RHW (RealHighway) - Development and Support

Patricius Maximus · July 16, 2008, 07:45:35 AM

Then our questions are answered. Not in v21

However, I think it's for the best since 2-lane ramps have higher capacity anyway.

j-dub · July 16, 2008, 08:46:12 AM

Quote from: jplumbleyEach one of these things takes time to do. Unfortunately, we are not full-time and paid for our efforts. I would love to be a consultant for CitiesXL, or SimCity5, but thats not likely to ever happen. So, we are stuck here doing things in our free time.

Wow, Jason you would actually work for EA? Thats suprising, but would be better for this franchise. If EA was smart, and wanted to keep its fans from switching to Monte Cristo, hiring you, maybe more SC4 loyalists, and planning out better transportation networks that can go absolutely any direction, just like CitiesXL would be a strategic, competitve advantage. I can imagine the RHW in a future SimCity game getting built by hand drawn, instead of dragged. But I don't have high hopes after Societies. Who knows, the SimCity made after Societies looked like the roads went anywhere, maybe they will get better. Although, I can't imagine how long it would take to do the NWM/RHW for a free hand direction road system like CitiesXL. You guys have modded so much, that its too bad we won't get to see this NWM stuff in a future city sim game.

Tarkus · July 16, 2008, 11:18:00 AM

Well, as far as the flyovers go, well, all you'd really need is an El-MIS with a ground-to-elevated transition of some sort, and MIS-over-RHW pieces. That would effectively do it.

Quote from: Patricius Maximus on July 16, 2008, 07:45:35 AM
However, I think it's for the best since 2-lane ramps have higher capacity anyway.

Well, technically speaking, as far as the game is concerned, they have the same capacity.

-Alex

nerdly_dood · July 16, 2008, 12:29:56 PM

Here's my take on network capacities. Game mechanics is definitely a necessary factor in planning transit networks, but might I point out that some interchanges could use extra lanes, not because the game has to give each tile a set capacity, but because it would just look better to give some directions more capacity than others.

Take this interchange for example. If I had left it as just a Y-stack, then the RHW-4 would only have one lane for each direction. When I added the bypass lanes, it has 6 lanes - four total for the express lanes, and 2 total for the ones that go straight through the interchange - a sort of abbreviated collector/distributor system. Of course, the Y-stack does have functionality for the RHW-4 because buses going one way cannot use the road/subway transition (by Buddybud i think?) - or, should I call it the fake road tunnel? Okay, enough rambling... here's the interchange, looking west.

Here's a close-up of the northern end where the lanes merge:

This doesn't mean at all that I don't care about network capacities, but that's my two cents.

Tarkus · July 16, 2008, 03:45:04 PM

Quote from: nerdly_dood on July 16, 2008, 12:29:56 PM
Here's my take on network capacities. Game mechanics is definitely a necessary factor in planning transit networks, but might I point out that some interchanges could use extra lanes, not because the game has to give each tile a set capacity, but because it would just look better to give some directions more capacity than others.

Indeed. That's why a lot of these options exist with the RHW and some of the future NWM networks (TLA-3, AVE-2, etc.).

-Alex (Tarkus)

Patricius Maximus · July 16, 2008, 05:03:50 PM

Well, I do know technically they have the same capacity. I'm more concerned with the visual traffic. More cars can fit on 2 lanes than 1.

However, I'm glad that the elevated networks are coming right along. We need them for some interchanges on the drawing board

halalpork · July 24, 2008, 04:55:06 AM

hi i have a slight problem in connecting the RHW to an avenue, one side of the connection works fine but the other seems misaligned?

videosean · July 24, 2008, 04:58:37 AM

Quote from: halalpork on July 24, 2008, 04:55:06 AM
hi i have a slight problem in connecting the RHW to an avenue, one side of the connection works fine but the other seems misaligned?

~~Try RHW->1wayRd->Ave~~ See Warrior's reply below... my mistake!

Jonathan · July 24, 2008, 05:10:54 AM

You are getting that because the RHW is going the wrong direction.
The cars would have a head on collison.

The wide shoulder needs to be on the outside.

Videosean: I was about to go back to the homepage, clueless and just happened to see the highway the wrong way round:)

halalpork · July 24, 2008, 05:30:44 AM

Quote from: Warrior on July 24, 2008, 05:10:54 AM
You are getting that because the RHW is going the wrong direction.
The cars would have a head on collison.

The wide shoulder needs to be on the outside.

Thanks for all the help.

I've rotated the starter piece and it works! Still new to all these NAM pieces...

Tarkus · July 27, 2008, 11:31:46 PM

Hi everyone-

RHW development is back in business.

Here's a prototype texture of the new RHW-4-to-6C transition. Or, technically, I should say one of the new RHW-4-to-6C transitions.

More to come shortly . . .

-Alex (Tarkus)

cape44 · July 27, 2008, 11:35:51 PM

Awesome Tarkus! Can't wait to see more!
- cape44

JoeST · July 27, 2008, 11:58:03 PM

that is undoubtedly getting more and more amazing every time you update

what about having a version with oneside diagonal? (just an idea, not a request

)

Joe

girlfromverona · July 28, 2008, 01:14:40 AM

Quote from: Tarkus on July 27, 2008, 11:31:46 PMRHW development is back in business.

That's awesome news, Alex!

bat · July 28, 2008, 03:19:34 AM

That is looking really nice, Tarkus! And looking forward to more...

Patricius Maximus · July 28, 2008, 06:29:36 AM

I love it

It looks almost like a RL widening. The RHW-6C may replace the Maxis highways, since it is similar (6 lanes, 2 tiles).

I also like the new textures. They're darker asphalt, which appears more realistic.

More's coming shortly? I'd like to see some more.. uh... samples of what's to come.

Simply put, great work!

deathtopumpkins · July 28, 2008, 09:24:30 AM

I love the smoothness of it, but do the dashed lines not seem to line up to anybody else?

Haljackey · July 28, 2008, 05:17:56 PM

Wow, nice work as always Alex! I like that the transition is gradual but not too long.

Quote from: deathtopumpkins on July 28, 2008, 09:24:30 AM
I love the smoothness of it, but do the dashed lines not seem to line up to anybody else?

Its not supposed to line up. The entire network is shifting left, even though the highway is adding another lane. Take a look at how the right shoulder curves as well.

deathtopumpkins · July 28, 2008, 05:27:41 PM

Quote from: Haljackey on July 28, 2008, 05:17:56 PM
Its not supposed to line up. The entire network is shifting left, even though the highway is adding another lane. Take a look at how the right shoulder curves as well.

I know, but what I meant is on the second dash down it seems to slant to the right, so it's not parallel with the shoulder, while the third one down is. It's just a minor thing though, nothing too important. They're still great textures!

Tarkus · July 28, 2008, 05:37:37 PM

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I'm thrilled to be back getting the RHW going again.

To respond to a couple of comments/questions:

Quote from: Patricius Maximus on July 28, 2008, 06:29:36 AM
The RHW-6C may replace the Maxis highways, since it is similar (6 lanes, 2 tiles).

Actually, the RHW-6C is a 3-tile network, but it has 150% capacity compared to Maxis Highways, so that third tile doesn't go to waste.

Quote from: deathtopumpkins on July 28, 2008, 09:24:30 AM
do the dashed lines not seem to line up to anybody else?

I actually kind of noticed there was something a little eschew there myself . . . I haven't exported them into the 128x128 PNG squares yet, so I'll probably tweak the lines ever so slightly.

More RHW-6C-related stuff shortly . . . possibly some other stuff, too.

-Alex (Tarkus)