
Hello everyone! Welcome to this week’s Developer Diary. I’m stop it D, and I’ll be getting into the Japanese Region Pack. Kaminogi, Koma, and I have put together something we think you’ll enjoy. Here’s a peek behind the scenes and some reflections on the process that aspiring Cities: Skylines II asset makers may find helpful. You can download the Japanese Region Pack here: https://mods.paradoxplaza.com/mods/94094/Windows

Concept and Inspiration
With a project like this, the first thing we need to define is the scope. What exactly are we going for here? There are a lot of different routes we could have gone. This region pack should serve as a starter pack for Japanese content. Our hope is that it can stand on its own as a playable pack and also as the base of a collection for detailers that will be supplemented by mod assets on Paradox Mods when they become available. Where we chose to focus our attention was decided by balancing different factors:- Base Game mechanics. Some game limitations don’t always square with how buildings are used or designed in real life, especially in Japan. For example, minimum lot sizes for low-density residential areas are 2x2 grid sizes. However, a large percentage of Japanese single-family housing is roughly 8m x 8m (1x1 grid size). How do you resolve this?
- Importance. How necessary is this kind of building when creating a functional and convincing Japanese city?
- Is it close enough? Will the base game buildings stick out, or do they fit the style adequately?
- The mod scene. How likely is someone to upload a building of this type to Paradox Mods now or in the near future?
- Technical limitations. Will some part of it require a feature yet to be programmed into the game? Will it look wrong if that part has to be cut for technical reasons?
Making the assets
So, what’s new with the asset creation pipeline? Much of it is familiar, but the fine details have changed. Before starting your first mesh for this game, you must read the Asset Creation Guide on the Cities II Wiki first. The new rules for mesh creation required a change to my normal modeling approach. Initially, I imagined I’d be able to piece out parts of meshes made for the previous game. My first attempt soured me on that idea. UVs for this game cannot be outside the 0-1 range, meaning UVs that made use of this will need to be revised for this game. These meshes will need to be broken up and their UVs stacked. Even if this doesn’t apply to your meshes, the windows still need to be appropriately detailed to make use of the window submesh. To match the new standards for this game, I had to add details like door handles as well. And then there’s this curved surface I can smooth out, this feature I can detail better… I ended up wasting a lot of time trying to preserve the work I had done rather than just starting over.





Showcase
So what’s in it? First off, the growables. The following zone types are included:- Low Density Housing
- Low Density Business
- Medium Density Housing
- Mixed Housing








- City Hall
- College
- Elementary School
- Fire House
- Fire Station
- High School
- Hospital
- Medical Clinic
- Police Station
- Police HQ
- Post Office
- Radio Mast
- Recycling Center
- University
- Water Treatment Plant
- Welfare Office


















