custom tunnel entrances

[ardecila 124]

There are lights on in my tunnel. They're kind of hard to see because of the daylight, but look at the side walls and you'll see a brighter area. That's not just the skylight - it's a free spotlight, coming out of the black box on the side wall, about halfway up (which is supposed to be a generic wall light).

As for the white base - the idea is to make it have the same base as regular rail tracks do. I didn't have that texture available to use in Max, though, so I just made it white, lol.

Tonks - that sounds amazing. As far as tunnel entrances go, the UK has the most beautiful in the world. Do you have any screenshots of what you did make? I assume not, with the HD crash, but maybe. I'd like to do some historical American-style tunnel entrances, too. The modern stuff is very utilitarian and kinda ugly, IMO.

[GoaSkin 2]

1. Cool... a lot has been done while I weren't watching for a day.

HamsterTK Your second entrance is ok to be usable in the game. The game does merge the entrance models into the terrain. So - except if you have a slope of 100% - only parts of the entrances are shown. In this case this means the properties on the roof are mostly not shown or halved. It is ok for me but you should know that.

Glenni Your entrance should be shown well. Is it high enough for trucks?

all on sunday evening I may form a MOD. But now a summary for modding tunnel portals:

• use the tunnel slope mod as template!
• copy the exemplar file for the network you want to create an entrance for into a separate DAT file!
• open simcity1.dat and copy the exemplar file the tunnel setting in the first exemplar links to also into the new DAT!

• Create a random Instance ID for the model exemplar (the small one with only four entries) and set the new instance ID on the tunnel setting in the exemplar you copied from the tunnel slope MOD!
• Change the ResourceKey entry in the small exemplar to point to the model you created (the smallest Instance ID of the S3D files in your sc4model file)
• merge the sc4model contents into the DAT and throw away the sc4model, sc4lot and sc4desc files

This way you have created a tunnel slope MOD providing the custom entrance. Of you replace the modified MOD with another, you set a new kind of entrance for newly built tunnels.

[james50000000 0]

i wonder why they are holding back the exe ??? also coldn't you just reverse engineer they file put on your computer (if maxis doesn't know who cares) as to redo the hardcoding.

EDIT: it's not like i am going to do anything.

[Glenni 1,445]

im not sure

what is the height for trucks in the game?

4,1?

[Cjah 15]

Excellent new tunnels everyone!

Is it just me or is 06 year of customizing the transit area of SC4?

[prince_of_sims 0]

until the new NAM comes out, it's a bit subdued....

[GoaSkin 2]

Tunnel entrances aren't touched by the NAM, so they are not depending on it. Any custom entrance can be released as a custom MOD. The only limit is that they have to be loaded after the tunnel slope MOD if it's installed but every custom portal includes the tunnel slope MOD for it's network. Portals are somekind of abstracted BAT building - nothing else.

[Glenni 1,445]

anyways,how tall are the trucks in game?

[TinySim 4]

This is simply amazing

When will you guys stop finding stuff to change?

[GoaSkin 2]

The height of trucks... I try to calculate (no iLive Reader here yet)... A tile is 16m broad - one lane 4m. A truck is about 1.5 times high as broad. I think 6m.

[GoaSkin 2]

If anybody wants to create something old-fashioned...

[Glenni 1,445]

alright, i found out the height, for the place where the road counts it is 6,0

In the border of the road to the pavement( not for peds) it is 5,3

as for LODding how are the lod's supposed to be?

skintight?

[KT3 5]

I will be very interested to see developments on tunnel entrances. I would like to incorporate one into my Highway tunnels Mod. The existing Maxis ones simply do not look right.

[GoaSkin 2]

I don't understand much about lodding but tunnel entrances are just base models (like buildings) that include the base texture with road or railway. You cannot make use of props or base textures as LOT setting. I don't think the models need other special properties.

[Glenni 1,445]

well as for the road itself the LODs has to be pretty skintight for vehicles to drive on it.

[hamsterTK 93]

^^^

i was gonna ask the same question. Just to be on the safe side i'll make it tight. Really all you would need to do is make sure there is a hole in the middle where the cars go in...

Arggh...i uploaded them but the attachment thing is busted....how do i make it go in the little 'Attachment's box at the bottom of the post?

[GoaSkin 2]

HamsterTK you should click on attach files and create a ZIP-file before uploading because the STEX does not allow all file formats (ZIP and picture files only)

all strange thing about street tunnels. When no plugins are installed, street tunnels are impossible on my system. But one plugin and I don't know which supports street tunnels but no entrances are shown. How is the behavior on your systems? Maybe it is possible due difference on the Mac binary. If everyone sees a green line when trying to build a street tunnel, it may be supported if we add an entrance-entry to the street network config file.

[Constantina 5]

I'm so amazed, I'm doing one as well.

[Meastro444 1]

Goaskin: with the NAM you can create Street tunnels

[GoaSkin 2]

and... is it possible that someone forgot to add the entrance to the NAM because if I create a street tunnel, it shows me two broken ends but with traffic.

[Meastro444 1]

i think it wasn't even planned, just a 'sideeffect' of some mod

[prince_of_sims 0]

Maxis never coded in street tunnels into the game. they're only possible if someone mods the TunnelSlope property in the Street exemplar. however, no models exist and there is no functionality on the street tunnels. it'd be great if this can be fixed though.

[hamsterTK 93]

HamsterTK you should click on attach files and create a ZIP-file before uploading because the STEX does not allow all file formats (ZIP and picture files only)quote>

i did that. its a zip and it uploaded fine. but i can select the file and click on it all i want and nothing shows up in the little box at the bottom...

[blahdy 21]

Are we focusing effort mostly on old/historic tunnel entrances, or are people also interested in modern on-slope tunnel entrance?

[vester_DK 477]

I would say every style goes. Would love to see some in the BIG DIG style.

[hamsterTK 93]

Okay i sent GoaSkin my files in an email.

constantina: Thats looking cool so far. good to get a new freeway tunnel entrance

blahdy:it was only a matter of time till you found this I imagine you have some badass stuff up your sleeve

BTW,  i know that these things can get set in the side of the mountain and so the roof shouldnt have much on them, but besides that, is there anything limiting someone from making an entrance with a building/ventilation tower on top(some long mountain tunnels have them)

[GoaSkin 2]

What is wrong with a model if it is mis-placed like this. Must it be rendered with different options or can this be fixed with Exemplar settings?

[Swamper77 90]

HamsterTK needs to re-render it with the model centered at 0,0,0 on GMAX/BAT grid. He should also list what the height at the top of the tunnel is. There is a property for the tunnels that lists the tunnel height so the ground will meet with the top of it.

-Swamper77

[GoaSkin 2]

rhrh... that means another 30 minutes of incredible work. The EXE does only like 0xbadb57f1 as group ID for tunnel entrances. Otherwhile it is not shown even if the resource key setting is well. So I have to edit all the material IDs.

[hamsterTK 93]

aw man im really sorry....i cant believe i forgot to center it. I knew i was gonna botch this somehow.

EDIT: okay it was indeed off center. now its perfectly centered. and the height and width are both 16 meters.

Im gonna just export the american version and you can use that and if it doesnt give you any crap i'll send you the euro too.