GLR: How to make it work?

[civis 0]

    Well, the GLR concept is not so bright new, maybe it's weird to post such questions so late  Hearing that it's likely to cause crashes successfully cooled down my interest at first but after laying my hands on the newest NAM and seeing all the new pieces I eventually decided to experiment a little with the GLR.

Apart from NAM (June 2007) I've installed "GLR Assortment for NAM" by NOB (to get some tram stops) with all dependencies and one automata model from "VDK GLR Tram Mods Package". And of course I have RH.

In the game, I layed firstly a short, straight line of tracks, leaving space for tram stops, which were placed right after the tracks (heared this method prevents crashes). And here is the end of my journey. Although after right clicking on any tram stop I get the info that the GLR system is used by citizens of my city (not by many and not always but still), yet no trams can be seen and neighbouring buildings which have access only to the GLR system but no road get abandoned due to long commute time. Sims living there say they can't get to work.

I would be grateful for any help and am ready to provide any additional information if neccessary. 

Thanks in advance.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I think you also need the GLR Mod Essentials package to use the NOB package.  Do you have it?

[CaptCity 4,669]

civis...

You may need the Draggable GLR Patch for NOB's stations if you're using them. You may also need to drag a short EL_Rail strip through the stations. I'm not sure about NOB's, but some require this. Also, if I read your posts correctly, are you trying to zone next to the GLR tracks to use as transportation? I don't think doing that will work. The lots need to have road access. Try connecting roads from the lots to the stations. Just a few ideas...

CC

[civis 0]

Well, I followed your advice hoping it's going to resolve my problem. Every try however resulted in a crash. It quite soon got on my nerves so  I decided to experiment with something different.

BSC SFBT GLR Tram Mod did the trick excellently and my GLR runs pretty smoothly right now. 

Thanks for the help anyway!

[CaptCity 4,669]

Hmmm... Just curious... What are (were) you trying to do when the game crashed?

[civis 0]

CaptCity,

      I won't mention the known and documented cause of crashes - hoovering a NAM piece over already existing ones like GLR stations - which happened to me several times.

Think some unexpected crashes occured occasionally while trying to lay an elevated rail strip through stations, as You suggested. This is what I did...

I was experimenting both with draggable and the older "piece by piece" system. Playing with draggable one caused the greatest deal of problems. Maybe mostly because I don't know precisely how to operate with the draggable pieces. Wouldn't even call it a draggable system because I wasn't able to drag rails as it's possible with roads for example.

I discovered (or rather I learned) that one may place let's say two GLR stations at first,  then lay only one draggable rail piece in an empty space between stations to make rails fill all the cited space immidiately. Is this how draggable rails should work?

So I learned a way to build even long tram lines quite fast ...but still no trams were to be seen on them. Here comes the time to use your tip with dragging a short EL_Rail strip through the stations. Here comes also the time of crashes. Sometimes dragging the strip through the tram stop was enough to eventually see your operating system's desktop, sometimes it was happening while dragging unintentionally the strip over existing GLR tracks and sometimes there were no crashes while taking any of these actions. So guess there is no rule. I was seeking for something more stabile, that's why I switched to BSC SFBT GLR Tram Mod.

Hope my complicated form of expression is clear enough

[sobol 1]

So, what did the SFBT solve... what did it change?

[CaptCity 4,669]

civis...

Thanks for the response. I do understand what you are describing, but I don't understand why it would be happening. I have used all the plugins you mentioned in your original post, but have not seen the issues you seem to have had. I'm glad that you have found one that seems to work, and I'm sorry that some of my suggestions created more headaches for you. I think I'll play around with some of those some more to see if I can recreate your resuls. I guess I just don't like to leave things hanging.

CC

[civis 0]

Now, CaptCity...I am aware that GLR is an experimental enterprise and possible problems are part of the game. Think your tip with the elevated rail strip helped me actually to make the GLR work (trams appeared no sooner than after taking this step). Certainly none of your suggestions "created more headaches" for me

Why did it cause problems while using NOB's works, and why not a single one for the time being when SFBT is concerned? I have no idea, frankly speaking. I'm still a novice. Maybe I'll play around a little bit with it too. Should I face exact or simmilar results to those cited in previous posts again, I'll try to take a closer look and present my conclusions, if any.

Here is also the answer for sobol's question. Saying that SFBT solves anything is maybe not accurate, just like saying that using NOB's work is likely to cause crashes. It's an individual case here. CaptCity seems to have no problems at all. It's possible that experimenting with NOB's set a little would result in making my GLR system work too. Just SFBT was first to work ...and first come, first served, one may say

[sobol 1]

Civis: I am not questioning your loyalty or choices... I actually have both, and the NAM patch etc... and I keep CTD'ing no matter which I am using, so I am trying to figure it out.

On the other hand, yesterday, I finally got a dual network setup working.. Road over rail... took several CTD's, and a little venting... but I got it working. I wonder if the GLR works the same way, because hovering the dual network pieces causes the same CTD.

[michaelshayne 0]

i was experimenting with glr 2day and guess wat SC4 crashed and it wasnt saved and i was realy pissed so i dnt mess wit dat i jus use regular rail, subway, and el rail but hey we have diffrent pc's

[civis 0]

Originally posted by: sobol Civis: I am not questioning your loyalty or choicesquote>

Sobol, I have never thought you do... just I didn't want to question the value of NOB's works. That was my intention. I didn't want anybody to be resigned to using cited solution just because it had caused occasional problems in my very individual case. 

I actually have both, and the NAM patch etc... and I keep CTD'ing no matter which I am using, so I am trying to figure it out.

On the other hand, yesterday, I finally got a dual network setup working.. Road over rail... took several CTD's, and a little venting... but I got it working. I wonder if the GLR works the same way, because hovering the dual network pieces causes the same CTD.quote>

 

Well, I'm rather not the right person to be asked questions about intricacies of the GLR system. Anyway, If I get your words correctly... I believe hoovering a GLR piece over existing GLR station will cause a CTD, no matter if you're using SFBT or NOB's works or any else. No crashes were noted in my case while taking such actions with tracks only. That is why it is advised to lay tracks firstly (leaving the space for future tram stops) and to place tram stops at the very end.

Dragging a short EL_Rail strip through the stations was the key to finally see trams appearing on my tracks, in other words to make my system eventually work. Sometimes however, when I unintentionally dragged the line a little over the tracks (especially while playing with NOB's works and draggable tracks) it caused CTD. It seemed to be more stabile with SFBT. Maybe this was the thing what SFBT solved (quoting your question)...but it might have been just a lucky hit as well.

[sobol 1]

Civis: That is complicated. I am trying to figure out the critical files needed from the SFBT folder. I truely only need a single station, and whatever code that includes. When I accessed the SFBT in my menu.. half the icons were blacked out... and it was acting very strangley.

[CaptCity 4,669]

sobol...

If I'm undersanding you correctly...

Your strangely acting menu makes me think you have not installed the GLR patches for the new NAM (Jun 07), or you may have installed all the GLR patch files rather than only those needed for the stations you have installed in the game. You'll need to open the patch folder and check the file names for only those you need. 

As for the SFBT stations... If you're using the pack with the four colored stations, I think (if I remember right) you can delete the files for the sations you don't want. Just check the files names for the color. I think there are two for each color. Hope this helps.

CC

[hawkpride147 1]

civis: did you try dragging el-rail from the draggable GLR starter pieces?

[civis 0]

hwakpride147: 

Hmm...el-rail from the draggable GLR starter pieces? You mean the elements of el-rail which can be accessed by selecting the GLR piece and multiple clicking the Tab button, those provided with NAM?

I layed GLR tracks firstly. Secondly I placed the GLR station piece to finally drag the maxis el-rail strip over it.

sobol:

I have never encountered any blank spaces in the menu when GLR is concerned. Your problem must have a different background than mine, apparently. 

Are the GLR pieces visible in game menu in your situation (exluding the SFBT stations only)? In my case, after installation of the NAM modd and after simply placing the SFBT files in the plugin folder all the items were accessible while playing. My problem was limited only to not being able to see trams on my tracks, which is solved now, I can say.

Assuming you have installed NAM properly (selecting the GLR), maybe try removing all the files connected with GLR (exept NAM) from your plugins folder temporarily. Install again only the files that were provided with SFBT pack and see if they are visible in the game menu.

[sobol 1]

I'll try this as well.

[prince_of_sims 0]

civis

The new NAM provides draggable GLR starter pieces. Once the piece is laid, GLR can be dragged from them (yes, dragged, like roads and highways) using the Maxis EL-Rail tool. It makes things a lot easier. If you use the new NAM, do make sure to get the GLR stations patch. The new implementation of draggable GLR required some changes to be made to the pathing on the stations.

[civis 0]

Thanks for the valuable information, prince_of_sims. Didn't know exactly how the draggable GLR system works, that's why limited myself to using ploppable pieces only. Now it's gonna be far more easier indeed.

[CaptCity 4,669]

Ahhh... civis...

The light bulb sure came on over my head... I guess all along I thought you were using the 'draggable' method. That's probably why some of my suggestions created more harm than good. Anyway, just wanted to wish you happy 'dragging'

CC

[civis 0]

Thanks