Highway Addon Mod Development

[un1]

Here it is, the Highway Addon Mod. (HAM)



Description:

Highway Addon Mod (HAM)

HAM is a mod that is like the SAM but is being developed under SCRT and ITC (Although the original idea was from SCRT) not NAM. All it is is a mod that is like the SAM (Street Addon Mod) but is for highways instead of streets.

It will have puzzle pieces, and will act like the SAM in total. We don't know what we are doing as of this moment.

Textures

We have many textures that we are going to make and edit.

1 - Editied Asphalt Highway Textures by un1 and Thorvin
3 - Edited Highway Re-styling Mod by deathtopumpkins and mrtnrln
5 - Concrete Edited Textures by un1
Maybe More...

We might not have to many so far, but be sure as we get better there will be more.

Developers:

- deathtopumpkins (Texures)
- un1 (Mods and Textures)
- mrtnrln (Models and Textures)
- Xylxadoria (Models)

We would like to get more people to help us!

Other Information:

Pictures:

Not to many, only one for now.


Look out for more!

-Highway Addon Mod Developers

[Pat]

hmmm HAM now this could be rather intresting here indeed and useful!!!

[MandelSoft]

It looks like the HRS is going to be part of the HAM... And it looks like the HAM is an multi-team project (because I'm from the ITC Team, and not the SCRT). I'm on it!

BTW, I could use some help with the models.

Best,
Maarten.

[sim-al2]

ohh nooose!! It's a proliferation of transit mods! It's a good idea though. Will this be compatible with the NAM highway puzzle pieces,or will something have to be arranged on that front?

[un1]

Pat: I think that we will try the hardest to make it NAM team level.
mrtnrln: Welcome to the HAM developers!
sim-al2: They will be like the NAM puzzle pieces, and arranged in the form that SAM is (SAM Texture 1, SAM Texture 2... HAM Texture 1, HAM Texture 2...)

Main post edited and thanks for all of your comments. 

-un1

[Jonathan]

Please don't take this post as an insult or negative, I don't mean it that way at all.

Will it be compatible with the NAM? (I'm not asking for it to be part of the NAM, neither am I saying it can't be)
Also will this be draggable like the SAM or plopped (puzzle pieces) like Ave/GLR?

Sorry for being overcautious but if this sounds rude or anything similar I really don't mean it that way.

Jonathan

[un1]

Warrior, it doesn't seem rude to me at all. If the NAM team gives us permission to edit 2 of the NAM dats, then we should be able to make it compatible.

I'm not to sure on that, so far we are trying to go for draggable, but it may be to hard for us to do. Although we may have to make plopped interchages.

-un1

[Jonathan]

From previous experience questions like that can seem "rude/insulting".

Making the Highway textures draggable would be quite hard, so far no one has made an override for the 2-tile networks, because it is harder than 1 tile networks. The modified RULs would have to be included in the NAM Essentials which makes the NAM a dependency . Otherwise conflicts can happen easierly. But because the NAM is now modular you wouldn't be tied to NAM releases, you could release when you want.

Jonathan

[MandelSoft]

Hey, if we're going to make a mod, we should do it in style

A logo is attached below.

[un1]

Great logo! We shall put that to use.

-un1

[deathtopumpkins]

Hmm... guess I forgot to subscribe to the thread! 

Welcome aboard Maarten! Glad to have you! And nice logo...!

Jonathan: Well we're attempting to make a draggable override for a 2-tile network, as there's a first for everything! And I think we have NAM Team endorsement... un1'll have to clarify that. And rest assured, NAM will be listed as a dependency.

[Tarkus]

And I think we have NAM Team endorsement...

Allow me to quote my PM response to un1 when he first approached me about the HAM concept.  jplumbley has already quoted his response in the Street Addon Mod thread. 

Hi un1-

Thanks for your PM.  To answer your question, a highway addon mod of some sort will not interfere with anything, but any sort of large-scale transit modding project is going to be difficult, even for the most experienced transit modder, if for nothing else but the sheer amount of work involved.  For something like this, you'd need to be relatively well-versed in three separate RUL files: 0x10000000, 0x10000001 and 0x10000002.

Also, to effectively get a draggable Override Network, you'd need to override the Highway network with some sort of a Puzzle Drag Override, like is done with the SAM, RHW, etc.  However, those are all based on 1-tile networks.  No starter pieces have ever been made for a 2-tile network--I wouldn't say it's impossible, but dealing with 2-tile networks is really quite difficult, due to the median flag system Maxis used to define them.  And there would be no way to produce any sort of a diagonal starter piece, due to the shared median tile--I've personally tried to do this with the RHW-6S diagonals (which are set up in a similar fashion), without any success. 

In addition, you would likely have to also produce duplicate/new versions of all interchanges and puzzle pieces for each new highway texture/model set you produce.  This consumes IntersectionInfo IDs (the numbers in the RotationRings) in RUL 0x10000000, which has a finite capacity.  This is one of the large reasons why I more or less came to the conclusion that a SAM-type setup for the RHW was not feasible.  The reason the SAM was feasible was due to the way in which the Street network is used, and the limited number of puzzle pieces required.

I hate to discourage folks who have ambitious ideas for transit modding projects, but again, I don't think it's really that feasible.  Probably a bit more feasible than a Road Addon Mod, but still a tremendous task.

Best,
Alex

[nerdly_dood]

Don'tcha love those great ideas that turn out to be tremendous tasks? Great idea, but it'll definitely be hard to implement...

[deathtopumpkins]

Alex, thanks, that was the reply I was looking for. I remember now, un1 forwarded it to me.

Last I knew, we were aware of the difficulties and were still going ahead with it... though will we be able to include the RULs in the NAM?

nerdly: Well then it might take a little while, but I think it might be worth it.

[jplumbley]

Last I knew, we were aware of the difficulties and were still going ahead with it... though will we be able to include the RULs in the NAM?

When we hit that crossroads, we will deal with it then.  Dont mind my hesitation, it just I know how much work this is going to take and I have a feeling you are going to be surprised.

[un1]

... it just I know how much work this is going to take and I have a feeling you are going to be surprised.

Yeah, I already know. (Modding these LText files aren't that easy... Okay, that is just an exageration )

Wish us luck.

-un1

[Hamish]

Just saw this, let me say one thing...

You're ambitious.

I wish you luck, you're going to need it, every last bit.

[superhands]

it would be great if the standard maxis hwy lanes could be re-spaced to being convential with other networks
-but this could involve a lot of work in modding the intersections.
great to see a project like this come about

[MandelSoft]

it would be great if the standard maxis hwy lanes could be re-spaced to being convential with other networks
-but this could involve a lot of work in modding the intersections.
great to see a project like this come about

Sure, that's a LOT of work. With my HRS mod, it already takes a lot of time to remodel all the Maxis GHW models, and I didn't have to repath them. It will take a lot longer to re-align the lanes.

[un1]

Change of plans.

HAM Developers/Tarkus check your PM's.

No new news until it is official.

Hamish: Thanks!
bighead99: That actually might be in the V.2, with the new plans.
Maarten: True. 

-un1