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Rural Renewal Project

Started by Chrisadams3997, September 11, 2007, 03:54:51 PM

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Ennedi

Thank you Chris!

Helping you is a pleasure, nice to receive such immediate responses and to see such effective work  :thumbsup:
Your idea of adding the new layer with gravel texture to dirt ones was excellent! It was really the simplest thing you could do  :D
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dragonshardz

Hey Chris, nice to know you're back, but the latest beta links, after clicking on "Proceed to File Download", just go to a page that reads "incorrect linking number, plaese try again".

~~Dragonshardz~~

Chrisadams3997

Hey Dragonshardz, I just checked them both and they worked for me, and I know others have had them work, so I'm not sure why it won't work at your end, but those kinds of things happen.  I'll email you the files.  I'm assuming the e-mail in your profile is good ;), if not let me know.

Chris

TheTeaCat

I like the new improvments :thumbsup:

:satisfied:
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thundercrack83

Download links worked for me, too...off to play with them now.

girlfromverona

Quote from: dragonshardz on May 18, 2008, 04:07:53 PMthe latest beta links, after clicking on "Proceed to File Download", just go to a page that reads "incorrect linking number, plaese try again".

I had the same problem. Just hit the back button, then click on "Proceed to File Download" again, and it should work. :)

Silur

#326
Hi, Chris ...
I'm here now, but I need some time for reading Your excellent thread well ...
Sure - this is my favorite theme ...
I'm crazy with Your Rural objects ...
Thank You and Best regards  :thumbsup:

Raindog

Thanks Chris for these great additions to the game. I love those draggable paths and sure will use them in or around my cities.
I actually came here for those fences. Great pics on the first page of this thread. Now I still don't have those but i got the paths and the flowers so you don't hear me complain.



My first example of a little city park.


Horn broken, watch for finger...

Chrisadams3997

#328
Less time today, so I'll keep replies short.  Just want to say welcome to Silur, glad you found your way here, and welcome Raindog as well.  That park looks great :thumbsup:.

I'll post the paths in my candidacy thread as soon as I finalize the concrete and asphalt textures, as it seems everything is working well with them.  Now, I'd like to announce the NEW RRP Beta(5-19-08).  This includes the fences and paths.  It does not include the diagonal and other fillers, which I haven't gotten time to finish(which shouldn't be a big issue for most, particularly if you follow my advice at the bottom of this post.)

EDIT: Wow, I almost forgot--only two dependancies, which are needed for placement props on some lots:
            SFBT Essentials
            BSC Parks V2 - Base Set

A few notes for testers that I'd like to know about.

1.) Menu Placement/Icon Order

I've placed the lots into the water utilities menu this time on request of several folks, at what should be the bottom.  The icon order numbers span a decent space, so if anyone finds any lots they have that show up in the middle of them, etc. let me know.  Otherwise I'd just like your thoughts on the use of that menu.

2.) Slope Tolerance

I'm going to post a general tutorial about it's placement on slopes, use of slope friendly lots, etc., Likely tomorrow.  In the meantime, and afterwards, I'd like to see your thoughts and experiments under various sloped conditions. 

Just for reference I expect most pieces to work appreciably well on gentle slopes, lets say from 2 to 4 meters change per tile at least.  If they work better at more than that, well  :thumbsup:.  But I expect the slope oriented pieces to start showing significant graphical glitches beyond that.  At that point you will likely be able to use only the SF(slope-friendly) straight and diagonal pieces, which have yellow icon backgrounds, while reserving curved pieces to flatter or appropriately terraformed ground.

Sidewalks
Just a quick note on the subject.  Like any other plopped lot, these will produce a sidewalk on otherwise undeveloped roads and streets.  As this is largely undesirable in the settings, I suggest keeping at least one tile between the fences and roads where possible for aesthetic reasons, and using one of the rural sam textures for streets.  For reference, I'd suggest a look at any of Dedgren's pics in 33R where he's used his fence set, you'll see these same principles ;).

Water Bug
Due to unfortunate circumstances, the paths cause an equally unfortunate rupture in the SC4 space/time continuum that we've come to call, quite affectionately, the Water Bug.  The result is the apparent 'disappearance' of any and all texture, allowing the underlying, to use the technical term, 'goo' forming the rest of the universe outside of any given tile to show through, as seen below.



This occurs because of the use of overlay textures, without any base textures, followed by entering the water dataview, or sometimes randomly when zooming or rotating.  Fortunately it is NOT a signal of a coming apocalypse, and doesn't require any drastic measures to correct.  In fact it can be alleviated in two easy steps.

#1  Select the 'zone' data view button:



#2  Select the 'all off' data view button:



And as good as new. 

Of course since these lots are located in the water utilities menu, anytime you go to place more fences or paths, the water bug will appear, so it's best to do this AFTER you're done placing fences or paths for a while.  While I admit it is a minor annoyance, the fix only takes about 5 seconds to do.  Given that fact, it's an annoyance that will have to be tolerated-or not.  If you can't live with it, don't use the paths.  They are even located in separate dats in the RRP Beta files, so they can be easily deleted and moved from the plugins if desired.

Hope that clears up the issue. ;)

Chris

Pat Riot

thank god, can't wait to use these  :thumbsup: must take out an hour tonight and test them. :D

CaptCity

#330
Regarding the RRP Beta...

A really wonderful set for rural areas. &apls  I've been playing around with these (no real planning - so no images to post yet), and wondered if anyone else is having the 'water bug' issue with the textures on the path pieces. The lots look fine when plopping, but when selecting another path piece, poof, no textures on the plopped path pieces. Can get rid of the effect by saving, exiting, and reopening the city, but as soon as another path piece is selected, it's back. Anyone else...?

Chrisadams3997

Check the updated info on the water bug in my above post, and thanks for reminding me.  I'd been discussed before, but it was many pages back.

Chris

Andreas

Chris, as I suggested a while ago, it would be feasible to turn your track textures into draggable NAM items, similar to the SAM. I don't know how many texture variations are available (and how many RULs would have to be created), but it's definitely worth to investigate this further. I'd even take it if it was only NAM eye-candy. :)
Andreas

Pat

OOOOH Chris simply amazing!!! I am going to have to get home soon so I can download and play with this newest beta!!!!  Great job!!!

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Chrisadams3997

Yes, Adreas, I recall the discussion.  Off hand I have one primary concern, other than the work involved, in changing them to draggables.  By doing so I assume that it would be subject to the same slope restrictions placed on all other streets.  Creating diagonal streets in particular has a great deal of impact on slopes, and I believe this will be the case even with a very lenient slope mod(correct me if I'm wrong here.)  That goes against the principle of slope tolerance that I'd like these to retain.  I'm not sure they should be held to the same constraints.

Beyond this, there is the issue of the work.  I've tipped my hand into almost every kind of modding there is--except for transit modding.  And I was rather hopeful to keep it that way ;).  I certainly see the advantages for ease of placement, and of course eliminating the water bug.  But from my viewpoint I don't see enough of a need or advantage in making them draggable to offset the difficulty and time required for me to do it.  I'd just assume get it wrapped up and move on to other projects.  If someone else volunteers to see that aspect through, or there is some way to do it fairly easily, then that's a different story.

Chris

CaptCity

Chris (if I may call you that),

Thanks for the update on the 'water bug'. I had seen the previous post, but I guess I misunderstood your discussion of it. I thought you had found a way to negate the issue, so I was thinking I had somehow installed the wrong files to make the lots work correctly.

Thanks again, and thanks for all your work on this fantastic project!

Diggis

Quote from: Chrisadams3997 on May 20, 2008, 06:28:17 PM

Beyond this, there is the issue of the work.  I've tipped my hand into almost every kind of modding there is--except for transit modding.  And I was rather hopeful to keep it that way ;).  I certainly see the advantages for ease of placement, and of course eliminating the water bug.  But from my viewpoint I don't see enough of a need or advantage in making them draggable to offset the difficulty and time required for me to do it.  I'd just assume get it wrapped up and move on to other projects.  If someone else volunteers to see that aspect through, or there is some way to do it fairly easily, then that's a different story.


hehe, being Jason's B**ch this would be my job.

Pat

Shaun I thought you was Jason TM  ;D

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newsimaddict

great job on the beta release. (like seriously really awesome)
the flowers look fantastic and really add depth to any shot.
the gravel paths...really love despite the waterbug. my thought is that if you're keen for detail, you'll do what you have to do to get the job done. (mind you i prefer nowadays to sit at the computer with a drink and ease the arvo away so time-wasting is my forte)
the fences...very nice job and nicely lotted, very realistic to the farms i grew up on. if you want any ideas on aussie farmland/fences, let me know.

probably the only thing i'd mention as an idea...? i really like the small used feel of the gravel tracks...however i've only seen gravel laneways going from say driveway to dairy (ie so milk tankers don't get bogged in the road)...but little of going into paddocks/fields. how much stuffing around would it be to create a new set of paths but with a dirt texture (from say your draggable paths) instead of gravel? just a thought. love to hear your thoughts.

Andreas

Quote from: Chrisadams3997 on May 20, 2008, 06:28:17 PM
Yes, Adreas, I recall the discussion.  Off hand I have one primary concern, other than the work involved, in changing them to draggables.  By doing so I assume that it would be subject to the same slope restrictions placed on all other streets.  Creating diagonal streets in particular has a great deal of impact on slopes, and I believe this will be the case even with a very lenient slope mod(correct me if I'm wrong here.)  That goes against the principle of slope tolerance that I'd like these to retain.  I'm not sure they should be held to the same constraints.

You have a point regarding the slope mods - if you'd use the street network as a base, the tracks would be bound to the same princibles as streets, of course. But diagonals wouldn't automatically mean a completely flat network, if you'd use another network (and the diagonal street helper puzzle pieces also allow slope-conforming streets). Well, I guess the NAM team should make some experiments. :)
Andreas