Happy Sim Holidays

Happy holidays from NYCJ

Sim New York Update

It's been a while since I've done a proper update on my Sim NYC project. Due to the great contributions by the NY BAT team there are more buildings dotting the sim skyline. We'll look at how Midtown and Lower Manhattan are coming along. Progress photos after the jump.

First up an overview of the map. Midtown and Lower Manhattan are starting to take shape. Despite being inaccurate in scale the wider map of Manhattan worked out in the end to accommodate the lot sizes of the skyscrapers.

Taking a closer look at Midtown and Lower Manhhatan

Midtown had to completely redone after running into some complications with inaccuracies with the street grid. Some buildings are temporary place holder (the buildings standing in for 500 Fifth Avenue for instance)

Lower Manhattan is more complete.

As usual some of my usual close ups: SoHo

The Ed Sullivan Building home of the Late Show with David Letterman

And finally the Queensboro Bridge.

More next time.

Remembering 9/11: A Look Back and a Look Forward

Today marks the 8th anniversary of 9/11. We'll have a Sim tribute by looking back...

And looking forward...

More next time.

BAT's in Progress

 Today we'll take a behind the scenes look at the New York BAT's being made for the SimCity downloads section. The New York BAT team (which was formally and finally created a few months ago) has been cooking up some goodies in their BAT oven. They've been hard at work and have a lot of creations on the horizon for download. First up one of my projects; the Flatiron Building. Still a lot of work to be done.

134 Eldridge Street

140 Eldridge Street

Next is JumtheFence's model of 134 and 140 Eldridge Street on the Lower East Side

The Empire State Building's cousin is also in the works, 500 Fifth Avenue. One of the quintessential points of the Manhattan skyline.

SimFox is creating a stunning rendition of Barclay Tower in Lower Manhattan

And PGBV is creating JP Morgan Chase Building in Midtown

Be on the lookout for these BAT as they hit the SimCity downloads section in over the coming weeks.

Summer in Central Park

The final weeks of summer are upon us. Let's enjoy the weather while we still can, the Sim New Yorker's certainly are in Central Park.

More next time.

Landmarks and Downloads Section House Keeping

Just a quick note I'm in the process of straightening up the simcity 4 landmarks and downloads section as it has gotten a little messy in the past years, broken links are being fixed and I'm trying to stay on top of new downloads.

Also, be on the look out for some creations of my own as they will be made for download soon. More to come later.

NYCJ in the News

In the news? The New York City Journals?

Apparently so. My little project appeared to attract interest from forumers, the blogosphere and even major news sites and magazines. I’m going to put up a section about the converge of this project from others.

(Sidenote: I was going to put it up earlier but didn’t want to seem boastful but I think it would be nice for those who are interested to see what others have to say about my New York recreation project.)

NYCJ Goes Big on Digg: "New York Recreated in SimCity"- 12/12/06

Gothamist: “The Big (Simulated) Apple”-12/12/06

A Brooklyn Life: “Brownstone Living In Sim City 4”-12/12/06,
http://www.abrooklynlife.com/2006/12/brownstone_livi.html

Orlando Sentinel, SimManhattan , blogs.orlandosentinel.com-12/12/06

New York Magazine: “And Just Wait for the Atlantic Yards Expansion Pack”- 12/13/06, http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2006/12/and_just_wait_for_the_atlantic_1.html

kotaku.com: “SimCity 4 Does New York”- 12/13/06,
http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/simcity/simcity-4-does-new-york-city-221381.php

Gridskipper.com: “New York, Now In Simcity Form”-12/13/06,

http://gridskipper.com/travel/new-york/new-york-now-in-simcity-form-221412.php

An interview I did with Jim Squires from thebbps.com about the New York City Journals, http://www.thebbps.com/blog/2006/12/15/speaking-simlish-in-nyc-an-interview-with-elliot-hanson

USA Today, “We Built This City”- 2/6/07,

http://blogs.usatoday.com/techspace/2007/02/we_built_this_c.html

New York City Journals makes front page news at Simtropolis-5/25/07.

3/11/08- NYCJ in Guinness Book of  World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008
I got news a while ago from a reader in the UK that they saw me in the 2008 Edition of the Guinness Book of Records Gamer's Edition. I went to my local bookstore yesterday to pick up a copy and I was surprised to see my name in the SimCity section on page 200 under "Most Dedicated Player." From the book:

"Elliot Hanson has been constructing the Big Apple in SimCity for nearly four years, "one pixel at a time." He has even reconstructed tributes to major events, such as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and 9/11. In his downtime, Elliot is working on re-creating San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC and Boston."
Thanks to my all readers and the writers of the Guinness Book of Records Gamer's Edition 2008. Be sure to pick up a copy, there's a lot of interesting facts about not just SimCity but also many different types of games.

3/21/08- NYCJ on Schmap.com


Thanks to Emma Williams, managing editor of Schmap Guides, for including my photo of Tom's Restaurant in the guide. You can view the photo at the following link:
http://www.schmap.com/newyork/restaurants_diners/#p=5935&i=5935_7.jpg

5/23/09- NYCJ on Squidoo

Thanks to Pixelrage for his calling the project "one of the biggest SimCity projects of all time!" and for including the project in his Squidoo lens, Sim City 4: It's Not A Game, It's A Hobby

More 3D Cities- New York and Portland

More brainstorming, ideas and wishful hoping about the next gen urban simulator :)

Examples of high resolution textures Google Earth



3D High poly model of Portland, OR from NC3D



More coming up later.

Next Gen Urban Simulation and Visualization

I've written about next gen urban simulation in the past before but I stumbled across a video today which made me think more about the direction of 3d visualization and how it applies to urban simulation games.



The video creators shows the game engine of CryTek 2 combined with renderings from Enodo

Here's some renderings from Enodo projects which hint at what a next gen simulator might look like.

Bryant Park rendering, NYC: Example of daytime lighting, fauna, shadows, sims and graphics

NYC Public Library: mid to high poly models

Bellagio, Las Vegas: example of textures and realism

La Defense, Paris: example of night lighting and traffic UI

If a urban simulation game were to be created similar to this players would need to a powerful graphics card to run it and a very good computer. But with computers getting more and more advanced and can handle more graphic intensive gaming. We'll wait and see or build our own ;)

More next time

Midtown in the Making

Midtown is (slowly) coming along with some help from the NYBAT team. 570 Lexington, and 599 Lexington Citigroup. Here's pictures of the latest developments:

 

More next time.