Rural Renewal Project

[Chrisadams3997]

Completed Projects:

Wooden Fences and Gravel Paths
Pasture Flora
Draggable Paths
Culverts
Jeroni Ploppable Rocks Mod

Links:

RRP Fences Slope Tutorial
--For those of you who, like me, like to build on not-so-flat land.

Chris

[Yoman]

Incredible work going on here. Those trails are especially clever and add another element of back roads to the game that you could not create before, top notch work there

[jmyers2043]

Hello ChrisAdams3997! All I can say is WOW! I am very impressed with what you have done and I like the close ups of the cattle guards.

[meinhosen]

Absolutely amazing work, Chris!  That's about the extent of vocabulary I can muster after being rendered speechless by what you're in the process of doing.

[Schulmanator]

I have got to say that I am *LOVING* this! 

[EDGE4194]

  speechless.....  amazing work chris.  I have been wanting cattle guards!! (and curved fences!) 

[thundercrack83]

Absolutely stunning! I would have never thought of something like this, but now that I see it, I don't know how we lived without it! Great work!

[figui]

this is really great 
i'd always thought why sc farms didn't have fences.
i'd like to see 'em in my farming area   

[Zaphod]

wow, awesome. I'd like to see some decent cattle stuff personally. Barbed wire, grates, those big plastic feed troughs, you know

I wonder what kind of cows sims breed anyways? SIMmenntals?

[BigSlark]

Wow! This is great! Ranch land in SC4!



I will be following this thread closely in anticipation of more previews of what's to come.

Cheers,
Kevin

[flame1396]

So glad you planned a release of this.

My keyboard is about to short out. Drool is hard on them ya know.

[Chrisadams3997]

Wow! didn't expect this to take off like this.  (takes a deep breath...) here goes

Replies
Yoman:  Thanks for the compliments. Hopefully I'll be adding in several more clever ideas we couldn't do before.

Jmyers:  That's a big compliment coming from you.  Always loved your work.  And I still smile when I see how those cattle guards came out, just did them today .

Meihosen;Schulmenator;Edge:  Thanks for the support guys, wasn't sure how much peoople would care about this, but now I know .

Thundercrack:  I'vbe actually comtemplated something like this for a while, but I totally stubbled into using the transparent textures idea when I accidently forgot I changed a texture ID and ended up with 'em, best damn modding mistake I ever made(since changed over to Jeronij's method for the transparency)  Glad you're liking it.

Figui:  Thanks!Unfortunately incorporatig them fully into normal farming areas, while a goal eventually, will be much more difficult(at least in the scope I have in mind) due to the large number of textures it would have to be lotted for, but I'm gonna work up something soon just for you to explore the possibilities, so stay tuned.

Zaphod: lol, we'll see how many people actually get that one.  I'm actually hoping to reskin the maxis cows if I ever find the right .fsh files as the frickin' Holstien's really chap my a.. well we won't go there.  I can actually convert my models to barbed wire pretty easy and plan to, but I have doubts about how well it will look in game, we'll see once I get there.  I'm also looking at a number of things like you've mentioned already, so if you have any source pics on anything you'd like to see just post 'em up in here and I'll get to it.  Anyway, on a side note, just saw your'e from College Station in your profile, you at A&M?(class of '05-WHOOP!-myself, yea, I know, I'm old)

Bigslark: Stick around, more to come, and if you have any ideas... feel free to post some pictures in here.

Flame: lol, thanks for stopping by, I know you're looking forward to this, and fortunately since you can do everything by mouse in SC4, you won't even have to replace that keyboard....


Additional Comments

As I mentioned in a few replies, I'm interested in seeing source pics of the kinds of things people would like to see for rural areas.  I know what I'd like to see from my area, but I'd like to make this ecclectic as possible as rural areas are not the same everywhere.  There's a whole world of things out there and I'd like to see it all come to life through this project.  Can't gaurantee I'll get to everything, but the better idea I have for what I'm creating the better the results will be.  Yall are a part of this also, so let's make it happen.

Chris


This is the entire original post.  I've moved it down here to make room for updates to the stickied post 

As Promised to a few folks, I'm starting this thread to showcase and get feedback on my present project, which I'm affectionately calling the Rural Renewal Project or RRP(what would a project be these days without a three letter acronym?)  This of course includes the most visible part of it that I've shown in a few pictures, my new fences, along with a number of other elements currently in progress or planned designed to increased the realism, fluidity(yeah, like non-grid type s***), and diversity of rural areas.

But enough of talking, pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are a few dissertations on the subject for you(in pixilated form)





So to start off with a breakdown of items currently in progress.

Elements
   Base Set
      Fences





Overhanging Lots
The Pieces with paths under them indicate sections with overhanging props, so that the paths are actually separate lots placed under the props.  As you can see, all of the gates have been done in this fashion, which means paths and networks(streets, roads) can be run through them, though I still have to render the diagonal gate(notice only one is done at present, the models exist, they just haven't been rotated and rendered) to be in the right position.
Gates
These are using prop families such that there is only one lot for closed ortho. gates(actually two, one overhanging to the left, one to the right), same for ortho open gates, then just one for diagonal open and diagonal closed(these don't need a left and right version as far as I've seen so far, but haven't really tested yet)
Current Progress
Most of this set is done, with the exception of the gates which have to be rendered and modded.  Other than that I have a couple of mirrored pieces to make of one or two lots seen above(such as the 'S' Curve with the base texture still showing.)  Furthermore Ltexts for them all, and a few custom icons have to be done for the newer ones.
      Gravel/Dirt Paths

Current Progress
Still a couple missing here too, in particular 4-way pieces.  Most of what is left to do here is though is icons and naming.  If anyone sees any important missing pieces I didn't think about let me know.  As a side note you might also have noticed that the street transition is transit enabled.

In the next update I'll try to show a few of the additional elements I've got planned including additional 'pasture' mayor mode flora in the works(look around you'll see a few) as well as some additional props, buildings, and entrances.  On that note, one more teaser.



Chris

[Andreas]

Wow, it looks like I'm not the only one who fell in love with this project. Those fence props look so inconspicuous, yet the overall effect is amazing, as well as those tracks that "disappear" in the middle of a pasture. I also really like that brushy land in the upper left corner of the second picture, is that the new "pasture" flora you mentioned?

[DFire870]

Wow! This is great! Ranch land in SC4!

This was exactly what I thought when I saw these pics. One thing I never particularly liked about SC4 (among countless other things) was the absence of ranches, since they're just as common as farms. Not to mention there's a lot of ranch land here in Texas.

Anyways, I'd love to see feed/water troughs, and maybe some deer blinds/feeders here and there.

Great job once again, and I can't wait until this is released!

-- John

[SimFox]

!!!
OMG
these are sooo sweet!!

[Chrisadams3997]

Andreas:  Ding!Ding!Ding! We have a winner!  Yep, and also if you look in the last pic, those much more spaced out scruby looking plants as well.  But I've said too much, more on all that later...

DFire:  Some more feed and water troughs are in the works, but I hadn't thought of deer blinds and such, thanks for the idea!

SimFox:  Now I've seen the stuff you create, by comparison these are terribly lowly and humble, I assure you .  But thanks for the compliments.

Just one quick update for Zaphod.  I did a preliminary preview of what I have in mind for making these barbed wire.  Looks good in the preview, but if I know Gmax at all, those nice thin lines will be much bigger, fatter, and uglier in the final render, but we'll see.  I'm guessing I might have to find someone with 3DMax to render these for me if they're to look good in game, but like I said, we'll see.

[Serkanner]

These lots look very good and are a great addition to the game. I have truly fallen in love with the dirt tracks ... 

[threestooges]

As I've said before, brilliant. (It's a shame you were edged out in the photo competition though). The gates and cattle guards are a really great touch. If I understand correctly, the gate overhang so would it be possible to drag a street through them as well as one of the tracks? If not, no worries; they look great now. If you need any testing help I'm willing to give what little I can. Keep it up, and I'll let you know if I think of any specific things from around here to add.

[Chrisadams3997]

all of the gates have been done in this fashion, which means paths and networks(streets, roads) can be run through them

And I'd love to have you test 'em, I'll let you know when their ready.

Chris

[rooker1]

   AMAZING......This will be a great addition to the game and all the farming/rural towns every body is working on.



Robin