The City & County of Honolulu

[warconstruct]

very beautiful map !! and great update 

[sumwonyuno]

Happy New Year to everyone and I'm honored to start off the new decade as a mayor diary in the OSTIM!    Thank you, staff! 

I have been working on the region, but the time always goes by fast this time of the year!  I will aim for an update each Monday or Tuesday (Hawaiian Standard Time).  This upcoming update will feature how I'm using Google Earth to make O'ahu in the game.



Current region view (all hand terraformed in game!):




***Replies***

Driftmaster07:  Thanks!

Nexis4Jersey:  I'm currently using the THL Tropical Terrain Spread.  I have to admit it looks a lot like the original Maxis textures, but ~350m (100m above sea level) there are big differences.  I'm planning to change the terrain textures to something else, but I need to find one that's good fit for most parts of the island.

emgmod:  It took a lot of practice (lots of 1+ pixel and color errors).  Heh, the finished project is the goal!

ecoba:  Thank you for visiting!

Battlecat:  Thank you!  I'm sure you'll be sticking around to see what I'll create. 

Tomas Neto:  I'm sure you'll be paying close attention also!

976:  Heh, the blank spots have been fixed in the region, and the region should look much more filled in by the end of the month.

warconstruct:  Thanks for visiting!

[Edit]:  I've finished replacing all of the Imageshack image links with Photobucket links for the Capitalis Island Tour.  If you haven't been able to see them before (due to domain restrictions, or MIA pictures) I encourage you to see them now (before the bandwidth limit is reached) !

[Nanami]

Great!

Welcome to OSITM and congrats!,

[bat]

Congrats for the OSITM!
And looking forward to more from this nice MD!

[ecoba]

Oh my gosh! All Hand Terraformed?

Really sumwonyuno, you and Dave (tooheys) have really got hand terraformed down, as you both make excellent hand terraformed regions.

Keep up the good work and I hope to see some more work here soon.

P.S. Congrats on OSITM.

Ethan

[adroman]

First of all, congratulations on the OSITM. 
Fantastic work on that region, sumwonyuno! You must've put hours into that region, and the results seem to be worth it... 

Havva good one,
Adrian.

[KoV Liberty]

Congrats on the OSITM! And ALL hand terraformed! Wow!

[emgmod]

All hand made? Amazing. I can't wait for you to terraform the mountains.

Earlier today, I found out that TheBus buses (That sounds weird) have a number on top. Is there a chance that you are placing numbers on the automata?

[tooheys]

Now this will be interesting to watch, can't wait to see what you do with this map.

Congrats on OSITM

Dave

[Battlecat]

Hand terraformed?  Incredible work already then.  I imagine the elevated areas are going to be even more challenging because of the reconcile edges annoyance.  I'll be interested to see how you approach this!

[Yan077]

Congrats for your OSITM 

Fantastic map, I can't believe it's hand terraformed, it looks so real !!       

[Tomas Neto]

Awesome region, my friend!!! Great work!!! 
Congrats on OSITM!!! 

[sumwonyuno]

I don't intend the following as a tutorial, but hopefully the mentioned strategies can be adapted if you are interested in recreating a real world place, by hand.

Google Earth is the workhorse of figuring out where things belong in the region.  The island of O'ahu is about 65km x 51km, and therefore, the region in the game requires 17 large city tiles in the east-west axis and 13 large city tiles in the north-south axis.

Google Earth has a grid, but unfortunately, its lines are in degrees/minutes/seconds.  The Google Earth grid is therefore only helpful as a stationary reference to start and end measurement lines.  The ruler tool and the elevation value are absolutely essential to transfer the information from Google into the game.



SimCity uses a compass grid, so naturally, an area in real life that is aligned with the compass is much easier to do.  However, there are very few things on O'ahu that are that way.  The fundamental rule of thumb for development in Hawai'i is the concept of mauka (toward the mountains) and makai (toward the ocean).  The Native Hawaiians devised an ingenious land use system where a large valley (or group of valleys), from the mountain tops to the ocean, is a self-sufficient community called an ahupua'a.

Fastforward to today, many neighborhoods are situated in the traditional ahupua'a areas, and these neighborhoods keep the indigenous names.  Additionally, along the southern coast of O'ahu, the concept of 'Ewa (generally, west), and Koko Head or Diamond Head (generally, east) is used to indicate the perpendicular axis compliment of mauka-makai.  Here is a sign at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa that demonstrates the directions.





The mauka-makai and 'Ewa-Koko Head concepts are why both developmment and the roadway system are going to be very difficult to replicate.  I'll likely simplify things on the small scale, but try to keep the large scale look quite accurate.

The largest area on the island that is aligned to the compass grid is the Honolulu International Airport runways.



My strategy is to pick an easy reference point (on the Google Earth grid), and then measure the distance to another easy reference point (another grid line, a building, or a roadway).  It is important to only take orthogonal distances (north-south or east-west).  I often move the map so that one reference point is on the border of the window.  The elevations of the reference points are also noted.  Let's take the Reef Runway as an example.  This breakwater wall that sticks out is an area of interest.



Using the Google Earth ruler, the breakwater wall is about 157m x 18m.  A single cell in the game is 16m x 16m.  So the breakwater wall takes up about 10 tiles x 1 tile in the game.  The breakwater wall is essentially at an elevation of 0m (sea level), and that translates into the game as 250m.  The terrainquery cheat code and the terraforming tools (god mode and mayor mode) are used to draw the target area into the desired shape and elevation.  I use the road tool to measure the number of tiles quickly.  Each road tile is $10.  So, I measure $100 worth of single-tile, straight road for the breakwater wall.



I repeat this process as necessary on the small scale (working with meters in mayor mode).  I also use a similar strategy on the large scale (working with kilometers in god mode).  In the kilometer scale, I use the fact that a large city tile is 4km x 4km.  I eyeball fourths of a city tile and terraform that way.  When I'm ready, I go back to the small scale and refine the terrain.  The road tool and the Google Earth ruler can switch roles so that the road tool measures a distance to be used in Google Earth.

As for the problem of working between city tiles, it's necessary to pick reference points that match up with the borders between two city tiles.  It's absolutely necessary to remember (or note) what you've done on one side of the border so you know what to do on the other city tile.  The distance from the edge or corner is the way I do it.  I don't use the reconcile tool often, as it often messes things up.



Next update, we'll go into terrain, textures and flora.



***Replies***

976:  Thanks!

bat:  Thank you for your first comment here!  Hope you stick around!

ecoba:  Heh, not just one large city tile... but 100+!

adroman:  Part of the North Shore are from the Capitalis map, but all of the other shorelines are definitely remade in the past week.

Driftmaster07:  Thanks!

emgmod:  Yes I do know buses have numbers, and no, I didn't put the numbers on the automata.  The resolution isn't high enough to be seen in game.  Heh, I'm dreading the part of the Ko'olau to the northeast of the Dole Plantation... it's the most rugged part of the island...

tooheys:  Heh, the wait certainly will be worth it.

Battlecat:  If I do it right, the mountains should look even better than they do in Google Earth and look much closer to real life.  I avoid from reconcile tool by copying things on both side of the border.

Yan077:  Thanks for your visit as well!

Tomas Neto:  Thank you!

[warconstruct]

very beautiful map 

[Battlecat]

Very cool indeed.  It's a challenge approach, but one that will result in a pretty accurate map in the end.  I guess you'll also be using the in game elevation tools to help with your mountains as well! 

I don't think it matters much what your approach is, any road style other than diagonal and straight is pretty hard to replicate in game.  I'm looking forward to seeing what you've got on the list next!

[bat]

Nice work on that update, and looking forward to the next update...

[ecoba]

Wow, that seems to be working out well! (Using the Google Earth to terraform your map!) Are you planning to install a terrain mod when you are finished terraforming? As I feel the the plain Maxis textures are unattractive for Hawai'i and maybe the West Coast (California) modd by Eblem (Heblem( might be better, just a suggestion though.

I hope that the terraforming will stay in it's state of ease, and I hope to see some more beautiful work from you here again soon!

Ethan

[Tomas Neto]

Wow, that perfection in the execution of your city!!! I was expecting something fantastic, but the your updates will be much better than I thought!!! 

[sumwonyuno]

The island of O'ahu can be generalized as a rocky volcanic island.  However, it covers almost 600 square miles, and has varying geography in different parts of the island.  The simple conclusion is that there is no one magic terrain, flora, or rock controller that accurately portrays all real life characteristics of all parts of the island in the game, all at the same time.  The best I can do is download as many (non-conflicting) plugins (and tweak them) such that the underlying terrain is acceptable, and pick flora that looks close enough to what may be found in the corresponding area in real life.

Generally, I would generally classify the dirt of the island into three areas.  The southeastern part of the island has darker brown dirt.  Most of the island, from 'Ewa to Kahuku, has famously reddish dirt (good for farming).  The northwestern part of the island has faded to light brown dirt.  This is the result of the Wai'anae Mountains being older than the Ko'olau Mountains, and the differring geography leading to different decomposition of Hawaiian basalt. 

I've chosen the Red Granite rock mod by pegasus.  Up close it's somewhat red, and far away it looks brown.



As for terrain, I've chosen hemblem's Californian Terrain Mod.  It's green at low elevations, drier at "mid" elevations (good for highlands), and then pale green at the highest elevations possible on O'ahu (+1100m above sea level).  I've also modified the plugin so that beaches extend "forever" (at elevations lower than 251m) so that I can make variable width sandy areas.

I cannot represent the windward-leeward look with a terrain mod because the terrain mods depend on elevation, not with rain patterns.  Flora is how I plan to mimic the windward-leeward difference.

I'm in awe of natural environment shots I've seen in other people's work.  I've downloaded many ploppable flora plugins available on the STEX and LEX.  The following is the result of about a week of playing around with mayor mode ploppable flora, rocks, and water.

Although Pearl Harbor is thought of as the quintessential U.S. naval base, and today it is virtually surrounded by suburban development, it once was a huge wetland area.  There are still small pockets of protected and undeveloped shoreline.  I've chosen two such areas on both sides of the Pearl City peninsula.



I'm not sure what the first area is exactly.  Google and maps I've seen doesn't have a label on it.  It's a grassy area between the H-1 Freeway and Pearl Harbor to the west of the Waiau Power Plant in Pearl City.



Here is the result of my interpretation of the area in the game:






The second area I've chosen is known as the Waiawa unit of the Pearl Harbor National Wildlife Refuge.  The refuge is actually only the two ponds (with greenish looking water).  The wider area is owned by the U.S. military.



I've started by "roping off" the area with roads.  This is to restrict the area that I'm considering.



I put in the small stream that runs through the area, and the larger dirt tracks/abandoned roadways as reference points in the game.  I also refine the look of the shoreline.



After many (discontiguous) hours later, the flora, rocks, and ponds are put in.






The zoom 1 picture of the area.



On Monday, I'll be starting yet another semester, and I know I won't have as much free time as I'd like.  For the next update, it'll probably be more protected areas/undeveloped land.  I'm not sure exactly where, but it'll probably be on hilly, if not mountanous, terrain.



***Replies***

warconstruct:  Thank you!

Battlecat:  The god mode tools do a lot of the heavy lifting, and the mayor mode tools is where all the pain is.    Development (whether orthogonal, diagonal, or some evil angle ) will come much later.

bat:  Heh, I hope this update did not disappoint!

ecoba:  I certainly took your suggestion.    There is like about 100 square miles of decently "flat", gentle sloping land around the edge of the island, and those will be the easy areas for terrain, but definitely not easy for development. 

Tomas Neto:  Heh, thanks, and you're definitely one of my inspirations for rural areas! 

[oktoberfest]

oh my god! thanks to this i have seen god's perfection