SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

Hello dear SC4D fellows,

Seeing as I seem to be starting a new thread for each issue I encounter, I've decided to make one thread (and one thread only) wherein I will be asking about all the problems I run into while building my huge sandbox city Halisburg. As some of you may know, this is a project of mine to train my building skills and ultimately be able to build a beautiful, realistic city. All the questions I have (and will have in the future) will be posted here, so it would be nice if the helpfully minded among you could drop by from time to time.  :)

Today's questions are all about retaining walls - especially those on slopes - and the HSRP.

1. First of all we have this little gem.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs15.postimg.org%2Fd53i1jlzf%2Fjaggededge.jpg&hash=98c5d452c5da382a959932e9999832278c0a1694)

On the right side of the road there will be housing on the terrace above and a medium plaza on the terrace below. To the left there is housing on smaller terrain terraces. This inevitably has created this "inner corner diagonal piece" of terrain that doesn't fit any of jeronij's amazing 'Modern Concrete Diagonal Walls' properly. Does anybody have a suggestion as to how to fix this or at least make it visually more appealing?

2. Now we come to a similar problem, this time with buddybud's 'Rural Sunken Highway Walls'.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs17.postimg.org%2F7rsu8x7tb%2Fmotorwaywalls.jpg&hash=49cf38b95e287f59bb2d0e04fcd3662317fc33ca)

The red circle shows what happens when I level the higher terrain to fit the square fences of the walls -> the sloped terrain will cut through the diagonal wall. The blue circle on the other hand shows what happens when I level the lower terrain. Is this caused by anything in particular? It seems my sunken motorway is sufficiently deep (15m) and I'm currently using Ennedi's Jagged Edge Mod, which should prevent such ordeals from happening if I've understood his description correctly. Any ideas?

3. GHSR overpass over sunken motorway

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs22.postimg.org%2Fhb49qssmp%2Foverpass.jpg&hash=7bfd29f4427a549da11e3a2dfb68f563b392b870)

In this picture I have built the puzzle pieces of the onslope GHSR (NO HSR) next to the motorway. The description said the puzzle pieces should be placed so the arrows point away from the slope, which I have done. But for some reason the pieces cannot be connected to each other with the draggable Monorail. I get the error message "Cannot place on top of reserved tiles". I have tried numerous things to fix this: Lower the motorway as far as 30 metres, raise the motorway bit by bit, bulldoze the motorway underneath, make the bridge part wider - all to no avail. Is this a known issue? BTW, the image shown in question 2 is using the puzzle piece before this one which - as I understand - is actually a transition piece that "morphs" GHSR to HSR just for that little overpass piece. Or am I misunderstand this? And if so, what are the 'NO HSR' puzzle pieces actually for?

I haven't been a member here for long but I've happily come to the conclusion that there are always nice people here who are willing to help wherever they can so I hope someone can shed some light on these particular issues.

Sincerely,
imoutofusernameideas

For the first problem, you could make a custom texture, but that's not ideal. Here (I'm using MAS 71's walls myself), I've used a creative solution which also breaks up the repetition somewhat:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2FWalls_zpsq6r0rhru.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=43757aab75d13d778cc6e420caa88062eec178d4)

Note that MAS's set also includes a corner piece, marked in yellow. But that didn't really fit here, so I've made a small walkway using some diagonal fillers that blend into the walls set nicely.

The second issue is a problem I've encountered with those pieces too. You need to flatten one more tile of land, but that leaves an empty hole on the other side to fill. Marrast's Embankments come with some fillers for grass, that if orientated correctly will fill the hole nicely. Although visually it's not perfect. Actually it's quite easy to make a texture hold to the height of the edge of the terrain, just adjust the settings for "elevation change" in LE.

As for HSR, sadly it can be quite a limited network in terms of some inter-network compatibility. This situation is supported, but there is no puzzle piece for the crossing itself. Therefore you need to use the alternate on-slopes with starters, then you can drag HSR over the highway. The problem with this solution is the HSR slope will need one more tile of land flattened on either side of the motorway to accommodate the on-slope pieces. If you are having problems finding wall pieces that match a given situation, you can mix/match them together sometimes and achieve good results:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2Fhighwaywalls_zps9juplijp.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=2f9386465ebd03b88cbd6cc27967afbd2fbe3e4e)

Wow mgb, thanks for the quick and comprehensive answers!  ;D

As for the walls: each set has its ups and downs: the most beautiful ones often lack underbridge pieces or diagonal/corner fillers like that. I have now used jrj's concrete walls which feature puzzle pieces like this and have some nice additional beautifications (outlook posts, stairs) but the walls themselves are quite plain, sadly. That picture you've posted does look intriguing though; *runs off to confer with Mr. Google.*
Unfortunately I haven't been able to track down NOB's sets which I find fantastic!

As for the gaps: using the embankment fillers is actually a good idea! I'll try some stuff out.

The HSR is indeed not quite compatible with other networks, as of now I still haven't figured out how to drag a road over it without having to build a bridge.  &mmm

The next question is already waiting to be answered: RHW: is it possible to create cloverleaves and T-intersections?

You can pretty much create anything with the RHW if you give it enough space. Here's a three-way I made yesterday:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FkcSJJzL.jpg&hash=d564c0166833fa5f9be427b210f1d3587a6b42da)


It can be much more compact if the mainline doesn't have a bend in it, and if you use MIS (i.e. one-lane interchanges) instead of two-lanes like I did.

As for HSR x Road, either the road or the HSR will have to be an overpass, since at-grade crossings aren't allowed.


Cheers
Willy

Thanks, swordmaster!

I suppose my best option is to create a new sandbox city, plop the Maxis pieces and then try to recreate them with RHW pieces. As of now my preferred motorway is the 6C (the 6 lange thing without the gap in the middle). Is this a good starting point or is that number of lanes unsuitable for projects like this?

EDIT: Another question just popped up in my mind. From the very start Halisburg was supposed to become a typical East Coast American city but with a very strong emphasis on politics and government - I will be drawing a lot of inspiration from Washington D.C.'s Capitol Hill for my government district. For my Capitol Building I would like to use a building strongly inspired by the US Capitol Building, but not the building itself. I have already found a building that would suit this purpose wonderfully: yyoder's 'Osturland Great Hall'. The one thing I dislike about it is its golden dome, which is just a bit too ostentatious for my taste. Is there a simple way to fix the colouring? Preferably without messing up the night lights.

RHW-6C doesn't always play as nice as 6S with interchanges and overpasses in my experience. To be honest whilst that's pretty much a default UK motorway setup, I believe it's not so commonplace in the US. Therefore a mix of 4S, 6S and 8S might work better, but I'm no expert on this.

Changing the colour of a model is really difficult. You can in theory edit the 20 textures that make up the model however you like. I've done this to colour correct some models but the results are seldom ideal. If you really want to change a model, the easiest way is to re-render it with adjusted textures. That requires using a 3D modelling application, but you won't be able to open an SC4 model and edit it. You need the original source files for the modelling program, which are not commonly distributed.

I personally don't have too much trouble with 6C in interchanges unless they're super complex. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but in my city one of the major federal highways that passes through it (I-40), would be classified as 6C all the way through the city, with 8C (and some of what 10C would look like if it existed) as it approaches interchanges. Of course, the grass strip in the center appears again outside of the city, but I think they got rid of it in the city to save space. The city highway loop might also have portions that are like this (would likely be MHO or RHW-6C). I'm sure other US cities that are more dense than mine have the same setup.

Thanks for the answers, you two!

As for the Capitol Building, I suppose I just have to live with it. I will try to make a beautiful custom lot with the Editor for it and add some nightlights so it will be more to my taste.  Though as for the Editor, I was wondering whether there are any good overlay textures out there that would allow me to create all kinds of streets with all sorts of intersections (I was thinking about very slight curves that would allow for very large soft curves when put together, round intersections and such to make something similar to the roads that run along the real US Capitol). I have one set of overlay textures already that goes in the right direction but most pieces don't connect well to one another and usually only allow for slight curves that are one tile in size with the adjoining tiles required to have straight pieces on them, because other curvy pieces just don't connect well. This makes the streets look a bit boxy. Does anyone know of an overlay texture set like that? Realistic looking water textures for the editor would be welcome too!

Another thing I've noticed about the Lot Editor is that not all custom light props really light up at night (in game, they light up but do not shed lightcones around themselves on the ground). Is there a good, functional lightset out there somewhere?

As for the RHW, I will give it a bit of trial and error. Anyhow, I was wondering which pieces you, mgb, were using in the picture of your first post in this thread. Your RHW seems to have retaining walls along the outer extremes as well as the middle walls that separate the two three-way lanes from each other (much like the Maxis motorways). As you can see in my picture, my 6C pieces only have the middle wall.

EDIT: Almost forgot: I'm planning to build a reflecting pool, very much like the one found in D.C.'s Mall. Is there any water mod that could be used for this? The Can-AM allows for "ploppable" water, but this has some depth to it when placing the outer pieces (as in: the water is lower than the surrounding terrain). But the reflecting pool has its water pretty much on ground level, as in: one drop of rain would make it overflow (picture below). JrJ's ploppable water unfortunately does not have straight edges and is more suitable for natural lakes and streams, as is PEG's Pond and Stream Kit. Any ideas?

Washington D.C. reflecting pool:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.louisberger.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fstyles%2Fproject_slider%2Fpublic%2F1LincolnMemorialReflectingPool3.jpg%3Fitok%3DP3bHgoks&hash=091ffb19e4b08ac0c913d6615f4c88123958f717)

The picture I showed was not using RHW, it's just a re-skin of the Maxis Highway (MHW). A RHW-compatible update to the MHW, Maxis Highway Override (MHO) is an option in the NAM. I'm just about finishing off a whole load of updates to better support crossings with other networks for NAM 35. You create the network much like MHW, there are some basics ramps, roundabouts and a full t-interchange piece. Otherwise, you need to use MIS for creating junctions. It's a great first step to using RHW, since it's much easier, whilst introducing the basic concept of modular interchanges. The one drawback is, you don't get the tight/ugly Maxis junctions, so if you have a lot of MHW already, it might be hard to retrofit. I'd advise using it in new regions for that reason.

Lighting is dependant on a number of factors. When creating a model, you have a scene, think like a movie set with cameras/lights. These lights can only ever affect what is rendered, so anything on a lot that is not part of a model, will not be lit by the model. You can use light props or light cones though. The cones are what actually directs light onto game objects, usually they are linked to a light prop, but BSC Misc Vol2 for example has some cones you can plop as props.

I use the lights included with Mandelsoft's LRM, you can find his work here (http://community.simtropolis.com/profile/183192-mandelsoft/content/?type=downloads_file). I can also recommend his Stoplight Replacement mod too, both have many customisation options to fit a variety of different locales.

If you need textures for transport networks for lotting, first see if such textures already are included in the NAM? For example, the street WRC's may be just what you need on these lots? Two things you may need to know about this, textures always have one of two Group IDs, either

• 0986135E - Lot textures that appear in the Lot Editor
• 1ABE787D - Network textures, will not appear in the Lot Editor

You can simply take the textures you want to reuse, "patch" them into a new file, then re-ID all of them in one go to turn transit textures into lot textures.

The second thing is that some networks need special darkened textures, otherwise the game shows them lighter than normal. This won't apply to 99% of the street textures, but if you come across this, you'll want to colour-correct them so they match in-game. GoFSH includes a batch colour-correcting tool, so it can be done perfectly without fuss in seconds. You'll need a pre-release version to use this feature though. It also makes it a doddle to extract/package the textures in just a few steps.

Moving to the water texture, I have in mind something like Simmer2 has been showing on his railyards for ponds? Pegasus made something similar for a pond, but I think in this case a custom texture would really give the best results. I'm thinking with a few small adjustments, I may be able to knock something up from some photos of lakes/rivers I have. Do you know what size the lot will be? Ideally, you'll want some random patterns to break up any large-blocks of textures.

Thank you mgb!  :thumbsup:

Unfortunately your explanations have left  me with more questions. (How surprising, amirite? ;D )

1. The re-skin: Would I have to re-install the entire NAM for them? And do they only change the straight parts or the intersection/cloverleaf pieces as well?

2. The lights are a real mystery to me. I've tried to place lightcones before, but honestly they're a real b*tch to place properly. When I think I've got it right, I rotate the view and the light has moved somewhere else entirely.

2.1. Thanks for the link, I will check out his stuff.  :thumbsup:

3. Well, the textures I have now have taken some trial and error, but now I have managed to create something halfway decent:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs9.postimg.org%2F6wfz002dr%2Feditor3.jpg&hash=3947e68301b33008d29749d7460577de0c1ef9f4)

Although I still get some of these ugly edges every now and then:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs17.postimg.org%2Fwf5vjkgcf%2Feditor2.jpg&hash=e12652f9cd044b26f9a5d3f326d5c94e59c89fa7)

This is just an example, stuff like this is all over the place, especially around curves and diagonal pieces.  :'(

4. I'm not quite sure what Simmer2's railyard entails?
What I have in mind is basically something similar to PEG's pond and stream kit, more like JRJ's Urban Canals Props: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=590 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=590)

To be quite specific, I'm planning to build an avenue that divides a park from my Capitol Building (or perhaps another park, similar to The Mall), something like this:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs16.postimg.org%2Fxj2rmw7yt%2Fcityplan.jpg&hash=62db91acebbd2b9f32e12ee958b031f2351ae326)

In this (awful) picture, grey is an avenue (or two roads divided by one tile, which would probably fit my purpose better) with the circle representing a roundabout (the yellow will be some filler, whatever). The green represents a park and the red stands for either my Capitol or another park. The blue is water. So basically what would be best would be some one tile water that can act as an avenue divider. The thing with the water sets mentioned above is that on their own, the 1x1 pieces are just blue squares, it's the embankment pieces that actually make it look like water when combined. But without them, it's just a coloured square.

As for Lot Editor water tectures, I have one that looks rather realistic, although again, the 1x1 pieces do not connect well to one another. I have tried making a small refelction pool in the middle of the pathways that lead up to my capitol:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs24.postimg.org%2F3ww0o6111%2Feditor1.jpg&hash=ab5d10de795fa502fc191ed24bf575e29b63ee4f)

As you can see, they don't really fit in. All my other water textures look like a child ran riot with a box of crayons.


Thanks again for your help, I really do appreciate it!  :)

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on February 28, 2016, 09:01:49 AM
1. The re-skin: Would I have to re-install the entire NAM for them? And do they only change the straight parts or the intersection/cloverleaf pieces as well?

You need to reinstall the NAM, but the installer remembers your previous settings, so you should only need to tick MHO to switch it on. Might be advisable to switch off the MHY additions too, since those would be redundant. What I was so bad at explaining is how MHO alters the way you create junctions.

It's not like MHY, where you just drag a network over/under or plop a simple interchange. You need to change how you build them.

Cloverleafs are possible, in fact special pieces are included that make them a piece of cake, the footprint is much bigger and more realistic though. T-Highway Intersections are fully supported, plop and go. Additionally two roundabout interchanges are included. But for everything else you use the RHW MIS system, making it hugely flexible in practise. The manual covers this in great detail, just to confuse you, it's also often referred to as Project Symphony :).

Quote2. The lights are a real mystery to me. I've tried to place lightcones before, but honestly they're a real b*tch to place properly. When I think I've got it right, I rotate the view and the light has moved somewhere else entirely.

If a prop is offset from the centre, say by 1m, every rotation throws it 1m away from your intended location. Sounds to me like that's the problem you are having, decide the rotation before you move it and you should be fine. Like with everything, there are so many potential options, I am probably less familiar with them than some of the great lotters around.

Quote3. Well, the textures I have now have taken some trial and error, but now I have managed to create something halfway decent... stuff like this is all over the place, especially around curves and diagonal pieces.  :'(

Eeek - This sort of thing wouldn't do for me  $%Grinno$%. I can literally put the entire Maxis Streets into LE textures in seconds, so if you'd like some?

Quote4. I'm not quite sure what Simmer2's railyard entails?

You could check his dev thread ;). But in the meantime, I took a holiday photo with a good bit of sea to use as a base. Applied some image changes to darken it and make it more green, then made 14 Lot Textures from that that go together thusly:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2FWaterTextures_zpsrfmsduhl.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=67e327c486afc2537066d5450145337cb895b9b2)

And on a park lot you get:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2FWaterSample_zps4skriei4.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=e2d18f2e3c3620d0db6387722f7887420c3609e0)

They aren't tillable, where you can place them randomly together seamlessly, but there are enough to cover the situation you want. First seven are the top, second seven are the bottom, but if placed like I have here, I think they work well. If you'd like more blue/green, lightness/darkness or whatever, just holler. I have everything practically automated, I can churn these things out  :D. Sample LE textures attached.

Note: Attachment removed, these textures can now be found as part of my Texture Pack on the LEX (https://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3801).

 :bnn:

NAM: Just open installer or uninstall first?

About the lights: Are there not just some lightposts that work on their own? I'd rather just use the cones for nightlights on buildings.

Streets: What would you suggest I do? SUre, I'd love to have those streets look smoother I just don't know how.

Water: Are those textures LE only or ploppable lots as well? (Trying them out right now in LE, btw)

EDIT: mgb, will you marry me? That water looks stunning!

P.S.: Are there some overhanging round (overlay) textures around? I'd like to make my own roundabout fillers.

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on February 28, 2016, 10:39:30 AM
NAM: Just open installer or uninstall first?

The installer takes care of everything for you, so just run it again and it will update your install as required.

QuoteAbout the lights: Are there not just some lightposts that work on their own? I'd rather just use the cones for nightlights on buildings.

The LRM pack comes with such you can use for the LE. I prefer the light cones in them to most other props. SWI21 Vol1 or 2 has some nice lamps, but they have very subtle lighting. SHK's parking has bright lights, but I find the beam too focussed for some purposes. I use all three often, but the LRM ones are best when you want the light to cover a tile nicely in light. In fact, usually you need to skip every other tile to stop things getting too bright (causes visual nastiness).

QuoteSUre, I'd love to have those streets look smoother I just don't know how.

Attached is all the NAM Street textures for use in the LE. I didn't include any of the transitions to other networks, since that's opening a can of worms. But it does include the WRC's, so you can make and transition between nice curves.

Another thought occurs though, Maxis didn't properly mirror many textures, so sometimes they don't fit together properly when rotated. Press M with a texture selected to "Mirror" or flip it. Doing this and rotating it can make textures work in more situations and sometimes alleviate such issues.

QuoteWater: Are those textures LE only or ploppable lots as well? (Trying them out right now in LE, btw)

You could turn them into lots if you like, it wouldn't be that hard.

QuoteP.S.: Are there some overhanging round (overlay) textures around? I'd like to make my own roundabout fillers.

Textures themselves cannot overhang, unless they are part of a prop. But I'm not sure exactly what you mean by overhanging here. Overlay textures with Grass (high quality) can be found in Vortextures 1 (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3211), great if you are using SV terrain. Otherwise, the BSC textures may have something.

Thank you! (And my proposal still stands!  ;D)

About the roundabouts: I have loaded some of my roundabout filler lots in the meantime and noticed that the round parts are not actually textures, but rather the buildings themselves that overhang the lot. What I mean is that I want to build on a 2x2 lot but have it overhanging so it will fit the NAM roundabouts nicely.

EDIT: After searching Mandelsoft's gallery, I've noticed he has quite a few LRM's. Which one do I have to download?

In regard to the water for the ponds. A few of the canal sets have water tiles available as props that you can also use to create a large pool, either placed on one large lot or as individual plopped lots.



@MGB - Was trawling my LE to find the standard straight Japanese SAM texture, to no avail, to create a zebra crossing for my university sports complex! So I'm stealing that attached download! Oh...and the pond textures as well :D

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on February 28, 2016, 01:29:01 PM
Thank you! (And my proposal still stands!  ;D)

After all these years... if only I'd known the power of game textures  :D.

The latest versions of LRM (5.0) have many separate downloads. In essence, find the style of lamppost you like (I went for UK Themed, but there are plenty of options) - and download it. LRM 4.0 and earlier are older versions, those with "XX Set" after the title should all be v5 variants. You can always switch them later if you want a change though.

Adding props to a roundabout using overhanging props is possible, but I'd consider T21'ing them on there instead. It sounds more complicated than it is, a T21 is just a lot, but instead of being something you plop, the props attach themselves to network textures. Of course there is a little more too it than that, but that's the best way to do it.

For the easiest way ;), use Coego's model tweaker to move (offset) the prop so that it ends up where you want it. 1 tile is 16x16m, so the middle of the roundabout would be 16m away from the edge of the lot. You need to mess with the model, because SC4 will not allow you to put a prop more than halfway outside the lot otherwise. The tricky part of this is making a duplicate model, otherwise all instances of the model will become offset (usually not desirable).

I've attached a SAM 10 texture for you BelfastSocrates, be aware it's HD as standard though. I could re-scale it, but you should be able to add it to a lot easily enough (I think).

So I would have to download a so-called 'T-21' and then use Modeltweaker on it?

As for the street textures: Unfortunately in game they end up like this:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs11.postimg.org%2Fy8cjtppmb%2Fstreets1.jpg&hash=5cdf04e074be1d0c046ea7201c4246ab71b899c7)

Why does this happen?

Nightlights: The Osturland Great Hall does not have nightlights on its entrance (between the columns and the main doors; the US Capitol has them, there's a picture below for comparison). I would like to add some nightlights to it with the LE, but when I move the cones they disappear just as they reach the columns (they "move into the building" if you know what I mean). Does this have anything to do with Occupant Size or is the issue with the building itself, therefore making it impossible to light the space between columns and entrance?

Great Hall current lights:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs28.postimg.org%2Fzewzv3pgt%2Flights1.jpg&hash=e0d6553e1d009e4708157ac094e7d573779fdce7)

US Capitol lights:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs7.postimg.org%2Fgesjeqpgr%2Fcapitol.jpg&hash=1b974a119232b14fe798ecaf3c4c239b46d26d69)

There's a few spotlight props that might work for the portico entrance. I can't remember exactly the exact name of the props but I can have a look in LE and let you know.

If that fails you could photoshop lighting on the entrance section. If you're not confident with image editing you can send you images to me and I'll try to recreate a lighting effect.

I'm pleased you're using the Great Hall building, it's a great design by Yoder, someone I much admire. His CJ was also sensational.

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on February 28, 2016, 03:58:29 PM
So I would have to download a so-called 'T-21' and then use Modeltweaker on it?

Yes/No, either you create a T21, it's just a file that works like a lot, usually you should start with a template (i.e. another T21). If that sounds too complicated, model tweaker is another way to achieve what you want by overhanging it from a lot next door.

Give me the details of the prop in question, I've templates for the Roundabout lurking somewhere. It's better T21'd in place. Then you have Option C, simply override the existing NAM prop with yours, that's nothing more than copying a file and changing the ID. It will mean the existing roundabout prop will never appear though.

QuoteAs for the street textures: Unfortunately in game they end up like this:

Whoops... that's my fault  :P. I didn't want to re-ID 50+ textures manually, so I just changed the group ID as I mentioned before. The problem is, when the game sees two competing textures with the same Instance IDs, it will default back to the network textures. Therefore rotations and other things can be out of sync.

The Water textures use my unique IDs, so they won't be a problem. The SAM10 texture attached here does too - please download the fixed version, if you've got the old one - since it's just one texture. But manually re-IDing 50+ textures is not my idea of fun. So I've randomly generated a new 4 digit code and cross referenced it against my plugins folder, I saw no conflicts and would be confident you won't experience issues. If you do run into some (we all have different content), we can try another set of numbers :). This way at least I can quickly set IDs in a few seconds. To be clear, these are not release-quality, they are intended for personal use.

Quote...but when I move the cones they disappear just as they reach the columns

Each building/model/prop has something called a LOD and another thing called a bounding box.

Occupant size dictates the size of the bounding box, those are represented by the coloured rectangles you move around in the Lot Editor.

The LOD is something that is created to fit a model, essentially it tells the game where items take up the 3D space. To avoid collisions (where two objects share a space), if two LODs collide, one will simply not appear, even if the LE makes it look like it will. Sometimes you can wing it by moving things about a bit, other times not. At it's simplest, a LOD simply joins the extremes to form a rectangle. A good LOD will fit the model more-tightly, so you can place items close by or even inside it. If it's a basic LOD, then indeed you are going to have problems fitting many props anywhere "inside" this rectangle, so the front walls for example.

Note: Attachment removed, these textures can now be found as part of my Texture Pack on the LEX (https://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3801).

Quote from: mgb204 on February 28, 2016, 05:13:43 PM
The problem is, when the game sees two competing textures with the same Instance IDs, it will default back to the network textures. Therefore rotations and other things can be out of sync.[...] So I've randomly generated a new 4 digit code and cross referenced it against my plugins folder, I saw no conflicts and would be confident you won't experience issues.

The problem rather is the network texture IIDs use 0,1,2,3 in the fifth digit, thus triggering wealth families when their GID is changed for use in LE. Unfortunately changing the first four IID digits will not solve it, nor will changing just the fifth in one fell swoop as that will result in duplicates.

Quote from: belfastsocrates on February 28, 2016, 04:09:44 PM
There's a few spotlight props that might work for the portico entrance. I can't remember exactly the exact name of the props but I can have a look in LE and let you know.

If that fails you could photoshop lighting on the entrance section. If you're not confident with image editing you can send you images to me and I'll try to recreate a lighting effect.

I'm pleased you're using the Great Hall building, it's a great design by Yoder, someone I much admire. His CJ was also sensational.

Photoshop would only add lights to pictures though, or am I misunderstanding this?

And yes, yoder's designs are quite beautiful and fit my current city wonderfully as they are heavily inspired by D.C. But as I said, the golden dome is just something that I would have liked better in a less "flashy" colour; golden domes are (imho) more reminiscent of old European structures. Nonetheless, it looks gorgeous.

@mgb:

1. T21: The prop in question appears in LE under the name: 'RT_CdS_ Gl_StatueIndependance ---' though for the life of me I can't figure out which of my prop packs included it, nor does Google spit out anything. Also I'm not entirely sure whether that's a capital "i" or a lower case "L".

2. Thanks for the fixed street textures, I will try them out as soon as I can play again.

3. Should I just mess around a bit with Occupation size then? And in case it's the LOD that's causing this, is there something I can do to lower this value and if so, would this be even be a safe action to take or could it really mess with the building?

EDIT: Two more things I've forgotten (Monday mornings...  &sly)

1. When reinstalling the NAM, can I change some things I have forgotten the last time? Specifically, I have now found out that I can disable the arrows on one-way roads with it. They've always bothered me.

2. I have downloaded the LRM props yesterday and they're quite good, though now I have also downloaded the American Light set, which would obviously fit an American city better. Can I use them together or should I uninstall the LRM props? The readme does not mention compatibility with other LRM releases.
Also, how safe is the actual replacement mod to use? (The .dat that will actually replace all Maxis lights, as I understand it's completely optional).

P.S.: Please don't be angry that I have made the Capitol lot smaller (therefore needing less street textures). I had tried it in game and come to the conclusion that I had been somewhat optimistic about lot size; it was a choice between either having an entire government district or just one giant government building.

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on February 28, 2016, 11:46:51 PM

Photoshop would only add lights to pictures though, or am I misunderstanding this?

That's correct yes. The effect would be added after an in-game image has been taken. 

I'll have a look at LE tonight and see if there are any light props that would illuminate the entrance, I'm sure there's something that could be used.

Quote from: vortext on February 28, 2016, 06:04:15 PM
The problem rather is the network texture IIDs use 0,1,2,3 in the fifth digit, thus triggering wealth families when their GID is changed for use in LE. Unfortunately changing the first four IID digits will not solve it, nor will changing just the fifth in one fell swoop as that will result in duplicates.

Thanks Eric, you are right, see what random offers of marriage do to a guy's head?  :D

Armed with some newfound clarity today, it obvious now my attempts to make this quick and dirty are destined to fail... I've removed the streets for now, I'll do it properly and possibly upload them as a texture pack.

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on February 28, 2016, 11:46:51 PM
Photoshop would only add lights to pictures though, or am I misunderstanding this?

Indeed, it's basically just altering the screenshots to fix flaws inherent in the game. I don't often do this myself, but it can really improve a screenshot if you know what you are doing.

Quote1. T21: The prop in question appears in LE under the name: 'RT_CdS_ Gl_StatueIndependance ---' though for the life of me I can't figure out which of my prop packs included it, nor does Google spit out anything. Also I'm not entirely sure whether that's a capital "i" or a lower case "L".

Thankfully the name of the prop was prefixed "RT", that prop is in BSC Mega Props - RT Vol01. I'll see what I can do with it.

:Update:
Are you sure you mean road roundabout? This model is too large to fit there I think. But if you mean the Avenue roundabout, that's much easier. Delete the model in the centre which is 2x2 tiles and you can plop a 2x2 lot in the gap. So just place the model on a 2x2 lot with grass to match the inner roundabout and you are golden. Much easier that messing with T21's or offsets.

Quote2. Thanks for the fixed street textures, I will try them out as soon as I can play again.

See above... we'll try again a third time ;).

Quote3. Should I just mess around a bit with Occupation size then? And in case it's the LOD that's causing this, is there something I can do to lower this value and if so, would this be even be a safe action to take or could it really mess with the building?

You could try reducing the occupant size, I do this with almost every prop, setting it at .5,.5,.5 to make it very small. This helps to allow MMPs to fit places they might not otherwise. It's important to note that if the model is a building, you can change it all you like. The LE will only use the value that was there when the lot was created. So you would have to make the lot from scratch. (Actually, you can cheat here, using reader you can copy the old textures/props to the new lot with the adjusted building).

Adjusting the LOD is possible, but fraught with difficulty. You are getting into the fundamentals of how SC4 emulates 3D with 2D models here. Something called U/V mapping dictates where the textures are applied in respect of the LOD. If you adjust the LOD these will not update to account for it, leaving the textures looking stretched, squashed or just plain missing in places. It's not something I'd get into, if the LOD is there, generally speaking you have to live with it.

Quote1. When reinstalling the NAM, can I change some things I have forgotten the last time? Specifically, I have now found out that I can disable the arrows on one-way roads with it. They've always bothered me.

Of course, although I must say I'm having a problem with that feature in NAM 34, I'm still trying to get to the bottom of it.

Quote2. I have downloaded the LRM props yesterday and they're quite good, though now I have also downloaded the American Light set, which would obviously fit an American city better. Can I use them together or should I uninstall the LRM props? The readme does not mention compatibility with other LRM releases.

Perhaps it will be clearer if you check the first post here (http://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/45710-lrm-light-replacement-mod-support-development-and-discussion/)? You only need one of the LRM sets here, I don't think you can mix/match them. So if you want the US set, just use that and uninstall any others. Each mod is identical, just the actual streetlight props are different.

QuoteAlso, how safe is the actual replacement mod to use? (The .dat that will actually replace all Maxis lights, as I understand it's completely optional).

Overriding existing models/props/textures is the easiest way to make mods. There is no danger with using it. Replacing the Maxis light cones gives a much better lighting effect all over your city. I think it might require your game running on Hardware rendering to work correctly though. If you try it and run into problems let us know. Worst case scenario, just remove it again and everything will be as it was.

QuoteP.S.: Please don't be angry that I have made the Capitol lot smaller (therefore needing less street textures). I had tried it in game and come to the conclusion that I had been somewhat optimistic about lot size; it was a choice between either having an entire government district or just one giant government building.

:) No worries, feel free to use or not anything I've attached. I'm planning to use the water textures myself for example, only I might see if I can get some proper tillable textures which will be more flexible.

@socrates: Thank you, a look at the lot in LE by a more experienced eye would be much appreciated. Photoshop is not an option, as I'm reaaly looking for permanent in-game lights.

@mgb:

1. Well, I wasn't talking about a road roundabout per se, but rather the avenue I will build is supposed to be divided by a reflective pool and I don't think the standard 2tile avenue would allow for this, therefore I will most likely build two roads with a free space of one tile wide between them. I'm not sure if the avenue roundabouts connect to this however. The filler I have in mind would be on a 2x2 lot, but I would like the statue to be placed on top of a round concrete ground that fits into a roundabout seamlessly, much like the Alexander column roundabout filler: http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/20103-alexander-column-roundabouts/ (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/20103-alexander-column-roundabouts/)

Although here the round concrete ground the column stands on is actually part of the building and not a prop, so if there is a prop that could do this, it would be very welcome.

As for the other points, thanks for the answers. The occupant size and LOD will probably remain a mystery to me forever, but perhaps it's better to hold off on messing around with codes and such until socrates has had a look at the possibilities of nightlights in LE.

I'll come back to you on the roundabout, final version of the Street Textures attached with proper IDs  &ops. Sorry for the earlier problems, I should know better but was trying to do it in a hurry.

Note: Attachment removed, these textures can now be found as part of my Texture Pack on the LEX (https://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3801).

Quote from: mgb204 on February 29, 2016, 09:44:48 AM
I'll come back to you on the roundabout, final version of the Street Textures attached with proper IDs  &ops. Sorry for the earlier problems, I should know better but was trying to do it in a hurry.

Don't be silly, you've already done more than I deserve. So here's to you:

(https://media.giphy.com/media/EfBrVQnHvW8P6/giphy.gif)

I made this to help illustrate the problem of a one-tile median with roundabouts at the end:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2FRoundabouts_zpsfjzupach.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=ea55d9b0716dc55586e393188a044720de565977)

• Ave Roundabout
  By default, if you connect OWR to the edges, you get a two tile median, although you can use a OWR S-Curve to transition it cleanly to one. To get the S-Curve as close as I have, plop it before the roundabout.
• Road Roundabout
  You'd need to use a 90Deg. bend to connect, looks unslightly.
• OWR-Circle
  This fares a little better, but still not perfect
• OWR-Roundabout
  Just shown because often an odd number of tiles works better, a nice clean transition on each side with a 3 tile median.

It's worth noting, both solutions 1 and 4 offer the ability for additional E/W connections to the roundabout. 2/3 would not.

The Avenue roundabout filler can be replaced with any a 2x2 tile lot.

The OWR roundabout can be filled with a 1x1 lot, this is what the linked lot is made for. The sidewalks inner ring forms part of the roundabout textures, although the default NAM ones aren't the same.

If you'd like my roundabout textures (sidewalk will match what's installed) I can pass them along? I could also change the centre of the roundabout to be entirely sidewalk if you prefer that to grass. This is not recommended for the avenue, since a number of other components would potentially look out of place. But for Road/OWR it wouldn't matter.

Well, out of those I'd say the first option appeals most to me for several reasons, not the least of which being that - contrary to option 4 - its roundabout is an even number. Could the S-curve be placed the other way around though? So instead of creating a two tile space filling the one tile median entirely like a regular avenue does?

As for the filler, I would prefer something entirely filled with pavement, though if that is not an option I suppose I could live with some grass surrounding the statue.

I can process a set of roundabout textures to remove the grass, but I need to know which sidewalk mod you use. Since a few pieces have them baked-in, it wouldn't look right otherwise.

An you can't switch the S-Curve. Only ave can connect to the central part of the roundabout. Whereas only Road and OWR can connect to the outer parts, and straights only.

I don't believe I use any mods for those (yet), unless some overrides that I have downloaded along the line has done this, but my roads still have those white tiles around them that look like bathroom tiles.

Speaking of which, I don't really like those anyhow. Any suggestions for some good looking ones? And is there one such mod that allows for pavement everywhere not just on the parts where buildings are adjacent to it?

Do you mean to remove the grass strips from the road textures, I think there might be one... (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3316) ;).

As for not liking them, join the club, I wanted them gone, but also didn't want to run into a situation where some remained and there was a mismatch. I've been working with Rivit to come up with a solution to this problem (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16938.0) for others. So whatever texture you can find to use for a sidewalk, it can be expanded to work with everything. As for which sidewalk to use, there are many different options to choose from. Personally the one I'm using is Paeng's Sandstone.

Quote from: mgb204 on February 29, 2016, 02:46:26 PM
Do you mean to remove the grass strips from the road textures, I think there might be one... (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3316) ;).

Yes, I think that's what I mean. When I zone medium or high density residential/commercial next to a street, the road/street will get pavement that directly connects to the road, while Low density leaves a strip of grass between pavement and street. I'd like to have that changed. But something which also bothers me is that in some parts of my town I have some zones along a road that eventually makes a curve (thus ending the zone) connecting to another straight road where zoning will be present. But the curve part of the road will usually not have any pavement at all which looks a bit odd.

Quote from: mgb204 on February 29, 2016, 02:46:26 PMAs for not liking them, join the club, I wanted them gone, but also didn't want to run into a situation where some remained and there was a mismatch. I've been working with Rivit to come up with a solution to this problem (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16938.0) for others. So whatever texture you can find to use for a sidewalk, it can be expanded to work with everything. As for which sidewalk to use, there are many different options to choose from. Personally the one I'm using is Paeng's Sandstone.

I've had a look at Paeng's work and I don't think it would quite suit my wishes. It's beautiful, don't misunderstand me, but I'm looking for something more "generic" and grey. Also I'm not too fond of brick textures as they have a tendency to not connect all that well to one another, especially around curves/diagonal roads. What I'm looking for would be something like this:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fintelligenttravel.nationalgeographic.com%2Ffiles%2F2006%2F08%2Frubbersidewalk.jpg&hash=f004fa664005b8af98855abe15608c7e74825d4f)

EDIT: In your first post, mgb, you've mentioned MAS71's JPN Walls. I've looked for them and it appears I already have them in my game - I've had to download them as a dependency for the slope wall staircase mod that has all kinds of staircases for wall sets. The thing is I can't find the walls in-game. There is a lot however that says after plopping it, I will be able to place JPN walls, though even after plopping said lot, the walls don't appear in any menu. Am I doing something wrong? The readme of that file wasn't particularly comprehensible, it also said something along the lines of not being able to use more than one different design per city or something like that, but like I said, the English in that readme wasn't really perfect...

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on March 01, 2016, 12:18:27 AM
...while Low density leaves a strip of grass between pavement and street.

That's what the NGN mod will take care of :).

QuoteBut the curve part of the road will usually not have any pavement at all which looks a bit odd.

Here's a snippet from a tutorial I used to have on SimPeg explaining this behaviour:

Quote from: mgb204A dragable piece is basically the same as any of the Maxis transport networks, for example roads. When you drag patterns these connect automatically and adjust as needed to create junctions and the like. Puzzle Pieces are most commonly used as part of the NAM (Network Addon Mod) and cover a vast array of items such as Overpasses, Viaducts or Tram-in Avenue. Due to the differences in how these pieces are made, some items (especially puzzle pieces) will need a special texture, often several per item to appear in game, this can be referred to as a baked-in texture. Where such pieces exist, they are typically made Maxis white, but there are a number of mods out there to replace them with your personal sidewalk. The problem is that when you make such a mod, you can only design it with one sidewalk in mind, there is no easy way of making a piece that will change, something which occurs normally with dragable pieces. Therefore you need to consider these limitations when selecting a sidewalk mod, sometimes having a big block of Maxis white in the middle of your city can really stand out. Thankfully the community has released many mods that can bring our personal Sidewalk textures to many pieces that would otherwise remain Maxis white.

At the time, I would have directed you towards a mod called the Japanese NAM Facelift Mod. But if you think MAS-San's instructions are vague, you are going to have fun with that :). Maybe it's about time I put that tutorial up again somewhere, only it needs some modifications since things have changed since I wrote it. In-short though, combine elements of this mod, together with my automated sidewalk's output and you will have a complete set of uniform textures for any sidewalk. I'll come back to you with something more complete later.

Quote...but I'm looking for something more "generic" and grey...

I would imagine one of Gobias' HD sidewalk textures would fit the bill here, sadly they were removed from the LEX around New Year. So unless you have them in your plugins folder, you are out of luck :(. Off-hand I don't know of one that looks like that, I was trying to make something similar a while back, but it just came out "too grey".

I'll come back on this later too, since the tutorial I refer too should make everything crystal clear, but in-short, if you can find a texture. From any prop/texture pack, the original Maxis content or even a custom one, you can make it fit everywhere :). Thus I'm sure something will exist that fit's your requirements that could be used.

QuoteThe thing is I can't find the walls in-game...  the English in that readme wasn't really perfect...

First Mas-71 is Japanese, so you can forgive his English, I found it understandable personally, but perhaps that's because I'm very used to conversations with non-native speakers? In essence it would have installed something called an MML (http://www.wiki.sc4devotion.com/index.php?title=Menu_Management_Lot). The other thing you need to know, they can be found in the Power menu, which is perhaps not where you'd expect to find them? The MML is optional though, remove this file and they appear like regular lots once more.

As for the instructions re: more than one design, that refers simply to the textures used or style of walls. The readme shows at least 5 (maybe more, there are addons), different wall styles you can pick from, I think there are also different fences. All you have to do is decide which you want, and remove all the other "styles" from your plugins folder. They are all numbered so it should be easy to identify which is which. This is a common modding practise, if you accidently have more than one, the last one to load will appear in game, but no problems should occur. You just might not get the style you intended to use.

First of all I apologise if my comment sounded offensive as it wasn't meant to. I'm not a native speaker and while I can perfectly understand natives, I do sometimes have difficulty with non natives and slang (can't understand a word when a chav opens his mouth).

As for the walls: I did know that they were in the electricity menu, but they don't show up for me. Perhaps I'll reinstall them. Which set was that particular wall from?

Curves and grass strips: does the mod take care of the grass strips in front of other lots too? Like parks and such?

As for the sidewalk: so I should just search for a regular texture that is what I'm looking for?

I feel like I'm forgetting half of what I wanted to say but I'm on my mobile right now and not at home, so I'll get back to you later.

EDIT: This picture has been posted before, but it demonstrates my issue quite well:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs11.postimg.org%2Fuwp89uo67%2FHalisburg_Oct_19_4131456246074.jpg&hash=a39cfcb1c3a70b7e6fa5fecbc7f1f00df037dc63)

As you can see, the road on the left runs along the slope walls, which are - technically speaking - parks, while the adjoining street runs along a zoned area, therefore creating pavements but only in those places, not along the "parks". Is that particular issue fixed with the mod linked above?

Addition to the sidewalk topic: I've seen a set called 'Japanese sidewalk textures' or something along those lines, but I'm not quite sure whether that's exactly what I'm looking for or just something that comes close. Because if it is the case that I can basically use any existing texture as a sidewalk override, I certainly have some that would be much better.

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on March 01, 2016, 09:35:47 AM
As for the walls: I did know that they were in the electricity menu, but they don't show up for me. Perhaps I'll reinstall them. Which set was that particular wall from?

I didn't realise you weren't a native speaker, your English is very good if that's the case  :thumbsup:. I can totally understand why you might have some trouble.

Do a search in your plugins folder for "01_Mas71-Walls2_Essentials-090924.dat", if you already have the walls installed, you will have this file. You should be careful to not install duplicates, it just makes life harder in the end. I know keeping plugins organised is a chore, but it's well worth it in the long run. Doubly so if you dabble with modding.

Specifically I'm using the Fence and Wall type 4 textures from this (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1504) pack.

QuoteCurves and grass strips: does the mod take care of the grass strips in front of other lots too? Like parks and such?

There are 8 stages that are applied to sidewalks in game, based on wealth and density:

• 0 Wealth - Where no zoning exists, usually without sidewalks or grass.
• 1-3 Wealth - Low Density zoning, for $, $$ and $$$ wealths respectively. Usually these include grass (which is baked-in to the textures) as well as sidewalks.
• 4-6 Wealth - Med/High Density for all wealths. Everything that is not the road texture, becomes sidewalks.
• 7 Wealth - Special Agriculture zoning, uses the same dirt as the rail underlay next to farms.

What NGN does, is take all the 1-3 textures with grass and replace them with 4-6 textures. It's an all or nothing thing, if installed you should not see grass ever on networks.

It doesn't cover some of the WRC (curves) or FAR pieces. The reason being, if it did you'd run into the puzzle piece problem, where one has to be "baked in". Meaning only one sidewalk texture would be supported. All the content in NGN is designed to work with whatever texture is installed, otherwise I'd need to release a variant for every sidewalk option. As such, these legacy pieces are not covered. 90% of them have been replaced with draggable versions, which fully support sidewalks/grass, those are covered. See my tutorial video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-cgj2pN8os&list=PLM3PEmgLUV_m-S79gAcjNkUL3uVPJQ_yW) for a detailed explanation of how to use them, it's much easier than finding puzzle pieces too :). Part 2 covers those.

Some like the Avenue WRC/FAR pieces and OWR have yet to be made draggable. For those you need a couple elements of the Jap NAM Facelift Mod (http://hide-inoki.com/bbs/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=800). Between the two, you'll have a very uniform setup that adapts to whatever sidewalk is installed. The problem is, the instructions are again not the easiest to follow. My tutorial went into each part in depth, see below for more on that.

If you want to take that a stage further, then making a custom Sidewalk NAM (SWN) mod will additionally add your sidewalks to every remaining piece. Both my mods are designed to work together and with the Jap NAM FL mod. That is my personal setup, and uniformity has been my goal. This is something I've spent 2 years working on, so that users would no longer have to compromise when using custom sidewalks.

QuoteAs for the sidewalk: so I should just search for a regular texture that is what I'm looking for?... Because if it is the case that I can basically use any existing texture as a sidewalk override, I certainly have some that would be much better.

As above, NGN and the Jap NAM FL mod will cover most of your needs. SWN takes it to a whole new level. I've sufficient scripts/repositories that armed with 1-3 textures (as you desire) you can automatically process thousands of textures to include your sidewalk. This covers the basic sidewalk mod itself, overrides for the original Maxis textures and NAM and RTMT textures.

Just looking over the previous tutorial, there is so much that needs changing, this is not going to be an overnight job. So it might be a few weeks before I can get that up-to-date. Confounding the issue is that certain parts of the process are still in-development, so I've been holding off updating it until I could be sure no further changes would be introduced. Thankfully that process is nearing the end, the plan being to update everything to NAM 35 specifications, prior to an official release. So it will be a few weeks after NAM 35's release hopefully before the tutorial is done. That said, most of the work was done over 6 months ago, you just need a pre-release version of GoFSH which makes the textures. If you want to go that route, it's probably easier to pass me the textures you want (or point me in their direction), I can then give you everything you need. It's all automated, but again lacks detailed documentation right now.

Well, at first glance it seems that NGN would fulfill my wishes, as I actually do not want pavement to appear along those few lonely roads and streets that will lead to my suburbs and countrysides.

About the wealth levels however, I'm wondering whether those "rules" apply only to                                     zoned land, or every lot that has a wealth level in general. For example, the Capitol building has its lot wealth set at Medium, but as it is ploppable (just like parks etc.) and not a draggable zone, I'm wondering whether the NGN will correspond to this as well, as parks for example have a tendency to have "low wealth" pavements appear.

The other part of your post sounds somewhat Chinese to me, I'll probably need a little yellow book 'SimCity for Dummies'. If I've understood correctly, I could use one of my textures and mod it to be used as a sidewalk replacement, or do I have this wrong? So basically, if I wanted to, I could use one of the water textures you have so kindly created for me as a sidewalk?

Perhaps it helps to clarify that NGN doesn't alter the rules of anything. So far as I know, that's not really possible. Here is a picture to explain what NGN does:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2FWelaths_zps7xyzpwzq.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=6577b1d46c6a731e8be0fb50abc6cee03db6bc40)

On the top row is the Dirt "sidewalk" (used under rail or next to farms). Then three custom sidewalk textures for wealths $, $$ and $$$.

The next two rows show the actual textures for a straight road section. The light red/pink parts are transparent usually, I've placed the sidewalks under half of each texture, since that's what you see in game. But the reason these parts of the textures are transparent, is because that's how SC can apply any sidewalk to them. It knows, wherever it is transparent to place the sidewalk.

Notice how the 1,2,3 textures differ from the 4,5,6 ones? The only difference is the small strip of grass. That is part of the texture, unlike the sidewalk, SC4 does not use another texture from elsewhere for this. When an element of a texture is fixed like this, we tend to refer to it as "Baked-In". All NGN does is to remove these strips of grass, so now the 1-3 (Low Density) textures will appear identical to the 4-6 (Med/High) ones.

Just to complicate matters, anything that does not grow, i.e. plopables, are treated differently. But, that doesn't matter, since the grass no longer exists, the game is simply unable to display it. Every texture will look like the bottom half of 4,5,6 in the example.

Perhaps the best thing here, is just to see it in action yourself. NGN has a very friendly installer, which allows you to select all the options with pictures. If you don't want to keep it, simply remove the folder "G - NGN" from the z____MGB Mods folder it installs. Simple as that, everything will revert to how it was before. :)

---

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on March 01, 2016, 11:01:59 PM
So basically, if I wanted to, I could use one of the water textures you have so kindly created for me as a sidewalk?

Spot on...

Here's an example of a texture (left), where transparency can not be used to display a sidewalk:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2F2_zpsozdl5yfl.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=6213b1787e075b9d083458a202b69e796a39ff77)

This is a segment of a roundabout, the left texture has not only the grass baked in. It also has the sidewalk baked in too. Until you install a custom sidewalk, you'd probably not notice, but many similar NAM pieces will not adapt to a custom sidewalk. That's because the Maxis sidewalk is a permanent part of the texture. There are literally thousands of textures in the NAM that are like this.

Previously it was necessary to edit each texture one at a time, painstakingly removing the baked in parts, then manually adding the grass and sidewalks from the new textures. This was a laborious task, but the only way to make a custom sidewalk appear on such pieces. Imagine having done this, if you one day wanted a new sidewalk?  :'(. Until now that has been the sidewalk dilemma, if you install a custom one, there were always many pieces that would not match up.

The middle texture is something that simply defines where sidewalks (green) and grass (cyan) appear in the first texture. I have thousands of these "sets" of textures. Another member, Rivit made a program that can take a given set, and apply new grass and sidewalk textures automatically. So in essence you start with what you see on the left, the Green and Cyan areas are replaced by textures you choose, on the right is the final result. In this example it changed the sidewalk to Paeng's and the Grass to match my terrain mod.

So instead of all that work, as a user, all you need is to download my "templates" and an application called GoFSH. You tell GoFSH what textures you want for your set, click run and watch as it makes them all for you. It does everything automatically, you just need to move the created files into your plugins folder.

To illustrate this better, here is my game, on the top without the additional sidewalk textures generated by this process. On the bottom, including them. As you can see, whilst most of the pieces will show your sidewalks without this additional mod, the unified appearance (bottom) is a huge difference:

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi991.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Faf39%2FMGB204%2FSWN-Comparison_zpskenmwopp.jpg%7Eoriginal&hash=a2889e4eefa7cc36f91734605a2434fc9ddc7f3e)

The same process that is used to make these textures, can also make textures into a sidewalk mod and much more besides. Therefore, if you've found a texture you want for a sidewalk, either in-game, from download off the exchanges, on a web site or even made yourself. That's all I need to made a complete uniform mod for it.

At the risk of sounding like an American tourist in Paris: that's amazing!

Two questions:

1. Where do I find your templates? LEX?
2. Will GoFsh give me a list with pictures to choose from textures like LE or ask for a file location? As usual I have no idea which texture came with what pack.

Templates are on my Google drive.

GoFSH (the version on the exchange does not support automation), is still in-development, but I can pass you a copy if you need it. Indeed the latest interface allows you to browse the actual textures from a visual list.

It may be easier though (because things are still being collated) for me to just make it for you. Since I have everything set to run and much is yet to have full documentation. I'll get back to you on PM and we'll see if we can find the textures first.

Hey everyone, I'm back with another question. I've thought about opening a new thread for this, but as I've created this thread with the intention to ask help with all the hardships I encounter, I'll just ask here, even though this does not concern Halisburg specifically.
Today I'm asking for your help with Pegasus's recreational seawall set. I understand that they are self levelling, but I was wondering if it is at all possible to somehow disable this or to create a shoreline that's higher than just above sea level. It seems to me that the entire concept of the self levelling is faulty, because even if I was fine having my waterfront as low as his lots become automatically, they will start lowering themselves even further at some point (the first few lots I place are fine, but after 3 - 5 they'll just start going even lower, even going beneath sea level).
I simply can't seem to find an answer to this, even after reading up on the subject and going through tutorials. Is there a certain value I can change in reader? Or some modification that will make them behave like for example Marrast's set? Something that would allow me to place them on a higher coastline?
Some help would be very welcome.

In short, yes there are various methods to get seawalls at a specified level.

And that's about as specific as I can get at the moment because I don't know which PEG set you're referring to and don't know how they're modded to begin with (though iirc PEG stuff typically uses water/land constraints). Moreover, choosing the most suitable method depends on the situation ingame, how the seawalls props are made (e.g. below z-axis, overhang), what type of lot you're after (e.g. one-off eyecandy lot or complete set) and personal modding preferences.

To give a few examples: you could temporarily set the sealevel to zero in the reader and thus be able to plop ordinary land walls on the slope where the shore used the be. Or you could mod the lots to be water compatible, which in combination with zero slope thresholds allows you to place them in water, directly on the sloped tiles. Or maybe the other way around is more suitable, and you could make the seawall props overhang the slope from land side. Each method has its (dis)advantages, and needless to say they can be combined.

Hello vortext,

Thank you for your reply. I'm terribly sorry, you're right I should have been more specific. The set I'm using - and yes, I would like to use the whole set - is this:

[url]http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/10897-peg-RKT3-recreational-style/[url]

But I'm encountering the same issues with all his sets pretty much. In this particular situation I'm trying to place the walls on tiles that are between 5 - 10 metres above sea level (so 255 - 260).

Right, so in this case the wall props overhang the slope, which is good news because it means you can actually already place them at any desired height. You just need to make sure the tile on which they're placed is flat, otherwise they do indeed auto-level the land. And that is because the foundation threshold is zero.

If you still wish to get rid of the auto-levelling, you'll need to go in the Reader, look for LotConfigPropertyMaxSlopeBeforeLotFoundation and set is to a high value. I typically go for 200. However, this gives rise to another problem, namely misaligned props, like so:

(https://dl.dropbox.com/s/7q1ds1mt8ohqld3/PEG%20REC.png?dl=0)
On the left slope friendly lot, however, note the flags and people props which are, uhm, not correct shall we say? On the right an example how to place them high above sealevel.

The flag can be corrected by setting the Orient To Slope property in the prop exemplar to false. The floating people on the other hand are a bit more work because this is an overhanging prop as well and placed at the center of the lot. To make them appear properly, you'd first need to place them at the edge of the lot, like the seawall is, and then use the SC4ModelTweaker (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2072) to pull them backwards a bit. Definitely doable but once again, it all depends on what you're after and comfortable with.

Hey vortext,

I'm just dropping by to say that the changing of the aforementioned value did the trick. "Doing nothing" does not work for me. No matter how flat I make the tiles and how perfectly I form the surrounding terrain, the lots will ALWAYS lower themselves. Such a pity.

In any case, with the edited value, I'm now able to place the lots as desired, so thanks! :-)

I was wondering however if it's possible to edit the lots? Each set is included in only one .dat file, no SC4LOT files.

Quote from: imoutofusernameideas on April 09, 2016, 11:50:43 AM
I was wondering however if it's possible to edit the lots? Each set is included in only one .dat file, no SC4LOT files.

Dat files are the SC4 container file format and can hold anything from lots, BATs, textures, network overrides, you name it.  If you open the file in LE you'll see the lots, in addition to props, and you can edit lots inside of dat files without problem.

Though, general remark, it's advisable to not edit huge dat files because it slows down the saving process, and it runs the small risk of corrupting the entire dat file. If you want to edit for instance lots which are inside a sizeable dat file it's best practice to extract and save them into a small dat file beforehand.