Sithlrd98 Mods and stuff

[sithlrd98]

After spending most of the day yesterday, and half of today , I realized that I tend to make things much harder than needed. I have never even really tried to do this before so as a novice to changing models in reader,(which I have even more respect for what BuddyBud is doing with his mod).....I present you a fully wealth dependant 90 degree road curve!





I am attaching this and would like some testing to make sure there are no bugs. I have not changed the T-21 to allow for my previous tree and lamp mod , and the only other dependency is the NAM. The files should load after the NAM , so place them in the NAM plugins folder.

Jayson

I realize that not everyone visits 3RR , which is where the above quote is from. However, I still would like as much feedback/testing as possible, before I continue. At this time , the T-21 is set-up to change with the indvidual wealths , but will show up in all zone types...ie , civic , etc. This is only the 90 degree road curve , and at this time it is not compatible with my other tree/lamp mod.

Jayson

[MAS71]

Hello Jayson san.
It's a good idea and nice creation !
I tested it at once, I report them here.

1. They could display right by each wealth.
(I tested them with Park-Lot which have each wealth($,$$,$$$), I made them for various tests.)



2. I confirmed some NOISES there. (on PROPs of Base Texture Parts) 



3. I could see some misdisplaying of other PROPs on there frequenty. 



About 2. and 3.,
I understand well that these are a problems that we could see well, these state were be generated when PROPs are piled up. These problems depending on my OLD PC may be.

and
I understad that the Shadows(of buildings or trees or/and more) could not droped on this base-texture part that you added. but it's would not solved maybe.(A cause is by MAXIS program )


Thank you for reading Jayson san.
-Mas'71

[Swamper77]

The textures showing through trees and other objects has to do with how the parameters for the material are set in the S3D models. I could fix them if I had the files to look at. I had similar issues when I made some of my first custom automata models that were not simple reskins of the Maxis vehicle models.

-Jan

[sithlrd98]

Mas san,
Thank you my friend for your report on your findings! I have noticed this with other as well. I think that the way I am doing these is incorrect!
Jan, if you want to look at them , that would be great...they are attached at the top post.

The following is from 3RR:

Jayson, I have to say thank you for taking the time to do this.

one thing.
try to make the s3d of the road texture raised to around .1m (i think) - to avoid any noise on sloping land
and have this as the main model not relying on t21.(basically what is in the far plugin already but raise the model)
and have the sidewalk separate form the road s3d.   this should cut back the number of props/models for the t21-and man hours

i had a play with it and couldn't find any obvious bugs.

sorry for the hoohah, but this mod atm is looking promising and again thanks for filling the gap

dave

I did not fully understand what he meant until today. So I decided to follow his suggestion , but ran into a problem. Because the Maxis roads are not model based and all of the curves are , the slight difference in the connection between them is amplified when raising the pieces .1000000. I re-did the prop for that piece as well as the flipped version , and it seemed to help fix the first piece but not the flip.
For the whole curve,I lowered the sidewalk texture -0.105000 and this made the  main sidewalk prop more slope conforming , at least on small slopes.

The only main issues are this...
The start/end for the curves have a little noise(but if I can get the flip piece working , then it will be fine) , while the remainder do not.
If I change all of the models in the NetworkAddonMod_WideRadiusCurves_Roads_Plugin.dat , then it will have to be updated , but this means much less prop making as well as time.
The pieces will not be as slope conforming due to the prop , even though I have tried many different ways with my limited experience.

I appreciate all the help/suggestions , and hope to get this solved!

Jayson

[Swamper77]

Jayson,

Try removing the following properties and see if that takes care of the problem of the models showing through other objects:

Prop Occupant Class ID and kSC4BuildingModelClassProperty
These two are only needed for effects or animated props (stoplights, fireworks, etc.)

You may also want to try changing the Occupant Size value for the height of the prop so it isn't listed as 16 meters tall. These recommendations were the only things I saw that were different than most props.

-Jan

[sithlrd98]

Thanks Jan, I'll give that a try!

Jayson

[superhands]

sorry i think i must of confused myself when i wrote that 

"to avoid any noise on sloping land"

this might involve more testing with regards to the height of the road vs the sidewalk even for flat land

the slight difference in the connection between them is amplified when raising the pieces

i have noticed this also. the only way i found around this was to extend the road model (vertexes) slightly over its draggable texture- but i guess if the right height was met this would not be a problem

The pieces will not be as slope conforming due to the prop , even though I have tried many different ways with my limited experience.

I don't  know much about props so i cant really give an answer sorry 
but i think some option exists to enable slope conforming props

If I change all of the models in the NetworkAddonMod_WideRadiusCurves_Roads_Plugin.dat , then it will have to be updated , but this means much less prop making as well as time.

i'm sure some arrangement can be made
I suppose some sort of standard should be set for the height of s3d's in the nam so that new content could allow for sidewalks added thru this method of 21.
i havn't used Cogeo's s3d model tweaker yet but i'm sure this may come in handy for batch raising.


dave

[sithlrd98]

Well, after trying Jans suggestion , no change... I have tried many times to create a slope conforming prop by using not only the tutorial by BuddyBud , but have tried every way but the correct way to actually accomplish it! I have however found a happy medium : by leaving the NAM models alone , but dropping the sidewalk to -0.200000, the texture artifact on the road is gone(except for 2 pieces that I am having a heck of a time to line up for T-21ing). However , on slopes , the edges of the sidewalk in some cases is not too pretty! I really , at this point am all out of ideas, I even PM'd BuddyBud , but he has been MIA sine early June. The overall mod would work fine on flat land....and is OK to a point on minor slopes with a slope mod installed , so I'm asking any/all if these issues would be acceptable , or should this be shelved for a while?

Jayson

[wes.janson]

I have no problem with them being only available for minor slopes. A bit of texture noise is nothing compared to the overall concept of wealth dependant NAM curves. I, personally, thought your 90 degree beta looked amazing in game. I like to use the NAM curves instead of normal maxis 90 degree turns whenever I can and avoided using your previous mods because it would add sidewalks in undeveloped areas. This mod, to me, is something that has been on the top of my wishlist since NAM curves first made their appearence. I hope you keep on trucking and know that we appreciate all the time and effort you are putting in to making this game that much better.

[sithlrd98]

I really appreciate that!

I have 2 pics with just the High wealth , as I am still re-building the mod....as suggested by Dave , I am actually just creating a handful of props instead of each individual piece. This experience has taught me a little about S3D files , and I see just how complicated I was making the whole process....of course I think I have spent as much time trying to get one model to play nice!

This is on flat land



This is with a slope mod and on somewhat radical slopes (I never even place curves like this when I play)



As you can see , the noise I was referring to..more like a disappearing prop , but I think this is as close as I am gonna get!

Jayson

[wes.janson]

Those look really good. I never use the curves on slopes anyway.

I notice your high wealth textures don't quite a match. Somewhere on one of my usb drives I have the three different maxis texture matched really closely that I used for modifying pedmalls. If I can find it, do you want it?

[sithlrd98]

Yeah,I have tried to match the high/low wealths but its kinda tricky! The medium is just the white ped mall texture. I would definitely appreciate them!

Jayson

[wes.janson]

What method are you using? I use Corel PSP XI and I think I just adjusted the red/green/blue mix to darken it.

I'll look for the usb drive tonight (though I have a TON of black scandisk drives and I never think to label whats on them), if I can't find it I will see what if I can remember the method I used and pump out some new ones.

[sithlrd98]

Photoshop CS2...I basically go into match color and drag it back to around 65. That's the same technique I've done for all but the white and sandstone base textures. Somewhere I remember a plugin or tutorial on how to match color for photoshop into Gmax...but I can't remember where I saw it and exactly what it was called.



Never mind , I found it http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=140&threadid=76232&enterthread=y
Jayson

[wes.janson]

Photoshop is WAY too much program for me.

Here is a shot of the texture I created. The above tiles are pedmalls so they are a transit texture.



If you want it, attached below is the jpg.

[sithlrd98]

That looks pretty good...




You must share your secret!

Jayson

[Andreas]

Jayson, this looks very promising indeed! Personally, I do use those curves on uneven terrain as well, but mostly in rural areas where a base texture is not required. I think the additional work of leveling the terrain when using the curves in urban areas is definitely worth the much improved look. I assume I shall wait with an update of the Euro Road Textures Mod until you have completed the set?

[Swamper77]

Andreas,

He has the road textures on a separate plane in the S3D models, so any texture mods that affect the roads will work independently from his textures for the sidewalks.

-Jan

[Andreas]

Ah, even better - then we only need the basic Euro road textures, and the rest can be controlled via Jayson's mod.

[wes.janson]

You must share your secret!

I used PSP and just tweaked the red/green/blue levels. If I get some time tonight I will try and match it better. I think the red levels need to be tweaked.