The City & County of Honolulu

[kwakelaar]

This is indeed some beautifully looking nature recreated with perfection in Simcity. I am truly impressed by what you have been up to lately. And congratulations on your OSITM. 

[bat]

Nice work on the nature there! The small river and lake are really great!
It is looking beautiful!

[KoV Liberty]

OMG....................................................

[emgmod]

I think I remember that area from heading to the developed part for cheaper gas. I wasn't really sure what it looked like past the treeline, but you did an awesome recreation of it.

[Battlecat]

Fantastic work!  You've done a great job creating a scene that is incredibly similar to reality! 

[Connor]

Fantastic work, looks just like the real life picture, looking forward to more.

[Nanami]

Awesome!

[Tomas Neto]

Oh yeah!!! A W E S O M E ! ! !   

[kelis]

Yeeah !!! very good recreation my friend !

[RBC]

This is just ridiculous. Incredible good! I've recently tried to recreate a few areas similar to the ones you found on Hawaii. In SC4 they are nowhere to be found, but in the real world they are everywhere. However, the result was pretty miserable (to say the least), but I thought the task was virtually impossible anyway, so it didn't bother me that much. But now this! I have to go right back to SC4-school - again!

For the untrained eye this might not be that spectacular, but as mentioned I've been trying this myself, and I'm absolutely stunned by (and in awe of) the skills put into it.

[Fabian93]

First: Congratulations on your OSITM - award.... it really is deserved
That recent Update is just fantastic
The area looks so realistic... must have taken you some while to figure out how to do this.
I will definitively use this as inspiration .

Once again:
Fabian

[sumwonyuno]

Sorry everyone, I've been bogged down with school work from my classes and I haven't had much time as I'd like to work on SimCity.

The following is a small cluster of islands in the west loch of Pearl Harbor.



I decided to try using mangrove trees and the result is actually quite nice in my opinion.






As for the rest of the region, it's pretty messed up.  I've been experimenting with different strategies for terrain.  One strategy worth noting is to add an Image Overlay on the Google Earth world, then snap it to a certain elevation above sea level.  The image will block everything below that elevation.  As an example, the black image is at 130m above sea level.



I basically use the same strategy I use to trace shorelines to trace that Image Overlay outline.  I use the combination of the Google Earth ruler, the road tool, ground lifter, leveling tools, and terrain query.

Here is the result of tracing 130m in game.  I've used the rain tool to outline it better.



Well everyone, it's been a great month on OSTIM!  I don't think I'll be able to push in another update before the 30th.  I will keep working on my region as time permits.  I've got fascinating and challenging classes this semester, and SimCity will have to compete with them! 



***Replies***

oktoberfest:  Heh, I am not God, but I'm glad you've seen perfection! 

kwakelaar:  Thanks for the comment.  I'll be working with nature for a while!

bat:  Thank you!

Driftmaster07:  Heh, I must have really stunned you! 

emgmod:  Man, I tried getting pictures of that empty field from H-1, and I've failed every single time!

Battlecat:  I take a lot of inspiration from your work. 

Connor:  I've got a whole island to do, so there'll be a lot to be looking forward to. 

976:  Thanks very much!

Tomas Neto:  I certainly take a lot of inspiration from your natural landscapes as well!   

kelis:  Thanks!  Hope you stick around!

RBC:  Wow!  Thanks for your first comment here!  I'm honored by everyone's comments, and I'm glad that you made those points.  These sorts of undeveloped lots of land are everywhere, and there's no shortage of them on this island!  Both areas took me several trials (paint, demolish, repeat) to get it their final results.  I hope you'll successfully develop strategies of your own! 

Fabian93:  Heh, it's been a while!  I'm honored you take me as inspiration!  I've been doing the same with your mayor diary! 

[Tomas Neto]

I always liked of your MD, but now your MD be on a level of very high quality! I'm really happy by the way you are following, and I believe that we will see many amazing upgrades, as the update that you did today!!! Awesome again my friend!!! 

[mightygoose]

great work, your efforts toward realsim are very good and well received

[Delecto]

Beautiful work on the nature, very pleasant to the eyes. Can I say photorealistic?! 

DEL!

[Battlecat]

Beautiful work!  You've done a great job capturing the feel of those small islands!

Terraforming by hand when you have a specific recreation in mind is a huge challenge, you're certainly doing a thorough job! 

[bat]

Nice work on that small island! It's really beautiful!

[scott1964]

Your pictures are awesome. 

[Nanami]

Nice update!
It's not just you who not have many time to play SC4 because a busy school. I am too, busy because a big exam.

[sumwonyuno]

Hello everyone,

I'll start off by saying that my goal is really too ambitious:  an accurate rendition of the island, complete with terrain, roadways, and development.  I'm getting frustrated because I'm hitting the same game limitations that I went through with Capitalis.  I can't play the game if I'm fussing about things the game was simply not made for (e.g. non-compass grid development).  I still want to put more of Honolulu into the game, but I need to be humble...

In other news, I've figured out how to get the BAT, Lot Editor and SC4PIM working on my system.  Yesterday, I finished my first complete lot.  It is based on a two-story house in Kalihi.  It is meant to be an R$ home. 









There are some things to point out.  For homes close to town, there isn't much space.  The building almost takes up the entire lot.  Yet, there is enough space for plants along the sides of the house.  The garage is part of the house.  The lanai (balcony) rests above the garage.  Virtually all residential lots have walls or fences surrounding the perimeter.

Using a 1.0 filling degree, the PIM rates this building (10m x 26m x 7.6m) as a stage 4 with 36 R$ Sims.  I would guess this building in real life has half that number living there.  The densities in the game are something that that I need to reconcile.  The Capitalis region had ~2.3x the population of Oahu, while the development in game generally looks less dense than real life... and it gets back to the whole matter of game limitations.

...

After a long reflection, I'm kind of leaning away from reconstructing the island as a whole.  A more doable option is to do small sections of the island (within one city tile).  I could focus on one area for a while, rotate it so it's doable in the game, and make it as close to real life as I can with terrain 'n paint, and custom BATs.  The areas I end up doing wouldn't be contiguous, so the region view would be a mess... but that's one sacrifice I'm willing to have.

Any suggestions, on what I should do, on my first complete BAT, or anything else, is welcomed.

[Edit]:  Anyone pro on textures?  I had a brick texture for the walls of the building, but it keeps being scaled to the faces of the polygon.  I'd prefer it to keep to a certain size and automatically tile itself.



***Replies***

Tomas Neto:  Wow, thank you for the compliments!

mightygoose:  Thanks, and I'm glad you stopped by to comment!  Inspiration!   

Delecto:  Thank you for your first comment!  Google Earth doesn't do the real life picture enough justice!

Battlecat:  Heh, it may be too big of a challenge!

bat:  I'm glad that you enjoy my recreation of the islands!

scott1964:  Thank you!

976:  Heh, hope you do (or did) well on your exam!