The City & County of Honolulu

[kwakelaar]

Great work on your open plain, nicely done even without the pale green/yellow grasses.

[Tomas Neto]

A magnificent work you did in this update!!! Is perfect the representation of the vegetation!!! 

[nedalezz]

Thats some great work with the flora plops of SC, the pictures really turned out realistic

[Battlecat]

You'll never hear me complain about a nature shot, especially one that looks that nice!

[sumwonyuno]

Hello everyone,

I apologize for no updates for the past few months.  The last few months of 2010 were especially busy for me.

First off, I have good news.  I have uploaded my Central Pacific Plaza lot on the STEX.  You all are welcome to download it at:

http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/25798-central-pacific-plaza/

     

As for the LEX, I haven't heard a word from the LEX scrutineers in months.  I could have uploaded my lot as far back as September of 2010, but I've been waiting since.  Anyways, please do share your questions, experiences, criticisms, and experiences from using my lot.

In other news, I have obliterated and rebuilt my downtown city tile.  I tried to do it last year by just bulldozing, but I had the problem of "bad decisions" that screwed up various simulators.  This time, I used two instances of SimCity.  One had a backup copy of downtown, and the other was the post-obliteration city tile.  I simply traced lengths of roadways.  It took me several hours over two days.  Surprisingly, there was not much of a performance slowdown.  Here are the results:



As you may have guessed, I am rebuilding my region.  I have been inspired to BAT.  In Google Earth, there has been a huge addition of new Honolulu buildings, created by various people.  Although many of the buildings (highrise and lowrise) aren't that good quality, these people have shown Honolulu can be done, and with speed too.



I have been creating basic (untextured) models of numerous buildings in the Liliha, Chinatown, and Downtown areas.  I'm gaining experience on how to BAT faster.  A lot of the effort is in creating the model with accurate dimensions, while textures, nightlights, and lotting is more point-click-choose.

Here is the Google Earth reference shot:



Here is the old downtown in SimCity:



Here are the basic building models:



Note the differences in height.  Some of the buildings are still just placeholder boxes with the general dimensions.  I'm surprised there are a couple of buildings I used back then that are fairly close to the new models.

Again, I apologize for the long gaps between updates.  But, do expect to see updates throughout on this year.  Besides the BATing I want to do, the real Honolulu is on its way to rail transit groundbreaking in March.  I may do a few updates on the planned route and extentions, using the old Capitalis region as a backdrop.

By the way, should I just keep things all in here, or should I make a separate thread for BATs?



***Replies***

threestooges:  Heh, I'm quite surprised myself about the results.

RickD:  Thanks!

kwakelaar:  We've had a lot of rainfall over the past few months, so now I think the greener grasses are more accurate.   

Tomas Neto:  Thank you!

nedalezz:  I think the texture of the grasses add to the realism.

Battlecat:  Heh, I'm sure you won't complain, but feel free to still criticize if needed.   

[Battlecat]

Nice to see you're back at it.  I'm looking forward to seeing more of the region as you develop it. 

Since the BAT work you're planning is tied to the MD, I think you should keep the work in the same place.  Hope to see more updates soon!

[Terring7]

Welcome back

[j-dub]

Why does this seem so familliar:

I know I used to see this place often times somewhere on TV, along with this angry smoky dude: but nvm that.

Good ol' real cities, I've attempted that with SC4 before. It is usually a real challenge, because what you said, scale of things, not to mention most of the roads are prone to grid restriction. In this case though, for the most part the roads still are a grid city, just not all straight alligned in reality, accurate or not, recreating streets to reality takes some time, but you went a step above with the time it takes to do buildings. In comparison to doing a real city versus a suburb, recreating a real suburb takes forever because of growing the houses, rather then plopping the hundreds of thousands of them, then you got to deal with the real houses all being able to fit in the blocky grid of SC4 scale.

I hope this all turns out right.

[Skimbo]

Honululu looks nice, good luck with gaining batting experience =)

[RickD]

So you are going to do more SC4 Buildings? That would be great because the Central Pacific Plaza turned out really good. 

[kwakelaar]

Interesting to see how you will go about this, and the model on the STEX looks good.

[Tomas Neto]

Wow my friend..., I loved this update!!! It's very interesting, indeed!!! 

[sumwonyuno]

Hello everyone,

It's been a sad time for us here in the Pacific.  I hope for the best to everyone affected by the recent earthquakes and tsunamis.  Here in Hawaii, we're certainly not immune to the events that happen across the ocean.

For this update, I have another BAT.  Located in the Capital District, at the corner of King & Alapa'i Street, the Frank F. Fasi Municipal Building is a high-rise tower that houses multiple departments of the City & County of Honolulu.  Formerly called the Honolulu Municipal Building, it has been renamed to honor Honolulu's longest serving mayor.  Below the visible 15 stories is an underground emergency management complex.



Here are the day and night renderings from gmax:
[North, East, South, West]













Please leave any comments or suggestions you may have.  I'm planning to turn this into a growable CO$$, and I am going release this lot some time in the next few months.

If you've downloaded my Central Pacific Plaza lot, how is it?  Have you gotten it to grow in your cities?

Until next time, take care!



***Replies***

Battlecat:  All right, all of the fun will be kept right here.   
Terring7:  Thanks!
j-dub:  I have no idea what you're talking about.     I don't think Hollywood goes on that side of the island much to use as a backdrop.  Recreation is ridiculously hard, but I've gotten this far already. 
Skimbo:  I'm certainly nowhere near being a pro, but I'm getting more proficient at it.
RickD:  Heh, I think the above update answers your question.   
kwakelaar:  Thank you very much!
Tomas Neto:  Thank you!

[nedalezz]

The last BAT looks really good

As for your downtown upload picture, I dont believe Ive seen anyone do that in SimCity before - it certainly has the potential to recreate alot of what we know about playing the game.

[Tomas Neto]

I'm a lot worried about you there in the Pacific!!! I'm praying for everything will keep good as quickly as possible!!!

Fantastic BAT..., really great work my friend!!! 

[Battlecat]

Excellent job on that bat!  You know, I also missed commenting on how innovative your idea of rendering simple scale preview versions of the downtown buildings is.  It's a great idea for urban recreations! 

[sumwonyuno]

Hello everyone,

I have created a lot for the Frank F Fasi Municipal Building BAT, and I have uploaded the lot to the STEX for you all to download and enjoy.  It is a ploppable landmark with CO$$ jobs.

You can download it at:
http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/26008-frank-f-fasi-municipal-building/



Please comment, and please report if there are any problems with the lot.

I've made a dedicated thread for my BATs at:

http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=12802.msg371736#msg371736

http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/topic/42388-sumwonyunos-honolulu-bats/

Until next time, take care!



***Replies***

nedalezz:  Heh, I'll be changing things one BAT at a time.

Tomas Neto:  Thank you Tomas!

Battlecat:  Simple models are good for show, but they've got to be more detailed if I release them.

[Tomas Neto]

Your bat be prepared to put in the cities, and it's very nice!!!  Fantastic news!!!   

[sumwonyuno]

Hello all,

I'd like to inform to everyone that has downloaded my Central Pacific Plaza and Frank F Fasi Municipal Building lots, I've released new versions of them on the STEX.  Both of them are 25% taller (and stats scaled proportionally), and the Municipal Building has been retextured and the model has been improved.  If you currently have them in your cities, I recommend going through the process of replacing with the updated versions.  If you haven't downloaded them, please do!





For this update, I have chosen to do the eastern slopes of Mount Ka'ala in the Wai'anae Mountains.  The following picture was taken from Kaukonahua Road.









Until next time!



***Replies***

Tomas Neto:  Thanks!

[marsh]

I love those mountains. They're so lush.

,marsh