Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[threestooges]

Excellent innovation with the dam Battlecat. I've pondered hydro-electric many times, though I've never really had any satisfactory results. Using Jeroni's walls for the spillway was a great touch. I can only wonder how it would look with one of the wave generators in use just at the bridge at the top. I know there are a few that don't stretch too far, but you might be able to find one to span the full channel, giving that foamy effect of a spillway in use.

There doesn't seem to be any visible tiling on the dam face either. Not sure the plopping style you used, but it seems to have worked.

Sorry I haven't posted much, but as always, I'm keeping an eye on things.
-Matt

[calibanX]

Beautiful work on the dam and spillway Battlecat. Anyone can plop a dam. Building one from scratch is creative. Keep up the great work!

Take care.

Geoff

[tooheys]

Impressive Battlecat, damn impressive

You have obviously put a lot of time into putting the dam together and the results are very fine indeed.

I think you may have got a lot of people thinking, including myself, about creating our own dams rather than using the ploppable variety.
That in itself is worth a big  .

Cheers

Dave

[Battlecat]

Thanks to everyone for Pushing Adara past 300 posts!
   
chasespncr: Glad you like it!  I'm going to see about adjusting the rocks a bit. 

Glowbal: Thanks very much for the feedback.  In retrospec, there are more white rocks in there than was probably necessary.  I'm going to look into fixing that. 

citycapitalizer: Thanks!  I'm pretty happy with it as a first draft, but there is still more I can do later. 

Jason (Albus of Garaway): Glad you like the initial results!  I'm accustomed to very large scale projects what with living here in BC, so I've always wanted to replicate it. 

Due to the odd shape of the valley there, the fill had to extend quite far along the left side where you're looking.  But the more I look at it, the more I have to agree that I did probably go a bit further than is necessary.  You're right that the engineers would have taken that into account.

On the other hand, if that odd shape was necessary to ensure the stability of the dam, they would build it without hesitation!  It's still cheaper than what would result if the dam broke!  But you're right, it does look odd, and I'll do some tweaking in a future update. Thanks for the feedback!

Joe (JoeST): Thanks very much for your kind words!

Une_ame: Welcome to Adara and thanks for your enthusiasim!

nrmn67: Welcome to Adara!  Glad you've been enjoying your visits to Adara.  I'm always up for suggestions and you've definitely provided some good ones.  The inflow point for most dam power houses is usually quite far underwater, although some have a pier that extends out to control that flow. 

My original instinct for the powerhouse was to have it inside the dam since the Bennett Dam in northen BC is built that way.  However, your point about the design of earthen dams is a good one, so I think I'll look into designing a powerhouse of some sort.  Not sure exactly where I'm going to put it yet, but I'll come up with something. 

You're also right about breaking up the monotony of the dam surface.  I've got some work to do on a new design for those lots anyhow since they're a lot whiter than I originally intended.  Thanks for the ideas! 

djvandrake: Thanks for the enthusiasim!  Glad you like the results! 

CraigKingOfIreland: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks for the comment and your kind words!

Lora (ldvger): Well, all those conversations about the design of the dam you're working on helped me sort out some of the issues with mine!  I'd have to agree with you and most of the other posters, it's a lot whiter than it looked at first.  I've already started revising the lots.  I'm so glad I did it that way; replopping that many rocks would be a huge headache. 

I also started trying to figure out what existing props I could use as a turbine building, although finding something satisfactory has been a challenge already.  I'm sure I'll figure something out eventually though! 

Now for some links!  The props on the spillway are actually pure maxis rocks, which appear in the lot editor under the name PZ1_.  There are a number of different styles available, and despite my best efforts to find alternatives, there are actually very few rocks props in existence that are small enough and cooperative enough for the coating on a rock coated earth fill dam.  I'm not 100% positive these props are in the lot editor by default, I do have the high density plopable maxis rocks mod installed from Chrisadams3997.

The walls are set 3 from Jeronij's concrete walls collection.  I did a whole bunch of tweaking on the basic set to create some necessary custom lots to fill in the gaps.  The fences at the top of the dam are included as a component of these lots, I just created transparent and alternate texture versions of these for a couple parts of the dam. 

The concrete floor at the base of the spillway is a pure custom lot.  I just dug through the lot editor texture collection until I stumbled across the texture I used.  I'll look up the IID of the texture and edit this post to show it next time I get access to the game.  I'll try to track down which texture pack it is hiding in as well. 

One more thing that I should mention since your dam will probably have more foliage, Chrisadam3997's RRP foliage collection is also available in the lot editor as props or foliage (depending on the item), they are prefixed with the letters ALN if you're looking for them.  I'm using some of  these for the version 2 dam face tiles. 

Thanks for all your comments and questions!  Glad you're enjoying this project! 

Yan077: Welcome!  Thanks for your kind words!

Matt (threestooges): No worries, I understand how busy life can get.  Glad you found the time to stop by again!  I'll have to look into that wave generator, I'm not entirely sure how well that'll work with the Tahoe plopable water.  I was pleased with how well Jeronij's walls worked for the spillway, it was nice to have a ready made solution. 

The face of the dam isn't actually plopped, even though it looks that way.  It's actually a series of custom lots, using maxis rocks as props.  There's a pebble texture underneath, and I've been pretty careful to randomize the rotation of the lots and rocks so they don't look tiled.  I did it that way to save time and as insurance since there are a lot of things you can do accidently in this game to make plopped features disappear.  Glad you like the result.

Geoff (calibanX): Thanks very much!  The problem I encountered is that most of the plopable dams aren't big enough for my view of hydroelectric projects!  Nothing wrong with them, I'm just more familiar with the large scale versions.  I had a lot of fun designing this project, but as I've discussed above, there's more to do in a future update!

Dave (tooheys): Glad you lik the results!  I'm also very pleased that you found this inspirational.  Hope you like the modified design when it's done in a few updates!

Update 38
Vavenby – Farming Near the Dam

Hello once again everyone!  First of all, thank you all for taking the time to comment, pushing Adara past the 300 posts mark and 13,000 views.  I really appreciate the support!

This tile is starting to get close to being done.  I'm going to shoot for update 45, but I think it may take a few less than that.  We'll see how much time I have and how much more the lot editor distracts me!  Thanks to the feedback after update 36, I've got a couple of small modifications to an existing farm first. 

38-1: This is the location that needs to be tweaked a bit.  As Bernhard (Nardo69) pointed out, this is a very unsafe railway crossing, particularly since it's both double track and a route that I envision as being a major corridor.


38-2: Fortunately, I've seen an obvious solution on many occasions in RL.  A large sized culvert can be used to allow the cattle safe passage under the railway.  There are other design solutions, but I can put this one together quickly. 


38-3: Here's the resulting field once all the details are added back in.  I think this is a lot safer! 


38-4: Moving right along, here's the first new block of farms I'm adding today. 


38-5: And here is the first draft set of farms that developed.  That orange farm (the long narrow farm) is probably going to be replaced. 


38-6: But before I replace that farm, I've got a new technique to present today.  This is a carnation farm by BarbyW and it needs some diagonal detailing. 


38-7: That bundle of plopable farm fields FrankU pointed out is a huge time saver!  Just a quick tweak to make a new diagonal filler style lot for the carnations and there you go. 


38-8: Well, maybe not.  Lora (ldvger) put together an interesting set of Autocad shots together after update 36 discussing farming techniques and the limitations of moving farm equipment through rows of plants.  There really isn't much room here to turn around a tractor. 


38-9: Fortunately, I think I've got a good solution.  I'm still using the diagonal filler lot, but this time with the dirt texture as the remaining part instead of the fences and trees.  I've also pulled back the fillers one tile from the road.  This of course still leaves the same jagged edges along the road that we tend to dislike!


38-10: But the traditional diagonal fillers come to the rescue here, straightening out the edges while blending in the dirt and leaving enough space for a tractor to maneuver.  It's still not perfect, but I think the scale's better.  Considering the size of the tiles, I would expect most farm equipment would only be half a tile wide instead of a full tile anyhow. 


38-11: And of course this same principal needs to be applied to the other side at the future edge of the river.  Of course, basic transparent fillers will do the trick here, the final edge will be roughened up by trees once I'm start in on the river.  Hope you like the effect; I think I'll be using it a lot.  Best part is, I can use different ground covers depending on the farm, dirt, grass and others are all an option. 


38-12: Moving along to the next farm, here's a simple set of RRP fields, this is going to be a pretty simple farm when I'm done. 


38-13: And the same farm with the grass and a few flowers added in.


38-14: I've got some plans to have a small stream and waterfall coming out of the mountain here, I decided to slip in a culvert and irrigation channel to supply water to the carnation farm to bring the water through.  Remember, the tractor would be running parallel to the drainage ditch, so access isn't such a big issue.  A small mountain stream flows into the ditch out of the forest. 


38-15: Here's the outfall to the Elsemar River.  The culvert outfall is also hidden in the trees here.  I've seen a surprisingly huge number of culverts where the inlet is visible, but the far side of the road is so heavily forested, it's almost impossible to find the outlet. 


38-16: Back near Brewer's Junction and the bridge across the river, I've replaced one farm with RRP fences and I've grown new versions of the other two.  The northern most one finally got replaced with the new growth texture.  You can see the start of my planning for the diagonal fillers for this area. 


38-17: For the new growth farm, I needed fillers that would leave room for power poles along the road. 


38-18: I had a bit more room to play with the winery, just a simple grassy surface to extend the buffer around the farm in the areas tractors need to maneuver. 


38-19: And here's an overview of the area after a few more foliage details are added. 


That's all for this update.  Looks like it's going to be time to start in on the river details in the next update.  Thanks as always for your ideas and support!

[djvandrake]

 

Great update!  I'm sure the cows are happy to have a safe method of getting across (or under) the rails.  I'm sure the train conductor is happy about that too! 

Your farm fields look fantastic.  I agree that it's a lot more realistic to have that space of dirt for tractors to turn around and such.  Your attention to detail shows with great result. 

[JoeST]

38-2: Fortunately, I've seen an obvious solution on many occasions in RL.  A large sized culvert can be used to allow the cattle safe passage under the railway.  There are other design solutions, but I can put this one together quickly. 

I dont know how accurate you want to be, but usually the entrances to those culverts is rather muddy, and the track less well defined

38-18: I had a bit more room to play with the winery, just a simple grassy surface to extend the buffer around the farm in the areas tractors need to maneuver. 

Is that a different to standard street ending? It looks awesomely rustic

loving your update

Joe

[chasespncr]

fantastic as usual..i love how you do the trees on the hill! 

[threestooges]

You have a nice way of combining your skills with the LE and your skill at working with the game. The new lots are excellent (ever thought of attempting to compile them for release, similar to the farm fields you linked to, even just a basic diagonal set?) and things like the irrigation canal "appearing" from a creek, visibly going under a road and "reappearing" in the heavily wooded area are great touches from real life and very well executed. It's a great visual effect. Does it work as well from other angles too? You're doing some amazing things here.
-Matt

[Tomas Neto]

Impressive again!!! Another awesome update, with your fantastic style!!! 

[ldvger]

Battlecat-

I really like the way you resolved the tractor turn-around area at the ends of diagonal rows, excellent solution!  I have to agree with JoeST about the culvert under the railway for the cows to go through, those entrances in RL are usually very churned up and muddy, but if there's a decent "mud" tile or texture out there anywhere, I have'nt found it.  Given your skill with the LE, maybe you can play around creating one?

Lora/LD

[Scarton]

Wonderful job on those fields! It's great how you try to make this as realistic as possible!

[beutelschlurf]

moin Battlecat,

really nice one ... it look quite close to reality!

Thanks as always for your ideas and support!

... i like the idea of havin' the riverbank next to the cattlefarm emty or at least not covered with trees if you know what i mean, but hey, i always think you doing a great job there, so whatever you do i'm gonna like it anyway!

cheers
b_schlurf

[Albus of Garaway]

Regarding the previous update, if the extension of the rocks is needed in order to prevent a dam break, then it should definitely stay!

As for this update, I love how smoothly things are blending together now that you've started using creative diagonal fillers. I especially like 38-10. I love the smooth line the trees make alongside the road.

Great work, as always!

-Jason

[Battlecat]

djvandrake: I'm quite certain the train operators are very happy about this change as well!  Glad you like the results of the farm experiments! 

Joe (JoeST): Thanks for the comments!  I agree entirely on the appearance of the entrance to the culvert, and I'm going to look into working on it more in the future.  It's an improvement over the level crossing, but the visuals needs some work. 

It'll probably involve making my own version of the culvert entrance since the bottom quarter of these underpass culverts are usually filled with dirt as well, but since the game won't let me drop the prop below ground level, this will have do for now until I get brave enough to try out the BAT.  Thanks for the feedback!

chasespncr: Thanks for the kind words!  I'm messing around with a variety of tree controllers on the hill sides (mostly jeronij's Elm Forest, CP Oak Forest and CP Rainforest), glad you like the results!

Matt (threestooges): I'm certainly giving some thought to releasing these diagonal lots, but I'm going to have to put some serious effort into figure out how to organize them on the menus (they're quite cluttered right now), and I'll have to fill in some of the gaps in the set as well since I'm just making them as I need them right now.  But since you asked, I'll start looking into releasing them! 

It's actually amazing how well some illusions work in this game, such as the irrigation canal starting in the forest.  There's an alternate angle shot of that illusion in this update (39-12), let me know if you thing the illusion stands up!  The idea of waterways that are hidden in forests was inspired by David (Dedgren) and some of his work in 3RR.  Thanks for the comments!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much for your kind words!

Lora (ldvger): Yeah, the absence of the mud around those culverts is something I'm going to have to fix in the future.  I'll probably have to make a custom version of both the culvert and the ground texture, since those culverts are usually sunk partway into the ground as I mentioned to Joe.  Thanks again for inspiring the creation of those tractor patterns on the diagonal rows.  I've got some more ideas floating around; hopefully I'll be able to implement them sometime in the future.  Thanks for stopping in! 

citycapitalizer: Thanks very much, glad you like the results! 

beutelschlurf: Glad you're enjoying it!  The cattle farms would tend to push up closer to the edge of the river since it's a very cheap source of water, which means they don't have to provide a water source for their cattle.  There will be some trees, but not as many as adjacent to other farms. 

Jason (Albus of Garaway): They are probably necessary, but I'll try to square it off a touch better.  I think in reality, the designers of this dam would have set it back a bit further in the valley than I did.  But, what's done is done at this point.  Glad you're enjoying the results of the diagonal fillers!  Thanks for the kind words! 

Update 39
Vavenby – The Joy of River Details

Today, I'm going to go to detail the Denara River from the Williston Dam (the official name now) through to the north side of Brewer's junction.  I've also got some other green spaces in the area that I spent some time on as well.

39-1: Today I'm going to start with the last block of land between the dam and the  last farm on the road from update 29.  I envision this area would have been used as a stage ground for the dam construction.  It could have even been used as site for temporary housing for construction personnel.  Of course, everything would have been removed, and the local forests have been replanted (there will be a lot more trees when I'm done).  The land has been converted to a city park and the old haul road through the site has been converted to a trail now. 


39-2: Here's the trailhead.  The old road itself has been blocked off, an only a narrow trail actually goes through now.  This is to keep joyriders from blasting through the forest here. 


39-3: The old road goes through the forest to the edge of the quarry area.  Before the river was diverted through the dam, the road would have gone right through to the dam here.  You may notice I'm already working on some revisions to the dam, more to come in the next update! 


39-4: The only activity besides trail maintenance in this area is under the power lines.  Given a choice in the matter, most power companies prefer to keep the forest chopped down under the power lines.  It keeps trees from getting tall enough to hit the lines, and makes it easier to access the site for maintenance.


39-5: A second trail has also been added along the river bank, resulting in a nice long loop trail through the area.


39-6: Here's the finished park area, complete with details right down to the river bank.  I've also started putting in the trees up the slope as far as the highway. 


39-7: Working my way downstream, and finishing up the river. 


39-8: Moving further downstream, here's the confluence of the Denara River and the newly named Lindeman River. 


39-9: I gave some extra time to the river front by the Old Brewery Museum. 


39-10: I decided there would be a grassy lawn down to the riverbank, perfect for picnics! 


39-11: Moving along, here's a bit of eye candy along the highway above Vavenby.  I just liked the way this area turned out, even though the right side of the highway isn't done yet! 


39-12: One last major project for today, here's an alternate look at the irrigation channel.  I personally think the illusion stands up from this vantage point as well.  The next two shots are upstream from here!


39-13: You see, the source for the irrigation channel flows out of this narrow valley here.  Valleys like this are quite common in BC, under most circumstances the rivers are hidden under dense trees.  The only indication that there is a water way is usually the presence of deciduous trees. 


39-14: However, when there is a waterfall, you can usually spot the river up in the mountain.  So I did this just for the fun of it.  It's hardly visible at far zooms, but I just like the effect. 


39-15: Finally, just to wrap things up today, here's a shot just to demonstrate that the railway really does get used!  This train is building up some speed through Brewer's Junction in preparation for the long climb up through Vavenby. 


That's all for today!  Next time I'll have another major block of farms, and the second draft of the dam to show you!  See you all then!

[djvandrake]

Looks great!  I love the waterfall and you did a great job with the landscaping around the road and riverbank. 

[Glowbal]

Rural areas are not my thing.. But this looks great. 

[Tomas Neto]

I agree with Djvandrake!!! Really amazing update my friend!!! 

[Kumba]

WOW! Amazing work you've done here, you captured the rural feel perfectly. Great job so far, I look forward to more!

[Battlecat]

djvandrake: Thanks!  I actually left most of the river landscaping longer than I usually do.  It was quite fun to do it all at once like this.   

Glowbal: Glad you like it!  Thanks for stopping in!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much!

Kumba: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks for your kind words!

Update 40
Vavenby - Williston Dam Version 2
and More Farms of Course

First of all, as promised, I've put together a tutorial regarding blurring and hiding city boundaries.  It's posted here.  Feel free to add any comments, questions or suggestions to the thread!

Today, I'm going to show you the second version of the Williston Dam, including my first attempt at the hydro electric facility.  The two critical pieces of feedback you all kindly provided were: 1: the dam face was too white, and 2: the power house can't really be inside a properly designed earthen dam.  I agree entirely with both those comments, and today's update takes them into account.  Plus I've got some more farms getting started as well!  So, here we go. 

40-1: Here's the site I'm going to use for the actual power house.  I've already redesigned the layout of the walls and riverbank to make some additional room. 


40-2: I did a lot of research trying to find some good shots of hydro electric power houses.  In the vast majority of cases, they're pretty utilitarian buildings, much like office buildings, with only some electrical infrastructure outside to give away the true function.  Below is the Stave River Powerhouse, which is quite close to where I live.


40-3: I haven't found appropriate buildings to replicate it exactly in game, and I'm not ready to face the BAT yet.  Instead, I used a couple maxis buildings and a small variety of electrical props that I managed to track down.  I'm sure there's still more I could do with this, but it's not jumping out at me quite yet.  I'm open to further suggestions about the design!


40-4: Moving along, I made to significant changes to the dam face lots.  First, I replace all the rock props and only used the darkest ones, plus the only prop that's a medium orange color.  I didn't use any white props at all since they jump out even in small quantities.  The second change is I added a textured coating of grasses.  I'm glad the suggestion was made; I think it adds a nice additional layer of texture to the lot.


40-5: Here's the powerhouse with the completed dam face tiles around it. 


40-6: And a more distant shot of the dam.  I still haven't finished the details along the left face of the dam, I've got to plop some rocks in there to finish it up.  But first, I'm interested in your opinions!  Let me know what you think. 


40-7: While you're thinking on that, I'm moving on to this block of farmland over here.  This is the largest block of land left on the valley bottom. 


40-8: Here's the initial zoning, this really is a very big chunk of land. 


40-9: And here are the farms that developed to start.  I can already see a couple farms that are going to be given the RRP fencing treatment.  There are also a couple spots that will need diagonal filling.


40-10: Moving along with the details, I've decided to put another small ditch based stream through this area.  There's an appropriate valley in the hills above this farm.  I've already started the revision work on the farm border. 


40-11: And zooming out a bit, you can see where the ditch dissapears into the forest.  Have to say, I really do need to find the time to create the next batch of textures for these farms.  But this will do as a placeholder for the moment. 


40-12: One more really detailed shot of the farm by the ditches, now with a pumpkin farm next door.  These irrigation canals of simgoobers are quite nice to work with. 


40-13: Up in the hills, the stream only reveals itself once as another minor waterfall nearly hidden by the surrounding forest. 


40-14: One more shot of a farm that I just managed to finish up before I ran out of time for this play session.  I'm toying with some ideas to spruce this area up a bit more for the next update.


40-15: Finally, just to throw something at you out of left field, here's a sample  from the ongoing mapping experiments.  Currently I'm experimenting with techniques for rendering the farmland without hiding the underlying terrain color (the yellow farmland is just a bit too much when it's solid).  I've already moved on to some additional changes, which I'll reveal when I'm finished the Vavenby tile.  I'm always looking for feedback on the map styles, so feel free to make some comments! 


That's all for today.  Next time, I'll make a push to finish these farms, and possibly even the rest of ther Denara River that lies below the dam.  As always, comments and questions are appreciated, and also feel free to ask to see more details of a particular area! 

[djvandrake]

The little stream / ditch that you placed between the farm fields is a brilliant idea and it really looks great.  Very authentic.