Railroad crossings and other traffic props

[jondor]

@jondor: no, that's not what I ment(You can find it also in east germany: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUyBbDljhUI) I ment, that you a short time just see the cross, not the barrier(I know, my english isn't really the best). Is this cause of the video or is it a bug you have to fix?

Oh, the popping in the videos.  That's the video capture software grabbing frames at the wrong time.  There's nothing wrong with the models or animations in game.

[kassarc16]

Oh, the popping in the videos.  That's the video capture software grabbing frames at the wrong time.  There's nothing wrong with the models or animations in game.

Oh goodie! I was worried the game was going to mess up your work, but I'm glad to hear it was just a video glitch.

[jondor]

Been working on this project off and on the last two days, mainly texture work.  Replacing all the flat, single color textures on the gate and flashers with shaded metal ones.  It's a subtle difference, but it is noticeable.  I also finally got around to making a prop (or more accurately three, but only one is useful yet) that's been missing from most of these crossings.  See if you can spot it in the pictures below:

TLA-3 still showing off the 4 quadrant gates:


An alternative AVE-4 crossing for unzoned, low wealth and industrial areas (generally those with older style crossings):


And the AVE-4/TLA-5-TuLEP crossing showing the reappearance of the monster 3-Lane gate:


Can you spot the added prop? 

[jdenm8]

The board that specifies the number of tracks 

You're using animated S3D props for the flashers aren't you? The texture you've used on the back for the steel bracket is jivey... I think it would be better off being a flat plane with a grey spot texture, the rest being alpha.

Preferably a HD texture so you don't see the FSH compression errors.

[jondor]

The board that specifies the number of tracks 

You're using animated S3D props for the flashers aren't you? The texture you've used on the back for the steel bracket is jivey... I think it would be better off being a flat plane with a grey spot texture, the rest being alpha.

Preferably a HD texture so you don't see the FSH compression errors.

Well spotted!  Yes, the flashers, gates and the wigwag banners are all S3D animations.  The back end of the light fixtures is actually a lopped off cone.  I was hoping the game would shade the underside like it does for automata, but no dice, so I added a little shading to the metal texture instead.  I'd have to redo a lot of work to change it out now and it looks better in game without the JPEG compression creating its own artifacts.

[Ramona Brie]

Beautiful! I would like to see a partial release with the ortho props for sure...kinda like an Alpha while diagonals are readied.

[Jack_wilds]

the project is really making progress 

the crossing arms and the signal lights and the signs appear better and the color- texture for the structure is a better more real steel looking  ... and the extra aux. crossing arms are a nice touch... well done...

I hope that at least the ortho set can be ready to go when the NU-NAM is released...     

Jack 

[SWFan89]

Hi jondor,

In Youtube, my username is AMTFan1, but here in SC4D, I've created an account long before, and never used it, it's the reason why I have a different username in this forum.

I sent you a post in youtube concerning the electrification of rail tracks. The links that you asked are the followings: for rail catenary mod it's: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/21935-rail-catenary-mod-v3-hd-version/ and for catenary essential, which is a dependency of rail catenary mod, it's: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/21934-catenary-essentials/ . The reason why I'm asking you this is because I was wondering if the railroad crossings you are working on will work with electrified rail tracks. I think you should also verify this.

Thank you for your supporting!

[jdenm8]

As long as these modded crossings are loaded after the Catenary Mod, it should override the level crossings fine. I honestly don't know why the catenary mods need level crossings to be included.

[jondor]

Hi jondor,

In Youtube, my username is AMTFan1, but here in SC4D, I've created an account long before, and never used it, it's the reason why I have a different username in this forum.

I sent you a post in youtube concerning the electrification of rail tracks. The links that you asked are the followings: for rail catenary mod it's: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/21935-rail-catenary-mod-v3-hd-version/ and for catenary essential, which is a dependency of rail catenary mod, it's: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/21934-catenary-essentials/ . The reason why I'm asking you this is because I was wondering if the railroad crossings you are working on will work with electrified rail tracks. I think you should also verify this.

Thank you for your supporting!

I just had a look through that mod, most of it is T21 exemplars which include overriding replacement T21s for all the road crossings (Vanilla and NAM) using the vanilla crossing gates and the catenaries.  So, depending on which mod loads last, those T21s will appear.  However, it shouldn't be too hard to include a patch that combines the two since that is a highly downloaded mod.  I'll look into getting permission for that.

Edit: The way the T21s are laid out might make it tricky.  If the vanilla T21s had been left alone, the catenary T21s could have applied themselves over top of them, but the vanilla ones are blanked out and the crossing arms combined in to the catenary ones.  But I'm guessing not a lot was known about t21s in those days.  With the knowledge I have now, I think I can whip up a set that undoes that little snafu and should allow everything to work properly.

More edit:

I also made a small change to the narrow modern gantry to bring it in line with it's big brothers:

I narrowed it down from 8m to 5m (pole center to flasher mount).  It looks a little ridiculous in the BAT, but it looks right at home in game.  Next step is to make mirrored gantries and change the z-axis offset of all the props again.  2m gets me by for DTR, but I'll need a 6m offset to support the RAM's planned QTR.  With any luck, these will be the last two ortho prop adventures and the rest of the first half will be copy/paste/edit T21s until the cows come home.

[jondor]

New post, last one was getting cluttered.

I decided to recycle the slightly wider modern narrow gantry for the Road TuLEPs and ARD-3:


Just 5m was a little too narrow, but 6.5m (not 8 like I said before, I was thinking of the old triangulated gantry) is about right.  This setup will be available for both the Road TuLEPs and as an alternate setup for the ARD-3.

(If it looks like a pair of 2-lane gates instead of a 2 and a 1, that's because it is in that picture.  I missed changing that after copying over the TLA-3 4Q setup and before capping it, but it's fixed now.

Edit: A couple more props I almost forgot about:  Some protection for those TLA medians.



Just about done with all these ortho props.  As soon as I finish, I'll be taking suggestions for different setups people would like to see for different networks.  The three tile networks are limited to a single setup at a time, but the one and two tile networks are more flexible and can vary based on zone type or wealth level.

[jondor]

Woo!  Triple post!

Okay guys, here's all the props that will be included in the initial release: (Click for full size)


From left to right, top to bottom:

Wood Pole, Bell Pole, Short Gate Pole, Old Wide Crossbuck, Modern Crossbuck, 2 Track Sign, Object Markers (Left, Center, Right), Highway Flashers

1 Lane Gate, 2 Lane Gate, 3 Lane Gate (Delayed closing 4 quadrant gates not pictured, but will be included)

3 Lane Wide Modern Gantry, TLA-3 Raised Median, TLA-5/7/8/9 Raised Median

Old Gantry, 1 Lane Narrow Modern Gantry, 1.5 Lane Medium Narrow Modern Gantry, 2 Lane Modern Gantry

3 and 4 track signs will also be included to be ready for TTR and QTR when and if they are finished and released.  At zoom 6, they are just barely visibly different.

All of the props include mirrored versions and LHD T21s will be included as well.  I'll be back soon with some sample setups, but if anyone has any suggestions of things you would like to see, go ahead and post them. 

[Girafe]

Thanks for your nice work on this subject   

It's something very american, could you mod a more "european" railroad crossing if I BAT the small props. 

[jondor]

Thanks for your nice work on this subject   

It's something very american, could you mod a more "european" railroad crossing if I BAT the small props. 

European style props are planned after I get all the North American style props out of the way.

However, I am planning on making a tutorial on how these props were made, and will likely work on that concurrent with the diagonal props, that should make it easier for people to create props more to their own liking.

[jdenm8]

Thankfully most of our level crossings here are very similar, they're basically the same but don't have the gantry except in a few rare instances.
Oh, and could you please do a variation of the chevron sign with white instead of yellow?

[j-dub]

I thought before EA rushed Rush Hour, that is why they had intended using this sign before the rail road light in the median:


but they never finished a different model for the car traffic intersections. I can't find the in-game picture, but majority of the time in real-life I have seen them use that when TLAs end into avenues. Also, that yellow/black chevron could be useful for many other instances.

[jondor]

Thankfully most of our level crossings here are very similar, they're basically the same but don't have the gantry except in a few rare instances.
Oh, and could you please do a variation of the chevron sign with white instead of yellow?

Since those use the same HD texture technique I used on the crossbucks,  It'll be a snap to include that variation as an optional patch.  There will also be patches which include blank red bordered crossbucks for Canadian users and Rail Way Crossing textures for Canadian and Australian users. 

I thought before EA rushed Rush Hour, that is why they had intended using this sign:

which is why its on the original Maxis Avenue crossing light, but never made it to the ends where the avenues hit the intersections.

It's entirely possible, although the Avenue wigwags are directly based on the somewhat famous Point Richmond wigwags in California.  You'll notice that they look almost identical to the Point Richmond wigwags as they appear in the photo from 2000 on that page.  When my wigwag set is released, you can be sure I'll include the necessary props to not only recreate them, but also render them functional. 

[j-dub]

That sounds great! Yeah, I don't get why they even released those that way, if the animation was not finished. Its great that you care though! 

[jondor]

The only two reasons I can think of is that they were either rushed (which we know is true), or they knew that they had botched the code and the wigwags wouldn't animate the whole time (also true).

Even though the RR props are set up with 4 states, only 3 are ever used.  The static props are only used when the crossing is newly built.  When a train comes, it switches to the closing gate animation, but it stops on the last frame.  It never switches to the looped animation with the gate down and the lights flashing, and once it plays the gate raising animation, it stays in that state, stopped on the last frame.  You can see this if you rotate the view or save and load the game after a train goes by.  The gate opening animation will play over again.

I get around the issue by including an extra 6 or 7 cycles (I forget exactly how many I used) in the gate closing animation, although you can still see it stop if 3-4 trains go by in a row.  And as I noted before, there's a jump in the animation when it switches states from closing to opening, but that can't really be avoided.

Edit: Speaking of alternate textures:



Since the wordless, red bordered crossbucks are the result of more modern laws, there isn't going to be a red bordered version of the older crossbuck.

[Ryan B.]

For the median protection, something like this would probably be best:

http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/SHSe/Markers.pdf

Take a look at Page 11-3, sign OM-3C.