Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[woodb3kmaster]

It's always a pleasure to see you give a farm the RRP treatment, and with so many of those farms, today's update was a real treat! Those textures look great as well. As I'm unfamiliar with the more advanced aspects of the GIMP, would you mind sharing with me your technique for creating those lovely curves?

Looking forward to more, as always!
-Zack

[Cyclone1001]

You make rural seem way more interesting, as if it was a lively suburb. But in Adara, it kinda is.

[kwakelaar]

So nice to see you work on your farming areas again, it is really very inspiring the way you go about detailing your work.

[threestooges]

Very nice updates recently. I'm continually impressed how you can keep up with such a pace so well. First off, your textures look great. The only suggestion I might make is to consider replacing the planted strip along the edge with a dirt stip with tractor treads from turning around at the ends of rows. I'm not sure how things are done these days, but it would seem like anything at the ends of the rows would get trampled.mashed by moving equipment. Either way, a set of these would be a nice addition whichever texture is used. Also, I'm glad to see the power poles are still being well used. If you haven't seen them yet, I know you used to use vacant lots for your power conveying, but allow me to insert a *cough* shameless plug. Thanks for the inspiration for these.

As for your farms, they look great. I like the dirt patch under the tree, but it seems a bit stark in contrast. Perhaps feather it in with some of the flora plops. Great idea though, and very true to life. Also, the riding track was a great idea. Something rather unique to see too. I'd never heard the bit about llamas before, but it doesn't surprise me. They can be fiesty little critters. Overall, you seem to have the flora use down for blending it in with farm lots. It's a very clean transition. Nicely done as always. I'll try to get in here more often than just once every few updates. There's always so much going on here it seems.
-Matt

[nbvc]

Great pictures with a lot of details.

[kimcar]

  Excellent work you have done with real details. It`s give a great result and this CJ look very realistic. Great effort to do some texture too. 

[nedalezz]

Bravo!   

That was just magnificent, the way you took us step by step as you turned a very ordinary area with farms into an extraordinary one!

[ecoba]

Really great update, my friend.

I really am enjoying the way you are showing us step by step how Adara gets her beautiful farms. I really have been viewing a couple of these last few updates somewhat like tutorials, as it is very easy to follow the steps that you are showing us. I've tried quite a few of Adara's techniques in my cities recently, and I must admit that the results are far higher than satisfactory. My favorite farm that you have showcased us during this update is the one at the end of the diagonal street, Jim certainly has created some wonderful farms for all of us.

The heavy amount of detail you put into the flora farms is really amazing, too. I'm amazed that you can get so much onto one grid square, I would think after a while it would run out. I also really like the idea of having a street dead end at the freeway. There are plenty of those in the rural areas outside of my city, the interstate is about forty-five kilometres to the north, and there are plenty of places where you can see small streets that just dead end, and then start up on the other side again.

Ethan

[Battlecat]

djvandrake: Thanks, glad you like the textures.  It's not something we'll be able to apply to every field type in the game, but even a couple of styles should help break down the grid a fair bit!  Glad you've enjoyed the month!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much as always for your kind words!

Yan077: Thanks, glad you enjoyed your visit once again!

Jacob (ShultzCity): That was my goal with the RRP treatment on each farm.  I'm really trying to cast around looking at different ideas like the horse track and the dirt under the trees to find new things that look good!  I certainly appreciate the feedback on my odd ideas!

The realism of the textures really depends on the farmer.  Some farmers go right to the end of the field exactly as you describe, others in this area do a loop around the outside of the field.  I think it has a lot to do with the crop being planted.  If you have to drive through the field regularly to fertilize and water the crop, then your design is probably the best bet.  On the other hand, if it's a plant and forget crop, then using every bit of available space would have a bit of economic impact!

My main goal here is just to provide some alternate options to make farms feel more organic and breaking the grid more.  The diagonal farms will be particularly handy for that.  I'll probably look into replicating the texture you've sketched as well to add to the package!  They'll actually be even easier to put together than these curves were!  Thanks for the suggestion!   

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much!  I'm really looking forward to finishing up these textures as well!

Zack (woodb3kmaster): Thanks for stopping by, glad you enjoyed the RRP treatments today!  I'm using an up to date version of Gimp, one of the benefits there is the extensive scripting and development going on with the program.  I downloaded an excellent little radial copy script.  Then I just repeatedly applied the same techniques used by Dave in the making of the road curves except by creating entire arcs with a few clicks.  It required a little touch up work to break up repetition a little but it made life a lot easier given my available time for design work.  Hope you find the tool useful! 

Cyclone1001: Thanks very much, the options available in this game nowadays really does help make rural development interesting and visually appealing!

Gjermund (kwakelaar): I'm glad to be back to some serious farming again as well!  I've still got lots more urban development in the future, but it's time for a break!

Matt (threestooges): Thanks very much!  I'd love to keep this pace up indefinitely, but the writing of real life is on the wall.  At least I made it through this month!  Good thought on the edges, I think I'll make that tweak to the textures. It'll also add some room for blending with various available textures.  Consider that shameless plug downloaded, they'll be very handy!  Thanks for pointing them out.

Glad you enjoyed all the different ideas with the texturing today!  I tried to feather those textures under the trees, but I think it could use a bit more touching up.  We have a fair number of farms with llamas here in BC.  You really don't want to walk to close to the fence, they're nasty spitters!  Always glad to see you stopping by! 

nbvc: Thanks very much for your kind words!

kimcar: Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for stopping in!

nedalezz: Thanks very much!  Glad you enjoy the step by step detailing!

Ethan (ecoba): Thanks!  I'm really glad you're finding the step by step approach I'm taking useful!  The farms available are fantastic to have and the fact they blend so nicely with the RRP materials!   

The method for squeezing details onto the farms is actually something I haven't discussed much.  Each flora prop has different characteristics depending on how they were rendered.  As I understand it, when a prop is created a box is put around it that defines how much space it takes up.  When you create an overhanging prop, that box is actually smaller than the object so it hangs over the edge of tile borders.  Some props like the RRP flora all has very small boxes and so it can be stuffed into corners between other props that have full sized boxes (like some of the rock models).  The weed1 and weed2 brushes seem to have the smallest boxes of all, so you can put tons of them on a single tile. 

The key seems is to plop a small selection of the large boxed props if you're using those, and then use the small boxed overhanging flora to fill in the gaps and blur the edges.  I'll see what I can do about examining the behavior of each prop to give a better idea how I approach it.  I'm mostly just detailing by instinct at this point.  Thanks for the question, you really made me think about the reasons for my detailing approach.  I'll have more on this later.

Update 107
Greenwood – West Side of the Highway

Here we go with the second to last update for my time in OSITM!  It's been a great deal of fun, and I'm glad I've managed to keep up the pace for all of your enjoyment this month.  Today we're heading across the highway to put the finishing touches on the Alexandria border zone among other things. 

107-1: Here's where things stand on the west side of the highway so far.  I've only put in the rough draft of the field borders at this point. 


107-2: First job on the list, roads and lots.  This is going to be an interesting neighbourhood to detail. 


107-3: Here are the resulting first draft farms.  I'm pretty happy with most of these, although a few fields are going to be given the axe. 


107-4: This is the first place to start.  The farm on the right needs a field replacement since it's going to be the anchor building of the cross border farm.  I also want to add a different field style to the upper left farm. 


107-5: Here we are after a quick field replacement.  I've got a few more details to add here, but I'm about to be sidetracked a bit.


107-6: Moving down along the field, I recognized the need for an access road to several of these farms.  You might notice the blank fields where I finished extending the flower farm.


107-7: For something different, I'm going with the RRP gravel track.  I'm going to have some fun with details here.


107-8: Rocks, grass and weeds make for a fairly vibrant track here. 


107-9: And here's the real fun, a quick little plopable water pond tucked in behind the fields here.


107-10: Next up is the last undetailed cross border farm. 


107-11: For your reference, here's what the farm in Alexandria looks like.


107-12: And here's my new details on the Greenwood side.  I've made the back field a lot coarser than the one that leads to the front.

107-13: Of course we can't have cross border work without a cross border composite or two.  Here's one at the same zoom as 107-12.



107-14: And this one is at the same zoom level as 107-11 and 10. 



107-15: Moving along, I'm going to quickly detail in through the main crossroads area.  The farms up to the left will wait until next time.


107-16: This is an experiment at field edging.  Using a diagonal filler lot and then blurring the edges further with grass as the turn around zone worked out fairly nicely.


107-17: Here's one final look at the area.  There's still some work to do, but it's coming along nicely!


OSITM Bonus 13: The second to last bonus will be one more massive city composite.  Today we're looking in at Alexandria.  Fair warning in advance, the full sized jpeg image when you click on this link is 5.66 megabytes! 



And that's a wrap.  See you on Wednesday for another update and the big final OSITM bonus!

[Cyclone1001]

Oh wow, the paths by the farms, the pond, the farms, the air, everything you make is amazing. Even if you don't make it. The fact that you had something to do with it makes it good. Good Job!

[ShultzCity]

I just love what you have done with the RRP flora - great job! I love the way you go about detailing your areas, and I'll definitely be taking it into account now that I am starting to build on Riverholm V3 (an update won't be too far away )

[canyonjumper]

Wow! I'm always amazed at the detail you manage to work in, and this update is no exception 


         -Jordan

[threestooges]

Glad to hear the new poles will be useful. The trail in 107-8 is very well done, and is a very creative touch (then again, I've just about come to expect that around here). I know space contraints are always something to keep in mind, as is working on a diagonal, but the crossroads of 107-15 seemed like a perfect place for a small restaurant/general store area. Somewhere for the farmers to congregate without having to run all the way into town. Then again, I don't see why they wouldn't just meet at each other's places. Either way, it did fill in nicely with the trees. Looking forward to your upcoming surprise.
-Matt

[Tomas Neto]

Awesome update again, great work!!!

[djvandrake]

I have indeed enjoyed your month in OSITM. I've learned a lot and come away with many ideas.

Great update and I'm looking forward to the big finale. 

[Nexis4Jersey]

I missed a few updates but i must say , Bravo 

[Fabian93]

I missed a few updates but i must say , Bravo 

Me too, but I haven't been so active in the last months anyway..
What a fantastic month in this category - you definitively deserved it 
I always enjoy watching your rural areas - they're among the best I've ever seen

Keep up the good work,
Fabian 

[Gilikov1994]

Wow, nice rural aere you've got there!

- Giel

[Battlecat]

Cyclone1001: Thanks very much for your kind words!  I really do try hard at this, glad you're enjoying it!

Jacob (ShultzCity): Thanks!  Glad to hear Riverholm V3 will be coming soon, I'm looking forward to seeing what you've got planned!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much! 

Matt (threestooges): Yup, I've just got to get them installed, they'll be quite handy for carrying power in a more visual manner!  I know what you mean about the space constraints, but as it turns out, thanks to your suggestion I found a perfect little store to throw in at the crossroads.  I think it's added a nice touch to the area which you'll see today.  Thanks for the suggestion! 

Tomas Neto: Thanks for stopping in!

djvandrake: Glad you've enjoyed this month, thanks for all your comments and enthusiasm! 

Nexis4Jersey: Thanks very much!  Always glad when you find the time to stop by!

Fabian (Fabian93): It's always good to see you stop in!  Thanks very much for your kind words, glad you've enjoyed catching up on Adara!

Giel (Gilikov1994): Welcome to Adara, glad you've enjoyed your visit! 

Update 108
Greenwood – Last Day of OSITM

Well, here we are at the last day of OSTIM for March 2010!  It's been a fun time; hope you've all been enjoying it as well!  Today I'll continue with Greenwood and wrap things up with a fitting bonus for the last day here!  Then, due to life commitments, I won't be updating until next Tuesday.  Funny how holiday weekends tend to be anything but that for me.  :-)

108-1: Here's the area I'm going to work on today.  I want to finish everything from the crossroads to the small escarpment that's hard to see in this shot.


108-2: But this funny road should help clarify.  There's a reasonably steep slope right where the road turns.  It's more for something quirky than any real necessity.  Some odd historical factor is usually the cause of odd roads like this. 


108-3: Here's the rough batch of farms to fill in here. 


108-4: Back to the crossroad, Matt (threestooges) made an excellent suggestion that a small store would fit this crossroads very nicely.  Who am I to argue with a good idea, it turns out that one of Simgoobers rural stores fits the space perfectly. 


108-5: Some fences and an access road to the back lot and the farm puts a nice finishing touch on this farm. 


108-6: I still need to add the grass here, but this road is almost done.


108-7: One more pass at the crossroads with power, flora and other details puts a nice finishing touch on the area.


108-8: Moving up the road, I've got the powerlines in place.  The empty area will be filled with plopable wheat fields.


108-9: Another gravel access road runs along the fields behind these farms.  They look good by themselves.


108-10: But they look even better with an aggressive bit of work with detailing.  The plopable maxis rocks are pretty nice for this particular style. 


108-11: Up near the road, the main batch of detailing is done.  Today's update is nearly done.


108-12: At the edge of the escarpment, this farm is technically touching the edge of that diagonal street.  Steamrobin's ruralset is one of many excellent tools for adding the extra access roads to the property. 


108-13: Here's an overview of the finished area. 


108-14: Last item for today before the bonus is a mosaic covering several farms down to the pond.  Hope you enjoy it! 







OSTIM Bonus 14: Today in an effort to break your internet browers, I have a full sized regional composite at zoom 2.  The image is a 10 megabyte jpeg so consider yourselves warned in advance!  Click the image below to view the large version. 



Thanks for visiting through the month!  It's been a real blast.  I'll see you all next Tuesday for update 109 back in the Classics forum!

[mightygoose]

WOW what an amazing month, great work.