World Capitol Project II
 

World Capitol Project is back. After being on hold for a couple of years, I'm rebooting it from the ground up, and it's going to be bigger and better than ever.

The size of my original model became unworkable largely due to poor modelling methods. Some buildings had too much detail while others had too little. The model never benefited from the effective use of textures. Street layout, as it wasn't sufficiently planned in advance, lacked coherence.

World Capitol Project II (WCP II) will begin with a well-written history of the virtual world in which it is staged; a playbook which sets context for all of the streets, buildings, and city's evolution. Streets and topography will be planned before buildings are placed. Detail will be simple and uniform throughout the model.

The land area of the model is 25 square miles (5 miles square). Single buildings which I want to design in ultra-high detail will be created outside my city model and imported for individual rendering.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...I/1WCPLogo.jpg

The new city will be built at the current earth location of Felixtowe in the United Kingdom. Felixtowe, in real life, is a major shipping port town approximately two hours from London.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...roposalMap.png

The premise looks good! Waiting to see it develop...

A 12-lane highway now runs through the city core and underneath the main capitol campus.

Some buildings from the old model have made a comeback, preserving my original vision for the skyline. Other buildings have been discarded completely, or slated for a redesign later.

...and here's the first new render.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...20II/WCPII.jpg

The next phase is all about fully integrating existing buildings into a complete new road network and constructing low to mid-rise buildings throughout.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...II/WCPIIR2.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...II/WCPIIR3.jpg

Nice progress. :tup:

nice renders! Does those signs mean something?

I have designed a unique alphabet which appears throughout the model. It is generally, though not always accompanied by translation in regular english.

The New Babylon Expressway travels under Isis Centre, home of the Hypatia-Sagan Institute as seen from the North:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...CP20130803.jpg

I'm in the process of laying out the surrounding street grid now.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...I/20130803.jpg

Some progress has been made on the street grid.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...I/20130807.jpg

A three-mile-long bridge spans the bay and a portion of the city. The bridge functions as both an expressway and a complex of airship terminals. Each pylon is capable of docking an airship on either side.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...I/20130808.jpg

Howard, I really like your new version. That bridge is pretty complex and interesting, can we have a closer look?

The spirit of Jaliva can be seen in the air.

Yes, that bridge looks amazing! Can we get a closer look, please.

A Hi-res image of the bridge:

https://tffkvg.bay.livefilestore.com...810.jpg?psid=1

wow! that bridge is worthy of being a world wonder good work!

That bridge is truly marvelous! It is a perfect fit for this city!

Supreme Council Headquarters on the Peninsula. I've decided to use this blocky style of 2-D tree props throughout the model to provide the city's sense of greenery.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...20II/Trees.jpg

Are the open lower floors for parking or what's their use?

Your city looks Belle Epoque. The bridge is perfect for that.

Wow. Just, wow, most creative sketchup city here in my opinion, glad to see it still going! Keep up the inspiring work!

Most of the city's skyline is finished. Now I'm placing smaller buildings and filling out city blocks.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...JalivaCity.jpg

This is very unique! At the same time it has a bit futuristic feel but also a 19th century industrial feel. I love especially how the bridge looks in that shot!

World Capital is a very original concept. You could create some atmospheric renders with this model

^ Those open floors aren't really supposed to be open. They just appear that way because I still haven't finished the building model.

I'm still working on the boring process of drawing city blocks.

I did take some time to decorate Isis Centre with some United Nations Propaganda:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h.../UNBanners.jpg

In our alternate history, the USSR extended its borders throughout mainland Asia and China, and the United States expanded to include North, Central, and South America, as well as Australia. Nazi Germany and Japan worked together to form a federation spanning Europe, Africa, and the Pacific.

Ultimately, those three Super-Nations formed the Tri-Party Congress. The three world parties (Fascist, Communist, and Capitalist) eventually brought the world together under the banner of the United Nations. In time, they became became antiquated as the world transitioned into a more unified system. Eventually, the United Nations became known as the Federation of United States.

Here we see the flag of the Joint Axis Powers above the Departments of Public Works & Corrections Complex. The Public Works & Corrections system uses Fascist-like methods to ensure that all people are either employed or "otherwise put to work" for the purpose of building and maintaining State monuments:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h.../AxisFlags.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...6b37661458.jpg

Rough model of the city Racetrack & Stadium, themed after the Circus Maximus...

The Isis Center has an interesting gateway to the city. The bridge looks great in every shot!

Greedo Corporation building, decorated with a portrayal of the goddess "Aletheia" flanked by towers on Wall Street:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h.../20131018C.jpg

The rather long and laborious task of drawing urban sprawl continues...
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h.../20131013B.jpg

...and we go back to where it all started with a current view of government building complexes from the rooftop of China Centre:
http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...8/20131013.jpg

Right now my goal is to finish designing the city's urban form without paying special attention to textures. Eventually, however, I hope to come back through and improve the diversity and utilization of textured elements. Trying to fill a 25 square mile area with urban development, it is difficult to maintain a balance between attention to detail and keeping the model simple... without getting bored or bogged down in the process.

I like how huge this model is getting. That statue is a lovely detail.

Now that's a huge hospital! How many square miles/kms is theu city now? It mst be vast.

Map stretches five miles in each direction. As this map shows, a majority of the city's area remains largely undeveloped. There's still lots of work ahead before I can count the city as even basically complete... much less detailed.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...88/WCP2map.png


http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...livaCity-1.jpg

That map shows very well how gigantic those public / government buildings are.

Absolutely enormous! This city scares me some what, I don't think I'd be to happy being a resident there!

Residents here don't need to be happy... because the government is happy for them. ;)

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...8/Freebund.jpg

What's the size of that gigantic dome?

Cars and citizens have been added for perspective. The diameter of the dome is 1,200 feet. The height of the dome, excluding pinnacle and base, is 700'; the total structure height is 1,200'. The Freebund Dome is 20% larger than Speer's planned Volkshalle.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h.../GreatHall.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...reatHall2D.png

That bridge structure is interesting. how many modes of transportation are associated with it?

The bridge serves as a motorway and airship terminal. Due to its steep inclines, it is not suitable for carrying rail traffic.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...8/Freedoms.jpg

Wonderful shots! The cars and people really help to get a feel of the massive size of those structures.

Microsoft appears.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...softCentre.jpg

Current map shows progress on city blocks.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...0II/wcpmap.png

Very creative and imaginative! What is that massive tripodal structure?

That large tripodal structure is the skeleton of a spaceship landing pad. The track leading to it is for beacon lights.

Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism all come together here to create a United Nations-esque sanctioned world government... equipped with forced labor camps, Macy's, and maybe some elements from Star Trek. The theme of this city is all about world history working out a little bit different than it did in real life... but not totally different. Science fiction, if a bit of time travel is thrown into the pot, gives me the opportunity to "explain" some of those differences and give the story context. Agents from the future traveled back in time and influenced the key events which act as a backdrop for my world capitol. Why are there blimps in the sky? Because somebody went back in time and prevented the Hindenburg disaster... Etc.

...and Atlas-Victoria Mall introduces some retail elements to the city:

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...I/Victoria.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...%20II/Mall.jpg

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...ssemaphore.jpg

This is just astonishing! A spaceport!? How do you do it so fast? In the time it took you to do this, I've only done a few city blocks of my city!
Hay! If you have time please check my city out, it's called Remus city!

Fascinating! Capitalism and fascism right across the street from each other, I love it!

Genius stuff, love the backstory of future time travellers influencing technology and the like.

Out of interest does sketchup/kerky allow atmospherics/fog. Some of those large overview renders would really gain from that and add to the sheer scale of some of your structures.

It's very hard to imagine what would a life of a normal citizen be in a world were "Fascism, Communism, and Capitalism all come together". It might be that your city demonstrates atmosphere very well.

...I think that Kerkythea is capable of rendering fog, but I have not figured out how as of yet.

I've done a little bit more work on the Space Terminal complex, introducing the "Taggart Trans-Space" Building, which is directly connected to the landing pad. Taggart Tans-Space operates spaceships for the Federation of United States.

Taggart Trans-Space is also tip of the hat to "Taggart Transcontinental" from the novel Atlas Shrugged. The Federation of United States is a tip of the hat to the "Federation" from Star Trek. Again, we see a degree of irony as Star Trek - which is fundamentally altruistic - is melded with Ayn Rand's philosophies, which decidedly are not.

The question of how seemingly drastically opposite ideologies might coexist, at least in this story, is traced back to the fundamental idea that at critical points in history... whenever human differences led to significant historical wars or conflicts, in the alternate timeline there was peace, even if it was an uneasy or awkward peace. Hypothetically, Nazi Germany might never have launched a campaign against Jews if the Jewish people had not previously lost their original homeland as a result of such things as crusades and Roman occupation. (What if we could communicate with the mind of Julius Caesar and influence him to make a few key decisions differently?) If the State of Israel had already been solidly established in 1939, there would have been a much weaker case for antisemitism. Thinking even further back, it could be plausible that if Egypt had adopted legislative processes opposing slavery, the Jewish State might have been part of a united Egyptian Empire which would have maintained peace in the middle east for thousands of years.

If the modern age would have been born a hundred years earlier, and the world had internet access when Hitler was coming to power, the idea of Racially charged nationalism might have still taken root... but instead of race being viewed in terms of local nationalities, race might have been more broadly (and correctly) interpreted as the entire human race. (If you've watched Star Trek, think of the Terran Empire, which was racist not against humans, but had Nazi-like conquest-leaning attitudes toward non-human civilizations.)

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...Transspace.jpg