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Three Rivers Region

Started by dedgren, December 20, 2006, 07:57:49 PM

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Jmouse

Absolutely gorgeous! Hope FAR and FARR aren't too far away from release!

Joan

dedgren

#4281
A sort of slow day today- I never had time to do anything that required any degree of concentration, so I doodled with the wide road curves and FAR.

About a year ago, our friend Phil (pvarcoe) built a beautiful road up to a mountain pass in his great MD "Terraforming Teton" [linkie].  I decided to see, using the wide curves and the FAR, to see what a road pushed up a mountainside at about the maximum grade my tunnel and slope mod would allow: about 8%, would look like.  Once again, I didn't spend any time terraforming (I used one of the quads from the Maxis "Timbuktu") region) or planting anything pretty.  I just laid pavement.

Here's the overall area.



I don't turn on the "Contour line" tool (press [ Ctrl] [ Shift ] and [ C ]) often enough...



...the little yellow lines aren't real useful...



...but they sure are pretty.

The "Terrainquery" tool is way more helpful.  I brought up the cheat box game parameter adjustment input window ([ Ctrl ] and [ X ]) and typed terrainquery, then selected the query tool and checked out the road surface in the tunnel at the top of the pass.



581 meters/1906 feet.

Then I checked out the lowest point I could find on the roadway at the base of the grade.



285 meters/935 feet.  So, our road to the top of the pass climbs 296 meters/970 feet.  I estimate the distance at just about four kilometers, or 2.5 miles- just under 8%.  Here's another view.



I threw in a random mix of wide and FAR curves- whatever seems to best match the terrain at hand.  Here's a few close-ups on the way up.  Note that I've done each as a pair- first with the grid on so you can get a good sense of how rough the terrain is, then off, so you can see how the curves look au naturel.

Here's the area around the first hairpin curve on the cliff over the lake...





...and the curve itself.





I think the new 2x2 wide curve is really effective in this combination.  Another view of the curve, rotated 90 degrees.





We continue up the grade toward the switchbacks.





Here's the first switchback curve.  Note that one of the glitches in the 2x2 alpha is that we can't place them directly next to each other yet.  Alex (Tarkus) assures me that we can fix that.





The second switchback curve.





A side view of the switchback area.  For those of you wondering if the wide curves and FAR are slope conforming, these should answer your question.





On up toward the pass.





And we wind our way and arrive at the tunnel.





And there you are.  I think the current upgrade will be a good addition to the game, if I do say so myself.

Later.


David

109424
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

Pat

#4282


thats all I got to say!!!

EDIT: Pat, did that dog used to belong to Gene Simmons [linkie]?  Bleah! -DE

Don't forget the SC4D Podcast is back and live on Saturdays @ 12 noon CST!! -- The Podcast soon to Return Here Linkie

deathtopumpkins

Wow. You really made Timbuktu look good! That is an excellent curvy mountain road. I seem to be making quite a few of those lately myself...

Anyway, excellent work, as usual, and still itching to get my hands on FAR/FARR!

:thumbsup:
NAM Team Member | 3RR Collaborater | Virgin Shores

Ryan B.

David, it just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?

&apls

Always looking forward to more 3RR!

Swamper77

In regards to the FAR/FARR railroad crossings, I've made the T21s, fixed a few paths, have sent it in to the NAM Team for inclusion into the next version of FAR/FARR. And, yes, the gates do work on them, thanks to the path fixes I made. ;)

-Swamper
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

threestooges

Revolutionary developments. I should have a few poles to decorate those roads with if you are interested (including some 18.4 degree ones, just for fun) as soon as I get the time to export them again.

thundercrack83

I don't even know what to say to that mountain road, David.

I really don't! Extraordinary scratches the surface, but doesn't do it justice.

Dustin

meldolion

David,
that road up the mountain is simply magnificient!!! &apls I'd really like to see pvarcoe winding road to Teton Pass redone with your curve3s :)

JoeST

that is FANTASTIC

tho fantastic is becoming standard... so heh

Joe
Copperminds and Cuddleswarms

bat

Fantastic work there on the road! Looks beautiful! :thumbsup:

109563

Ennedi

Fantastic work David! (edit: and Alex, Jan and other friends!) I'm very busy now, but I'm still here  :D :thumbsup:
Shosaloza civil engineers are waiting impatiently for these roads and railways  ;)

Adam
New Horizons Productions
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Simpson

Incredible work there David fantastic the road is very good  :thumbsup: &apls
My new city is now here
The région of Kaikoura

Teaser of Lopsas[+ How did I do it?]:Lopsas

superhands

well you always find out something new when david is around!  (that ctrl + shift + C, never new about that :o)

pvarcoe

Really nice set of shots David.
I have experimented with the FAR curves too.
They worked quite well in the mountains, but the real missing link was the 2x2 90 degree turn.
Great to see it in use here, and it looks SUPER!
To be perfect for switchbacks we would want to place 2 curves next to each other for a 180 turn.
Sounds like that is in the works.

An 8 percent grade sounds about right over that length of road. That is just the average grade I assume.
I would think you have brief stretches that climb up to 10 or 11 percent.
As far as I can tell, the FAR handles those grades very well.

Anyway it looks like you have elevated (heh) our mountain roads up another notch.

Thanks for your hard work in this area.
Phil

dedgren

Houston...



I, ahhh- I think we have a problem.

Chalk this one up to transposing some numbers- interesting result, eh?

The re-texturing effort is going really well.  The wide road curves/FAR are looking pretty good- I may have some FARR results to show you later.


David

109797
D. Edgren

Please call me David...

Three Rivers Region- A collaborative development of the SC4 community
The 3RR Quick Finder [linkie]


I aten't dead.  —  R.I.P. Granny Weatherwax

Skype: davidredgren

Ryan B.

Quote from: Jim Lovell, Apollo 13 AstronautHouston, we have a problem.  We have a "main bus B undervolt" . . . oh, there's another master alarm, Houston . . . I'm getting multiple caution and warning lights . . . we got a wicked shimmy up here, Houston!

Quote from: Gene Kranz, Apollo 13 Flight DirectorOK, people - alert your support teams.  Wake up anybody you need - get 'em in here.  Let's work the problem - not make things worse by guessing.

^ Did it go anything like that, David?  :P

z

#4297
Quote from: dedgren on August 05, 2008, 06:34:10 PM
Houston...



I, ahhh- I think we have a problem.
109797

FWIW, I've seen the exact same problem whenever a monorail crosses a regular rail when I have PEG's Alternate Railway Texture Mod installed.  No other combination does it.

I'd certainly be interested if there's a simple fix.

EDITWell, z, you'll be glad to know that at least the issue is a straightforward one.  It occurs when the puzzle piece involved refers to a transit texture that doesn't exist.  When I retextured the 2x2 wide curve, I transposed two digits in the texture's "instance," which is in effect its name.  In this case, I made it 0x6044600A when it should have been 0x6046400A.  My guess is that there's just no transit texture that's been created in PEG's MOD for the combination you describe, although one is called for when you create it in the game.  I'd send John (Pegasus) a PM about the situation at his site first- if that doesn't get anywhere, let me know. -DE

Ryan B.

#4298
I'm sure it's no problem - certainly not one on Apollo 13's scale.

EDIT: Oh, no- it turned out to be a five minute fix.  Hey, Ryan, welcome to the "Double-0" Club! -DE

sim-al2

#4299
QuoteHouston...




I, ahhh- I think we have a problem.

Chalk this one up to transposing some numbers- interesting result, eh?

The re-texturing effort is going really well.  The wide road curves/FAR are looking pretty good- I may have some FARR results to show you later.


David

errr.....dedgren, your textures are doing the funky chicken. ??? I like how the FAR is going though. I hope it gets released....eventually. &Thk/(

EDIT: Hey, my friend- call me David, please.  Er... I don't know about the chicken part, but funky about sums it up. -DE
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