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ÆRDEN ~ new streets!

Started by vortext, May 31, 2013, 11:31:03 PM

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Swordmaster

It's a very interesting (and depressing :P) topic you broached here: the endless search for balance between functionality and aesthetics, especially in a historical setting, with apparently no limits on modding. I've had my fair share of this and I've drawn my conclusions; you've drawn yours. In this regard, I'm eager to hear more about what you did and how you did it. It adds a unique depth to this MD; a great supplement to what are already very nice scenes and pictures.


Cheers
Willy

kelis

Fantastic job !! Your MD is very inspirational for guys like me, I can see details and work everywhere, also I can see the planning of each part of your city, I just love it !!
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noahclem

Fascinating history of your city-building  &apls  You can certainly see a style that's distinctly yours even among the earliest pics. Outstanding month  &apls &apls

Gugu3


vortext

#164


Hi there and welcome another installment of texture talk! Come to think of it, it's actually more of a end-of-the-year round up.

First of all, after half a year of MDing the story line has caught up with regional developments. In other words, there won't be a proper update for some time to come, the reasons for which will become apparent later on. That's not to say there aren't plenty of ideas floating around though. Consequently I've been reading up lately on feudal structure and land use in general. In that regard the region has been carved up quite nicely (with a few config changes along the way) which will surely cause political friction over time.  ;)

And that's about it for the talky bit. Lets have a look at the textures. To start with I've made a small IR meadow set recently. There're eight texture variations. Moreover each variation is a multi-fsh which holds 8 unique textures. Meaning the tiling which had a few of you worried last time is less obvious.


Maxis terrain


Lowkee's Appalachian terrain


Gobias' SV terrain

Not too sure yet about colors though, maybe I'll need to dial down the saturation just a bit. However, I am quite pleased with how they look up close.








Other than that I've established a nice workflow to create uniform overlays, which are in the same vain as CPs.




The current focus is on finishing dirt and grass textures - 20 in total - from which to derive about 6 overlay sets and 6 two-toned base texture sets (i.e. part grass and dirt). Again this is similar to CPs textures. Of course pavements are part of the scope too and in that regard I've finally cracked my personal holy grail: proper cobble fans!  ()stsfd()




And just in case you were wondering why I'm making textures in the first place: it's so I can finally start to do this.





Xannepan's medieval houses have been sitting idle on my HD for almost a year now. ::)

Stage 1 lots will have one house with lots of crops. Going up, the lots start to fill out. My intent is to create a number of rather large lots (e.g. 6x6) for the highest stages (6/7) and lot them as city blocks, with narrow alleyways and such. I imagine this'd be especially nice on sloped terrain, since all houses have a custom foundation and the lots are slope friendly, of course. In addition I've made a series of row houses (1x1, 1x2) to line the streets with and a few corner lots (2x2, 3x3 - latter is shown).

Anyway, moving on to transit textures. I've reworked the dirt streets, they're smaller and quite a bit darker.




The cobble stone textures are moving along quite nicely too, currently in the proces of pulling various networks closer together.





And as if that isn't enough yet: there's the Historic Harbor project, the existence of which you may or may not be aware off. It's a collaboration between myself, Simcoug and Krashspeed. It started innocently some time ago when the former asked me where I got the harbor pieces used in Enseade. These were custom build, of course, but we started brainstorming about a modular harbor set and soon after Krashspeed joined. Initially for a few quay pieces, however, it has turned into quite an extensive project since. A proper harbor needs cargo and workers to fill the docks, after all.









As you can see Krashspeed is a very talented BATter. Not only that, he has taken the trouble to render all props both in SD and HD! Needless to say packaging will require some thought, however, first of order of business is modding (families, timing, etc). To get an impression of the actual harbor pieces I'd suggest you start following NewSorgun, if you didn't already. And yes, MMPs will be shipped out as well (pun intended  :P).


So given the modding, texturing and lotting that awaits, I hope you'll understand why it's gonna take a while for a proper update to appear. And first of all I'm going on a little holiday trip to visit family.  :)






Quote from: Mr.Lin on November 30, 2013, 09:10:50 PM
wow,what a fantastic town there !
That's amazing !

Thanks!


Quote from: Schulmanator on December 01, 2013, 04:57:07 AM
Very nice. And your work on relotting sure pays off!

Thank you!


Quote from: rambuckel on December 01, 2013, 03:19:52 PM
Brilliant updates again! I actually love those different textures for the meadows a really good idea!

Thanks! I hope you like the new meadows as well.


Quote from: RepublicMaster on December 01, 2013, 04:26:29 PM
Great update, the commentary was very enjoyable. :P

Glad you liked it Will!


Quote from: Simcoug on December 01, 2013, 07:53:54 PM
This is really interesting, and helpful too.  I just know I will be running into all sorts of trouble down the road trying to grow my little CJ, so hearing some trials and tribulations from such an expert is very welcome.  The idea of reserving land is a good one, but hard to accomplish because the game fights you on it constantly.  I always find myself laying a few zones here and there, thinking I'm preserving some open spaces, but eventually I look back and everything filled up!  Where did all that space go?  $%Grinno$%

QuoteBefore moving on to more functional aspects, I'd like to point out those three little piers are actual ferries (for no other reason than it took forever to get them working. :D ).
I would be really interested to hear how you managed to mod those ferries... I tried my hand at making some fucntional ferries but it ended in total failure (and frustration!)  Perhaps you would be willing to share the lots too??  ;)

All in all, a great entry!   &apls

Thanks! As for the ferries, given they're tailored to each situation there's little use for them outside Enseade. However, the gnomes were crucial for proper functioning. Two of them have to touch the road, while another has to be at the water edge (or the other way around). In addition a minimal height difference of 15 meter between land and seafloor is required, iirc.


Quote from: Swordmaster on December 02, 2013, 07:41:38 AM
It's a very interesting (and depressing :P) topic you broached here: the endless search for balance between functionality and aesthetics, especially in a historical setting, with apparently no limits on modding. I've had my fair share of this and I've drawn my conclusions; you've drawn yours. In this regard, I'm eager to hear more about what you did and how you did it. It adds a unique depth to this MD; a great supplement to what are already very nice scenes and pictures.


Cheers
Willy

Thanks for the kind words Willy! The balance you mention can be quite cumbersome indeed and I could discuss it at length.  :D


Quote from: kelis on December 17, 2013, 03:37:02 AM
Fantastic job !! Your MD is very inspirational for guys like me, I can see details and work everywhere, also I can see the planning of each part of your city, I just love it !!

Thank you Jonathan!


Quote from: noahclem on December 17, 2013, 04:28:17 AM
Fascinating history of your city-building  &apls  You can certainly see a style that's distinctly yours even among the earliest pics. Outstanding month  &apls &apls

Thanks Noah!

Quote from: Gugu3 on December 17, 2013, 07:48:00 AM
Nice!

Thanks!








Happy Holidays
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

whatevermind

Um...Wow!

It's all incredible, and I know I've said before how much I love those cobble textures, still do. These lots also really interest me. That's probably not a surprise though. The harbor stuff pretty much leaves me speechless, it's all beautiful. Are there docks and piers planned to go along with those?

Nanami

wow, just wow...
it's interesting to have those transit texture. it's look kinda classic (or maybe european, I'm not know many about it lol just feel it's pretty different with normal SC4  :-[ )

kelis

oh my... if I had all that in my hands I cease to play simcity in the modern era to make a real old city, so c'mon just let us enjoy all that stuff  $%Grinno$% $%Grinno$% !! It's amazing my friend, I can't wait to see more about it.
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                                                                                     || Benelux Team || Windows on the World || My Photos on Flickr || Kelis BNL Projects ||

vester

Someone has been busi.

Love the bats and sure am looking forward for the cobble texture.
Pretty sure I could use it or a lot or two.

droric

I love the props!  They all have so much detail and character in them.  The textures look great as well, perhaps something I will never master.

PC Specs: i2700k @ 4.9 Ghz, 16 GB @ 1600-8-9-8-16, 2X GTX 580 SLI, Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3R, 120 GB Vertex 3 SDD, 3 TB RAID1, 1200W SilentGold, Antec P180B case, Win 8 x64 Pro

MTT9

I'm not sure i've ever commented here but this is amazing!! Lots of work ahead, i'll look foward to see what happens :)
You can call me Matt

RepublicMaster

Oh my, I'm lost for words, there's so much great stuff here! I was building a city and I could have really made good use of those fabulous textures!

What an excellent Christmas gift! :D

FrankU

Hi Erik,

This is absolutely stunning work!

vester

Quote from: droric on December 24, 2013, 09:54:23 AM
I love the props!  They all have so much detail and character in them.  The textures look great as well, perhaps something I will never master.

Yes the texturing work is great.

Mark: cgtextures.com is a good starting point.

Would love to hear some on how the texture work; including UV-mapping / Unwrapping ect,

Girafe

Really good job on the props especially the characters, I love them  :thumbsup:
The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

sunv123

Wow, those are fantastic props! Just Wow! :thumbsup:

I can't wait till they're released! ;)
Provo, a city apart Updated July 4.

greenbelt

 &apls fabulous Vortex.  I have place this MD in my SC4 Showcase bookmarks folder.

Bipin

Loving this! A job well done, that's for sure.

benedict

Great stuff.

And congratulations, your MD is number one on Ben's Top Ten this week.
Click on the banner to celebrate!

greenbelt

re-reading your journal again from the beginning.  I have a couple of questions.  I will try to add them all to this post via edits.

#1. 
QuoteTo make things even more interesting, I also let the game run on rhino speed while treeing and paused occasionally to accentuate a certain month. And why stick to just one tree controller, when you can use all three of them, right?!  ;)
won't the game CTD if we use more than 1 tree controller?