a less sensitive ferry?

thingfishs · May 01, 2010, 11:33:56 AM

Hi,
I was wondering if it were possible to adjust the settings of the ferry to make them less sensitive to walls (and therefore make them visible for longer)?

For example here in this shot the ferry is just about to disappear.

RippleJet · May 01, 2010, 01:00:45 PM

That is probably controlled by the same property, Vehicle Lifespan Range, which controls the duration of all vehicles in the game.
That property is included in NAM's automata plugin, so you'd need to change that property yourself.
By default it is set to 10,40 (0x0A,0x28), which means vehicles travel between 10 and 40 tiles before fading out.

tag_one · May 01, 2010, 01:11:11 PM

Wait, if I set that value to lets say 0xFF,0xFF my cars won't disappear anymore

RippleJet · May 01, 2010, 01:15:22 PM

Try that and your computer will be crawling...

tag_one · May 01, 2010, 01:22:32 PM

I was already suspecting that

Still I can't wait to play with it

thingfishs · May 01, 2010, 01:26:20 PM

thanks for the replies,

the ferry isn't disappearing due to the length of time visible, it's because of it's proximity to the wall. I am using a anti-fading automata mod and so the ferries stay visible until they get to this corner (or another similar one). Sometimes the wall that they're "hitting" is quite a distance from the ferry itself and looks quite unrealistic. But more so I love having real canals and having some hardier ferries cruising around them would make a huge difference.

tag_one: I find the automata mod to be quite forgiving; and it worth installing 100 times over for the sense of realism it provides.

RippleJet · May 01, 2010, 01:40:45 PM

Quote from: thingfishs on May 01, 2010, 01:26:20 PM
the ferry isn't disappearing due to the length of time visible, it's because of it's proximity to the wall. I am using a anti-fading automata mod and so the ferries stay visible until they get to this corner (or another similar one). Sometimes the wall that they're "hitting" is quite a distance from the ferry itself and looks quite unrealistic. But more so I love having real canals and having some hardier ferries cruising around them would make a huge difference.

Ok, in that case I think you'd better send Daeley a PM and direct him to this thread...

The ferries in the CANAMs are buses (if I remember correctly),
and if they disappear due to hitting a building or prop (the wall of the canal in this case),
would indicate that the pathing in the corner is made with too large a radius.

Another option could be to remod the canal walls not to be "ground models".

thingfishs · May 01, 2010, 01:43:29 PM

Does the fact that I'm not using CANAM make a difference? These are real hand made canals and the regular in game ferry.

(in fact I've never used CANAM. Does it actually allow animated boats to use it??)

RippleJet · May 01, 2010, 01:57:33 PM

Quote from: thingfishs on May 01, 2010, 01:43:29 PM
Does the fact that I'm not using CANAM make a difference? These are real hand made canals and the regular in game ferry.

In that case I'd forget about Daeley...

Maybe modding the canal props not to be ground models would be an option then...

thingfishs · May 01, 2010, 01:59:27 PM

OK, I'll try that. Thanks a lot for your help

RippleJet · May 01, 2010, 02:01:26 PM

Let us know if it makes any difference.

thingfishs · May 02, 2010, 05:03:21 PM

I gave it a go but it didn't seem to help, although I was a bit confused only having lot & dat files to work with. What I did was create new exemplars with sc4pim, then changed to ground model value to false in each of these .desc files with reader. But then I wasn't sure how to avoid the game reading the other .desc files wherever they were (in the lot or the dat?), so I made sure my new versions loaded after the rest of the files. Do I have the right idea there?

In any case I don't think it would make a difference as I then tried without any embankments and still the ferries wouldn't pass.

They do fine on all the straight sections, sometimes considerably closer to the wall then they get at some of the corners; but it seems to be the small diagonal sections where they come unstuck.

Any other ideas?

RippleJet · May 02, 2010, 05:12:13 PM

Quote from: thingfishs on May 02, 2010, 05:03:21 PM
In any case I don't think it would make a difference as I then tried without any embankments and still the ferries wouldn't pass.

In that case they are hitting ground, not the embankment props.
And that's probably more difficult to solve...

It's like the ingame ships going to and from the Maxis seaports.
They almost always fade out due to coming too close to the shore, and long before reaching the edge of the city.

thingfishs · May 02, 2010, 05:20:40 PM

that's OK, I'm just happy to have real functioning canals, with boats that travel most of the way up them. Although on the matter of the ground, it doesn't seem to be much different in height than along the straights... why does it only "hit" it on diagonals?

Is there any way to make the ferry automata ignore ground altogether and just follow it's route (even if it means that it passes through objects or whatever?)

RippleJet · May 03, 2010, 12:21:14 AM

Quote from: thingfishs on May 02, 2010, 05:20:40 PM
Is there any way to make the ferry automata ignore ground altogether and just follow it's route (even if it means that it passes through objects or whatever?)

Not that I'm aware of.