruce, common spruce, subalpine firs, abies grandis and a larch here and there).

I didn't make it up to "release" quality - so in other words I didn't take the time to look too deeply into adding detail flora in certain moisture areas or worry too much about tree placement changing a whole lot over elevation.  A lot of the finer details I didn't bother much with... It's pretty straightforward and just plops a great big mixture of all these trees in just about any location.  The only thing I paid close attention to was spacing/forest thickness because I like a good dense evergreen forest on my Alpine terrain, and also making sure the trees don't progress up the cluster-chain too quickly (tree modders, you know what I mean).  That and making sure that trees won't grow on slopes that are too vertical/rocky.

If you're wondering why not release it?  Well as I'm sure other modders could tell you there's a big difference between making something that works and making something that's release-quality.  It's easy to make a functional tree controller, but much harder to make a top-quality one.  Vortext did a fabulous job of this - if you haven't checked it out I encourage you to do so.

I've got a few things laying around I still need to go back and clean up.  In case anyone's wondering I DID make a T21 seasonal streetside tree mod w/VIP flora.  But again, nowhere near being a release-quality mod at this time... I just made a quick and dirty mod for my own region.  May post some pics if time permits.

And sorry I've been away from Sc4 for a few months... I'm still out here keeping a close eye on all the great projects in development.  But real life has definitely commanded a lot of my time lately.  Births, deaths, family members with new jobs, new houses.  All kinds of stuff to deal with and to help out where I can.  And now that it's spring I'm out in the yard all weekend trying to get my lawn and garden cleaned up.  Perhaps once that all settles down (does it ever?) I'll get back to the street mod and some other things.  I never finished the street texture mod or the retaining walls either.  Plenty to do in time.

Cheers,
Daniel

Gobias

It's been a while since I've checked into the thread here but I've got some new material to show very soon.  Wanted to give a little detail of what I'm working on.  Sorry I don't have any screenshots to post today but look for something later this weekend.

Since several people inquired about a Berner Oberland/Alpine tree controller - and since I kind of already made something along these lines for my own use - I figured I'd take a stab at cleaning this up for release.  That turned into a much larger project than I anticipated so here's the essential structure of the mod I'm making:

The "Alpine" Flora Mod (which will be suitable for use with really any terrain mod) will consist of the following components:

1) A new brush shape:  less "straggler" trees around the outside of the brush and more jagged-edged; useful for planting tree lines you might see lining a pasture in a mountain setting.

2) A seasonal God-Mode Alpine brush with a mix of deciduous and evergreen/conifers at low elevation (I'm using Girafe/CP flora exclusively) but quickly blending into evergreens at mid and high elevations; suitable for mountain terrain.  I pulled data on the flora types in the Swiss Alps to fix the ratio of Maple/Ash/Birch and Spruce/Fir trees in similar fashion.  I'll be mixing in pasture flora and shrub detail.

3) A MAXIS lot flora / tree prop and shrub prop replacement - totally replaces the MAXIS flora with VIP/CP material.  Unfortunately I don't know of a way to make Lot Flora replacements truly seasonal so evergreen in this case will have to do.

4) A total Streetside and Street Tree replacement mod using seasonal VIP flora and numerous other props.  As the intent here was to make this a companion for the BOTM the props will be Euro-Themed.  Sorry NY and HK CJ'ers, though you may still opt to use it even despite the leaning towards European style.  I started out just thinking I'd just replace the trees but figured if I'm editing T21s why not go all out and replace everything from street signs to adding pedestrians, streetside cars, benches, tcans etc.

I'm working on the T21s now and have already finished the Avenue and Road T21s.  Working on the street/one-way and NAM-related addons as we speak.  The only other component that isn't finished is the God-Mode brush which I've still got a bit of work to do.

Again, should post some screenshots in the next few days and will go into more detail, especially with regards to the streetside mod.

Cheers,
Daniel

epicblunder

I'm really curious to see what your streetside mod will look like.   :thumbsup:

And don't worry about seasonal lot flora replacement on 3), i don't think that's even possible thanks to plop timing.

RepublicMaster

This sounds like a great project! Can't wait to see it! :D Keep up the great work!

catty

Quote from: epicblunder on August 01, 2013, 08:53:36 PM
I'm really curious to see what your streetside mod will look like...

ditto ... look forward to seeing some pictures when you are ready   :)
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