Missing Texture - Rail Bridge Approaches - Advice?

[Jedimarine 119]

So I'm getting a missing texture on the "approach" piece to rail bridges.

I believe this must have something to do with NAM as I recently upgraded to NAM 29, and I run no other transit mods.

It appears to be only rail bridges...but it is ALL rail bridges.

Thoughts?

[Jedimarine 119]

Ok...I just tried to confirm the issue by uninstalling NAM.

I cannot even get the approach piece to appear for rail bridges...was this an addition made by the NAM?

[Tarkus 6,932]

The approach piece was not an addition.  The approach piece hasn't been modified, in fact.  However, I have tracked down what was causing the issue you were seeing.  There were some Retaining Wall/Pylon-type exemplars added for several networks, including the One-Way Road and Rail networks, which are located in NetworkAddonMod1.dat.  Exemplars of this type were already included for the Road network by EA/Maxis.  They were added to the additional networks in order to support the ability to build diagonal, curving and neighbor connecting bridges for those networks with a special "zero slope" mod, as described here.

With the exemplar in place, the game attempts to place the retaining wall/pylon piece on the tile before one (but not both) of the Rail bridge approaches, just as the unmodded game does with Road bridge approaches.  The Rail retaining wall/pylon segments, however, have a bit of an Alpha Transparency issue from the looks of things.  I don't yet know why, however, and will have to examine the files closer.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Jedimarine 119]

Thank you for the information.

Please let me know if I can aid in sorting out this matter.

[Tarkus 6,932]

Originally posted by: Jedimarine

Thank you for the information.

Please let me know if I can aid in sorting out this matter.quote>

You're most welcome!

I've done a little poking around and think I've figured out a possible solution, using a special "bridge adjacent" RUL override to convert the pylon/retaining walled tile to a new IID that doesn't have a pylon/retaining wall.  The nice benefit of this is that it'll also be applicable to fixing the similar but less apparent issue with the Road bridges.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[Jedimarine 119]

lol...I wish I understood what you said there.

Is this something that a simple "how to" would cover, or will a patch be necessary?

If you need someone to test it, I'll volunteer.

Thanks again!

[Vahr 341]

Well, a little background on how the game does the texture on pylon tiles.

The game takes the texture, disregards the alpha map, and displays it. That's pretty much it

So in order to remove the black void, the texture would need to be remade, keeping the same alpha, but instead of using a flat color background, the maxis white tile texture should be used as a background (possibly, or use some concrete texture. Anything that it will look good on). No extra RULs required.

[Jedimarine 119]

I'm sorry...I don't want to seem impatient. I'm grateful that there seems to be some insight into the problem, but was there a solution in what was stated above, or just back and forth on how to solve it?

I'm not well versed in the game's code mechanics, so I wasn't sure if the comments above were the last word on it or not.

If there is a solution above, I'm afraid I'm going to need a more layman's terms walkthrough to solve this problem.

If a solution is being formulated, I apologize for misunderstanding and eagerly await more word.

Thanks,

JM

[jjakucyk 0]

I noticed this issue too, which also appears when the railroads are on retaining walls. I assume it's using the same texture (or even the same tile piece) for both. I can usually get rid of the approach piece for the railroad bridge just by rebuilding the bridge.

[frappy253 1]

Hello everyone!

First, I must appologize, I am not sure if this is the correct placement of this thread or not. This is actually my first forum post on the site even though I have been here for a few years now. Upon installing the latest NAM and its essentials, I have begun experiencing a problem with rail bridges- and only rail bridges. I did a screen shot of the problem: 

If the photo is not viewable, here is the link: https://s820.photobucket.com/albums/zz127/Nighthawk2218/?action=view&current=Dependancy.jpg

It does the same on bridges that are level on both sides as well. Is there any way I can solve this problem?

Thanks!

Merged this and the following several posts with another thread dealing with the same issue.

-CaptCity

[Tarkus 6,932]

That's not a missing dependency, but rather an artifact created by the addition of pylon exemplars to the Rail network, in order to allow for special bridge functionality (incl. diagonal bridges) using the "zero slope" mod, as seen here.

The issue is known and some solutions have been suggested, though none have been implemented yet.

Also, unless NAM Essentials has a later update date on it than the most recent NAM, you do not need the Essentials.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[frappy253 1]

Great! Thanks for the speedy reply. I will try this and hope that is the issue. Its even doing this with the original Maxis bridges. Also thanks for the tidbit regarding NAM Essentials.

-Sean (Frappy)

[frappy253 1]

Just tried your suggestion, Tarkus. It does not resolve the black box issue in my screen shot. In fact, it makes it worse. I really feel like I must be missing something, but what can it be? I definitely think you are on the right track with the pylons since it is involving the bridge slope; however, I do not understand why this issue would be involving Maxis' bridges as well- and only rail bridges- highway and all other roadways work perfectly.

[Tarkus 6,932]

The Zero Slope Mod trick isn't a fix--currently there is no fix.  My apologies for that not being clear.  The issue has to do with how the game handles bridge ends when a network has pylon exemplars.  Actually, the Road network does the same thing--you may notice a 1-tile section of Road with sidewalks on one end of your bridge. 

If there is a pylon exemplar in place for the network, the game, for whatever reason, will use the pylon model for the approach to one end of the bridge.  It's one of those inexplicable things, and unfortunately, it's difficult to control..  This becomes more noticeable with the rail network because of the way Alpha mapping is handled on the Rail textures--the "black" you are seeing is because the game is not reading the transparency of the texture and is simply filling in the otherwise transparent space on the texture.  The reason we haven't been able to fix it is in part because we can't modify the pylon models directly.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[frappy253 1]

Ah, I completely understand there and thanks for the clarification. I tend to find that the higher the bridge (esp. if it is high enough for ferries), the problem doesn't occur. I have a bridge in another city that is naturally higher and the problem did not occur. Its definitely something to do with the slope and the pylons. I really wish I could figure out gmax and those other programs so I could try to help find a possible fix or remedy to the problem. Again, thanks for your help- it was much appreciated!

[frappy253 1]

Okay, I was able to remedy the problem! If you have both sides of the bridge completely level to each other, the black box does not appear! It worked beautifully in my problem area. A little more expensive than planned but a lot better than having that stupid black box ruin the asthetics of my community! :-)

[phillipjohnmc 0]

yes, i'm having the same problem too. the only way i've solved it is by rebuilding and rebuilding and rebuilding until i finally get a bridge that doesn't use that piece, i.e., the slope of the ground is just right, so that piece doesn't come up. takes about 10-15 mins, so it's highly annoying, but i can't stand seeing that black void.

also, i didn't understand at all what was mentioned earlier, about alpha maps, bridge replacement RUL, etc etc. i'm just a simple player too. is there a patch available for this? or maybe a bit of a 'walk you through it' sort of thing. that, I can manage

[phillipjohnmc 0]

ok, in reading another post, i realize that there really is no fix for this. i did, after playing around, find something that works in a way. it goes as follows:

1) build the bridge

2) on the side with the black void, delete the rail pieces up until the black void (but not the black void).

3) place a single rail piece one tile away from the black void (i.e., there should be a single blank tile between the black void and the tile where you place one single plain rail piece).

this should cause the ground to slope just right and the black void piece disappears. then you can connect your rail with that side of the bridge and carry on. may take a bit of practice, and i don't know if these steps are gonna work for everyone. so far i've been building my rail bridges on rather flat ground, so if there's a lot of hilliness in the bridge area, i don't know if this will work.

[trar 336]

Yes, i've been having this problem too. It's disheartening that there's no fix for it, but I suppose i'll have to carry on and build my bridges more carefully.

[X-Man_from_Althuette 3]

To push this thread; I just recognized, that I'm having the same problem. Is there a a solution in the meantime?

Btw: You can reproduce the bug by placing a road on a retaining wall and then dragging a rail over it, so you may get constructions like this:

Maybe that helps to find a solution

  Edited June 4, 2011 by X-Man_from_Althuette