The City & County of Honolulu

[ecoba]

Beautiful work here, your amazing attention to detail is really stunning. 

Ethan

[Tomas Neto]

Wow my friend, awesome work!!! Really fantastic!!! 

[Nanami]

Really nice!

[emgmod]

Amazing job!

As for Central Pacific Plaza, is it that one building with the Starbucks? If so, you should create the building across the street intersection.

[sumwonyuno]

Hello everyone,

As a Fourth of July special, I bring to you all my latest attempt at recreating Honolulu.  You may have seen the hint at the bottom of the previous update.  I have chosen to BAT one of the approximately 400 highrise buildings on the island of Oahu.

Central Pacific Plaza is located in Downtown Honolulu, at the corner of King & Alakea Street.  It is made up of a 22-story commercial office building, a four-story extention with an open area on its roof, and an attached parking garage.





I used a combination of Google Earth, Google Street View, and Bing Maps.  I got the general dimensions of the building from Google Earth.  I used the Google Street view to estimate the width of columns, height of floors, and other details.  I used Bing to get the four orthogonal views of the building and as the basis for some textures (like the roof and parking lot).

I had to modify the building a bit in order to fit into a 3x5 lot.  For example, the parking lot only has five columns, instead of six.  There is very little room along the sides that face the streets, so there is almost no room for elaborate ground-level landscaping.  Nevertheless, I am proud of my work, and I think the results are better than I expected.

The "North", "East", "South", and "West" previews:







I'm sorry to disappoint, but I do not intend to release it as a downloadable lot right now.  The main reason is there are no nightlights in this BAT.  I would first need to learn how to do them, and then create them.  Even if I could accomplish that, I cannot properly test them in game on my current setup (1.1.638 no-CD patch because my CD is damaged).  Though, I could just trust the gmax night previews...

In testing, I have made a lot for building, and I realized that I can't place props inside the LOD.  I did try making multiple boxes and naming them LOD3/4/5, and it hasn't worked because parts of the BAT get cut off in rendering.  I'm certainly doing something wrong, so I appreciate any help.

As for the next update, we shall see.  :-)



***Replies***

kwakelaar:  Thanks!  It took a while to get the correct Maxis farm, and a really long time to plop all that dirt.

marsh:  Thank you!  Heh, rural and natural scenes lend themselves to creativity!   

kelis:  I really appreciate that you enjoy my recreations!

ecoba:  I am glad you've noticed the little details!

Tomas Neto:  Thank you very much!

976:  Thank you!

emgmod:  Yes, there's a Starbucks on the ground level shops.  Heh, I think you mean First Hawaiian Center?  It will certainly be a beast to make, but at least it seems a bit more doable since Central Pacific Plaza was much more complicated than I expected.   

[RickD]

Wow, what a nice BAT. It is one of those "generic but not boring" office buildings that fit in almost every highrise CDB. Too bad it won't be released.

[nedalezz]

That is a gorgeous BAT! Someone needs to teach you how to make nightlights because I think I speak for everyone when I see I'd LOVE to have that in my cities.

[Tomas Neto]

Wow, awesome BAT, my friend!!! 
I hope that you find a solution for the problem about the nightlights in this BAT!!!

[Battlecat]

The last few updates were absolutely superb!  Love the way you detailed those farms, they look quite unique and very realistic.  It's even more impressive side by side with those shots from Google Earth! 

[sumwonyuno]

Hello everyone,

We have reached the one year aniversary!  I'd like to humbly thank you the viewers and the fans for getting us to this milestone. 

I have good news.  First of all, I figured out how to do nightlights!  I can't believe how easy it was... Second, I was able to get SimCity 4 Deluxe on Steam, and now I can view nightlights.  This means I can do proper testing in the game for a BAT.  Third, I was able to figure out how to make custom, non-rectangular-prism LODs, so I can actually put cars on the parking garage and decorate the rooftop lanai.  These are three important steps toward the goal of release a BAT for all of you to use in your own cities.  I'm sorry I couldn't have made it possible as an anniversary present on anniversary day, but it will be available sometime soon.  I'll have to learn how to do a quality publish to the STEX and the LEX.

I did not have any reference night shots of Central Pacific Plaza, so I had to based it off other nighttime Honolulu building pictures and available BATs.  Here is the result:







The next update will almost certainly be a note from me telling you all that the complete final project (BAT on a lot with props) will be available for download.



***Replies***

RickD:  Heh, it will be released.   

nedalezz:  I'm glad to say that I was able to find out how to do nightlights myself.   

Tomas Neto:  Thanks!  Yes, I have found a solution!

Battlecat:  Yes, the farms actually turned out quite nicely and I was surprised myself about how close the results were to the real world pictures.   

[RickD]

Great that your Bat will be released. It will be definitely seen in my Santa Barbara then.

[buncheesy]

Sorry to go back a bit but are those trees on the Island in your update "reply number 221" goldivas mangroves?  I am thinking of a tropical city and that island is just perfect     

Is the underwater also rendered with goldives mangroves?

Your use of ploppable flora is just incredible (pink elephants because I have no superlatives fitting enough for your dedication)

[Battlecat]

Fantastic!  Glad you solved your night lights problem!  Looking forward to seeing what's coming up next!

[kelis]

great job my friend ! 

[Yan077]

Very nice BAT, looks wonderful with the night lights 

[danielcote]

Nice job!

[Tomas Neto]

Really a awesome BAT!!! Great!!! 

[sumwonyuno]

Hello everyone,

I know it's been a long time since the last update.  It's been a busy two months (of school and another "sc" game).  I've been waiting patiently for the SC4D scrutineers on the Central Pacific Plaza lot.  We'll all have to keep waiting patiently since it is out of my hands.

For this update, I've chosen to recreate some undeveloped land along Farrington Highway on the Leeward Coast of O'ahu, a bit north of the Kahe Power Plant.  Based on a map I found on the Kapolei Area Long Range Master Plan, this area is zoned under Public Facility/Utility.  I'm not sure what would eventually be built here, if ever.



I travelled through the area in January of this year.  The area is probably still relatively dry, since we've recently ended the dry season.  It has been quite cloudy (like in the following picture) the past few days, with occasional showers and downpours, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is some temporary greening.



Here is a zoom 4 and zoom 5 picture of my recreation.  I wish I had some short, dry, and pale green or yellow grasses available to better match real life.  IMHO, the combination and placement of ploppable items may be simpler compared to other updates, but the result looks more pleasing to the eye than some of my previous work.





Until next time, enjoy!



***Replies***

RickD:  I guess you'll have to wait an indefinite amount of time more...    Though, I can already imagine how my lot will look in your new city whenever it will be available.

buncheesy:  Heh, we've already discussed in it PM, but for those that want to know, those are the mangroves on the island, and the ploppable marsh from ChrisAdams3997 Pasture Flora is used underwater.

Battlecat:  I would guess you were expecting the lot, but heh, RL nature recreation is the next best thing!   

kelis:  Thank you very much!

Yan077:  Heh, I really like how the nightlights turned out!

danielcote:  Thanks!  It's been a while since I've heard from you!

Tomas Neto:  Thanks very much!

[threestooges]

I think that's one of the better, and more convincing, open plains I've seen. Nice one.
-Matt

[RickD]

Great to see another update. You did a good job (as usual ) with the ploppable plants.