Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines

421 ratings
Animated Billboard Pack
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Assets: Prop
File Size
Posted
222.886 MB
22 Dec, 2020 @ 1:38am
1 Change Note ( view )

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Animated Billboard Pack

Description
I know what you're thinking: 200+Mb for an asset pack??? First of all, there are 10 assets, so it's really only about 20Mb a piece. Secondly, the truth is, most of that space is taken up by the diffuse texture (i.e. the movie) and the way the game bakes the data into the .crp file. The actual ingredients of the .crp file are actually way below 21Mb, only about 7Mb, but somehow the game bakes them in a way that bloats their size, so what I am saying is that these billboards should not be taxing on your system despite the seemingly intimidating file size. The billboards are all low polys and the texture size is well within the "safe" range (you should not see any warning in Content Manager):

Main Model: 28 tris / 4,096x3,968 texture / diffuse, illumination maps
No custom LODs, the ones the game generates look fine.

I have not picked up any impact on frame rate or game performance, all I see is that they add exactly the little spice my city desperately needs, which brings me to my third point: I think you will think it's all worth it, despite the seemingly absurd file size.

I have packed these all into a single subscription because I do not want to spam my workshop page with billboards. Just disable those you do not plan to use. They can be found by searching for the following keywords in Content Manager, Find It!, RICO, etc and in-game in the Park category under the prop tab:

(1) Apple iPhone + Beats;
(2) Adidas;
(3) Save the Children;
(4) Dune;
(5) Blade Runner 2049;
(6) Nike;
(7) Wong Kar Wai + Akira;
(8) IKEA + Paul Smith;
(9) Delta + Skittles
(10) Godiva + McDonald's + Kenzo + Honda + Absolut Vodka

The illumination map is basically just a 4K square of grey (I cannot shrink it to something smaller because it has to match the diffuse texture) with 9 pixels of black. I can cut each billboard's size in half if I get rid of the illumination map but honestly they just look so much better if they are lit up. I have made sure the illumination maps for all the billboards are exactly the same, so if you use the Loading Screen mod the game should only load it once and apply it to all the billboards.

Of course, if there are any experts out there who have suggestions on how to reduce the file size, please send them my way. I've done my research and this is the best I can achieve at the moment. : )

And if you have any recommendation in terms of trailers and commercials for future billboard releases, please feel free to send them over and I'll consider them.
59 Comments
eric.r.jankowski 26 Nov, 2024 @ 5:38pm 
I am making NYC and these are perfect for Times Square. I love em
CYW 12 Feb, 2024 @ 7:07am 
Thank you for making this asset !
:steamthumbsup:
Jimbo_WestCoast 30 Sep, 2023 @ 4:29pm 
OMG I understand what you are talking about and yeah that seems very clever and oh so complicated. Thanks!
Stringer Bell  [author] 26 Sep, 2023 @ 6:23pm 
@Jimbo_WestCoast Thanks for your support. For the diffuse map you need to map out the frames like a "cascading map" --> look at the screenshots above, where I typed the name of the billboard on top of what looks like a wallpaper --> the wallpaper is actually the diffuse map. So instead of a single film strip where the "frame" moves from top to bottom, you have a rectangular map where the "frame" moves simultaneously from top to bottom and also left to right, that way you can squeeze in more frames. It is a huge pain in the butt if you PM me I can share more. The dimensions also cannot be perfect (10x10), it needs to be slightly off so the game knows to skip to the next line (e.g. 10x9). I can't remember exactly how I did it but that's the gist.
Jimbo_WestCoast 22 Sep, 2023 @ 3:07pm 
I love these, I use them alot. I also make alot of animated video billboards too. I think your textures are 4K and each video has around 500 frames? How do you squeeze so many frames into one file? For example I have made the famous "geisha" sign from Bladerunner using an 8192X256px diffuse with 64 frames of 128px each. I don't see how you can have 500 frames in a 4K diffuse texture??? Thanks
[KPR] 伊凡 AlexanderHeinrich 10 Jan, 2023 @ 7:40pm 
Thanks for your reply and the good news is I have successfully inserted the script and the billboard is now functional :D ! Thank you for your wonderful asset !
Stringer Bell  [author] 10 Jan, 2023 @ 2:12am 
There's a script you need to insert via modtools when you have the asset opened in Asset Editor. Maybe you can add me and I can PM the script to you.
[KPR] 伊凡 AlexanderHeinrich 4 Jan, 2023 @ 10:00am 
Would you mind telling me what I should do to make the modified billboard functional? I have dumped one of your animated billboards through modtools and I have modified the diffuse (the png file). Until this moment, everything works fine and I can see it works perfectly in the asset editor. However, after I tried to save the asset, when I try to open it again in the asset editor or to place it in the game, the animation won't play. I think I need to do something during or before saving the asset in the asset editor, in order to make it functional. May you give me a helping hand? Thanks, mate! :steamhappy:
Jase Black 23 Aug, 2022 @ 1:47pm 
@Stringer Bell For some reason i pageup/pagedown just doesnt work on props for me so ive just been using PO
Stringer Bell  [author] 22 Aug, 2022 @ 11:23pm 
@SpoiledEggs II Yes, as per metromidium you can use PO but then you lose the illumination. Have you tried using Move It? Just select the billboard and press Page Up and Page Down. That has always worked for me.