RHW (RealHighway) - Development and Support

[KoV Liberty]

What is RUL 0x00000014?

[sithlrd98]

Read previous post....

Jayson

[dedgren]

dtp...

...don't look at me- I promised I'd never tell anyone your real name, but it appear the secret is, err... out...

I know exactly how you felt when you fired up the game and that first puzzle piece worked- experienced it just a little less than a year ago myself.  With folks like Alex (Tarkus), Jonathan and Vince (Blue Lightning) around as mentors, I've never found learning anything so hard to be so enjoyable.  I'll throw a K-point in on top of Alex's- it's well deserved.

Now you'll have to figure out how to cope with wanting to do 100 fantastic things when you only have time for two or three.  It's a wonderful dilemma, my friend.


David

[Pat]

man someone better shot that darn boy who let the cat out of the bag for DTP's name lol..... DTP dont worry you will be allways DTP unless you prefer other wise

Anywho I do have to say there DTP that is simply stunning piece of work you have created wow!!! BTW need any other beta testers lol

patrick

[KoV Liberty]

Oh okay. So... We might have working neighbor connections?

[MandelSoft]

We already have workarounds for neighbour connections, but I assume soon these will be obsolete

[Tarkus]

Actually, the RUL 0x00000014 stuff has nothing to do with neighbor connections.  RUL 0x00000014, or the "Supplemental DirtRoad RUL", is basically an Individual Network RUL that, in combination with RUL 0x00000013, handles the placement of the base RHW network.  0x00000013 defines the basic pieces based upon CheckTypes, and 0x00000014 handles single-network overrides within a 25-tile area. 

My reason for going into RUL 0x00000014 has to do with issues involving certain RHW/RHW diagonal intersection setups.  The way Maxis implemented Diagonal Roads, OWRs and RHWs going across multiple instances of the same network running in parallel is really very awkward and makes it near impossible to get a solid handle on the RUL 0x10000002 overrides.  I've spent countless hours fighting them.

This is how the game draws a diagonal RHW going across 4 parallel Orthogonal RHWs. 



It's an absolute mess.  The Diagonal/Diagonal Crossing of 2 parallel RHWs is even messier.



Here's what 3 parallel Orthogonal RHWs looks like after I've made my adjustments in RUL 0x00000014.



Now, those setups probably don't look all that useful with just RHW-2s, but imagine those RHW-2s overriden to other RHW types--for instance, that 3 parallel setup above as an RHW-6C with a diagonal ERHW-4 flyover crossing over it.  Stuff that probably would be virtually impossible for me to do with just RUL 0x10000002 given just how much Maxis wonkiness there is there in the default setup.  So, essentially, I'm going in at a more basic RUL level that operates on a larger scale and forcing the game to cooperate, making the eventual overrides easier and more stable.

You might be a little disappointed now, thinking that your hopes for better neighbor connections have been thwarted.  Alas, though, that's not the case--I've done a little something with RUL 0x10000000.  May as well finally reveal this pic . . . I've done some rather clever stuff here that won't be readily apparent.



Goodbye loop connector.

-Alex

[wes.janson]

Is that a puzzle piece that hides the loop connector? I was never bothered with the way it ususally looked (I tend not to develop all the way to edges of my tiles), but now my OCD is going to notice it on a constant basis.

Well done! 

[z]

Those original diagonal RHW crossings look just like what the game does with diagonal crossings of parallel subway lines that are running right next to each other.  Is there any chance that your work could be applied to cleaning that up as well?

[bob56]

YES!!! NO LOOP CONNECTIONS!!!!! 


(plus all the other awesome adjustments you've made) Great job! Can't wait to try myself! I could see huge implications of this

[KoV Liberty]

YES!!! NO LOOP CONNECTIONS!!!!! 

I second that!

[York554]

Excellent Work DTP...I can't wait to see what you make next ! You have great
potential

[vinlabsc3k]

It's awesome DTP  , keep the excellent work  .
It's time that Tarkus have a minion.

[JoeST]

that makes me drool. you sir are a duuuuuuuuude

Joe

[nerdly_dood]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG
Utterly amazing! Neighbor connections, better diagonal connectivity, and new RHW-2 textures!! 

[Haljackey]

I'd like to add my congrats here as well.  Simply put, there's some fantastic work going on here.

Excellent job DTP on your first puzzle piece!  And Alex, seems like luck was on your side when tweaking with the RUL files.  Great job!

[Ramona Brie]

Someone mentioned fixing up the subways earlier. Water lines are afflicted with the same diag/ortho disorder of sorts.

[KoV Liberty]

Hey if those are new RHW - 2 Textures is it really any different than the Maxis road? I like the old textures.

[j-dub]

Very interesting. The more control, and the more stable it is the better.

[just_a_guy]

New RHW - 2 textures!? They're awesome!
No more loop connectors!? Also awesome!
Better diagnal functionality!? Yet again awesome! I bet this will also make your life easier too.

Great Progress