RHW (RealHighway) - Development and Support

[Haljackey]

The 401 has something similar where it has a black stripe between the lanes with the white markings on top.

Yeah but it's nowhere near as extreme as what is shown above.

Example:


Click here for full size.

Besides, the vast majority of concrete sections of highway in Ontario don't use any stripes at all (can't say all of Canada because I'm just not sure), and very few routes use concrete. Good old freeze/thaw cycles. 

Maybe you can add some salt and deicing residue on the RHW textures for SC4 regions that experience winter... taking textures to the extreme lol! 


Seriously though, excellent work on the textures shown on the last page. The US dark asphalt one is my favorite but the Euro Autoroute looks awesome too. Great job! 

[Rionescu]

Yeah but it's nowhere near as extreme as what is shown above.


Example:

Whoops, I wasn't very clear in my statement. To clarify, most of the 401 looks just like any other Ontario highway, but a portion of roughly 100 km somewhere between Kingston and Trenton (IIRC) that was recently repaved has the black stripes with white dashes. I'm not a big fan of it, but it shows that the stripes are used in reality.

EDIT: I couldn't find a pic of the 401 section I'm talking about, but here's the A-40 in Montreal with very similar lane markings.

[mightygoose]

why do i get the feeling the RHW is about to get alot more interesting.

[Haljackey]

Rionescu: Ok I now see what you mean... but that's for asphalt roads. You were talking about Ryan B's example which was concrete and that's where I got misled.

@MG: Not only about to "Get" a lot more interesting, but "Look" a lot more interesting too!

[Nexis4Jersey]

Can the Next Texture Release have both Asphalt and concert choices , so we can recreate highways better?

[mightygoose]

in HD or in SD





as i mentioned earlier this is actually UK standard RL measurements. it is also less than 11m wide which means that there is zero shrinkage on diagonals...

[Tarkus]

Can the Next Texture Release have both Asphalt and concert choices , so we can recreate highways better?

The most likely possibilities with the packaging is that a single default set--most likely the new gray-ish asphalt set seen in the majority of the texture revamp images here--will be integrated into a new RHW release.  Version number for that release is unknown at the moment, but possibilities include 4.2, 4.5 or 5.0.  Alternate sets--including the proposed concrete set--would be released separately.  Ideally, it'd be nice to have some Euro textures out at the same time--that and the default set are the main priorities.  The concrete and dark asphalt versions, etc. are subsidiary concerns and probably won't be out until sometime later.

Now onto development pics . . . been working on ramp interfaces as of late.  Here's a look at the RHW-2 Type B DRI.  I rather like how the geometry turned out on this one:



-Alex

[MandelSoft]

Indeed  It's very smooth...

Question: how would the Euro version of this ramp interface look like? Just curious...

[JetShadez66]

Greetings NAM team,

So, I've gotten myself into pickle with your NAM pieces. I can't get vehicles to drive on any of my RHW, MIP, or any roads that goes over RHW...I'm not sure why. I've reinstalled NAM to ensure I've got all the right folders. I'm in the USA so I don't need anything to do with left hand driving. The Widening Mod works just fine, as does the single rail mod, and all the bridges, and the rural intersection pieces. It's literally just the RWH (such as being used as a rural highway) will not be access or used. I've posted a few pics below. There is also a thread at Simpeg.com that I've started looking for ideas as well.



With RHW nothing will travel over it (ignore where the farm is placed, that has nothing to do with it, the trucks from an I-D/I-M also won't travel over that road.



If I switch over the standard Simcity 4 highways...it works just fine.

Help!

Jet

[mightygoose]

have you tried leaving a tile space between the ERHW ramp and the avenue intersection, it might be an override issue???

[Monorail Master]

Have you tried wating 2-5 Ingame Months after building the overpass to do route query on?

[Tarkus]

That looks to me like the version of the traffic simulator exemplar that is currently loading in your game has a speed of 0 specified for the RHW network.  This could mean one of two things:

a) you do not have a NAM Traffic Simulator Plugin installed.  

This means the game is using the default settings in SimCity_1.dat, which specifies a speed of 0 for the RHW network.  This could happen if you either removed the NAM Traffic Simulator Plugin, selected "I want to keep a previous simulator" without having a compatible plugin already installed, or selected "I want to build a custom simulator" without then installing/running the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool.

b) you have an incompatible Traffic Simulator Plugin installed which is conflicting with your NAM Traffic Plugin installation.  

Examples of this include the following:
-pre-NAM traffic plugins from 2003-2004
-the original Version 1.0 release of the High Speed Rail Project (the Monorail-replacement one), which included a modified traffic simulator exemplar
-the original version of APTX's Shinkansen Addon Mod/Bullet Train Mod (BTM), which included a modified traffic simulator exemplar.  (The version uploaded by Haljackey on the STEX does not have the modified traffic simulator files included.)
-hailman's Variable Route Buses Plugin, released last year on the STEX, which is basically just a modified (and incompatible) traffic simulator.

Both of these possibilities will also result in severely reduced capacity on NWM networks--check the Congestion DataView and Traffic Query tool for evidence of this.

Hope that helps!

-Alex

[JetShadez66]

Um...that's a lot of information and sadly I'm not very fluent in this speak. How can I check if either of these are the issue? If they are what do I need to do? I'm not very tech oriented, so bare with me. For a while it worked out great, until I had to reinstall SC4 all together and then I've had issues since. Sorry for being difficult, I download and place into files, that's what I do, and then I hope it plays out well. Obviously at the moment I'm having issues. So, if you trim down the instructions to a level like a lowlife as myself could understand, we'll be good to go.

[Blue Lightning]

Basically he's saying that you're either missing a file or you've got files that interfere and screw everything up.

Missing the file: Bad NAM install.
Interfering files: See his list of files.

[ScottFTL]

Um...that's a lot of information and sadly I'm not very fluent in this speak. How can I check if either of these are the issue? If they are what do I need to do? I'm not very tech oriented, so bare with me. For a while it worked out great, until I had to reinstall SC4 all together and then I've had issues since. Sorry for being difficult, I download and place into files, that's what I do, and then I hope it plays out well. Obviously at the moment I'm having issues. So, if you trim down the instructions to a level like a lowlife as myself could understand, we'll be good to go.

Do you know which Traffic Simulator file you have installed?  It sounds like that is the most likely suspect.  Look in the Plugins > Network Addon Mod folder for a file that starts with NetworkAddonMod_Traffic_Plugin.

[JetShadez66]

Do you know which Traffic Simulator file you have installed?  It sounds like that is the most likely suspect.  Look in the Plugins > Network Addon Mod folder for a file that starts with NetworkAddonMod_Traffic_Plugin.

I did find that, it says I'm using Traffic Simulator Z Medium. I've also checked the files that are incompatable with NAM and haven't downloaded any of them either.

[Tarkus]

Z Medium basically is the NAM Traffic Simulator--the file name is simply a vestigial reference to the current NAM unified simulator's origins.  I use that one myself, in fact, and have no issues.

That rules out "a"--the absence of a simulator, but does not necessarily rule out "b".  There's still a high degree of likelihood that there's a conflicting Traffic Simulator Exemplar file sitting in your Plugins somewhere. 

There are a couple of things I'd like you to try to aid in diagnosing the issue:

1) Pull up the Congestion Data View in your city that contains the RHW.  Take a screenshot of the Data View.

2) With the Congestion Data View still displayed, check the color of any Streets and note the amount of traffic on them using the Traffic Query tool.  Streets should remain a green color until relatively high volumes with Simulator Z Medium--the conflicting plugins generally specify an extremely low value for Street capacity, and if you've got a bunch of Streets showing up red on long stretches (not just at intersections), you definitely have something conflicting.

3) If you do not already have it, pick up the Maxis Extra Cheats .dll file from Buggi--it can be found here.  Place the .dll file contained in the package in your Plugins folder.  Then, load up the city with the RHW, press Ctrl-X, and type "DrawPaths" into the box that appears in the upper left corner of the screen and press enter.  This will cause the transit paths to be displayed on all networks--check the RHW system and take a screenshot of the RHW with the DrawPaths cheat turned on.

SimCity 4 is designed to load Plugins in alphabetical order.  If there are multiple copies of one "unique" file (i.e. the Traffic Simulator), it'll just load the one that appears last in the alphabetical order.  In your Plugins folder, check any subfolders that come later than "Network Addon Mod" in alphabetical order.  Also, to be on the safe side, look at loose files in your main Plugins folder (that aren't in other subfolders), for anything that comes later than "Network Addon Mod" as well.

-Alex

[JetShadez66]

Ok, got two photos. COuldn't get the link to download for the DrawPath cheat, but I've got these two photos with the RHW outlined with red:





Jet

[j-dub]

From what I can see, it appears the problem is the road tiles, since the color is absent, so for some reason the el-road filler pieces appear to not be pathed!

[Tarkus]

From what I can see, it appears the problem is the road tiles, since the color is absent, so for some reason the el-road filler pieces appear to not be pathed!

Those have always looked that way--it's one of the quirks with some of the elevated puzzle pieces.

COuldn't get the link to download for the DrawPath cheat

You need to be logged into the LEX in order for the download button to appear.

As far as the images go, nothing really conclusive jumps out from them, unfortunately. 

-Alex