NWM (Network Widening Mod) - Development and Support

[ivo_su]

Forthcoming release of the  NAM 30 and I wondered what would happen  to the topics in the forum relating to TuLEP's, NWM and RHW. Will they be expiry and start on page 1 or to continue the example from page 430 to discuss the next versions.

Ivo

[Shadow Assassin]

Forthcoming release of the  NAM 30 and I wondered what would happen  to the topics in the forum relating to TuLEP's, NWM and RHW. Will they be expiry and start on page 1 or to continue the example from page 430 to discuss the next versions.

Ivo

We'll still keep the topics, as always, so... no worries there.

These topics don't always need to be cleaned up, though it is up to the moderators in the end.

[GMT]

speaking of diagonal, will there be a fix for diagonal railways crossing a normal NWM? I'm not quite sure about the others, but the TLA5 turns into 2 parallel maxis roads for the length of a diagonal rail crossing it, messing not just with the visuals, but also with the paths

[jdenm8]

diagonal railways crossing a normal NWM? I'm not quite sure about the others, but the TLA5 turns into 2 parallel maxis roads for the length of a diagonal rail crossing it, messing not just with the visuals, but also with the paths

That would be because there's no compatibility for that in the current public version. (Hence the "Limited Diagonal Functionality" words being used in the readme)
It's just like the non-existent RHW-6C to AVE-6 transition. As it hasn't been implemented, it reverts to three Road to RHW-2 transitions, though it will still carry traffic like normal.

I can look in the current dev version and check to see if compatibility for that has been added.

[Tarkus]

Support for diagonal Rail crossing orthogonal single-tile NWM networks exists in the current development build (TLA-3, AVE-2, ARD-3, OWR-3, NMAVE-4--OWR-1 still needs textures).

TLA-5 is a dual-tile network, however, and we will not be adding any diagonal intersection support to the dual-tile networks until a later release.

-Alex

[ivo_su]

Browsing the forums and posts written in the past and I noticed that there was a poll in which everyone is given an estimate when it will be released next NAM. I wonder if you can do this play now.

- Ivo

[Tarkus]

Browsing the forums and posts written in the past and I noticed that there was a poll in which everyone is given an estimate when it will be released next NAM. I wonder if you can do this play now.

- Ivo

Did that with the RHW thread before the 3.0 release . . . but it's unlikely I'll do that again.  It ended up being a big disaster and just made people uncontrollably antsy for the release--we actually had to close down the development thread for about 3 days for it to cool off.

-Alex

[ivo_su]

However you decide whether you do it again or not. Is not so important, I just thought tshe shte is a fun game, but on the other hand you're right, it would be crazy and other things found during out of control.

-Ivo

[Tarkus]

Much as I did in the RHW thread recently, I'd like to report on how networks built with NWM 1.x releases will function with NWM 2.0, as well as give a little bit of information regarding the current state of development (of course, still no release date/timeline for release, as per standard procedure).

Existing networks built with NWM 1.x should continue to function virtually identically with NWM 2.0, and we are not anticipating the need for a Legacy Support file. 

That said, because of the "wealth-glitching" issue on some of the wealth-enabled transition puzzle pieces, I am looking at separating the wealth textures from the mod itself and offering them as an option instead, which those with incompatible graphics cards/settings can simply omit from their installation.

Regarding the still lingering issues with the "Cascading Commute Arrow" on the MAVE-6, which some users are still reporting with the patch, so far, we don't have a confirmed, acceptable solution (it has also recently been reported on the Avenue Type B TuLEPs).  I also can't replicate the issue after my initial patch, so I am unable to test it.  I have attached another patch attempt below, which affects both the MAVE-6 and Avenue Type B TuLEPs--give it a spin and let me know if it does the trick.  If not, I'll continue tinkering with it and offering attempts, and the issue may still be present in NWM 2.0.

The NWM is currently in its 6th developmental build--one behind the RHW.  As I mentioned on the RHW thread, typically, projects of this type take about a dozen before we release.  The main holdup right now is finishing up the diagonal single-tile intersection functionality, which will be scaled back.  I will have more details on just how scaled back it will be when we get a bit closer.

Thank you all for your support and patience during this process--it is greatly appreciated!

-Alex

[jacksunny]

No, thank you!!! 

[ivo_su]

Do not worry Alex for our patience. We will wait as long as necessary, you just  do your work  in peace, as well as you always did. And if someone is too eager, I personally will spanking  .

- Ivo

[Opkl]

Do not worry Alex for our patience. We will wait as long as necessary, you just  do your work  in peace, as well as you always did. And if someone is too eager, I personally will be spanking  .

- Ivo

lol 

[strucka]

Has anyone else noticed the pathing problem on the OWR-5? The middle lane seems to have the paths in both ways, which makes it in to a continuous crash in my case. =S

[ivo_su]

Has anyone else noticed the pathing problem on the OWR-5? The middle lane seems to have the paths in both ways, which makes it in to a continuous crash in my case. =S

Yes I noticed this problem, but as far as I know from Tarkus (Alex), this bug is due to cross paths over, without which is no way to be efficient network. Unfortunately not yet found a method to clean up this problem, and in the future is not expected to have development in this direction. Just to supplement that awaits you at OWR-4. I hope I was helpful.

- Ivo

[Haljackey]

Well it took a long time but I finally got the original Network Widening Mod tutorial back on Youtube, courtesy of Erwin Negentig and Epic Music Productions. Feel free to re-attach it to the stick post.

http://www.youtube.com/v/L1MXHlL1A_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1MXHlL1A_Y

By the way, what happened to the sticky posts? Haven't seen them since the forum upgrade. 

[j-dub]

I don't know what you went through exactly to get that back Haljackey, but you done well for the community.

[Tarkus]

Thanks for your efforts in ensuring that Erwin's NWM tutorial will remain available, Haljackey--it is greatly appreciated!   +1 k-point coming your way shortly.  Sticky posts are the result of a forum mod--it hasn't been reinstalled on the new forums yet.

Thought I'd give an update here on the NWM and the "scaling back" I previously mentioned.  The single-tile diagonal intersection progress, while it has been going well, has just been a tremendously massive undertaking because of just how many freaking intersection combinations there are.  We're literally talking about hundreds of intersections--about 60-80 per network with 6 networks (TLA-3, AVE-2, ARD-3, OWR-1, OWR-3, NMAVE-4), so 360-480 intersections total.  The work's not difficult, just time-consuming--time-consuming enough that if I were to go through and complete it, it'd push the release back quite a bit farther yet. 

I know folks are anxious for a release--even us NAMites are--and the other components in progress right now are much farther along.  So here's what I'm planning to do: stop work on further diagonal intersections for now, offer what I have done on that front "as-is" as an "unsupported" feature (much like the Inside DRIs in the RHW), and finish up some of the less-exhaustive NWM features in progress and release a still fairly substantial NWM 2.0 update.  There won't be much rhyme or reason as to which diagonal intersections are covered or not covered--it'll mostly be what I managed to get done so far, though fairly universally, OWR-1 intersections, DxD intersections, diagonal T intersections, and stuff involving other NWM networks and RHW networks other than the RHW-2 are not covered. 

And we'll still have the two initial triple-tilers, the NMAVE-4, some other new intersection combos, and a heretofore-yet-unannounced "secret weapon" that will greatly ease the construction of NWM networks.  The remainder of the diagonal intersection work will be a running "work-in-progress", that will be incrementally expanded with smaller NWM updates going forward.

-Alex

[Ramona Brie]

A secret weapon...will it be revealed in a video like the RHW ones?

That said, what are some of the other in-progress features?

[ivo_su]

So, I'm known for NWM secret weapon when asked whether there would be something like this. I have to say that I first spoke to a secret weapon in NWM because until now these were only available for RHW.
Sorry I know that as a problem to diagonal intersections and that they will be delayed. But despite my great sadness about the problems NWM 2.0 remains the consolation that the coming new edition of the NAM. I do not know whether nchkoy else agrees with me but I always thought it was better to have smaller releases but are more frequently than they have mega releases of the  interval  over 12  months. However, I would not  have anything to the contrary is a monthly supplement for example a secret weapon than to wait one year for 4-5 stuff. This is my personal  opinion and  do not want to engage  with anyone, but think about that performance by informal  but regular releases would have been  greater, and there will be  so eagerly by consumers.

Regards,
- Ivo

[jdenm8]

The problem with 'smaller releases' is that with this, we're trying to implement something that sounds small (Diagonal Intersections, three new networks) but just isn't. There's a lot of man hours involved in this in probably the most difficult RULs (TMK only Tarkus and BlueLightning can edit it confidently, poor commenting doesn't exactly help).

I've been trying to get into RUL2 editing so I'd be able to help a bit and speed it up, but it's a long process and a bit hard to learn.

On top of that, we're adding three new networks (I'm not saying completely new as they have been around for a while) with turning ability (And these dual and triple tilers are hard to figure out, it's just like RHW-6C and 8C diagonals), there's a lot of work there.

Something like this just cannot be added in a smaller release.

Besides, we've still got another month until it's been 12 months since the last release (And it took twelve months for the last vX.0 release cycle).

Don't worry though, we've got some really cool stuff and it'll be well worth the wait.