Three Rivers Region

[bob56]

EXTRA! EXTRA!  TROVE OF 2004-2005 dedgren SC4 PIX DISCOVERED!!

...proof he can actually build a city?...


284571

He can!!!

Wow, a look back, with  Maxis highways and uncurved double rail...

[mayorfabz]

  Oooooh my gosh it is like finding the Rosetta Stone. How on Earth did you manage to get these roads under those bridges ?
Such a shock at 6 a.m. I think I am heading back to bed (must have been dreaming)
Flabbergasted greetings from Montreal
Fabien

[Ryan B.]

Fabien / mayorfabz:  I believe that someone made a road-under-bridge TE'd (transit-enabled) lot a few years ago and put it on the STEX.

[CaptCity]

EXTRA! EXTRA!  TROVE OF 2004-2005 dedgren SC4 PIX DISCOVERED!!

...proof he can actually build a city?...

What...!!!    David in a city... Say it ain't so... 

...only kidding. Never doubted your 'urban' ability was anything less than your 'rural'. And you actually posted them... I would never post anything I did 4 or 5 years ago.  Any more surprises tucked away?


And mayorfabz, if it's this one, it's a lot that 'covers' a tunnel, giving that appearance.

[dedgren]

Picking our recap of 3RR's third year up from about a month ago [linkie], we head into September, 2008.

We started the month with road signs, but before I get to that, let's take a look at a comment from the first post of the month, made here [linkie] on September 1.

[tabular type=4][row][data]
Oh, on June 1st, 3RR had about 86,500 page views [linkie].  Today we have about 119,500- 33,000 more.  We're coming up on 20 months old here at SC4D, but we've had over a quarter of the views since we started during the past three months.  3RR Regulars*- take a bow!  You are, as always, the best![/data][/row][/tabular]

Now, if you scroll down to the bottom of this post, made a little over seven and one-half months later, you'll find 3RR is now at just over 285,000 page views- another 160,000+ views since then.  The current tear we seem to be on started in September, 2008, and I intend to do my level best to make sure that we keep doing here what you great folks appear to enjoy.  Along that line, don't ever hold back if you have a suggestion, request or just want to comment on something.  I've tried to take this thread in the directions that you all seem interested in, and have no plans other than to continue to do that.

Oh, and before I forget, thanks so much once again!

The roadsign set in that first September post is still under development between Matt (threestooges), Ryan (burgsabre87) and me.



We have a basic set about half-completed, and I have learned a whole bunch since then about how to manipulate the S3D files that allow these props to be offset however we would need them to be.  The technology has advanced, as well.  I plan to be talking with Matt and Ryan about making these signs high-definition props [linkie] and hope to have a prototype to show you soon.

On another front [linkie], we continued to progress toward a FAR/FARR/Wide Radius Curve beta.



Think about it- you are now using all the time as a matter of course stuff that was just a gleam in our eyes at the end of last summer.  I do think the turnaround time from first glimpses to implementation in the game of transit stuff has been radically reduced, and that should be cause for everyone giving a huge thumbs up to the NAM Team.



...I guess I did say everyone...

We then set up [linkie] the 3RR Exchange (3RREX) [linkie], which is intended to be a way of getting the content developed for 3RR directly to you in a manner that is simple "one-stop shopping."  The 3RREX appears to be popular, as my ISP reports over 10,000 separate downloads from it since it was set up.  Let me know if there's something you've seen on 3RR that I have missed putting there.

Another 3RR Orphan appeared here [linkie] when I completed the texture for a 2x2 orthogonal to diagonal road curve.

   

The conversion of this into a puzzle piece was not pursued, and it will actually be more or less made unnecessary by the road retexture project I'm working on in my spare time.

before


after


Most of the rest of the first week of September was devoted to moving toward final completion of the FARR and Rail Wide Radius Curve texture matching, which had proved to be quite a task [linkie], [linkie], [linkie], and [linkie].



I think the result was pretty staggering, if I do say so myself [linkie].



On the 7^th of the month, we noted the end of our great friend Derry's (TheTeaCat) marvelous MD Tales at Tea Time [linkie]

Reports of its demise, however, proved premature, and TTC (and Derry) can be found once again going strong here [linkie].

We were pretty jazzed for a few days about smashing some pretty huge holes in the grid [linkie] and [linkie], and posted a few "sandbox" pics.  I like this one in particular.



Never one to dwell on anything, though, I took yet another brief excursion into 3RR numerology [linkie].



If I'd been paying attention, I would have realized something pretty amazing was happening, as we were just over a week into September and already had about 4,000 page views for the month.  But I was already focused on writing what I envisioned as a short tutorial on how to make stuff ploppable [linkie].



I quickly realized that the tutorial would need to be broken up into several parts...

...heh!  Sound familiar?...

...so I'd work on it, take a break, work on it, take another break, and so on.  Here's what I was doing on the breaks [linkie] and [linkie].



Gotta have a power grid.

And then, as the Monties [linkie] say, "now for something a little bit different."

Everyone here has likely figured out that I enjoy slipping in a surprise from time to time.  I was, of course, now aware that STR, thanks to Jonathan and dave (bighead99) up and running with momentum of its own.  So, what the heck- let's show everyone [linkie]...



...a switch.  Long-time 3RR Regular^* Maarten's (mrtnln) subsequent comment [linkie] is a classic:

...You just need to make a second track and it's finished...

Folks caught on pretty quickly, though, and we now all know the rest of that story.



Mid-month we returned to the 3RR electric power backstory, with an extensive update covering the various locations and components of the region's power grid [linkie].


Pineshore Voyageur-Times, Sunday, November 18, 1951


Wild Horse Hill Wind Turbine, 2001, Siemens AG, all rights reserved

The grid was laid out on the last large-scale 3RR map that we've done to date.  Click anywhere on the map for the full-size version.



I'll note that there's another in the, er... pipeline.

Matt (threestooges) continued to work his road sign magic, this time with a railroad crossing sign [linkie].



On the 18th, I receive birthday wishes from, well, a whole bunch of folks, and posted by way of thanks a little photoessay on fall right outside my front door [linkie].



The next day saw the first all-STR switches introduced to the world. [linkie].



Compare the detailing on this one, which I thought was done at the time, with what wound up in the game just six months later and you'll see what a work-in-progress STR really was.  There probably wasn't a day between the first week of September and the release on March 8^th when someone somewhere on the RAM Team wasn't working to move this project along.

Also noted in that post was our rapidly increasing page view count, which was in the process of passing any of the previous 20 months with over a third of September left to go.

As we moved into the last 10 days of September, the first installment of a tutorial on how to use what has affectionately come to be called the 3RR Plopperizer™ appeared [linkie].  The tutorial ultimately weighed in at 11 parts, and ran over the course of eight days.  I had long had in mind doing a step-by-step description of how to use the Ilive Reader to MOD the game, and this is probably as close as I will ever get...

...never say never, though...

...to writing it.

Along the way, we covered things like counting in hexadecimal [linkie]



and creating LTEXTs [linkie].



All in all, it was quite a ride and, if you want to make plop props for the game. I think it probably remains as good a reference as any.

While the tutorial was running, I jumped in a couple of times.  We had a 1,500 page view day on the 20th [linkie], which comes out to around 45,000 page views a month if a number like that could possible be sustained.  We noted hitting 65,000 page views at 3RR-ST, which was still running at that time [linkie].



Sadly, on the 27^th [linkie], we noted the passing of Paul Newman



an American film great and personal hero.

As the month drew to a close, more STR switches showed up [linkie]



and this time complete with frogs.  Not satisfied to go out with anything other than a bang, though, we announced the open beta for the FAR, FARR and Wide Radius curves [linkie]



Response was overwhelming- I ultimately sent out over 80 beta test sets [linkie]



The feedback I received was instrumental in what was ultimately released three months later in the January, '09 NAM.

The last post of the month [linkie] concerned yet another 3RR Orphan.



While I did not, in the end, upload these to the 3RREX, I did send the set off to both the AC Team and the SCAG in the hopes that one or the other (or both, hey!) might find some use for them.  If you, dear reader, would want your own copy to play around with, drop me a PM.  These may see the light of day yet!

And that's a wrap on September, 2008.  We finished the month with about 139,500 page views, 20,000 more than we started with, and we've never looked back, as we're now seven months and counting with at least that many more since.  I could get all gushy about this, but there's no words that can really capture how great it is to have all of you folks along for this amazing ride- thank you once again!


David

^*  A 3RR Regular, as the old saying goes, is anyone who has ever posted here or over at 3RR-ST at least once.  Welcome, welcome, to all of you.

285099

[Pat]

LoL David that is a scary thing wow a city from you is just as a city from me lol 

[CCFC]

Recently everything has been going good, and I love everything I see. Sorry for just reading and not replying everything has me going.. WOW!

EDIT:  Just glad that you're still around, my friend. -DE

[abcvs]

EXTRA! EXTRA!  TROVE OF 2004-2005 dedgren SC4 PIX DISCOVERED!!

...proof he can actually build a city?...

...could these just be clever forgeries?...

While trolling the net today looking for something I found that some server space I set up years ago was still sending pics of stuff I did in SC4 in late 2004 and early 2005 out into the ozone.  To paraphrase Fox News, "We display, you decide."

[images snipped]

Fall trees in summer- what a concept!

Well, at least I've since figured out how to lose the control panel, mission indicators and turn off the grid.

I'll get back to working on the tutorial and be posting the most recent instalment in 3RR-Year 3 in Review in just a bit.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.


David

284571

Seeing pictures of the standard issue default rail makes us realise how far we have come...  and in just the last 12 months or so...

Heh... I should dig out some of my early CJ pictures...
This is about the earliest I can find...  basically you lept off the rail station platforms to the train 30 feet below...

[Ryan B.]

David, waaaay ahead of you on the HD road sign thing.  Figured it out for the first time this morning, thanks to that awesome script SimFox handed out.

This is really big, folks . . . . . but the best things come in small packages, like so:



 

EDIT:  Really, really, really, really, really big, Ryan. -DE

[meinhosen]

And then, as the Monties [linkie] say, "now for something a little bit different."

David, actually the phrase is "And now for something completely different..."

Very nice recap though... I know you've come a long way, but seeing it wrapped up in a nice package like that really gives an idea to just how staggering that distance is.   Thanks!


Edited for word misuse.

EDIT:  Another newly-minted 3RR Fact Checker!  I should hang my head, being I thought well-versed in all things Python.  Ah, well- it's just a flesh wound. -DE

[kimcar]

I agree with meinhosen this is a nice recap.    Not only for the work that you have done , but also for showing us with an excellent presentation. You raise the quality of the game by your trully hard work and the only words is Thanks for thoses many many hour to do it.

[Pat]

OMG Ryan that is simply amazing STOP sign there gasp!!!!!!

[metarvo]

I agree with Pat here.  I can actually see the "STOP" letters clearly! 

[mightygoose]

glad to see HD tech being put to good use and david, a couple of things, you need to turn your UDI icons off and also you can press the "G" key to turn off the grid... just thought you should know :P:P:

EDIT:  Weren't you the same guy, John, who told me to do that three years ago over at 3RR-ST? -DE

[Haljackey]

This is really big, folks . . . . . but the best things come in small packages, like so:

Finally, I can read the words "STOP" on the sign!  Nice work! 

[abcvs]

Finally, I can read the words "STOP" on the sign!  Nice work! 

B' But, but.. the stop sign is on the wrong side of the road!

(Just thought ya might wanna know..  )

Actually if David puts 'em through the plopperizermaticthingymajigger^TM then I suppose it wont matter what side of the road you drive on..

EDIT:  Like Doc Brown said [linkie], "Where we're going, we don't need roads..." -DE

[j-dub]

Finally! A scaled stop sign, and readable! This would be a great T21, I would leave the name signs the way they are though, because it would be weird to see what they said, and not make sense. I guess SC4 transitioning to HD wasn't bad!

And David, that eye candy road under bridge stuff you posted, you got to love that concept in the future functioning and then some more never believed to be possible under bridge intersections over water by pieces are in later works.

[ldvger]

Well, the Stop Sign is awesome except for one thing...I've never in my life seen a Stop Sign mounted on double posts. 

And whoever said it was on the wrong side of the road must be a left-side driver, because in the US, Stop Signs are on the right hand side of the road.

David, or anyone, I need to be linked or pointed to where I can learn to make road maps from game maps.  I found the tutorial for making flat maps from region maps, but how to modify those flat maps in terms of color and then adding text and symbols, etc., I have not yet found. 

Lora/LD

EDIT:  Lora, I can fix the "wrong side of the road" issue in the Reader.  I've also posted a link here [linkie] to the topo map tutorial I did a while (quite a while- summer '07) back.  Good luck! -DE

[thundercrack83]

Hi, Lora!

I'm not quite sure if it's what you're looking from, but Update XV and Update XVI of my MD, Commonwealth of Marathon, may work for you.

Hope this helps!

Dustin

[homefryes]

Well, the Stop Sign is awesome except for one thing...I've never in my life seen a Stop Sign mounted on double posts.

Hi, Lora ... actually, there are occasions where a double-posted stop sign are found and warranted, usually at rural intersections where the speed limit is high, at high-accident intersections, or perhaps at a "T" end of an expressway as shown below.


North end of SR 11 at SR 531, Ashtabula, Ohio (courtesy of Street View at Google Maps


-- Don

edited for incorrect verbiage

EDIT:  Man, Don, that Google mapper needed to wash his windshield- that looks like Ohio through the glass of an aquarium.  That's Lake Erie just past the trees, right?  If so, been there. -DE

Reply to edit: Yes, indeedio, that is Lake Erie beyond the trees. I agree, that was a horrible picture (for quality). I was hoping to find an example from a rural intersection in Pennsylvania, but the street view mappers haven't been there yet! - Don