San Diego Zoo

[Captain Callum]

Asian Passage - Panda Canyon/Asian Passage Plaza

Im not actually sure what this plaza is called since the maps or signs dont say. Sometimes referred to the panda canyon or asian passage. Anyways we got a nice central plaza for techinally the middle of the zoo. I say the middle because this plaza is the crossroads of the bottom of the zoo (bottom in elevation not the back) From this plaza we have access to - africa rocks, sun bear forest, panda canyon, and the fern canyon trail which all lead throughout the zoo.

Wheres the scenery you might say, well give it time this is really far up from where my development line currently is. The reason i have suddenly moved up to the asian passage is due to scaling. Scaling is simply the hardest part of recreating a zoo so i have to do it in a very complex matter which means going all over the place to slowly build part by part. I cannot simply build the entire left side of the zoo , i learned that lesson from the oregon zoo

Anyways lets look at the plaza here. So from the picture you may have guessed pandas are a theme here since the giant pandas have been a highlight of the zoo for many many years but sadly they have left. Well that wont stop me from adding them in this zoo , i mean how many chances i am gonna get to add giant pandas to a real life zoo build.
So an openair gift shop, a large cafe, a drink bar, toilets and ample picnic tables for seating. A nice plaza for a crossroad in the zoo

 

[Captain Callum]

Lost Forest - Owens and parker aviaries

Just above the orangutan trail is a set of 2 aviaries - the parker aviary and the owens aviary. These are both walkthrough with lots of colorful birds, the owens aviary is very impressive noting that it is one of the largest walkthrough aviaries in the world complete with 2 levels of paths and waterfalls. The parker aviary on the other hand is alot smaller with just a short path cutting right of the zoobrew coffee shop
I should note that the parker aviary is part of the orangutan trail actually. The trail begins just in front of the Owens aviary - through parker aviary and then off the main path by the orangutans/monkeys

Parker Aviary:

Owens Aviary:

 

[Captain Callum]

Asian Passage - Sun Bear Forest

Just below the bear canyon is another asian themed 'bear' area. This focuses on what one may guess - sun bears!. The sun bears here have 2 overlooks between dense tropical plants every much like the lost jungle. Bears are not the only animals here, a habitat with proboscis monkey and another with siamang also inhabit this area.

Upper Entrance to the sun bear forest

Continued dense tropical scenery following the exact trend of the lost forest which is pretty close by

Upper overlook into the sun bear habitat. Really cool to see the bears climbing over the logs

Large glass panels and metal beams make this unique monkey habitat

Lower Sun Bear Overlook, notice the small caves in the terrain - thats the bedding for the bears

Sun Bear enjoying climbing over the logs

Continung down we approach one of the shelters to view the siamang habitat

One of the siamang viewing windows

The path goes over a stream of water from the siamang habitat. Little waterfall for some nice scenery

Final viewing area of the siamang and end of the sun bear trail. This exits into the hua mei cafe area

 

[NZFanatic]

Out of curiosity, how "to scale" are your recreations? I don't remember San Diego Zoo super well but some of your habitats seem a lot bigger than I do remember. Not a criticism, you've done fantastic work!

 

[Captain Callum]

Out of curiosity, how "to scale" are your recreations? I don't remember San Diego Zoo super well but some of your habitats seem a lot bigger than I do remember. Not a criticism, you've done fantastic work!

Aha I do get that alot , scaling to irl exactly would isn't exactly possible but I do try. The aim of the recreations are 1:1 but some areas do spill over the intended sizes because 1 - the only true method of scaling using digital resources is to make the entrance the right size which the entire zoo follows that scale and 2 - well I don't have measurements and sources for every single angle meaning improvisation is needed in areas.

There is a whole load of factors when coming to decide on each scaling for each area however I aim for the pathing first. If I can replicate the pathing as close to possible then I can get a rough idea of how big a habitat should be. Like the sun bear habitat for example, I could draw a picture of the habitat using 3 things - the view from the upper viewing point, the lower viewing point and the back wall and the hill of terrain behind. Now I did not find an example of how long the habitat was, how deep it was or even where the habitat gate goes

Example of the real sun bear habitat:

Versus mine:

So let's use these 2 pictures as a great example of the main challenges I have and people may bring up why a habitat looks bigger.

• First up is the waterfall most likely 3 times wider but for simplicity I use the provided prr made waterfall since it looks better
• Looking at the rock wall, it's roughly the same height although the texture and shale varies greatly
• The caves for the bedding are lower down so Habitat does look bigger . I did realise this towards the end and I may rework the habitat to be higher up
• The extensive logs in the central part of the habitat are less abundant/smaller . I really do wish we had a greater variety of logs for this purpose
• Possibly my photos aswell since I like the wider angle shots which may make the habitat seem bigger than it seems
• My background Trees are much further back. Lack of variety aswell gives the habitat a much bigger appearance. Compare that to the monkey trail with dense tree cover and looks pretty close to irl

I always tell myself even no matter what no recreation can be perfect. My very first attempts at a recreation led to disappointment and even slight anger at times because I wanted to replicate to 100 percent. Well turns out translating real life to the game is a pretty hard business even more so when I have no access to the real place

 

[NZFanatic]

I always tell myself even no matter what no recreation can be perfect.

Ain't that the truth. The only (loose) replication I attempted was of my local zoo, Orana Wildlife Park. The very first habitat I built was the old siamang island, and it turned out way bigger than the one in real life because the in-game terrain modelling makes the real life shape impossible.

 

[Captain Callum]

Reworks and a desert garden

As much as it is important to build sprawling new areas to expand the zoo, we cannot forget about earlier parts of the zoo where attention to detail was maybe not the best, Acquiring new references and evalution of habitat design has led to me rework many of the older zoo areas created earlier in the year. These areas include: urban jungle, australian outback and wildlife explorers basecamp. Most notably is the basecamp which saw a complete overhaul with 60 percent of it completley rebuilt from scratch

Fennec Fox habitat in the wildlife explorers basecamp

Cheetah habitat in urban jungle

Kangaroo habitat in urban jungle

Giraffe habitat in urban jungle

Koala male habitat in australia outback

Koala female habitat in australia outback

Of course new development has also occured in the upper portion of africa rocks. Anyone who saw the 20 metre deep canyon was not just for show, thats the depth gauge for the new africa rocks area which is one big slope all the way from front street down to the hua mei cafe. At the top of the africa rocks is 2 sets of desert gardens

Entrance sign to africa rocks from the koala habitat

Portion of the ethopian highlands garden

Yeah thats one big slope

 

[Captain Callum]

Africa Rocks - Cape Fybos

The previous post looked briefly at part of the top of africa rocks but we are heading down to the bottom and working the way up to actually build this area. A rather modern area with very little shade to travel through africa taking a journey from the south african coast, visiting madagascar and into the highlands of northern africa. First up we start at the bottom where cape fybox is, an area themed on a south african rocky beach. An underwater viewing building allows us to see african penguins and leopard sharks, then exiting travelling upwards to get a great view of this rocky beach

Heres the lower entrance to africa rocks, a nice modern sign welcomes us to the area. The bus tour road can be seen here to the right which travels from the bottom of the zoo all the way to the top bypassing the winding slope guests have to walk up

The first sight we see when entering africa rocks is the underwater viewing area for the african penguins. Using blue lights really adds a wonderful atmosphere to underwater areas, a black roof reflects the blue hue to make it much more realistic. Of course in real life there is quite a lot of leopard sharks (we can see static models in these pics) and african fish. Yes the final zoo will have modded animals as 2 versions will be released but thats a long time till then

We exit the underwater viewing building and start to gradually head uphill, we are met with a sign for the cape fybos area.

The first outdoor viewpoints are 2 glass viewing panels which can see penguins soaring past or just slowly floating along. The rocky beach comes into view with lots of taiga and faux rocks used to create a vast rocky wall.

At the final viewpoint of the penguin habitat, a proper sign for the penguin habitat is found. This is now above the water and can see the rocky beach much clearer. A rock arch to the right can see penguins sleeping on bedding under the arch and also a simple cave in the back holds the majority of bedding for the penguins

And heres the birds eye view of the entire habitat along with the long winding slope for the african rocks area. I have tested that it takes 8 full minutes just to walk the length without stopping for animals. The real africa rocks takes an average of 20-30 minutes to walk through so i hope i do get close to that

 

[Captain Callum]

Africa Rocks - West African Forest + Rady Falls

Lets continue the uphill climb through the winding paths of africa rocks. The next area which is the west african forest, this is the smallest area of africa rocks with just a single habitat for a dwarf caiman (dwarf crocodile irl). We also have a small plaza and an impressive waterfall to go through before entering the madagascar area.

Leaving Cape Fybos to the small plaza

The plaza contains a food shack, picnic tables and a mini stage

The rocks box is the only source of food for africa rocks, which i managed to find a nice clear picture of the menu

Entering the west african forest, this picture is the entire area. Rady falls is the background for the west african forest

A reletively large habitat for just a single dwarf caiman

And we end at rady falls, the entrance to the madagascar forest

 

[Captain Callum]

Africa Rocks - Madagascar Forest part 1

Lets get an africa rocks update for the new year i planned! Well its the 26th and im only half way through africa rocks so yeah thats going to plan
Anyways the third section and most habitat dense area of africa rocks is now complete with the addition of 4 habitats including 2 lemurs, 1 caracal and 1 badger. The caracal is supposed to be fossa and badger is honey badger. Add on a tricky canyon going underneath the paths and a giant mesh barrier built aswell to contain the mesh barriers - shame the mesh disappears when the camera isnt right next to it but oh well

Alright so lets start at the rady falls which is the entrance to the madagascar habitat.

First up on the left of the path is the caracal habitat, the cats are on the rock wall at the back so hard to see from here

Caracal says hi

Overview of the caracal habitat including the keeper building on the right covered in rock cladding

Opposite the caracal habitat and heading gradully uphill is the first of 2 lemur habitats. The real zoo has mixed lemurs habitats of like 6 species but i just went with a single species in each habitat for a clearer representation. This habitat is home to red ruffed lemurs

A nice grassy habitat for these lemurs

Overview of the red ruffed lemur habitat

Heres the habitat area sign for the madagascar forest

 

[Captain Callum]

Africa Rocks - Madagasacar Forest part 2

To get a better idea of the layout heres the overview of the full madagascar forest. The 4 habitats are clearly seen with the lower 2 covered in part 1

After the red ruffed lemurs, head along the curve to see the second lemur habitat - ring tailed lemurs. I think one is drinking water next to the rocky shelter but most typically head down the bottom with the large tree to climb up

Turn around from the lemurs and we get this nice view of the downhill view towards rady falls

Lower portion of the ring tailed lemur habitat

I forgot to take a picture of the lemurs themselves but heres the overview of the habitat from the upper viewing

Opposite the lower viewing of the ring tailed lemurs is the last habitat for the madagascar forest - badgers. Hopefully we will get honey badger one day.

And that concludes the madagascar forest, next time lets head into the heart of africa where leopards are the main attraction

 

[Captain Callum]

Not really much of a progress update since im a little burnt out from building but finally a new update is now uploaded to the workshop. The 16th update to san diego zoo features all progress since the walkthrough aviaries were shown, this includes:

• Walkthrough Owens and parker aviaries
• Rework to the entire wildlife explorers basecamp including 2 new habitats
• Sun Bear Forest with 3 habitats
• Reworked Koala habitats with added wallaby
• Reworked flamingo habitat and urban jungle habitats
• New gondola supports for the skyfari
• Fixes to the reptile walk tortoise viewing
• Extension of both the skyfari and bus tour but both still far from complete
• New habitats in both tiger and monkey trails
• And of course all the new habitats in the africa rocks

Full update notes are on steam which is entire a4 page in my digital notes. Quite the large update but sadly not as much as i wanted since i planned for the entire africa rocks to be finished but oh well

 

[Captain Callum]

Lets bring back the san diego zoo and prepare for some big changes this year! Keeping this thread alive instead of my general zoo thread allows for more detailed posts here as this is solely dedicated for the san diego zoo.

Almost approaching the 1 year mark since this zoo made its appearance on the steam workshop, the zoo has grown to almost half its size with still no end in sight as i slowly but surely build the mighty san diego zoo. As to make it easier for everyone to digest the zoo, im going to look at various stages of reworks and new areas to be built. Below is the order i plan to go through:

• Entrance Rework - Performance is key to building a large zoo especially looking at half the zoo built so far. Over 200 animals and many more to come means i have to optimise piece count at every single stage i can get. The entrance is one of the worst places for this, building without much skill and attention led to thousands upon thousands of wasted pieces using workshop items, poor foliage skills and excessive amounts of detail that really isnt needed. We can see the picture above already has changed ticket stands using tv screens for future custom media which is in line with the current digital ticket screens the real zoo uses. This rework will see the entrance building complex completely rebuilt within the scale i have along with various front street improvements.

• Discovery Outpost Rework - Generally poor quality habitats are found in the discovery outpost since building real life zoos was still very much a learning concept to me when i built this area. The komodo dragon habitat needs improved rockwork, the exhibit box buildings need refined detailing and all habitats (alligator, nile monitor, giant tortoises, gharial) need reworked to match the real life counterparts. Further skills learned from the woodland park zoo build will allow me to hide the background terrain much easier.

• Wildlife Explorers Basecamp Minor Rework - I have already have a major rework in this area with the fennec fox/prairie dog habitats and wild woods play area already been rebuilt from the ground up. Changes to rockwork, the binturong and caiman habitat and general guest areas is in order to improve the overall basecamp.

• Australian Outback Rework - The habitats themselves are nice enough but the plaza area in the outback requires a massive rework. Shameful basic buildings will have greatly improved detail with custom made pieces for the buildings rather than the base game pieces which dont resemble the real life buildings. These are the gift shop, cafe and the beer garden table area. The tasmanian devil (wombat) and koala habitats are pretty good although the wombat habitat may have some minor foliage improvements along with background improvements. I am well aware this is a split habitat in real life but simply works as a single habitat here.

• Urban Jungle Rework - The top section of the jungle will be scrapped completely and extended to accomdate the additon of a zebra and donkey habitat (1 of each, a cute sandy habitat). Ther giraffe habitat will be rebuilt to better represent the most lackluster giraffe habitat in a major zoo. The flamingoes and red kanagroo will also get rebuilt habitats, if im lucky a small porcupine habitat can also be built.

• Bear Canyon Rework - The 1950's called they want their habitats back! The worst area of the zoo is an eyesore both in real life and my lame recreation of it. The rockwork and climbing structures will be completly built from scratch for the second time. The wall of ugly rock needs to be fixed as i hate it everytime i log into the zoo.

• Sun Bear Forest Minor Rework - No rework needed here as im happy enough with the area. I plan on improving both primate habitats and replacing the lower siamang habitat with lar gibbons to at least get a tropical pack animal in here that looks like a tropical area.

• Lower Africa Rocks Rework - I think i will remove the top mesh net, the games inability to render the mesh fences from afar just makes the area look ugly. The rockwork needs vastly improved in the penguin habitat, the caracals can say goodbye and hello fossa! Caracal in the madagascar area was just weird.

So thats one big list of reworks but what about new additons? Everyone wants the zoo completed so whats upcoming?

• Completion of africa rocks but will most likely remain half empty since frontier really doesnt want to add the hamadryas baboon. I could add the alpine ibex to roleplay as a nubian ibex along with some mandrill
• Completion of Tiger River will be next up adding some black and white bairds tapir and some bengal tigers to complete the winding lost forest trail. This will be built from the clouded leopard habitat

I guess i will post updates at each stage of the reworks as the reworks have priority over the new areas

 

[Markiz]

Outstanding work! I can't believe I haven't checked here before...Great stuff!!

 

[Captain Callum]

Outstanding work! I can't believe I haven't checked here before...Great stuff!!

Thanks markiz

 

[Villanelle]

I've really enjoyed watching this zoo grow and it's exciting to hear that you're revisiting it. Impressive dedication! Does it feel like work or is it still fun? I hope the measures you're taking to improve performance work out. I've also learned the hard way not to blow all my processing power on an over-elaborate entrance. I started a realistic build of London Zoo but only got as far as the surrounding roads and entrance buildings

Also the thought and detail that you put into your guides is really commendable. Frontier should gift you with tickets to America and the San Diego Zoo!!! I'm going to try Shepreth soon since it's Frontier's local zoo so I'll def take some tips from your guides. I'll be able to visit and get my own images and video from the ground though. If you ever want to try building it I'd be happy to share them with you.

I really think you should youtube some of this. I saw you comment somewhere else about not wanting to because of having a Scottish accent. Don't be silly! Scottish accents are beautiful and some of the best! Treat the world to your zoo and your tour of it

 

[Captain Callum]

I've really enjoyed watching this zoo grow and it's exciting to hear that you're revisiting it. Impressive dedication! Does it feel like work or is it still fun? I hope the measures you're taking to improve performance work out. I've also learned the hard way not to blow all my processing power on an over-elaborate entrance. I started a realistic build of London Zoo but only got as far as the surrounding roads and entrance buildings

Also the thought and detail that you put into your guides is really commendable. Frontier should gift you with tickets to America and the San Diego Zoo!!! I'm going to try Shepreth soon since it's Frontier's local zoo so I'll def take some tips from your guides. I'll be able to visit and get my own images and video from the ground though. If you ever want to try building it I'd be happy to share them with you.

I really think you should youtube some of this. I saw you comment somewhere else about not wanting to because of having a Scottish accent. Don't be silly! Scottish accents are beautiful and some of the best! Treat the world to your zoo and your tour of it

Thanks villanelle, it's great to hear people are excited to see me restart the zoo again. Even though I had a hard time keeping motivated last winter especially regarding poor performance and trying to build way too much at once, I already feel the zoo has another chance to see completion one day.

So does it feel like work or still fun? If I was answering that last winter it would of definitely felt like work with the huge amount of landscaping, planning, and pathwork being extremely difficult. It's one challenge recreating a smaller flat zoo with a small amount of habitats but a massive zoo with steep terrain and tons of habitats - I would describe it as pain. However I took a mental health break from the game earlier this year so I'm finding it fun right now, smaller outlined steps which I covered are much easier to work with.

I was so delighted yesterday to find out my initial performance efforts are working. The ticket booths at the entrance were made with 450 pieces each (7 of them meant about 3500 pieces) so I rebuilt them to a count of 180 pieces each saving 2000 pieces. I got a nice 5fps boost from just that - not much I know but I'm planning on doing this for the entire entrance. I can say right now I'm working at 25-35 fps at this stage despite being the most complicated and animal heavy zoo I have ever built on a laptop of all things.

I wish the best on the London zoo recreation, I've seen quite a few attempts at that zoo and even considered it myself but though ah I'll stick to American zoos considering that's what I do best ... despite being Scottish But the surrounding roads and entrance buildings are the most important part of the recreation, anyone familiar with my methods know to get the entrance right and then the rest of the zoo just falls into place.

Tickets to the San Diego Zoo? I wish, the price of going to california is painful to look at. I do intend to make a visit one day so I can have the most surreal experience ever of visiting the real zoo after studying and working on a digital version of it.

Lastly youtube, hmm I don't know possibly one day. If not working through the zoo, I'm definitely planning a grand reveal of the zoo when it's completed in say 2030

 

[Captain Callum]

Zoo Reworks - Front Street part 1

Thats right part 1 of the front street rework since i really underestimated the scale of the rework needed to bring the entrance of the zoo to the current stage of the real life zoo. So part 1 of the front street rework completely built the entrance building (i dont know if it actually has a name) from scratch allowing much more detail inside and outside. From raising the zoo name sign to completely rebuilding the sandwich company cafe, lets take a look at the progress so far.

A common sight is the entrance of the zoo, doesnt look too much changed here really and you would be right. The goal here at the entrance was cutting down the piece count of the ticket booths and raising the zoo sign to match the real life counterpart. Also seen is the replacement of the ticket boards on each of the booths, these are now digital screens with simple information on adult, kid and membership tickets. A small amount of planting on the left side of the sign behind the ticket booths was also completed but not really noticeable in this picture.

Lets enter the zoo now and everything we see now is brand new! The rebuild of the entrance building allowed me to raise the height of the walkway here and add in the tropical canopy signs that greet visitors. Real life features regular monkey signs but the gibbons and sloth are still a great alternative. From the bright green walls, hanging gibbons and even the welcome sign adds so much more atmosphere to the entrance.

Looking closer at this walkway we have a nice large skylight in the middle which ideally should light up this area but oh no the game doesnt want to The new wooden slat roof is a nice use of the conservation slats which i wish i knew how to do before, this greatly cuts down piece counts for wooden features like these without needing like 50 seperate wooden beams. Also a new sign for the roar store gift shop is on the right, along with the staff room entrance to the left.

Out on front street now we can now see a much cleaner entrance for guests. The old front street was full of ugly breeze block paths, poorly made plant beds everywhere and a rough looking entrance building that kind of just fit in. Why well thats because the original attempt at the zoo was made with the google maps streetview which is dated to before 2009. Now modern videos were found with a much nicer front street with a simpler but nicer looking concrete paths with red trims, a much larger and cleaner map area using faux rocks for the plant bed and a vastly improved entrance building using the twilight shingle roofing along with the decorative walls found further along in the front street cafe.

New planting also includes a blend of temperate and tropical plants with much fewer palm trees than originally included to match the climate of san diego. The yew and fig trees allow for this style of foliage to work nicely without being too artifical which lots of palm trees does come off as. Also a new modern map of the zoo reflects the modern wildlife explorers basecamp and most new animal additions throughout the zoo.

Now as we can see the sandwich company and roar store have been rebuilt completely with better references to use for interior building, interior design is still a huge hurdle when recreating real life zoos but i think i am improving gradually. First up we have a new path into the sandwich company with new foliage work on each side. The sign has also been recolored to a more true to life shade of green - its the little things that count in these reworks.

Welcome everyone to the sandwich company interior! This is one of my favourite interior builds so far with the open space providing a challenge to work, espeically when we have an open gift shop sharing the same space. Using closed walls and sightlines to build interiors does not work here , which is one of my tricks to make interiors seem more detailed than they actually are. The key to making a really nice cafe space is custom made tables, the ingame picnic tables really dont work well indoors so non functional tables bring the realism out despite my attempts to make my zoos as accessible as possible.

Of course we cant forget about the custom made menus for the sandwich company, not suprising is the sandwich centric menu. A simple kitchen has been made here with a working chief beef stand so guests in theory can get food from here. Also we can get a closer look at the odd modern lighting which is made of the flat square light and one of the arctic light hidden in each one for nice uniform lighting throughout the interior.

Moving onto my weakness - gift shops! I HATE making gift shops if anyone couldnt tell by now i just cant make them look realistic. An odd central layout with the cashiers in the middle of the shop with the gift shelves and stands all around. I guess it would look nicer if i could fit the roar store pattern on the circle shade above but no room sadly.

So thats it for stage 1 of the front street rework, the next stage will look at completing the lagoon terrace outside the sandwich company, new restrooms below the terrace and much more features. We wont be seeing any new animals for quite a while but im hoping to switch up the wildlife explorers basecamp with a new favourite by the time i reach that stage.

 

[macronecu]

your project looks amazing, but wouldn't north american grassland be better for the map? san diego and los angeles is like at the edge of the desert, so the landscape and terrain is pretty dry and yellow.

 

[Captain Callum]

your project looks amazing, but wouldn't north american grassland be better for the map? san diego and los angeles is like at the edge of the desert, so the landscape and terrain is pretty dry and yellow.

The zoo itself is pretty dense with green tropical rainforest like areas with only a portion of the zoo that matches the surrounding scrubland of Southern california. Thought was put into consideration on which biome to use and the neutral European temperate map with handcrafted terrain painting and foliage was the best match.

I understand why many would think a zoo in San diego would be more dry and yellow which one of the zoo's of the 2 are. The San diego zoo in heart of the city (which this project is) is a botanical garden of sorts with all the tropical foliage. The other zoo outside the main San diego city - the San Diego safari Park is more natural in its own environment where the grassland map would suit the zoo much better.

San diego zoo:

San Diego Safari Park: