Commonwealth of Marathon

[DarkLoki]

Amazing city you are building, the rowhouses, the highway, well... everything looks right. Like how you make custum lots for every special situation.

[Heblem]

Congratulations for your 900 comments! well you got here the 901 

You're very skilled with the LE, I like your gardens, can't wait for your original update 

[Battlecat]

Looking good.  I like those hedged gardens in the preview image.  Can't wait to see it in place. 

[Jmouse]

The newest LE project is coming along very well. And I'm glad B won - apparently there are a lot of folks around here who have good taste in textures !

Later...
Joan

[Alfred.Jones]

Congrats on 900 replies Dustin

Awesome work

[thundercrack83]

Maarten (mrtnrln): Thank you so very much, Maarten!

Matt (threestooges): Thanks, Matt! On the computer specs, I had posted them a few pages back in answer to the same question asked by our friend deathtopumpkins, but I do not remember off-hand. It's quite fast, though, as I can pop in and out of the game, as well as the LE, with not even a blink of an eye. Oh, and I'm glad you like the garden so far, too! Thanks for stopping by!

Pat: Thanks, my friend!

DarkLoki: Hello and welcome! Thanks so much for coming by and for you great comment! I hope to see you again soon!

Heblem: Thanks!

Battlecat: Thank you, my friend! We're making more headway on the garden areas, so you won't have to way too long, I hope!

Joan (Jmouse): Hi, Joan! Now that I've played with it for a while, I'm happy that texture B won, too. I think it works quite well with everything else. Take care!

Alfred.Jones: Thanks, my friend!

UPDATE XXVII
The Crux of the Conundrum and a Corresponding Query
6 March 2009

While playing around with some things down by the train station complex, I noticed and thought of something that needed rectified—

Above you can we where the Avenue On-Slope pieces leave the ground and become elevated, as well as the empty tile on the side of the slope. Therein that empty tile lies our conundrum...

The walls that I am using are by MAS71, and they feature "Under Bridge" pieces, which was my first move to clear this up...

Unfortunately, things got murkier. In order to get the under-bridge section to go where it belongs, you have turn the lot 90°, which makes the wall textures misalign. So, I thought...

...let's fire up the LE and take a look at it in there!

First...

...we eliminate the props that gave us the fence at the top, and then...

...rotate the base texture by 90°! Easy enough, eh? I certainly thought so at the time!

Now, we...

...add a simple overlay texture that matches the terrain mod.

We add...

...matching fences so it aligns with the 14x1 no-slope-conforming lots, and...

..."Save As."

Back into the game!

As you can see, the wall textures line up, but I've run into what is the crux of the conundrum—the fact that the overlay texture will not match with...

...the rest of the area. Oh, and there's also the little thing about the fences not being in alignment, but that's a small fix, don't worry!

So, I pose our corresponding query...But, first—Did you see this...

...in our first picture?

It's another non-slope conforming lot, this time...

...put together to match the set-up of the Gare du Nord station. Nothing too elaborate just a few matching trees and things to make the area more cohesive.

Here's the non-slope conforming part...

...and...

...an overview.

So back to the crux of our conundrum and the corresponding query—Is there a way to take the texture from the 5x21 train station custom lot that I've made, and turn it into an overlay texture that would replace the grass overlay texture above and line up with the surrounding area? And if so, is it terribly complicated?

Any help in this matter will be very greatly appreciated! Many thanks in advance, friends!

Oh, and thanks so much for getting us to 900 comments! We're already well on our way to 1000, I just cannot believe it! You guys are the greatest friends a person could have!

In a bit!

[projectadam]

The details you have gone into Dustin are just fantastic. I unfortunately have no answer to your question but just wanted to drop a comment to let you know things look great as always.

[cameron1991]

Very nice! I love your plaza area that borders the railway lines!  

Now for your problem, how about 2 8x6 TE-enabled railway lots with the dirt/grass overlay as your base texture? The switches in the middle of the tracks wouldn't be functional, but it would look much nicer!

[rooker1]

Hello Dustin,
Great work.  You are really starting to amaze me with your LE work and soon I think you won't need me. 
As for your little problem, why don't you just try a rail mod to get rid of the grass texture, so the terrain doesn't change.  I personally think it wiould be nice if someone created one with just stones on either side.  BUt you could try Nob's, Peg's or SFBT.  And I think I read some where recently that Andreas was working on a new one.
I hope that answered your question.
BTW, every thing is okay....kids and wife are sick, it's like watching over four kids now.  Takes alot of time and energy.

See ya later,
Robin 

[Battlecat]

Looking good!  Not sure what might solve your conundrum there, the only thing that comes to mind right now is a set of transit enable lots.  But that could be quite time consuming.  Good luck!

[dsrwhat316]

Okay, I'm going to take a crack at this. If I lose you, feel free to stop me 



Here's your overview of the area in question. My proposal is to create two lots in the Lot Editor. These two lots will conform to the slope (i.e., use the Maxis Open Grass Park as your lot) and will be placed in the blank center strip of land.

The size of the lot placed by the left five tracks will be a width of one (1) and and depth of however many grid squares the distance between the inner pillars of the avenue bridge and the edge of the switch bend. The size of the lot placed by the right five tracks is reversed; the depth will be one (1) and the width the distance mentioned above.

Now, after creating those lots (and detailing them to your liking) and plopping them in-game, save your game and exit out of SC4. I direct you now to my How to Texture NAM Curves tutorial for further explanation. Although NAM curves aren't in-use in your pics, the concept can still apply to this situation.

Okay, here's the important part. After following the tutorial and opening the game again, you'll notice the overlays for the rail tracks are covered by your chosen base texture (the one you want to use!). This is simple to fix. Using the Lot Editor, open the lots again. Locate the rail track overlay texture (which happens to be the very first one for me ) and plop these in the appropriate places in the resized lot. For the switch overlay texture, they should also be in the Lot Editor, but unfortunately I'm unsure of which texture pack they are in. Perhaps David (dedgren) can be of some help there...

I used this technique to make the grass texture alongside diagonal roads become covered by my choice of texture. Here's an example, show at the top of the pic::



If more explanation is necessary, PM me or post the dimensions of the blank center strip of land and I'll make an example in-game of this technique.

Whew, now I can stop typing and find me a little pick-me-up after a long day (and week!)...

~ Dan

[thundercrack83]

projectadam: Thanks so much! It's great to see you here again!

cameron1991: Thank you very much for the tips, my friend! They will definitely be put to good use!

Robin (rooker1): Hi, Robin! Good to hear from you, my friend—I was getting a bit worried! Sorry to hear that everyone in the family is sick, that cannot be fun at all. And thank you for your suggestions, I will look into them right away. Take care!

Battlecat: Thanks so much!

Dan (dsrwhat316): Wow! What can I say, Dan? You are a machine, my friend! I will be reading and re-reading your post, as I'm sure that it will be extremely helpful with this task! Thank you so very much!



To quote Luke Jackson...

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate."

The failure is on my part, of course. I didn't succinctly explain my dilemma. What I was referring to as "the crux our the conundrum" was...

...this—is there a way to make an overlay texture that will replace the green part circled above and match the brick texture to which the arrow is pointing?

I do apologize very much for not being clear on this, as the solutions you have given are for a much more elaborate problem...A problem that was next on my list of things to tackle, so rest assured, your tips, advice, and suggestions will not go unused, friends!

If anyone has any tips on the current conundrum, or the rail texture one, too, please don't hesitate to let us know! Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you all so very much for lending a hand with this, I do not know where I would be without all of you!

More to come soon!

[Jmouse]

Now that you've cleared up the question, it brings up another one. Look at the size of the bricks in the wall compared to the ones used on the plaza and the staircase. The wall bricks are wildly out of proportion. One brick is the size of a fence section (the greenish ones at the top of the walls) and nearly as big as a single stair step. Turn one of those bricks on end and it's as tall as the chain-link fence under the bridge.

Just an off-the-wall observation... 
Joan

[dsrwhat316]

...oh. Whoops! Well, maybe my explanation will come to use in the future 

There is a solution to your problem. I refer you to jplumbley's Transit Texture Tutorial for an in-depth view into creating textures. Since transit textures are essentially overlays, this tutorial should be you new best friend in creating the textures you need. I have used this tutorial myself and have found it extremely helpful. It just takes a bit of patience and time 

The first thing you need to do is to find your texture in a texture pack. The SC4 Tool will help you with this. To save you time, your texture is located in this pack: PEG_MTP_TEXTURES_vol2  Now the tutorial can take over from here, as my explanation will just confuse you further 

~ Dan

[thundercrack83]

Joan (Jmouse): Hi, Joan! You've touched upon an excellent point! I'd never noticed that before! I have to admit, I am bit lapse in recognizing matters of scale, not only in the game but in most facets...don't ask me how tall I think you are! Thanks for dropping by, my friend, and bringing up a very interesting tidbit there! Take care!

Dan (dsrwhat316): Just as I suspected, my friend—things have gotten a bit too complicated for me. While the texture that I am looking for need not be transit-enabled, I'm still not proficient with things above and beyond the realm of the LE, regrettably. Sure, there's no better time to learn that right now, right? That's very true, and while I've read the texture tutorial you so graciously linked, I think I'm going to need to do a bit more studying to get the learning process underway. I've said in multiple times already, but I truly thank you very much for all of your guidance in these projects, Dan. I means so much to me that I can come here with a question, problem, or issue, and have you and so many others pitch in and help out where you can. Thanks again!



Well...I've developed a temporary—hopefully, anyway—solution to the overlay texture conundrum...

It's not too bad, I don't think. Certainly not as good as if I could get the matching texture. Back to the tutorial!

Oh, barring any extenuating circumstances, the train station complex may be "ready for prime-time" quite soon.

Stay tuned!

[art128]

that looks great there Dustin !! 
I can't say anything else !

Arthur.

[threestooges]

Glad to hear things have been shaping up for the station area. As for the brick texture, I don't think it's too much of a problem scale-wise. Looking at the ones on the staircase, having them all at different sizes seems more realistic. I have seen (but can't find pictures of) some retaining walls just north of Santa Monica along PCH (Highway 1) with massive cement segments to prevent the highway from becoming a dirt road so to speak. As for the temporary fix, I'd say it worked out well. I think it almost works better, considering the gardens already dotting the area. Incidentally, I just noticed the switch post in that picture... is that Maxis, or is that part of a special piece you used there? Great work on this Dustin. I'll look forward to seeing everything when it's all set and ready to go. Until then, take it easy.
-Matt

[KoV Liberty]

What about the stadium complex? How is that coming along?

Dritmaster

[Battlecat]

Actually your solution there is probably the more realistic one considering the space available.  Organizations responsible for roads usually don't like to put civic spaces under overpasses both for ease of maintenance access and for liability sake if somebody tosses something over the side.  Looking good!

[bat]

Fantastic work on that newest update there! Nice LE-work again!