The Noro Cooperative

[vortext]

A belated happy birthday Noah!   

Hope work will calm down shortly, which should probably also relieve your back I guess. Anyway, it's a bit crazy here, too, I'll get around to feedback and PM later in the week (I hope) though the latter can be short: yes please! 


Thanks a lot Erik!!! I'm extremely excited to hear your answer

Noah

[Gugu3]

Happy birthday Noah!
Can't wait to see something new from you!

[kelis]

Happy birthday Noah !!! ( too late, I know  )

I have no words for this airport...I can't wait to see more updates about it.

[noahclem]

Thanks a lot for the birthday wishes kelis and Gugu3! Much appreciated.

I've been playing a bit lately but keep getting stuck back on this stupid interchange I've been building. I realized just how much I've been spinning my wheels on it today when I came across a picture/plan I made almost a week ago that I hadn't got around to publishing   Anyway here's the plan:

click for full size



And here's the current state of the big interchange:
click for full size



Oh, and I almost forgot I'd been doing a lot of texturing work and have settled on a design for avenues, tram/light rails, and a few other things. I've been meaning to get back to that but keep getting distracted by that interchange 

-I've rebuilt the pavement from scratch such that they should now have slightly lowered difference between bright and dark areas, slightly darker overall look, higher resolution/detail, and a bit less noticeable repeating textures every tile.

-Lane width is set to ~32px/4m/13' but Roads, OWRs, streets and RHW won't be messed with while the differences in others will try to make path changes unnecessary. New paths will be needed for TIAs and Avenues but hopefully not much else. The most obvious benefit of the lane width change is different networks looking better next to each other (Ave6 or Ave4 and NRD4 or TIR for example). Adjusted lane widths will also allow much greater options for turning lanes and more space for tram stops, sidewalks, and even bicycle lanes/parking areas/shoulders. A particularly interesting thing viewable from my pictures here is that diagonal avenues could fit a turning lane without needing a wider tile geometry.

-TIA, TIR, and TOR compatible with custom sidewalks thanks to memo.

-I've developed a solution to the old problem of curb stones looking fine with some terrain mods but not with others. I've created a narrow outline for curbstones at the side of my networks but made their center transparent and the outlines ~40% opaque. Besides these pics I did some testing with other sidewalk mods (the maxis sidewalk shown here is with an older version of the curb) and was pretty happy with it. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to show up right on the TIAs yet.

Good view for comparison of old widths to new widths, alignment of rails has since been modified to move them 2px further apart on each side (at their current 256x256px size).



Avenues with high-density sidewalks configured to allow easy comparison of old widths to modified widths.



Lower density sidewalks. Wealthification is Sudden Valley park textures scaled for details to appear smaller.



Outdated texture version that shows look with different sidewalks (the width and opacity of the curb outline is different here)



There's more exciting news regarding the tram situation coming soon--big news 

[Gugu3]

Can't wait to hear/watch the news Noah!!!!!!
I love trams!
Great work with the textures....and that interchange is almost insane!!!can't wait to see the final look of it...especially now we have 45 degrees flexy fly...


Thanks a lot! Indeed, the smoother elevated curves will make everything look a ton better once I switch over to them for this. Interchange has been an interesting and ridiculously difficult project-which has made me understand really well the exact abilities and limitations of the different RHW networks

-Noah

[kelis]

Good job Noah !! It's impressive the size of that region...now I understand the size of the airport 

Thanks Jonathan! Yeah, region's pretty huge--much too big for one person. Good place to try big city infrastructure projects though

-Noah

[Simcoug]

Exciting texture work - can't wait to hear about the tram news 

[romualdillo]

The interchange is just... impossible...    In that region of yours everything is gigantic... And the new textures look fantastic!! 


Hehe, thanks buddy   Yeah, it's bigger and more complicated than anything I've tried before but there are significantly bigger ones in Toronto and other places. Fun to try to push the limits

-Noah

[figui]

woow.

really nice project you have here! love the region and the plans for it.

the airport is looking awesome. really liked the overall layout. i'm curious about the runways you are using, as them seem to be wider than the ones i have in my plugins; that's something my larger airports really need.

i'm willing to be able to follow your work here as much as i can, as it really inspirates me, and maybe i can give some suggestions too (i had a job at the expansion of Carrasco Intl -MVD- in Uruguay, a few years ago)


Thanks very much and a warm welcome to this area! I remembered you from all the years we've been around together and your distinctive custom text, not to mention you always being a kind and substantive contributor. I'd certainly value whatever feedback you'd be willing to give based off your experience. Please let us know what you think here and let me know if you'd like to join the conversation on Skype or elsewhere behind the scenes

-Noah

[noahclem]

Thanks guys! I've been working on the tram project but seem to have come up against a wall. How does one get overlay textures to work properly in game? I'm using my assigned texture range and started with my typical NAM or terrain mod texture technique of creating the textures in GIMP, exporting them as .png and then using batch png-fsh converter to do what the name of the last program says. If they have transparency they get assigned to be overlay textures with the right IID and appear correctly in the menu but when I try to place them in LE they show up as pure white and I can't tell which way to rotate them. They appear correctly in the LE menu when selecting them and then again in game. After it didn't work that way I tried manually assigning the alphas (and mipmaps) with SC4Tool but ended up with the same result. I've used 128px textures the whole time to avoid problems making the lots (all the textures are made 256px HD and that'll be the primary release format though 128px versions should also be made available).

So if anyone knows how to properly create overlay textures I'd very much appreciate their advice

So while I'm begging for help, here's a bit of progress:

Full tile transition from regular TIA to platform width TIA



Station layout for tram stop with shortened transitions on 3x2 footprint



The real exciting thing: 1 of the 3 tram stop models for these stops, as seen at night on (modified) plaza base textures:



Who knows, maybe the guy that made these beauties will pop his head in

[Simcoug]

I love it!  I wish I could help with the texture problem, but I've barely dipped my toe in when it comes to custom textures.  Hopefully vortext can tackle your problem... he's always been my go-to texture guy 
Can't wait to see these in Noro!


Glad to hear you're enjoying the tram project simcoug--I've been really happy to hear from you here. Vortext sounds indeed like the one best able to sort this out. This problem once again reminds us of the need for and respect due to good lotters. If your historic city interests and knowledge can inform these tram works your continuing input will be especially appreciated.

Cheers,
Noah

[art128]

Excellent work on the textures.

The tramstop looks great too, good work to the creator.


Thanks Arthur! Bless you for your patience in listening to me while I slowly and boringly go through the process of making them   Fun to have someone with whom to share a secret or two with as well

-N

[Jmouse]

Hi Noah. This year, I've watched NORO slow to a crawl then pick up a bit, but you've brought it back with a bang. That interchange of yours is a stunning tactical monster, but I guess you already know that, especially since dozens of folks have already told you. I admire your work in game and with textures so much, but do it from afar. When it comes to my own limited skills, give me a nice simple dirt road anytime.



Great to see you here again Joan!!!!!! It's been an interesting new year here. The bigger a project like this get the greater its inertia which can make it awfully difficult to get rolling again and working collaboratively adds a whole additional dimension of complication to it. I'm glad things are back on a fairly regular basis and doing some nice dirt roads actually sounds quite nice

-Noah

[Themistokles]

Now those tramstops and avenue textures look very, very good - much better than those short platforms and sharp-edged road curves we have now. I just can't wait to see them put to city use!

I would suggest, though, some pedestrian zebra crossings so that people can get from the sidewalks to the platforms, and maybe something similar between the platforms themselves? (But as far as I'm concerned, zebra stripes for some reason aren't usually used for crossings over tram right-of-way. In my home town they're mostly painted with a continuous block of yellow colour.)

And, speaking of yellow, (I feel a little bad about asking this, but, well, anyway ) will there be a European version with a white line or without line between tram and road?


Thanks a lot! I'm in a hurry with these too, although doing everything right will mean taking quite some time for it. I'll be happy to share early versions for testing if you're interested but even that's not going to happen in the immediate future. European versions will definitely be made (I like the way they look better and recently found out yellow is only ~50 years old for lane stripes in America ).

Crosswalks are a more complicated question. You're right that they should be added. But it would really be nice to solve the old problem of tram stations with crosswalks adjacent to intersections with their own crosswalks. I got an idea about that today and I like it   More on that to come

-Noah

edit: today's post addresses my proposed solution to the crosswalk situation

[reddonquixote]

Who knows, maybe the guy that made these beauties will pop his head in

Ha! Guilty as charged

Apologies, I haven't spent a lot of time on this site, I'm still trying to navigate my way around... I spotted this almost by accident.

I am really looking forward to these being released, I can't tell you how much.. As some folk will know I've been making BATs for my Melbourne recreation for some time and, well, what's a Melbourne recreation without a Tram network? This is going to be an amazing addition.

Now.. I'm just going to go back to the start of this thread and follow it properly, then hopefully I can participate more intelligently in the discussion

Thanks Noah, I feel very honoured to have been included


Awesome to see you here!! A very warm welcome to SC4D and NORO   I think we've got huge potential on this project that could transform cities using trams/light rail. My apologies for missing images in the thread due to majhost shutting down but hopefully the issue will get sorted out before too long. Thanks again for these phenomenal models!

-Noah

[eggman121]

Too add to the conversation. I will be making catenaries for the tram network when all standardized and settled. 

Great to see you on this site reddonquixote  Melbourne is a place I visit regular so, Noah if you ever want info on the Melbourne Tram network (Photos, Documents ect) Please don't hesitate to ask 

-eggman121


Thanks a lot Stephen! Can't wait to see how these will look with catenaries and I'll be happy to pick your brain for details on the Melbourne Tram network. We truly have a great crew at work on this project!

-Noah

[Gugu3]

Great stuff there Noah!the station looks really nice


Many thanks Guglielmo!

-Noah

[vortext]

Since the overlays appear correctly ingame and in the menu I'd say the issue is more with the LE than the texture itself. Are you using Maxis LE or PIM btw?

Few things to try out: mode and channels should be RGB and 8 bit iirc, found in gimp under image->mode and image->precision respectively. If that doesn't do anything it could be the export settings, there're quite a number of options. I've never exported pngs from gimp to use in LE though, so I can't offer precise settings but in general I found interlacing, anti-aliasing and compression are main suspects when it comes to graphical glitches.

Textures themselves look great. 


Thanks Erik, glad to hear your ideas on the overlays. Didn't have a chance to try correcting it this weekend but will give it a go tomorrow. Glad you liked the textures

EDIT: Sorry, using regular LE. How do I even find the LE in PIM? Not sure why it's been so difficult for me but I just never get what you're talking about with that.

-Noah

[Haljackey]

What in the

You're crazy man, and I like it!

Plan seems like a solid... well plan . Excited to see what we will be seeing in the future along these routes.

Keep up the good work!


Thanks buddy! I can look up and down the 401 in google maps over and over but it's a fairly poor substitute for first-hand information about how it works and why it works that way, so I really appreciate your input on the matter   If you have any more thoughts about how interchanges and express/collector connectivity should be implemented please feel free to tell us. I had a chance to see you C:S thread today and was quite impressed! I'll be over to leave a nice comment soon, hopefully after having a chance to view the videos in addition to the pictures.

-Noah

[compdude787]

Boy, that is quite the interchange!!! I'm looking forward to seeing this whole freeway in a UDI video once it's finished! Also, the work you're doing with the TIA stations is pretty neat. Great work so far!


Thank you very much! I could probably hire a UDI guy if someone was interested.... I've been talking about it forever but just never get around to doing it

-Noah