#caw road

[serioussimming]

Los Santos - Progress Report 2022 - Part 4b: Back on track talking about roads

Okay now again...

This is a pretty in depth, technical and passionate talk about road textures I guess

During last years work on Los Santos (which was mainly september... Okay actually I think it was only september. But hey I haven’t made that much progress in any other year!) I replaced some road textures and reworked some road layouts that already existed. When a project is stretched out in such a long time window (2016-now) you not only work in one direction (from start to finish) but you also occasionally completely rework stuff from before. In all these years from 2016 this has been the only CAW project I’ve worked on. With every year I’m learning new quirks and tricks about the game and caw.

Now this is the point where I diverge from Part 4a

My issue with the previous roads is that they were compelety random textures grabbed from everywhere (GTA V Assets, Store Worlds, Internet and more...). They kind of looked like what I wanted them to look like but they didn’t match that well across the board.

If there was one single thing that I could change about how the worlds work in The Sims 3 it would be the road system. Don’t get me wrong. The roads in The Sims 3 are miles ahead (haha miles) of what we got in say The Sims 2. Sims 3 Roads can curve, run in any angle to the world grid, have different textures, working bridges,... Thats all stuff that Sims 2 can’t. At least from neighborhood view. In lot view roads can be a bit more flexible. But still I’d say that Sims 3 Roads are superior. Yet they only have one lane per side. They always have a sidewalk. They always have the same width. They are completely flat and normal maps can only do so much. I mean it’s okay. Its not Cities:Skylines or SimCity but things could be better.

My new roads work around many of the issues that I previously had with Sims 3 Roads. The new road textures are AGES ahead of the old ones and I spent like 2 weeks making and adjusting the textures (shoutout to the Pixelmator Pro developers for creating an Image Editor that doesn’t drive me crazy)

But let me go into detail:

The difference in detail when you see before and after next to each other is simply astonishing even for me. Look at how much more grungy and used the new roads look. Also note the asymmetric nature of them.

The old textures for this road were mainly modified roads from Roaring Heights. I had then made minor modifications by adding a curb to give the road more dimension. I originally picked that road because I liked the yellowish sidewalk which is also in Sunset Valley I think and it was the only one that also had these red plastered crosswalks that LA is so famous for.

Here you can see more of how much more detail the roads have. The curb has proper coloring compared to the sidewalk and there is a *whatever you call that part between the curb and asphalt* which has a dirty appearance while not looking too repeated.

Note: The curb has no seams and seems to be like one super long piece of curb (new insult unlocked you pice of curb) because the road detail texture repeats three times in one sidewalk til. If there was a seam the curb pieces would be super small.

A difficulty with repeating textures is always making them look detailed, contrasted and sharp without making them look too busy and repeated.

The sidewalk texture is a blend of the default sidewalk texture and a concrete texture. I then changed the color and added details by hand like the all the cracks and irregularities. Notice how the sidewalk gets very slightly darker to the seams too add more depth. Something like this has to be done very subtly so it doesn’t get overdone.

By crafting the road textures myself I can also work around issues that I had before.

I was actually a bit sad replacing the road texture in the vinewood hills area since that light road texture was the very first I used in this world. It was here from the start you could say. The textures were sourced from Lucky Palms where they’re used as freeway.

Now with the new roads I can fix the crossings that can’t have transparency on the sidewalk. The corners have the dirt/sand texture painted onto them so It gives them the illusion of transparency and they blend with their surroundings.

The road details are also handpainted. The yellow lines in the middle and the white borders. In the newer picture you can see how this unifies the different types of roads. The darker old road had white lines in the middle, while the lighter road had yellow lines that were also bigger.

Notice how the old roads were all over the place. The dark and light roads had no actual connection to each other. I mean they were connected but there is no relation between them. They could very well be in two completely different worlds. They don’t tell a story. The new roads do. You can see how these two roads are subject to the same law. The lines have to be the same as that’s how they are meant to be. You could think about how the darker roads are more fresh and how they were paved onto the lighter roads because they were too broken but they didn’t pave the road completely because of financial constraints and other parts still being okay.

It’s laughable but you can really think of an entire story just for a section of a road.

Now onto my favorite part about the new roads! I got really excited when I realized I could do this. Using the road detail overlay I created road sections that are bicolored. In my opinion this little detail makes the world look so much more realistic. It just gives it that extra layer of depth and I love it.

Previously I only had roads connected to each other that had completely different colors (top picture). Now I am able to connect these in a way that makes them look like only one side got new pavement and the other lane was still okay so they left as is. This one road you see in the bottom picture looks completely natural like one road that got new pavement in some areas, when it’s actually technically 3 different roads:

more used light colored road, mix of new and old road, newer dark road

How much a neighborhood can change when you replace the roads. Kind of funny how clean perfect roads were replaced with cracked used roads yet the crappy roads make the area look better.

Some roads in Los Santos are really, really broken and in dire need of complete repaving! Why do I even pay taxes??? I wanted a road that resembles just that! Look at how broken the road is. Full of seams filled with tar and how each tile is colored a bit differently. Also I alternated the direction of the road every now and then to break up the repetition. Do you notice the thin lines that run on each tile?

I feel like this was the hardest road to not overdo. It’s a really busy pattern but in my opinion it still looks good. For each road I had to balance the textures between GTA V’s art style, Sims 3′s art style, my desired art style, and reality. I wanted to make them look as good and realistic as I could without making them look completely out of place. Always remember: They need to look good with a Sim standing on them, a house being next to them and a Sims 3 basegame car on them. All of these have to fit together without making any one of them looking edited in. I cant replace every single game asset after all. Or could I? *Vsauce music starts playing*

Road beside 12 Residue Apartments

Only a few weeks ago I learned that red curb means no parking lmao

Do you notice that one side of the road looks a bit different from the other? One side is lighter and other a bit reddish. Another example of depth/detail

Wow. You really read a nerd talk about roads for like 10 minutes?

Now after my TED Talk about Sims 3 Roads is over I may have come to the conclusion that the roads are the single most important thing to mind when creating a world (next to terrain). They are the connection between every single point in the world and a gateway into the heart of the created world. When you see the roads, you know what kind of place the world is trying to represent. Just take a look at all the different EA worlds and how different the roads can be (e.g. Monte Vista vs Twinbrook).

Now thank you for reading this <3

I hope the road of your life is not as bad as this...

[leatherbookmark]

saw two crows from which one seemed to be a youngster going NGAAAAH NGAAAAH >:!!! at the older one. PINKEST mouth i've ever seen. i love young crows so much its fuckening unreal

[anuriel]

last post was clearly untrue but how about some uhhhhhhhhhhh riverview remake??

[marplediscopuchine]

If I ever create a custom populated TS3 world, not only will I give all of my sims pun names, but also the world itself will be called Calembourgh-on-the-Nose or something like this. Ha-ha-ha. Very funny.

[gurorori]

kinda wanna commit a crime (get T illegally i want my T bacj)

[omophagic-beast]

ARCHIVE 81 IS MY FAVORITE TTRPG THAT MOST PEOPLE WOULDNT THINK OF AS A TTRPG

[plants-and-thingz]

random rambles that are kinda related to nature here again

[elvgreen]

my midnight hollow revamp and I aren’t doing so well. i fcking hate CAW 

[satan-incarnate-666]

nux :((

[ratboy]

friendly reminder that if you're a trans you should make a Gender Folder/Tag so u can put pictures that Contain Gender in it but would otherwise be incomprehensible to cis people

[marmorenshud]

should've had my flat today but. guess what. snow storm that cancels all trains busses and car traffic. thank you. love that.

[ornithic]

i took a little break to draw + general wrist break afterwards so i haven't gotten to play this week but!!!!!!!!

another oras theme that's been stuck in my head is This one

(+ flying latios song i said in the tags)

[bunathebunny]

ok ok but the swallow in the Xianzhou trailer... the swallows in Yanqing's clothes... like what if... what if that is the crest of the Luofu?? what if just by wearing those things, Yanqing is announcing that he has a place to go back to?? Yanqing who doesn't know about his background, who doesn't know where he came from or who gave birth to him, finally having a place that he can somewhat calls home???

pretty sure that Jing Yuan is the one who gave him those birds and thus, the offering of a place to go back, to belong...

[sunbackeddog]

We have entered the judgement zone

[coolishcorvidcryptid]

scrolling through social media and going wow this is truely the bottom of humanity and then driving through anywhere in america and realizing you were wrong

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Since you’re doing some Welsh lessons, I was wondering if you’d teach us some Welsh idioms? I have a committed love for all the different sayings in different languages so I’d love to know if there are any particular to Welsh!

Thank you!! (Diolch?!)

Tonnes! Let's see

Mae'n bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn: it's raining old ladies and sticks (it's raining cats and dogs)

Mae'n ar y gweill: it's on the (knitting) needles (It's in progress)

Mae e'n cadw draenog yn ei boced: he has a hedgehog in his pocket (he's stingy with money)

Dawnsio ar y dibyn: dancing on the cliff edge (playing with fire)

Ar bigau ddrain: on thorn tips (on tenterhooks)

Y drwg yn y caws: the bad in the cheese (the problem)

A'i wynt yn ei ddwrn: with his wind in his fist (he's out of breath)

A ddwg ŵy a ddwg fwy: he who steals an egg will steal more

Fel cynffon buwch: like a cow's tail (later than everyone else)

Angel pen ffordd, diawl pen tân: angel on the road, devil at the fireplace (two-faced)

Mi/fe rown fy mhen i'w dorri: I'll give my head for breaking (I'm absolutely certain)

Paid â chodi pais ar ôl piso: don't lift your petticoat after pissing (don't cry over spilt milk)

Deuparth gwaith ei ddechrau: Two-thirds of a job is starting it (the first step is the hardest)

Ennyn cannwyll i chwilio am haul canoldydd: to light a candle to search for the mid-day sun (a fool's errand)

Hawdd dywedyd ‘mynydd’ na myned drosto: It is easier to say ‘mountain’ than to go over it (easier said than done)

Gwyn y gwêl y frân ei chyw: The crow sees her chick as white (To have a biased opinion of someone)

And finally, my personal favourite:

Mae rhaid i mi dod nôl at fyng nghoed: I have to get back to my trees (I am mega stressed and I need to find my equilibrium.)