Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

Technical Info about modding available!!

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Cities: Skylines 6586 Support & Bug Reports 462 Suggestions & feedback 3272 Modding & Resources 1954 Official Information & Announcements 154 City Journals and Let's Plays 503 Cities: Skylines Console & Windows 10 Edition 1113
Show only dev responses
I'm just going to re-post:


Here is Henkka Art's Reply:
(I'm pretty sure it's cool to post this here, seeing as how he posted it in public, relevant to the game being as good as it can be on release and Henkka is one of their designers, and the embargo is lifted, right?:

----------------------

Ah, sorry. I sort of messed it up somehow. Here it is. Hopefully it gives some preliminary information about how to start the process of creating a 3D model:

Start with ~1000 triangles for buildings (can be fewer triangles if smaller building like a detached house - the fewer the better performance-wise), going up to 10K+ triangles for really big, monument sized buildings but don't go too far over 10K tris. LOD models need to be as few triangles as possible, maximum of 100. Keeping it below 100 tris guarantees it actually works. LOD model does not need to be textured but it needs to be UV-mapped. LOD filename should end with "LOD.fbx".

Textures required/supported:
- diffuse
- normal map
- specular (grayscale, 100% white is reflective glass windows)
- alpha (greyscale)
- colormask (grayscale, white colored areas mean they are affected by set variable colors - i.e. you want same roof color but different colored walls, make the colormask white on the wall areas of the building)
- illumination (grayscale, illumination color is taken from the diffuse map)

File format is FBX (usually with X-axis of the pivot, not the building itself, rotated 90 degrees due to Unity's coordinate system).

If you are creating buildings for zoned areas, keep them within the 4x4 cell size (one cell is 8m x 8m) - can be also smaller than such as 3x2 cells and so forth. Ploppaples can be obviously bigger but don't go overboard.

P.s. A triangle is a three-sided polygon and is the most accurate way to calculate polygons since a polygon in itself doesn't tell how many sides/corners there are and of how many triangles it is made of. Also, check that the models don't have any ngons (polygons with more than 4 sides/corners). Only use either triangles or quads.
 
Yea at the time i posted this in all my enthusiastic feeling.. it got removed from and then replaced so I thought.. well lets not post it here directly because I don't know if it could bring him any trouble.
 
Plokoon111 said:
Sounds like I won't be modeling, this sounds confusing. Hopefully some tutorials come out in the next several months.
Click to expand...

Trust me, once you get the hang of these few terms you will think:.. " oh there was nothing to worry about. ".
For this to understand, you don't need months or even weeks. View a few video tutorials and you'll know what I mean.

Just model your building and keep the amount of triangles below the given numbers. All modeling software programs show you how many triangles you are currently using.

But modeling 'beautiful' models for the game will need time. That's with all things. That's why colossal order has a dev team with professional modelers. It a job :p.
 
Ne0Que said:
Yea at the time i posted this in all my enthusiastic feeling.. it got removed from and then replaced so I thought.. well lets not post it here directly because I don't know if it could bring him any trouble.
Click to expand...
Hehe... It was my fumbling with Reddit since I just started using it not that long ago. And about the 3D modeling info, well, there is nothing really that special in there. Most if not all of the info is what applies to all 3D modeling no matter what project you do from different texture types to file formats and so forth. If you really wanted to pick something that applied directly to Cities: Skylines, it would be the triangle amount per building and even that can be pretty much guessed by the trained eye when looking at the buildings in the dev diaries and videos.
 
Yeah I no what they meant with the faces or triangles. Obviously you will try to make features as less detailed as possible to save it from being to complicated with faces. Just the measurements on how big there tiles compared to when your working in the modeling program, or the textures for example.
 
We haven't embargoed modding information, we simply want to make sure all the details come out clear and concise, to avoid confusion and misinterpretation. That's why we're holding off, so we can get all the information presented in an organized and professional manner for release. Our intent certainly isn't to keep you in the dark, but we also don't want to give misinformation on such an important subject.

Hope that makes sense. But yes, this post is perfectly fine. Henkka is the subject matter expert and can be trusted =)
 
co_fiirdraak said:
Hehe... It was my fumbling with Reddit since I just started using it not that long ago. And about the 3D modeling info, well, there is nothing really that special in there. Most if not all of the info is what applies to all 3D modeling no matter what project you do from different texture types to file formats and so forth. If you really wanted to pick something that applied directly to Cities: Skylines, it would be the triangle amount per building and even that can be pretty much guessed by the trained eye when looking at the buildings in the dev diaries and videos.
Click to expand...

Well, i found the 1 zone tile = 8x8m very important :). Its simple information but that information allows me to scale up right.
There is just one more question: Are the lots separated? Do i need to model the lot stuff with the building or are these generated to create some randomness? If you want to keep the 'lot' information for later i'ts ok. but i want to know if i have to model hedges and fences.. stuff like that in with the building model.
 
Last edited:
Before signing off for today I just want to say that I hope the 3D-modeling basics I provided will be off some use. What comes to the actual modding that happens with the game, well, I can't really say much about that at this time. You'll just have to be patient with the dev diaries. It'll be here :) Just keep on learning the 3D-modeling software and trying out some basics and don't go overboard with your first buildings. I saw some detached houses you guys were doing and those are some of the smartest ways to start the process: keep it simple, keep it manageable.
:)
 
I understand most of those textures as they are similar to what I am used to from Sims modding. But I didn't understand the "illumination" one. Is that to define shadows/highlights like a bumpmap? Or does it literally mean areas of a building or object that are supposed to look as if they are a creating a light source (eg to take "fullbright" type shader?)
 
THANK YOU! Finally some handy details to get us started.

@Inge, Illumination is usually for things that emit light/glow in the dark. Say, a neon sign. Or the odd window that lights up during night.


Anyone who think all that info is daunting, fear not - I bet we're a bunch of weirdo's ready to make some tutorials or guides on how/what/why.
The poly count limitation and recommendations are actually quite good. I'm happy!
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info! I'm curious about this part:
- colormask (grayscale, white colored areas mean they are affected by set variable colors - i.e. you want same roof color but different colored walls, make the colormask white on the wall areas of the building)
Click to expand...

Does this mean there will be a separate file associated with each building type which specifies possible colors for, in this example, the walls? Then the sim randomly picks one to use when creating each instance of that building? Or is the set of possible colors shared between all building types in the city?

A useful future extension to this idea would be multiple color masks, e.g. solid magenta for wall color options, solid blue for roof color options. That would lead to even greater variation in building appearance in your city.
 
All that info will probably be presented in the dev diary about modding. (not this week, later). But i'ts great to know that his is supported. Many buildings are identical in the world but have different kind of colors for window frames.
 
@Klinn, I think you're spot on - I also interpret it like that.

In the greyscaled "colormask" (its function sounds like what a surfaceID is in compositing), make the walls white, and they will get random colors. This way, the building will be the same all over the city - but in different colors. Anything black in this map, will be given the colors painted in the diffuse map.
 
OlaHaldor said:
@Klinn, I think you're spot on - I also interpret it like that.

In the greyscaled "colormask" (its function sounds like what a surfaceID is in compositing), make the walls white, and they will get random colors. This way, the building will be the same all over the city - but in different colors. Anything black in this map, will be given the colors painted in the diffuse map.
Click to expand...

This feature could potentially be extended by defining a 'paint color ordinance' per building (in the building info screen, setting the colors). Wow. the possibilities. I like to have that control.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back