SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

SimCity 4 Devotion Custom Content Showcase => Network Addon Mod (NAM) => NAM How-Tos and Tutorials => Topic started by: buddybud on January 23, 2008, 05:24:05 AM

Title: Creating Slope Conforming Props for diagnal T21 Exemplars (network props)
Post by: buddybud on January 23, 2008, 05:24:05 AM
Disclaimer.

I thought id share this info i gave to MIncroabl. However sharing it means lots more information needs to be filled in.
Knowledge required for this and other related modding info needed is as follows.

advanced rendering involving
- LODs for puzzle pieces (ensures proper blending of tiles)
- render position (determines how a prop will react on a tile to both slope and non slope situations)

creating T21 exemplars for network tiles
- mirroring tiles (how to mirror the network tiles)
- mirroring props (how to mirror props for mirrored network tiles)
- network placement patterns (how to have multiple lot patterns under networks)
- zone and wealth (how to change lots determined by zone or wealth)
- random props on indiviual network lots (exactly that)

Please dont post questions in this thread if it pertains to one of the above subjects. Seperate tutorials will be needed to cover these areas.
Any Questions pertaining directly with this tutorial are of course welcome.

Swampers above tutorial (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=70.0) covers the basics for creating the t21's and covers the zone and wealth issue completely. For the other issues i will do my best to contribute my own tutorials or invite others to do so to... :P

Anyways i decided to start here since i recently showed MIncroabl how to do this.

Also its not said but implied that the props have the prop exemplar property "Orient To Slope" is set to TRUE. Further more the tiles shown in gmax and ingame differ but are identical in how they are implemented.

Quote
sorry about the delay in response.

heres as good an explanation as i think i can give of how i did this. bear with me
first heres an image of the rail on a diagonal slope
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg181.imageshack.us%2Fimg181%2F7818%2Fdiagmicro01xe1.jpg&hash=e68d0d1f40f00ba46f517981314019077a9525f3)

ignore the end pieces in the above picture im working on those still. this is an example of how my pieces fall into place. to understand how i did this we have to analyze how the tile is affected by slope. this is illistrated in the picture below
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg176.imageshack.us%2Fimg176%2F73%2Fdiagmicro02af7.jpg&hash=a27212ef3cf49b289819fe31be2f95531b6badac)

in the top left corner is the detail of the tile im interested in.
in the top right we're looking at the two independant halves of the tile. under the el network it is only possible to bend in the two directions that conform with the two directions of the el. in this example left to right as the arrows illustrate, bending along the solid line.
in the lower left i further break those two tiles into two more giving four props. two under the el, and two as filler. this allows for having different filler lots for zone etc.
in the lower right im illustrating where the (0,0,0) position (zero point) needs to be during the rendering position in order for it to conform to the slope properly. this rendering process is illustrated belowjust through experience i've found that props rendered with there zeropoint centered on one of the corners will get confused when determining slope. the game tends to use the x or y axis at the corners rather than both x AND y when in the center sides of the tile
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg20.imageshack.us%2Fimg20%2F43%2Fdiagmicro03acz2.jpg&hash=52be9ae6c4a9bd0620866542d6c09773bdcd7ff6)

this picture represents the tile in position 1 in the picture above the last.
at the top we see the model top down. the yellow dot represents the zero point, while the red line represents the Actual Surface the    prop will be covering.
at the bottom left we see the LODs in place.
at the bottom right we see a comparison of the Actual Surface (red) complared to the LOD coverage (blue). note the LODs will extend a couple of pixels below the bottom actual surface. this will be over the outside edge of the ingame tile. this will help the piece blend in with surrounding tiles. no creases. the two top sides of the LODs extend over almost half a meter. the left side is extended to blend with the other filler tile it will sit next too. and the other side is extended over the white divider of the elrail base prop. this is done to allow the pieces to work on slopes by letting them expand and allows them to blend with each other.
the next picture represents the other 3 tiles and the extent of their LOD coverage. note the rendering position doesnt change. you rotate the texture instead. the dots remain at the zero point (0,0,0).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg20.imageshack.us%2Fimg20%2F7512%2Fdiagmicro03bfm4.jpg&hash=4eaeb44689257234daba2cd0df8ba12adbdb78de)

the lower right picture in the above photo shows how the props appear in lot editor. i highlighted the original prerender zeropoint for each prop. note that another plus of this render method allows for exact placement of props. simply because you cant move the prop  past its center point. allowing you to pull the prop into place along the edge.

how it all comes together.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg142.imageshack.us%2Fimg142%2F4373%2Fdiagmicro04ba0.jpg&hash=321e78e32130d7e42db007840243b639ed2f4802)

further you can add filler depending on zone and wealth and also add pattern placement. i further added multiple props so with 8 industry filler props i get many possible results for filler.

hope this helps.


Title: Re: Creating Slope Conforming Props for diagnal T21 Exemplars (network props)
Post by: jeronij on January 26, 2008, 08:44:40 AM
Thanks for sharing this tuto Buddybud  :thumbsup:

However, some of the links to the picture seem to be wrong.... could you please check it  ;) ?¿

Again thanks for sharing your knowledge  ;D
Title: Re: Creating Slope Conforming Props for diagnal T21 Exemplars (network props)
Post by: buddybud on January 27, 2008, 06:12:28 AM
fixed i think..lol...no idea what happened there except maybe one of the image shack servers failed ???