Real Highway (RHW) - Development and Support

[airman15 4,113]

Re-installed NAM 32, with the RUL Decoupling disabled. Now everything works as it should. Thanks, Tarkus!

[J0nnD0ugh 31]

Any theories as to why I'm not getting any sidewalks? I tried uninstalling anything in my plugins I thought might be incompatible but still nothing. I'm using the Berner Oberland Terrain, BTW.

[Tarkus 6,933]

You're not supposed to get sidewalks on the RHW.  There's a few cases where they inadvertently peek through (newer items like FLEXRamps that haven't gotten proper wealth textures yet), but they aren't supposed to be there.

-Tarkus

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Why would anyone expect to find sidewalks on limited access expressways?

[Canelo 5]

After using a starter piece (for example, the 4 lane RHW), do I use the "ANT network" option to continue to build the highway?

[rsc204 21,866]

Sort of, although it's not called ANT, simply RHW (top option in highway menu), unless you are using a very outdated version of the NAM that is.

[Canelo 5]

Well that's weird, I installed NAM 32 twice now and I still have the ANT option on top. The highway also shows ANT when I hover the mouse over it.

[rsc204 21,866]

The only reason I can think of for this would be if you had some part of the old RHW or an existing NAM install (previous version) still in your plugins folder somewhere. If the installer/cleanitol didn't pick up on this, then you'll need to manually find and remove these files yourself.

[Canelo 5]

I really can't figure what might be the cause. 32 was the first version of NAM I ever installed on this computer, I have no other files named NAM, ANT or RHW in my plugin folder. Cleanitol didn't have success either.

[rsc204 21,866]

Move all your plugins somewhere else so you've a vanilla install of SC4 only, re-install the NAM into the now blank Plugins folder, does this still occur? Can you please also post which language you are using in-game. If this issue still occurs with the test setup, perhaps somehow there is an out of date/incorrectly labelled LTEXT description in our files, but I've not heard of any such complaints from others. ANT is the unfinished network Maxis left in the game that was unlocked to create the RHW and other network overrides, but is always named RHW, I don't know if it was referred to officially as ANT ever, but I don't go back that far personally.

Practically speaking having the description ANT could be little more than an errant LTEXT file (note, this will be embedded in a DAT file, you can't search Windows for LTEXT files) - this is nothing more than a text file containing localised text for each supported language. My concern is that this must be coming from somewhere, if not the NAM then where? It also seems unlikely if such a file is there in error that it would only be the LTEXT file that existed, if you have some outdated RHW/NAM plugin that could potentially cause a lot of problems with running the NAM. However if it is nothing more than a incorrect description, it should not make any difference to your game experience, that said I suspect it would be a bug that the NAM team would wish to find/rectify since at best it's misleading.

[Tarkus 6,933]

Canelo, are you by chance running the game in a language other than English?  It appears, upon quick perusal, that some of the Locale files for other languages, including German, still reference the "ANT", years after we squashed it.

-Tarkus

[Canelo 5]

Canelo, are you by chance running the game in a language other than English?  It appears, upon quick perusal, that some of the Locale files for other languages, including German, still reference the "ANT", years after we squashed it.

-Tarkus

Yes, that's right. My game was runnning in German, and, after turning it to English, it now displays the "RHW" correctly. Thank you both for your help.

 

I have another issue you might know how to deal with. When drawing a RHW diagonally, I get these graphic errors:

[rsc204 21,866]

That's a problem related to the terrain you are dragging the RHW over being bumpy, if you smoothen it out beforehand the issue should not arise. The easiest way to avoid such issues and get a nicer look to your RHW networks overall, would be to install a Slope Mod for RHW, such as this one, which smoothens the slopes automatically as you build.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Just a note:  The link above is yet another one full of BBCODE.  We really need a BBCODE interpreter added to the site.

[Mesaman87 6]

When I lay down the RHW in my cities, the traffic won't use it at all, and when the traffic does decide to use the RHW, the automata moves at extremely slow speeds. Is there any reason, if any, behind this problem?

[Tarkus 6,933]

When I lay down the RHW in my cities, the traffic won't use it at all, and when the traffic does decide to use the RHW, the automata moves at extremely slow speeds. Is there any reason, if any, behind this problem?

It sounds like you installed some sort of extremely outdated traffic simulator plugin after you installed the NAM, which is causing the RHW system to break down.  Possibilities include the old "Transit Supermod" and hailman's "Variable Route Buses".  Both of those specify a speed of 0 on the RHW network.  Either find and remove the culprit file, or reinstall the NAM, and run the Cleanitol option in custom installation to get rid of it.

-Tarkus

  Edited August 27, 2015 by Tarkus  
Minor typo

[Mesaman87 6]

When I lay down the RHW in my cities, the traffic won't use it at all, and when the traffic does decide to use the RHW, the automata moves at extremely slow speeds. Is there any reason, if any, behind this problem?

It sounds like you installed some sort of extremely outdated traffic simulator plugin after you installed the NAM, which is causing the RHW system to break down.  Possibilities include the old "Transit Supermod" and hailman's "Variable Route Buses".  Both of those specify a speed of 0 on the RHW network.  Either find and remove the culprit file, or reinstall them NAM, and run the Cleanitol option in custom installation to get rid of it.

-Tarkus

Thanks for the help, Tarkus. RHW is now running so smooth!

[Tarkus 6,933]

You're most welcome, mesaman87!  Glad to hear things are working well now.

Also, to remind everyone else out there that encounters a similar issue (which has been happening with some regularity of late), the "SPAM Traffic Plugin" also blocks out the RHW.  If you do the reinstall with Cleanitol, it'll take care of it in any case.

-Tarkus

[Tarkus 6,933]

Ten years ago, on November 16, 2005, the first ever public build of what was then called the Rural Highway Mod, or RHW, was unleashed.  It was a simple proof of concept, for a new, modular highway system, with a limited set of features.  Based on initial ideas from modding pioneer Teirusu, it was ultimately seen through by qurlix, with texture work by nooneatall and Zeddic. 



It couldn't even really do interchanges then.  There were two puzzle pieces, and only Rails and Streets could intersect it at-grade.  (This was my personal first interchange that attempted to use the RHW . . . complete with lack of slope mod.)



From that limited set of features, some of us who tried out the mod in its early days saw a glimmer of amazing potential, for a new modular highway system, and the ability to cause the game's default networks to behave in new ways, helping bring about the draggable revolution that has changed the landscape of SC4 transit mods.

Ten years later, the RHW--now RealHighway, as it has long surpassed merely being "rural"--is still going. 

It's been an amazing ride--thanks to everyone who has supported this project over the past decade, and to all the other developers and contributors I've had the pleasure of working with, who have helped pave this road.  Here's to many more years of the highway revolution.


-Tarkus

[dedgren 830]

Sim history in the making.  And you and the NAM Team made that history, Alex (Tarkus).  Just incredible work on an amazing vision of what SC4 could become.

 

David

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

So true.  Too bad that it is necessary to code it in such an awkward manner, but yeoman work has been done by a team of volunteers.  Keep on truckin' fellows.

[Compdude787 916]

10 years is quite a long time for computer software! You guys are solely responsible for keeping SC4 selling for this long and keeping us all playing this game.

  Edited November 18, 2015 by Compdude787  

[miguelkuk 111]

I am having issues with the textures of RHW. As seen on the screen capture here, they all seem off at the exit points. Any idea what's causing this?
Thanks in advance

[matias93 7,535]

NAM 33 changes the textures and makes Mandelsoft's locallized textures obsolete. In the definitive release there will be two fully compatible textures, one for american and one for european styles. Until that, we'll have to wait.

[miguelkuk 111]

This is actually NAM 32 that I have installed and use the Maxis default textures. I should have mentioned it in my original post.

  Edited November 20, 2015 by miguelkuk  

[miguelkuk 111]

Somehow the problem solved itself by restarting the game. Odd.
Anyway, does someone know if there is a way to get an Avenue go over an RHW 8S? I can't find a way to have Avenues go over RHW. Maybe I'm missing something? Thanks in advance

  Edited November 21, 2015 by miguelkuk  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Don't think so.  You might try an underpass with a FLUP.

[miguelkuk 111]

Oops, I may need more caffeine today. Just found it right at the bottom of the Roads Menu

[torontosubway 11]

Was building a DDRHW-4 highway, and noticed none of the exits work. Is there a way to fix this, or is this a known bug? Thanks in advance

 

[rsc204 21,866]

I've quickly tested the pieces and your problem is you are using the older puzzle-based ramps. These were designed for the previous spec DD-RHW which was at L3 for the top part. This was changed to L2 and these puzzle ramps will not be updated to fit the new standard. You must use either the FlexRamp or Draggable Ramps, which work just fine.