Three Rivers Region

[Gaston]

I think he's alluding to the Exxon Valdez disaster. And I'll bet that Joe Hazelwood was the CEO of Exxon at the time.

Note: I didn't look at the Wikipedia article.

Hazelwood was actually the captain of the Exxon Valdez not Exxon's CEO.

[dedgren]

The steps are getting pretty close...



Thunderbolt (her sister, of course, is Lightfoot [linkie]) is our safety tester.



Must be OK!



The notches are for the railing, which I hope to finish up this evening.



* * *

There are a ton of great recent posts that I will be remarking on shortly.  I've fallen behind doing that in the past few weeks, but I'm reading every one and really appreciate the excellent discussion that goes on here whether I'm around on a given day or not.

* * *

If you'd ever want to hear someone who's pretty calm and collected during (I'm sure the booze helped with that) a "Houston, we have a problem" moment, check out Cap'n Joe telling the Coast Guard that the Exxon Valdez had "fetched up hard aground" and was "evidently leaking some oil" [linkie].  Yes, evidently...

News on the retextures and the beta this evening after I grill a chicken.

Later.


David

359567 - another 20K month tomorrow- thanks, my friends!

[ldvger]

summer is winding down here in Alaska really quickly.  We're dipping back into the high 40s (F)/10s (C) at night, and it's been rainy/misty and cool during the day as well.

We're just getting cramked up here in Seattle, with a heat wave on the way and record breaking temps predicted for at least the next 6 days.  Right now it's 10:30 at night and 80 degrees outside, I have no idea what the high was today but must have been 90, maybe more.  Official temps are at Sea Tac, which is on a plateau overlooking the Sound and which benefits from the onshore breeze that blows almost constantly.  Downtown, where I live, while right on the water, heats up pretty good because of all the concrete and asphalt but still stays cooler than inland areas.  The base of the Cascade range is only about 20 miles inland and they are expected to have temps in the triple digits this week.  East and south will be even hotter, with thunderstorms off and on for the entire 6 day period.  We rarely have heat of this nature on the west side of the mountains, so nothing is air conditioned.  Fans and open windows usually suffice, but in the 35 years I've lived in Puget Sound I've only seen the temps reach 100 maybe 2-3 times.  Our apartment is partially underground, so that helps a lot to keep us cool, but we have several big windows facing west and once the sun starts coming in the place heats up quickly.  If I weren't acustomed to summer heat (I was raised in SoCal), I'd close the blinds to prevent the sun from heating us up in the late afternoons, but I hate feeling like I'm living in a dark hole in the ground, so the blinds stay up.  Besides, we really get so little sun here, it's glorious when it finally arrives.

David, I too have kitties, a pair of siblings, brother and sister, currently 7 years old and still as full of piss and vinegar as they were as 6 week old kittens.  I also have a 12 year old cat who is very large and fat, a cranky old lady who I suspect is becoming senile.  All three are black and the heat takes a toll on them, especially Mulan the old lady.  She has a double coat and when the heat arrives she spend most of her time stretched out on the floor of the bathtub, the coolest room and place in the apartment. 

My roommate Michael has a good buddy Lance who is really into board games.  They used to get together once a month or so to spend the day playing games.  Once Lance learned that I was into games as well, he started coming by every Monday and now it has become a weekly event in our lives.  Michael's birthday fell on a Monday this year, so I invited Lance and Liz, his girlfriend, to join Michael and I for a birthday dinner before we broke out the games.  Liz teaches pottery at Pottery Northwest, which is a block away from here, on Monday nights, so while she can't join us for games, she can for dinner and every Monday since then we have added dinner to the weekly game event.  Due to tomorrow's expected heat I have planned an "indoor picnic" dinner of salads and cold sandwiches and have to admit I went a little overboard in stocking up a home "deli" from which we will be able to assemble picnic plates from.  However, I will live off the many leftovers for the rest of the week, as I know there is no way I am going to want to cook until the weather cools down. 

Summer in Seattle...it's what makes us Mossbacks endure the other 9 months of the year. 

In SC4 news, I am working slowly on my SF Bay region and thinking of starting an MD for it.  I have been working on the far nothern end of the region, what is in RL the Novato/western San Pablo Bay area.  There is a fairly large river, The Petaluma River, which I made as game water.  There is also an creek, Novato Creek, which I also made as game water.  I've gotten some excellent feedback on my Brainbuster thread concerning PW/GW transitions and so have decided to hold off making any "seamless" attempts at transtioning until the stuff a bunch of folks are working on gets worked out over the summer.  My current city tiles and regions present me with excellent "workaround" opportunities, so I'll save the more challenging city tiles for later.

The stairway looks good, David!  The architect gives it 2 thumbs up!  I especially approve your use of Wolmanized wood, a much more eco-friendly alternative to PT. 

Lora/LD

[wes.janson]

Lora: I feel your pain. I am a few hours north of you in Vancouver. I think it's only rained twice since the first of June and even those rain showers were hot and muggy. I'm heading over to Tofino, on Vancouver Island, next weekend to beat the humidity and do some surfing.

[BigSlark]

Would you all believe that the weather in Jackson, Mississippi has been downright pleasant the past two weeks? We have only had one day with a high above ninety degrees Fahrenheit and lots of rain. A typical late July day here has a high near one-hundred with ninety-five percent humidity. I, for one, am perfectly okay with El Nino!

I've been playing with your new textures, David, and I'm throughly impressed. I'll keep my eyes peeled for what you have coming over the horizon...

Cheers,
Kevin

[bakerton]

David, I must say, what a great job with those stairs. I am glad the tester has approved your work sofar. Off topic like everyone else, The weather here in Southeast Wisconsin has been perfect. A couple of 90 degree days,little rain and we need the rain big time. For this week in southeasst Wisconsin will range from 75 to 85 degrees with a chance of a thunderstorm in the late afternoon. I have never herd of Wolmanized Wood and I never seen it used here in Wisconsin. I have herd of Weathertight wood and stuff before and would the Wolmanized Wood be the same or simular? JKB

[dedgren]

Well, there you have it...



Beta testers, start your engines.  It'll take a bit this evening to put the DAT files together, and we'll be on the way.

Later.


David

360117

[Tarkus]

I've been absolutely loving the new Road textures from my limited testing thus far, and am very much looking forward to these new additions here.

Been having the same heat wave Lora's been getting up in Seattle down here in Oregon.  Supposed to have several 100F + days here this week.

-Alex

[Pat]

I have to ask did you go to Holiday Gas Station [linkie] ^TM to get that cup? Cause dang David that looks like my cup I got here lol... Only dif would probably be mine is 64oz lol.... Otherwise David looking good here with the new textures and great progress on the remodel!!!

[dedgren]

We're getting there...



I've had to make a few adjustments- a little fine tuning of a couple of the pieces.

But it's coming together.



I probably will play with a set of these for another day.  The Euro textures are much "tetchier" than the default road surface- I've actually caught and corrected a few errors in the default set based on things I'm only seeing today.

But we're getting there.


David

360329

[Shadow Assassin]

Mmm... looks good - can't wait to test them out.

Though I get the feeling the solid lines on curves are kind of missing.

[JoeST]

Awww man, those look AWESOME!!!!!


Joe

[carkid1998]

Wow! That deserved bold because they are awesome! It doesn't look like those roads... are roads! Not the ones we're used to!
I should lay of the exclamations!
Awaiting the time I lay my hands on these

Ryan

[dedgren]

Solid lines around corners - dashed lines around corners...

When I first made Euro rextures for the wide curves, I did them with solid centerlines.  Folks in a polite but firm manner told me that dashed lines were the way to go.

So, which is it?



I'm perfectly happy to do them either way.

Later.


David

360629 - We hit our 11^th straight month of 20,000+ page views here last night at about 11:00 p.m. AST (GMT-9).  You folks are forever the greatest!

[Andreas]

For sharp curves, solid lines are the proper way to go. Solid lines indicate areas where overtaking is forbidden, because you can't see what's happening behind a curve or a hilltop. In a completely flat area without trees and such, solid lines wouldn't be mandatory, as you could see what's behind the curve, but in an urban environment (or in a forest, though one would use the WRC/FAR there), they are definitely necessary.

[Gwail]

Amazing work, as always, David.

Solid lines around corners - dashed lines around corners...

In Poland it depends. Outside the city any blind corner tends to be with solid lines (one-sided or double - depending on the limitations of visibility), meaning no passing.

[bob56]

Amazing work, as always, David.
In Poland it depends. Outside the city any blind corner tends to be with solid lines (one-sided or double - depending on the limitations of visibility), meaning no passing.

Same here. In Iowa most curves are one-sided(the side making the blind curve) solid and the other side dashed.

Since these are 90-degree curves we are talking about, it wouldn't be very visible, so I would vote for solid lines on both sides.

I don't really care, though. The textures look great!!

[metasmurf]

For sharp curves, solid lines are the proper way to go. Solid lines indicate areas where overtaking is forbidden, because you can't see what's happening behind a curve or a hilltop. In a completely flat area without trees and such, solid lines wouldn't be mandatory, as you could see what's behind the curve, but in an urban environment (or in a forest, though one would use the WRC/FAR there), they are definitely necessary.

It's the same in my country.

[dedgren]

You could be here chit-chatting with me about road centerlines or over at Blackwater looking at the best SC4 "built landscape" pics ever [linkie].  Just saying.

Emil (emilin), my friend, you have accomplished something amazing.


David

360686

[carkid1998]

Here in the UK we have dashed lines, and dashed lines look cool in my opinion.

Ryan