Google Earth New York: Midtown Skycrapers

Last week I showed you the Financial District of Manhattan in my other New York recreation project, Google Earth New York. Today we'll head to Midtown, Manhattan's bustling business center.


The Midtown skyline looking up from 42nd Street.



Bloomberg Tower on 57th Street

100 United Nations Plaza next to Trump World Tower.

860 and 880 United Nations Plaza across the street on 1st Avenue.

The Austrian Cultural Forum near Fifth Avenue.

The Corinthian Apartments near the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.

Park Avenue Tower on 55th Street.

425 Fifth Avenue.


The Bryant Park Hotel (formerly the American Radiator Building)


The New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.

The Lever House on Park Avenue.

The world famous Plaza Hotel next to Central Park.

Across the street from the Plaza Hotel is the new Apple Store encased in a glass cube and hidden under the plaza outside the General Motors Building.

Nearby is the Four Seasons Hotel.

More to come next time.

Manhattan Transportation Map

Just a quick update today from Sim New York to show the road network and infrastructure.



All of the roads are laid out including the complex network of diagonal streets in the West Village. Even the Highline is placed as indicated by the black curvy line running through Chelsea. The green dots represent parks (or buildings located in the park menu). The map isn't entirely accurate but it's close.

More next time.

Storm Floods Subway System and Spawns Brooklyn Tornado

A severe storm this morning dumped nearly 2 inches of rain on the city and flooded most of the subway tracks around the city; shutting down the entire subway system around the city. Every line was effected and commuters who use the subway to get to work were advised to "stay home if they could" by MTA officals. Some parts of the elevated subway system in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx were blocked by downed trees.

The Long Island Railroad service is suspended due to the tracks at the Bayside Station being completely flooded and Metro-North service was temporarily suspended.

This is not the first time the New York subway has been flooded. In 2004 Hurricane Francis dumped more than three inches of rain on the city and turned stairs in subway stations into waterfalls.

Roadways were also effected by the severe storm. Many motorists in New Jersey were trapped in their cars due to the high water. In Williamsburg Brooklyn many streets were also flooded including high trafficked Broadway.

To make the situation worse. A rare F2 tornado touched down in Brooklyn ripping some roofs off of houses and apartments, toppling trees (or ripping the tops completely off), and blowing out windows in buildings in the Bay Ridge and Kensington neighborhoods. Con Edison is urging residents in Brooklyn to conserve energy as the clean up effort gets under way. Con Ed fears the heat advisory today is likely to put a strain on the on the power grid.

Tornadoes are a rare occurrence in New York but are becoming more frequent. On July 18th an F1 touched down in a nearby suburb of New York, Islip Long Island. Last year an F2 tornado touched down in Hawthorne and Mount Pleasant, 20 miles north of New York in Westchester County. Less than 10% of tornadoes recorded in the US reach F2 scale.

At least one person was killed in the violent storm. Today's storm is one of the most destructive and most likely costly in recent New York history. Some studies suggest the increase in Tornado activity and severe weather in the New York area is due global warming. Many other studies show rainfall patterns and amounts are already changing on a global scale.

How To: Taking SimCity to the Next Level

This section of the blog is how to advice on where to find some of the best 3ds models for SimCity to how make the game even more realistic to gmax tutorials.

Updated 7/6/08

-Giant List of SimCity Tutorials and Videos

Simprograms.com has some great tutorials for SimCity players. Check out their long list of SmiCity tutorials and videos.

-How to Create Custom Automata for SimCity 4

Fellow Simmer Vester_DK has written some great articles on anything and everything relating to how to make custom automata for SimCity 4. You can read them here.

-How to Create Custom Queries

Here's a handy tutorial about how to make a custom query for all the modders out there. Download the UI Editor Tool and then follow this tutorial.

-3ds Max Video Tutorial

Since BAT uses Gmax and Gmax is very similar to 3ds Max (with some features removed) I've found some videos which will help people getting started with the basics of BAT.

1. Getting Started with the Interface



2. Customization of Interface



3. Edit Mesh



4. Edit Poly



For a complete tutorial on how to make a building in BAT from scratch refer to the Simtropolis Omnibus section's BAT tutorials.

-How To Make BAT's for SimCity 4 in Sketchup

I've gotten a number of requests about how to make custom content for SimCity. The most obvious way to do this is with the gmax add-on for SimCity 4, BAT. BAT is based off of Gmax which is similar to 3ds Max minus a couple of additional features. If you've never made anything in 3D before Gmax will be a little difficult to get the hang of and your early work won't be as accurate as you would like. Many people who don't have 3D skills put requests in the BAT Request Thread only to have them (mostly) ignored. Or they wish they could have the great skills of their favorite BAT artist. Now they can.

A simple 3D modeling application that I'm starting to model my buildings in is Sketchup. Sketchup is almost like a 3D drawing tool and it is very easy to use whether your a beginner or a longtime 3D modeler. Even someone with no 3d modeling expeirence can make a fairly decent building in about an hour. You'll have to render your building in BAT (BAT for Max is preferable if you have the money to spend on 3ds Max); by using Sketchup to create your buildings you can cut down on the time it takes to make.

You can download a free 30-day trial version of Sketchup at www.sketchup.com

Here's some great video tutorials created by the author of Sketchup for Dummies to get you started with making 3D creations in Sketchup for SimCity.

1. Making a Quick Model in Sketchup



2. Understanding Edges and Faces



3. Using SketchUp Components



4. Select and Replace



5. Putting It All Together

Once you've created your model in Sketchup you can export it in a format that can be imported by BAT, 3ds. Go to File-Export-3DS. You're model should now export to your chosen destination and you can import it into BAT, texture it and render it for SimCity 4. Sketchup even has a network link to Google's 3D Warehouse where you can download 3D models.

-Nightlighting Tutorial

So you've got your building ready to go after days or weeks of hard work. You may have created it from scratch or converted it from Sketchup by following my tutorial. All that needs to be done is nightlighting.

Here's a simple nightilghting tutorial to finalize your buildings.

Happy BATting!

How to Get Sketchup Models into SimCity

This tutorial explains how to use Sketchup models for SimCity.

Download tutorial-94.97 KB.

Google Earth New York

Image: concept3d.com

Another update of the continually growing Google Earth New York, my other 3D New York recreation. Here's some sights from the Financial District.

Hanover Square near Wall Street



The Banker's Trust Building on Wall Street



The Cube in the Plaza of the HSBC Building (formerly the Marine Midland Bank Building)


17 State Street at the tip of Lower Manhattan near Battery Park



The Police Museum near FDR Drive



88 Pine Street (also known as Wall Street Plaza)


The Wall Street corridor at Broadway



Stay tuned for more next time.

Sunday Drive in the Park

A nice Sunday afternoon drive along the 79th Street Transverse Road in Central Park.

Around Town: Summer in New York

It's the middle of summer in New York City. Here are a couple of popular New York summer spots from around the town. First stop the Brooklyn Heights Promenade.

The Brooklyn Heights Promenade is a great place to stroll along on a nice summer day and take in the dramatic views of the city riverside. See the views.



Next up a great summer spot in the Village, Washington Square Park. Surrounded by the New York University campus Washington Square Park is the backyard of Greenwich Village (and is also the unofficial "quad" of NYU).



Sit and relax by the fountain, play with your dog at the new dog run or pick a shady spot and watch the street performers.

Finally, we head to the Theater District to the Ed Sullivan Theater where The Late Show with David Letterman is filmed.



In the summertime at 53rd and Broadway tourist can be often seen waiting in line to get tickets to the Late Show. Some may stop by Rupert G's deli around the corner or crowd around to see the celebrity guests get out of their limos. Though tonight taping has ended and the only way to see the show is on TV.

We'll have more next time.

One Year Anniversary of The New York City Journals

Has it been one year already?

It has, in fact its been a little more than a year since I embarked on this project.The time has gone by so fast it seems, yet much was done in just a year for a project this size. NYCJ took a trip to the lesser know islands of New York, celebrated holidays and even got a bit of media attention earlier this year. Sim New York continues to grow up and out (much like its real life counter part).

I've put together a video of the best of the New York City Journals from the past year for those who don't want to sift through the archives for previous updates.

And there's still much left to do; buildings to BAT and neighborhoods to create. Stay tuned because there's much, much more to come.

Google Earth New York Grows

Image: concept3d.com

Google Earth New York (my other New York recreation project) is growing by leaps and bounds thanks to some major updates at the 3D Warehouse by the talented Sketchup model maker's. Here's a quick look around the city to see what's going on.

Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.




Shea Stadium in Queens


The U.S. Tennis Center next door in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.


The Queensboro Bridge


The Metropolitan Museum of Art


Park Avenue (looking south from 57th Street)


A re-textured Flatiron Building


Heading south along Fifth Avenue into Greenwich Village we glide over Washington Square Arch in Washington Square Park.


The Financial District is nearing completion.


The Manhattan Bridge


The Brooklyn Bridge (now with textures)


The TWA Terminal at JFK Airport


The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which is the longest suspension bridge in the United States. It connects Brooklyn to Staten Island.


Again, all these creation are available for download in Google Earth at the 3D Warehouse.

$225,000 New York Parking Space

Some quick weekend news for today about parking spaces going for a pretty penny on the West Side.

A new condo development offered guaranteed parking spaces in the garage of the development for as much as $225,000 per space. The cost of the actual condos are separate from the cost of the parking space. Many people signed up for a parking spot of their own and all of the space quickly sold out when word spread. Now there is a waiting list of other potential buyers wanting to get parking relief in a city where parking is often a nightmare.

Some parking space owners are selling their spots to others and buying them as money making investments- some don't even own a car. One owners spot even doubled in value over the past year. Many other condo developments are now doing the same thing all over the city to get in on the parking space real estate boom.

New York isn't the only city where parking space can go for as much as the cost of a home; Boston parking spaces can go for as much as $125,000 and Chicago spaces sell for as much as $75,000.

Could we be entering a parking space bubble? Only realtor's know :) You can read more about these pricey parking spaces in this New York Times piece.

Happy Independence Day

Macy's Fourth of July firework show near the Statue of Liberty.

New York in the Making: A Bit of Brooklyn and Queens

It’s time again to take a sneak peak behind the scenes for a bit of Brooklyn and Queens in the making. First up, Queens.

Development is expanding east into Queens and is moving up towards LaGuardia Airpot. The streets are laid out as far north as Astoria. There’s a bit of splotchy development in eastern Queens around Flushing Meadows Park and the Richmond Hill neighborhood.

Here’s an in the making shot of a neighborhood in Queens called Sunnyside. You can see 7 Line elevated tracks above Queens Boulevard also.



Brooklyn has a bit more development going on. The boroughs streets are laid out all the way from Bay Ridge to Greenpoint and as far east as Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Another in the making shot of Park Slope with a bit of Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens showing at the top.



Here’s a reference map for those who don’t know New York that well.



More to come next time.

SimCity Socities Video

SimCity Societies recently did a video with 1up about the upcoming game- and it bombed with the SimCity community.

The video shows developers giving a tour of various overly simplified cities and explaining how those cities work. For instance, if you plop a chocolate factory down in a communist style city where people are unhappy and overworked residents will suddenly become happy because of the presence of the chocolate factory.

Or plopping down a clown college in the middle of an industrial sector will make clowns appear in that area and make the industrial workers "dance". (Possibly to the YMCA) You can also make a haunted city by plopping graveyards down and eventually a "zombie apocalypse" (yes a developer actually said that) will occur. (Not related to the zombie invasion in San Fransisco )

The description of different societies seemed a bit over simplified and even seems to be pushing stereotypical views of different world cities.

The graphics looked rushed and the automata zipped around city streets at what seemed like an unsafe speed. At one point the designer himself seemed to be holding back laughter either at the a glitch in the game or what was being told to 1up by his a fellow developer.

SimCity is not about plopping down gum drop houses on candy cane lane or about police states which round up gangs of mimes and clowns roaming about the streets of industrial sectors.

SimCity is about building cities and urban planning. Terrafroming terrain, building transportation networks, planning out power grids and underground water pipes. Managing a city budget and watching your creation evolve and grow over time. That is SimCity. SimCity: Socities is not SimCity.

Will there be a SimCtiy 5? Maybe, maybe not. Thankfully, the SimCity community is heard by developers at Monte Cristo who are currently developing a more SimCity like game. Cities Unlimited.

Summertime in the City

People are out and about on the first (official) day of Summer, especially in Central Park.

The height of the tourist season is heating up and people are enjoying the warm weather. A nice spot many people are enjoying this first day of Summer is the Literary Walk in The Mall.


This a good spot to walk, jog while listening to your favorite tunes on your ipod or just to sit back and people watch.

More sights and sounds next time.

City Life Sequel in Production: Cities Unlimited

More breaking news from Monte Cristo. Monter Cristo gave the leading SimCity fansite, Simtropolis.com, an exclusive interview with developer Phillipe Da Silva.

Though, the game won't be called City Life 2. Instead the "internal code name" is currently "Cities Unlimited" and has been under construction for 14 months.

More clues about the Cities Unlimited game from the developer, "We are drastically stepping up our ambition in term of graphical quality and we want to get closer to what people expect in terms of city management.

We will also use the fact that, as an independent studio, we have a freedom of creation to bring some never experimented before features that we are convinced will get you exited a lot."

"On weather and disasters, we have already made some internal tests and we are looking on how they could integrate in the game. Weather discussions are mainly on the graphics side while disaster discussions are more on the game design aspects where we want to know how this could benefit the game play (preparing your city for them? managing the after effects? Etc...)"

"...we won't leave behind and that we’ll even improve with a lot of small animated events in your city that makes it even more realistic such as someone yelling after a bus because he missed it, pedestrians walking by and suddenly stopping to talk to each other, or even a car almost hitting a pedestrian..."

Sounds to be gearing up to be a great alternative to SimCity Societies. We'll have more on the development of Cities Unlimited as it progresses. Stay tuned for more.

New York in SimCity Video

I've put together a video recapping the project for new users who don't want to dig through the archives of previous updates. So sit back, relax and enjoy.

City Life 2 in Production?

There is current speculation based on a recent screenshot Monte Cristo is currently developing the next title to the City Life franchise: City Life 2. The screenshot below is from a blog by a Monte Cristo employee who is giving the fans a sneak peak at what's coming up.



And fans are excited about City Life 2. For most people in the SimCity community this is what SimCity Societies should look like and City Life Unlimited gives the fans what they were are hoping for and an alternative to SimCity Socities.

An official website will be launched in October for the game.

Stay tuned for more developments on City Life 2.

EA Announces SimCity Socities and New Screenshots

EA launched the official website of SimCity Societies last night giving those who had SimCity 4 set as their homepage a little surprise this morning.

New screenshots are showcased there. Though, the quality of the screenshots are debatable as personal perception, age of viewer and the viewers gaming expeirence (with current and previous versions SimCity and similar strategy games) plays a role in qualifying the quality of screenshots the screenshots suggest the game is going toward a younger target audience or the fan base of the Sims.



In one screenshot the skyline has a depiction of the Chrysler Building, possibly suggesting landmarks will be included. The Chrysler Building looks in-accurate and stylized which goes along with what president of Tilted Mill, Chris Beatrice, heavily hinted at: SimCity Societies will be about building cities, but it will not be a urban simulation game like SimCity 4. Will Wright, creator of SimCity, stated the game got to difficult for the average player and is going back to its "roots"



Also, the stoplights are based off of New York stoplights and look familiar from another place.

Some people are suggesting initial screenshots of SimCity 4 looked better the latest screenshots of SimCity Societies. You decide.



Others are suggesting that this is not SimCity 5 but rather a spin off on the SimCity title as it is called SimCity Socities.

Stay tuned for more developments.

SimCity Community Attempting to Make They're Own Version of SimCity 5

After the initial screenshots of SimCity Socities was released to the fans the almost every member of the SimCity community was in an uproar. (to say the least)

While many were dismayed and angry a hardcore others put their energy toward a more ambitious project. A hardcore group of fans plan to make their own version of SimCity 5 dubbed Simtropolis 1000(working title)

This is not the first game being developed from the ground up by the fan base, other online communities have done it before. Currently, developers of Simtropolis 1000 are in the initial product development phase: organizing the team, scouting out programmer's and deciding which free game engine should be used.

While this is an exciting project to see being made because it is a game being designed by the fans for the fans it brings up some important questions.

What does Tilted Mill and EA think of this? Are seen as competition to the franchise?
There are also legal issues to deal with if the game actually reaches completion such as copyright and trademark issues of SimCity and certain concepts within SimCity.

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see what becomes of this. As they old adage goes, "if you want something done right you have to do it yourself."

Manhattan in the Making

Today we'll take a trip around Manhattan and see how the island is progressing. Our first stop Upper Manhattan.

The region begins (or ends depending on how you look at it) in Upper Manhattan just north of the George Washing ton Bridge in Washington Heights.

Neighborhoods shown are Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights and Harlem in Manhattan. Across the Hudson River are Fort Lee, Edgewater and Cliffside Park in New Jersey.



Local landmarks so far include George Washington Bridge (marked by the temporary Maxis bridge), City College of New York (which is comprised of the default Maxis university buildings), the Hispanic American Society, Highbridge Park and Riverbank State Park.

Next stop, the South Bronx. The South Bronx makes up the majority of the area on the map.



While a small sliver of Upper Manhattan makes up the rest of Manhattan.

Neighborhoods shown are Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, Harlem in Manhattan. Across the Harlem River in the Bronx is Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, Morrisania, High Bridge, Morris Heights, Tremont and East Tremont.

Local landmarks so far include Yankee Stadium (signified by the default Maxis baseball stadium), the Bronx Courthouse, St Mary’s Park, and a portion of Crotona Park, Macombs Dam Bridge and the 3rd Avenue Bridge.

Next up we’ll keep heading south into the Upper East Side.



Neighborhoods as indicated are East Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Carnegie Hill, Yorkville and the Upper East Side, Lenox Hill and northern Midtown.

Local landmarks include Central Park ,the Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum, Cooper Hewitt Museum, Museum of the City of New York Mt. Sinai Hospital, Triboro Bridge, Queensboro, the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, Roosevelt University, Central Park Zoo, the Metropolitan Club, and the Solow Building.




Most of the development of the area is centered around Fifth, Madison and Park Avenue. While there is even development on the streets 118th Street is the only street which has buildings lining the entire length of the street.

SimCity 5 Announced!

Image from 1up.com

Rumors have been flying around the net for the past couple of years that SimCity 5 was in the works. Today official news was posted about the upcoming title of SimCity, SimCity Societies.

Development is being handed off from EA/ Maxis to Tilted Mill. Chris Beatrice, Tilted Mill developer responded today to comments from the SimCity community over at the Tilted Mill forums,

Chris Beatrice, Tilted Mill developer.

"Given the somewhat heated nature of this thread, and the hazards of misinformation, I thought it would be a good idea for me to drop in and say a few things. First let me say, as always, thank you so much for the attention and diligence so many of you show toward TMill and our projects.

When the new SC comes out we'll obviously leave it to you to decide whether you love it, hate it... or fall somewhere in between, or whether you even choose to play it at all. I hope you do try it, and I really hope that you do not pass judgment based on the title or some preliminary speculation on some web site.

However, I do not want to mislead anyone: This SC is not a realistic urban simulation, which I understand, to many, represents the heart of what SC is. No one is blind to that. And if you're just completely turned off, even angered by the mere notion of any game called "SimCity" that is not a detailed, realistic urban simulator, I absolutely understand that viewpoint, and absolutely respect it. Passionate fans like you are the lifeblood of the gaming industry, and that is one reason why TMill provides what I think is a great outlet for this type of discussion and even complaint. But please keep in mind the irony in that - we are just a lowly developer after all :)

I do want to say, though (with no insult intended to die hard SC fans) that we are absolutely thrilled to be a part of this venerable series, are extremely proud of what we have put together, and make no apologies about what we have managed to create. And while our past experiences (including contributions from many of you) certainly inform all our ongoing efforts, this SC is its own unique creation.

- Chris"


1up.com has a exclusive sneak preview of SimCity Societies. Go and see it here.

New York in SimCity Societies? We'll have to wait and see. Stay tuned for more developments on SimCity Societies.