Three Rivers Region

[adroman]

First week of posting,

But I'd love the chance to try out the Euro edition!

Thanks,
Adrian

[threestooges]

Seems like you've already had a fair cross section of testers already, but if you'd like to add one more to the list of default texture testers, my plugins folder is always open to you.
-Matt

EDIT:  It's wide open, Matt.  The more- the merrier. -DE

[thundercrack83]

Hi, David! Needless to say, I'm here if you need me, my friend!

Dustin

[dedgren]

First SC4D post from 29,000 feet/8,840 meters?



In-flight wi-fi.  I can almost forgive these guys for charging (US) $15 for the first checked bag...



On second thought, no.  I used to like to fly.  Now it's just a cattle drive.



Peanuts for three bucks a bag, anyone?

Later.


David

350937

[nerdly_dood]

I'd love to try it but I don't think I'll be able to do the rigorous testing I normally hope for.

- My computer is too weak to handle the 4GB plugins folder I used on my old Vista computer, which means that I won't be able to see if any of my plugins will conflict with your stuff, since my weak computer has minimal plugins: RTMT, NAM and associated plugins, and various custom underpasses, plus the ERTMs HINT, HINT!! for roads and RHW, although now that it occurs to me, I'll just install Windows 7 on it and use that... that'll be a lot better than my current Pentium4 XP computer...and i may be able to use my full plugins folder!
- My efforts will be concentrated on automata modding, which does not require much time in-game that I would typically use for testing your mods (at least not for a single mod... for multiple mods, i have to open and close the game once for each one, it gets quite time consuming)
- I'm quite prone to being distracted by my trusty PlayStation2, which generally drags me away from more useful activities such as creating and working on SC4 custom content... Curse you, Driv3r! And GTA too, and CoD-3! And Driver: Parallel Lines, if i get it here in DC...
- I'm currently in DC visiting my uncle, and I won't be back home until Friday

If you think those are negligible obstacles, I'll surely try your new textures out - Euro, please! (Again, it'll be hard to test for conflicts with only the plugins mentioned above)

EDIT:

First SC4D post from 29,000 feet/8,840 meters?

Curse you, United! And Lufthansa! I don't travel much, but when I do it's with them because they're generally excellent airlines... but with no wireless internet!

[sithlrd98]

First SC4D post from 29,000 feet/8,840 meters?
Later.
David

Yeah , but how many PMs do you give/receive at 29k?


Picture time!!!! I have been messing around with these trying to see whats new , and I've got to say WOW! They look so much more realistic.

Maxis



Re-textured



Not that everybody's gonna do this but....
Maxis


Look at the "N"

Re-texture



Now as far as wealth dependency, as I thought , it doesn't work as you would think...

No wealth


Same re-textured set with wealth...notice the intersection change.....and the textures trying to revert


And the same goes for sidewalk mods of course, and I am working on wealth T-21ing the curves , but have hit a few snags , but it may go smoother with these.

Overall , a much needed change! Still have more testing to do!

Jayson

[dragonshardz]

David, if it's not too late I'd like to give those textures a test. American, please.

[MandelSoft]

Here's another person who would like to test the new Euro Road Textures! 

[Andreas]

... and the best of all: No more 1 pixel texture shift. Now we only need to make sure that SC4DatPacker won't break the SimCity_1.dat, then we could clean out all broken Maxis stuff and add our own, fixed work.

[joelyboy911]

I'm keen to test as well. I use game standard textures.

[just_a_guy]

I would love to try out the new textures...

Unfortunatly, my laptop won't run SC4 properly as it overheats for some reason and shuts down on it's own after I play for like 10 minutes.
Besides that, I really like those new FARR buildings, JBSimio. This may not be the right place to ask this, but does anyone know how to make a model overhanging. I imagine that's what's needed to be done in order to make FARR lots. I would like to try my hand at making some FARR lots myself someday.

[metarvo]

AFAIK, a model that is set as a building in PIM can't overhang, as no building can extend beyond the boundaries of the lot size that is selected in LE.  However, a model that is set as a prop in PIM can overhang as long as the center of the prop is on the lot.  The prop will overhang only if it is made that way in the BAT.  I typically use a small transparent box as the building for all of my LOTs, with the visible structure being a BAT model set as a prop.

[debutterfly]

Hey David. I'd love to test those new road textures (American). They look really realistic.

-Larry (debutterfly)

[carkid1998]

Always happy to try something out(Euro), they look excellent!

Although don't worry to much, you didn't have much trouble finding testers, did you?

[JBSimio]

JBSimio. This may not be the right place to ask this, but does anyone know how to make a model overhanging. I imagine that's what's needed to be done in order to make FARR lots. I would like to try my hand at making some FARR lots myself someday.

AFAIK, a model that is set as a building in PIM can't overhang, as no building can extend beyond the boundaries of the lot size that is selected in LE.  However, a model that is set as a prop in PIM can overhang as long as the center of the prop is on the lot.  The prop will overhang only if it is made that way in the BAT.  I typically use a small transparent box as the building for all of my LOTs, with the visible structure being a BAT model set as a prop.

Actually, I am in fact setting these models as buildings in PIMX.  As the great Ripplejet has so patiently explained to me, as long as the steps are followed in the correct order, this will work without causing any immortal lot syndromes.  The trick is to make the ploppable building exemplar as your normally would, but then change the occupant size in the building exemplar before placing the building on a lot.  The touble with using the building as a prop and then overhanging it (which does work as metarvo described) is that props which touch (or overhang) the edges of a lot will not light up if I remember correctly.

David, as much as I would love to give the new textures a trial run, I seriously don't know when I will have a chance to do so.  Things are staying very busy down here and any testing that I can do will be in very small increments.  I'll gladly take a sneak preview if you choose to send it, but seeing as how there is no shortage of testers, I'll leave that decision to you my friend.

JB

[beutelschlurf]

moin dedgren,
good work you and your team is doing here! 
btw. here is the link which explains a solution of changing building/prop_sizes ... klick
i think in that thread Rayden had the best way to do it!
hope you guys now what i mean and it helps ...

b_schlurf

[just_a_guy]

metarvo, JBSimio, beutelshlurf,
thanks a lot for your help, doesn't seem hard at all. I will have a try at it soon!

[sithlrd98]

I have a question for everyone...I recently extracted all of the new re-done textures that are sidewalk and grass less (This re-texture is just the road/basic alphas).  I am wondering if there is a demand for these to actually be wealth dependent like their counterparts? If so , should they have the grasses? I only ask because I  modded my own originals to get rid of the grass. Since these are just replacements for the Maxis roads , they won't be difficult , just wanting to know.

Jayson

[buckbeach]

Yeah , but how many PMs do you give/receive at 29k?


Picture time!!!! I have been messing around with these trying to see whats new , and I've got to say WOW! They look so much more realistic.

Maxis

Way off topic but this building and street configuration brings back some fond memories of the intersection of Post (I think) and Market streets in San Francisco.  In the building, close to the intersection was this neat "watering-hole" good for a couple of after work libations before jumping the BART heading out to Concord.  Could enter the bar from either Post or Market.  That was 35 years ago. Last time I was there in San Francisco about 5 or six years ago it wasn't there anymore.

Back to SC4

[ldvger]

I have a question for everyone...I recently extracted all of the new re-done textures that are sidewalk and grass less (This re-texture is just the road/basic alphas).  I am wondering if there is a demand for these to actually be wealth dependent like their counterparts? If so , should they have the grasses? I only ask because I  modded my own originals to get rid of the grass. Since these are just replacements for the Maxis roads , they won't be difficult , just wanting to know.

Jayson brings up a good point here, even though this was not what I was thinking about posting about when I logged in here this evening.

I think I have been saying all along that while roads and streets are cool at non-game defualt values, what about avenues and highways and monorails and subways and BRIDGES and all the other transportation infrastructure?  And...how do we get zones, sidewalks, bus stops, train stations, etc., to work with these non-game additions?  If we make everything ploppable, what does that do to our game menus and how do we manage same?  It's just one big can of worms after another, which is why I suspect Maxis gave us the development tools and let us figure this whole can of beans out for ourselves.  Brilliant marketing...but the fact remains that every time any one creates a non-standard transportation tile of any kind, the implications of that ripple all the way through the game. 

Don't get me wrong, please.  I LOVE all the stuff that has been done and will use it in my game with deep gratitude.  My menus are nearly indeciferable and it takes me 20 minutes to find that just one tree I want or that just right road...but that's ok.  But what happens when we have the transport options nailed?  Will we be able to build seaports at any angle, like they are built in RL?  Bridges from one city tile to another and at odd angles?  And how do we match up zoning tiles...or do we just plop every single tile in out cities?

I am a deeply anal person, way OCD, but the direction all this micro-tinkering seems to be going in boggles my brain.  Are we losing track of the ultimate goal of the game as entertainment and liesure activity?  I don't know but given the way I dream about my regions, I sometimes wonder. 

All that being said...

Anyone have any suggestions for a default game water mod that works well with the various ploppable waters?  I have removed all the terrain mods from my plugins folder and am currently running a semi-plain vanilla game in terms of terrain/water.  However, I am going to be plopping water soon and it need to meet game water at sea level, so I am wondering is anyone has found a combo that works well.


Lora/LD