Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[Skimbo]

Another great update of this amazing MD!

I've got some things to say:

122-3:The textures are good, a try to make them better as they are now would take a huge ammount of time for a nearly invisible result.
122-9:Very good detailing
122-15:My favorite

[Battlecat]

Robin (rooker1): Thanks very much!  I'm very glad to hear you're finding your visits useful and inspiring.  Looking forward to seeing what you do with what you find here!

Jayster: As I mentioned in my PM, besides the RRP materials, I make a lot of use of Pegasus' Pond materials available on his site www.simpeg.com.  Here is the entire set of materials he's created for river detailing.  From this list I mostly use the base kit at the bottom of the list and the PPond Terrain Prop Pack 1 about halfway down. 

Also I make a lot of use of the maxis rocks plop mod provided here.  This version allows the rocks to be tightly packed.

kodlovag: Welcome to Adara!  Glad you found the transition discussion helpful!  Thanks for visiting!

nedalezz: Thanks for the high praise!  I'm really glad you are finding my work here so inspiring! 

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much! 

Skimbo: Thanks very much!  There is one small glitch that I missed.  When I modified them, they stopped tiling exactly right so there is a small glitch at the tile boundaries.  It should be pretty easy to fix though since I can just do a 1 for 1 replacement of the textures when I recreate them using SC4tool.

Update 123
Greenwood – The Other Side

It's odd that it's Wednesday, but here we are with a second update in the same week.  I actually managed to scrounge up some extra play time last night so here are the results!  I decided to get the rest of the development in place on the other side of the river.  Hope you enjoy it! 

123-1: Here's a quick look at the other side with no development. 


123-2: My plan over here is to create a backwater area.  The road here isn't going to be a secondary highway unlike the one through Delmar Junction and Vavenby.


123-3: This whole area will be filled with farms once I'm done today.


123-4: Down here on the riverbank I'm going to create a small backwater community.  Welcome to the town of Poplar Grove. 


123-5: Even Poplar Grove needs to have a decent number of homes.  In this case I'm trying to make it feel a bit unfinished though.


123-6: I've already done several passes selecting homes and businesses for this community.  I'm really trying to capture a small town feel. 


123-7: In this shot I'm experimenting with filler pieces.  I'll be altering things a lot and I actually gave up on this idea because I found a better solution.


123-8: An undeveloped lot is a perfect touch for this town. 


123-9: I was thinking about putting a waterfront in here but I realized it wasn't really appropriate.  I'll be tweaking the shore into a more natural configuration. 


123-10: One of the few things attracting people here is going to be a regional park on the foreshore.  The small parking lot in town should attract a few hikers to the area.  The trail will go in as part of the shoreline details. 


123-11: Here's a look at Poplar Grove from further out.  The farms are fully developed and ready for detailing. 


123-12: One last thing while I'm thinking about it, Here's the diagonal farm with the corner fillers in place.  I'm still going to touch this up just for my own sanity though. 


That's a wrap for this unexpected update.  Next one should be on Monday.  I'll be putting some time into the shoreline on the Greenwood side. 

[canyonjumper]

Poplar Grove looks awesome! It's nice to see two updates in the same week from you I liked the undeveloped lot in 123-8, nice work!

                    Your friend,
                                   Jordan

[mattb325]

Lovely updates as always - there's been much happening since I was last here. Your work with ploppable flora and farr pieces is exceptional. The touches added in 123.8 are brilliant

[Lowkee33]

Excellent idea with the farm textures.  I will have to look at the rest of this thread.  I like work in progress pictures just about as much as the final piece.

The diagonal field looks great, although I have to say, I am getting a little optical illusion of plaid from it (maybe my monitor).  I wouldn't  bother mentioning it, but I know you have pretty high standards for this type of thing

I am also confronting diagonal road steps in my playing.  I have yet to get into Batting, but I have an idea.  What if these end pieces also had some offset/overhanging props on them.  I think it would be neat to see a fence that runs right along the road.

Anyway, don't mind me.  The update looks great and I will be exploring more in the future.

[Jayster]

Very nice update once again! 

And thanks for the PM, that stuff has helped quite a bit 

Jayster

[ecoba]

Again, looks wonderful, my friend !

Poplar Grove certainly is a quaint little town, I like the idea of the grass filler lots to indicate undeveloped space, however the traditional undeveloped lot is absolutely lovely as well.

Those diagonal farm fields look wonderful ! They are certainly very realistic.


Ethan

[Schulmanator]

It is coming along nicely and that diagonal farm makes me INTENSELY jealous!!!!

[metarvo]

I haven't even had the chance to comment on your first update, so I must say that this one is a pleasant surprise.    I like the FAR stuff it looks like you're putting in 123-3.  Oh, and how about those diagonals.   I've always liked good diagonals, which yours are definitely shaping up to be.  I myself once tried to build some diagonal farm fillers.  I agree with you about the tiling glitches: I had the hardest time getting things to line up at least satisfactorily.  Unfortunately, I lost them with an HDD crash, and they were never released anywhere.    It looks like yours are much better than mine were, anyway.  Keep up the good work, BC!

[Cyclone1001]

Aww, I missed an update Stupid computer virus...

But you still make the best rural shots, I'm sure of that. you need to be in the Hall of Fame.

[Battlecat]

Jordan (canyonjumper): I enjoyed getting a second update out this week as well.  I'm particularly pleased with that undeveloped lot, glad you like it! 

It's not going to happen this week though since a game I've been looking forward to for ages comes out tomorrow!  Not to worry though, I still promise to keep up a minimum of one update per week!

mattb325: Thanks very much!  Glad you enjoyed your visits! 

Lowkee33: Welcome to Adara!  I was seeing the same optical illusions but I wasn't sure if I was being over critical since it's my work.  Thanks for confirming it for me!  I've posted an updated version today; I'll be interested to know if it looks any better to you! 

Actually, overhanging props wouldn't even be necessary.  All you really need are the RRP diagonals that connect from corner to corner along the road. 

Although, now that I think about it, there are overhanging diagonal pieces for the diagonals as well in the RRP, so it might be possible to push it right to the road.  Depends how the pieces are centered on the lot.  It might be possible to adjust the offset of the existing fence prop using one of the tools available here at SC4D.  I'll look into that this week and I'll let you know what I discover.  Thanks for the suggestion, glad you enjoyed your first visit! 

Jayster: Glad to hear you found it helpful! Thanks for your kind words!

Ethan (ecoba): Thanks!  The original idea with the grass fillers was always to put the grass and trail overtop.  The fillers would just help blur the edges along the roads better.  Unfortunately I discovered an interested effect.  The RRP trails actually disappear below the grass filler lots since they're flat with no dimensions.  So I had to remove the grass fillers and just carefully blur the edges with the RRP flora.  Glad you like how it turned out!

Schulmanator: Thanks very much, glad you like them!  If all goes well, I'll be releasing this set of lots once I'm happy with how they look.  I still have another series of lots I plan to add before I complete this project though. 

metarvo: Thanks, glad you enjoyed the surprise.  I discovered very rapidly that I couldn't simply rotate the orthogonal textures to create this new texture.  I wound up having to create it row by row using sections of the original texture overlaid onto a tiling friendly black and white template.  I'm plugging away at getting these up to release quality. 

I've also got some additional textures in this diagonal series planned which I'll need for the Poplar Grove side.  That puts a strict time limit on this so it'll be nice to finish it. 

Cyclone1001: Glad to hear you recovered from your computer virus!  Thanks very much for your praise!

Update 124
Greenwood – One Shore Wrap

This weekend I managed to wrap up the shoreline for one side of the river through Greenwood.  It's a smaller set of photos today but I hope you enjoy it!  Also I did some more work on the diagonal farms which I'll show you before I get started fully. 

124-1: First off, I've done some more work on the farm textures.  For the sake of comparison, here is the shot from last week side by side with the new version.  Let me know if it's an improvement.  Sadly some repeating patterns are pretty much unavoidable. 

Diagonal Field V2 from Wednesday's Update:


Diagonal Field V3 from Today: 


124-2: The bulk of today's update consists of detailing this section of shoreline right through to the tile boundary. 


124-3: I'm mostly going to do completed shots but I'll also do some before and afters today.  This is the section I finished first.  Any thoughts on how to increase the lifespan of normal game automata?  I hate how quickly they appear and then fade out.


124-4: This area is going to get a quick residential development.


124-5: I'm using the exurb style here again.  Nothing fancy, just some small waterfront cabins. 


124-6: Nothing like some beach details to really liven the area up! 


124-7: Right near to the residential development I've created a small island.  I'm shooting for a tidal flat/sandbar feel here.  This part of the river is very close to sea level, so it will be feeling some tidal influence.  In fact, anywhere you see game water in Adara it's either at or very close to sea level. 


124-8: The real killer from image #7 is realizing I actually forgot to take the completed shot.  No time to do that right now, I'll include it as a bonus in the first shot of next update.   Moving along with some more shoreline.  Here I've mixed PPond and RRP style rushes to create an interesting result.  They actually work better together than I expected. 


124-9: That's actually all I've taken for today.  Let's have a look at the area now that it's done.  I think that added a lot of life to the shore here.  It'll look even better once the Polar Grove is done.


124-10: Here's a look at the same area from another angle.  If you squint really hard, you can see the area I put together for image #7.


124-11: As one added bonus today, I've been playing around with traffic generators to liven the area up a bit.  Hope you like this interchange with the fresh bit of life. 


And that's a wrap.  I'd love to hear some feedback on those fields because once they're good I can move onto the next phase of texture development.  Have a great day! 

[TiFlo]

Regarding your frustration with automata, I've been using this little gem for some time, and it does wonders.

Beautiful riverside detailing btw!

[kwakelaar]

It has been another inspirational visit to Adara, I really enjoyed looking at your extensively detailed farms and shorelines. The solution for transition from plop water to game water is looking great, something I will surely try to put to use myself.
The diagonal farm fields is another good idea and again it is looking very nice.

Gjermund/Kwakelaar

[Lowkee33]

The fields look significantly better.  I would say the fields do not need anymore work.  The patterns are small enough that they dont make my eyes look at them .  I dont know if anyone else notices this, but there is far less motion in the bottom field picture.   Nice job.

[canyonjumper]

Awesome details Battlecat! The fields look great! Nice LOTing! I'm looking forward to seeing that sand bar pic! And that exurb style looks like something I might have to try

                 Your friend,
                                Jordan

[threestooges]

Sorry it's been a while. I've been out of town for the past couple weeks, so I've missed a few updates. You've been busy, and as usual, your updates have been impressive. Two things in particular really stood out as stunning: the diagonal farm fields you've been working on, and the path cutting across the vacant lot (123-8). Those are two things for the game that I never thought about until I saw them.  I'm going to try that vacant lot effect myself. I've been looking for ways to convincingly leave space between buildings (and this MD is a great place to search). Just to check, for 124-9, was it Polar or Poplar Grove?

Version 3 of the diagonal farms looks much more uniform, though I kind of liked the regularity of V2 with the white stripe every several rows. For some reason it feels more like the farm is better tended to, being blocked off in sections, rather than one big mass (sort of like the track of the irrigation sprinklers rolling through), but then again, I've never done much farming, so I don't know.

However it works, it's a great addition, and I'm glad to see you're making progress with it.
-Matt

[Cyclone1001]

Great, stuff... I'm running out of new lines to use... hmmm...

[cubby420]

I love that interchange at the end of the last update. Great detail work on the shoreline as well.

[bat]

Really nice work on the farms and nature!
Your pictures are wonderful.

[Jayster]

Very nice yet again!  As always, looking forward to more.

Jayster