Network Widening Mod (NWM) - Development and Support

[JoeOh 20]

Here is the image, Hope the link works...

[Tarkus 6,932]

Thanks for that. I'll attempt to replicate your setup and should have something to tell you on that front within the next day or so.

-Tarkus

[jdenm8 362]

I was able to replicate the issue (With matching Traffic Data View results), but I'm not entirely sure if what I did is what is causing it.

My hypothesis:

You use a Left Hand Drive version of SimCity 4 (UK English or Japanese, only those two languages do that) and you have not installed the NWM's Left Hand Drive Plugin. I imagine TLA-5 and TLA-7 will be exhibiting similar behaviours.

  Edited February 12, 2012 by jdenm8  

[JoeOh 20]

I was able to replicate the issue (With matching Traffic Data View results), but I'm not entirely sure if what I did is what is causing it.

My hypothesis:

You use a Left Hand Drive version of SimCity 4 (UK English or Japanese, only those two languages do that) and you have not installed the NWM's Left Hand Drive Plugin. I imagine TLA-5 and TLA-7 will be exhibiting similar behaviours.

I always made sure that I am installing/using the U.S. right-hand-version for street traffic.

[CaptCity 4,752]

My hypothesis:

You use a Left Hand Drive version of SimCity 4 (UK English or Japanese, only those two languages do that) and you have not installed the NWM's Left Hand Drive Plugin. I imagine TLA-5 and TLA-7 will be exhibiting similar behaviours.

Likewise, I replicated the issue by flipping my game to left-hand drive, used left-hand NAM, and used right-hand NWM. This seemed to affect all two-direction routes except the NMAVE (didn't try one-ways, though).

I always made sure that I am installing/using the U.S. right-hand-version for street traffic.

Are you sure you have a right-hand drive game version?

[JoeOh 20]

CaptCity, how can I check....I'm really not sure on how to do that...

[CaptCity 4,752]

You could re-name the Plugins folder and run the game - it will create a new, empty one. Then build a small test city and check which side the vehicles drive on.

Or you might check in the C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Sku_Data folder to see if you have a Sku1_US folder.

That reminds me, you are running an updated Deluxe/Rush Hour game?

[JoeOh 20]

DERP! I have the Sku2_European folder.....this answers everything. I had a friend give me his CD and I assume he got it while he was in the UK for a while. Figures....

Any chance on getting the Sku1_US folder legit anywhere?

EDIT: The NWM streets work like a charm as the should now. At least this isn't a new bug or something. Thanks for the assist!

  Edited February 12, 2012 by JoeOh  

[CaptCity 4,752]

Glad it's solved... By the way, did you add the left-hand NAM files? Not having the correct NAM will cause issues.

[jdenm8 362]

Actually, UK English copies of the game have been cropping up in countries that have traditionally received the US English version of the game like a recent copy I bought here in Australia had the warranty address in Surrey in England (The Giveaway that it's UK English) instead of Redwood Shores in the USA (The Giveaway that it's US English).

As for the LHT files: A future note for everyone.

Installing the Left Hand Drive files into the Right Hand Drive version of SimCity 4 will normally not affect it (functionally) at all. There are very few files that are not remapped so they are not used in non-LHD versions and they are normally bi-directional anyway. There are very few exceptions.

  Edited February 14, 2012 by jdenm8  

[CaptCity 4,752]

As for the LHT files: A future note for everyone.

Installing the Left Hand Drive files into the Right Hand Drive version of SimCity 4 will normally not affect it at all. There are very few files that are not remapped so they are not used in non-LHD versions and they are normally bi-directional anyway. There are very few exceptions.

Thanks for answering a question I was curious about... When I tried the left-hand files in my normally right-hand game to see if it would cause a similar issue as JoeOh's, I didn't notice anything functioning incorrectly. Now I know why...

[Tarkus 6,932]

In fact, we actually merged most of the files from the NAM's Left-Hand Drive Plugin into NetworkAddonMod1.dat with NAM Version 30. The language specified for the game (UK English and Japanese specify LHD, all others RHD) basically triggers the UKPathRemapping section in the Network INI file (contained in NetworkAddonMod_Bridges_Plugin_Controller.dat) and remaps certain ranges of paths to other ranges of LHD specific paths.

The main reason for that was to cut down on the ubiquitous "where's my trains?" questions we were constantly getting flooded with from LHD users. (The LHD paths were actually merged into the main NAM files before Version 21 in June 2007, but were separated out that release for some reason). I haven't heard the question asked once since, so it's been a massive success. The NWM hasn't gotten this treatment (nor have any other NAM plugins), but they will since we're going to the Monolithic NAM next release.

The only things the NAM's LHD Plugin really has in it are a few flipped texture files/models (turn lanes and TuLEPs, primarily), plus an alternate version of the NAM Controller. The differences between the normal RHD Controller and the "LHD Controller" are about 8 lines in RUL0 dealing with OneWayDir flags on 4 Maxis Highway/One-Way Road ramp puzzle pieces. Aside from those pieces, an LHD user can use the RHD controller without any issue. If we can find a reliable way to get around the OneWayDir issues in LHD, we can get rid of the LHD Controller entirely.

-Tarkus

  Edited February 13, 2012 by Tarkus  

[alvinheriadi 2]

How about NWM SEMINAR?? RHW seminar is finished but i not join.

My suggestion about NWM seminar: One of the Seminar Session starting time must be 1:00 GMT - 14:00 GMT, because i online in that time. Seminar before it started on time out of range. First sesion of RHW seminar would be 22:00 (CXT, or GMT+7), and the second sesion would be 05:30.

  Edited February 23, 2012 by alvinheriadi  

[Shadow Assassin 336]

How about NWM SEMINAR?? RHW seminar is finished but i not join.

My suggestion about NWM seminar: One of the Seminar Session starting time must be 1:00 GMT - 14:00 GMT, because i online in that time. Seminar before it started on time out of range. First sesion of RHW seminar would be 22:00 (CXT, or GMT+7), and the second sesion would be 05:30.

Yeah... no.

All members of the NAM have RL obligations, and we have to schedule seminars to suit these obligations. For Tarkus, myself and many of the Europeans, we have to hold the seminars at a specific time so that as many people can attend. This means, generally, they be held during the morning Australia time (9-10am), afternoon US time (3-5pm), and late evening (10-11pm)

I suggest you get up earlier if you want to attend.

[Durfsurn 539]

A NWM seminar would be nice. I agree about the tiMe that was used for the RHW one. Talking about times SA whadda you doin up at 10:30!

  Edited February 23, 2012 by durfsurn  

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Alvin, I have a few things to say to you:

1) The seminars are purely on voluntairy basis. Someone has to volunteer to host a seminar. He or she picks out a subject and time and date (in discussion with the yet unofficial Seminar Team). If someone co-hosts in a seminar, both hosts also need to agree with each other about the time and date.

2) The subject is up to the hosts, and often it's something from their field of expertise. For example, an NWM seminar would be held by someone from the NAM Team, since they know a lot about the subject, how it works and what developments are planned for the future, etc.

3) The time these seminars are held are strongly dependent on the host: he should pick times that suits him to held a seminar. You know, all our hosts have lives too and are not 24/7 active at SimTropolis. Besides that, you can't satisfy all people on the world with seminar times: we're talking about a time zone span of about 20 hours. This means that for instance it may be early morning for someone in the Western US, but late in the afternoon in Europe and at nighttime in Australia. See how hard it is to pick a right time for the seminars? I solved that partially by doing my seminar two times, of which the later one was really late for me (23:30-01:00). After that I went right to bed.

4) You can always read the Seminar Logs when you miss one.

5) Wake up! The world doesn't evolve around you! Being pushing and demanding is not something we like here in our community. Have you learned nothing from your 6-week ban?

Best,

Maarten

[alvinheriadi 2]

Alvin, I have a few things to say to you:

1) The seminars are purely on voluntairy basis. Someone has to volunteer to host a seminar. He or she picks out a subject and time and date (in discussion with the yet unofficial Seminar Team). If someone co-hosts in a seminar, both hosts also need to agree with each other about the time and date.

2) The subject is up to the hosts, and often it's something from their field of expertise. For example, an NWM seminar would be held by someone from the NAM Team, since they know a lot about the subject, how it works and what developments are planned for the future, etc.

3) The time these seminars are held are strongly dependent on the host: he should pick times that suits him to held a seminar. You know, all our hosts have lives too and are not 24/7 active at SimTropolis. Besides that, you can't satisfy all people on the world with seminar times: we're talking about a time zone span of about 20 hours. This means that for instance it may be early morning for someone in the Western US, but late in the afternoon in Europe and at nighttime in Australia. See how hard it is to pick a right time for the seminars? I solved that partially by doing my seminar two times, of which the later one was really late for me (23:30-01:00). After that I went right to bed.

4) You can always read the Seminar Logs when you miss one.

5) Wake up! The world doesn't evolve around you! Being pushing and demanding is not something we like here in our community. Have you learned nothing from your 6-week ban?

Best,

Maarten

OK, I'm understood why the first is midnight and the second one is at sunrise. My opinion: Very few or no NAM Team members living in South East Asia.

I wake up at 6 AM, the middle time of the seminar. but i can't join. I see in the log 10-30 of people join the seminar.

IMPORTANT: There will be an NWM Seminar later! Because the NWM new feature is not discovered.

Now switch the topic from seminar to development. Btw, any Elevated NWM networks is possible and it's multi level? it's a draggable like RHW does.

And too, new networks again such as AVE-8 and 10 and new NWM-RHW ramp interface.

Final question: what a name of project of next NWM. RHW is P57, NWM??

  Edited February 23, 2012 by alvinheriadi  

[jdenm8 362]

Shadow Assassin and myself both live in Australia, at most four hours out of sync with where you live. However, we acknowledge that (annoyingly) the majority of the English-Speaking SimCity 4 community lives in North America and Europe. I've been unable to attend either seminar so far due to them falling in that venerable 2:00am-10:00am period I set aside for sleep, because they're held when it's most advantageous for most of the community. (Aside: My weird sleeping patterns were caused by trying to communicate with North Americans when it suited them)

I just have to make do with reading the logs.

  Edited February 23, 2012 by jdenm8  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

When these seminars are scheduled, why not post the times in Coordinated Universal Time 1 (Greenwich Mean Time) and let people in the various time zones attend if convenient?

In a world wide forum like this, everyone is asleep around one third of the day, so you can't please every one. When a seminar is announced and you can't attend it, there is always the log. If you have a burning question ahead of the seminar time, why not PM the convener, asking that the subject be discussed?

[Tarkus 6,932]

I would be interested in hosting an NWM seminar. However, as NWM development is more or less on the backburner at the moment, and my RL is rather tricky right now, it'll probably be at least another month or two before I'd be able to really put together a good seminar in line with the one I did with the RHW.

That said:

First sesion of RHW seminar would be 22:00 (CXT, or GMT+7), and the second sesion would be 05:30.

22:00 your time is 7:00(am) my time (GMT/UTC-8:00). I'm almost never up at 7:00. I also have a rather busy life, and it's not really feasible for me to have two seminar sessions, particularly with that much of a time spread between them, especially just to satisfy the demands of someone whose first post on an English-language SC4 forum is this, shortly followed by this. Frankly, Alvin, I think you've more than outworn your welcome, repeatedly starting clone accounts so you can continue making ridiculous demands of us over the past few months.

-Tarkus

[alvinheriadi 2]

Now change the topic plz...

Any Elevated NWM networks is possible and it's multi level? it's a draggable like RHW does.

And too, new networks again such as AVE-8 and 10 and new NWM-RHW ramp interface.

Final question: what a name of project of next NWM. RHW is P57, NWM??

[cityville2050 1]

Can and does NWM have the capability to replace highways and make the obsolete to an extent??

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Can and does NWM have the capability to replace highways and make the obsolete to an extent??

NWM can get rid of intra-city highways, mostly be giving more traffic lanes to a street. You have to be careful that you use the proper transition pieces to ensure proper path finding. Inter-city highways are served either my the existing Maxis highways or by the RHW. It depends on how beautiful you want your highways to be. If you want to look like an Interstate, use RHW.

[JostVice 0]

Hey, awesome mod. I was wondering if the train under NWM puzzle pieces aren't finished, neither the train bridges, right?

Also, A little bug if i try to do a monorrail pass trought a 3 lane road, while the monorail is in between two one-direction 3 lane like this:

The bug is that the 3 lane road converts to normal simcity roads under the monorrail. How could I solve this? I guess it is missing some texture there? any way i can manually fix it to use the same texture?

Another weird bug, i'm getting weird path problems on some roads, cars turning fast and green lights on intersections. Also while driving with the 'stick to lane' thing on, the car sometimes crashes and dissapears...

Thanks.

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Well, the first problem indicates that there isn't enough RUL-2 code to make adjacent crossings like that stable enough. There's no way to solve it under conventional methods, so you might have to wait for another NAM update.

If you're having path-related problems, you might want to use the DrawPaths cheat found in the so you can actually show what the problem is.

[Tarkus 6,932]

At long last . . .

And before anyone asks, yes, they also now exist for the OWR-1 and the base One-Way Road (OWR-2) network. The OWR-2 also has OWFAR now, too. (Not sure when I'll get around to FANWM networking, though.)

-Tarkus

[simlink 1,098]

Awesome, Tarkus! Really excited to see the smooth curves for that, and to hear about them for OWR (base.) May ease my aversion to using it.

[Durfsurn 539]

Yes! Finally hey Alex!

[aaaling 83]

I used something cool today that isn't a named NWM network; the ARD-5 (made by putting ½; of the MAVE-4 (RD-4) with ½; of a MAVE-6 (RD-6):

Link to the album where the 2 ARD-5 photos are stored.

  Edited May 27, 2012 by aaaling  

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Poke around in the RUL-0 file and you'll find the starter for one. This ain't exactly new, and yes, RD-5 was already planned...

And no, a bunch of other people already tried it on SC4D already.

  Edited May 27, 2012 by Ganaram DI