Draggable FAR tutorial

[Indiana Joe]

After I made these images to help some guy over at Simtrop I thought perhaps others may find them useful.  They clearly show the various patterns that can be used to drag Fractional Angle Roads and Wide Radius Curves with the latest NAM.

Draggable FAR only works with Roads as of NAM 32.  The wide radius curves are labeled as to whether they apply to Streets or Roads.  I think the wide 45 degree curve and maybe the 90 degree also work for One-Way Roads.

So here's how to do FAR-2, and transition it into a straight road.  Note the 2x2 pattern:



And FAR-3, note the 3x2 pattern:



Curving FAR-3 into a straight road is a little trickier:



Transition from FAR-2 at the bottom to FAR-3 at the top:



Go from FAR-2 to diagonal:



FAR-3 to straight LONG curve (this one's a beast):



In game that looks like this:



The nasty FAR-3 four-way intersection.  Very frustrating; recommend avoiding.



In-game:



And finally the various wide radius curves, and their results:

[pxljce]

Ooooh these are much needed. Saved and will be used a lot. I always zig when I'm supposed to zag. Thank you. Mind if I use those images to make a pdf cheat sheet and attach?

Please not that this pdf is a work in progress so does not contain all FAR dragging patterns, just some of the commonly used ones.

*edit
16/02/2015 -- FAR long curve in-game picture corrected, please re-download.

18/02/2015 -- disclaimer added

[Indiana Joe]

Not that you waited but yep, it's only a bunch of 3-color diagrams whipped up in a few minutes.  I don't care what anybody does with them.  Or the screenshots.

Oooh gorgeous PDF by the way.

[pxljce]

Lol yes. Impatience, but credited to you so I reckon it's all good.

[FrankU]

Thanks guys, both of you!
Great work.

[Indiana Joe]

Lol yes. Impatience, but credited to you so I reckon it's all good.

I noticed that I messed up the FAR long curve in-game picture and fixed it, if you want to update that in your PDF that would be good.

[pxljce]

Thanks Indiana Joe, updated the pdf and attached to original post.

[dwelln8hss32]

I admit I've never known how to lay out these patterns without starter pieces. Thank you so much for sharing this clear, useful tutorial! Especially as the next NAM update will apparently focus on draggable networks whilst doing away with certain starter pieces. This is awesome. 

[vortext]

Even though I have - almost - all patterns nailed down the top down view is quite convenient. 

Maybe add the other, currently missing patterns as well so it makes for an even nicer reference document.

[pxljce]

I like complete and I'm good at gorgeous pdfs but less so at dragging patterns(hence the reference). Which ones are missing?

*edit
Would adding the ones on pages 47/48/49 of the NAM31 User Manual complete the set?

[Indiana Joe]

I have 'em all except for intersections, but there's nothing to figure out about those.  You just drag the FAR first and then you can drag intersections into it normally.

Actually the one piece I am missing is the FAR-3 x FAR-3 intersection, but it's rather complicated to do in different rotations; does anyone actually use that?

[vortext]

First of let me clear up a misunderstanding: I didn't mean you overlooked intersections perse but rather I imagine this pdf will start to float around on the interwebs and folks will assume these are all the possible patterns / intersections there are (yes they will). Hence I think it'd be better if it were a complete catalogue.

And with that in mind I'd include the simple intersections too  - currently lacking in NAM documentation as well btw. I've noticed on more than one occasion people tend to curve far back to ortho to make an ortho T intersection, rather than running far directly into the perpundicual road. In fact I'll admit I didn't know this either untill I stumbled upon it by accident.

As for the proper curves, if I'm not mistaken the FA3-dia and FA2 long curve are not in there, as are the FA3 3 & 4 ways indeed.

[pxljce]

First of let me clear up a misunderstanding: I didn't mean you overlooked intersections perse but rather I imagine this pdf will start to float around on the interwebs and folks will assume these are all the possible patterns / intersections there are (yes they will). Hence I think it'd be better if it were a complete catalogue.

And with that in mind I'd include the simple intersections too  - currently lacking in NAM documentation as well btw. I've noticed on more than one occasion people tend to curve far back to ortho to make an ortho T intersection, rather than running far directly into the perpundicual road. In fact I'll admit I didn't know this either untill I stumbled upon it by accident.

As for the proper curves, if I'm not mistaken the FA3-dia and FA2 long curve are not in there, as are the FA3 3 & 4 ways indeed.

I'll add a disclaimer till it's complete, that should sort that one out, but I'd still like to make it complete. Unfortunately I'm not any good at dragging FAR so assistance would be great.

On to simple intersections/FA3-dia/FA2 long curve/FA3 3&4 ways... I have no idea how to drag these as I've used FAR sparsely/almost never because I struggled with it so much. So if anybody can send me a link/info that shows how these are created I'll do the screenies and grid similar to the rest and add them. Also if anyone else knows of a dragging pattern that is not in the pdf or mentioned above AND can provide me with info on what the pattern looks like I'll update the pdf.

I'll also add a more step-by-step tutorial section to the reference for each dragging pattern similar to the attached image because I think it's needed.

@FrankU: thanks!

@dwelln8hss32: Glad to hear it was usefull (has been for me )

[Indiana Joe]

As for the proper curves, if I'm not mistaken the FA3-dia and FA2 long curve are not in there, as are the FA3 3 & 4 ways indeed.

You are mistaken, most of these don't exist as draggables.  There's only the one single FAR-3 four-way intersection.  It's pretty limited in how it can be implemented, but I've added it to the guide.

As for intersections, it's quite simple:





Or a "T":



There's many combinations of these, as they can be attached at any point/direction to the FAR.  It would require many diagrams, and I don't think they're necessary once you realize that you just drag the FAR first.

I'll also add a more step-by-step tutorial section to the reference for each dragging pattern similar to the attached image because I think it's needed.

I think it's this linear step-by-step thinking that makes draggable FAR difficult.  You have to think of them as patterns that can be drawn in any order.  Then it's easy to create all pieces, at all rotations, at all angles.  If you think "put two tiles here and then three here and then drag the bottom" you're going to have a hard time.  It's much easier if you can start the piece from any side.

Hence the style of my diagrams.

Thanks again for the support everyone, hope this is helpful.   

[vortext]

You are mistaken, most of these don't exist as draggables.

Erm yes, they do actually exist.

Granted the FA2 long curve is the odd one out since it's basically FA2dia & 45wc stitched together, however, that's more-or-less by design (which effectively renders the 2x4 45 wc to a 2x3 curve since the second to last tile needs to line up with the FA2-dia tile but that's another story). The set-up for FA3-dia is similar to FA2-dia. On second thought maybe not, I just happen to have those patterns memorized differently compared to your diagrams. Speaking of which, I'm not as proficient in making those so hopefully the following makes sense.



Set-up. Note the truncated 45 wc for what will become the FA2 long curve.



FA3-dia is dragged from the diagonal into FA, do not drag it further than shown otherwise it will become a FA2-dia curve. The FA2 long curve is dragged from those two tiles on the left side upwards into the wc.



And the result.

On to the FA3 threeway: it's actually rather simple compared to the fourway.


Initial set-up


And simply click on the ortho tiles to convert it to FA3. It re-uses the puzzle piece texture, hence the distinct green lining.

As for the simple intersections, I meant those the other way around.


Option #1


Option #2

I'm not saying one is better than the other, maybe some people like to have stoplights?! However, I suspect more often than not people go with option #1 simply because they don't know option #2 exists. And of course one can drag the FA through to make fourways. I agree though once one realizes how they works it's easy enough to figure out the rest so there's no need for an exhaustive overview of all combinations.

[Apple Delight]

Isn't the short 90° road curve also draggable? I can never seem to remember its pattern; I think that it's not the same as the short 90° curve for the street.

[pxljce]

I think it's this linear step-by-step thinking that makes draggable FAR difficult.  You have to think of them as patterns that can be drawn in any order.  Then it's easy to create all pieces, at all rotations, at all angles.  If you think "put two tiles here and then three here and then drag the bottom" you're going to have a hard time.  It's much easier if you can start the piece from any side.

Hence the style of my diagrams.

That's not really the case. Different people learn in different ways. A diagram is great and a superb reference to trigger your memory. If however you are the kind of person who needs to see the sequence of how it gets built, not so great. Or if you don't implicitly know that clicking on some of these to make them work is needed, or at what point in the process, how do you figure that out? Forums are ample evidence of people's struggles to find information in a way that suits them.

Give the diagram people diagrams and the sequence people sequence. Even better give them side by side for those who might need both. As with most things an inclusive approach works best.

That being said, this is your tutorial (from which I have learnt a lot) and my role here has been creator of gorgeous pdfs (admittedly with a bit of impatience  ) and updating it if there's anything else that needs to be added. Let me know if you'd like that mind bending intersection added.

[MandelSoft]

Isn't the short 90° road curve also draggable? I can never seem to remember its pattern; I think that it's not the same as the short 90° curve for the street.

You have to link up two 45-degree curves and merge them into one. This is actually not part of the dragable FAR, but rather an unintentional feature the Cosmetic Retexture set.