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Bridge Modd??

Started by rooker1, August 08, 2011, 08:25:53 AM

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rooker1

Quote from: threestooges on August 03, 2011, 07:25:32 AM

Quote from: kassarc16 on August 03, 2011, 01:55:29 AM
Very nice! The big question, though, is will it let boat traffic pass?
Most likely it will. There are options available where you can select aspects of the bridge to not be obstructions to water traffic. (Granted, as far as I recall, if you don't want them to be obstructions, it's easiest to just remove the obstruction property from the file, and they'll work fine. The only issue that may arise there is that it's possible boats may appear to sail "through" the bridge.

Looking forward to seeing the next bit of development on this.

Matt says above that there is an "obstruction property" for bridges that could be changed so that bridges would be non obstructive.  I am wondering if it possbile to make a modd that would do this to all bridges.  I sometimes think that bridges have to be way too high for boat/ship traffic to go under it.

Just a thought....
Robin ;)
Call me Robin, please.

noahclem

Very interesting, I had the impression before that it wasn't possible to alter bridge properties to make boats able to pass. Great news! I have been scheming up my own solution to this problem (I agree that the minimum bridge height for boats to clear is ridiculous) but haven't had a chance to try it out yet due to excessive RL commitments the last couple months. My idea was to try building the bridge with the water level lowered (using Reader) so that when placed the bridge says it is high enough for ferries to pass. Then, after returning the sea level to normal in Reader, I'm hoping that he bridges will still allow boat traffic to pass under.

I have no idea if the mod you're suggesting is feasible but it would be great if it was and it would also be much easier than my theoretical solution.

threestooges

Well, first let me say that I'm not sure about the Maxis bridges. I only know of the property with respect to the custom ones. I haven't delved into the main DATs of the game to find the Maxis bridges (might be a good idea to do someday though). Oddly enough, what I've noticed with the custom bridges is that, whether the obstruction property is set to "true" or "false" doesn't matter. It looks like it would result in an obstruction anyway (maybe I just wasn't building them high enough) and the only way to ensure no obstruction was to remove the property from the file entirely.

I know there are mods out there which can overwrite files (by virtue of being loaded later) but I'm not sure how a mod would be made to remove a property already loaded.

Kitsune

#3
is it too high? You need a 15m high bridge for clearance... the same as the nam pieces. Thats 50 feet .... the ferry in game appears to be about 30-35 feet ... so 15 feet of clearance is good. You couldnt go too much lower without the ferry running into the bridge. And realistically, in harbour settings you need something a lot higher, more in the 25-30m range imo.
~ NAM Team Member

smoncrie

#4
The Bridge Obstruction property may be added to any part of a bridge and it works the same in Maxis and in custom bridges.  It will block boat traffic if it is true or false and the height of the bridge does not matter.   Boats can only pass that part of the bridge if the Bridge Obstruction property has not been added.

Typically the Bridge Obstruction property is used to prevent boat traffic from going through the ends of the bridge and through bridge pylons, but is up to the bridge creator to specify this.


How high a bridge needs to be to permit ferry traffic is specified for each bridge in that bridge's bridge exemplar.  Unfortunately, any mod that changes the height needed by Maxis bridges for ferry traffic would be in conflict with the Bridge Height mod. 

About two years ago, I examined all the custom bridges on the LEX, and made a small mod for each bridge to fix all the problems I found.   Many of the bridges did not allow ferries to pass correctly.  I abandoned this project because I found that it was just about impossible to convince anyone to change their bridge.

threestooges

Well, if any of mine fall victim to that, let me know and they'll be changed.

Am I correct then, in assuming the only way to prevent the obstruction property is to delete it; that there is no override?

smoncrie

threestooges, it was a long time ago, and I don't remember looking at any of your bridges to find errors.

A mod replaces entire "files" completely. (In this context "files" are exemplars, S3Ds, etc.)  This means that you can add, remove, or change properties as you wish.  For example, you can replace exemplars that contain the Bridge Obstruction property, with exemplars that are identical except they do not contain the Bridge Obstruction property.

If the same "file" (same ID and same kind of "file") is modified by more than one mod, you get the version that is loaded last. Otherwise all the "files" from all the mods will be used.

A mod that changes the bridge height for a ferry to pass needs to change the bridge exemplar for that bridge.  For Maxis bridges, the Bridge Height mod changes exactly the same bridge exemplars.   This means that you will get these bridge exemplars from only one mod; not both. 

Note: The Bridge Height mod does NOT contain the kind of exemplars that use the Bridge Obstruction property.