NWM (Network Widening Mod) - Development and Support

[Tarkus]

The only reliable fix I've been able to find so far is to remove the wealthification altogether.  The only other idea I really have would involve using alpha transparency on the wealth underlays to see if I can cut out the part that is colliding.  That's a little tricky, though, given how some of them are laid out.

It's a little tricky for me to really test anything as I've never been able to replicate the bug myself--my graphics card does not produce it.

-Alex

Edit: I've also added the info to the NWM FAQ as Item #20, for future reference, since this question gets asked a lot.

[Nego]

It's a little tricky for me to really test anything as I've never been able to replicate the bug myself--my graphics card does not produce it.

You may not be able to test it, but I can. I am able to replicate the bug on my computer and I'd be willing to volunteer to help you test bug fixes and provide feedback to you and the rest of the NAM & NWM Team.

[vinlabsc3k]

@mitch
1. Did you try to set the rendering of the game to sofware?
2. Did you try in the nVidia Control Center to make a rule for simcity4.exe?
3. Did you upgrade the drivers?
4. Did you play in Full-screen or Window mode?
5. What OS you have?

[mitch]

@vinlabsc3k
hi,
1) I switched to software mode like you suggested (i had to force it via the game shortcut, doing it in game wouldn't work) There was noted improvement but still some minor tearing and graphic glitches
2) My Nvidia control panel lets me alter the graphic settings for specific games/applications including SC4, i've tried a variety (if not all combinations) of filtering, buffering and vertical sync. any changes i made either were too subtle to notice or there were no changes at all.
3) My drivers are all upto date for my ASUS as per the manufacturers site.
4) I use full screen
5)I'm operating Win7 64-Bit with an intel i7 processor (i run the game with a CPU count of 1)

Hope this info is useful, changing to software mode resluted in significant improvement  but at a cost of what appeared to be a loss in overall graphic quality and to some extent games performance, esp at zoom settings further out.

Cheers,
Hope it helps

[vinlabsc3k]

@mitch
If you have a integrated or mobile (notebook) graphic card this problem may happen becuase the drivers are limited.
If you belong the 1st case, you could buy a PCI-E graphic card.

[rushman5]

vinlabsc3k: comicsans.....

mitch: I would just say you are stuck with it. You can't replace your graphics card because
1. its a laptop
2. its not worth it for one game addon
I would suggest keep on doing what you are doing and try to ignore it; that's what i have been doing.

As for the NWM, I feel like this project is certainly taking a back seat to the RHW, which I think makes perfect sense.

[Tarkus]

As for the NWM, I feel like this project is certainly taking a back seat to the RHW, which I think makes perfect sense.

It had been . . . then it kind of got activated again behind the scenes for a very brief period.  But both it and the RHW are probably going to end up taking back seat to another project called RL for awhile.

-Alex

[vinlabsc3k]

vinlabsc3k: comicsans.....

I like this font.

1. its a laptop

I was referred to the integrated case.

2. its not worth it for one game addon

The change of the graphic card was a suggestion, because if make a glitch on a ten year old game, it make errors with new games (bluescreen).

[Lowkee33]

Hi all,

I had a downtown who's traffic couldn't be solved by an avenue, so thought "why not try out this NWM thing?".  Of course I have a couple dumb questions.  The first is will a 1-tile wide piece provide more capacity than a regular road?  I assume so if there are more lanes.  Second, is it possible to make a 2-tile wide diagonal?  Basically, I am trying to replace a bendy avenue with NWM (but perhaps there is a different mod for this?), and then also the side roads with something a little heavier.  Thanks. 

[io_bg]

The first is will a 1-tile wide piece provide more capacity than a regular road?  I assume so if there are more lanes.

As far as I know, the difference is only visual, wider roads don't carry more traffic than normal (Maxis) ones.

[noahclem]

Actually, the wider (more lanes) NWM networks do provide more capacity than they're original counterparts. This is not because they have more lanes, as the game calculates traffic congestion per tile (lanes only affect automata and UDI), but because the pathing has been done in such a way that the game considers them intersections. This boosts traffic capacity by 50% under most traffic simulators. For two-tile networks, both MAVE-6 and TLA-5 get a 50% boost over avenues, and all 3-lane, 1-tile networks get a 50% capacity boost over normal roads. There are no 2-tile diagonal networks at the moment.

[jondor]

The 2-tile diagonal networks (such as the Maxis Avenue) suffer from congestion problems because both directions of travel have to squeeze through the shared tiles, so overall their capacity is not much better than a single tile diagonal.  The NWM diagonals take up more space to avoid this issue.

[Opkl]

The 2-tile diagonal networks (such as the Maxis Avenue) suffer from congestion problems because both directions of travel have to squeeze through the shared tiles, so overall their capacity is not much better than a single tile diagonal.  The NWM diagonals take up more space to avoid this issue.

And will the diagonal 2 tile networks be in the next NAM?

[Lowkee33]

(Seems like when I post at the same time as someone my post gets lost...)

My side road have near 1300 cars, so NWM will be the proper expansion (with my roads giving me adviser pop ups at 1000) seeing is how my bus stations did so poorly.

Simply, is a NWM-Tulep-Avenue intersection is a reasonable thing for me to be making in the 2nd tenth of this century? 

How would one approach a 90 degree 2-tile turn, this too is giving me trouble, though it might have just been my fault.  I may even try something a little interesting, as it appears taking out one house gives me much room to play.

[jondor]

And will the diagonal 2 tile networks be in the next NAM?

In the next NWM update for sure, whether that's concurrent with the next NAM update or not is unknown.

[jdenm8]

How would one approach a 90 degree 2-tile turn, this too is giving me trouble, though it might have just been my fault.  I may even try something a little interesting, as it appears taking out one house gives me much room to play.

Okay, at the moment, none of the NWM networks have full Diagonal support (none have Diagonal intersections) except for the 2 tilers which have no diagonal or turning support. At all.

The next NWM, as well as having AVE-6 and TLA-7 included, will have two-tile and three-tile network diagonals and 90° curves.

At the moment, the only solution for a 2-Tile NWM curve is to deconvert to Maxis Avenue then reconvert after the curve.

Oh, By the way, only OWR-3, TLA-3, ARD-3, AVE-4, TLA-5 and MAVE-6 have the special intersection pathing that increases the capacity.

[GDO29Anagram]

@jdenm8: You forgot OWR3. And didn't you mean MAVE6, not AVE6?

[jdenm8]

Gah. You're right

[Lowkee33]

Thanks for the info.

[Tarkus]

Simply, is a NWM-Tulep-Avenue intersection is a reasonable thing for me to be making in the 2nd tenth of this century? 

Are you referring to an intersection between an NWM network and an Avenue that's TuLEPed?  Fairly easy to do with the current setup--the Avenue TuLEPs dual as TLA-5 TuLEPs (and can be plopped on top of TLA-5s) and the Road ones double as TLA-3/AVE-2/ARD-3 TuLEPs (the transitions for TLA-3/AVE-2 to Road Type A TuLEP are at the end of the TAB Loop).  There aren't any TuLEPs for the MAVE-4 or 6 or any of the OWR-type networks as of yet.

Oh, and to confirm the existence of diagonal dual-tile networks, here's a few peeks at it:











Triple-tilers, too:



Had been hesitant to show them to prevent myself from getting mobbed.  

All 5 existing dual-tile networks, plus the 2 triple-tile networks that will be in NWM Version 2.0 (TLA-7 and AVE-6) have some sort of diagonal functionality in the current alpha build.  They can curve around now but diagonal intersections are not yet in place, and given the massive amount of work involved in that, I'm not sure they will be in this next release.  

The TLA-9, AVE-8, and their asymmetrical counterparts the TLA-8, and AVE-7 will also not be in Version 2.0.

The MAVE-4 and OWR-4 diagonals operate on a "shared-tile" setup, taking the same footprint as the existing Avenue diagonals.  The TLA-5, MAVE-6, and OWR-5 operate on a "split-tile" setup, in which the center tile is not shared and they have a higher capacity on the diagonal as a result.  The TLA-7 and AVE-6 also operate on a sort of "split-tile" setup that's been modified for a triple-tile arrangement, similar to how the RHW-6C diagonals are set up in the current RHW release.

Development has been slow since about February, and with my current RL, things will continue to be slow for awhile.  The main thing is there's a massive backlog of paths that need to be done.  That's really the stumbling block on most projects right now.  

-Alex