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Screenshot Analysis There are many official and unofficial screenshots of SimCity 4 out there on the internet. We gathered a few shots and did an analysis of each part. Click on the red areas of the following screenshots to see a description of what that is or what that is believed to be. 
Those impossible row houses: Everyone loves the look of a beutiful SimCity. In SimCity 3000, however, it was sometimes hard to get a good looking city. Well, that may have changed in SimCity 4. In the screenshot, you can see those row houses on the top left. They are all facing the street! Whats more, they all have the same general look (color, height, etc.)! This means row houses propbably affect other buildings in the area in order to make more row houses, and combine all that, and you have one realistic looking downtown. Back to Screenshot Red, yellow, green? Maxis has advertised a better traffic model in this new SimCity. And in the screenshot above, you can see it in action. There are two strange arrows in the screenshot. They are both green, and they turn in two diffrent directions. Both are near intersections. These are the visual representations of traffic lights. It sort of goes back to the origianal SimCity where you had a small cross in an intersection with varying colors (red or green) to show which street has a green light. This time, the "traffic light" will have a more important role. They will be syncronizable (because both arrows turn at the same time), they will show how the cars turn and in which direction the cars can go. The only questions are this: Can these be visually turned off? I don't know. Is this the final representation of traffic lights in the game? I wouldn't be too surprised, but if they change it, don't blame me. This leads us to the next part... Back to Screenshot Pedestrians? Where? The traffic model is far from finished. SimCity 4 will boast a realistic traffic model with traffic lights (see above) pedestrians, etc. However this hasn't been synchronized. If you were to continue watching the movie that the screenshot above was taken from, you would see that green blur at that intersection in the middle go right through a bunch of pedestrians that were crossing the street. And nothing happens to the car or the pedestrians. So the traffic model still needs to be worked on a little. Back to Screenshot Parking is never a problem: Look at that parking lot! It has cars in it! Thats a first for a SimCity. Usually parking lots were just filler tiles that served no purpose. This parking lot isn't. Throughout the movie, the cars disappear, reappear, and the lot is actually in use. That means we'll have a realistic traffic model for sure. One thing though. The cars don't actually drive into or out of the lot. They sort of disappear or appear in the finest of SimCity 3000 style (cars dis/appearing on the road). Oh well, we can't have everything. On a side note, cars also disappear on the road in SimCity 4. If you look closely at the road towards the left throughout the movie, you'll see a truck drive on it and then disappear near the end. In that sense, the traffic model is not ultra-realistic. Back to Screenshot Huge bus stops again: Once again, we'll see those huge, one by one bus stops. However, something looks diffrent about this one. It seems to be in a plaza. Look carefully. There are two buildings around it, and a lot of concrete as well. Maybe filler tiles have grown more intelligent. This could be a sign that filler tiles actually fill an area with proper stuff. Asphalt around a bus stop and in front of two commercial buildings! In any case, it looks great. Back to Screenshot That dude is going fast! It used to be (in SimCity 3000) that highways weren't used by the sims. Based on the video, it looks like highways are driven on. And the cars can go quite a bit faster. On the normal roads, cars are very distinct and you can see what they look like. However, whenever driving on a highway, a car looks like a strange blur, implying speed. So maybe we will see highways that people actually use. You never know. Back to Screenshot Open space, anybody? Look at that road carefully. It is going diagonally. Look at that building carefully. It isn't going diagonally. It is in the normal SimCity position, always straight, never diagonal. In one of the screenshot in the Computer Gaming World magazine, however, we see that there is a parking lot along a diagonal road. Perhaps that was a fake screenshot. In any case, it looks as though Maxis has not fixed the building rotation, and buildings cannot directly face a diagonal road. Back to Screenshot Props in action: We can see something very interesting in this part of the screenshot: a full prop. Not very exciting, as we've seen them in other screenshots, but with this prop, you can see something very interesting. It is obvious in this shot that the prop covers several windows. So buildings won't have special places for props, most likely, but props such as the ad in that right building will cover windows. I had thought that the props would be in special blank areas of the building. I guess I was wrong. Back to Screenshot Them raised highways again: Once again, in SimCity 4, we have raised highways. This has always been in SimCity (or at least since 2000) and it seems as though it will always remain. Of course, a question is raised. Will this be the only type of highway, or will we be allowed to choose a ground level or sunken highway? We don't know yet. The raised highway will probably remain the only type, but we certainly can hope. I personally believe the reason the highways are always above ground is because it make the onramps easier to make. Thats my idea anyway. In any case, we'll see if ground level/sunken highways appear in future screenshots. Back to Screenshot A real avenue: See the street in the upper right hand corner of the screenshot? That seems to be an avenue. No other explanation. We have a highway in the screenshot, we have a regular road in the screenshot, and from other screenshots, we can see that that is not one of the auto-generated roads that go through subdivisions. Gotta be an avenue. This time, I think the avenue will be a road type of its own. Why? Well, look at the color of the anvenue. It is a darker black than the other roads. The avenue doesn't look like it could be created out of two normal roads. You will likely have the option to choose road, avenue, or highway. And we'll see how each developes. Maybe avenues will have trees in the median in future screenshots. We'll kepp watching. Back to Screenshot |
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