Appearing/Disappearing Cars

[shadowman131 0]

Hey Everyone,

I searched the forums and mods, and maybe I'm just missing some posts, but is anyone else annoyed during the U-Drive it missions that cars tend to come and go with alarming frequency?  Has anyone been able to fix this?  Would anyone be interested in a fix for this?

Cheers,

-Walt

[BrenMan 94 1]

I don't believe anyone has made a mod for this. I believe that the cars do that when they arrive at a destination, not sure though. But I also know that if too many were on the screen it could possibly overload your game, causing it to crash.

[smortt 0]

IIRC the NAM has an option to increase their "durability" on the streets

[shadowman131 0]

(I'm not concerned with the durability of user driven cars ... it's just obnoxious to have cars phase in and out so rapidly)

Sometimes at a destination yes . . . But frequently not.  I know it can be changed . . . Attached is a .dat with the "Automata Tuning Exemplar" (I'm using the name from the properties xml in the modding section of this site . . . If you have NAM installed, I know you need to take out the file "NetworkAddonMod_Automata_Plugin_*.dat").  It kinda solves the problem . . . Someone else try it out and let me know what you think.

-Walt

TrafficFixes.zip

[The Arrowz 3]

Yeah I agree, it's sometimes unrealistic too, especially on highways where almost all of the cars just fade in and out just driving along a highway with no buildings nearby.

[SockoJr53 51]

Shadowman, I tried your file and removed the NAM Autonoma file as you said. This seems to work as promised in that it stops cars from constantly fading in and out. Only problem is now I,m seeing significantly less traffic all together. For example, a Highway with 2000 cars (according to the query) might display 10 or so cars during peak hour. (They don't fade though )

I was wondering if anyone has owned the SC4 Vanilla before Rush Hour came out? I know in SC4 Vanilla, traffic NEVER faded in and out like this, they spawned at their start points, and drove to their destinations. I always assumed Maxis changed this for performance purposes...but I dunno.

Would it be possible to look at the game files from SC4 Vanilla and see what was changed with Rush Hour? I don't really know anything about how all that works, I'm just brainstorming here.

[shadowman131 0]

Increasing the number of cars is ridiculously easy . . . I'll try that.  Got a rough estimate for me of how much less traffic there is?  (% would be helpful).

Also, were you by chance using NAM's "radical traffic" plugin?  That could very well be why too.

-Walt

[SockoJr53 51]

Alright, so I tried a making a new city with my plugins folder completely empty, with only your trafficfixes.dat file in there. I had a road between my town and industrial district that the had 718 cars on it according to the route query. I counted 39 cars there during the rush period, 4pm to 7pm. So if 39/718 is roughly 5%, then the game is only showing 5% of the traffic that is actually there.

I did not have the NAM radical traffic mods installed during this, and traffic was set to "High" in my graphics options.

[shadowman131 0]

Well, try this one, lemme know.  The main thing I'm a little weary of on higher volume is the amount of congestion in areas where, when you look at your map, have no congestion.  What I'd like is for it to LOOK jammed in high congestion zones, and look ok in low-congestion.  Let me know what you think of this dat though.

-Walt

TrafficFixes_HigherVolume.zip

[SockoJr53 51]

Oh, I do like that one. I haven't noticed much of a problem with the sparse areas appearing too crowded, so I think its OK.

I must say, this is very cool, I like actually seeing vehicles now!! This is really cool Shadowman

[shadowman131 0]

Excellent - One more that makes U-Drive It missions a little more friendly.  I had a bug in the last dat that caused wayyyyyyyy too many cars to be created when you were driving in a vehicle.

Cheers,

-Walt

TrafficFixes_BetterUDI.zip

[SockoJr53 51]

Hmm, I have found a problem regarding compatibility with the Rural Highway Mod. All traffic on the RHWs grinds to a very slow speed. This only happened after I installed this Traffic Fix, so I think there is a problem with it.

Just letting you know

[shadowman131 0]

Try this... 

-Walt

TrafficFixes_ANTFix.zip

[SockoJr53 51]

That did the trick Thanks!

[MRCMidnightRider 0]

Thanks on this wonderful fix. I'm happy this has been resolved

[doorknob60 11]

Whoa, this was bugging the freakin crap outta me, gotta try it out. Maybe shadowman should discuss with the NAM team about this.

EDIT: Doesn't make a difference. I couldn't find any files with Automa in it in the NAM folder, maybe they changed what it's named? What do i have to remove?

EDIT2: NVM didn't look hard enough Trying again...

EDIT3: Big difference, I advise you contact the NAM Team IMMEDIATELY!!! This is a big improvement.

[gamer01965 1]

I'm pretty annoyed how sometimes during U-drive it missions a car appears right in front of me and I crash into them....

It's such a waste of time!

[Paahdin 0]

Hi, I didn't really understand how should I install trafficfix... Where should I put the file and should I rename it or what ?

[Zipme17 18]

Hi, this sounds really good, does the file go in the NAM folder or the Nam/plugins folder or do i have to edit one of the existing files?

Thanks

[Livin in Sim 83]

I just put it in the My Docs Plugin folder, didn't rename, and it works.

[Paahdin 0]

Well, cars still keep fading pretty fast, though the cars maybe just got to their destination. I'll have to test with highway to see if cars keep fading there. Do you use High cars/sims setting ?

[Livin in Sim 83]

It seemed to lessen the fading quite a bit for me, for streets, roads and avenues, and I have the setting on medium at the moment.

[Thorinbur 0]

Thank you, thank you thank you!

Now i can test my road system by watching cars. i actualy saw big mistace by seeing big colum of cars going down the Ave just to turn back at the end and turn right. I added Intersection and now is ok, before that was just, appearing car, going like 10-15 metres and dissappearing.. Annoying and so unrealistic now its great! And UID missions are now much more fun, cos first off all cars are not appearing in front of my just like that,and if you got poor trafic system you can actualy stuck in jam! Witch was imposible before fixes, THANX AGAIN!

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Originally posted by: gamer01965

I'm pretty annoyed how sometimes during U-drive it missions a car appears right in front of me and I crash into them....

It's such a waste of time!quote>

But it's also good when a slowpoke car suddenly disappears, allowing you to go faster.

 

[Jeiman2008 21]

I just re-made a version of this fix with the RHW fix but without the traffic volume increase. I thought that was more realistic looking and seemed to represent congestion better instead of volume.

[...~*{ALEX}*~... 1]

I'm confused, are people just testing this, or is this mod actually ready to use?

[Jeiman2008 21]

 It's a very simple mod, ready to use.  shadowman131 made it in 2008 and I've been using it for some time now.  Basically it makes automata much more persistent.   TrafficFixes_ANTFix.zip  is the best working one, but it just had too much automata compared to the level of congestion for my tastes.  I've attached my version. *Same as the first, but has RHW speed fix*

TrafficFixesLow.zip

[...~*{ALEX}*~... 1]

I tried shadowman131's version, but it just seemed the same to me. Is it included in the NAM now? because that might be why.

[Jeiman2008 21]

@ ALEX It's not included in NAM, you'll have to either delete NAM's automata controller "NetworkAddonMod_Automata_Plugin_*.dat" or just make sure shadowman's .dat loads after NAM's.

[thingfishs 417]

thanks a lot shadowman & Jeiman, it works perfectly. I was in the process of learning how to adjust the automata parameters manually when I came across this - much easier. I am also using Jeiman's version, the numbers of cars seem right although I didn't try the earlier one yet. Could you please upload this to the STEX so that other people can be made aware of this. For me, and I'm not exaggerating, having the cars stable has as profound an impact on the realism of the game as any CC I've ever downloaded; and I'm sure other will feel likewise. Thanks.