NAM Traffic Simulator and Data View Support Thread

[z1 566]

It's also necessary because the avenues of the NWM are actually composed of roads.

[z1 566]

It's also necessary because the avenues of the NWM are actually composed of roads.

[mikeld 4]

 I just put my commute time down to 0.010 as I didn't want to make it really easy for the sims to get to work instantly but its a subtle betterment from 0.015.

Please help with the others. i want less noise for people so I should put my Customers/Traffic Noise Co efficient down ? I put it down to 0.245. What should that level be?

Vehicle air pollution  mine says 0.40.  What level please?

The other 2 are 1.0 net cap multiplier & intersection multi

I ticked Highway bus lanes & Park and ride up the top? good idea?

Also My avenue capacity is saying only 6000 which is the same as my Road & one way road ??!!??

I have MASS TRANSIT USAGE: High European 

BASE NETWORK CAPACITY: HIGH

Is this all correct & good for me please thanks mate in advance. I'm aussie so please use laymans terms  

[z1 566]

Originally posted by: mikeld

 I just put my commute time down to 0.010 as I didn't want to make it really easy for the sims to get to work instantly but its a subtle betterment from 0.015.quote>

This setting has absolutely no effect on how long it takes Sims to get to work.  To see what it does, and to get answers to all your other questions, please read the User's Guide, which can be found in the Help menu.

Generally, the default settings are good as they are.  Please don't change things unless you know what they do.  For example, if you just select Park & Ride as you proposed without taking the other steps detailed in the User's Guide, you will make your game unplayable.

As for the capacities, they are per tile, which is why avenues and roads have the same capacities.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Hi,

    I need to reinstall the traffic simulator controller because I lost it during my transition to a new machine.

I know I can get it back by reinstalling the NAM, but if I do that, will I also have to reinstall the SAM and the NWM (all lthree are there and working now)?  Or is the a separate installer for the traffic controller?  I also have to install the JRE for windows, so it becomes cumbersome if I have to do all of this.

Regards,

John.

[z1 566]

The simplest thing to do in your situation would be to install the NAM Traffic Subsystem; you just have to make sure that the JRE is installed first.

For future reference, if you reinstall the NAM, external plugins such as the SAM and NWM don't need to be reinstalled as long as they're compatible with the version of the NAM that you're installing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Thanks. I just checked on the JRE, and it is installed.  When you run stuff under wine, a lot of windows stuff winds up in the .wine directory for use by the programs who expect to find it there.  There is even a fake registry.

[Infamous Blob 0]

Hullooo, I'm kinda new so excuse my newness aha

I'm rather struggling to understand the mass transit system in NAM following installing it today. I don't quite get how ground light rail works (do sims get on and off at stations and how do you connect it to the elevated rail network). I'm also having issues with the traffic simulator app as it doesn't appear to be affecting capacity of my mass transit at least (bus stops are still set at 1000 capacity, subways 2000 e.c.t when the editors shows them being different). Is there a reason for this. I also don't quite understand how you would make under passes work, how do you connect two road exits underneath an avenue for example.

All help is most appreciated

Thanks in advance

[z1 566]

Originally posted by: Infamous Blob

 I don't quite get how ground light rail works (do sims get on and off at stations and how do you connect it to the elevated rail network)quote>

Yes, they do; there's a puzzle piece near the end of the GLR tab ring that connects GLR to standard el rail.

I'm also having issues with the traffic simulator app as it doesn't appear to be affecting capacity of my mass transit at least (bus stops are still set at 1000 capacity, subways 2000 e.c.t when the editors shows them being different). Is there a reason for this?quote>

The traffic simulator doesn't affect the capacity of stations; in fact, it's incapable of doing so.  Cathy has given good advice on getting alternative stations that match the increased traffic flow; the NAM never includes stations.  You mention editors, so I assume you are trying to edit the capacity of existing stations yourself.  That's fine, especially if you like the station.  If the station is one of the built-in Maxis stations, just be sure to make a copy of it and edit that copy (for example, by using Ilive's Reader's Patch facility) rather than editing SimCity_1.dat directly.

What's important to remember here is that the actual capacity of the station is contained in the property Transit Switch Traffic Capacity.  What you see in the menu comes from the property Catalog Capacity (when present).  In general, these should always be the same; if you modify one, you should modify both.  If Catalog Capacity is not present, you can add it or not, as you wish.

. I also don't quite understand how you would make under passes work, how do you connect two road exits underneath an avenue for example.quote>

Generally, the best way to do this is with FLUPs.  There's an excellent tutorial over at SC4D entitled How to build Functional Underpasses with FLUPs; I'd recommend reading this.

[LivingInThePast 364]

I recently updated to the latest version of NAM and picked the "Medium" traffic capacity simulator (for medium-sized cities).

I built a medium-sized city on a medium tile. To clarify, there was a mess of grid-like suburbs with streets (an Avenue was in there, too) with a road leading out to the factories to the east.

But the problem is there's no congestion on the streets at all. There are a few intersections with yellow, but nothing like the mess before.

So why the problem? I want to upgrade to BIGGER ROADS like the RHW. I want it to be PRACTICAL to build a loop highway around the city and not just a GIANT WASTE OF MONEY.

What do I do?

[Vahr 341]

Uh, choose the Low simulator instead?

[LivingInThePast 364]

Do I have to reinstall the NAM to change it, or is there an easier way?

[Vahr 341]

Download the Mac version or the big simulator pack thingy that I don't remember what it exactly is called, dig it out, shove it into your NAM folder, get rid of the Medium one.

[LivingInThePast 364]

Originally posted by: Blue Lightning

Download the Mac version or the big simulator pack thingy that I don't remember what it exactly is called, dig it out, shove it into your NAM folder, get rid of the Medium one.quote>

Hm, yes, I suppose that's one way to do it. Thanks!

[Abaharaki 0]

Hey

I've come across a weird bug with the TSCT. Everytime I tweak and save a custom traffic simulator I gain a Subway button in my Misc Transport menu. I had four before I caught on. A fifth save confirmed it. Why on earth would this be happening?? It's not a critical issue but I imagine I'll want to play with the simulator more, and I can't be accumulating these buttons every time.

Reinstalling the simulator through NAM didn't help.

Can I at least remove those buttons somehow?

[z1 566]

This is an unanticipated side effect of the fact that the TSCT used to save backup files of the traffic simulator in the NAM folder.  These backup files have extensions that all start with ".sav"; you should remove them all.  You should also get a current version of the TSCT from the NAM Traffic Subsystem download.  This version keeps the backup files in a subfolder of its installation directory, where they don't create the problem with the subway buttons.

[Abaharaki 0]

Thanks for the swift response

I've installed the standalone Nam traffic subsystem a few days ago actualy.

In fact, the only relevant sav files I had were in the TSCT backup subfolder. (btw I searched for "*.sa*" just to be sure) The only other ones I found were part of other transport-related plugins:

SNR 1rail2glrterm_f09decc3.sav

SNR 2rail1glrterm_909deca5.sav

SNR GLR6platterm_509dec6f.sav

Utils1x4Station_Halt2_71f88510.sav

VIADUCT ALL.sav

There were none in the NAM folder. Funnily enough, I deleted the three backup savs from the TSCT backup folder and that removed three of the subway buttons but one redundant one still remains.

Any ideas?

EDIT1:

I downloaded the NAM Traffic Subsystem from LEX because of those damn Llamas in broccoli in case that makes a difference.

EDIT2:

Well with the Llamas gone I installed version 1.2.2. I had 1.1.5 before which already had the backup folder so I don't think that solved the problem. I did however have my old installation inside the "user/../../plugins" folder before. This time I installed it in the SC4 root and the remaining button is gone.

If that's indeed the problem, maybe a team member could mention it in the readme or the installation package for future users. Currently the readme says "You can change the default installation path if you wish." but it doesn't say "Don't install in plugins folder"

Anyway...

Thanks for helping me help myself

[z1 566]

Yes, from your description I had concluded that you had installed the TSCT in your Plugins folder, and that that indeed was the source of your problem. Your suggestion about an addition to the Readme is well taken, as this problem is not obvious otherwise.

[Tysons4 68]

so why make buses act like each traveler gets their own bus with the nam?

say streets can handle 100 cars, why do i have to upgrade that street to a road when 100 bus riders are going over it. if a bus holds 50 people, that is only 2 buses a day. i want my buses to act like they do with the maxis simulator. they are the ninjas of the streets, moving thousands of sims a day down my cities streets without causing congestion or hiccup (unless cars start getting on them, then i can understand why i need to upgrade them. even the traffic configuration tool won't change this setting.

  Edited March 18, 2011 by Tysons4  

[z1 566]

so why make buses act like each traveler gets their own bus with the nam?

Because it's exactly what the traffic simulator has always done with every other travel type, and because it leads to a more balanced and more accurate traffic simulation.

As I've mentioned before, once you bring in the Black Hole Bus Company and are able to stuff an infinite number of Sims on a bus, the traffic simulator will use this solution to reduce congestion from other travel types; it is impossible to prevent it from doing so. This in turn results in very artificial traffic patterns, while allowing the player to ignore the basic problems that are causing congestion in the first place. Even the author of one of the earlier NAM traffic simulators, where buses did not contribute to traffic, acknowledged that this was essentially a cheat on the part of Maxis. Maxis really had not choice here, though; with the pathfinding settings they used in their traffic simulator, allowing buses to contribute to traffic would have caused uncontrollably massive traffic jams. This has been verified by testing.

say streets can handle 100 cars, why do i have to upgrade that street to a road when 100 bus riders are going over it. if a bus holds 50 people, that is only 2 buses a day.

It's true, two buses a day is an unrealistically low number. But if you use even the Low version of the NAM traffic simulator, you can have up to 30 such busloads per day - a very reasonable number for a street - without causing congestion. If you have more than 30 busloads per day, you probably need a road there anyway.

However, over time a number of people have expressed a desire for the feature of buses' not contributing to traffic so that taking the bus has a clear advantage over driving a car. When there was just a single version of the traffic simulator (with its various capacity levels), this did not seem to justify changing the behavior of buses back to that of the original Maxis traffic simulator. But now that we have the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool, it's possible to make this an option, and I will be having this done over the next several weeks. For the reasons stated above, I still firmly believe that the present treatment of buses is the best one. But with the advent of the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool it is now possible to have both options available, and so this option will be made available soon. It will be announced in this forum when it is ready.

  Edited March 19, 2011 by z1  

[Moonraker0 192]

I am experiencing trouble with a feature of the traffic simulator. Sims will not drive as far as necessary to reach jobs, instead choosing to abandon their homes. I have a residential zone on one edge of the large city tile, and an industrial zone on the other (both within the tile). There are manufacturing jobs in the industrial zone and low-wealth and medium-wealth sims in the residential zone, so I don't think that the wealth of the jobs and sims not matching is the problem. There used to be no traffic at all on the avenue leading to the industrial zone, but now there are some homes that are closer to the industrial jobs than the original ones, and there are a few commuters from that zone traveling to the outer rim of the industrial zone. I tried putting homes directly bordering the industrial zone, and they had no problem taking the jobs there. This all makes it really seem like there is a low cap on how far sims can drive to commute. I don't understand why the distance is a factor entirely keeping them from having jobs.

[z1 566]

Wealth is not the only factor important in matching Sims to jobs. Education is very important as well. Please see RippleJet's excellent tutorial Workforce and Occupation Demands (Drives) for more details.

If that is not your problem, try adding rapid transit. Despite the fact that Sims should be able to drive clear across a large tile with no problem, the traffic simulator was programmed by Maxis in such a way that a lack of rapid transit can limit the distance that Sims can travel. In some situations, a lot of rapid transit is necessary, in which case subways are the ideal solution, as they don't take up real estate above ground. Be sure to put in enough subway lines and plenty of stations if you take this approach.

[Moonraker0 192]

Alright Z, I followed your suggestion of adding rapid transit (the education levels seemed to be correct according to the linked chart), and it seems that the problem has gone away. It's strange because I had previously added a temporary test monorail line between the two zones and it had no usage after I waited several months. However, now that the city's monrail lines are extended throughout the city tile, there are sims from all over riding to the industrial zone, and the RHW leading there is also getting significant usage.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Greetings.

I tried to use the TSCT to change things today for my new account, and discovered that the window that is set up cannot be resized. It doesn't have a maximize button nor can it be resized by dragging the borders. There appears to be more settings on the right, but I cannot see them. I am using the Java jre 6.0 on what the environment believes is XP.

Do I need a later version of Java, or will this be fixed in the future.

Regards,

John.

[z1 566]

There are currently no plans to add resizing to the TSCT; I haven't seen what you describe happen on Windows systems, and your Java is up to date. However, it sounds like you are using a skin that is not being sized properly for your system. Go into Tools->Options and try choosing a different GUI Style (Skin), and restart the program. Please let us know how that works.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

It probably has been discussed a long time ago, but I would like to know--wouldn't it be more practical to program the one-way speed and the avenue speed to work differently? Currently the one-way has a greater base speed than the avenue, based on traffic flow studies in urban settings. Now, wouldn't it be more realistic if it could work as follows?:

- The avenue's base speed would be greater than that of the one-way, but the one-way would have less slowing down in intersections because of only needing to regulate traffic for one through and 1-2 turning directions (all can happen at the same time), instead of 2 through directions and 2-4 turning directions. The current way they are programmed makes for dual one-way set-ups advantaged against avenues in all circumstances, rather than making the avenue have the advantage in settings with few or no intersections (rural inter-city connections) and the one-ways in settings with many intersections (city center, ribbon development).

  Edited February 29, 2012 by Dragonxander  

[Tarkus 6,932]

- The avenue's base speed would be greater than that of the one-way, but the one-way would have less slowing down in intersections because of only needing to regulate traffic for one through and 1-2 turning directions (all can happen at the same time), instead of 2 through directions and 2-4 turning directions.

The current way they are programmed makes for dual one-way set-ups advantaged against avenues in all circumstances, rather than making the avenue have the advantage in settings with few or no intersections (rural inter-city connections) and the one-ways in settings with many intersections (city center, ribbon development).

Unfortunately, that's not entirely possible. Technically speaking, the property that controls the intersection slow down, the Intersection & Turn Capacity Effect, applies universally to all networks that have congestion enabled. While I agree that it would be more realistic, we can't simply reduce/increase the effect separately on different networks. Additionally, speed and capacity are inherently correlated concepts in the traffic simulator.

There is a bit of a workaround--the "Distilled Intersection Paths" (DIPs) used to give certain NWM and RHW networks (and some TuLEPs) a capacity boost actually change how the Intersection & Turn Capacity Effect works. If you build a TLA-3 and have it intersect, there will be virtually no slowdown at an intersection because of the DIPs.

We could, theoretically, put DIPs on the OWR-2. However, that said, it would gum up the overall working of the NWM. The OWR-3 network already has DIPs to give it a capacity boost, and its capacity would get equalized if DIPs were added to the OWR-2. We've also generally avoided putting DIPs on base networks as there can be some minor quirks with them.

-Tarkus

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

There are currently no plans to add resizing to the TSCT; I haven't seen what you describe happen on Windows systems, and your Java is up to date. However, it sounds like you are using a skin that is not being sized properly for your system. Go into Tools->Options and try choosing a different GUI Style (Skin), and restart the program. Please let us know how that works.

No longer a problem as I now have a 16:9 monitor. However, a recompile to allow TSCT more flexibility would be to everyone's advantage. It is only a change in the Form parameters.

  Edited March 1, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Are you sure that's the right text you intended to quote?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Are you sure that's the right text you intended to quote?

Fixed. Picked up the wrong text. Sorry.