New Elevated *Network* Facelift Mods

[tommiej]

now this looks promising!
i never liked those 'plain grass' under the monorail, or the EL-rail, or the EHW..
keep it motivated!! 

[SC4BOY]

Looking good.. glad you decided to go back and polish it up!

[MIncroabl]

I found some errors in the el-rail mod files that I thought I'd warn you about: If you do not install the I-d/I-m files, you will experience blank spots. This is because the exemplars that overwrite the default Maxis T21s are only included in the aforementioned file. Another issue is that the C-$ T21s have accidentally also been included in the C-$$/C-$$$ file. I'm guessing these bugs won't affect too many people, as most will probably install all the files. These issues will be fixed once I get back to the el-rail mod.

I've almost converted everything there is to convert for the monorail:



All that remains is the R-$ files. Once they are done, I can focus on the elevated highway version and upgrading the el-rail.

[Diggis]

You are legend!

[Andreas]

Not that I want to hijack your thread, but here's a pic that shows what I'm working on:



As you might have noticed, the brown dirt disappeared below the rails and was replaced by grass and concrete that matches the zone density and wealth levels, just like you're doing it with the elevated networks. More to come later (in the SFBT thread).

[powerpill-pacman]

Oh your're both making my day. Thanks to both of you for your excellent work.

[MIncroabl]

@Andreas:
That looks very nice! Are you using T21s and props or some wealth dependant textures?

[Andreas]

Thanks! I use wealth-dependent textures - fortunately this works with the railways.

[FrankU]

These are really great developments....
Some time ago I rebuilt my complete plugins folder. I had hoped that I could work with it for some time, but hey.... Every week I see new developments.
Would it also be an idea to construct overhanging lots that cover under Higway, elevated rail etc?
Some of these already exist, of course.

[Diggis]

The work MIncroable is doing avoids the need for overhanging lots by adding it directly to the network

[FrankU]

Yes, Diggis, I know that.
Just: overhanging lots have the advantage that you can fill in the spaces in a way you want. On the other hand they have the disadvantage that it is a lot of work.
I could perfectly live with either of both options.
I tend to be not be able to live with the options of perfect green grass under my highways and elevated rails. Did the people from EA ever take a look under existing HW or ER?

[DrPepper]

This is an Awesome Mod. I'm glad I read every text before I asked a question. I'm still not sure if you made this or not. If not is it possible to put the Facelift Optional in some areas?


-DrPepper

[MIncroabl]

This is an Awesome Mod. I'm glad I read every text before I asked a question. I'm still not sure if you made this or not. If not is it possible to put the Facelift Optional in some areas?


-DrPepper

If you want the mod not to affect some zone (density,wealth), you can take the corresponding file out of your plugins folder. Otherwise, if you don't want the texture to appear under certain parts of your network, you'll unfortunately have to create some sort of workaround, like parks, to prevent the effect.

Yes, Diggis, I know that.
Just: overhanging lots have the advantage that you can fill in the spaces in a way you want. On the other hand they have the disadvantage that it is a lot of work.
I could perfectly live with either of both options.
I tend to be not be able to live with the options of perfect green grass under my highways and elevated rails. Did the people from EA ever take a look under existing HW or ER?

You can still use lots with overhanging props. Remember though, the end result depends much on how the overhanging props have been rendered. My props are just plain planes with textures rendered at 0m height. The overhanging props must be higher to cover the el-rail props under.


To those wondering and who haven't read the readme, the reason why I chose not to include parks, landmarks or civic buildings in this mod is that all these are collected into a single 'civic' zone type value in T21s. I decided to leave them out because there really isn't any texture that would fit all of them. Bricks would not fit green parks and green grass would look weird next to landmarks and civic structures. This way, you can use civic structures as a sort of buffer to prevent the textures from appearing.

[DrPepper]

Great!

[FrankU]

Well, whatever I said before: great work! I will surely use them.
Good that you make the mod modular: that we can choose what part to use.
Thank you very much! 

[MIncroabl]

I've completed the monorail conversion. Quite some time ago, actually... been busy playing for a change  . Now I have to make some adjustments to the original el-rail mod, implement those additions to the monorail version, and it will be done.

In the meanwhile, I've been experimenting with the parking lot idea for the highways, and came up with this:



Bear in mind that this just an initial layout describing the textures and their pattern. As you can see in the picture, there will be an exit every 4 tiles so that you can use TE lots to provide a visual connection between the parking lots and roads/streets. I'm currently trying to decide if I should increase the distance between exits to every 5th. This way, there would be 4 tiles of parking lots between the exits, a figure I personally like as I prefer using 2 tile deep zones. I'd like to hear your opinions on this.

Oh, as you can see, I'm also planning to change the pattern of the lamps on the highway to a more organized/realistic one while I'm on it.

[Jonathan]

Great work!
How about if you drag a street half way under the highway it makes an entry/exit?
RULs could be made for that probably.

[rushman5]

Perhaps you can leave te 5 or 3 tile option to the user?  I am enjoying the pattern, though.  Continue pleeeze!

[MIncroabl]

@Warrior:
You know, that is an excellent idea! And yet another reason for me to start learning RULs.

@rushman5:
That would be doable, but I think I'm going to give Warrior's idea a try first. It's a simple solution, with which every player can decide their own way to build the connections and reduces the amount of different files and my work.

[Jonathan]

Hey your part of the NAM team now just ask someone to help you we all have specific areas we are good at, yours is the much needed T21s