RHW (RealHighway) - Development and Support

[Tarkus]

Question: When will we be getting the type B RHW-4 to MIS Splitters and Road/One Way Road/Avenue/Rail over Diagonal MIS?

There will be a number of new RHW-4-to-Dual-MIS and RHW-2-to-Dual-MIS splitters included in Version 4.2.  As far as the overpasses over Diagonal MIS, there's been no development on those, but we'll see.

I also wonder if that's really a TLA I saw a few pages back...

You probably saw the WRHW-2 (Wide RHW-2), which looks a bit TLA-3ish.  It's a strictly cosmetic network and exists only as orthogonal puzzle pieces.

-Alex

[TheOC]

I'm sorry, but I don't think a page-long process is really necessary just to have a simple overpass that in the end looks like garbage. Not only this, but you can fit 2 or 3 default highway-road interchanges in the amount of space you can put 1 RHW-road ramp at minimal size. If you have several-lane highways, which basically implies this could be used in big cities, how do you fit a bunch of ramps together if you're routing this through a city?

I'm sticking with the default highways. They aren't great, but at least they aren't broken.

[jdenm8]

Give the RHW some time. It'll grow on you.

The RHW is a network designed to be realistic, not at all like the Maxis Highways which were designed for... Well, EA broke them half-way through development by making Maxis make them three-lanes wide because they originally didn't look urban enough.
The overpasses look like "garbage" because they're 5 years old. There should be new, better-looking and more flexibe ones in the next NAM, or there's a very good cosmetic mod made by Nekopanch (which I personally use) available on the Japanese site HIDE and SEEK. (don't forget to translate the instructions)

RHW intersections are larger because they're:
A. More realistically scaled
B. Modular and more flexible
C. The massive frequency of intersections needed for Maxis Highway intersections isn't needed for RHW because of the higher speed limit and capacity.

Also:
People don't like expanding the Maxis Highway network because it is incredibly hard to do and extraordinarily inflexible.
It's time consuming to expand the Maxis Highway network. Unless it's modifying existing models, people don't want to do it because it just takes far, far, far too long. All the custom intersections for Maxis Highway in the NAM are from before the RHW rose to prominence. Not a single one has been added since (though there are going to be a few small new ones soon).

And it's not broken. It just takes patience to use.

[GDO29Anagram]

I don't think a page-long process is really necessary just to have a simple overpass that in the end looks like garbage.

You sure?


_{(If you can't find room to elevate one network, try elevating the other.)}

This is my rendition of your same overpass. Instead of elevating the road, I elevated the highway instead, and used embankments instead of ramps. But I couldn't resist the temptation of adding various forms of eyecandy... That's one of many techniques of beautifying an otherwise ugly highway.

Follow the advice of jdenm8 and others. You can also follow many peoples examples, such as mine. The "Show us your Intersections" thread, for example, has many examples of much wider RHWs being used in. There are various RHW tutorials as well; Just look in the sticky post above.

Believe me, many people felt RHW was too cumbersome to use when they first use it, even me. (You should've seen it BEFORE RHW 3.0... ) You just need a bit of practice.

[drjumbajookiba]

How long do you think it will take before vs 4.2 will be released?

[Tarkus]

As stated in the RHW FAQ, there is no release date or timeline for release.  No estimate either.  None of us really know.

-Alex

[Biriali]

@ Tarkus :
You forgot to say "we like to surprise people" 

[simcity4ever]

Don't forget my question on the previous page.

[jdenm8]

The Dark Asphalt textures are in much the same state as the Concrete textures I believe. Us testers are focusing getting the bugs out of the pieces (and standard textures which all of the other sets are based on) before the creators work on the different texture sets. In fact, the concrete viaduct mod hasn't been in the past few Alpha builds.

However, Tarkus is planning to have the different cosmetic mods ready on release.

[Tarkus]

I've gotten my Photoshop "Concretifier" settings perfected, I think.  I have a "Darkphaltifier" as well, though I'm not sure how good it is.  Now if I could figure out how to automate the process . . .

I've also slowly been piecing together some Euro V5-Spec textures.  Still trying to figure out how to automate the process as much as possible.

-Alex

[simcity4ever]

That also takes care of Euro. But what texture styles do those have? And what about the South African/Irish RHW textures?

I've seen a prototype of Euro and South African before.

-Alex

-Alex

I was right. Those textures are very nice for Euro and South African players but so far I've only seen DarkAsphalt textures for those.

[j-dub]

I was right. Those textures are very nice for Euro and South African players but so far I've only seen DarkAsphalt textures for those.

The earlier versions of the RHW had (something close to) the North American cement textures that you see on the recent El-RHW development. However, it seemed more US highways were getting asphalt treatment, so this may have been enough motive for the RHW to be in the state that it is.

There also is the old saying, function before cosmetics, so even though it looks like a quick fix, any texture maker will tell you that its time consuming, especially when it comes to making textures having to line up properly, and fit on to different/new pieces, which I was really shocked to see so many new international versions.

That said, since there have been so many alternate RHW textures done previously, if someone really wanted to do cement styles, they could make a pass at doing them.

[drjumbajookiba]

How do you make textures for the Nam and RHW

[MandelSoft]

^^ Try this tutorial: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4140.0

But I must warn you: we're talking about hundreds of textures, so it will take a long time completing a texture set...

[Tarkus]

But I must warn you: we're talking about hundreds of textures, so it will take a long time completing a texture set...

Actually, try thousands.  To be precise, somewhere in the 3000-4000 range for the RHW total, including interfaces between the RHW and other components (e.g. RAM, NWM, etc.).  My RHW-2 PNG Export folder (which contains all the default set textures for that network in PNG format) has 839 files in it.  The RHW-4 PNG Export folder has 799, and all the other networks run in the 100-400 file range, a figure which will only increase as we expand the mod.

Between the sheer size of things and much heavier RL in upcoming months, unfortunately, it's going to take a fair bit of time just to get RHW Version 4.2 with just the standard/default stuff ready for release, let alone any of these extras.  I can't make any guarantees as to what all will be available initially, and I wouldn't expect Darkphalt or South African/Irish textures right off the bat.

-Alex

[strucka]

Which would be great, so we could all be working and studying hard now, and after that we can all furiously build awesome looking highway with RHW4.2 =) win-win situation!

[Moonraker0]

I was wondering, since I have a highway that needs this puzzle piece, do you think that there will be an RHW invisible loop connector puzzle piece that goes under GLR any time in the near future?  Or under any other rail-type network or RHW-2, for that matter.  I'm talking about highways with (light) rail lines in their medians having fully functional neighbor connections, to clarify.

[Ramona Brie]

I wish I could help...somehow. I have Photoshop and would be willing to assist somehow...one hurdle is that my primary computer is a Mac (I do SC4 via VNC mostly). I just enjoy RHW so much that I'd be willing to do something.

[jdenm8]

Doing a GLR/RHW NC piece would be relatively simple, all the textures and most of the paths already exist, it'd just take modifying them then generating the puzzle piece.

[H2Odk]

There seems to be a path problem with FLEXFly (or at least there is one the way I used it here )