Three Rivers Region

[Pat]

David that is simply stunning and breath taking WOW!!!! That junction reminds me almost like the of the Fantastic 4!!! lol

[emilin]

Ever so great stuff this week too. Those puzzle pieces are exactly the ones missing in the game. Sometimes I wonder if Maxis are completely brilliant or just plain lazy. The vanilla game is so very badly flawed (really... even the earlier version look better sometimes), but the open game code just makes anything possible. It's not even the same game anymore.

It makes me think of one of the other games you mentioned: Myst. As far as I know that game is simply a number of pictures bound together by a point-and-click-interface. If I am not mistaken, it was built around a very common notebook program of some kind. Nobody would say that that "shell" was in fact the game Myst. I am feeling the same way about SC4 and custom content these days. The game engine is just the "notebook" that all the custom content is attached to.

[FrankU]

Well, at least most plugin directories contain more bits than the actual game directories...

And anyway... Last week I accidentally fired up the game without the plugins (I had renamed the directory for backup purposes and forgot to rename it back). Wow, what a boring sight! It was an empty city tile, so actually the only difference was in the terrain and seawater.
How many brown boxes would have appeared if I had opened a developed city tile? And how many street, road, GLR and highwaytiles would still be visible?

Let's not spend more time on obvious discussion about other content. We know enough.

[frdrcklim]

I don't usually make trains but with this, building train systems is looking more to be desirable.

[Badsim]

We own SC4.  We will see no better game replace it.

It has been said . And made my day/month/year . I wouldn't have dared to say it myself ... and that's great that this came from one of the most in charge person for that fact .

Cédric.

[sithlrd98]

Holy crap...I'm gone for a week and come back and see these pics ! Looks like you've got the hang of making puzzle pieces pretty fast! Looking real good , David!

Jayson

[dedgren]

The pics Craig (abcvs) put up of the combined rail and road bridge brought immediately to mind one a similar Alaska oddity: the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel [linkie], known locally simply as the Whittier tunnel.

Whittier, population a few hundred folks, is a fishing port and ferry terminal at the western end of the Prince William Sound, the latter of Exxon Valdez [linkie] fame.  The United States Army originally laid the city out as a port and oil terminal in World War II, and everyone there today lives in a single condominium building originally built for military use.

The only access to Whittier by land was long by rail through a two and one-half mile/four kilometer tunnel under the mountains west of the city.



The Alaska Railroad carried vehicles in and out of Whittier on special cars up until 2000.



In that year, the tunnel was made dual-use.



It has a single lane of roadway laid over the rails, and vehicles use it in alternating directions according to an hourly schedule.



I can tell you from experience that it is one of the strangest drives in the world, and incredibly claustrophobic.  The Wikipedia article has a particularly good photo [linkie] of what it is like to do this.

Later.


David

163102

[Gaston]

Great wikie link David.     Very cool indeed.    There are alot of good links on that site as well.


---Gaston

[TheTeaCat]

Wonderful stuff -simply wonderful



TTC

[bat]

Yes, great work there on these rail textures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[art128]

that tunnel is awesome 

[Pat]

David that would make me just sick!!! Also I think it would be fun to light up my light's and siren in that tunnel hehehehe sorry me being a little kiddie on that lol.... One thing that strikes me very funnie is that sign that says "watch for rocks" I honestly believe it should say...



I know that is my sad attempt to do a little photoshopping compared to your masterfull skills but hey its the idea that counts I think!!!!

Happy Anniversy SC4D!!!
163367

[metarvo]

Dual networking.  Who would have thought it?  That's something else, David.

[dedgren]

Yeah, dtp...



That is pretty good in STR.

Later.


David

163473

[rooker1]

That is beautiful David.  There is a cross over like that here just north of Toronto.  I'll see if I can find a picture on Google Earth.

Robin 

[Pat]

oooh my David talk about really kickin it up a notch!!! 

[metarvo]

It looks almost like a slip lane for rail.

[dedgren]

Oh, and I almost forgot the cake...



Happy Second Birthday, SC4D!


David

163504

[rooker1]

I'm not even going to ask how you did that.

Super job on the cake, did it taste good? 

Robin 

[dedgren]

I'm headed back to Alaska in about 12 hours.  I wanted to leave here with all the rail puzzle pieces finished, but missed that goal by a few.

Here's the latest.



That double track to parallel single track switch was the first STR texture I drew sometime last spring.  Little did I know...

I can probably do the rest on the 5+ hour flight from Phoenix to Anchorage tomorrow.  I have a trial on Thursday and an emergency hearing on Friday, so they might not see the light of day until the weekend.

But we are that much closer.

Later.


David

163615