[Noisemaker]

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TORONTO! :rolleyes:

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc485/TheNoisemaker/DowntownNight.jpg

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc485/TheNoisemaker/LakeshoreNight.jpg

Kinda getting hooked on this Night Texturing now. Really livens up the old ghost town after sunset I find.

[Mipman25]

Looks great, Steven!

[CrisGer]

I love night lighting too, it is a lot of fun, nice pics. I am experimenting with night lit backdrops too, that is another way to fool the aged engine of MSTS to give us some more reality.

[Bernie]

Wow, great job! :rolleyes: I wholeheartedly agree, once you get hooked on night texturing it's oodles of fun and adds a whole new level to MSTS.

[Noisemaker]

The thing I like with these big towers is it's really only a few windows I have to do. Copy, paste, and offset on the next level. Copy, paste those two levels to the next below, and flip horizontally. Copy paste the four levels and so on. I was always daunted when I looked at these behemoths, but it's actually pretty easy once I get going. The other thing I think is best for realism is altering light textures for residence buildings.
As they tend to use different lights in each room. So many of the uploaded apartments and such tend to use static yellow or white in the windows. Nice from afar, but up close they tend to loose their realism.
So even those that don't know Toronto very well I think can probably get a quick sense of what are the 'condos' and what are the offices by my pics.

A good rule of thumb for you other big time developers. :rolleyes:

[captain_bazza]

Save the planet, turn those lights OUT; or should that be OOT, eh?

Cheers Bazza

[Bernie]

You are using Google Earth and so forth, correct? I visited Toronto a looong time ago, but the screenshot you posted were enough to elicit happy memories, so it's certainly got a good amount of realism! :oldstry:

[Noisemaker]

I live pretty well in the heart of the city, and have worked off and on downtown for 15 years. So I'm well aware of these big monoliths inside and out. :oldstry: But I think Toronto is second to Dubai in growth rate now, and I can't keep up with all the new buildings going up seemingly weekly. At least in Dubai, they have large expanses of land to build on. Here, it's 10 stories per square foot it seems. Here's a prime example - 1 King St. W. Was a nice old bank before, and they turned it into a luxury hotel. That's fine for the old building. But then they wanted to add residences to it. The tower directly behind the old building in the center of the pic is 40 to 50 stories tall, but at best 30ft wide from top to bottom.

http://www.onekingwest.com/images/gallery-hotel-02.jpg

To me, it's a disaster waiting to happen, One good gust of wind off the lake, and it comes down like a domino. But architects say it's sturdy. And just a block south to the left of the pic someone else has done it again directly beside The O'Keefe Center (Hummingbird, Sony - whatever the frig they're calling it now!) That patch of land was maybe 25ft wide, and the building is I think taller than 1 King W. I don't think any other city in North America or even Dubai is going as nuts as Toronto is. Donald Trump wanted to build his skinny hotel to be the BIGGEST building in the core - 85 stories tall, 75ft wide. Thankfully our 'Big 4 banks' talked him out of overshadowing their buildings. (probably had to pay him a cool sum under the table to keep it down) I used to really like this city. It was quaint, had character, and was progressive.
The last 10 or so years, it's just gotten insane. trying to rival New York or Chicago or Dubai itself - and I just don't think the city has really thought it through. Nothing against Donald Trump or big buildings. But Toronto has just lost all it's class for these 'pop up condos' that never seem to end now.

Keeps me busy in MSTS at least. :good: