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RealHighway Tips & Tricks

Started by Haljackey, November 27, 2011, 03:10:29 PM

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Haljackey

RealHighway Interchange Guide


This thread has been set up for tips and tricks regarding the RealHighway mod. Many of these can be applied to interchange creation and can improve the look and/or functionality of them.

With these findings, workarounds can be made making interchanges more compact, more realistic-looking, more efficient or able to handle higher traffic volumes.

Please note that these are optional. Your interchanges do not need to be made with these methods. Learning these techniques may be complicated and could require a lot of trial and error for players to familiarize themselves with them. They may also not be compatible with future RHW releases.

MandelSoft

The Cosmetic Pieces

Introduction:
The CPs (Cosmetic Pieces) one and only function is to customize the appearance of certain sections of the RHW, mostly involving special markings. Other than that, they serve no other function, however, the CPs add quite some detail to your RHWs, making them look more realistic.

Take for example this stretch of RHW-2:


With cosmetic pieces, you can replace the double center line with a broken line (with or without another solid line). You can simply plop them over an existing stretch of RHW-2. This is how the same stretch of RHW-2 looks like with CPs:



Accelleration/decelleration lanes

Another example is this RHW-4 exit. It will work fine, but it doesn't look that good or realistic.


What you can do is replace a small stretch of RHW-4 with RHW-6S to create accelleration/decelleration lanes. These help drivers to slow down for an exit or speed up to merge with other traffic. Decelleration lanes don't have to be long, however, for safety reasons, keep as a standard length for the accelleration lanes of 10 to 20 tile (which will measure in RL 160m to 320m). After adding some RHW-6S stretches (including new ramps and transistions), it looks like this:


But it still looks bare. That's were CPs kick in. By adding some block markings, it's more clear that these lanes are no ordinary lanes, but have a special function. You can plop the cosmetic pieces over existing stretches of RHW, and you can also override the transistions by plopping a CP-transistion on top of them:


Now that looks better! You can repeat the same process with other RHWs and their corresponding CPs.

NOTE: The CPs have the habbit of flattening slopes. They do have some slope tolerance, but not much. However, if you have realistic, gentle slopes on your RHW, this shouldn't be a problem.

Ramp OverPlops:
One special kind of CPs are the Ramp OverPlops. These pieces are plopped over existing ramps. For the RHW-4, there are Ramp OverPlops available for the draggable RHW Ramp types A1 and B1 (the A1 wide is corrupted at the moment). These are neccesary to connect the ramps with the NEL (Narrow Exit Lane) CPs.

First, plop down the NEL CPs over the RHW by the known method described in the previous section:


Then plop the Ramp OverPlops over the existing ramp:


Adding arrows:
If you want to, you can add arrows on the exit lanes. You can try out various styles. Here are a few examples:

Setup with only turn arrows on the decelleration lane:


Adding merge arrows to the accelleration lanes:


Remove block markings at the accelleration lanes:


Adding thru arrows:


Of course, you can try out your own setups, or combine a few of the above.

Now there is an aestetic question: how far apart do I have to place the arrows? My answer: 3 or 4 tiles apart looks the best. 2 tiles apart is still OK (but not prefered). Placing the arrows right next to each other should be avoided (painting an arrow every 16m/53ft is a bit overkill)



Alternative transistions:
Sometimes it's not prefered to end the outside lane of a RHW. It's quite common in Europe when freeways are narrowed down when no accelleration or decelleration lanes are involved, the inner lane (the lane with the fastest traffic) end. It's easier for fast vehicles to merge with slow ones than the other way around. There is a piece for that in the CP TAB-ring to serve this function. Note that these pieces can't be plopped over existing transistions, since they are twice as long as regular transistions:


To conclude, be creative and add some detail to your RHWs!
Lurk mode: ACTIVE

Haljackey

Video tutorial by ThinkGaming on making tight exit lanes on the RHW with the use of the cosmetic pieces:


http://www.youtube.com/v/HENY--B8rW0

pieman101

#3
I need help with my highway. You see what happened is i placed an elivated maxis highway over a rhw and this happened [/img]
Derrrrrrrrrrrp!!!!!!!!!!!  i post cuz i want to

Swordmaster

Your question's just been answered.

Please don't post your questions in multiple threads.


Cheers
Willy

Haljackey

Yes only RHW-2 and RHW-4 can go under Maxis Highway.

If you convert, you can get wider networks through with the use of the NWM. Here's an example I did with the RHW-6C:


eggman121

#6
Tutorial for removing stubs off RHW peices.

Hello everybody this is eggman121 here. I want to show you how to remove the stubs off RHW ramp interfaces without destroying the ramp. For this tutorial I will be using a RHW4 Type C1 Exit ramp but this tip will work with many of the other Ramps included in RHW v5.0 but not all. Mainly MIS RHW 4 and RHW 6S networks but not double or triple tile networks. eg, RHW 6C, 8C, 8S, 10S.

Lets get started

1) Plop the ramp interface. As mentioned before I am using a RHW4 Type C1 Exit ramp but this will work with many of the other pieces in RHW v5.0



2) Notice the stubs at the ends. We are going to convert those to RHW 2 stubs which are slope tolerant and can place smooth curves right next to the ramp
First of all you need to drag a RHW 2 across the end stubs as shown in the picture below \/



3) Now delete the stub ends adjacent to the main stub and you should have a product similar to the ramp interface below \/



4) Now you have the possibility of placing smooth curves and FARHW curves right next to the ramp interface as shown in the image below \/



There is a 1 to 2 tile difference between the draggable stubs and the RHW 2 stubs which can condense the size of your interchanges considerably.
 
Hopefully this tutorial can make your interchanges more compact and I thank you all for taking the time to read this tutorial.

Also I have more tricks up my sleeve which I may show depending how this tutorial is received.

-Stephen


j-dub

Great work doctor eggman, this tutorial is really appreciated.

GDO29Anagram

#8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT8HDeQXFrY

Being the one who first exploited (and for the record, demonstrated) the Destarterfication Method, I should point out that it's mainly a simple quirk that one can do with starters, which was originally supposed to be a way to drag crossing networks directly through a starter; It's supposed to be a way to make overpasses more compact, and in some ways, more stable, and its purpose of making things compact by removing an obnoxious starter is beginning to fall out of favour as more and more puzzle-based items become Flex-based.

Once starters become slope-tolerant and once C1's and F1's become Flexed, the Destarterfication Method will be less and less needed.
<INACTIVE>
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Simtropolis | YouTube | MLP Forums

eggman121

Quote from: GDO29Anagram on January 30, 2013, 11:13:00 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT8HDeQXFrY

Being the one who first exploited (and for the record, demonstrated) the Destarterfication Method, I should point out that it's mainly a simple quirk that one can do with starters, which was originally supposed to be a way to drag crossing networks directly through a starter; It's supposed to be a way to make overpasses more compact, and in some ways, more stable, and its purpose of making things compact by removing an obnoxious starter is beginning to fall out of favour as more and more puzzle-based items become Flex-based.

Once starters become slope-tolerant and once C1's and F1's become Flexed, the Destarterfication Method will be less and less needed.

That is a great video with some very useful tips. I did not know that you could use the L2 Rail/ L0 RHW for getting rid of the stub entirely. Great work  :thumbsup:

Maybe you could post some more videos in this thread? They are really useful.

And may I credit you with that discovery. I found this method on my own terms and was oblivious to the fact that you had already found the Destartification method and documented it.

-Stephen 


eggman121

How to make diagonal neighborhood connections with the RHW

Hello this is eggman121 here. I am going to show you how to make RHW diagonal neighborhood connections. This is quite a long tutorial and may require you to experiment with some trial and error.
This tutorial can be applied to many of the single tile networks including road and rail networks, even possibly the NWM, but I haven't tried it yet.

Let's get started

1) First of all draw the RHW network diagonally into a neighboring city as shown below \/



2) Now drag a second RHW 2 to the north or south of the existing RHW that you have drawn as shown in the picture below \/



3) Now you can convert the RHW 2 to a network of your choice. For this tutorial I am using the RHW 4 as shown in the picture below \/



4) Now save your city and open up the Neighboring city where you want your neighbor connection to go. When you open it you will see that the networks are traveling orthogonally!!! as shown in the picture below \/. We can do something about this.



5) Now Place a marker of some sort (I'm just using a single tile road) as shown in the picture below \/. Notice how the two RHW 2 are two tiles apart! (I forgot to use grids). Place a tile on the northern side in between the two RHW 2 roads if the RHW is going to be travelling north east or place the marker on the southern side if the RHW is going to go south east. For this tutorial the RHW is going north east so place I'm placing the tile north inside the two RHW 2 roads as shown in the picture below \/



6) Now delete the RHW 2 roads and you should be left with the Marker as shown in the Picture below \/



7) Now drag an RHW 2 To the North and South of the tile without dragging over the tile as shown below \/



8) Now the hard part is done. Now you can convert the two RHW 2 roads into RHW 4 as shown below \/



9) Now exit the city you are in and open the first city where you started and you should see something like in the Picture below \/. The RHW neighbor connection has conformed diagonally to the first diagonal connection that we made in the first city. This technique can be used with all single tile maxis networks but not double tile networks like Avenue and MHW



10) Now to make the neighborhood connection functional we need Drag an RHW 2 between the two carriageways perpendicular to the carriageways as shown in the picture below \/



11) Now this needs to be done on the other side of the neighborhood connection so exit the first city and load the second city where the neighborhood connection is going too as shown below \/



12) Now we are done. Here are the traffic paths to show that the neighborhood connection indeed works which are shown in the pictures below \/

First city \/



Second city \/



Now you have a functioning RHW 4 diagonal Neighborhood connection.
Hope you all have enjoyed this tutorial and feel free to post feedback.

-Stephen


sunv123

One sided Draggable Transitions.

Okay, here's a little trick that i thought up of.

When you're using starterless L2 to L0 pieces, one problem comes up. You can't make an exit near it, so you drag the RHW over. Then because it's starterless, you don't know what to do. Here's one way (two ways if you count the helper. :P)

Here's an example.


Step 1: Place a filler piece of any kind where the ramp meets the transition. I put zones next to it so that you can see the difference.

Step 2: Then delete the tile of ramp that's in the circle.


Step 3: After that, the transition should have a small stub of RHW 2 on it, where you can drag from.



Then you're done! This comes in handy the most when the ramp curves and when a filler doesn't fit. Or it could work if you wanted to have the grassy area next to it. 

Hope you enjoyed, be sure to watch this place out when NAM 31 comes out. ;)
Provo, a city apart Updated July 4.

GDO29Anagram

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Simtropolis | YouTube | MLP Forums

metalpuritan

Is there a better way to make a diagonal neighbor connection using the RHW than the one that was posted above?  I do not want to use a road or another section of RHW in that manner, I would rather just make a straight connection if that is the case.

Haljackey

Hmm I have never made a diagonal connection with the RHW. I'd just suggest curving it to ortho for the one connection and then resuming diagonal on the other side. It will look a lot better and will give you a neat little curve on your otherwise straight highway.

eggman121

On Slope transition from L0 (0 m) to L3 (22.5 m) for RHW 4 in NAM31.2

Now I have been kindly asked by a couple of people of how I made the on slope transitions from L0 to L3 for the RHW 4. Since it is of interest to a few people I have decided to make a tutorial for making this transition.

Now let's get started!

First of all make a mound using the hole digger and raiser tool to 15m or L2.



Next to proceed it we need to make a mound right next to it to level L3 or 22.5m



Now we can place the Flex On Slope Transitions on the built terrain. There are only the L1 (7.5m) and the L2 (15m) Flex OSTs available but they can be used to create an L3 (22.5m) Transition.



So here is the sequence. L0 to L2 Flex OST first! The L0 transition must be placed first so we can place the next Flex OST on next. Also, make sure you level the L3 (22.5 m) terrain so you can place an RHW 4 starter later.



Now we need to place the next Flex OST. For this tutorial it will be the L1 transition. Remember the bottom transition always comes first! I cannot emphasis this enough. You cannot place a Flex OST underneath but you can put it above as shown in the picture below.



Now the fun part. Place an RHW 4 L0 (0m) starter on the raised L3 (22.5m) terrain  and an RHW 4 L3  (22.5m) starter on the Ground  L0 (0m) section as shown in the picture below.



Drag the RHW 2 tool across to make the transition. It may take some clicking but you should get the result as shown below.



Now you have an on slope transition from L0 (0m) L3 (3m) with the RHW.

Notes

This can only work with RHW 4 and RHW 6S. Not the MIS! or any of the other type of networks since they only go as high as L1 (7.5m) and L2 (15m)

The higher networks are a bit unstable so a proliferation of starter pieces may be needed and OxD crossings are tricky (e.g. the rotation of the elevated RHW may flip directions. Just click a few times till the right direction is achieved.

-eggman121

spot


eggman121

RHW 6C/ RHW 8C Bridges with Diagonal Bridge Enabler and NAM 32

RHW 6C/ 8C river bridges have been a long sought after addition to the RHW for a long time but did you know that the elevated RHW can be used to make Bridges across bodies of water with the combination of the current Diagonal Bridge Enabler.

Here is how it all comes together.



Here is the Body of water we want to cross. First of all the approaches must be smooth and both sides level with each other. Otherwise the bridge building will become a bit tricky. For the approaches you should make one side level into the approach by about 5 to 7 tiles.

Exit and enable the Diagonal Bridge Enabler



Than just plop singe tiles together since you will have trouble with just dragging the RHW tool across the  body of water or with the (DBE) any terrain that you want to traverse.



After the tyranny of plopping the single tiles (yes you may have to edit the terrain to allow all the  single tiles to be places down) you can drag the tool across the tiles to make 3 parallel  RHW 2 networks. You may come across errors so stop and resume from the last tile that you dragged to you should end up with something in the picture below.



Now in an earlier section I asked you to leave 5 to 7 tiles on the approach. Now we are going to place an elevated starter piece (L1/ 7.5m or L2/ 15m) and place it with the starter facing the bridge part.
You will get something like in the picture below. Well now we have a RHW 6C Bridge that is crossing a piece on uneven terrain or in the example an empty body of water.



Now you can save and exit and reload the city to something like in the picture below.



Now to complete the bridge you can remove the starter since it is not needed if you bridge is longer than 5 tile and add either of the relevant FLEX OSTs or FLEX HTs
You will find that the Bridge is completely UDI enabled and no extra needed modding for the bridge to function. As you can see below trucks are happily using the new bridge over the river.



A few notes.

It can be quite hard to make the bridge so some experimentation may be needed. Indeed due to the nature of the Diagonal Bridge Enabler it may be easier to make Diagonal bridges for all RHW networks using this method but that is for other users to experiment with.

Happy gaming

-eggman121