Custom tunnel entrances

[Ennedi]

The idea is simple: overlot pieces covering ingame tunnel entrances, to add more variety, and maybe - to unify them with other modern transit pieces such as Big Dig ones.
There were some interesting comments about tunnels entrances in the Big Dig thread last time and I agree it isn't good to have only one version of them.
Big Dig idea is excellent, but these pieces can't replace ingame tunnels in every situation. They block freight truck traffic, and you can't observe the train going into the tunnel on the one side and going out from the other one  . Anyway, ingame tunnels are important.

First, I would like to show some real tunnel entrances. Two main kinds are very popular:
First one







And the second one - popular in alpine countries



Arlberg tunnel in Austria - sorry I haven't better pic, but it's a great tunnel 14 km long



tunnels I showed above are mostly "rural"  , urban version can be similar to Buddybud Underpasses (I see them quite often last time in various MD's  )

I want also show another interesting thing: snow shelters - here I think only about entrance, snowselters by themselves are interesting and it would be good to make some of them 





OK, how to do it?

First version: 1x1 piece placed on the roadside. The custom entrance covers an existing one. I try to show it using the undrbridge piece:





I think the custom entrance should be at least 3 tiles long to use on soft slopes. Of course there isn't any problem with making an avenue/highway version. A little problem - what should be on the 1x1 piece? Maybe transparent base, or a little parking for police/service cars 

Second version: TE piece placed directly before the tunnel entrance. I show it using the Caribou lot (but it have only eye-candy function, it can't cover an existing entrance, and you can't connect the subway line to it).





What do you think about it?

[Gaston]

Very interesting idea, Ennedi.    There have been a couple of tunnel "cover-ups" made for sunken highways.   I think they were by buddybud, if I am remembering correctly.        PM Jeronij and ask if he recalls who made them.    I'm sure he would know.   Or wait a bit and I am sure someone will remember for sure.        I'd be very interested in seeing where this idea takes you.


---Gaston

[Travis]

Hmm, sounds like a good idea. That caribou model- I might have a look at it to see if I can do anything, when I have the time.
I'm kinda burying myself in different projects right now. 

Chances are slim that I can find a solution, but worth a try nevertheless. 

[Zaphod]

Goaskin and I think fukuda actually know how to make them actually replace the tunnel entrances in the game

[Gaston]

Goaskin and I think fukuda actually know how to make them actually replace the tunnel entrances in the game

See I knew someone would have some answers before too long.     


---Gaston

[Pat]

And that is what makes this place a great place to be...  Ennedi this is a wonderful idea i hope it gets done - pat

[Ennedi]

Thank you guys for such quick and friendly feedback! 

Yes indeed, there are some possibilities to change the tunnel entrance.

1. Fukuda"s rail tunnel. Looks very good - see below.



It replaces an ingame entrance, so we still have only one version in each city.

2. Rural Sunken Highway Walls by buddybud. There are some sets:

http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16283
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=16295&v=1
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16347
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16331
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16334

... And German signs addon for them:
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16517

There is a "cover-up" for tunnel entrance in one of these sets (I don't remember where exactly, I have all of them installed). See below:



(this area is not finished yet... )
These are excellent walls. They not only look great, but they are well made and very well considered.
The tunnel piece is 2 tiles wide. It has good and bad side:
Good - you can make tunnel entrance putting the piece only on one side of the highway/avenue (useful on slopes)
Bad - you can't make the entrance for road/railway (although... I must think  )

Here are present possibilities. Any propositions? 

[Gaston]

It seems like buddybuds "walls" have the most potential fr what you want to do.    It seems to me they could be modifidied fairly easily to cover one tile instead of two.  Doing that they would cover up road or rail tunnels.   The problem is I have no clue how to get in contact with buddybud.    Sorry.   Perhaps someone here will know.  I hope so.  I'd like to see this happen.


---Gaston

[GoaSkin]

There is a tunnel entrance customization MOD containing replacement tunnel entrances by Fukuda (rail) and HamsterTK (road/oneway). This MOD does not replace the entrances of existing tunnels. It supports to have different styles in one city but that is complicated to handle because you have to insert and remove controller plugins.

As replacement for the controllers I thought about a program to select the tunnel styles to be used next on game startup. Because the solution to have different styles is not very user-friendly, I did not upload the MOD. It was availlable on Simtropolis for a short time.

[GoaSkin]

Custom tunnel entrances will be part of the next SC4Config version:



Of course, you can have different tunnel entrance styles together. It is a bit tricky but the tool does it for you.

Included are: the Fukuda Rail tunnel and the HamsterTK road/oneway tunnel. Do you know more models? LOT-based entrances are easy to convert. Where do I find the non-functional railtunnel like above? I may convert and implement it.

To solve the question how to create an entrance: This is very easy. You create a normal BAT like for a building. The building must have exactly the size of a 1x1 LOT. The road/rail texture must be part of the model itself. The tunnels don't support base textures or props. The backside should not be transparent. If the frontside does not match the (sloped) 1x1 tile, you see a black or blue background. At next, you open iLive Reader and open simcity1.dat. In the Exemplar Analyzer, click in the tree view the rail/road/misc network category and look there for the network your tunnel is for... Under road, there are the road and oneway exemplars, under rail the rail and monorail tunnel exemplars and the rest you find under highway. Add the exemplar you need to a patch or copy it to the clipboard. You need to copy that to your model file. Inserted there, give it a new random instance ID and link your custom tunnel model to it... (ResourceKey parameter). Then you may switch the style for new tunnels easily by changing the Uint32-value in the automata tuning exemplars for the network. You can set there the ID to any IID of a tunnel entrance exemplar and force new tunnels to be build in this style while all existing tunnels are untouched.
Because this is not very userfriendly, SC4Config does it for you. Just give me models to implement!

[Ennedi]

@GoaSkin,

Sorry for late answer - I saw your first message, but had too much work at this moment...

Of course, you can have different tunnel entrance styles together. It is a bit tricky but the tool does it for you.

It is exactly the question I was going to ask you  - thank you for reply!

Your information looks very interesting - in fact, many of us does more complicated things trying to customize the plugins folder for various cities in the region (even without lot editing and other things  ). But if SC4 Config will help with it, it will be really great!
Unfortunately I have no experience in BATing at all, so I can't make models  - maybe somebody will be interested in it? 
The only thing I can do is making some research work and find good looking real prototypes for models, I showed some of them yet, but I will look for more.
BTW, as Gaston suggested, I sent a PM to Buddybud asking if he would like to make more tunnel entrances (or to give a permission to modify his lots), but he didn't answer.

GoaSkin, thank you again for your addition to this theme! 

[Ennedi]

It seems like buddybuds "walls" have the most potential fr what you want to do.    It seems to me they could be modifidied fairly easily to cover one tile instead of two.  Doing that they would cover up road or rail tunnels.   The problem is I have no clue how to get in contact with buddybud.    Sorry.   Perhaps someone here will know.  I hope so.  I'd like to see this happen.


---Gaston

I would like to inform I sent a PM to buddybud a few weeks ago and he answered me today. See this answer below (my nickname in ST is Norbert7310)

hello. nice to meet you norbert7310.
yes, i must agree that overhanging props would help in your quest for the ultimate tunnel portal.
but alas my plate is full and i can promise little.
your easiest solution will to learn bat and create your solution. in all honesty.
i would gladly answer any questions you have. good luck.
i shall see you over at simdevotion ,
good luck

And here is my answer to him

Hello buddybud,

Thank you very much for your answer!

I understand you have much work. I'm afraid I will need some time to learn BAT, now I have some projects connected with terrain mods and lot editing. But maybe I will encourage one of my more experienced friends from SC4D to try to make some custom tunnel entrances. Thank you for your offer in helping with it, I suppose if someone else will ask for your help, you will give him any advice too?

So, maybe some of my more experienced friends would like to try it?
There i also an offer from GoaSkin - see two previous posts

[flame1396]

Do a lot with a TE - you can make it cover up an existing entrance and not take extra space. Do like Jeroni did with his walls - make the TE spot to be placed on the second tile next to the entrance. So you can avoid the adjacent TE problem.