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Ennedi plays Shosaloza

Started by Ennedi, August 25, 2007, 10:22:31 AM

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kimcar

 &apls &apls Great update mate. I really like the night shots. Your city look very alive. :thumbsup:

oyd

cool update.... I love the night shots.....  &apls &apls
"Dear Prudence wont you come out and play..."

paroch

Great work there Adam.  The night shots certainly are special and yes, Lars' bridge is a treat.

All the best

Paul

City Builder

Very nice night shots.  I think if the lights weren't quite as bright, and varied more in the color spectrum then some of these downtown shots might come really close to being passed off as real life images of some city in Anytown, USA.
When your tired of games of destruction, come to CityBuilderGames.com to discuss games of Construction!
Oh!  Thanks for the negative rep, I love you too!

Ennedi

Again some time passed from the last update, but I think the critical period is ending now. Malecon (the city we visit from some updates) is the Shosaloza capital. The terrain is very scenic, but very difficult to build. I needed a lot of terrain preparation to create the basic transit network and to make place for zoning. In addition, I want to create a fully functional city (not only eye-candy), so after zoning the area I must wait a while and look what is growing on, then make some necessary adjustments and try to achieve what I want.
Now the city growth is very dynamic, some areas slowly come to the stable state and at this moment I can show how they look. So I think next updates will be much more often now  ;)
Malecon is not the only city growing in Shosaloza, some information about it at the end of this message.



quackmofro:
QuoteFantastic night shots! The city against the landscape is quite remarkable.

Thank you and welcome in Shosaloza! I'm glad you like night shots, but they still need more work (as some others pointed out). The landscape is very important part of Shosaloza region, so I can't ignore it  ;D

Toichus Maximus:
QuoteWonderful update from my favorite MD! I love that thin glass building at the corner of the town by the water.

Thank you, this building you like is the Sender Grand Hotel from the Raika site (you can find the link to Raika in the Japanese thread on SC4D, then look for the lot 08-2)

figui:
Quotewonderful "short report from the building site"  nice pics, both day and night ones.

mauricio.

Thank you Mauricio, it is always nice to see you here!  :thumbsup:

Quote from: Pat on March 25, 2008, 02:13:52 AM
&apls &apls &apls  Adam just perfect is all I can say here!!!!

Hello Pat, I hope you will like the next development too  :)

Quote from: nedalezz on March 25, 2008, 04:28:58 AM
Those pictures put nearly everything else to shame! If you ever find a way to make the street lights work with Gizmo's Mod, I would love to have that! It is also my only complaint about an otherwise spectacular mod.

Thank you nedalezz for your visit! I have some ideas about street lights, but it will need more experiments and it will not be quick and easy - but it is definitely an interesting theme to research and I'm going to do something with it.

Quote from: mightygoose on March 25, 2008, 06:13:58 AM
an aesthetically astonishing, i mean really, bloody brilliant, update however one thing bugs me, there is a significant amount of space dotted about that you could have developed with lower density buildings. and as these would in RL be built long before any of those towers it does harm the overall look of the image. a side affect does impeach on the aesthetics however. it makes your image look slightly broken up, there is a bit too much green for buildings of that size.....

still a marvellous update and a treat for the eyes however but just my 2c

Such opinions are very important for me, thank you very much for spending time to write it  :thumbsup:
1. The commercial district I showed on these pictures is not finished yet. Look at the picture below:



As you see, there are much more smaller buildings now. Of course the development would look completely different in RL (smaller building first, then commercial skyscrapers). I could build it this way in SC4 too. But my intention is to plan how my city looks as exactly as I can, keeping the city functional in the same time. So I started from main transit networks (much terraforming at this occasion), then put some landmarks and ploppable commercials, flora parks, sidewalks and so on, leaving the space for R and C zones. Then I started to zoning and now I'm looking what wants to grow. After reaching a relatively stable stage at this area, I will try to change some growable buildings which don't fit here (mainly by bulldozing and waiting, in some case I'm forced to use a "BuildingPlop" command, taking care of using the same type of building which I want to replace). At last I'm going to do some finishing work using various eye-candy fillers.
I don't want to use ploppable commercials too much, but in some places I wanted to achieve a specific effect (such as a dense group of Japanese small commercials, every of them was choosen carefully).
As for landmarks, I try to use mainly these buildings which have commercial (ploppable or growable) version too. In some cases the landmark works temporarily showing me how the area should look in future (and of course I can make pictures earlier  :D) and it will be replaced by the functional version when I will see a commercial demand in this area. I have some such places yet.
If you will look at the picture more carefully, you will see much w2w residential buildings. They don't fit here and will be replaced by something more modern. After achieving the final effect we will return to this area.

2. Too much green: Again you are right. But I must solve a few problems:
- It is very difficult to arrange the space along avenue/road long curves, and I used many of them in this area. So... it seems I must think more intensively  ;)
- I don't want to put seawalls everywhere along my coast, even it is inside the city. There are a lot of cities having much flora along their riversides (Boston and Edmonton are good examples). So my intention is to make my coasts partially green, but "civilised" (maybe some alleys for pedestrians, lights etc.)
- I have very limited space to build what I want. If I would make my own map, I would build such area (modern, busy seaport/commercial area at the foot of the castle hill) on at least 2-3 times larger surface. I would also make less steep slopes (and it absolutely doesn't mean they would be less scenic!  ;D)
I think this area will look different after a few weeks and some work  ;)

3. There is much green in some cities  :) I would like to show you a few pictures from one of my favourite cities - Salzburg in Austria. There is a beautiful castle there too but it looks different than mine. But I suppose it was one of my inspirations when I planned Malecon.









The downtown street - look at the castle wall and bushes at the end of it





It seems you are the co-author of one part of Malecon  ;). After reading your comment and looking at Salzburg pictures I decided to build this:



The central point of this area is of course the beautiful Salzburg Cathedral made by Debussyman, the building near it is an excellent swi21 residence.





We will return to this place in one of next updates.

Quote from: bat on March 25, 2008, 07:12:18 AM
Your Downtown is looking very great! And the night shots are also fantastic! Nice experiments! :thumbsup:

Thank you for your visit bat, I'm glad you like my city!  :)

Quote from: Simpson on March 25, 2008, 07:35:35 AM
It's very good  &apls

Thank you!

Quote from: Jmouse on March 25, 2008, 09:29:07 AM
I'm rather partial to the second photo, because of the rough terrain in the background I guess. Love the curvy avenues, too, and of course the night shots are superb. The last two are really pretty, but so are the rest - I couldn't possibly choose a favorite.

Until next time...
Joan

Hello Joan, thank you for your visit! There will be more rough terrain in this city (and in the whole region too  :D). When the Mouse House will be available, we will find a really scenic place for it!  ;)

Quote from: rooker1 on March 25, 2008, 09:43:14 AM
I think that was super update.  There is no need to apologise about that one.  Are all those buildings grown or have you plopped them.  And do you use the CAM?  Super work on the curved avenues, everything seems to flow perfectly.
I look forward to your next update.
&apls
Robin  :thumbsup:

Hello Robin, very nice to see you! I said a bit about growing/plopping buildings in my answer to Mightygoose. Some key objects are plopped, but I want to make as much growables as I can. It needs some patience, results during this process are often unexpected.
This modern building between w2w's is acceptable



But this one...  :D



This block is a R$ building, at first I will try to rearrange it's surrounding and see what will grow. Paris buildings grow relatively easy at proper conditions. If the result will be poor, I will replace this building usin BuildingPlop command.
I don't use the CAM. I'm going to use it in my next region. I must learn more about CAM, and I will probably want to use the method of managing growables explained one time by Andreas. It needs to change the building style (Euro, NY etc.) to limit specific buildings to one style. Using NoMaxis mod and changing the style you can achieve more harmonious growth. But it will take much time. The CAM is a really great addition to the game, but I don't want to achieve a chaotic growth and repetitive skyscrapers, so as I said I must learn much more.

Quote from: warconstruct on March 25, 2008, 11:53:41 AM
I am without word… :o I say just that it is to perfection  &apls &apls &apls

Thank you, it is far from perfection, but I'm glad you like it!  :)

Quote from: TheTeaCat on March 25, 2008, 12:02:04 PM
Adam

Another stunning update. &apls &apls

"short report from the building site"

Nicest building site I've ever seen :D :D


As for Gizmo Night mod - I agree it is great but let down by the brightness of the street lights, It would be great if you found a work around for this
but what you have done looks real good  :thumbsup:

Until the next eyecatching update

regards
Derry

Hello Derry, I will think about lights  :) In the meantime I'm going to do exactly the same thing as you - I will use both night mods depending on the situation. I also use some simple photoshopping (darkening shadows and midtones on Maxis night shots), but many people don't like photoshopped pictures, so I try to limit the scale of changes.

Quote from: Yoman on March 25, 2008, 12:04:17 PM
Excellent shots here Adam! My favorites are the ones in which the Castle towers over the residential towers :) Such grandeur and beauty! This city appears to be very green also, I do hope there will be some not so nice areas thoguh  :thumbsup:

Hello Owen, thank you for compliments! Yes, of course I'm planning a few less scenic areas, last few days I installed some nice ghetto blocks in Plugins  :D and I started about an interesting area in the downtown - with abandoned buildings, graffiti on walls and dangerous streets and backyards especially for you and Glenni  :D
But please wait a while, I must learn how to do such area really nice  ;)

Quote from: Mizral on March 25, 2008, 12:13:04 PM
Nice update, it looks amazing!  :thumbsup:

Thank you!

Quote from: thundercrack83 on March 25, 2008, 05:08:50 PM
Incredible, Adam! Absolutely incredible! And you're 100% correct, Lars' bridge is stunning at night! Almost as stunning as your city!

Can't wait to see more, my friend!

Take care,

Dustin

Thank you Dustin, sorry you had to wait so long, but here is another update, I hope you will like it too!

Quote from: caspervg on March 27, 2008, 11:24:08 AM
I think this is my first comment in your MD ever, and I think every realisation you've made here is superb! You're MD is very interesting, and gave me alot of new thoughts about the game, and how it works. I'm still a great enjoyeur of your Slope Mod 'Smooth'. I've enjoyed reading through the whole MD very much, and I will certainly use the new things I have learned by reading it. Wonderful work!  :thumbsup:

Thank you very much Casper! What you said is a great compliment for me! Building new cities I learn all the time, many things are new for me too. So if I see something interesting, I want to show it to others. It is sometimes complicated, even more because English is not my own language, so I'm very glad that some information in my MD can be helpful or inspiring for others. I also use to look at other MD's and learn from their authors.

Quote from: tooheys on March 28, 2008, 02:38:45 AM
Adam, beautiful work as always  &apls, I love how you work with the terrain.

My only disapointment, I was hanging out to see how the two avenues combined. Maybe next update  ;)

Cheers
Dave

Hello Dave, thank you very much!
As for avenues, look please at the picture in my answer to Mightygoose. I hope the intersection is enough visible on it. We look from North. The avenue going from this direction must cover the steep slope and it can't connect directly with the other one going from the left (East). So I had to make a viaduct and connect these avenues using a roundabout in another place.
One of avenues (to the right from the roundabout) is partially hidden by the slope. This avenue goes to the neighboring city (the connection is visible at the top of the picture).
This area is still developed and I will return to it in one of next updates.

Quote from: Heblem on March 28, 2008, 10:32:34 AM
Good job  :thumbsup:

Thank you Heblem, I'm glad you like it!

Quote from: Schulmanator on March 29, 2008, 05:44:15 AM
Excellent work! I am always glad to see your well made pictures here. And I hope you will have time to show us more of this great area soon.  :thumbsup:

Not very soon, but now there will be more updates in Shosaloza  ;) Thank you for your visit!

Quote from: kimcar on March 29, 2008, 06:14:46 AM
&apls &apls Great update mate. I really like the night shots. Your city look very alive. :thumbsup:

Hello kimcar, very nice to hear you like my city, even more knowing your own creativity  :thumbsup:

Quote from: oyd on March 29, 2008, 04:52:03 PM
cool update.... I love the night shots.....  &apls &apls

Thank you very much oyd!

Quote from: paroch on March 30, 2008, 03:37:40 AM
Great work there Adam.  The night shots certainly are special and yes, Lars' bridge is a treat.

All the best

Paul

Hello Paul, thank you for kind words, I hope you will like next updates too  :)

Quote from: City Builder on March 30, 2008, 04:58:52 AM
Very nice night shots.  I think if the lights weren't quite as bright, and varied more in the color spectrum then some of these downtown shots might come really close to being passed off as real life images of some city in Anytown, USA.

You are right about night shots and especially lights. I was thinking about it and I will try to make nightlights more diversified and not such bright (more details are visible when lights are a bit darker). Your comment gave me some new ideas, thank you!  :thumbsup:


In last updates we visited the South side of the castle hill. Today we will go along the river to the North.
The Old City lies on the riverside, so we begin from the waterfront.









Only a small part of the riverside is relatively flat, so the old city had to be built on a steep slope. Buildings form a few terraces connected by the main street, called "Great Stairs". It is the oldest street in this area. It is only for pedestrians of course  ;)
Looking at these pictures you can see a few unknown objects. These are new lots made by BSC members, I downloaded them for testing. I would like to apologize my friends from BSC at this moment, I was invited to your team almost 3 months a go, but I hadn't enough time for scrutineering, and also a good place for testing. Now I have a bit more time  ::), but at least I have a good test city  :D. Maybe I will make something useful for you at last?  ;)
One of these new lots is very interesting small markets set, made by Paul (paroch). Paul, your markets look fantastic and they are very useful!  :thumbsup: ( a report in BSC in a few days, it is 100% positive till this moment  :)) I hope you will be able to release them soon.

To make pedestrian areas more alive I used also some BSC small commercials. Some of them growed without problem, some others I plopped using BuildingPlop command.










The Great Stairs are one of the most popular places in Malecon. There are a lot of restaurants, coffe houses, music clubs, art galleries and other interesting places here. This is also a place when many artistic and social events happen every day.

Visiting some old cities (not only Polish ones, also Vienna, London and a few others) I noticed that backyards ply very important role in an old city structure. Sometimes you can find a beautiful garden behind the modest row of buildings, sometimes the situation ic completely different  :D
For this reason I take care about backyards too (after all, we sometimes unhide the back side of the building during the city development, and we have to arrange it).
Here are a few examples:





And how it looks at night?



(this small plaza to the right from buildings is from the Glenni Plaza set. Excellent work Glenni, thank you!  :thumbsup:)

The closest zoom is difficult to use. Most textures and shapes look bad, so it is not easy to make a nice picture using it. On the other side, sometimes we want to show something from the small distance.
I tried some methods of improving such pictures (as always the simplest ones are the best  :D). Here are a few results of my attempts:









That's all for today. The next update: The Old City at night.

But... I would like to show you one thing more.
Malecon lies on the seaside, at the river mouth, and of course it has a seaport. I will show it later, here are a few shots from this area - the third one is especially dedicated for Owen (Yoman):







Don't worry Owen, I remember about your fantastic cranes! This seaport has another part in the neighboring city, it started to grow too  ;)
These pictures are for you, Glenni and Soulstealer - thank you all!







Cheers
Adam :thumbsup:
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Pat

Ooooooooooh Myy God Adam I am just at a total loss for words here on this most magificant update and I just dont know what to say but OMG!!!! Ohh wait I already said that Im sorry,  Adam you are truely playing Shosaloza well!!!! I cant wait to see the old city at night!!!

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TheTeaCat

Another stunning update. &apls &apls &apls
Words fail me  :o

Adam,
How do you manage to make the game look so good?
I would honestly say I was looking at some real life pics mixed in there but it would be hard to tell which ones.

How you have managed to achieve what you have, on such difficult terrain and make it look so spectacular,
it leaves me well... gobsmacked. Speachless, and to have that effect on someone who could talk the hind legs off a donkey :D
is quite the achievement &apls

I cannot find one fault  $%Grinno$%

Nope. Not one thing  $%Grinno$%  $%Grinno$%

Nothing at all  $%Grinno$% $%Grinno$%  $%Grinno$%

Right I'm off to put the kettle on, you most certainly deserve a cuppa,
I know I do and I going back to look over this whole md just to enjoy it all over again. :thumbsup:

here's yours my friend

regards
Derry
Kettle's on. Milk? Sugars?    ps I don't like Earl Grey  $%Grinno$%
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - If you're not part of the solution , you're part of the problem!
"Never knock on Death's door: Ring the bell and run away! Death really hates that!"
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jeronij

Amazing and really variated update  :thumbsup:

You are really enjoying this game my friend  :D  :D ¡¡¡

It was a pleasure to see all this top top class work. Really inspiring  ;)
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Simpson

It's magnifical your are very good at SC4  &apls &apls
My new city is now here
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paroch

Adam,

I'll try not to say (wow) or (OMG) because they've already been said ;)

That is an amazing update.  I like the effort you've put into those replies as well. You treat your MD readers with true respect and you make them an important part of Shosaloza, which is fantastic.

The mix of RL photos shows us what you are trying to achieve and your use of Salzburg Cathederal just demonstrates that you've achieved it.  It really is in a fantastic setting.

Interesting to see the PCH Market Lots pop up there, I'm so glad you like them.  It's great to see something you work on appear in someone's MD.  One of the things I was always interested in was seeing how other people used them.

The Great Stairs district looks charming, I'd like to be able to stroll along there.  Maybe grab a coffee at that small pavement cafe and watch the world wander by.

May I ask which bus stops you are using in Malecon.  I like them alot and don't recall seeing them (which probably means I have seen them, but seen so many I can't remember where!)

And your focus on the back yards is interesting indeed.  You have done them very well.  The Olympic Hotel BAT is a favourtie of mine. It seems to work well in so many different settings.  And of course, it's great to see the Mini Cooper with the Union Jack on the roof in Malecon to know that us Brits really do get everywhere!

Until next time,

Paul


EDIT:  My 600th post - what a great place to do it  :)

bat

What an awesome big update there! A lot of excellent new pictures! The night shots are sooo beautiful! :thumbsup:

Looking forward to more... ...

tooheys

QuoteAs for avenues, look please at the picture in my answer to Mightygoose. I hope the intersection is enough visible on it. We look from North. The avenue going from this direction must cover the steep slope and it can't connect directly with the other one going from the left (East). So I had to make a viaduct and connect these avenues using a roundabout in another place.

Adam, I was expecting something good, but the way you have brought the avenues together is inspirational. Great work  &apls

Your reply is worthy of an update, but the update itself is Ennedi at his best. Planned and prepared to the the most minute detail, its jaw dropping stuff.  &apls  &apls

Shosaloza is and has been for quite a while on my favourites list.


CasperVg

#472
Plain dazzling, awesome work! The port does look real good aswell, good work on it. Nice job on the port entrance aswell!  &apls
No correct english words exist for the beauty of this city.
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mightygoose

holy moly, where to begin, firstly thankyou for your lengthly response, i really like the direction you have taken that developement in.

as to the new update



whose walls are they, they look fantastic and perfect for something i am working on.

and also in the first seaport photo, are thoe your own lots, if so please please release them they are truly fantastic.

other than that and rapturous applause i can find no fault nor flaw in your work. there is nothing i would do differently and the update is truly astonishing. only that for your max zoom pics you might wish to look for a smart blur feature as that may help you improve the aesthetics of those shots more effectively.
NAM + CAM + RAM + SAM, that's how I roll....

Ennedi

@Mightygoose,

These walls are from the new MAS71 set uploade in the LEX in February. You need two zips:

Walls Pack 2 - this is a basic walls set, and
Walls Pack 2 - Walls Textures Addon Pack 1
What you see on my picture is the wall texture No. 7 from the Addon. Look at it, the texture No. 8 is very nice too! And read the readme, there are some options to choose in this set (fences, underbridge props etc.).
This walls set is one of the best I know and very innovative. It consists also something very interesting - diagonal pieces (top and bottom) for slopes, ie. if you have sloped or uneven top line, the fence is showed properly!  :thumbsup:
You can also look at the MAS71 works thread, The new wall set was widely commented there.

As for seaport lots - yes, I like them a lot too, but they are not mine  $%Grinno$% They are from the BRT WIMPS set. These lots are done perfectly and they will be useful for a long time, even when new seaport stuff will be released (maybe it would be good to develop this set?)

As for the closest zoom editing - I used Noise>Median, then Gaussian Blur, then Unsharp Mask, but I must work more with it  ::) I will continue this experiment and maybe I will tell more about it in one of the next updates. Thank you for an advice!
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dedgren

Catching myself up here will be a joy- your work is so meticulously conceived to the last detail, Adam, that one could spend many minutes just looking at a few of the pics.  EpS is like a tourguide to a perfect European place.

Bravo, my friend.  Bravo!


David
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

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Jmouse

Adam, I expect to spend hours here later this evening and in the days to come studying each stunning detail. Everything is perfectly planned and executed, making for an exceptionally exciting visual adventure.

I usually try to comment on at least some photos individually, but in this case it doesn't seem necessary (for lack of a better way to express it). You must know, I certainly know and obviously many others know how awesome this whole update is, so somehow awestruck silence seems more appropriate. I can only thank you for sharing your unparalleled talents with us.

Until next time...
Joan

Yoman

Where to start......uh, lets go from the bottom up :P

That bay where the port is situated looks stunning. The cranes look a bit big for Jeronij's ships....I'll have to find some bigger ships :P One thing though is that the cranes are all in the down in use position. Normally when not in use as you know the cranes are up, and in my prop pack there is an up model, you might want to do a quick LE and replace some of the down cranes with the up version.

I see your finding a use for those seawalls I sent to you months ago, just when I was starting the first crane :P Before that even! In your next update would it be possible to get an overview of the exact harbor setup? Would be interesting to see! Now that I think about it....perhaps my new smaller cranes would work a bit better for you? The big ones seem to be doing the job for now, but I'll see about finishing them promptly, I have off this week, so shouldn't be too much trouble.

Ok, now onto the city!

That last night shot looks excellent, the nightlife in the lower right, night traffic, etc, and your PSing to make it look better paid off! Your stairs remind me of the Spanish steps in Rome. Many a times I had some lunch in a cafe under or on top of the steps, and I can see a few little cafes along your steps as well. Your steps are a perfect twin for the Potemkin steps in Odessa also! :P

The wall to wall you've added in the area has a dense feeling around the steps, but after that not so much, excellent job, it gives and atmosphere of good food with all those cafes :P The retaining wall textures match up very well with the neighborhood also. Your terrenced building also looks very nice, I can see alot of places where things are messed up, only if you look incredibly closely though, and theyre tiny details in an otherwise very hard to build w2w in environment. You've covered up these unavoidable errors very well!.

I really like this [Linky] image, portions of the city, cut off from each other by forest, yet not...

Alright, well I'm sure you have more important things to do than read my overly long comment :P

Great job though!

Owen


Ennedi

Hello my friends,

Reading your nice comments I decided to make the next update quicker as I intended. It is possible I will be busy till the next weekend, so here are some next pictures of the Big Stairs area for your pleasure.



Pat: I'm very glad you like the Old City, and if you want to see it at night... here is it!  ;D

TheTeaCat: Your comments are always a big pleasure for me Derry, thank you for your nice words and of course for a cuppa!  :thumbsup:
Sorry, but it is hard to believe if anything can cause you speechless  :D and it is much better to hear what do you want to say  :)
Yes, I mixed some RL pictures with SC4 ones, but it seemed to me it was easy to distinguish them  :D After all, thank you again, your continous support is very nice and important for me!

Jeronij:
Quote from: jeronij on April 19, 2008, 03:13:42 PM
You are really enjoying this game my friend  :D  :D ¡¡¡

Yes!!!  :D
And thank you very much for your visit, you are always warm welcomed in Shosaloza (I suppose you know that one of buildings I show is called "Palazzo Jeronij"  ;). The room is reserved all the time!)

Simpson: Thank you very much, nice to see you again!  :thumbsup:

paroch: Hello Paul, Thank you for compliments! Testing your lots is a pleasure for me too, and I must say such stuff is a great addition to the game. As I said in my last update, all these little lots - small commercials, modular plazas, various fillers enable to arrange a realistic city environment. Even the best BAT can look strange and unrealistic without carefully prepared surrounding. And of course it is a real challenge to make small lots blending well with other custom stuff.

Bus/subway stops I use in Malecon are from the Road Top Mass Transit set made by Cogeo (last version, it was released in the LEX a few months ago). You should read the readme very carefully, there are many options in it. You can choose practically every prop - bus stop, subway entrance, bus stop sign, the timetable and the phone. Some props are included in the set, some others have external dependencies and you must download them separately. There are alot of bus stops in this set, some of them are alone, some others are grouped in families. It is also possible to have more different stops in one city (but it has good and bad sides).

bat: Thank you very much, here are more pics for your pleasure!  :thumbsup:

tooheys: Hello Dave, thank you very much for your visit! I'm glad you like my avenues intersection, it has only one bad side - it is difficult to build anything along these long curves. But I hope I will find a solution at last  ::) (or maybe you give me any suggestion? )

caspervg: Thank you very much! This seaport will be a surprise  ;), but it needs a lot of work. As you probably noticed, there is a large bay behind the port entrance, so we will see what will happen there...

Mightygoose: Links were sent yet, so thank you again for your visit and I hope to receive next thoughtful comments from you in future!  :thumbsup:

dedgren: Hello David, it's really a great pleasure to visit you here! As Jeronij said I enjoy building these cities and it's always a great satisfaction to know that somebody will find some joy and relax loooking at these pictures.
The room for you is reserved too, you should only take care at the evening - the night life in Malecon is quite intensive, so you should remember about your heart (exactly as me  :D), but take it easy, the climate here is very refreshing!

Jmouse: Hello Joan, Thank you very much for all nice words! As I said to David, all this work is made for other's pleasure and this is maybe the best thing in all our activity here, all of us make our MDs, BATs and other things this way  :)
And the second good thing in it is I don't feel that my work is better or worse than anything other. All of us make all the best we can and it is clearly visible in this community atmosphere. So I'm trying to make all my best too  :)

Yoman: Hello Owen, you sent your comment when I prepared the next update, please wait a while for an answer!


As I promised last time, I will show you the Old City at night.
Making pictures for this update I had a problem: What night - Maxis or Gizmo's one?

Gizmo's night mod is a real achievement. Gizmo's night shots can be very interesting...



...And sometimes unusual (after some editing  ;))...



...But streets, sidewalks and plazas look too dark and a bit sad.



Today I want to show you the city life at night, so I will mainly use the Maxis night mode.
But Maxis night is a bit too bright for me. Also, it seems to me that everything looks more contrasting in the game than on the picture. So I use to darken my night pictures a bit.
Sometimes I like to create a specific effect and I play with Photoshop a bit more, but usually I only want to emphasize some details on my picture and to make it more realistic. So I make the following operations:
- Adjusting lighting: decrease light (not too much, it enables showing more details in highlighted areas), increase midtones contrast (20-30%).
- Adjusting color: darkening shadows and midtones, but without changing original colors.
This is an unedited picture (except changing the size):



The same picture after darkening ((sometimes it would be good to decrease the blue tone, but here I leaved it as is).



...And here I made a little experiment: I darkened walls and the Mediterranean style sidewalk even more (maybe too much?) and added some subtle light around lamps on the plaza. If you will look very carefully, maybe you will see brighter areas on the red brick sidewalks too.
I made the same thing in a few other pictures in this update.

What do you think about it?



I have two questions for our talented BATers:

1. Would it be possible to create such patch of light as a prop, and to add it to lamps on parks, sidewalks and plaza pieces?

2. As far as I know streetlights consist of two light props: the light cone and the light patch (a circle with soft edges) on the terrain surface. Would it be possible to make these circles much more wide, but with very soft edges?
In this case the streetlight would enlighten much larger area. It would look not only nice and realistic in the Maxis night mode, but it would greatly improve night shots in the Gizmo mode.

I'm very curious if somebody would be interested in it?  :)

More night shots of the Great Stairs district:







Paul (paroch), I made a little "licentia poetica" at the picture above, adding some light to one of stall roofs on your market (this light exists here yet, but it was hard to see)  ;)











That's all for today, I hope you will like Malecon at night  :)

Adam








New Horizons Productions
Berethor - beskhu3epnm - blade2k5 - dmscopio - dedgren - Emilin - Ennedi
jplumbley - moganite - M4346 - nichter85 - papab2000 - Shadow Assassin - Tarkus - wouanagaine

Simpson

So beautiful  &apls &apls &apls
I love your work
Can we have a picture of the region?? $%Grinno$%
My new city is now here
The région of Kaikoura

Teaser of Lopsas[+ How did I do it?]:Lopsas