Terring's Terrible Lots!!

[Terring7]

Time for a personal project and a vital lesson I learned during reloting. In capitalsim.net we can find the building of Tyrell Corporation from the movie Blade Runner. This huge building is perfect for SimMars colonies...



... but it's empty red base doesn't fit on SimEarth cities. So I decide to relot is, by removing the large red props that cover the base and adding true textures. The plan was to add pavement for the base of the structures and grass to fill the empty areas. The original lot was 55x55 large, so I should add 3025 textures to fill the lot! And yes, I did it!! The result should be an arcology with parks. In Lot Editor everything was fine, but in Simcity...



Missing textures? I spend so much time for this? So I had a theory and an idea to test it. I break the lot into 3 smaller, 1 for the central building and 2 for the smaller that surrounds it. The result was a 38x40 and two 7x7 lots, making the Tyrell Corporation building modular and more flexible. And this time, no missing textures.



But let's have a look ta the Lot Editor.



Missing textures? AHA! I knew that something interesting is going on. I encountered a similar problem long ago and now I'm sure that the Lot Editor has limits. You can't make the lots as big and as heavy as you want. Well, you can... but they'll not work in the game.

Long ago I discovered that there is a limit in the props number you can add in a lot. While in L.E. you can still add props even after you've hit the limit, save the lot and exit without getting any error, the L.E. will remove the last added props that were above the limit. So if after exiting L.E. you decide to restart it and reopen the lot, you would find the lot in L.E. with missing props. According to Paeng in SimPeg.com, 256 props is the maximum number that a lot can hold.

Today I discovered a similar limit for the textures as well. According to my calculations, the limit is 1250 textures in a single lot. While in L.E. you can still add textures even after you've hit the limit, save the lot and exit without getting any error, the L.E. will remove the last added textures that were above the limit. So if after exiting L.E. you decide to restart it and reopen the lot, you would find the lot in L.E. with missing textures.

So a single lot can hold up to 256 props and 1250 textures. Can anybody else confirm it?

[noahclem]

Cool building find, and nice findings with the lotting    Very clever solution 

[Terring7]

I finished with the low density R$$$ lots. Not only I relot all 36 low density R$$$ lots, but I also made extra lots with different SimMars buildings for extra variety. The result? 82 low density R$$$ lots! Let's see a few of them.

A few stage 1 lots





A few stage 2 lots



And a few stage 3 lots



Tell me what you think

[Huston_N7]

Interesting lots, makes me think about what suburbs would look like in the future

[Shark7]

On your Tyrell Corporation relot...

Have you tried just using the textures/overlay textures to put the building on a large concrete slab?  That would make it work in both Mars and Earth colonies and not look out of place.  In fact, if you could do that and maybe a few street lamps it might look really good.

Such a large building would not doubt require a very large and sturdy foundation, and one could safely assume that the complex would also have a subterranean feature as well (think of a large underground labratory).  So a large concrete footing would not look out of place at all.

That particular lot is almost a must have for anyone that wants to do a futuristic or Sci-Fi type city. 

Yeah, I've missed a few updates.  Was hard to justify visiting when I couldn't even get SC4 to work.  Finally fixed it though. 

[Terring7]

Thanks for the comments folks. I didn't want a general lot for the Tyrell Corporation to fit on both Earth and Mars, just a specific one for Terran cities. Still however the Lot Editor has limits on how much textures you can add. I already tried it of course

I would like to update my workshop every time I relot a specific number of lots. Today I didn't had something better to do and I relot all stage 8 R$$ lots. The next update will uploaded when a new stage will be ready. Have in mind however that some stages have an enormous amount of lots, which may support an enormous amount of SimMars buildings as well. So don't expect a new update every week or every day.

3x2



3x3



4x2



4x4



Tell me what you think

Let's have a look at the progress of the project, just to see what's ready and what's not.

R$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
R$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
R$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CS$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CS$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CS$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CO$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CO$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
I$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
I$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
I$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

[FrankU]

Hi Elias,

About the max props: I once tried to make a large railyard full of railway wagons and other props. After having saved it in LE and plopped it in game I found out too the hard way: half of my hard work of that evening had disappeared.
I didn't count myself, but I always thought that 256 entries was the maximum. So I thought 1 building and then 255 props plus textures. I am glad the number is a bit higher, although this makes enormous lots, which is not always practical.
Anyway, I think you could make the Tyrell lot in such a way that you only put textures where they are visible. LotEditor wants you to put textures everywhere, but SC4-Pim does not. In that case it would be enough to put textures around the edges. The center is covered by the building, so you can make the lot a bit smaller in filesize.

[Terring7]

Good advice for reducing the file size. Maybe I'll need to do it

R$$ Stage 7 --> Done

3 from the 21 2x2 lots



The only 3x3 lot



1 from the 5 3x4 lots



3 from the 6 4x4 lots (underground buildings and grownable spaceports )



Progress so far...

R$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
R$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
R$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CS$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CS$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CS$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CO$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
CO$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
I$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
I$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
I$$$ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

[LordCarbuncle]

I'm sorry for criticisms but those low density lots are a bit too open. You need to make them more compact and add a garden in the backyard. What a waste of space. I like lots with details. And the garden in the backyard is absolutely necessary because people grow their own food.

[Terring7]

Mixing nature with technology is one of the things I always have in mind every time I relot the Maxis lots. This is why I always add a lot of natural elements in my lots, like ponds and forests, in order to make future cities like this...





Too much green? You know that they say. The more, the merrier

I need your ideas guys. The Maxis trash bins props are too dirty, boring and modern for Barsoom Project, so I need a replacement of them. Something more futuristic, or at least modern. I found in the Dutch Prop Pack an underground glass container that can be very useful and more suitable. I prefer them, but I also want your opinions. What do you think? Is this better than the classic trash bins?

[Diggis]

If you can provide a sketch or photo of what you want I could model something up.

[Terring7]

At first I had something like this in my mind...



I think however that the Dutch underground containers fit very nicely for an Automated Vacuum Waste Collection (A.V.A.C.) system. This system transports waste at high speed through underground tunnels to a collection station where it is compacted and sealed in containers. When the container is full, it is transported away and emptied. The system helps facilitate separation and recycling of waste. Garbage trucks will be a thing of the past in the future

[Terring7]

Sometimes no news is bad news. After a few problems with my P.C. and my personal life, don't expect any progress in my projects. At least for now. This means that Future Walls and the sequel of Barsoom Project will probably killed.

[Fresh Prince of SC4D]

The future is lost  .... This is so saddening.

[Terring7]

I'm, back! Did you miss me? I'm sure not...

Now that everything is fixed, It's time to keep on with Barsoom Project and more Maxis-made reloted rewards. They're not in their final shape, so feel free to suggest.

This is the movie studio. As you can see, it's not ready yet. I'll replace the Maxis road with something better and fill the empty spaces with... I don't know. Feedbacks are welcomed.



Not many changes in the mayor stadium, just adding a few trees to make it a little more attractive.



This is the new zoo. Thanks to holograms and virtual reality, there's no reason to keep animals in cages. You can now watch the animals in real time and in their natural environments. Fox example, you can see free lions without visiting Africa. Something like planetarium, a live one.



And finally, the university. Still under construction.

[Swordmaster]

Of course we missed you. This looks pretty cool, Mr. Barsoom.


Cheers
Willy

[Terring7]

So I guess I missed in somebodies

I upgraded the above buildings, so I hope you enjoy them. If not, feel free to propose. Probably I'll add more details, like trash bins and more benches.

The movie studio is ready and better. We already have digital 3D movies. In the future, we'll have holographic movies in virtual reality cinemas (if they'll still exist). So how about a large building, instead of a chaotic collection of studios and sceneries?



More trees and other details for the virtual zoo. I still remember the old days, where cyberspace and virtual reality was the way of the future. Still nothing, but who knows?



I think that now the university is better. This time, I tried to hide the Maxis building. Not the best attempt, but still better than no attempt at all.



The number of the dependencies increased to 27. But since we're talking about thousands of lots, I don't think that 27 dependencies are too much. Right?

[mrbisonm]

Question: Do you sometimes upload your creations? I can't find any from you......Because some of them are actually quite well LOTted and worth uploading.

Nice work!

Fred

[Terring7]

Here are my uploads

[Kergelen]

mmm, I think the link is wrong Terring. When I click on it I see my (kergelen) STEX uploads