RHW (RealHighway) - Development and Support

[MandelSoft]

Yes, we've thought about that, and it's requested some times. The fact is that these 3D-puzzle-pieces take a lot of time to create...

[Tarkus]

Texture progress resumes . . .

deathtopumpkins' RHW-6C-to-Dual-RHW-4 with Center RHW-2 splitter piece, introduced in Version 4.0, with V5-Spec textures:



And a look at the V5-Spec FARHW-6:



This means it's about time to start hitting at-grade intersections and cosmetic pieces now.

-Alex

[io_bg]

The FARHW6 looks awesome

[Shadow Assassin]

It looks like it needs some re-striping for the FARHW-6 piece, otherwise it just looks weird.

[jdenm8]

Ya, I agree with SA. The striping looks a little strange on FARHW. The RHW-6C centre ramp looks great though.

If you like, I can lend that dotted merge line that I did for those textures I made for you to use on the cosmetic pieces.

[noahclem]

Looks beautiful    I'd agree on the minor striping fix but I can't say enough positive things about the v5 spec textures 

Now that the lane widths have been narrowed what will the the footprint of the FA pieces? Will a "straight" piece be 3x2 tiles or 3x3? Transitions 5x2 or 5x3? The narrower width would be handy for flora or compact spaces if it's possible 

BTW, the splitter looks perfect!

[Thomas Diamond]

Your enthusiasm is apparent, Haljackey. Definitely useful for C/E highways.

Finally, the a-10-tion that RHW-10S deserves...

Actually, I'm still waiting on a more complex splitter... Like an RHW-10S to RHW 2 + RHW-8S Ramp, for example. I drew them on my chart, remember?


_{(Chart needs revision... I just gotta fit in the M-R and S-X ramps, Rion...)}

Maybe I can learn how to make one of those things... I dunno...

Another crazy idea/proposal: Dedicated C/E ramps, like what's shown in some parts in this video I found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIMEg4PxRaA, for interchanging a C/E highway without the need for a basketweave. In other words, the RHW equivalent of this:
_{(See the slip lanes...?)}

Should make replication of t/he 401 a lot more accurate... That's the only use I see right now...

Is RHW 12 panned

[Tarkus]

Yeah, the FARHW-6 curves primarily need a little adjustment.

Now that the lane widths have been narrowed what will the the footprint of the FA pieces? Will a "straight" piece be 3x2 tiles or 3x3? Transitions 5x2 or 5x3? The narrower width would be handy for flora or compact spaces if it's possible 

They're still pretty much the same size they were before, even with the narrower width.

Is RHW 12 planned

It's been discussed.  Probably will happen eventually, but we're not sure when.

-Alex

[Shadow Assassin]

Now that the lane widths have been narrowed what will the the footprint of the FA pieces? Will a "straight" piece be 3x2 tiles or 3x3? Transitions 5x2 or 5x3? The narrower width would be handy for flora or compact spaces if it's possible 

FARHW-6 was made with a 1-tile overhang. The strange stub layout you see there was to make connecting two-tiled RHW-6 less of a PITA.

So, 3x2 for FARHW-6, with the transitions the same width, at 5x2. I had to do some wacky stuff to get it to fit properly on the AutoTileBase tables, but at least the piece works properly.

Some new FARHW pieces are on the way, it's mainly ramp interfaces, though. I haven't yet got any pics, as they're not even complete.

[noahclem]

Awesome! Thanks for your reply Shadow Assassin (and Alex, though I hope you've mis-spoke on this one  )  I feel like lately I can't spit without hitting good news on RHW development!

[Moonraker0]

All this development looks really great, although unfortunately I now have something for support:  I just recently started getting zig-zag paths on RHW-8.  This is happening on two different highways in two different cities.  The car automata will repeatedly zig-zag between lanes, and their paths in the route query show this too.  I only notice this for the evening commute; those highways have zero usage in the morning.  I think I read somewhere that this was caused by an outdated NAM controller (or something like that), but I can't find that FAQ item anymore.  The last modification to my plugins folder before this started happening was the addition of a modified version of TrafficFixes.dat, in which I only changed the Commute Train Max Length, and then replaced the original TrafficFixes.dat with my modified one.  I don't see how this would affect route query paths, however, as TrafficFixes is only an automata plugin.

[MandelSoft]

This zigzagging is completely normal. Otherwise traffic can't switch between lanes of different tiles.

[Tarkus]

A little bit of arrow zig-zag is normal--the car automata, as long as they're not being generated by a traffic generator or spawned from lots directly adjacent to a Wider RHW, should not be zig-zagging. 

TrafficFixes.dat is a non-NAM automata controller file, so we can't entirely verify its compatibility or provide full support for it.  The initial few releases of that file over at ST did actually suffer from RHW issues, as I recall, as there are some settings relating to RHW traffic visuals in the Automata Tuning Exemplar.

-Alex

[strucka]

Hi! I was thinking about this yesterday, as I went to visit my family and drove on the Slovenian autobahn. As it resembles the Austrian and German and all other middle European autobahns (highways), i thought, why wouldn't you make another set of pieces. Heres why. When there is a junction or an exit aproaching, the slowing/speeding lane is formed, but doesn't have any shoulder. what that basicaly means, we could have RHW-4 exits on the same 1 tile base, because RHW-4 already has a shoulder lane, which would just be either modified or plopped over with cosmetic pieces. =)

Just for your consideration. I hope you understand what I mean. (otherwise I can sketch it for you)

[MandelSoft]

^^ I've seen some of these shoulderless exit lanes here in the Netherlands too.

[Tarkus]

The problem is that the alignment of the RHW-6S--basically, the footprint you'd need for an accel/decel lane--is such that even if you cut off the shoulder, you'd still need to have an overhang.



The cosmetic accel/decel lane pieces are also being converted to an overhang setup like the base network for Version 4.2, so they'll be in a 1x1 footprint, technically.  You could, theoretically, shift things over to the right so there isn't an overhang, but you'd have to jog the lanes over and the resultant geometry would look a bit weird.

-Alex

[MandelSoft]

Actually, I was moere thinking about this:


Yes, the exit lane is narrow, but in most cases where they are used in RL they really are narrow. Mostly this is used at old freeways, or where there's not much space, like here:
http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.157499,4.547455&spn=0.00133,0.003484&t=k&z=19

Best,
Maarten

[io_bg]

Actually, I was moere thinking about this:


Yes, the exit lane is narrow, but in most cases where they are used in RL they really are narrow. Mostly this is used at old freeways, or where there's not much space, like here:
http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.157499,4.547455&spn=0.00133,0.003484&t=k&z=19

Best,
Maarten

That would be cool! It can be seen on older highways in Bulgaria and it would be great to have in SC4, too

[Opkl]

Are flyover ramps planned for the RHW-4 and maybe the RHW-6? Also, will wider networks be elevated in this next release?

[jdenm8]

FlexFly for RHW-4 is the process of being made.

As for wider networks,

we like to surprise you guys