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Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

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Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#21

Post by csomar »

potatolicious wrote: post #14
brokentone wrote: post #8

Anyone have info about the beta program? Simcity 2000 was my favorite game on my 486. 3000 and classic were flops... this looks really really good. As for the article, really interesting. Sounds like proof of the power of SimCity's engine. Would be more interesting to see him fix his issue.

I got into the final wave of the beta over the weekend. Absolutely buying this on release day - gorgeous game and IMO a large improvement over previous installments. The only things that bother me is the limited size of the map (unsure if it's a beta thing or not) - if I can't build a megacity I'm going to be sorely disappointed. Traffic model, economic model, new zoning model, and new utilities model are all IMO sim…

Indeed, the city size is pretty limited. I don't think with their new GlassBox engine, your hardware is able to support big cities.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#22

Post by msrpotus »

arrrg wrote: post #17
JoshTriplett wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

s/voted/appointed/ in most cities.

My uneducated opinion is that appointed/career people tend to do better. You do not want to get politics involved, that tends to screw things up.

Who do you think appoints those people? It's all about politics, either directly or indirectly.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#23

Post by potatolicious »

webjunkie wrote: post #20
potatolicious wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got into the final wave of the beta over the weekend. Absolutely buying this on release day - gorgeous game and IMO a large improvement over previous installments. The only things that bother me is the limited size of the map (unsure if it's a beta thing or not) - if I can't build a megacity I'm going to be sorely disappointed. Traffic model, economic model, new zoning model, and new utilities model are all IMO sim…

What video card are you using? Mine was apparently too old, so I'm looking for a new one.

Two GTX570's in SLI - I'm surprised all the newfangled overlays and postprocessed effects ran so well, though the real surprise is that the CPU-side simulation didn't eat my computer for lunch. SimCity 4 for mid-sized cities and above still kills a i7.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#24

Post by pfraze »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #6
Yhippa wrote: post #4

FTA: "...including the fact that once I'd built East Didsbury, the strip of shops in Northenden stopped making as much money as they once were, and some were even beginning to close down as my time ran out. Walk along Northenden high street, and you'll know that feeling." This is interesting. Urban planners out there, do these types of simulations occur before an area is zoned?

The problem with a lot of small to medium sized towns is that the people in charge of making zoning decisions are just local good ol' boys (or girls) who got voted in office because people knew who they were. They are in no way qualified to make these kinds of decisions. And so you get what you get.

But I bet those people would love to get their hands on a game that helps them simulate their decisions.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#25

Post by waterlesscloud »

wlesieutre wrote: post #18
justjimmy wrote: post #11

Sim City should be a recommended game for those taking Geography, especially in HS. When I first started playing, I was reacting to situations - fires, disasters, as they happened, which was already too late. Or I'd build all the fire stations in a nice row, or police stations all in a ordered block of land, then get frustrated when they all jammed each other trying to get out and answer calls. My tactics from Red Al…

Just so you're aware about the new SimCity, it requires a constant internet connection to play, and there's no way to save/load previous versions of a city. You can't mess around and experiment without doing irreversible damage, which was a big part of the fun.

Does this mean you also can't exchange cities? What sort of foolish design decision is that?

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#26

Post by chris11 »

Yhippa wrote: post #4

FTA: "...including the fact that once I'd built East Didsbury, the strip of shops in Northenden stopped making as much money as they once were, and some were even beginning to close down as my time ran out. Walk along Northenden high street, and you'll know that feeling." This is interesting. Urban planners out there, do these types of simulations occur before an area is zoned?

You can do a lot of analysis for urban planning. ArcGIS is a very powerful piece software that will handle mapping and some types of analysis. And i2maps is a geocomputing environment that will handle traffic analysis

Microsimulation of Seattle traffic: http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/transportation/index.html

Foot traffic simulation: http://ncg.nuim.ie/i2maps/projects/simcampus/index.html

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#27

Post by MetalMASK »

justjimmy wrote: post #11

Sim City should be a recommended game for those taking Geography, especially in HS. When I first started playing, I was reacting to situations - fires, disasters, as they happened, which was already too late. Or I'd build all the fire stations in a nice row, or police stations all in a ordered block of land, then get frustrated when they all jammed each other trying to get out and answer calls. My tactics from Red Al…

FWIW, Geography major student do have access to professional traffic simulation software (e.g., TrafficSim, SUMO, .etc) if they are interested in research topics related to traffic. I am not sure what algorithm Sim City uses, but I am assuming they are not as complicated as these professional software.

Perhaps that's the point of your suggestion, to lower the entry level to these field, or for a broader audience.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#28

Post by arrrg »

msrpotus wrote: post #22
arrrg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My uneducated opinion is that appointed/career people tend to do better. You do not want to get politics involved, that tends to screw things up.

Who do you think appoints those people? It's all about politics, either directly or indirectly.

There are ways of shielding those decisions from politics. Relying on appointed people is one such way. No shielding is perfect – but it’s better than nothing.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#29

Post by taintlove »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #25
wlesieutre wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just so you're aware about the new SimCity, it requires a constant internet connection to play, and there's no way to save/load previous versions of a city. You can't mess around and experiment without doing irreversible damage, which was a big part of the fun.

Does this mean you also can't exchange cities? What sort of foolish design decision is that?

sadly, EA is ruining what looks like an otherwise very promising game with DRM and DLC

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#30

Post by cmelbye »

MetalMASK wrote: post #27
justjimmy wrote: post #11

Sim City should be a recommended game for those taking Geography, especially in HS. When I first started playing, I was reacting to situations - fires, disasters, as they happened, which was already too late. Or I'd build all the fire stations in a nice row, or police stations all in a ordered block of land, then get frustrated when they all jammed each other trying to get out and answer calls. My tactics from Red Al…

FWIW, Geography major student do have access to professional traffic simulation software (e.g., TrafficSim, SUMO, .etc) if they are interested in research topics related to traffic. I am not sure what algorithm Sim City uses, but I am assuming they are not as complicated as these professional software. Perhaps that's the point of your suggestion, to lower the entry level to these field, or for a broader audience.

Well he specifically said he was particularly referring to High School students, not college undergraduates majoring in Geography with access to sophisticated, professional traffic simulation software.
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