Metarvo steps up to BAT

[peter007]

Nice Metarvo. I really like your powerlines. 

[Buzzit]

looks great metarvo!
might be an interesting aspect to apply on my own sets
ill be up and running within +/- 4 weeks again

[metarvo]

Aaron Graham: Thank you! 

Ernst (peter007): Thanks for the compliment. 

Buzzit: I'm glad you like it!    I thought the wirespans were too short, and a number of others agreed with me, so I decided to rework them.  By the way, I'm glad you're back to work on your project again. 




This is another peek at some of the substation stuff I've been experimenting with.  As you can see with the grid on, I have planned to include diagonal and 18.435° FAR-aligning substations in addition to the orthogonal one you can also see here.  These smaller substations are intended for dead ends or transitions to wireless power lines.  I guess they could be used to fake a transition to underground as well, since one wasn't included in game.


MMPs are becoming an increasingly popular way to landscape.  At first, there were the Maxis trees.  Then several others made custom MMP trees, and there are seasonal ones in the works.  Flowers, fences, and other props have been made into MMPs as well.  The problem is the fact that a MMP can't be built too close to another prop, particularly one with a large Occupant Size.  To allow for better landscaping, I have set the Occupant size for each of these power poles (and the separate wire props that go with them) to 1,1,1 in the Reader.  This means that MMP grass, hay bales, or whatever can be placed in the power line ROW areas.  You can even build trees under there, although I wouldn't recommend it at all. 

[Lowkee33]

Looks good

Are you increasing the power span in the Utilities Exemplar?  If so, you may also want to change the thickness of the Maxis lines for each zoom.  I  forget the property, but it is near the end and has 5 reps of decimals.  The Reps go something like 0, 1, 4/5, 3/5, 2/5, 1/5.  The 0 is the furthest zoom, and the 1 is the second furthest zoom.  Maxis lines actually get thicker as you zoom out.  I changed the reps to make more sense with pretty good results.

[Sciurus]

Excellent!

Guillaume

[Buzzit]

MMPs are becoming an increasingly popular way to landscape.  At first, there were the Maxis trees.  Then several others made custom MMP trees, and there are seasonal ones in the works.  Flowers, fences, and other props have been made into MMPs as well.  The problem is the fact that a MMP can't be built too close to another prop, particularly one with a large Occupant Size.  To allow for better landscaping, I have set the Occupant size for each of these power poles (and the separate wire props that go with them) to 1,1,1 in the Reader.  This means that MMP grass, hay bales, or whatever can be placed in the power line ROW areas.  You can even build trees under there, although I wouldn't recommend it at all. 

what an amazing level of detail you have on your picture my friend!
i will take note of that occupant size idea
btw maybe you can help me a bit with this one
because i noticed your pylons don't consume power but they still break down into pieces when destroyed
while mine just disseapear (wich imo looks a bit weird )

anyways keep it up metarvo! i allways like it to drop back here again

[Aaron Graham]

Looks great from what I'm seeing now.

[SimNation]

Loving the progress of the powerline set so far. The powerline substation transformer ends are looking fantastic.

[metarvo]

Lowkee33: You know by now that I have been experimenting with the draggables just a little.  I haven't done anything to the power line span yet, but I have longingly looked at that property. 

Guillaume (Sciurus): Thanks! 

Buzzit: Thank you for the compliment!    Power line ROW areas aren't always completely barren IRL, so I don't think they should be in SC4.  The truth is that wildflowers are often planted in these clear-cut areas, and I've even seen places where people used the power line ROW areas to plant gardens.

Aaron Graham: I appreciate the kind words! 

SimNation: Thanks.   I might still need to work on them a little, but I feel like this is more realistic than having a power line just stop dead (a la the Maxis lines) or even having it go into the ground for no real reason.




Here is the latest pylon style that I plan to introduce to my set.  It's running in between the other two lines.

http://img859.imageshack.us/img859/8042/p3apr00.jpg
(If you want to see what it looks like in red and white, here's the link)

[louistsw]

The silver steel one looks more better..

[Aaron Graham]

The new pylon looks great can't wait to see more.

[Buzzit]

your new pylons looks great!
it looks much like a polish 110Kv pylon that i planned to make in the future
btw did you noticed
that the wires on the right side look a bit blurry?
or is this because of the picture?
just to let you know!

hope to see more soon

[metarvo]

louistsw: I agree.  The red one was sort of a joke to pick on the Maxis poles a little. 

Aaron Graham: Thanks!  I haven't got to work on this as much as I would have liked, but I'm getting back on it now.

Buzzit: Thank you for the compliment!  This must be a popular design, because I have seen a number of variations within the States.  I imagine I took the picture too fast before the wires were completely drawn on screen, which would explain the blurriness.




Here are the end poles for the 138 kV wood pole set, which includes fractional angles.


Here are some corner poles.  Notice that these are darker than the ones I showed previously.  I felt that the other ones were too bright, so I darkened the texture.


Here are the retextured straight section poles.  The icons have been redesigned slightly, too.

I actually have most of the lots done for this set, so unless something unexpected comes up, I should release it fairly soon.  I'm still working on the metal sets, too.  I'm having a little trouble with the substations, though, particularly the diagonal and fractional angle ones.  I had to use flat overhanging BATs as the bases, rather than textures, so that they would come up to the edge of diagonal and FAR roads.  The problem is that the base overhangs vertically over any buildings or objects behind the building, even though it was flat when I BATted it.  I plan to post a picture to show what I'm talking about, but it sounds like a LOD issue from what I've heard.

[Aaron Graham]

Thank you, thank you, I thought you have quit bting forever because I have not seen anything from you in ages, but we all understand that we can get busy.

I'm loveing the look of the power lines, keep it up. 

[SimNation]

Great to see some new update work showing some different poles. Those 90 degree lines look pretty funky but I am sure I have seem them actually like that somewhere on power lines before.

[DaveN]

Grid, this is what I miss most. Extra detail, great performance.
I do not know how in this case, but most of the energy networks in the puzzle nicely goes only on flat terrain and the inequalities it looks worse.
I hope that all these power lines will be done as a mod to someone who, like Street Addon Mod, will be allowed to choose the type of power line you want to bet.

Anyway, great job. Congratulations   

[metarvo]

Aaron Graham: Don't worry, I don't have any plans for quitting as far as I know.  Thanks for the compliment! 

SimNation: Thanks.    I agree, some of the weirdest power poles show up around corners, particularly 90° ones.  I assume you're talking about the wood ones, right?  That wood pole is a fairly popular design that is in use all over the U.S. AFAIK, so you probably have seen those 90° poles.

DaveN: While these power lines are in effect only eyecandy, they do provide the feel of an integrated power grid IMO.  For instance, you'll notice that I'm working on both 138 kV (wood) and 345 kV (metal) sets.  The slope issue is something that can't really be avoided completely, but I will be including slope pieces in my releases that should allow at least limited use on slopes.  The idea of a SAM-like mod for power lines has been thrown around, but the Maxis power line network can't be modded like that unfortunately.  I've begun to explore the idea of replacing the Maxis models with my own, but such a mod would still be limited to only one set.  Thank you for the compliment! 




I just wanted to run a potential restyle by all of you.  I've added a darker metal texture to the pylons, and I've darkened the wires as well, because I felt they were too light before.  Since I've been following Buzzit's project, I've decided to add in the ground wires (which are included on the RL equivalent anyway) and I've switched to double-circuit power (which is common on the RL equivalent).  What do you think?

[Buzzit]

the pylons them selves look really nice now
but i think the wires could be a bit lighter(how do they look from the farest zoom?)

and i allways asked my self this
but what detail did you give your isolators?
are they just a cilinder or do they have more detail?(i asked my self this because on your model it all has the same color.)
it could also be that the level of detail isn't visible wich in my case is with the french medium voltages ones..
and im also to sloppy to give every pylon the same isolator measurements(wich i nowadays fixed btw )

but all is looking really nice now
looking forward to have them in game for a nice regional line 

[metarvo]

Buzzit, here are some other various views:







You know, the wires really do look rather dark.  The good news is that I haven't actually rendered my entire set of wires with this darker shade yet, so I can still tweak it without having to backpedal too much.  The isolators are in fact composed of many cylinders wrapped around a very thin line, but I guess I may need to tweak them a little to bring out the details.  I want them to look right before you use them to make that regional line.    Thanks for the input! 

[supremec]

So nice    maybe you should ameliorate white cylinders, and it will be perfect