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Rural power lines

Started by willy88, August 20, 2007, 08:16:56 PM

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Streetlight 725

#80
Can somone make the power poles in the picture?
Heres the picture.

Please.  There's no need to make so many requests.  -Alex (Tarkus)

sim-al2

*smites* $%#Ninj2

Dude, we're already making some like those. Learn the virtue of PATIENCE!
(\_/)
(o.O)
(")_(")

j-dub

Oh its great you were able to make special icons, and use real pictures for the menu, Metarvo. As for the wires dissapearing from the slopes, the Maxis line I noticed is real strict when it comes to lots, where it won't go over 2, or a giant built area. Done right, the lotted poles seem to, flat land.

metarvo

Thanks for the compliments, j-dub.  :)  While some LOTted poles may flatten the land, any wires attached to the poles will not connect visually.  I avoid this at all costs.  Some prefer to use unwired poles to deal with this situation, but I have other ideas.



I have finished the diagonal transition from my metal pole to Maxis power lines.  I do plan to make 67.5 and 90 degree turns for my metal poles, as well.  Anyway, I believe you are using fukuda's grey power lines (from the STEX).  My turn-off with those is the fact that they are invisible on distant zooms, so I am sticking to the red and white "candy stick" poles for now.
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

Streetlight 725


supercity124

#85
metarvo, Are you making these power poles and electrical towers??

ADMIN EDIT:
Looking at metarvo's picture I'm drawing the conclusion he is making them.
However, he is certainly not making them because someone is demanding them.
And nobody sets a deadline or demands them before he feels he's got time to finish them.
Cities will have tall buildings, and rural areas will have farms and power lines.

I AM YOUR LOCAL CITY PLANNER OF THE FUTURE

metarvo

#86


In fact, I am making even more of them.  BATting has slowed down lately, and I admit that until today I haven't spent so much as an hour in the BAT in the last three weeks.  I am slowly picking this back up, and I am BATting a new pole.  I'll leave everyone to wonder what I'm going to do with this one, though...  ::)

HINT:  If you look really closely, you may be able to figure it out after all.
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

sim-al2

The poles still look great, if maybe a bit short. But, then again, every city seems to have different poles...  ???
(\_/)
(o.O)
(")_(")

Fresh Prince of SC4D

Quote from: sim-al2 on November 14, 2008, 03:31:46 PM
The poles still look great, if maybe a bit short. But, then again, every city seems to have different poles...  ???

I think so too. But hey, I still think this is a sweet project you've got here.
Returning from Call of Duty . Must rebuilt what I destroyed....

j-dub

Metarvo, don't know if you came to the NAM development thread, recently, to when I posted this, but at the moment, it looks like custom power pole drawn bridges could be possible. I'm not making any guarentees, but that may mean you would be able to due a custom power pole bridge.

metarvo

j-dub: Hey, that sounds like a wonderful discovery, j-dub.  I'm going to follow that thread with great interest.

sim-al2 and Fresh Prince of SC4D: I have thought this same thing when I look at my poles in an actual region, next to roads and buildings.  Still, I decided at the beginning of this project that I didn't want power poles as tall as skyscrapers.  In my RL area, I guess you could say that the power poles are fairly short.  Thanks for the input. ;)
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

Fresh Prince of SC4D

#91
Ok so that's why.......

Also are the wires overhanging? If so could you somehow have confirmed to changes in slope so they could be slope-friendly? I remember some highway signs did that. Just something to think about............
Returning from Call of Duty . Must rebuilt what I destroyed....

metarvo

#92
That's the infamous overhanging wire issue, Fresh Prince.  Overhanging wires on custom lots do not conform to slopes, but instead conform to the altitude level of the front-facing tile of the lot.  This causes a rather ugly effect IMHO, since the wires don't connect visually.  While it would be possible to make individual poles with wires designed to conform to slopes, those would be the only slopes that the wires would look right on.  On the other hand, the existing wired poles can cross short streams or sunken highways as long as the height is the same for the two poles on either side of the stream/highway. 

There are two interim solutions that I have devised at this time.  One is to use the unwired versions of the poles, which don't look right unless all of the poles are wireless, or to use the special transition piece that I have made.  This piece visually connects my metal power line to the default Maxis power lines, which are slope friendly.  I personally use the latter of the two options, since I can't hardly live without the wires. $%Grinno$%
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

homefryes

Not sure if I should be posting this here, and hope no one minds.

Here are some utility poles that I am working on:



The BATs are based on these real-life examples from Northeast Ohio:



Some of the insulators on the subtransmission lines got replaced over time, and the distribution lines in the second and third pictures were replaced in the 70s. I decided that I would just go all "original" in my creations.

This project is in its early stages, and I am not sure if the overall scope of it will inhibit its usefulness ... but I'm going to give it a try. The number of poles I have (orthogonal versions only) is up to 82! That's not including all the necessary angles to conform to FAR(R) and the corners those angles create as well. Thus far, the poles are all BATted, and I am beginning to export to models.

These poles will be ploppable in game and will not have wires.

While not entirely considered "Rural," as most of these are designed to be ploppable along roads, there is one small subset of my poles that are designed (based on their real-life counterparts) to cut cross-lots or along railroads (the pictures on the right).

I'd love to hear what you think.

— Don
Utility Poles Project [linkie]
Ashtabula (the MD) is not dead; it's just on a really long hiatus!
Check out Homefryes' BATatorium

metarvo

#94
I feel that this is definitely the right place, homefryes.  :)  In fact, I see power lines that are very similar to those running alongside virtually every rural road I travel on.  You have done a wonderful job of BATting them, since they look wonderful.  However, I feel a big "Great Job!" is necessary, because you have actually BATted 82 different poles.  That's some true dedication, and the four poles that I see here prove that you know what you are doing.  I have mainly concentrated on large transmission lines, so I'm glad to see that the smaller distribution and subtransmission lines are not being overlooked.

&apls

By the way, have you seen the telephone pole project that David and Matt have developed over in 3RR [linkie]?  I think it's worth a look.
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

homefryes

Thank you, Metarvo; you made my day, and you are very kind. To be truthful, there was a LOT of cloning going on in BATting 82 poles, but it still was a lot of work! My "problem" is that I pay a LOT of attention to detail, and when it comes to getting these in the game, I am fearful that much of that detail will not even be realized. But I'll know it's there!  ;)

You bet I've seen the telephone pole project over at 3RR. That's what got my creative juices flowing! I've downloaded the PlopperizerTM tutorial and have a hardcopy as a reference. I'm not quite ready for that phase of the project yet, and frankly, haven't even really tried to comprehend the PlopperizerTM at this point, but will delving into it soon.

I'm a utility pole geek, and I grew up around these poles that I've recreated. Considering they're probably at least 75 years old, it's amazing they haven't been upgraded (the pictures above were taken in Oct. 2003 and Oct. 2008). And the angle-iron crossarms on the subtransmission lines (first three pics) have really withstood the test of time.

Anyhow, I threw this webpage [linkie] together over the weekend, mainly just to do a "contact sheet," so-to-speak, and get everything in one place. It contains pictures of all 82 poles.

— Don
Utility Poles Project [linkie]
Ashtabula (the MD) is not dead; it's just on a really long hiatus!
Check out Homefryes' BATatorium

metarvo

#96
Thank you, Don, for the kind words, and for giving me the great link.  I checked out the website, and it is quite impressive. :thumbsup:  Although they may be seem small, little details add large amounts of realism to a game like SC4.  I observed that you have even considered the types of poles that are used at junctions and turns.  This is a practice that I follow to some extent when I BAT large transmission poles.  For example, here is a metal power line making a "67.5" degree turn (66 to be precise, since this interval allowed the poles to connect over a lesser number of tiles).



I apologize for the UDI icons that appeared in this pic.  I didn't remove the base texture from the pole before using it in game, so that's why it has that texture.

EDIT: When I read your website, Don, something jumped out at me: "3-phase."  Transmission lines also follow this rule.  Real power poles that I have seen, on which I have based mine, almost always carry wires in multiples of 3.  Of course, you have been wisely observant of this. :thumbsup:
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

homefryes

I'm pleased to announce that I've made a lot of progress on my project. I spent the last few days studying the PlopperizerTM tutorial [linkie] that Dedgren so graciously put together a couple months back, and I have assembled all necessary GUI icons (over 300!). I have now successfully created my first ploppable utility pole!

Images of my poles for the icons just didn't seem to work well, so I resorted to creating Paint images with numbers and letters. A guide will accompany my final project to explain the code. For now, the red "30" denotes the distribution 3-wire straight-line pole, and the green "0" is the orientation (in degrees).








300+ more to go! Guess I'd better get crackin'!

— Don
Utility Poles Project [linkie]
Ashtabula (the MD) is not dead; it's just on a really long hiatus!
Check out Homefryes' BATatorium

metarvo

#98
It's great that you have an organized system, Don.  With that many poles (300???), it's a good idea to make them easy to find in a crowded menu.  I must say that I'm still impressed. :thumbsup:  A while back, I used the same excellent tutorial to learn how to make GUI icons for my transmission pylons.  The 3RR PlopperizerTM is wonderful, isn't it?  Anyway, you are doing a great job, Don.

Now, I have something to show for my efforts.



At long last, I have finally built the 90 degree turn for my metal pylon set.  After I smooth out some details, I will consider my first set of wooden and metal poles complete.
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

homefryes

Well, even though I'm pleased to say I'm about 17% done on doing all the .dat files, I must admit, I'm not certain exactly how practical the results of this project will be. While I will enjoy having them, there are significant limitations to using them. It's extremely tricky getting them to plop on a lot, first of all, particularly getting them where you want them. It's a limitation due to other props and such that may already exist on that lot. And then, if the lot changes (as your city grows), all existing props disappear. Secondly, if you're running them along a road, and want them spaced appropriately, you really can't zone anything on that side of the road. Now, with that in mind, I have come up with a great use in an area where you might have city blocks ... and that's running them between the zones, much like in real life:

This works nicely ... by leaving an empty row of tiles, it can be used for a right-of-way, and looks pretty good, IMHO.

But, while I continue to "plug" away on the .dat files, here are some other pictures to share:

Two-pole assembly, for long distances


Another use for fractional-angle corners


Lines crossing from one side of the road to another


A large portion of my collection so far

— Don
Utility Poles Project [linkie]
Ashtabula (the MD) is not dead; it's just on a really long hiatus!
Check out Homefryes' BATatorium