The Source- 2/9: I'm Back! + A Teaser (of course...)

[kwakelaar]

It has turned out very nice, and I can imagine it is a lot of work.
There are a lot of different textures, but I think you have managed to make it look coherent.
The square monument in a triangle is looking a bit difficult, (the fence seems to be cutting off parts of it), still it is a really beautiful pier any city would be proud of.

[dsrwhat316]

Teaser
Ah, after a great Thanksgiving dinner, it's time to unwind with a little SC4! I've always wanted to make a land bridge so I checked out Rayden's How to Build a Land Bridge Tutorial. After some tinkering, I whipped up a teaser of what's to come:



This bridge will span quite a distance, where it will be an informal barrier to some... less desirable areas found in cities. Now, to make the area under the bridge a bit more active... Stay tuned for more!

~ Dan

[metarvo]

I've never thought of using land bridges, so I'll have to check out that tutorial sometime.  I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this, Dan. 

[KoV Liberty]

Good job, but. How is the rail gonna cross the bridge?

[ecoba]

Oh, I knew this day would come. Dan's underbridge lotting.

I really can not wait to see this. It's going to be great!

Ethan

[Battlecat]

Nice job on the land bridge.  Looking forward to seeing your plans here! 

[BarbarossaS]

Hmmm, less desirable parts of the city... Can't wait to see what you cook up there 
Nice landbridge, though I've been thinking the same as driftmaster, how are the rail and roads gonna cross the bridge?

-Stijn-

[rooker1]

Congratulations on your very well deserved move to the OSITM! 

From the SC4D Staff!

[dsrwhat316]

OSITM Part 1- Underbridge Life
Thanks to the SC4D Staff for giving The Source its second OSITM honor! It's time to elaborate on the previous teaser. Here's how that area has progressed:



I tried to make the roads and rail functional using Buddybud's underpass lots as a base lot and modifying them to allow road and rail traffic underground via a subway line. Unfortunately, the result was that no traffic could pass. I'll continue to work on this problem, but for now the roads and rails under the bridge are purely eye-candy. Although, the rail tunnel is functional...

I also have a bonus teaser:



Finally got around to starting the ghettos of FH! This area is nowhere near finished, but it's a start.

~ Dan

[Battlecat]

Congratulations on your second OSITM!  Everything I've read suggests that modding roads to go under bridges is a serious headache.  Good luck, I hope to see you succeed!  Both teasers look great, it's going to be interesting to see your approach to low wealth areas!

[j-dub]

@dsrwhat316

Ah yes, the interest of building roads under Maxis bridges, before you said anything, your pictures really made it look like it was actually happening, especially that there are cars under the bridge!

For now though, I have been using Buddybuds underpass lots, and in my case, traffic, even over 300 cpm converts to subway and and turns back into cars after driving out of the underpass, and finishes up the rest of the commute, but thats the original 1 tile underpass lot. It does not happen visually, just the statements of the route query demonstrates. So if you do not mind me asking, you said you modified Buddybuds underpass lots? How? Changing the lot size, and building will mess it up, as well as having subways intersect other subways underneath. Did all you do was just eliminate the underpass model off the lot? I'm interested in finding out, because I know you would rather have these connections work. How long did you leave the game in play after using your underbridge lots? Sometimes the game just does not react fast enough to resolve its issues, but when these underpass/underbridge lots work, they are really useful.

If only all the Maxis tunnels were modified that they had no tunnel model there at all, so we could just drag under these bridges without having a weird looking tunnel pop out in the middle of the underbridge scenery, otherwise we either have to download masks for these tunnels so it can remain as a functional road underneath (source, http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=4524 and http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=17166 ) or come up with masking methods by our selves.

[tooheys]

Hi Dan

Congrats on OSITM. Well deserved 

Although the areas are not yet finished both pics are very nice indeed. And it's always a pleasure to see your LE work,
I find it quite inspiring 

Have a great month

Dave

[io_bg]

Congratulations on the OSITM, you really deserve it!
All the lotting you've done is looking fantastic and I can't wait to see how this area develops
Keep up the great work!

[BarbarossaS]

Congrats on the OSITM, you definately deserve it! 
I Hope you can fix the traffic problem and that there'll be another update soon 

-Stijn-

[Connor]

Congrats on OSITM. Thouroughly deserved. Looking forward to next update. 

[Tomas Neto]

Congratulations on your OSITM, and fantastic update!!! 

[Earth quake]

Congratulation for your OSTIM.
This update is impressive and fantastic work at the lot.

[dsrwhat316]

OSITM Part 2- Improvements
Okay, I re-did a portion of the low-wealth underbridge area. Here's what I have now:



... and here's the Lot Editor screen shots:





The original parking textures I used didn't quite fit in with the low-wealth theme I was going for. I think these turned out much better. Not much more has been done yet, but I wanted to give a short status report regarding the underbridge roads. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to get them to work using the modified BuddyBud lots, so for now the concept is on the back burners.

Thanks for your comments, guys; I've have a full reply list as soon as possible. But I would like to answer a comment in hopes of getting an idea:

@ j-dub: I tried removing the underpass model, but since it was a building the properties of the lot were changed. By reading your post I realized my attempt was pretty much futile, seeing as my plan was to resize the lot underneath the bridge. Though I could've used another lot to resize underneath the bridge, I decided to drop this for now. Unless someone can give me a bright idea... 

~ Dan

[Fabian93]

Congratulations on your second OSITM-award - you really deserve it.
Those are some really interesting pictures, especially since I'm currently trying to improve my own LE-skills. This is definitively a great Source for inspiration
I really like what you have done with those Lots under that bridge and I'm looking forward to how you complete that area

Fabian

[ecoba]

Great update of your underbridge adventures, Dan. Your LOTs are looking great as always, and I think that you'll do a good job with low wealth areas. Is absolutely everything in your cities custom lots? You must have a really long park menu...

Ethan