Improved city view?

Kirejara

King
Joined
Jun 21, 2012
Messages
859
Location
Northern Germany
I know that the city view is pure eye candy and is only available in the main game. However each time I open it, the city looks more like a half deserted town from a Italo Western, but not like a prosperous metropole. :(


The Iroquois City of London has got population of 818000 citizen - but where do they live? :rolleyes:

On my search for a solution I found this:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=1471563&postcount=19

While this is a little too crowded, it looks way better then the original "city".

But my search for the author Ismailov and/or his patch were unsuccessful.

Does anyone still have got this patch? Or how could I increase the number of civilian buildings for a more realistic view?

I could imagine, that there is a variable in one of the text files, but where?


Thanks for Your help!
 
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That city view patch won't work with mods right?
 
Thanks Civinator,

but all links to the complete package are broken. Either they are no longer available at apolyton or the were on www.civ3files.com, that is dead. :(

I think, that I have got most of the basic files out of the thread. But the town graphics are missing.


Yes, this is the same city as above. ;)

I hope that someone have got the complete NewCityView.zip in his/her archive.

That city view patch won't work with mods right?
Unfortunatly no. It is only a graphic patch.
 
Ok, some quick success.

I have created the town backgrounds myself using the workshop files from Ismailov.


Freshly founded Istanbul in 4000 BC (Can you spot the royal cave? ;) ).

It is made quick and dirty, but it seems to work and looks at least adequate. :blush: ;)

I have attached my files.

EDIT: I obviously failed to upload the zip file correctly. :( :blush:
 
Ok, some quick success.

I have created the town backgrounds myself using the workshop files from Ismailov.


Freshly founded Istanbul in 4000 BC (Can you spot the royal cave? ;) ).

It is made quick and dirty, but it seems to work and looks at least adequate. :blush: ;)

I have attached my files.

EDIT: I obviously failed to upload the zip file correctly. :( :blush:

Kirejara, could you please try to do your upload again? :)
 
I hope it works this time.

In Background.zip are only the backgrounds for small city (up to size 6). The other background files are still available on the apolyton forum.

But I am still working on the buildings, since many of them needed a more solid underground, so that the buildings of the background picture are no longer visible under a wonder or improvement (this is especially a problem of the palace and some of the central placed wonders).
 

Attachments

  • Backgrounds.zip
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I hope it works this time.

In Background.zip are only the backgrounds for small city (up to size 6). The other background files are still available on the apolyton forum.

But I am still working on the buildings, since many of them needed a more solid underground, so that the buildings of the background picture are no longer visible under a wonder or improvement (this is especially a problem of the palace and some of the central placed wonders).

Kirejara, thank you very much. Now it works. :) It seems these background images also still need a lot of palette working for all but grasland underground.
 
It seems these background images also still need a lot of palette working for all but grasland underground.
So do the background images made by Ismailov also. ;)

I am working on that too (hopefully without adding new errors to the patch, as I am colorblind).
 
I think the Backgrounds look better adjusting the Brightness, Contrast and Color.
Grassland Background 5% Darker, 10% Higher Contrast and adding 5% more color.
Other Backgrounds require different adjustment levels but all originals appear far too washed out.
 
Thanks Vuldacon,

contrast and brightness seems to be the solution for at least plains, grassland and tundra.

I put grassland on -10% brightness and +20% contrast.


Nicaea in Grassland

Plains and tundra receive a more aggressive -20% brightness and +40% contrast.


Kopenhavn in Tundra (please note that the Vikings are still in the industrial age, while the other cities are in the modern age).


Barcelona on Plains

But I am still struggling with the desert


Lagash in the Desert

I did not mess with the colors themsself yet. ;)

Buildings are still unmodified from Firaxis (infrastruktur, skyscrapers and wonders) and Ismailov (quarters).

What do you think?
 
Personally I don't like these multiple small houses. Looks like a trash (it was my first thought - "Umm, time to clean up the city!"). But, again, it's my personal point of view, people may like it - and it's OK, just different tastes. :)
 
I like these more crowded cities a lot, especially as the next version of my mod will have a city view again, but there is still much work to do. :)
 
I have added undergrounds so far to the Royal Cave, Marketplace, University and Barracks.



But I think I have got the colors partly wrong and the grounds require more structure. Especially the Royal Cave looks more like a Royal Swamp. :blush:

Some of the background buildings will be razed in the future to reduce overlapping.

Also in Size 1 towns the most outboard lying houses are cut through by the City Walls. So Size 1 towns will be shrinked.
 
A little and slow progress.

The Palace Garden are now with grass (and without living quarters between ;) ) and my underground is now a more fitting brown green (so I hope! :blush: ).


This is the capital of the Vikings (KI). So the only overhauled buildings are the Palace Garden and the Barracks.
 
Kirejara... Looks like all is coming along Well.

When changing the Brightness, Contrast and Color levels, the same will need to be applied to the other Graphic Structures that will be seen on them.
For this reason, unless the same is applied to all Backgrounds, the Structures will appear differently on each Background. Therefore, you can try to gain a "happy medium" with the Structures to accommodate the different Backgrounds but this needs to be done.

This is the "across the board" difficulty in making the adjustment changes for all City View graphics.

Bottom line for now... looking Good and a worthy endeavor :)
 
I do like the more populated-looking city. I wonder though, is it possible to expand the boundaries of the city and still have it look fairly normal? One of the things that stands out in post #11 is that the circular structure of the city seems really obvious. It's always been there, but it was less evident when there were fewer buildings. It seems like a city would expand more organically and peter out gradually, rather than fit exactly within a circle.

I suppose walls are what would make the circular shape make sense, both visually and historically. So perhaps it might be cool to see what one of these cities looks like with walls, too.
 
I like it. Anyway to make city view available in scenarios? I play my own world map, but i really miss the city view :/ I liked to see the destruction i caused while at war.
 
Ok, here are the requested walled cities views


Huamanga (Size 5)


Cuzco (Size 8)

At Town size the walls are running right through some of the background quarters, as You can see.

A possible solution is to remove some of the background quarters (as I have to do for example in the temple area) and/or give the walls some solid underground and maybe some trees.

No new progress yet, I am sorry. :blush:

And I will further try using Vuldacon advice on the other background pictures.
 
I like it. Anyway to make city view available in scenarios? I play my own world map, but i really miss the city view :/ I liked to see the destruction i caused while at war.

IIRC isn't either the city or palace view dependent on using Conquests.biq? Meaning you could replace the default file with your mod. I'm thinking it was only the palace view, but then what determines if the city view is enabled?
 
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