0. Introduction
Everyone, do you know Cities: Skylines?
It’s a well-known city building simulation game. It’s praised as a “time-stealer” game and is undoubtedly a popular game enjoyed by many players daily. Its popularity is evident as famous YouTubers like “Nobaman” and “Hayato’s Ambition” have even done gameplay commentary on it.
Recently, Cities: Skylines 2 was also released, adding to its lively scenario.
The interesting thing about this Cities: Skylines is not just that you can experience city building; it also provides a great environment for creating dioramas. For instance, you can recreate realistic rural landscapes and urban streetscapes like those shown below (Note: These are not actually created by me). Is there any other game like this?
https://twitter.com/kombu_oicity/status/1701961578050957806
https://twitter.com/saltyamadori/status/1675142827502624769
However, although this Cities: Skylines provides an ideal environment for making dioramas, trying to create dioramas with only the default (vanilla) buildings can be quite difficult. The buildings are standardized, restricting the range of expression.
In such cases, many custom assets published by volunteers in the workshop can be used. But…
If possible, wouldn’t you want to create new buildings and props yourself?
In this article, I would like to explain how to create new buildings and props yourself. To my surprise, there are surprisingly few articles on this topic online, which is somewhat confusing.
1. Required Items
Here are the three items you minimally need to create new buildings and props:
1. Blender (3D modeling software)
2. Image editing software (anything will do)
3. Cities: Skylines (required to play)
Let’s go over each of these.
First, Blender: It’s one of the commonly used software for 3D modeling. It’s a must. You can download it below. It’s free.
https://www.blender.org/download/
2. Image editing software is also good to have. Without it, you can’t create textures. There are numerous image editing software from paid to free in this world, so search for “image editing software” and use the one you like. Photoshop is a famous example. I use CLIP STUDIO.
3. About Cities: Skylines: Without this, you can’t play with the assets you created, so it’s essential. Due to the weak yen (probably), the price has increased to 3980 yen.
2. Creation Procedure
First, let me tell you.
There are too many traps for beginners.
Follow along, please.
First, create the texture of the asset.
It seems that the height and width need to be in multiples of 32 pixels.
Thus, 1024×1024 is common.
This time, we’ll create a texture of this size.
Once created, save it in the directory:
C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Import
with the filename format:
(image_name)_d.(extension)
. You will use the same image name later.
This time, I saved it as sample_building_d.png.
I’m putting it here for reference.
https://lemon-slime.com/note_assets/n7d17d171c798_b9daa3514becb2e470b6d6ca0b809e63.png
Next, create the core 3D model of the asset.
First, launch Blender.
Then, a cube like the one above will appear.
Usually, you would delete this, but since we aim to create a sample asset, let’s use it as it is.
First, apply the texture you created earlier to this object.
Select this object and set the “Material Properties” on the right side of the screen.
Then, select the yellow circle in the “Base Color” section.
Next, choose Texture > Image Texture.
A button for opening the image appears under the Base Color section, so press it and select the image you created earlier to open it.
This alone won’t apply the image to the object.
Select “UV Editing” at the top of the screen, and then set “Object Mode” to “Edit Mode”.
Next, press the Z key and set it to “Material Preview“.
Then, the texture is successfully loaded.
By selecting “face” in the right selection mode of “Edit Mode,” you can set which part of the image each face of the object references.
Once you’ve done this, it’s time to output this object. But first, there’s something you need to do.
Change the mode in the top left to “Object Mode,” select the object, and press Ctrl+A simultaneously. Then select “Apply All Transforms”. It’s a beginner trap.
Now we’ll finally output the object.
Select “File” > “Export” > “FBX” to export the object in FBX format.
C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Import
. The file name will use the image name set earlier,
(image_name).fbx
. In this case, it will be
sample_building.fbx
. There are some important points to note when saving.
Make sure to select “Selected Objects,” “Mesh,” and “Apply Transform” in the settings on the right side.
Finally, the preparations are complete.
To finish, start Cities: Skylines and select
Editor > Asset Editor.
Select Asset Editor
The Asset Importer will open, so select an appropriate item.
In the end, if you see a screen like this with the 3D model (sample_building) you just created displayed, you have succeeded.
sample_building Displayed!
Turning on “Bottom-Center Pivot” will align the bottom of the 3D model with the ground level. It is recommended to turn it on unless you have a specific reason not to.
Selecting continue as is will successfully load your original 3D model.
To save this 3D model as an asset, click the gear button at the top right and select Save Asset.Congratulations, you have successfully created an original asset!
