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RHW (RealHighway) - Development and Support

Started by Tarkus, April 13, 2007, 09:10:49 PM

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Filasimo

Jereusa: I already mentioned those type of lanes in prior posts which are known as auxiliary lanes and it is possible to develop if thats your question
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pilotdaryl

About that RHW-MIS exit ramp, it looks good, though it could use some work--including proper road-split markings, proper shoulder transitions, and some darkening as well.

Gaston

    Okay I have noticed a trend in the RHW developement.    It seems like it has taken on a life of it's own, as it were.    Originally it was gonna be a "divided rural highway".   Similar to what I saw growing up in the south.    (And for that matter here in the Mid West)    Something between a ground highway (ie: Interstate) and an avenue.    It would have a wide grass median and more or less unlimited access (not alot of exit/entrance ramps) but direct road connections.   It seems to have become a rural interstate, with limited access via on/off ramps.      This is of course a fantastic developement in itself.   It will be very usefull to connect cities.    Or actually connect urban ground/elevated highways from one city to the next.
    I suppose what I am wondering is if there is still any work going on on the original RHW stuff or has everything switched focus to this newer concept of a rural interstate.   I'm asking because I was trying to figure out how to change a 4 lane RHW to a 2 lane RHW and back again.     This occurs quite frequently around here and also in the south.
    Anyway, these random thoughts happened to pop into my mind today and I thought I'd better let them out.    ()what()


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rickmastfan67

Quote from: Gaston on September 23, 2007, 07:53:30 PM
I'm asking because I was trying to figure out how to change a 4 lane RHW to a 2 lane RHW and back again.     This occurs quite frequently around here and also in the south.

That will be an option soon. ;) ;D  However till then, you need to do RHW-4 > AVE > RD > RHW-2 so you have a proper transition. ;)
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abcd

Hey  is there a way to make the RHW visible in region view? That's the only reason I'm not using it in my cities.
I know it has to do with the code or so but still I would like to know. :)

Filasimo

@ abcd: atm the answer to your question is no. Due to the fact that the RHW concept is based on the ANT (Additional Network Tool) and was never completed by Maxis Developers. We have to be thankful that our lovely transit modding team has gone this far to implement and further develop the network to where we are now.
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Kitsune

Quote from: Filasimo on September 24, 2007, 01:56:03 AM
@ abcd: atm the answer to your question is no. Due to the fact that the RHW concept is based on the ANT (Additional Network Tool) and was never completed by Maxis Developers. We have to be thankful that our lovely transit modding team has gone this far to implement and further develop the network to where we are now.

Couldnt a dll plugin be used to fix this?
~ NAM Team Member

bwatterud

#647
Noooooooo!!!!!!!!  Keep it Mac compatible.....or I will hunt you down $%#Ninj2







:D

dragonshardz

no, a .dll wouldn't work bec. the extracheats.dll was already built into the .exe file, but this one would not be already in the .exe's load instructions and so would not be loaded.

Tarkus

#649
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone.  Haven't had too much time to do any development work the past couple of days--university started up for me again today, though my schedule is, at the moment, light. ;)

pilotdaryl:  Thanks for the feedback.  Fortunately, the textures used on that MIS ramp are merely in the prototype stage, so the final product will look different.  The main thing was just to get it functioning at this point. ;)

Crissa:  It would be possible to have traffic signals added via T21 exemplar, but since the RHW network is a Highway-type network, it does not respond to StopPath commands in the SC4Path files, so the signal would not function.  However, there is a "workaround" I have come up with for such situations, which I should be able to unveil shortly.

Gaston:  Those are some very good point--the RHW has kind of "shifted gears", so to speak, and the goal I've personally had in mind was to make the RHW an all-purpose highway network, which could not only fit its "rural" moniker, but also be at home in suburban and even urban areas, at a wide variety of widths (no pun intended :D).  It was kind of an inevitable step, and one that qurlix had begun taking back before I even got involved in transit modding, with his initial work on the Wider RHWs. 

As far as adding in some new functionality to fit back in with the "rural" part of it, I had been planning on adding in the long-awaited Road/RHW-4 at-grade crossing to the next release (note the cryptic italics . . . ;)), and perhaps even some diagonal at-grade crossings.  The RULs would be quite easy to add in, existing paths can be cloned, and all that would be needed is just a few textures.  How does that sound? :)

abcd:  I've actually looked into the matter myself, and can explain it in terms of how the Region Transportation Map view actually works.  Each of the networks shown has a specific code which allows the game to show it on the map.  The standard networks already have their codes entered into the files that allow the map to work, but the ANT/RHW one is nowhere to be found.  The network is not even mentioned in the files.  If the code were to be found, it might be possible, but it is believed to be in the EXE.  There is one workaround, however, that I came across some time ago.  If you have the extracheats.dll file from Buggi, there's a DrawPaths cheat enabled.  Run that cheat in a city tile, then save the tile, and exit back to Region View.  All networks will be visible, with the coloration from the DrawPaths cheat.  The only drawback is that the DrawPaths coloration also effects the normal Region View.



-Alex (Tarkus)

abcd

Hey thank you all for the information. If there is no way to get around this problem let it be as it is.
Of course it is still a great and useful mod. &apls

Crissa

Oh, glad you already thought about it ^-^  I was wondering why it didn't 'stop' at large intersections.  For now, I'll downgrade to a lower type of road at intersections that need to 'terminate' the highway.

On another point, that nice hov-lane texture that was offered... Will we be able to have a center hov or two-way tile in an RHW-6 (three-tile wide RHW)?  If the center lane had to be another draggable, that'd be okay, but honestly, I'm not sure if what I'm suggesting is possible.

Also, do routes cross lanes across an RHW-8, even if the animations do not?

-Crissa

nerdly_dood

Who said the RHW was incompatible with the January NAM?  It worked fine.  I have the June NAM now, and it still works as well as RHW13 did back then:  imperfect because of incompleteness...can't wait until the next one is released.
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Haljackey

So... The RHW CAN be located on the transportation region view.  Nice :satisfied:

One question about the release of the RHW/NWM.  Do you think it may be possible that there could be a co-release between the RHW network and the RHW UDI-compatible tunnel entrance/exit Blahdy is working on?  There is no problem if they are released separately, but, they would make a great bundle with the rest of the NWM.

Keep it up everyone!
-Hal.

Filasimo

You guys are missing what we always say: Itll be released when its released  ;)
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DFire870

Quote from: Filasimo on September 27, 2007, 02:10:21 PM
You guys are missing what we always say: Itll be released when its released  ;)

Haljackey wasn't asking when the next version of the RHW/NWM would be released, he was asking if it and blahdy's tunnel entrance could be released at the same time. ;)
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Shadow Assassin

Quotethe RHW UDI-compatible tunnel entrance/exit Blahdy is working on?  There is no problem if they are released separately, but, they would make a great bundle with the rest of the NWM.

In the same package, no, because Blahdy's tunnel entrances are lots; and the NAM has a policy of not including lots with their downloads. However, companion lots (such as those tunnel entrances) can be released at the same time, just in a separate download.
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cammo2003

#657
Quote from: Tarkus on September 24, 2007, 10:54:35 PM
abcd:  I've actually looked into the matter myself, and can explain it in terms of how the Region Transportation Map view actually works.  Each of the networks shown has a specific code which allows the game to show it on the map.  The standard networks already have their codes entered into the files that allow the map to work, but the ANT/RHW one is nowhere to be found.  The network is not even mentioned in the files.  If the code were to be found, it might be possible, but it is believed to be in the EXE.  There is one workaround, however, that I came across some time ago.  If you have the extracheats.dll file from Buggi, there's a DrawPaths cheat enabled.  Run that cheat in a city tile, then save the tile, and exit back to Region View.  All networks will be visible, with the coloration from the DrawPaths cheat.  The only drawback is that the DrawPaths coloration also effects the normal Region View.


It really is a shame there's no way to add it in the transport view aside from the DrawPaths cheat. Still, at least the DrawPaths cheat enables you to pinpoint it for photoshopping of standard transport views...

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mott

I am very excited by the RHW/MIS and the whole "modular interchange" concept and I hope it's OK to think out loud.  I was just custom-tuning my traffic settings, and hit across an idea:

As long as the RHW, UHW, and MIS are on the "dirt road"/ANT network, they'll all have the same capacity and speed. But..

Suppose RHW-4 did become a replacement for the Maxis "ground highway."  We could then set its speed and capacity in the pathfinding engine, say 100 kph, 1200-1800 cars per lane for a total of 2400-3600 vehicles/tile, something like that.

If there's also a 3-lane-per-tile UHW-6 in the works, suppose that replaced "elevated highway."   We could then set its capacity separately, say to 3600-5200 vehicles/tile.  Or whatever.  The point is, when someone upgrades from RHW-4 to UHW-6, they could really be increasing capacity, just as the visual representation suggests.  (Combined with the requested add-lane entrance and exit-only ramps, hello realistic cloverleaf with "weave lane" and realistic traffic modeling for the same.)

Oh, and both would then show up in the Transportation Map in Region View. 

Doing this frees up the "dirt highway" network, which also provides no frontage and is speed/capacity tuneable separately from the other networks.  Maybe the MIS could go there, with single lane capacity and lower speed?  Then you're looking at fully-modular upgradeable interchanges and no worries about peds walking on the ramps in densely-built areas.  A few pre-made pieces would be handy (the 270-degree turns inside cloverleaves, for example, which would also make a great realistic ground-elevated ramp), but mostly people can just drag what they need.  The ramps won't show up in the transpo map, but they'd just look like blobs on it anyway. 

When those clog up and people need more capacity at an interchange, they'd have to upgrade it to a multi-lane exit (onto a 1-way?), just like real life.  And only the ramps that carried the heavy traffic would need to be upgraded; the smaller ramps for the low-traffic directions can stay... and all of it modeled accurately for speed and congestion inside the interchange, automatically, thanks to the way the game already works.  [No more single-lane offramps dumping an entire highway onto your surface street grid in one place, at least not unless you intentionally built a ramp big enough to handle that!]

The only pre-made "exits" from the RHW/UHW that would be needed are 45-degree "ramps" (MIS and 1-way attachment points) and "splits." We can drag out what we need in the necessary directions from there).  I think this is where the MIS is headed anyway? 

Again, just thinking out loud, and for all I know there's some Really Good Reason(tm) why this is impractical.   Thanks for reading all the same.

PS: TLA project is looking sweet too.  That's going to free me up to use avenues as proper parkways, with higher speeds and overdecorated median junk that actually makes some modicum of sense, while TLAs handle slower, heavy traffic in town.   :thumbsup:  Hey, using the one-way-road trick to break the medians, wouldn't this TLA project let the avenue become, in effect, a "rural highway," freeing the existing xHW project(s) to generalize?

jplumbley

@Mott... The biggest problem with your suggestion is RHW is made of single tile netwroks side by side.  MAXIS highway is a 2 tile wide network by default, we cannot, at this point in time make the MAXIS Highway draw as a 1 tile network.  Meaning, unfortunately for the "wider" RHWs that are 3 or 5 tiles wide, we cannot compensate these.

Now, if we were to come up with a NEW 2 tile network, it could be a replacement for the MAXIS Highway Systems.  But, that would be a replacement mod, along with ALOT of extra work compared to what we have been doing with the RHW.
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