Does anyone here have the artistic skills for 3D buildings models (and time of course)?  If so I'd love to see at least some of the below modeled for Cities Skylines.

 

Here's a guide to exporting them from 3DS Max: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/68091-official-tutorial-guide-how-to-turn-a-model-into-game-ready-asset-3ds-max/

 

 

Detached victorian houses like these (both the italianate and the second empire houses):

 

Cincy Style Late Victorians (the wider ones are pretty well approximated):

 

 

Bigger mansion versions like you'd find on the east side:

 

Courtyard Apartments as well:

 

 

Landmarks (old and current):

Union Terminal

 

Oddfellows hall (now a wonderful parking lot):

 

 

6th Street Market (this is one of the ones I want the most):

 

 

Flower Market (right down the street):

 

 

Penn Station (little Miami Terminal) 

 

The old unitarian church:

 

Isaac M Wise Temple:

 

St Peter in Chains Cathedral (I wish they'd open this one up to tourists I snuck in there once while showing friends around Cincy and was blown away I've never seen a Catholic Church like this - its like late roman / Byzantine era stuff):

 

City Hall:

 

Times-Star building:

 

Central Trust building (with its original top):

 

 

Carew Tower:

 

 

Findlay Market:

 

 

 

 

Also the art deco style retaining walls (they can be quays due to mods that allow you to place them everywhere) and railings found on   found on Columbia Parkway:

 

Edited November 20, 20186 yr by neilworms

3 hours ago, 10albersa said:

This is awesome. I've got thousands (maybe 10s of thousands) of assets downloaded at this point in C:S, and I've tried making Cinci, but it never quite ends up the way I want it.  I usually just make Cinci-inspired what could have been builds now.  I'm much better at detailing small areas rather than large-scale cohesive city building.

 

My biggest issue was getting things aligned right.  There were a few places where I had to alter the alignment to make one part of town work a bit better.  They have an open street map overlay mod but its super hard to use and I need the coordinates of the map from the original map creator (creating maps is pretty challenging too if you want to scale them right at least for a place like Cincy with rivers and creeks).   I got lucky that someone created this map that really met all my needs even down to the lack of highway connections :D.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=784937349

Edited November 20, 20186 yr by neilworms

@neilworms I toured St Peter in Chains Cathedral within the past 6-8 years. I believe we told them we were interested in getting married there and they suggested we sign-up for one of their guided tours.

23 hours ago, neilworms said:

 

My biggest issue was getting things aligned right.  There were a few places where I had to alter the alignment to make one part of town work a bit better.  They have an open street map overlay mod but its super hard to use and I need the coordinates of the map from the original map creator (creating maps is pretty challenging too if you want to scale them right at least for a place like Cincy with rivers and creeks).   I got lucky that someone created this map that really met all my needs even down to the lack of highway connections :D.

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=784937349

 

Street alignment was the biggest challenge with developing my map a few years ago. The tile layout for roads does not adequately accommodate real-world road widths. What I would do is divide parts of the city into sections and count off the distance between two major roads and fill in between instead of going block by block. This method really helped with the NKY river cities.

 

And with hillside roads, I really just winged it. It's so hard to get the distances and lengths correct for places like Devou Park or North and South Fairmont.

33 minutes ago, Cygnus said:

@neilworms I toured St Peter in Chains Cathedral within the past 6-8 years. I believe we told them we were interested in getting married there and they suggested we sign-up for one of their guided tours.

 

You can also just walk in and check it out any time during the day as long as there is no Mass going on. They don't mind. This is true of just about all the old churches around town. 

20 hours ago, JYP said:

 

Street alignment was the biggest challenge with developing my map a few years ago. The tile layout for roads does not adequately accommodate real-world road widths. What I would do is divide parts of the city into sections and count off the distance between two major roads and fill in between instead of going block by block. This method really helped with the NKY river cities.

 

And with hillside roads, I really just winged it. It's so hard to get the distances and lengths correct for places like Devou Park or North and South Fairmont.

 

Thanks!  I'll use that method for the NKY cities which I have yet to model out (though am looking forward to given the number of dedicated streetcar rows there).

 

With hillsides I had just opened up a google maps window in my browser on one monitor, set it to topography mode, then aligned up the topographies using my dual monitor setup.   Its kind of winged but it really helped me model out where hill street and Martin Drive meet Columbia parkway for instance.  (and Mt Adams was super hard to get right particularly since I'm including roads that have been removed / renamed so it was a lot of look at the sanborn map, look at the 1912 map of cincy then look at google maps for topography on roads that still exist - I need to find a good 1930s / 1940s map of the city IMO).

22 hours ago, Cygnus said:

@neilworms I toured St Peter in Chains Cathedral within the past 6-8 years. I believe we told them we were interested in getting married there and they suggested we sign-up for one of their guided tours.

 

Its still not friendly to tourists who just want to go in and check it out.  Another year I tried going in on a Sunday not during mass and the doors were locked.

 

I think something like this is what I'm envisioning where there are clear hours and a clear process for touring the place that isn't call and we'll give a tour or we'll only give a tour on the 3rd sunday every two weeks.  I guess what I'm getting at is making it tourist friendly something Cincinnati fails at every single time with most of its landmarks.

 

http://cathedralstl.org/friends-of-the-cathedral/cathedral-tours/

 

which is easily searchable:

 

 

VS

?????????

??????

 

 

 

????

 

Oh I see Monthly only monthy cathedral tour hidden in the calendar.  No consistent hours no effort by the cathedral or the city to highlight what is IMO a unique church in the united states.  Thanks guys.

Edited November 22, 20186 yr by neilworms

Going to post a few more pics tonight, as I've gotten much of the east side riverfront communities done (all the way to Coney island), I have a pretty powerful computer and can handle a pretty large area being populated and have all 81 tiles enabled.   Still not quite done with the basin but needed a break from zoning out grid after grid of similar dense buildings.

 

One concession I made that turned out far more interesting than I originally thought was leaving out Union Terminal.   I originally decided against including it because there were no assets for it in the Asset editor and that the building is so iconic that I couldn't stomach using a standin.   In doing so it allowed me to use the pre 1930s rail setup and in learning more about it the more I felt that Union Terminal was ultimately a bad thing for Cincinnati's regional transit - its too far from Downtown, and forcing people to use it pretty much killed a good chunk of commuter rail in town which were forced to do circuitous routes through Norwood just to get to a station that was still too far from where the jobs are.  Lots of cities don't have consolidated stations either - to this day Chicago has more than one station and in general it serves the city well - I think other than its fantastic architecture it was a net loss for Cincinnati (and it also obliterated a really pretty park Lincoln Park  in the process).  A smarter move for the city IMO would have been to build a subway to connect all the different staions, something that Melbourne Australia kind of has and is working on finishing up.

 

Another interesting thing I've found is that UK and French assets are good standins for second empire and federalist row/townhouses and that the roofs of the UK terrace houses look closer to the rooflines you'd find in Cincy, though the french stuff is stone and I'm looking for brick, I can only find stone or frame second empire.   I still wish someone though would model out some cincy vernacular assets though.  In searching for stuff I found a guy who's doing historic Kansas city stuff that's been long demolished, I might want to reach out to him about this...

 

I'd like to give a huge shoutout to @jjakucyk's traction history site, its been fantastic for getting the rail network right where it needs to be right and for me to add some embellishments where necessary/wanted, though I'm kind of doing some anachronistic things particularly when interurbans come into the picture since a lot of them failed pre 1930s.

Edited December 12, 20186 yr by neilworms

Was going to post yesterday but I fell asleep super early.

 

Here's what the basin looks like (though I've filled in a bit more since then): 

 

 

 

My weird hacky attempt at recreating the Torrence road station on the little miami PRR rail is here I took a building from spain that looked kind of roman and smashed it with a fortress tower:

 

 

 

I did keep Columbia Parkway in because so much of the game relies on having roads setup such that goods / services can flow and Eastern has streetcars on it so...

 

Someone made a bridge that kind of looks like the Roebling Suspension bridge, and I did some reading and it was cited as a european inspiration for the Brooklyn (and by obvious proxy) the roebling bridge, I just wish it was taller, might have to fiddle around with this a bit more:

 

 

Train Yards for the Court St station (which was Broadway Commons and now is the Casino), the Edificio Kavanaugh from Buenos Aires fills in for the Times-Star building.

 

 

 

The Baldwin Piano Company and the entrance to Eden Park (which I'm pretty proud I was able to recreate), I also learned that the CL&N railroad had a station here so I'm probably going to add that in:

 

 

Coney island along with the ends for 2 interurban lines that terminated there, though one of these could be extended outwards and I'll probably add in a concert venue, now if only they had a horse racetrack that was ploppable:

 

 

Mt Adams with the little Miami rail in the foreground.   I can remember as a kid Eastern Ave looking like a series of villages I kind of miss that even if the infill that's going in now is relatively high quality by Cincy standards, tearing down all that stuff has lost something.   Though IMO the bottom of Mt Adams was the biggest loss as it was as urban as the rest of the basin as I understand it.

 

 

Shot of Crosley Field at dusk:

 

 

Riverfront neighborhoods from Columbia Tusculumish - I need a bit more of Columbia-Tusculum finished up, NKY and of course the hilltop stuff (though that will come a lot later if I don't hit game limits first).  If I do first person view and drive down Columbia parkway it feels eerie like I'm driving down an alt dimension version of it:

 

 

 

Better view of the neighborhoods:

 

 

Ending with a street scene somewhere downtownish, I'm starting to get overwhelmed by the amount of streetcars (trams) on the roads here:

 

 

Can you post a video of your city?

I'll see what I can do, probably not anything fancy where I narrate (though I'm considering it) but just an overview.

Sim City has finally been released for the NES, 27 years after it was supposed to come out. It's basically a slightly stripped-down version of the SNES port but with a couple key differences:

 

1. The 3X3 block technique that was a sure recipe for success in the SNES version doesn't work here since the R,C and I blocks are 2x2 while things like police stations and amusement parks are still 3x3. The strategy of the game changes significantly.

 

2. The "gifts" such as amusement parks, large parks, zoos and stadiums weren't programmed to "do" anything to increase development yet. It's best not to use them at all lest they become bloodsuckers.

 

 

 

Recovering Nintendo’s Lost SimCity for the NES

 

This version of the game was thought to be completely lost or, at best, confined to some deep dark archive inside of Nintendo’s offices. Either way, the game was seen as something of a Holy Grail among collectors and archivists alike, and the odds of ever seeing it outside of a handful of published screenshots seemed slim, until a cartridge containing an unfinished version of the game materialized at 2017’s Portland Retro Gaming Expo.

 

https://gamehistory.org/simcity/

 

 

 

Download the NES ROM here for free: https://archive.org/details/simcity-nes

 

Edited December 26, 20186 yr by GCrites80s

On 12/14/2018 at 10:12 PM, neilworms said:

Was going to post yesterday but I fell asleep super early.

 

Here's what the basin looks like (though I've filled in a bit more since then): 

 

 

 

My weird hacky attempt at recreating the Torrence road station on the little miami PRR rail is here I took a building from spain that looked kind of roman and smashed it with a fortress tower:

 

 

 

I did keep Columbia Parkway in because so much of the game relies on having roads setup such that goods / services can flow and Eastern has streetcars on it so...

 

Someone made a bridge that kind of looks like the Roebling Suspension bridge, and I did some reading and it was cited as a european inspiration for the Brooklyn (and by obvious proxy) the roebling bridge, I just wish it was taller, might have to fiddle around with this a bit more:

 

 

Train Yards for the Court St station (which was Broadway Commons and now is the Casino), the Edificio Kavanaugh from Buenos Aires fills in for the Times-Star building.

 

 

 

The Baldwin Piano Company and the entrance to Eden Park (which I'm pretty proud I was able to recreate), I also learned that the CL&N railroad had a station here so I'm probably going to add that in:

 

 

Coney island along with the ends for 2 interurban lines that terminated there, though one of these could be extended outwards and I'll probably add in a concert venue, now if only they had a horse racetrack that was ploppable:

 

 

Mt Adams with the little Miami rail in the foreground.   I can remember as a kid Eastern Ave looking like a series of villages I kind of miss that even if the infill that's going in now is relatively high quality by Cincy standards, tearing down all that stuff has lost something.   Though IMO the bottom of Mt Adams was the biggest loss as it was as urban as the rest of the basin as I understand it.

 

 

Shot of Crosley Field at dusk:

 

 

Riverfront neighborhoods from Columbia Tusculumish - I need a bit more of Columbia-Tusculum finished up, NKY and of course the hilltop stuff (though that will come a lot later if I don't hit game limits first).  If I do first person view and drive down Columbia parkway it feels eerie like I'm driving down an alt dimension version of it:

 

 

 

Better view of the neighborhoods:

 

 

Ending with a street scene somewhere downtownish, I'm starting to get overwhelmed by the amount of streetcars (trams) on the roads here:

 

 

 

Cool update. I love Cities Skylines but I'm going to need to get a better system to run it at optimal levels. What kind of setup do you have?

I'd also suggest downloading the no more atomic wasteland mod or something similar that keeps the industrial areas from turning brown and gross.

 

@JaceTheAce41 I have a pretty high end computer, i5 processor, 32 gb ram and a 1080 video card.   When I get home I can dump more detailed specs for you.  I'll consider adding in the patch at least just for display / presentation purposes.  I like knowing where the pollution is worst so I can plan accordingly, but I agree that when shocasing a city it looks a lot better with out the brown blotches of smog.

 

I'll do another update once I fill out Over the Rhine (the last part of the basin for me to complete) and start work on Northern Kentucky (I'm starting with Newport because its relatively easy to model out).   Because the basin gets kind of tedious to work on I also did a decent chunk of Walnut Hills as well.   

 

I think the most fun thing I've worked on are the rail systems, its really fun to see how rail really worked in Cincinnati and what issues there were with the system - I've even had to adapt a few things due to early mistakes I made and assets not working right for the space I provided them.  With Central Union Depot for instance I had to go with a station that has underground rails because I had already developed the area and when I attempted to clear it out nothing fit right - heavy rail was really shoehorned into Cincinnati - it was prior to development on the hillsides first and foremost a walking city . 

 

If I had to critique jjakucyk's website (as fantastic as it is - and keep up the great work btw) its that its a little lacking on Northern Kentucky information - when I start work on the green line I'd like to know exact route descriptions - like where does the 11 - Fort Thomas leave roadways and go onto its own ROW, and where is the "Bonnie Leslie Trestle"?  Nkyviews has a lot of great stuff on it but its organized really poorly.

On 1/4/2019 at 12:41 PM, JaceTheAce41 said:

 

I'd also suggest downloading the no more atomic wasteland mod or something similar that keeps the industrial areas from turning brown and gross.

 

 

This grew old to me while playing the game.  There was very little you could do to stop it from happening.  Same with deaths.

I'm back and I've done a ton of stuff with Porkopolis which is my reimagining of a Cincinnati with better historic preservation, better transit  etc.   I've gotten a lot done with Northern Kentucky and mostly filled out the basin on the Cincy side.   Let's open with my recreation of the Island Queen an old steamboat that ran to Coney Island - I actually made a route on the Ohio that went from downtown to Coney and downloaded an asset for a riverboat:

 

 

Here's OTR / the west end from my version of the PNC Tower which is an NYC asset that's bigger than the Kansas City Power and light building I'm filling in for the Carew (someone really needs to model out Cincinnati assets for this game):

 

The Kenyon Barr can be seen here:

 

Newport and the Licking Riverside district - I did some funky stuff with the Central Bridge and on ramps to downtown / Newport streets to aid in traffic flow, but most other bridges are pretty similar to how they are IRL:

 

 

 

Nice view of Newport with the L&N and C&O railroads in the background - I loosely based this off of old photographs of this spot:

 

 

 

Pretty much what said view looks like IRL today:

 

 

 

This is of the Newport Depot which shared both L&N and C&O train lines - the L&N I had to get a hack to make it wait in the yard above for clearence as this is the infamous single track rail that used to run up saratoga street:

 

 

 

Saratoga street:

 

 

Overhead of the same area:

 

 

The L&N bridge as it was with traffic still on it Mt Adams in the background (I need to tweak the bridge heights a bit): 

 

 

 

My interpretation of the Licking riverside area in Covington:

 

 

Downtown with a Wonky Roebling bridge (I need to fiddle around with procedural objects so I can turn the suspension bridge from Europe they have into something resembling the Roebling bridge its going to require some time but I think its possible!)

 

 

I've been doing a ton to expand the heavy train system here's a view of the west end yards:

 

 

looking west around liberty street (a few unwanted buildings snuck in there that I need to prune):

 

 

Peebles Corner which is still kind of a work in progress at least the neighborhood beyond it:

 

 

 

The part of Walnut hills with the tight streetgrid which was somewhat severed by I-71:

 

 

Here's the highland route train line going through the tunnel that goes underneath McMillian I did make the train run in the middle of two small alleys - I wish I could find some pics of this:

 

Dunaveck Square which I sort of embellished (this stretch of Pike was one of my favorites, though the new development kind of has ruined it to a degree as I wish nothing was torn down here besides the parking lot which in this world is a small train storage yard.  In the background is the Covington L&N / C&O station - the only thing missing is the neoclassical waiting room which still exists but is now offices:

 

 

 

Here is a view of the station with both express and local tracks in use (this is a bit glitchy as the only tracks that have this setup are station tracks)  the slope could also be a bit more gentle here:

 

I've yet to find pictures of it, but evidence suggests that there used to be a market here at park pl and greenup (I can't find info anywhere on it other than labels on maps that state market and how the buildings are fancier and all seem to face this "square" - here it is IRL:

 

 

Here is my game version, for this part of town I used a lot of UK buildings (the US and UK weren't too far apart pre Civil War architecturally) and some somewhat out of place New England assets just to give the impression of this being a very old area - I just need more mansions to fill in between the townhouses and row houses:

 

Bellevue from its station - IRL this was a lot more modest than it is in game - here I used an asset from a Melbourne Australia train station (IMO Melbourne is pretty contemporaneous with Cincinnati in terms of architecture - though its a bit fancier than Cincinnati - it was quite literally the richest city in the British Empire in the mid-late 1800s due to a massive gold rush)  I used a lot of Bronx buildings as it allowed for narrow lot detached frame buildings that are pretty common in this part of town though not exactly the same:

 

 

Here's the more modest real version:

 

 

Another shot of Bellevue where the C&O goes below grade:

 

 

Minus some of the further afield Cincy riverfront neighborhoods here is a view of what I've got done:

 

 

Edited March 11, 20196 yr by neilworms

I'm not sure if anyone still plays Cities Skylines or not but I just started getting back into it and also trying to create and upload some new assets into the steam workshop. 

If anyone is interested this is the first asset I uploaded which was the free stamp from Willard Park in Cleveland - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922647109

Hopefully with some time and practice I'll get better at it and do some more complex things. Currently working on some houses from Ohio City as well but if anyone has any suggestions on something relatively easy let me know. 

9 hours ago, nammoumj said:

I'm not sure if anyone still plays Cities Skylines or not but I just started getting back into it and also trying to create and upload some new assets into the steam workshop. 

If anyone is interested this is the first asset I uploaded which was the free stamp from Willard Park in Cleveland - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2922647109

Hopefully with some time and practice I'll get better at it and do some more complex things. Currently working on some houses from Ohio City as well but if anyone has any suggestions on something relatively easy let me know. 

 

Did they ever break away from requiring "Steam"?   The latter is basically malware if you don't play online.