Is there a new Diagonal Jagged Edges Modd?

[HandsOn]

  - you're absolutely right!! I did this last night as part of my overall cleanup of the plug-in mess (1.5gb and rising) and this did indeed change the look of things. But as you said .73 seems not enough, so I'll try .85.

Now I wonder if this will in anyway affect such stuff as bridges over sunken highways - because try as I might, I cannot get these to be level, hole digger or not. So could it be..

And FrankU - did we not once talk about crashes resultinbg from zooming?? If we did, I found the solution - it really works - here:SC4D Help Section 

[CasperVg]

I've personally taken care of the cliff-problem by replacing the rocktextures that came with Meadowshire Terrain Cliff.dat, by some of the grassy textures from CPT's main texture packs. With this, temporary, solution, cliffs do visually not appear. Problem is, they never appear with this technique.

[HandsOn]

  Actually, I now have to admit (ssshh - don't tell anyone) that I misunderstood this entire issue: the edges and rockies don't concern me at all: I meant the zig-zag along road and rail curves: that's what I need to get rid of! Think I whould have phrased this better..

[Swamper77]

The Terrain Exemplar has no bearing on the networks having the "stair-stepped" look on the diagonals. Since SC4 is a grid-based game, there will always be that issue.

Somewhere on the STEX, I remember seeing a sidewalk set of lots that was designed to fit into the spaces on diagonal roads, giving the appearance of a straight diagonal edge. The lots had a diagonal overlay that matched the grass texture of the Maxis parks.

Found it: Urban Beautification Pack Volume 2: http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=16017. It requires a few dependencies, but it visually eliminates the "stair-step" look on the diagonal roadways.

-Swamper

[HandsOn]

Thanks, Swamper77. And since I have your absolutely divided attention, let me get back to something discussed a while ago. The famed street-side mod. I believe you had one out that very neatly gave dirt sides to undeveloped and farm areas, and normal sidewalks to the rest. I am sure I had that installed. Unfortunately, latly updates, NAM, and Euro Textures, have messed me up a bit, and I think I lost it. Where can I find it - if it still exists (the diagonal add-on does not work for me because it turns everything into dirt sidewalks).

It could well be that I've messed it all up myself - in fact, lets assume that. I do need some advice here.. 

Thanks

[Swamper77]

I did have such a mod, and it worked by using textures based on wealth levels and zones. However, there were numerous bugs with it and the site that held the files deleted it while I was absent from that community. I will see about getting the bugs fixed and getting it re-released to this site instead.

The mod was my "Suburban Roads" mod. Basically, I added new graphics of the roads, streets, oneway roads, and avenues that appeared in specific areas. In this case, they appeared near farms/landfills and not anywhere else in you cities. It was created mainly to keep the dirt shoulders in farming/landfill areas while using the mod that removes the dirt sidewalk image from underneath the rails. The dirt shoulders for farming/landfill areas were added to the roadway graphics themselves, so they were unaffected by "No-Dirt" mods that replaced the dirt sidewalk image with an invisible one.

It only worked on roadway tiles that followed the grid, not the diagonals. It also used images copied from PEG's MTP roadway mods, so I will have to create a new dirt image to avoid copyright issues with his files. Since there are 1000's of images for the roadways, it will take a long time to complete, which is why I gave up on finishing it. Not to mention that the shoulders would look a little odd on the diagonals since they would not fill the tiles completely.

-Swamper

[HandsOn]

That's really a pity  - I can nowadays imagine the workload, and I've just begun looking (sheepishly) into the modding issue. So' ll try to find the old one, surely it is in one of my numerous archives (never throw anything away - still have MS Windows Version 1.1!). Maybe someday you complete it - I'll be the first to download it. And I am not worried about diagonals - when I do use them, they are almost always for residentials.

I just wonder about an altogether different approach: it is possible to have textures as props extend "under" stuff. Now why not create a mod that has dirt textures of different sizes anchored by, say, a rural bus stop, or arandom barn. If there were enough sizes - maybe five or six - would that not solve the whole problem? Just blabbing, of course - I don't even know how to do it..

[Swamper77]

That is a possibility of using lots that have overhanging props attached to them. However, if you use plopped lots in farming areas, they will revert the sidewalks from dirt to tiles, whatever you have for the sidewalk tile images. So such lots would have to sit 1 tile away from the diagonal roadways.

Avenues are a little different. They display the sidewalk textures and props on the entire length of the network, and it is based on the average of the zones touching the avenue. So, if the majority of the zones touching the avenue are farms/landfills, you will see dirt sidewalks. Like-wise for other zones and wealths. That is why you can see high wealth sidewalks in low wealth neighborhoods that are far away from the wealthy housing.

-Swamper

[HandsOn]

  Oy veh, this is getting already way to complicated for the likes of me. Maybe someone ought to just sit down and rewrite the game - and not create another "societies" failure.. 

[Ennedi]

The Diagonal Jagged Edges Mod for newer Cycledogg terrains (Italia, Olympic, Meadowshire, Missouri Breaks) and also for the default Maxis terrain is available here. There is one file for each terrain mod in the zip, please use only one of them!
This is a beta version. Please download and test it. The final version will include also other existing terrain mods including Columbus Terrain Mod.

The MaxNormalYForCliff value is equal to 0,77. The minimum wall height at which diagonal jagged edges are removed is 13,4 m. It is enough - an average wall height using Hole Digging lots is 14 or 15 meters. The road tunnel entrance model is 13,8 m high.

I decide to make the new mod also for Maxis terrain and Cycledogg Columbus, because it's influence on the terrain is less than in old mod made by Pjot (MaxNormalYForCliff = 0,85). I made some experiments and showed it in my MD (follow the link above). I showed also which types of the terrain are affected more by the mod.

Enjoy!
Adam

[FrankU]

Ha!
So finally there is indeed an new DJEM!
On the other hand: I edited this one value myself in the meadowshire file. Thaks to Chrisadams and Ennedi.
It works fine.
So you now found out that 0,77 is enough? OK. I'll change it. See if it works....

Thanks.

This week I Datpacked my files and it seems that some things are loaded in a different order now. Because something with my water colour, transparency and the diagonal jagged edges works differently now.... But that's not for this thread.

And HandsOn: there are also siome diagonal roadside fillers by Andreas/SFBT. But they are mainly for rural areas as far as I know.

[HandsOn]

This week I Datpacked my files and it seems that some things are loaded in a different order now. Because something with my water colour, transparency and the diagonal jagged edges works differently now.... But that's not for this thread.

And HandsOn: there are also siome diagonal roadside fillers by Andreas/SFBT. But they are mainly for rural areas as far as I know.

DatPacked: try renaming your folders in the order you want them: 0_whatever, 1_whateverelse..all the way to the omnious zzzz_terrainmods - eliminated my problems.

Andreas/SFTB: got those but they have sever limitations & a small flaw on uneven terrain: SC4 underbelly shows through. Besides, what I am really looking for is a mix of the street-side mod that works with Peg's alternate rail mod and Ennedi's slop mode and the new DJEM, and as an encore gets rid of all the left-over blanks roads & rail tend to leave about!! 

Guess I want it all..

[Pat]

Adam you are truly wonderful!!!! If I could give you a high five I would!!!

[FrankU]

Well, HandsOn, indeed you want it all. I'm afraid this is going to be alot of work for you.

Your renaming suggestion: I guessed that already. I had my terrainmod together with some greenery stuff, includig the Waterflora by Gizmo. This file also contains some info on DJE and watertransparency. They got probably mixed up. I'll change that.

The underbelly? You probably mean the Water Bug. This happens when you have lots without base texture, but with overlay texture. In the base of the lot you get a White Hole that shows the inside out version of the SC4 space-time-continuum. In plain language: you see the background texture of your cityview.
Change you view bach to normal by opening up your map view, select "zones" and then deselect. That should restore your normal view.

[HandsOn]

Well, HandsOn, indeed you want it all. I'm afraid this is going to be alot of work for you.

Your renaming suggestion: I guessed that already. I had my terrainmod together with some greenery stuff, includig the Waterflora by Gizmo. This file also contains some info on DJE and watertransparency. They got probably mixed up. I'll change that.

The underbelly? You probably mean the Water Bug. This happens when you have lots without base texture, but with overlay texture. In the base of the lot you get a White Hole that shows the inside out version of the SC4 space-time-continuum. In plain language: you see the background texture of your cityview.
Change you view bach to normal by opening up your map view, select "zones" and then deselect. That should restore your normal view.

Thanks - never thought of trying that. Speaking of zones: in previous iterations of SC, there used to be a short-cut key that showed the zones but also showed all the civic, i.e., plopped buildings. In those "good" old days you could also switch to the different underground levels without resorting to the subway or water tools. But the zones is what I am on about: is that still possible? Because the map view makes everything disappear which in certain situations is less than helpful.

As for having my work cut out: I wish I had any understanding on how to even approach such a gargantuan task - I was merely dreaming, I don't expect anyone could ever achieve this without modifying the holy grail: the exe.. 

[FrankU]

No, as far as I know a view like this does not exist. It would be most helpful though. E.g. if you want to place a busstop in an area with high rise buildings that block the view on the road....

[HandsOn]

No, as far as I know a view like this does not exist. It would be most helpful though. E.g. if you want to place a busstop in an area with high rise buildings that block the view on the road....

Precisely what I had in mind..now ther's a mod that needs doing..

[Swamper77]

Besides, what I am really looking for is a mix of the street-side mod that works with Peg's alternate rail mod and Ennedi's slop mode and the new DJEM, and as an encore gets rid of all the left-over blanks roads & rail tend to leave about!! 

Guess I want it all..

Looks like you have a bit of confusion as to how some of the mods work:

Slope mods affect how your networks go over and through hills/mountains (as tunnels).

The DJEM mods affect when and where cliffs appear on your landscape.

The street-side mods just add new T21 exemplars for displaying new sets of props along your streets.

To handle your complaint about PEG's Alternate Rail Mod, a mod can be made to remove the dirt shoulders from the street while keeping the dirt fringes on the tracks.

As for the "left over blanks", you can try downloading some lots that have diagonal textures on them to "hide" the blanks on the diagonal sections of your networks. Here are some recommendations:

Urban Beautification Pack Volume 2 by Soldyne
Diagonal Rail Park
Railway Dirt & Dark Grass Set by Dhamp. You will need to register to the Simphoni forums in order to download this file.

The SFBT diagonal fillers are another good recommendation. Since you are seeing the background grid showing through the lots, it sounds like you are missing a dependency.

-Swamper

[HandsOn]

Swamper, that wasn't a complaint at all. I like Peg's mod, and for all I know the fact that it "cancelled" out whatever rural dirt shoulders I had before may well lie buried in the load-order. Something for me to figure out - eventually. But I will certainly follow those links - thanks a million. Never have seen any of them before. But then I've got a lot to learn... 

[Swamper77]

Swamper, that wasn't a complaint at all. I like Peg's mod, and for all I know the fact that it "cancelled" out whatever rural dirt shoulders I had before may well lie buried in the load-order. Something for me to figure out - eventually. But I will certainly follow those links - thanks a million. Never have seen any of them before. But then I've got a lot to learn... 

Actually, that is a side effect of installing the mod. PEG designed it to remove the dirt texture that appears under the railroad tracks. Unfortunately, it also removes the dirt texture that appears under roadways near farms and landfills. It is fixable though. Either I can fix the mod itself or provide a file that needs to load after it to put the dirt texture back and then the dirt texture will reappear under the tracks and roadways in farming/landfill areas.

-Swamper