The Portland Sim City 4 Project

[pdxskyline]

I really never thought about posting my Portland 3d models in this forum. But I figure everyone here would appreciate them. For the past couple years, I've been adding as many Portland landmarks to Sim City 4 as possible. I post them to Simtropolis.com as Sparkythepenguin. (Zilfondel knows of the project). It's been quite rewarding and really fun! I had a great two-man team for a while, and we managed to cover the top 10 tallest in Portland (pre Benson Tower, SOWA construction). I'd like to have some help with this project, and anyone is welcome to join! I also am planning to do some Seattle, Spokane, Vancouver (WA and BC), Salem, and Boise if I can find some time. PM me if you would like to help out, and I can help you get started!

Here are what I consider my best creations, and some current projects in the hopper:

The Galleria (Status: done):



Hatfield Courthouse (status: Done):



Portland Building (status: done)



New Fleidner Block- AKA 10th & Washington Building, (Status: done):



Standard Insurance Plaza (status: nearly done):



Bank of America Center (Status: detail modeling):



200 Market (status done):



If there is interest, I'll post future projects and pictures here.

[PacificNW]

I like...keep going!

[Dougall5505]

wow nice i would help but im way too busy. keep it up!

[South-by-West]

Very nice! I'll have to put some of these in my city if you don't mind!

[zilfondel]

Oh wow, you're still working on it? Looks like your work kept getting better.

[velciane]

This makes me want to dig out the CD and play the game again! Keep up the good work.

[pdxstreetcar]

nice work pdxskyline

are these all drawn up to scale and proportion by eyeballing or have you managed to get your hands on some elevations at least for some buildings?

[pdxman]

I have the old SuperNES sim city, i love it...its classic, and ADDICTING!

[alexjon]

Is there a current zip of the project up somewhere?

[PuyoPiyo]

Aww I wish I can help, but my CD won't let me play on my own computer

[pdxskyline]

If you like those, I have a lot more out there. I'll wrap up my evening by answering a few questions and commenting on some of the replies here. Tomorrow, I'll put up some more screenshots that I have laying around.

Where to get the finished models:

Simtropolis.com. You have to register to download, but you don't have to pay a cent to do so. Here are the direct links to Portland's little corner of Simtropolis:

Current page of my Simtropolis thread on all Portland-related modeling projects (there's like 39 pages, 1,149 replies, and 23,761 views)

All Portland downloads:
(*=ones that I have worked on either totally or jointly)
Each link leads to a page where, provided you are logged in as a Simtropolis member, you may access the download page. All files are zipped. If you somehow can't find these pages again, do a STEX search for JtPortland and Sparkythepenguin.

*Bishop's House
MAX light rail mod, Portland Streetcar mod, Vintage Trolley Mod (can only use one at a time, replaces default elevated rail trains. SC$ Rush Hour expansion required)
*New Fleidner Block
*Galleria
*Kell's Irish Pub
*Holladay Park Plaza
*Hatfield Courthouse
*200 Market
*Portland Building
*Umpqua Bank Plaza (formerly Ben Franklin Plaza)
*ODS Tower
One Main Place
The Harrison (appears like the original Portland Center Apts.)
PacWest Center
Lloyd Center
Made in Oregon sign
*Portland Plaza
*Portland Transit Mall
Fox Tower
*KOIN Center
*1000 Broadway
Wells Fargo Center
Oregon Convention Center
Downtown Nordstrom
Standard Insurance Center (new version likely in the works)
*Congress Center
*US Bancorp Tower (Tower only)
Pioneer Park Building

I mainly do this by eye, as the process to get a 3d model into the game "smashes" tall buildings. It's a perspective thing... Also, because Portland lots often slope, we sometimes have to improvise the ground floors because sc4 and sloping lots don't like eachother. Every attempt at keeping the overall spirit of the building is made so if it looks a little strange,that is because we couldn't do it any other way. The older entries will be revisited provided I can get my hands on JtPortland's original model files and have enough help to take the load off providing new content. The old stuff is looking pretty dated compared to the higher quality stuff coming out now.

PuyoPiyo: There can be many reasons why that is going on. I'd uninstall and reinstall the game. Do you still have the original CD case? If you want help, I can see what I can do. If I can't figure it out, I know people that likely can!

[pdxman]

Those are great pdxskyline! How long does each one take you about?

[pdxtex]

im mostly computer retarded so can i ask, what kind of program did you use to make those? they are sweet. is it some kind of modeling program?

[sirsimon]

These look great! I'll have to dig out the game and use them.

[pdxskyline]

pdxman: Depends on he complexity of the project, and if I feel like working on them! At the best, I've made one in a day. At the worst, nearly a year. I've found a bunch of tricks that have considerably sped things up.

pdxtex: To make these, from modeling to working in-game, takes about 4 programs at the least. At the most 7 if you want to bust out some fancy programming mods. The modeling part is a Maxis propriatary shell over GMax called BAT (Building Architect Tool). GMax is a free 3d project, a sorta buggy limited version of 3d Studio or 3ds Max. The rest of the needed programs are the plugin manager, which sets up the attributes of the building, and the Lot Editor, which sets up the building's appearance on a plot of land. The extra stuff I use are 3rd party freeware written specificly to help mod attributes of the building's default game lots. I'm not a computer geek either, but I know a bit about how SC4 works now...

My first, really bad attempt at 3d modeling:
(some of these were reborn, serving as the basis for better attempts)



The original Transit Mall models. Things look much nicer in Rhino 3d, don't they?





This one's on hold indefinetly. Just this portion of the building crashed my old PC because it is mega-detailed! But definetly one of my faves:



I hope that I can eventually get around to this again...



And one that I recently returned to (and had to rebuild), in Rhino 3d:



I'll post more stuff maybe later, maybe tomorrow. Got a busy day...

[PuyoPiyo]

I believe that is now a "Let's Eat at HOOTER".

[James Bond Agent 007]

Haha, those are great!!

[pdxskyline]

Here's the latest on Standard Insurance Plaza:



This one's almost done!

[MarkDaMan]

great job...I personally hate that building, though I know there are others here that will defend it. In any case, it must be a joy to work in with the basically floor to ceiling windows on every floor.

[urbanlife]

Originally Posted by MarkDaMan

great job...I personally hate that building, though I know there are others here that will defend it. In any case, it must be a joy to work in with the basically floor to ceiling windows on every floor.

You are right, others will defend it. I personally love that building. In the simplest sense it is an office building. It doesn't lie about it or try to be anything more than what it is. It offers floor to ceiling windows, the casing around the windows is simple yet elegant. Then the whole first floor and lower floor (where the bridge crosses over) is well done and has almost a playfulness to it that is quite unique for portland. But with that said, we are all allowed to like and hate what we want. That is just my reason for liking the building.