Rural Renewal Project

[FrankU]

Chris,

I almost faintes as I saw your pics.
A great cheer is the least I can do.

[Chrisadams3997]

Enndie:  Thanks, I knew you'd be happy to see this post(and by that, I mean the last post).  I'll look forward to your results.

Wouanagaine:  That's one thing I am concerned with with them.  Each 'plop' is about 3m, and you have to overlap at least a third of the previous tile to keep it fairly contiguous, which leaves about 2m, probably just a little less, covered by each tile, or at least 8 needed to make one game tile(16m) of straight path.  That can no doubt add up in LOD's. 

I personally didn't notice any particular slowdown with the system of them shown in the picture, and my computer is no monster, but I'd like to see if anyone else has any problems.  In the end, it's kind of like ploppable water in that you just have to show some discretion in how much you use if you get slowdowns, but I'll reserve too much judgement until some others test it.

And thanks to Edge and FrankU for your support and encouragement.

[TheTeaCat]

Chris

I downloaded your files and popped them in game.

These have got to be some of the best stuff I've ever got for the game 

I am amazed by what you have created. It will add so much to my rural areas and I realised also they are plopable under water too.
In fact I can now try something that has always eluded me in the past.

I have not seen any unusual slowdown using them, but then I only quickly tested them in an almost empty tile.
I shall try them out in a more developed tile tonight and let you know if any probs arise.

Thank you very much indeed for these most wonderful creations

Please enjoy with my compliments


Regards
Derry

[nerdly_dood]

Great stuff so far! (I mostly haunt the NAM team boards, with an occasional tangent like this)

What I would like to see is a set of low-wealth lots with only 1 or 2 residents, with a house, maybe some various junk, perhaps a packrat's 30 or so cars that don't work and are all rusty on one lot, and a bunch of trees and pale greeny browny yellow grass... (I hate seeing stage 4 low wealth houses that are all packed close together in what is supposed to be a rural town in SimCity)

[Diggis]

Have you read through this thread?  And looked at the stuff Chris is doing?   

[thundercrack83]

Great stuff so far! (I mostly haunt the NAM team boards, with an occasional tangent like this)

What I would like to see is a set of low-wealth lots with only 1 or 2 residents, with a house, maybe some various junk, perhaps a packrat's 30 or so cars that don't work and are all rusty on one lot, and a bunch of trees and pale greeny browny yellow grass... (I hate seeing stage 4 low wealth houses that are all packed close together in what is supposed to be a rural town in SimCity)

I think you're in the wrong thread there, nerdly_dood.

Anyway...

Played with the flora a bit. I posted these over in 3RR since they feature the FAR (Fractional Angle Roads), but thought I'd post here to show how wonderful these flora are!

Wonderful work, Chris! Absolutely wonderful!

Dustin

[Toichus Maximus]

my hero! Been waiting for this soooo long. excellent work.

[Pat]

OOOOOOH MY DEAR GOD!!!!!!!!! Chris this is simply a wonderful day wooohooo 2 great Items to work with and I will show off what I can do for it asap....  Again Im glad your back for now Chris to add to game again!!!!

[Chrisadams3997]

TTC:  Awww shucks, glad you like it.  In truth, I hadn't even thought about whether to make them ploppable under water, so on that count it's more a lucky twist of fate that which ever flora I canabalized, er, started with, to do the modding for these was one that I'd made water friendly.  If you find anything else with them, let me know.

Nerdly_dude:  Indeed, while I see where you're coming from, I don't do a whole lot of growables, or even proper buildings for that matter,lol.  But even beyond that, the biggest problem with what you're talking about comes from the way that SC4 picks it's developement-it really descriminates heavily against larger lots in low-density residentials(barring $$$ where they are all large.)  Fixing it would require changing a LOT of things, from the growth stage vs. population curve, to the growth stages of ALL of the Maxis low-density residential lots in order to create certain conditions that would favor the proposed lots in rural(read low population) settings.  THEN, it wouldn't be compatible with any other downloaded residentials.  And that's all after you produced enough models and lots to create a whole set.

Thundercrack:  Thanks for showing those screen shots, I'm always impressed with how much better others are at using my own flora than I am .  I'm suprised how well you blended them in with the purple flowers, normally I never like to use those as they look to big and isolated to me(since there are no clusters of them), but they work well in the middle of my flowers.  I'm also curious, what trees are the light bluish-green ones in the second picture and at the bottom of the first?

Tochius:  Thanks.

Pat:  looking forward to it


As I've been sitting here in my living room watching the Astros beating SanFransico(Baseball if those outside the US, or in it, don't know), I've had SC4 over testing over the fences, seeing what needs to be done.  So I figured I'd show you what all I'm still playing with on them tonight.

In two words: slope tolerance.  I'd like them to do just about anything they can do on perfectly flat ground, which I've shown plenty of before, in at least a rolling hills scenario, and still maintain basic functionality in mountainous terrain.  And without needing a couple of degrees in placement and terraforming of them.  To some degree I've succeeded there, but there are a few points that I'm still looking at improving.  So let's show some pictures .



From this zoom, these curves look good and smooth going over this particular hill.  The only prep I did was running a two-tile section of Rail where each of these pieces(each 2x1) would be placed, then of course bulldozing them to make room for the fence.  This part is necessary, or at least advised, because the slope on each of the two needs to be roughly the same, or you can have parts of the fence going into the ground, or floating in the air.  So it's all good right?  Well, on closer inspection:





While as a stand alone, any one of these looks fine on a slope given that the two tiles are sloped the same, when you stick two together, the difference in slope between the two sections shows up in the different direction of each of the end posts.  And yes, it's nit-picking a little, but what I'm thinking will work better is removing the final post at each end of the main model, replacing them with a separate single post that doesn't have the 'slope conforming' property on, which is to say they will always stand up straight, just like the posts on the straight and diagonal fence sections.  If my thinking is correct, it should make for much better transitions on slopes.  That should be some eight or so models to change I think.



This is an easier and smaller issue --I think.  The way the post props as I'm using them for the diagonals rendered makes them look smaller than the posts on all the other sections, and the LOD's are allowing the crossbeams to 'intrude' in on them them.  I'll need to fix them to look a little more robust.



This was an experiment for slope tolerance for the larger pieces that I don't like how it came out.  For most of the 2x1's the model is one single piece that is 'slope conforming', but for the 'S' curves, there are two identical props making up the 'S' that are not slope conforming, making them stair step up the hill.  I'm going to change these into a single model instead like the others.

Well, like I said, I just wanted to let yall know where-we-stand at present.  Beyond these changes, everything is presently in a form that is usable, and while I'm not releasing a general beta, if anyone would like to do more slope testing, particularly on the changes as I make them, let me know and I'll keep you in the loop on the files as I hopefully fix them, and send you what I have now.

Finally, I just wanted to give one quick teaser for what could be 'on deck' once I've the fences and paths are released .



Hope everyone has a good week, and a little better weather than ours right now.

Chris

[yoshiisland2]

Woah!   I was worried this stuff was being discontinued, awesome work here just cool and...totally awesome!

[BigSlark]

Welcome back, Chris! Your flora, fences, and paths are amazing, I've got entire cities just waiting to be turned into range land. While my BATing, lotting, and modding skills are non-existent, I'm a semi-pro scrutineer and would be more than happy to see if I can cause a CTD with the RRP.

Keep up the great work!

Cheers,
Kevin

[jayo]

Those paths a things look exellent 

Can't wait for realese

[Pat]

Chris simply amazing work with the fences there!!! I like that dock and picnic spots there wow!!! Also as I did promiss here is some of the screens I did.... Here Im just messing around and laying the flora down and paths... Nothing to major at this time....

[TheTeaCat]

A very quick play with just some of your creations









I like these -   a lot 


TTC

[Chrisadams3997]

To Yoshiisland, Bigslark and Jayo, thanks, I can always use all the support and encouragement I can get.  After the fun part of modeling, some of the rest of the process can get a little tedious.  It's people like yall that keep me going.

Also Bigslark, I'll be happy to send you the fences soon.  I've got just a few more items I want to cover.

And of course thanks for the screen shots Pat and Derry.  Gives me perspectives beyond just what I've tried.  In particular I can see a little graphical glitch on the steep slope there in yours Derry where the 'plane' of the path can be seen to come off the side of the slope(in the second picture).  But I'm impressed how good it looks from the other two angles where you can see it.  Thanks guys.

On the news front, I sat down this evening and worked through all the things I mentioned in my last post, which all worked out very well in my tests(sorry, didn't take any screen shots, you'll have to take my word for it for now ).  That just leaves one last lot I want to add and making mirrored models of the open gates and doing a quick re-lot to put them in.  Shouldn't be but about two hours of work if you don't count testing.  So, within the next day or two I should have a beta up here for looking at, assuming nothing else comes up.  If not, it shouldn't be too much longer.

Chris

[zulhirosue]

bro.. i newbies here.. glad to join u all

ok bro... what can say anymore after see first picture to second to another and continues.. WOW!!
u are really awesome... are u the architect or what.. so many idea u can put in one map... huhuhu (i'm a droughtman hehe)
i really like it u know.. all picture u post make very jelous... i want try it... the problem is.. i dont know how to start because.. all building in the picture. its look custom... which one prop or lot or bat..  can u advice me what i must download first... just the important files... 

[Ennedi]

Chris, I have some of your white and yellow flowers (old version) in the city tile I'd like to test the new flora. Tell me please, should I remove older version earlier to avoid any conflict or the new version is different?

The new stuff installed, testing from today - sorry, I had no time earlier  

Adam

[jacqulina]

welcome back chris and what a comeback,wonderfull flora and trails i am going to enjoy using them very much.im looking forward to your other beautifull things too.thankyou for your hard work.

[Chrisadams3997]

Welcome zulhirosue, glad you like it.  Right now I'm getting close to finishing several parts of the project, so they aren't ready for download anywhere yet.  But keep your eyes open around here for news on the release.

Ennedi:  Well, to be honest, I swapped some of the dats back and forth between models as I was doing the early development, so I can't guarantee that the same models are attached to the IID's of the original two anymore, though as long as the number of models in the dat hasn't changed it won't crash anything, you'll just see a different model than what you originally placed down.  You could either send me the old files and I can see if they are the same, or you can try it and see what you get with the new one installed, which ever you prefer.  Either way, I'd definitely remove the old files from your plugins.

Jacqulina:  It's good to see you here, Jacky.  I'd been thinking of posting something over at ST just for you since you spend more time there.  Guess I don't have to now, lol.

[pilotdaryl]

If you hadn't been amazing me right now, I would make you drop and give me 50
But you are amazing me right now!!! These would go well in Marshall (seeing as the rural areas are starting to build up...)