NAM General Discussion Thread

[rubberring 0]

can i use datgen for it? which files have to be modified?

[smoncrie 43]

Date:9/17/2004 2:19:14 PM
Author:rubberring

can i use datgen for it? which files have to be modified?

quote>

I use reader, but you can probably use datgen.

To find the files that need to be modified, first find the IID of the intersection's exemplar.  Then locate all exemplars that have a kPropertyID_LotConfigNetworkTileId with that IID as it's value. The exemplars you locate (if any) are the ones that you may need to modify.

For intersections the kPropertyID_NetworkPlacementPattern value should be 0x0F,0x0F,0x0F,0x0F.

If you need more information, please contact me.

smoncrie

[ardecila 124]

thugangel (I'm sorry, but your name is REALLY long):

Why did you make your offramp go up? Are you planning to connect it to puzzle pieces?

If you want it to go well into sunken highways, you need to understand how the terrain-adjusting works. The vertices of the model always maintain the same height above the terrain as they are above the xy plane in the model - even if the terrain is rising. If you want it to integrate into a sunken highway, you need to make it flat along the ground.

[salehsamee 1]

Hello folks,
Believe it or not, i have read through pages 1 to 40 and then 55 to this page, in a whole day on a dial up connection. i had had enough with the searching link about the rail to el-rail and rail to subway connections, and railways with wires on them. also about the 90 degree railway junction. PLease people, give me there link or where i can download them from, Please help me. THANK YOU. and believe me from this day onward i will try my best to keep up with this thread's post so i wont miss all these interesting things.

[City_Searcher 0]

Date: 9/17/2004 5:18:37 PM
Author: salehsamee
...rail to el-rail and rail to subway connections,...

quote>

Go here !

[whiteshark365 563]

I've found a traffic light bug that I think might be related to the NAM. I've only downloaded the latest addition today and found an odd bug reguarding the placement of traffic lights on an avenue and diagnol road intersection. Here are a few pics of what I mean.

 

as you can see the first one has two traffic signals, and the other one is showing both signal being on the same side.

It isnt a big deal, but was wondering if anyone of you knows how to correct this, or if it is being fixed in the next nam release.

[Tropod 144]

*Currently*, nothing in the NAM actually touches any of the traffic/street/road/intersections/etc lights at all (it doesn't even contain any Exemplar files for this sort of thing; *currently*). This would be something in the stock-standard game.
Anyone/someone willing enough to change/fix/modify/add these &/or any other traffic/stop/curb/network lights though, then they'll be included.

[greyveil 37]

I am working on a NAM screenshots and how-to website, if anyone has any NAM related pics they would like included please send them to me at greyveil@brightok.net include any text you would like included also.

This should only be things that are currently possible with the NAM, the website will hopefully primarily be used by people new to the NAM to get an idea of what is possible.

all help will be appreciated, and credit will be given!

[qurlix 20]

As always, I'm available to do Pathwork or odd DAT work (like exploring the unknown...).

Unfotunately, no one ever seems to finish their part of the project, though, so I never get to do anything...


I was looking at the request thread, and what happened to the finished gmax models? Did they just dissappear? Did no one want to finish them?

(ie SPUI, Y Interchange, Stack Interchange)

[Tropod 144]

Date: 9/18/2004 5:31:31 PM
Author: qurlix
As always, I'm available to do Pathwork or odd DAT work (like exploring the unknown...).

Unfotunately, no one ever seems to finish their part of the project, though, so I never get to do anything...

I was looking at the request thread, and what happened to the finished gmax models? Did they just dissappear? Did no one want to finish them?

(ie SPUI, Y Interchange, Stack Interchange)

quote>

That is so true! And it can be rather annoying sometimes.
I'm not quite sure what I have on HDD, as I have so many files etc in disaray, though I'm sure I have some stuff that is still WIP &/or just sitting here ready for someone to tackle. So with that said, I will try & see what I have, to see if anything can't be put up on my webspace (or somewhere??) for others to download & work on (such as rendering/skining/etc).

[Tunafish 48]

Since this would be deleted is I posted in the development thread, I'll say it here. I don't think peoples posts should be deleted if they don't have to do with contributing to the NAM. I think saying good job to a person, like chris, is helping. Shure, if someone makes a requset in the development thread, then delete it, but encouraging or complimenting shouldn't all it does is help.

 

Please consider.

[kassarc16 4]

Date:9/18/2004 3:02:17 PM
Author:Tropod

*Currently*, nothing in the NAM actually touches any of the traffic/street/road/intersections/etc lights at all (it doesn't even contain any Exemplar files for this sort of thing; *currently*). This would be something in the stock-standard game.
Anyone/someone willing enough to change/fix/modify/add these &/or any other traffic/stop/curb/network lights though, then they'll be included.

quote>

I'd love to take a crack at it, and just about every other intersection in the game. I'd just need to know what tools i need and how to do it.

[Cactaur55 0]

Geez... Third time, okey, I'll take Tropod's word for it; I'll add a picture.

If anyone can help, in the Highways menu for Custom Interchanges, it's screwed up now. It used to have the partial cloverleaf and the diagonal&straight Elevated Highway overpass. Now after getting the latest update of NAM, I only have the option to create the Y Avenue exchange. Also, the Avenue exchange does not have a little model above the cursor, it's just a Green Pointer and the grey square under it. I can't see where I'm putting it, but when I place it, it's fine. All I need is the menu fixed.



Also note, when I press tab, nothing happens, it just stays this, non-changeable (not a word) thing.

[greyveil 37]

I like your black out job there, your more secretive than the U.S. government, whats up with even blacking out the RCI bars, lol

[xannepan 513]

qurlix&Tropod: It really is to bad people don't finish their projects... But I can image why... there is so much fun stuff to do, that it is hard to choose. I try to finish one thing at a time myself, but this requires some discipline. So for now, I'll do my best to finish the textures for the cobble stone pieces, before starting anything else.

 

Anyway; I think it would be great if you could put all the stuff you have on a website, so everyone can contribute to finish things. Will this also include the textures for the turning lane project? I know this is a different thread, but also there development is slow, because textures are still missing. Since I have some experience in textures now, maybe I can help... (I'm not making any promisses, because I also have some buildings I'd like to BAT. But maybe I can contribute to a thing or two)

 

 

 

 

[Cactaur55 0]

Hehe... I was just bored, so I decided to play around with paint.

Anyway... Is there any news? Am I the only one who has this? Is the terrain temp file messing with this? HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP!

[Tropod 144]

Tunafish:
Typically, I would tend to agree with you. However, the scope of the new threads had been set-out in the first posts by T7T. The new threads need to deal only with what they were set-up & intended for, & nothing else, to ensure their greatest efficiency, productivity, & useability. People constantly posting very very short thank-you/compliment comments, of which some folk (who I'll not name) who just post nonsense one word posts (& even worse, just posting smileys & nothing else), quite often gets beyond a joke & is rather annoying, & doesn't necessarily help anyone, least of all the intended purpose of the thread. So if people follow the scope of the new threads, respect the thread creators wishes, actually take the time to read the first post in the threads, & post accordingly, then there won't be a problem.


Cactaur55:
That Terrain Temp file, is as the name indicates, is a *temp* file. So yes, it would be intefering with it (so do remove it). Also, you didn't by any chance click onto a link in this thread (a few weeks back), & download any other temp/testing file that was intended for this thread only (if so, get rid of them too)? The fact that you're able to actually build that Y-Avenue indicates that you might very well have. Any *temp*, *testing* files that may of been released however long ago in this thread, should no longer be in the Plugins folder & used, as their contents are included in the NAM.
I do find it rather odd, that no one else has reported this problem. So chances are it is definately something on your end that you need to investigate to resolve.



xannepan:
Well, looks like I have TGC's ElevatedHighway over GroundHighway interchange & also Y-Groundhighway stack; both of which need to be sliced (properly) before even being rendered (May I remind people that I'm really no good with BAT). And then of course there's the skining & everything else as well after they're rendered. The BAT/GMAX files for these two are over 5MBs together, so I think it might be a good idea if someone could possibly spare/donate a few MBs worth of online file storage for us to be able to upload & host these sorts of things for others to download & work on.

[Andreas Roth 607]

Date: 9/19/2004 6:56:42 AM
Author: Tropod
The BAT/GMAX files for these two are over 5MBs together, so I think it might be a good idea if someone could possibly spare/donate a few MBs worth of online file storage for us to be able to upload & host these sorts of things for others to download & work on.

quote>
Well, I have an entire MediaCenter (similar to Yahoo Briefcase etc., but much more professional) with 1 GB storage and 7,5 GB traffic/month, which I don't use at all, but it has one mayor drawback: It's in German, so I guess most people wouldn't be able to use it.

[SantoS 0]

Date: 9/19/2004 6:56:42 AM
Author: Tropod

And then of course there's the skining & everything else as well after they're rendered. The BAT/GMAX files for these two are over 5MBs together, so I think it might be a good idea if someone could possibly spare/donate a few MBs worth of online file storage for us to be able to upload & host these sorts of things for others to download & work on.

quote>

I have some spare web space and such that I would be happy to donate. Just PM me the information and I'll set everything up.

SantoS

[Cactaur55 0]

I have also had the El-Train UDI, but I removed it, as I clearly saw the UDI in the history list, and took the temp out.

And I'll try removing the terrain temp file. Thanks!

*thinks of some requests to post in the requests area*

EDIT: I'm not going to double, triple, and so on post at the interval of 30 minutes + to report, and I just wanted to say that my first idea works! hehe... I should listen to myself more often, and thanks for backing my idea, and for your kind help! NAM is now as great as ever (if not better).

[Thalassicus 33]

Date: 9/18/2004 8:03:01 PM
Author: Tunafish

Since this would be deleted is I posted in the development thread, I'll say it here. I don't think peoples posts should be deleted if they don't have to do with contributing to the NAM. I think saying good job to a person, like chris, is helping. Shure, if someone makes a requset in the development thread, then delete it, but encouraging or complimenting shouldn't all it does is help.

quote>
I also agree that compliments are a good thing, but as Tropod said it can become very difficult to sift through posts in a thread to find important information.

It took me 6 hours just to compile all the requests onto one page, when considering which have been replied to as not possible, already possible, already finished, etc. As you can tell a lot of the requests are for things that have already been developed by someone, but got lost in dozens of pages. To keep things running smoothly, it's really best to keep each thread dedicated to its own purpose

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Date: 9/18/2004 2:27:44 PM
Author: whiteshark365

I've found a traffic light bug that I think might be related to the NAM. I've only downloaded the latest addition today and found an odd bug reguarding the placement of traffic lights on an avenue and diagnol road intersection. Here are a few pics of what I mean.

as you can see the first one has two traffic signals, and the other one is showing both signal being on the same side.

It isnt a big deal, but was wondering if anyone of you knows how to correct this, or if it is being fixed in the next nam release.

quote>
This is not a bug, this is three lights for three directions of travel, north/south, and east west. the double light, 1 is for people traveling north in that pic, and the ither one is for people entering the avenue.

[Thalassicus 33]

Warning: long post ahead!

After playing around a bit with the interchange calculator, I've found that many of Maxis's costs are extremely unrealistic (like so many other things...). For example, an elevated cloverleaf costs the same as a ground cloverleaf! This is despite the fact that elevated highway tiles cost 3 times more than ground highways. So, I've calculated what the costs should be for the various interchange types, and here's what I came up with (rounded to the nearest 25):

 

 

(Trumpet is the trumpet interchange sargeantcm is working on, with the suggestion I made on the development thread included to reduce the cost) 

Now, considering that the standard T-interchange loses a lane (3 lanes of highway dividing into two 1-lane flyways), in reality it would result in huge backups if the feeder highway has a lot of traffic. If you adjust the T interchanges for even distribution of traffic (2 lanes on each flyway), the costs become:

 

 

These numbers seem much more realistic when considering the volume of traffic that the flyways will need to support, since we can't specify the # of lanes directly.

 

 

There are inconsistancies with monthly maintenance costs as well: a minor one is that avenue cost is listed incorrectly in the menu (

[kassarc16 4]

Date:9/20/2004 1:58:17 AM
Author:newyorkrunaway1

This is not a bug, this is three lights for three directions of travel, north/south, and east west. the double light, 1 is for people traveling north in that pic, and the ither one is for people entering the avenue.

quote>

 

Look at it again. The one for people coming off the road is the single pole in the middle. There is an extra double-light pole there.

[rubberring 0]

i would like to choose building traffic lights or stop-traffic-signs w/o traffic lights when i'm building road/road or road/street intersections. is it possible to realize that like the autoprompter for overpasses?

[edcase2k4-thugangel1983 1]

i think i requested that ruberring, somewhere along the line.. yes i did, because i was using it in reference to avenue turning lanes in its own thread i think - when there are no traffic lights at an intersection/junction, i was talking about which roads and their flow of traffic have priority, and which have to stop and give way

i think this autoprompt would be a good addition to the game, but would only be for some people i guess - some wouldnt want the game constantly asking them if they want traffic lights everytime they build a intersection/junction, so it could maybe be an optional component

[Tropod 144]

Date: 9/21/2004 4:52:42 AM
Author: rubberring
i would like to choose building traffic lights or stop-traffic-signs w/o traffic lights when i'm building road/road or road/street intersections. is it possible to realize that like the autoprompter for overpasses?

quote>

I'm not quite if I understand what you're getting at here exactly (so if this doesn't answer your question, let us know). The function that controls the autopromting for overpasses, specifically only exists for interchanges, overpasses, perpendicular ramps & similar. There's currently no way to have a prompt ask whether or not you want a set of traffic lights &/or stop lights placed at an intersection/junction. And whether or not something workable could be done to accomodate such a thing; well, I doubt it really.

[the7trumpets 10]

Date: 9/20/2004 12:54:49 PM
Author: Thalassicus

Once I've worked through realistic values for all the costs, could we include them as a fix in the mod?

quote>


I think you've done an outstanding job figuring this stuff out Thalissicus. Furthermore, you're right, that for new interchanges, we should have some method for people to determine the interchange cost other than just guessing. Otherwise none of the new interchanges will be consistant.

Have you updated that excel file for the figures in your new post? Or are the calculations the same? If you have updated it, please post the updated file so that those creating new interchanges can calculate thier interchanges cost.

[Thalassicus 33]

Yes, I have updated the excel file with the most recent data. It also includes the multiplier values for highways, avenues, and roads, the rest can be deduced by working backwards from the final monthly costs.

I added protection to all of the non-input cells, to remove this and play around with the values go to Tools -> Protection -> Unprotect Sheet.

Also, the Dec->Hex converter cell for the total costs requires Excel's Analysis Tool Pack: under the Tools menu, select Add-Ins, check Analysis ToolPak and click OK. You will need to double-click on the hex conversion cell (to open it for editing) and hit enter again for it to recognize the formula after activating the toolpack.

It's also easy to see the relationship between height and # lanes by entering a 1 into all the #oftiles cells and comparing the costs

[edcase2k4-thugangel1983 1]

Date: 9/17/2004 4:42:44 PM
Author: ardecila

thugangel (I'm sorry, but your name is REALLY long):

Why did you make your offramp go up? Are you planning to connect it to puzzle pieces?

If you want it to go well into sunken highways, you need to understand how the terrain-adjusting works. The vertices of the model always maintain the same height above the terrain as they are above the xy plane in the model - even if the terrain is rising. If you want it to integrate into a sunken highway, you need to make it flat along the ground.

quote>

sorry, i seemed to have missed your post before ive only just realised this from Tropod's post in the development thread which responded to my question. basically i wanted to make the TERRAIN deform - not the model. im not sure though now - i think it may be better to model the ramp flat and let the RAMP deform to the terrain instead because then there would not need to be different elevation versions of it! d'oh