NAM General Support

[ChromeNine 1]

Hi, when I try to cross a NWM road with Elevated Rail, the NWM road turns into a normal 2-lane (1 lane direction) road.

Does it mean there is currently no Elevated Rail support for NWM?

[Tarkus 6,932]

Orthogonal Elevated Rail can cross any orthogonal NWM network.  If either network (or both) is diagonal, the override will break.  Additionally, if both networks are orthogonal, and you have the the Elevated Rail crossing in very close proximity to the starter stub, a curve, another crossing, or a puzzle piece, it'll also have a tendency to misbehave.

 

-Tarkus

[Compdude787 916]

When you do something that breaks an override the solution is usually place another starter, or click around all over the place.

[ChromeNine 1]

Orthogonal Elevated Rail can cross any orthogonal NWM network.  If either network (or both) is diagonal, the override will break.  Additionally, if both networks are orthogonal, and you have the the Elevated Rail crossing in very close proximity to the starter stub, a curve, another crossing, or a puzzle piece, it'll also have a tendency to misbehave.

 

-Tarkus

Same goes for GLR?

[rick1993 0]

How can i connect the rhw with another city's?

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

How can i connect the rhw with another city's?

Refer to the RHW User's Manual, found under Documents\SimCity 4\NAM Auxiliary Files; there's a detailed section on how to do so.

[Tarkus 6,932]

 

Orthogonal Elevated Rail can cross any orthogonal NWM network.  If either network (or both) is diagonal, the override will break.  Additionally, if both networks are orthogonal, and you have the the Elevated Rail crossing in very close proximity to the starter stub, a curve, another crossing, or a puzzle piece, it'll also have a tendency to misbehave.

 

-Tarkus

Same goes for GLR?

 

 

Same goes for pretty much any other crossing involving an NWM network.

 

-Tarkus

[JessiLaurn 183]

Tiny bit of follow-up on the non-Maxis bridge problems with ferry routes.  Tried a couple of the custom monorail bridges, and they worked just fine.  I'll try to take some time (when I can find some time) to try each and every bridge and see if I can figure exactly which ones are the problem children.

[JessiLaurn 183]

OK, so here's what I've been able to track down so far on the bridge-ferry failure.

 

Monorail:  all bridges (Monorail, HSR, GHSR) interact as advertised with ferries (yay!).

 

Rail:  the following do not properly interact with ferries:  Garabit Arched Rail, Metal Pylon Rail, Metal Arch Rail, Garabit Pylon Rail, Howe Truss Rail, Warzone Rail, Howe Truss STR, Plate Girder STR.  The rest (including the 15.5m versions) work (which is kind of amusing in the case of the Wooden Tressle STR, but I'm not knocking it).

I'll dig into the road bridges tomorrow.

[Tarkus 6,932]

Jessi, thanks for reporting your findings--it will be very useful for our efforts!

 

-Tarkus

[JessiLaurn 183]

No worries mate.  Might be a few more days before I can dig into the road bridges; real-life intrudes (and it's a fairly time-intensive process:  load city, put bridge in test location, run clock at least a game-month, exit city, see if the path is broken, if it is go back in and kill the bridge, then *two* cycles of reloading the city - with clock runs - to clear the path, then try the next bridge.... rinse and repeat ad nauseam, with occasional reboots to free up memory.  Whee.)

[JessiLaurn 183]

Gods, this is slow-going.  *sigh*  Here's the next batch of bridges that won't interact properly with ferries:

 

Elevated Rail (including GLR):  Cable-Stayed Elevated Rail Bridge, JENXPARIS Pont Notre Dame GLR.  The others work.

 

Street:  JENXPARIS Pont Neuf.  The others work.

 

Road:  Krummbach Road Bridge, Dusktrooper's Road Bridge, Wooden Covered Road Bridge, JENXPARIS Pont St. Michel, JENXOLD Tower Bridge, Ponte St. Angelo Rome.  The others work (including, oddly enough, the JENXPARIS Pont Neuf, which failed in its Street version).

Next batch for texting:  Avenue, then Highway.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I hope this indicates one simple missing parameter in each bridge.

[JessiLaurn 183]

That's my hope as well, but it's way outside of my skill set to determine.

[JessiLaurn 183]

And here ends my testing.  As I do not have RHW installed (and have no desire to do so), the plethora of RHW add-on bridges aren't available.  If someone else is interested in testing them, by all means, please do.

 

That said, here's the handful of additional bridges that are available to me for avenues and highways:

 

Avenue:  the only new bridges are Millau Viaduct and Pont Alexandre III... and both fail.

 

Ground Highway:  no new bridges available.

 

Elevated Highway:  the only new bridge is Tsing Ma... and it works.

 

Good luck to whatever brave RHW-enabled soul who completes this testing.  I hope what I've provided so far helps the NAM team find a solution.

 

- Jess

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

Hi, 

 

I'm hoping someone can assist. I've been having problems with the additional bridges appearing in-game. The option to select them when building a bridge is not appearing. 

 

I've been through my plugins and removed any old NAM files and I've also searched for files which contain the word 'bridge' and deleted any which do not reside in the NAM 32 Additional Bridges folder. 

 

I do have the rural street/rail bridge and modern rail bridge appearing in-game so I'm assuming that somewhere those files remain and that's impacting on the bridge controller, resulting in the new bridges failing to load, but I can't find them anywhere and have a feeling they may have been compressed many years ago. I'm going to demolish every in-game non-Maxis bridge and start removing folders from my plugins until the new bridges start to appear. 

 

However, does anyone know if the issue is being caused by something else or have any recommendations or am I on the right track?

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Hi, 

 

I'm hoping someone can assist. I've been having problems with the additional bridges appearing in-game. The option to select them when building a bridge is not appearing. 

 

I've been through my plugins and removed any old NAM files and I've also searched for files which contain the word 'bridge' and deleted any which do not reside in the NAM 32 Additional Bridges folder. 

 

I do have the rural street/rail bridge and modern rail bridge appearing in-game so I'm assuming that somewhere those files remain and that's impacting on the bridge controller, resulting in the new bridges failing to load, but I can't find them anywhere and have a feeling they may have been compressed many years ago. I'm going to demolish every in-game non-Maxis bridge and start removing folders from my plugins until the new bridges start to appear. 

 

However, does anyone know if the issue is being caused by something else or have any recommendations or am I on the right track?

 

Did you try simply re-running the NAM installer?

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

 

Did you try simply re-running the NAM installer?

Yeah I've done that a few times. I think I've just to spend a couple of hours deleted files and retrying. At the end of the day it's just the additional bridges I'm not able to use so while disappointing it's not the end of the world.

I'm sure I'll work it out eventually.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Just checked my NAM 32 installer (by running it).  Additional Bridges is an option in custom install.  Was it checked, and did you open the list and check that all elements you want are also checked?

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

Yeah I used the custom option and the additional bridges and various controller files have been installed in the plugins folder.

I think the problem is that years ago I compressed a lot of my plugins and I think somewhere in one of those compressed files are old bridges and now outdated controller files. I just need to keep trying to find which files. I could be wrong though.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

One of the problems with DATpacker is that you have to keep the backup.  Suggest you try a test with only the NAM present.  Use your sandbox with a new tile and see if you now can use these bridges.

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

One of the problems with DATpacker is that you have to keep the backup.  Suggest you try a test with only the NAM present.  Use your sandbox with a new tile and see if you now can use these bridges.

 

Yeah that's not a bad idea. I'll give that a go later this evening, thanks.

 

I think I have the uncompressed files on my computer in the family home, but not on my current laptop. I'll need to have a look over the coming weeks. 

[a_muses 39]

On a Mac, using Wine to extract and install the NAM:

 

I get the "intersection placement string missing" error and those black/blue/red/green checkerboards on my NWM pieces, even when dragging from a starter piece. I have re-downloaded and reinstalled the NAM twice.

 

Question: Because I'm moving things in and out of my NAM Plugin folder in order to figure out what won't cause a CTD, is there a file other than those inside the Network Widening Mod folder that I need to include in order to get the correct text on my puzzle pieces? I find the Windows installer a bit of a pain, as it's hard to figure out what files are needed to run what parts of the NAM.

 

 

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

Suggest you try a test with only the NAM present.  Use your sandbox with a new tile and see if you now can use these bridges.

 

Just tried it and all of the bridges were available lol

 

Seems I've just to start the long process of adding folders back into the plugins folder, loading and checking the game, and see which batches contain a conflicting file and explore further.

 

My first time seeing the new bridges in detail in-game and they're rather lovely. I'm now keen to be able to use them.

[Tarkus 6,932]

On a Mac, using Wine to extract and install the NAM:

 

I get the "intersection placement string missing" error and those black/blue/red/green checkerboards on my NWM pieces, even when dragging from a starter piece. I have re-downloaded and reinstalled the NAM twice.

 

Question: Because I'm moving things in and out of my NAM Plugin folder in order to figure out what won't cause a CTD, is there a file other than those inside the Network Widening Mod folder that I need to include in order to get the correct text on my puzzle pieces? I find the Windows installer a bit of a pain, as it's hard to figure out what files are needed to run what parts of the NAM.

 

 

The checkerboards ("RGBK tiles", as NAMites tend to call them) would indicate that you've installed the center turn arrows option for the TLA networks, and are missing an arrow texture file (generally installed to the "z___NAM\Road Textures folder", file name beginning with "Shared_ArrowTextures").  I suspect you may encounter a similar issue if you try to use TuLEPs.  "##IntersectionPlacementStringMissing##" indicates you're missing the proper locale file.  Since NAM 31.0, the individual mods no longer have locale files in their own folders, and they're instead in "Network Addon Mod\Locale Files".  You should be getting "##IntersectionPlacementStringMissing##" on most NAM items in that case, as just about all of them are in that file now.  If not, it sounds like you have an old version (not eligible for tech support), or pieces of an old version intermingled with your new installation, disguising the fact that most of your locale files from the new version are actually missing.

 

The locale files and arrow textures do not cause Mac CTDs.  I've written a few posts about the NAM Mac situation on my SimTarkus blog--beginning with this one.  There were two addendums, here and here.

 

-Tarkus

[a_muses 39]

The checkerboards ("RGBK tiles", as NAMites tend to call them) would indicate that you've installed the center turn arrows option for the TLA networks, and are missing an arrow texture file (generally installed to the "z___NAM\Road Textures folder", file name beginning with "Shared_ArrowTextures").  I suspect you may encounter a similar issue if you try to use TuLEPs.  "##IntersectionPlacementStringMissing##" indicates you're missing the proper locale file.  Since NAM 31.0, the individual mods no longer have locale files in their own folders, and they're instead in "Network Addon Mod\Locale Files".  You should be getting "##IntersectionPlacementStringMissing##" on most NAM items in that case, as just about all of them are in that file now.  If not, it sounds like you have an old version (not eligible for tech support), or pieces of an old version intermingled with your new installation, disguising the fact that most of your locale files from the new version are actually missing.

 

The locale files and arrow textures do not cause Mac CTDs.  I've written a few posts about the NAM Mac situation on my SimTarkus blog--beginning with this one.  There were two addendums, here and here.

 

-Tarkus

Thanks! I actually found a most helpful post here: and have begun working through the Plugins folder with only the NAM installed. So far, so good: no RGBK tiles, no missing strings. (Just freezing whenever the Additional Bridges, El Rail, and most of the custom transit lots are installed.) I wonder if the sandstone mod or another transit mod I haven't updated is the conflict. When I find out, I'll update this thread.

I was looking around the Omnibus, but didn't find a NAM for Mac guide. I'd be happy to help out with one, though all Mac installations wind up different.

[Tarkus 6,932]

You're welcome, and we're getting closer to having an actual installer package and full support again for the Mac, which will actually bring the process of installation pretty close to the Windows experience.

 

-Tarkus

[Belfastsocrates 1,753]

My earlier problem is solved. Not sure what solved it but I didn't delete anything I renamed the Plugins Compressed folder and added the files contained within the folder in blocks of 10, loading the game and checking bridges, and so on and so on. The sandbox suggestion was a great idea and really helped with load speed.

I can now use all bridges but no idea what I did to resolve it.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It was probably something to do with loading order.  There is a good post around here somewhere by Z1 that details that.  Seems .dat files are dead last.

[JessiLaurn 183]

In something of an afterward to my previous reporting on bridges vs ferries, it appears that the various diagonal road bridges do interact properly with ferries.  Haven't tried avenue/highway (since that'd require installing RHW).