Ancient Street Mod

[palazzo]

Hello everyone,
This is my first attempt at modding. I was reading kwakelaar's Andau city journal and felt inspired to try and build in SimCity some imaginary cities I planned for an online geo-fiction/vexillology game I play.

So here is the first output of that idea: an ancient Roman-styled street. For now only the Maxis vanilla conditions are done. I'm currently working on textures for the NAM diagonal streets plugin. I'm already using the yellow barrier blocking mod to hide that ugly thing at dead ends, and would very much like to know how to kill traffic signs and lamp posts.





The next step will be to make ancient textures for main roads, but I have yet to find a suitable paving pattern for that. I'm looking for something darker, with a central drainage channel.

As for the tech specs, these are texture replacements, that is, they have the same IID's as the original Maxis textures. I made them in Photoshop and used Ilives Reader, FSHtoPNG Mk II, and PNGtoFSH Batch.

[serebii666]

I like what you're doing! 

As for roads, romans didn't make any differences between roads and streets but here are some pics for reference:





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2006_0814Histria_Road_Market20060416.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greek_street_-_III_century_BC_-_Porta_Rosa_-_Velia_-_Italy.JPG

The last 2 aren't roman roads but existed earlier. They were though later incorporated into the roman system I think.

[palazzo]

@serebii666: thanks for the pics! I'm trying to balance historical accuracy with convenient gameplay, so that's why I'm thinking of differentiating the textures in streets and roads.

[Badsim]

Hi palazzo ,

... I'm looking for something darker, with a central drainage channel.

I don't like the current texture ( too clear indeed ) but I love most certainly the concept .
Something new to follow .

Cédric.

[JoeST]

Interesting, though I have a few suggestions

* streets probably wouldn't be paved, unless in the most richest parts of somewhere.
* the low wealth end block doesn't make much sense, since any paved area is going to be finished, in the building sense. Though I guess the unpaved point makes this void anyway.

Joe

[Andreas]

Nice work! You should consider making a texture replacement for one of the SAM texture sets, though, rather than using the Maxis street IDs. This way, it would be very easy to get rid of the signs, streetlights and other stuff, too, since you'd just have to remove the corresponding DAT with the T21 exemplar files.

[palazzo]

* streets probably wouldn't be paved, unless in the most richest parts of somewhere.

True, but not exclusively related to wealth. Presumably only high-density areas of all wealth levels and high-wealth low-density areas should be paved. At any rate I'll make a complete paved set to begin with, then I'll most likely substitute the SAM gravel and/or dirt streets where appropriate.

* the low wealth end block doesn't make much sense, since any paved area is going to be finished, in the building sense. Though I guess the unpaved point makes this void anyway.

It's not low wealth but "no wealth" actually. But yes, the point is moot anyway.

I don't like the current texture ( too clear indeed ) but I love most certainly the concept .
Something new to follow .

Merci !
The texture is based on a photo I found on Wikipedia of a limestone Roman road in Britain.

Nice work! You should consider making a texture replacement for one of the SAM texture sets, though, rather than using the Maxis street IDs. This way, it would be very easy to get rid of the signs, streetlights and other stuff, too, since you'd just have to remove the corresponding DAT with the T21 exemplar files.

Ah, good point! I was trying not to use the SAM, not only because I don't have a personal IID range, but also and foremost for ease of gameplay, to avoid having to put up starter pieces, not to mention dealing with those places where Maxis textures crop up uninvited.

Now, I have a question for you savvy Modders: I read this tutorial about transit texture mods but I'm confused about the RUL 0x10000002 file. I guess it is located in one of the NAM dats. Is it possible to create a rule that makes transition pieces appear between different textures of the same structure (for instance to transition smoothly between wealth levels)?

And another: Is it OK to use "Compress dat" in PNGtoFSH?

Another update: I got around to making some textures for the NAM diagonal streets plugin. Not complete yet, though.

[JoeST]

True, but not exclusively related to wealth. Presumably only high-density areas of all wealth levels and high-wealth low-density areas should be paved. At any rate I'll make a complete paved set to begin with, then I'll most likely substitute the SAM gravel and/or dirt streets where appropriate.

Yeah I guess my whole post was moot, since its up to the cities discretion  where they pave, so unpaved should probably be other SAM textures anyway.

Another thing is that your textures have a tiling problem, I know (or seem to remember) that it's fixable, but cant remember how.

Andreas: a quick question. How hard would it be for him to support both the SAM and the general override? Not suggesting he should, just thinking out loud.

Joe

[Andreas]

@palazzo: For the technical details about the RULs and texture creation, you should ask the NAM Team modding specialists, I'm "only" responsible for the distribution part (readme, installers, upload etc.). While there are still a few SAM texture ID "slots" available, which only need to be activated by copying and pasting and adapting the RULs, it would be easier to create a simple SAM texture override, as suggested. If you want, you can release a Maxis texture replacement, of course, but then it would be out of the scope of the NAM ("Network Addon Mod", not "Network Replacement Mod" ). I think Pegasus made a mod that removes most of the "street junk" for his MTP set, so that could be used in conjunction with a replacement mod that features your textures.

[palazzo]

Another thing is that your textures have a tiling problem, I know (or seem to remember) that it's fixable, but cant remember how.

Do you mean the little black dots? I get that even with standard Maxis tiles........ Maybe it's Aspyr's fault since I play on a Mac.

While there are still a few SAM texture ID "slots" available, which only need to be activated by copying and pasting and adapting the RULs, it would be easier to create a simple SAM texture override, as suggested.

I think I'll bite........ Trying to replace standard Maxis/NAM textures made me run into some unexpected problems, like the fact that civic buildings generate low-density streets (hence unpaved, in my setup). As for releasing my package, well, I'm not sure it's up to the LEX standards. Anyway I still have to think what to do with roads.

[Kergelen]

Great idea!
I like the ancient streets with stones.

[palazzo]

Found a decent roadbed texture, currently adjusting tiling and tone: