phrenic
Mar 19, 2008, 2:04 PM
An interesting article in the Metro. Who knew?
http://halifax.metronews.ca/index.cfm?sid=118557&sc=95
http://halifax.metronews.ca/photos/TheDailyNews/stories/Twbuildings.JPG
Samuel Austin sees it as a modern version of an oldtime hobby.
“It’s our generation’s model railroad in the basement,” said the 27-year-old. “It’s just an artificial world created digitally.”
For the last few years, the urban planning student at Dalhousie University has been recreating famous Halifax buildings online so they can be used in SimCity. SimCity is a video game where players build cities from the ground up — constructing utilities and transportation systems, and making political decisions.
“I’ve loved cities since I was a little kid, and built them out of blocks and sticks in the woods and would drive my little cars around,” the Lawrencetown-native said. “SimCity is just a more sophisticated version of what I have been doing since I was four or five.”
His online creations include The Five Fisherman, The Lexington, Mills Brothers — before the renovations — Clay Café, Video Different, and the King of Donair.
“They have an interesting street face,” he said. “I like them to have an interesting shape, or be iconic to the city. Eventually, I want to do The Clock Tower. It’s nice to see places you know in the game.
“Barrington Street has got a lot of material on it that I want to get around to doing. I have absolutely no interest in the Bayers Lake and Dartmouth Crossings of the world.”
A homesick Austin began making custom content for the game after he moved to Calgary to study political science. After he creates the buildings, he uploads them to a website, www.simtropolis. com, where other players can download them for use in their cities.
He starts his online building by going to the real thing and taking a number of digital photos. He uploads the images and refers to them while using a 3-D modelling system to complete his digital version.
“These days, I spend more time making buildings than actually playing the game,” Austin said. Small buildings take about 10 hours to make, and larger ones average 50 hours.
“Some people think I am crazy,” he said. “My girlfriend likes it because she has her own obsessive hobbies. My parents roll their eyes a lot because they see a lot of wasted time.”
Makes me want to start playing sim city again. I can't make hide nor tail of that website though. I'd like to see more of this guys creations.
http://halifax.metronews.ca/index.cfm?sid=118557&sc=95
http://halifax.metronews.ca/photos/TheDailyNews/stories/Twbuildings.JPG
Samuel Austin sees it as a modern version of an oldtime hobby.
“It’s our generation’s model railroad in the basement,” said the 27-year-old. “It’s just an artificial world created digitally.”
For the last few years, the urban planning student at Dalhousie University has been recreating famous Halifax buildings online so they can be used in SimCity. SimCity is a video game where players build cities from the ground up — constructing utilities and transportation systems, and making political decisions.
“I’ve loved cities since I was a little kid, and built them out of blocks and sticks in the woods and would drive my little cars around,” the Lawrencetown-native said. “SimCity is just a more sophisticated version of what I have been doing since I was four or five.”
His online creations include The Five Fisherman, The Lexington, Mills Brothers — before the renovations — Clay Café, Video Different, and the King of Donair.
“They have an interesting street face,” he said. “I like them to have an interesting shape, or be iconic to the city. Eventually, I want to do The Clock Tower. It’s nice to see places you know in the game.
“Barrington Street has got a lot of material on it that I want to get around to doing. I have absolutely no interest in the Bayers Lake and Dartmouth Crossings of the world.”
A homesick Austin began making custom content for the game after he moved to Calgary to study political science. After he creates the buildings, he uploads them to a website, www.simtropolis. com, where other players can download them for use in their cities.
He starts his online building by going to the real thing and taking a number of digital photos. He uploads the images and refers to them while using a 3-D modelling system to complete his digital version.
“These days, I spend more time making buildings than actually playing the game,” Austin said. Small buildings take about 10 hours to make, and larger ones average 50 hours.
“Some people think I am crazy,” he said. “My girlfriend likes it because she has her own obsessive hobbies. My parents roll their eyes a lot because they see a lot of wasted time.”
Makes me want to start playing sim city again. I can't make hide nor tail of that website though. I'd like to see more of this guys creations.