Completely get rid of default maxis sidewalk/base textures (& much more ...)

[DeatzoSeol]

Hello everyone ...

So, after installing Jeronij's Sidewalk Mod, I found out that most plopables (buildings, GLR, NAM plopables, ...) still had those obnoxiously ugly white Maxis textures as sidewalks (or even as base texture!).
How can I completely get rid of those inhumanely repulsive white sidewalk textures, and change them into those of Jeronij? (And while we're at it, also those rose/red-ish pedmall/plaza textures...) I wanted to do it myself but I have not the slightest clue how to do it

Another thing, when placing a plopable (e.g. a diagonal filler) next to a diagonal road/street (because of a twisted path of fate, avenues don't have this problem ), its sidewalk changes to low-wealth grass (which is pretty silly, if one uses a diagonal filler)... Is there anything to prevent this to have fully diagonal road-sidewalks next to plopables? (Or as an extension: can plopables have a wealth? That way I can have low-wealth and high-wealth plopables &c.)

And ... yes, another question, I do have SW77's No Palms mod and have rebuilt all my streets (an did everything the read me told me to do), yet those utterly archdemonically ugly Palms still show up occasionally! And while we're at it: a mod to completely change all those satanically hideous Maxis Trees to Cycledogg's divinely beautiful trees or Jeronij's angelic Seasonal Trees ... and ... something to not only have trees and parkings and other props on streets, but also on roads, yes, and even on avenues! How cool would that be!

And ... finally ... is there a way to change the height at which trees grow in CPT's Meadowshire terrain mod? (My city's too low, practically no trees will grow ... which I find sad )

And (oh noes! another one! ), last but not least : ... Please!

Thank you!

[dedgren]

I've made a little mod in 3RR for rural areas...







...but are you sure you'd want grass growing on your city sidewalks?

It is a problem, I'll grant you that.  I've got an idea, though, that I'll be fleshing out in 3RR over the next little bit.


David

[jplumbley]

Alrighty...  Sidewalk textures.

First off, I have written a Transit Texture Tutorial.  It touches on how Sidewalks are dealt with.  Please take a read through that thread aswell as this post.

The game has 4 and only 4 "Sidewalk Textures"...

Agriculture
$ Wealth
$$ Wealth
$$$ Wealth

These are essentially "base textures" for networks.  The game determines what "base texture" is placed under a network based on the wealth of a Lot that is next to the network.  There are 5 possibilities for what is beneath a network, it will either show any of the 4 above textures OR it will be "invisible" showing the terrain if there is no lot or a lot with no wealth next to the network.

Most of us are familiar with "Road Surface Textures"... These are the textures that show the road surface themselves.  These textures include thing such as the kerb and any grass that is on the texture.  These textures are also created to having a sister texture called an "ALPHA Map". 

What is the "ALPHA Map" used for?

This is a second texture that is used when creating "Overlay Textures" for the game.  When importing a texture, an "ALPHA Map" is required to tell the game what is visible and what is invisible on the texture.  The best way to think of a "Road Surface Texture" is to think of it as an "Overlay Texture".  The "Road Surface Texture" will get overlaid onto the "Sidewalk Texture"....  And where the "Road Surface Texture" is invisible, the "Sidewalk Texture" will show through.

You can change the "Sidewalk Textures", but if you make them all one look or make them all invisible.  Then you will ALWAYS have the same texture underneath your networks.  The place where making all the textures invisible, is that when you drag the network in town, or downtown in your cities you will never get sidewalk whatsoever.

What is possible and is probably the best way to go about it for "removing" the sidewalks from Rural areas is making a variation with the full "Road Surface Texture".  This would not include an "ALPHA Map" and you would have to include grass across the entire texture where it is not the actual Road surface.  If you were to import the Road surface with an "invisible" area but no ALPHA Map it will either show in-game as a Black or a White area.

My brain is thinking I am short on something here, but I cannot think of it at this moment, so I will stop here.  Basically, my suggestion is creating a texture similar to the PEGs Gravel texture we have made for the SAM (which David has shown) and that is the closest you can get.  The texture on the network will probably never match exactly the Terrain texture you are using, which I think is what you are looking for but isnt all that possible without re-creating every MAXIS Texture in the game.

[DeatzoSeol]

Okay Dedgren, thanks for your quick reply
Also, nice pictures I wish I could make such beautiful things
But I misexpressed myself a bit there , of course I don't want grass as my sidewalk texture I want to change them ... from those ugly Maxis to ... something else ... (this could, however, be very well grass sometimes )
Thanks anyway! 

EDIT: Okay, jp, you were quicker than me ... Thanks for your reply , your tutorial looks complicated, but I'm gonna try and give it a shot

EDIT2:  Oh, please- call me David.  That goes for everyone here- we're all friends linked by this great game.  Jason (jplumbley), btw, is a genius about this stuff. -DE