MAP EDITOR: build real cities with overlay and a map!

How do get the scale right?

cheers thanks for the info... ive been using a similar program called "ghost it" with the same premise. The road/scale thing can be tricky tho, especially when moving the map/editor to line up again when moving along the map you are editing. and also important to keep the map 100% flat - no tilts all the way through etc or else then the streets dont line up.....

Great, I hope this function of transparency could be intergrated into the next patch!

And better have a ruler in the editor!

While that's neat, a much better long term solution would to be to allow an image to be projected onto the terrain in the editor.

I agree, that's pretty neat.

However, it's a nightmare for me to try to work with.

Getting a map in Google Chrome to a transparent value that makes the editor still workable for me proved impossible plus the constant moving around in both the editor and map and keeping them lined up properly proved to be time consuming that really necessary.

Much simpler (for those that have dual or more monitors) to keep a view of the map up on one monitor and simply "eyeball" it in the map editor. I think when I'm done with Addison Mountains (a fictional map) I will likely put up a real world map of someplace like the San Fernando valley in California on my 2nd monitor and just wing it, or eyeball it to try to create a map that is at least based on a real life location even if I don't take it to the point of drawing every last street.

Truly a much better solution would be something that needs to come from CO, one mentioned above to project an image onto the terrain, which would be snapped onto the landscape so that it does not shift, and will rotate with the camera etc and still be transparent enough to allow you to see what you've placed as far as roads, buildings etc

Ingenious solution! Very nice

Great contribution Ola! Well explained both here and in the video! Seems like a great and perhaps more user friendly alternative to using the 1km grid as the reference.

Added this thread, the video tutorial and the overlay app to the list back at Realistic City Fanatics.

Looking forward to seeing the maps everyone comes up with! I find transportation networks based on real cities to be much more fun to play with. When given totally free hands creating a fictional map the layout often becomes too perfect. We tend to ignore the reality of slow progressing city planning in an existing populated environment and the compromises that comes with that reality, as has been the case with almost every major city in the world.

jq371 said:

cheers thanks for the info... ive been using a similar program called "ghost it" with the same premise. The road/scale thing can be tricky tho, especially when moving the map/editor to line up again when moving along the map you are editing. and also important to keep the map 100% flat - no tilts all the way through etc or else then the streets dont line up.....

Click to expand...

I also find when shifting the map and editor It is very difficult to line it up again. It just needs a smaller increment when shifting so you don't overshoot. Very frustrating

As have been suggested by people before, we need a "reset view" button that aligns the camera perfectly in all axis.

Another problem i'm having is that the camera height is relative to the ground elevation. It makes maintaining the correct zoom level difficult after the topographical editing is done.