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District of Wenzel - Update 116 - 3/17/15

Started by packersfan, June 04, 2010, 12:10:41 PM

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jmyers2043

I like the aerial shot with the meandering highway. It's quite good

- Jim

Jim Myers  (5th member of SC4 Devotion)

packersfan

Replies to Your Comments:
jmyers2043: I like the aerial shot with the meandering highway. It's quite good

- Jim


Thanks!

RickD:
I agree, you got the scale just right. I like the concept of the interchange. If only we had diagonal avenue-rhw overpasses...

Yeah, hence my reluctance to use RHW, but I've gotten to the point where I have to try to use it as much as possible.  Just looks better...

cmdp123789:
Interesting...! I like the spacing... the sense of realism on that is stunning, scaling is properly done, and you managed somehow to mix it with the surroundings... you just didnt build a highway, you also made it part of the enviroment, it looks very realistic to me...

Another thing, this is the first time I see this, which kinda weird since Ive been following sc4devotion and simtropolis since 2006...

I love it


Glad to have a new follower.  Yeah, made it part of the environment, though that is manufactured a little bit...not as dynamic as when I actually pulled highway through developed parts of the city and had to demolish blocks and road connections.  Glad you like it!

Update 90 - HOHLER: West Side
Today we will explore the latest developments in the region.  This is the "West Side" of Hohler.  The old city grid is present between the two sets of railroads.  Beyond the tracks, however, Hohler has more curvy suburban style roads.




ABOVE: Fort Orangeport Drive

BELOW: South 80th Street.  North of the tracks, we can see suburban style development encroaching on farmland around N20 South Ogden Avenue.







Expanding suburban neighborhood north of the commuter rail line.



Industry along the southern railroad.




West of South 80th Street, Hohler is decidedly residential with many trees.  On the east side, the blocks are often square with alleys and workshops.






There are a few industrial structures on the west side of South 80th Street along the southern railroad, however.




You are here.





Hope you enjoyed a little more Hohler.  I'm trying not to go overboard with curvy suburbia, yet, since this area is still very much within the reaches of Martin which is mostly grid-style. 

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

kbieniu7

Region view with those farm fields and residential ares is stunnig!  &apls
Thank you for visiting Kolbrów, and for being for last ten years!

packersfan

Replies to Your Comments:
kbieniu7: Region view with those farm fields and residential ares is stunning!

Thank you very much for stopping by!

Update 91 - Beautiful Farms and Countryside
Can you smell the fresh air?  Can you smell the manure?  Today I present you with some farm scenes west of Hohler.




Some of the Martin neighborhood known as NOHA (North of Hawthorne or North Hawthorne).  I love these low-residential houses!



Now for some farmland.
























We can see I-380 Exit 3 88th Street in this aerial shot.



You are here.





Some suburbs next time around Page Park.  Hope you enjoyed the farmland.  It will be a shame to build over it, but Martin, Hohler, and Hawthorne are expanding.  Many before and after shots?  Fun fun! 

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

sim_link

Before and after shots would be interesting, for sure!
I'm really digging what you're up to here - everything looks awesome. The transition from suburbs to rural farmland is really well done. :)

vinlabsc3k


Good farmlands!! :thumbsup:


An hint: The rural walls are inverted, or have you made it intentionally? ()what()

A question: Where did u find the cornfield and the vineyard?
My creation at CityBuilders.



SimCity 5 is here with the NAM Creations!!

packersfan

Replies to Your Comments:
vinlabsc3k: Good farmlands!!

An hint: The rural walls are inverted, or have you made it intentionally?

A question: Where did u find the cornfield and the vineyard?


I always assumed they were inverted as I have to make the arrow point AWAY from the road to them the way I have them, so yes I did it on purpose.  I'm not exactly sure where the farms are from.  I'll have to dig around.

sim_link:
Before and after shots would be interesting, for sure!
I'm really digging what you're up to here - everything looks awesome. The transition from suburbs to rural farmland is really well done.


Thanks!

Update 92 - HOHLER: Page Park Subdivision
Needless to say, I'm glad I started this update this past week, because I've been bitten by the modding bug (though it has been fruitless so far).  Anyways!  This is Page Park Subdivision located between West Mulholland Avenue, South 72nd Street, West Axelrod Avenue, and South 80th Street.  Maybe some of you will notice this update includes a composite picture.  Actually I made one very large composite mosaic and took pictures out of it.




Seems everything flows nicely between the two separate tiles.



Can you see the tell-tale sign of a District of Wenzel composite?




I like the more realistic curves, except for the fact that it is hard to zone against them (though still possible) and that no maxis grass shows up underneath the curved areas (I hate inconsistency, ya know?)











How about a really messed up perspective picture.  I wanted to show off the entire length of South 72nd Street between West Mulholland Avenue and West Axelrod Avenue and this is what happened.





A rough nearly direct overhead view.  I know how to make a direct over head shot.  I meant to get this view not 100% direct.  I really like how this subdivision turned out.  An improvement over Meyers Estates.



You are here.





Playing with a new tree controller and terrain mod (you'll see more of it in the next update).  The tree controller is Blunder's Pacific Northwest Tree Controller.  It is seasonal and pretty cool (though I wish I could get more maples than pines when planting in God Mode.  The terrain is Lowkee33's Appalachian Terrain Mod.  The terrain is high definition and absolutely beautiful.  Currently I have it set to change with the seasons, so sometimes it appears dried out...other times lush and green!



Here are some things I want to do modding.  I want seasonal trees on the lots in my game (this seems like it will be very time-consuming as I will just have to replace all the trees on each and every lot --- or at least delete all trees and place MMPs later on...  I also want to figure out how to change the base grass texture under the diagonal roads and streets so they will blend with my terrain (or any terrain for that matter better). 

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

rooker1

Your residential areas look great with all those curved roads and that last pic is really nice.

Robin
Call me Robin, please.

packersfan

Replies to Your Comments:
rooker1: Your residential areas look great with all those curved roads and that last pic is really nice.

Thanks.  I need to figure out how to get grass and sidewalks on those curves though.

Update 93 - HOHLER: Page Park Subdivision Seasonal Colors
Today is NOT a repeat of last week's update...at least not completely.  Same location but new colors!  Seasonal trees!  And SEASONS...hope you enjoy!




Dorothy Lane and Shadowlawn Lane during summer.



Dorothy Lane and Shadowlawn Lane during autumn.











Page Park during autumn.







Winter buries Page Park.







You are here.





You may be wondering what got me so interested in adding seasonal trees.  Well of course I discovered the Jupiter Seasonal Mod which adds seasons to SC4...and if there is snow coming down we can't very well have green leaves on the trees, right?  Current project: new international aiport and figuring out how to build my highways around it. 

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

Swordmaster

Very good! The quashed perspective works especially well when there's no buildings. Those three winter pics are also quite amazing. Did you photoshop or use mods?


QuoteI like the more realistic curves, except for the fact that it is hard to zone against them (though still possible) and that no maxis grass shows up underneath the curved areas

You don't have the latest NAM yet? Draggable street curves: all the wealthification your heart desires.

I also realize I have all the master street textures sitting here with separated layers. I could quickly throw together a variety with different wealthification textures; you'd just need to say which texture for which wealth (or all the same). Mind, streets only (no roads).


Cheers
Willy

packersfan

Replies to Your Comments:
Swordmaster: Very good! The quashed perspective works especially well when there's no buildings. Those three winter pics are also quite amazing. Did you photoshop or use mods?


Quote
I like the more realistic curves, except for the fact that it is hard to zone against them (though still possible) and that no maxis grass shows up underneath the curved areas

You don't have the latest NAM yet? Draggable street curves: all the wealthification your heart desires.

I also realize I have all the master street textures sitting here with separated layers. I could quickly throw together a variety with different wealthification textures; you'd just need to say which texture for which wealth (or all the same). Mind, streets only (no roads).


Yeah, doy, missed that in the new NAM, fixed it!  I use the Jupiter Seasonal Mod...that is not photoshopped snow or effects.  I'll have to get back to you about the street textures...my new immediate problem is downsizing my tiles from large 4x4km to 2x2km...the large tiles are just not working well and present more opportunities for CTDs and potential for a lot of lost work, so I am nipping that in the butt before I build up too many more large tiles...(might even lose Hawthorne, St. Paul, Jade, etc, work, but more stability hopefully for the future).

Update 94 - New Airport Sneak Peek
I've been working on the new international airport for my region, so not much else to show (though I was trying to get some pictures from Hawthorne).  Sadly, the new project seems to be downsizing my region from large city tiles to medium city tiles.  The Hawthorne tile seems to have some issues and is a possible candidate for being downsized and restarted as 4 medium tiles.  It will be a bummer to lose the great work on that tile, but I can't seem to get any time on the tile as it is before a CTD.  I'm also converting many other unpopulated tiles to medium instead of large, so future projects are not lost to poor performance.  Oh, well.






So at this moment I am rerendering an alternate region with medium tiles to use to plugin to my actual region in places I want to convert.  Hopefully, this works out.  Hard to restart tiles and replicate the great stuff, but the second time might be better for Hawthorne (though I hold out hope). 

Also realized I was using the WRONG PEAK!!!  Should be PEEK not PEAK...stupid me.

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

packersfan

Update 95 - HAWTHORNE: Penelope River Seasonal Colors
This was my intended update last week, but the Hawthorne tile was not playing well.  Fixed the issues (hopefully) and updated the flora to seasonal colors.  The is Downtown Hawthorne straddling Penelope River.




Overview of the Penelope River winding through Downtown Hawthorne.

















You are here.





I downloaded this patch to increase the dedicated RAM for the game and haven't have any issues so far.  I constantly montior the memory usage of the game while playing the large tiles and since installing this patch the memory stays consistent and doesn't explode causing CTDs.  Happiness! ... for now. 

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

vinlabsc3k

#372
Beautiful update!!  :thumbsup:

An hint: Use the Diagonal Street Helper to replace curved streets near the rail bridge.
The long one to make OxD rail crossing and the short one for others. ;)


P.S.: Where did you find the dark brown building near the service station? ()what()
My creation at CityBuilders.



SimCity 5 is here with the NAM Creations!!

FrankU

Beautiful work! And so convincing and consistent. Very good work. You must have a lot of time to compose all this.....!

sim_link

Wow, fantastic work. DoW keep getting better. Which is hard to imagine, it was already really awesome. ;D The airport sneak peek has peaked my interest... can't wait for more.
You're definitely making me look deeper into my own playing style... you mix flora and building very nicely. :)

eclipticalstorm

I am a huge fan of your CJ!  I been viewing it for quite some time.  The maps, green space and network orientation is epic!  Keep up the good work!

packersfan

I'm here to announce that I'm going to try to get back into the game....computer willing.  Just looking at the past few updates has inspired me to no end, and all the new modifications and lots that are still coming out need a place in my region and heart.  Keep watching out for a new update!

packersfan

Well it's all happening, folks!  District of Wenzel is alive.  Pulled all the files off of the External Harddrives and loaded up the game in stunning 1920 x 1080.  Load times for my fully loaded large city tiles on average 2.5 minutes, not bad at all.  Everything runs nicely and it should, I have a solid laptop running this game now.  Just loaded up a few of the large tiles and changed many of the trees to the seasonal versions while the water changed and the terrain changed.  No ill effects!

Thinking back to last year, I stopped playing because it just wasn't fun to always be afraid of the game crashing or freezing up on my old laptop, so I focused solely on my teaching job.  However, when I went back to America in February 2014, I bought a new laptop with 16GB RAM, two graphics cards, etc, loaded up SimCity and couldn't really tell if things would be better.  Quickly, my laptop started having issues and I had to get it repaired, so I didn't get to use it until maybe April or May in China.  I guess during that time I forgot about SimCity and was just trying to settle into my new job.  I'm still busy with work, but I think I will spend my free time playing SC4 as opposed to just surfing the web and watching Youtube.

I'm excited to dive in and rework areas and develop the region further.  One thing I would love to do is convert ALL the flora and props to seasonal versions, but this is a giant undertaking (even just replopping seasonal trees in open areas takes time).  On the map front, I want to see if I can make a zoomable map of District of Wenzel, so I can include more information about schools, hospitals, landmarks, etc.

Ha, I just got everything working in time for the weekend (when I am booked pretty solid with work from Friday evening until Sunday evening.  Boo...

Hopefully I can get everything sorted out and get an update posted before the month is out.  Thanks for following!

packersfan

Update 96 - ST PAUL: Beachview - Updating the Flora
Talk about a long time between updates.  District of Wenzel is back after one and a half years!  Last time we saw Hawthorne with fall colors.  Well that theme continues as I am going through and updating my flora and MMPs to seasonal stuff and just better stuff.

Today we visit the north part of the City of St. Paul, Beachview.  Let's finish up this tile and update the flora!




Old seawalls that just don't hug the coast.





Oh, some incomplete plopped grass and all the old flora was eliminated when I switched tree controllers.



Let's replace these with ploppable rocks like in Penelope River (earlier update).



Now that looks a lot better.  This is South Shore Park, part of the Waterfront Parkway.











A wider shot of South Shore Beach.



South Shore Golf Course.  I don't think it is complete, yet.  The rest will be built in the adjacent tile.





A wider shot of the area.  Ooops, I just noticed I didn't merge all the layers and the street labels didn't get included on any of the pictures.  Still getting used to using GIMP again and the whole process of getting these updates ready.







You are here.





Things are working much better on my new laptop.  I had a number of CTDs when I was working on some other maps recently, but this was probably due to not properly switching tree controllers and having phantom flora messing with my terraforming and causing CTDs.  That problem has been solved!  Now just trying to modernize things again with RHW and stuff...but ughh. 

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.  This is A NEW LINK as the old LINK was dead!

Gugu3