This is a collection of all terrain mods that have been created by c.p. AKA Cycledogg. With a completely new set of textures, they change the appearance of your cities and regions and give them a whole new look. Some textures, such as the water and cliff textures, are optional, and can be interchanged with other mods. Some terrain mods have different terrain controller files that allow snowcapped mountains or different elevations. If you want to use another terrain mod, simply uninstall the old one and then run the installer again. For using a different water or cliff texture, simply copy the DATs and mix and match as desired.

CHANGE LOG:

• 20.01.2024 - Update to Version 2
  • The former Windows installer (*.exe) has been replaced by a new Cross-Platform Java based installer
  • added new updated documentation

The following terrain mods are included (To help choosing which option you want to install, please see details in the readme_Cycledogg_Terrain_Mods file):

Columbus Terrain Mod

This mod will change the default Maxis terrain textures into a new set, which is based on the landscape of the northern Great Plains in Montana, USA. Apart from different terrain and rock textures, there are also included some files that will create snowcapped mountains, similar to the Arctic Terrain Mod by Teirusu.

Canyonlands Terrain Mod

A desert terrain mod made especially for the Canyonlands map and the Monument Valley map, but it can be used with any map. This mod changes the ground textures of the undeveloped areas of your city to create an orange and rusty rock desert at low elevations. At medium-high elevations, the land becomes greener, and at very high elevations, there is snow. In total, this mod applies approximately four times as many textures to the terrain as the unmodded game, and signifcantly more than the Columbus Mod.

Grand Canyon Terrain Mod

A desert terrain mod made especially for the Grand Canyon map, but it can be used with any map. This mod changes the ground textures of the undeveloped areas of your city to create an orange and rusty rock desert at low and medium elevations. At high elevations, the land becomes greener, and at very, very high elevations, there is snow. In total, this mod applies approximately four times as many textures to the terrain as the unmodded game, and signifcantly more than the Columbus Mod.

Painted Desert Terrain Mod

An orange and white sandstone desert mod, loosely based on the Colorado Plateau area of the southwestern US. This mod changes the ground textures of the undeveloped areas of your city to give it a southwestern US look. Lower elevations are orange sandstone or orange dirt with areas of sagebrush and other sparse vegetation. Higher up is a band of white rock/dirt/clay, also with areas of sparse vegetation. As the elevation increases above the band of white rock/dirt/clay, the terrain becomes densely covered with sagebrush, and then, above the sagebrush, green and grassy. On very high mountains, you will find flowering alpine meadows, rock outcroppings, scree slopes, and snowy ravines.

Italia Terrain Mod

An Italianish terrain mod inspired by Mickebear's Italian/Mediterranean BAT series. Based loosely on Southern Italy and/or the California Coast. This mod changes the ground textures of the undeveloped areas of your city to give them a somewhat green/slightly brown appearance: lots of grassy ground with flowers, along with a wide variety of forest floor and other textures. At low/medium elevations, this mod is slightly less green (slightly more brown) than the Columbus mod, but with more detail and a greater variety of textures. At higher elevations, you will find greener ground with flowering alpine meadows, rock outcroppings, scree slopes, and snowy ravines. High mountaintops are snowcapped.

Meadowshire Terrain Mod

A green, grassy terrain mod based loosely on Western Europe/Eastern North America. This mod changes the ground textures of the undeveloped areas of your city to give them a green, grassy appearance at lower elevations and a variety of forest floors, flowering alpine meadows, rock outcroppings, scree slopes, and snowy ravines. High mountaintops are snowcapped. In total, this mod applies approximately five times as many textures to the terrain as the unmodded game, and nearly twice as many as the Columbus Mod. The screenshots below give a sampling of how the terrain looks at various elevations.

Missouri Breaks Terrain Mod

A "badlands" terrain mod based on the Missouri Breaks area of eastern Montana, USA. This mod changes the ground textures of the undeveloped areas of your city to give it a "badlands" look: lots of sagebrush and chalky white slopes, as well as a variety of grasslands. At higher elevations, you will find flowering alpine meadows, rock outcroppings, scree slopes, and snowy ravines.

Olympic Terrain Mod

A very green terrain mod based on the Olympic peninsula in western Washington State, USA. This mod changes the ground textures of the undeveloped areas of your city to give it a lush Olympic Peninsula-like appearance: lots of mossy ground suitable for rain forests, as well as a wide variety of other forest floor and grass textures. At higher elevations, you will find flowering alpine meadows, rock outcroppings, scree slopes, and snowy ravines.

Included Files

CPT_No3_TerrainTextures.dat and CPT_No4_TerrainTextures.dat

These files contain the new terrain textures for all terrain mods. You must have both of the following files installed when using this mod or your game will crash to the desktop when trying to open your city!  (It is also possible to install these files as "Terrain Essentials" without installing one of the terrain mods, if the files are needed as a dependency for another package, such as the Wasco Terrain Mod by Tarkus.)

CPT_No6_..._TerrainController.dat

This is the main mod file. Without this file, most of your city will show the standard Maxis textures. The terrain controller might change the default height of the terrain, so it is advised to install terrain mods in a new, empty region, before you start building your cities.

CPT_No5_..._RockTextures.dat

This file contains textures for scree slopes, rock outcroppings, snow, etc. This is an essential file, but can be replaced with CPT_No5 files from other CPT terrain mods (to change the color of the rock). It is not interchagable with any files other than CPT_No5 files. For example, it is not interchangeable with Peg's rock mods.

CPT_B_..._Beach_Optional.dat

This file contains beach and underwater textures. It is optional and can be removed if you'd prefer the standard Maxis textures or another beach mod.

CPT_C_..._Cliff_Optional.dat

This file contains the cliff texture. It is an optional file, and can be removed. It is equivalent to PEG's or Sorchin's Rock Mods, so if you want to use one of PEG's or Sorchin's rock mods, you might want to remove this file.

CPT_W_..._Water_Optional.dat

This file contains a water texture for lakes and rivers. This is an optional file, and can be removed. It is equivalent most, if not all of the water mods found on the STEX, the LEX and elsewhere, so if you want to use one of those mods, you should remove this file.

Compatibility

This download is only compatible with SimCity 4 "Rush Hour" or SimCity 4 Deluxe. This mod is not compatible with other terrain mods, but is compatible with custom beach textures, custom water textures, and custom cliff textures (such as PEG's or Sorchin's rock mods). Important Note: If you have installed another terrain mod, such as the Arctic terrain mod, the Desert terrain mod, or any other terrain mod by Cycledogg, you must uninstall them (move them out of your plugins folder) before using this mod. Be sure to check both your Program Files plugin folder as well as your My Docs plugin folder when uninstalling old terrain mods.

Installation

This package utilizes a Java-based installer (similar to the one used with the Network Addon Mod), and can also be opened and installed manually using 7-Zip or Keka.

To install it, you'll either need the Java Runtime Environment to run the installer--Adoptium's open-source edition is recommended--or a zip tool capable of opening the installer to allow manual installation. For Windows/Linux, use 7-zip, and for macOS, use Keka.

Once into the installer, after agreeing to the terms for the package, click to the Files tab to select which files you wish to install (making no changes here will install everything). To expand options, click the small "+" next to the name of the section.

Once into the installer, after agreeing to the terms for the package, click to the Files tab to select which dependencies you wish to install (making no changes here will install everything). Then, click to the Location tab to set up an installation location (this should be the root of your My DocumentsSimCity 4Plugins folder). On the Cleanup tab, click "Start scan" to find any outdated files that currently reside in your Plugins folder that may conflict with this package. Clicking "Backup" will remove these old files to a safe location. (The option to "Delete" them also exists, but is not recommended.)** After this, click over to the Install tab, and click "Start installation" to begin the installation procedure. When installation is complete, the tab pop up a message indicating it, after which you are safe to close the installer.

Bear in mind that the previously offered default folder-structure has been changed, so installing this mod is requiring to find and remove the old files and folders. The new default folder structure for CP's mods (only major mods, not for BATs and LOTs) is z___CP Mods. This folder will contain the Terrain Mods, God Mode Tree Controller Mods, the Sidewalk Mods and the SCILT.

To help choosing which option you want to install, please see details in the readme_Cycledogg_Terrain_Mods file.

** Though there is an inbuilt cleanitol function in the installer, at this point it is not working entirely properly so it is highly recommended to run the individual cleanitol files or the master cleanitol for the compilation with one of the following 3rd party cleanitol tools:

nos.17 Cleanitol (new tool released a month ago)

BSC Cleanitol (old, but stable tool)

Uninstalling

To uninstall this mod, simply remove the folder and its contents it from your Plugins folder. You will still be able to open any cities that previously used this mod, but the terrain will revert to the standard Maxis terrain textures.

Credits

Thanks to Maxis for creating a great terrain engine, Andreas Roth for his help with the readme and the installer, and the BSC for testing previous terrain mods and helpful suggestions, especially JMeyers, Sorchin, BarbyW, Vlakhaas, Wouanagaine, NicholaiS and anyone else I may have forgot to mention. Thanks also to Jeronij, and Colyn for hosting my files at SC4Devotion and to BarbyW for compiling the BSC LEX DVD.