Three Rivers Region

[rooker1]

Hey David,
I don't usually put my nose into too many of your bright ideas, but this one....
Isn't it possible to shorten the length all the way down to just one or two tiles on either side of the bridge?  Also, I assume that the cover up is a lot, can't we put cars on as props to make it look more realistic?
Just some thoughts....

Maybe I don't commment and tell you often enough but it is a real pleasure to stop by here and see what you are up to.  You never sieze to amaze me.

Robin 

[io_bg]

3RR, the place where dreams come true!

I completely agree with this.

[ldvger]

Ok, here it is, the train wreck at the end of the world.  I knew I still had a copy of this somewhere on my puter!



It's a little small and pixelated, but I think you can see the train falling through space towards the bottom left side of the pic.

Lora/LD

[metasmurf]

How about another version with a lot acting as a subway station and with an overhanging prop? subways can go under bridges just fine. Sure, it would block freight but they can always use other routes.

[j-dub]

Yeah, I used to have 2000. SC4 made it obsolete. All the times I played, I never noticed that. I know the road under bridge will be possible via pieces later instead of resorting to tunnels, but while this idea currently involves a TE lot, its great to have a seamless road texture, but I like the idea of at least a prop, don't know what that would be, but something to remind the player the road underneath the bridge is not a real road so there is no crash. The other thing is, I never had the situation come up when I needed an under bridge, but if I am understanding, these work like transit switches (stations) that would allow traffic to proceed past the bridge?

[Pat]

WOW I just dont know what to say!!!

[z]

HDRs:  FARs in the City

For a long time, I've wanted to see a particular type of FAR that would be especially useful in cities, namely an HDR.  HDR is yet another TLA that stands for Half-Diagonal Roads.  As David has demonstrated, the current FAR straight piece is useful in a wide range of situations.  But what's at least as common in cities are roads that go two blocks in one direction for every block in the orthogonal direction.  In Chicago, large parts of Ogden, Clark, Grand, and Lincoln Aves. do this, along with Stony Island Ave., Lehigh Ave., and a number of others.  So I proposed the following piece to David, which occupies a 2x2 square, as opposed to the 2x3 square of the current straight FAR piece:

The road is at an angle of 26.565 degrees (arctan(.5)).  As you can see, it tiles nicely.  I think transitions would be needed to a straight road, a diagonal road, and the current FAR piece.  If these transitions are to be uniform curves, I believe they would each need to be 3x2 pieces.  In order to be useful in a city environment, the HDR would also need intersections with existing roads and streets, as well as at least some of the most common networks.  Fortunately, it is bilaterally symmetrical, so constructing intersections with just one of the two tiles would cover all situations.  And at intersections, transitions to other types of roads could be done with no extra pieces.  I think that adding this piece (and its complement), along with the current FAR pieces, would provide enough flexibility to model just about any real city with reasonable accuracy.  And of course, there could be RTMT stations for these, with correctly-angled props.

Meanwhile, in cities, diagonal roads that cut across the grid tend to be major thoroughfares.  So if we're doing FARs for the city, it would seem to make sense to do avenues for these two angles as well:

   

The left picture is a 2x3 HDA (more acronyms!) - Half Diagonal Avenue, while the right picture is a 3x3 of what I guess you'd call an FAA (Fractionally Angled Avenue).  The angles are identical to their road equivalents, and they also tile nicely.  Interestingly, they make better use of space than the road equivalents.  Whereas the road FARs require two squares of grid for every square of road, the avenues require three squares of grid for every two squares of avenue.  And unlike the completely diagonal avenues, these avenues are both full width.

Building these roadways and their network intersections is enough work to keep a number of people busy for quite a while.    I've had preliminary conversations with David, and he has indicated serious interest in working on this.  I'd be interested to hear what other people think of these new FAR pieces and the uses I've proposed for them, and if anyone else would be interested in working on this as well.

[Tarkus]

(more acronyms!)

You sold me right there.   Very cool idea, Steve.  Now the grid really won't stand a chance . . .

-Alex

[io_bg]

Wow that's awesome!

[z]

Now the grid really won't stand a chance . . .

That was definitely part of the idea.  I figured that if this were implemented, I could finally build Boston.  

[superhands]

an interesting proposition Steve    

we are going to have to re-think the way we build cities in sc

dave

[girlfromverona]

And unlike the completely diagonal avenues, these avenues are both full width.

Yes!! That always bugged me about the existing avenues. 

What would be involved in helping out? I have graphic design experience, so I could help in that respect, but I've no idea about coding etc... Let me know if I can be of assistance.

EDIT: Forgot to say thanks for the flashback, Lora! It's amazing how far this game has come. And I thought the graphics were great back then. 

[MandelSoft]

Splendid work, Z! Now we can have UFAR (Urban Fractional Angled Road) and UFAA (Urban Fractional Angled Avenue) 

[JoeST]

Well thats just nuts Z...crazy nuts. Seriously crazy nuts... grid killingly crazy

Joe

[metarvo]

A good trip down Memory Lane is always most beneficial, as it reminds us where we started.  I remember those SC2000 days, and I actually still have the game.    I started on Classic, so SC2000 amazed me when I first played it.  I was able to build highways and zone areas of land as light and dense, and I could also place bus stations.  Now, I look back and see how far that we've come, even from the day that SC4 RH was released.

3RR is a good reason for this progress.  I was just playing around with SC4 and trying to build a city to a RL map on which I had placed a grid overlay.  Some roads actually ran orthogonally to this grid, and others ran diagonally, but it seems like many more ran in fractional angle directions, some of which did not match up to the standard FAR.  It was a secret wish of mine to see roads that ran in these irregular directions, and I come to 3RR to discover that I was not the only one who thought about this.  Z has presented us all with a golden opportunity.

I do have one question.  Even though the new roads are meant for urban areas, there are indeed some rural areas that might benefit from varying angles of roads.  Will there be an option to build a sidewalk-less HDR, HDA, or FAA?  Either way, this is great.

[mightygoose]

well now this is just abit epic

[sithlrd98]

Speechless...

Jayson

[Jonathan]

Wow, this will be great.
Though now think of the combination we'll have to have between FARR, HDR and normal roads 

Jonathan

[evanator]

Absolutely amazing idea Z. If there's any way in which I could help, I'd love to be of service!

[homefryes]

All of the possibilities has me on the edge of my seat! I agree with needing these for rural areas as well. Awesome ideas in any case.

Don