NAM General Support

[Flann 1,709]

2 hours ago, Aka said:

Hi, I'm looking to make a 45° turn from R5 for the road. There are flex parts as in the picture below, but can I make this bend using the “draggable” method?

I've managed to make all the “draggable” turns in the lower radii, but the R5, despite several searches, I haven't found anything...

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Not possible - the R4 and R5 curves use network flags which are not possible to create via dragging the network tools.

[simmering 2,638]

Do RHW height transition ramps slow down traffic?

[Propfam 2,288]

21 minutes ago, simmering said:

Do RHW height transition ramps slow down traffic?

Nope since it's just a path curved into lower Y axis (aka going downhill). It still preserves capacity and for some network, boosting it since there's something called Distilled Intersection Points (DIP), around 25% higher.

[MstrFox1982 9]

I installed the new NAM and SimCity 4 has been crashing ever since.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

8 minutes ago, MstrFox1982 said:

I installed the new NAM and SimCity 4 has been crashing ever since.

Follow this guide

 

[MstrFox1982 9]

l have to watch the whole thing? lol

[Propfam 2,288]

7 hours ago, MstrFox1982 said:

l have to watch the whole thing? lol

You just need to apply the 4 gig patch. It's quite easy: run 4gbpatch.exe, hit Browse File, find SimCity 4.exe (C:\GOG Games\SimCity 4\Apps for GOG version), hit OK. A message should appear and hit OK. Now, the exe has been patched and you shouldn't get any crashes.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

2 hours ago, Jidan said:

You just need to apply the 4 gig patch. It's quite easy: run 4gbpatch.exe, hit Browse File, find SimCity 4.exe (C:\GOG Games\SimCity 4\Apps for GOG version), hit OK. A message should appear and hit OK. Now, the exe has been patched and you shouldn't get any crashes.

Do you know that this method increases the chance that the 4GB patch will not be applied properly?

 

9 hours ago, MstrFox1982 said:

l have to watch the whole thing? lol

If you don't want to have crashes, graphical glitches and game instability then yes

[Aka 412]

Hi,

I have three versions of the NAM: RHD US, RHD Euro and LHD Euro. I see that the FTLs (Flex Turn Lanes) textures have been converted from US to Euro, but not from RHD to LHD. When I run SC4 in LHD, everything is on the left, even the RTL (Road Turning Lanes, although this mod has become “obsolete” since FTLs was introduced). On the other hand, FTLs textures don't change... I've opened the files in the Reader, and I can see that between RDH and LHD, there's no difference for this module.

So my question is: wasn't the FTLs module designed for the LHD? Or did I make a mistake during installation?

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

@Aka have you done the procedure to enable left hand drive (LHD) in the game? You need that to enable the NAM to reverse traffic flow directions. If not, go here and follow these instructions, then let us know if it works.

 

[Aka 412]

Thank you very much @Lucario Boricua !

I did manage to reverse the direction of traffic from RHD to LHD using the method you gave me.

But now comes a new question... Again.

Why is it that by setting the NAM to LHD with the game settings in LHD (UK), the FTLs textures are mirrored, but not the other module types?

In the photos below, we see FTLs with RHD textures mirrored for LHD, and an LHD driving. On the other hand, the other types of network continue to use RHD textures (this is intentional, just to see how it works, I also made LHD textures), despite an LHD conduit.

How does the game and NAM work in relation to the driving direction?

Spoiler

 

[Propfam 2,288]

1 hour ago, Aka said:

the FTLs textures are mirrored, but not the other module types?

Try to bulldoze the other types and build them again. Also from the link given by Lucario,

Quote

Typically for textures, you need a special set, although the defaults are mostly neutral without stop lines, so it's not the biggest problem. Not to mention, some pieces don't support mirroring,

I wonder if your texture doesn't support certain types of turning lanes yet, since the path is correct. In the OG Euro texture, you should get that reversal. You may have to make that manually.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

You gotta rebuild some components, as they reference different textures. IIRC, one of them is the FLEX turning lanes, as those are quite complicated to plainly change between RHD and LHD with mirroring and reversing.

[Aka 412]

Thank you for your explanations @Jidan and @Lucario Boricua .

I haven't made any texture modifications to the FTLs yet, so it's normal for them to appear in their original version. In fact, it was when I started working on them that I realized there was only one texture set for the RHD and LHD FTLs, and that's why I came to ask the question here.

On the other hand, all the other textures I've made seem to be correct for the other modules. You need one set of RHD textures and another set of LHD textures, because when I play with my RHD textures on the LHD set, my textures don't invert, I have to put my LHD textures on so that the roads are displayed with the correct traffic direction.

I've put a red circle in the image, just to make sure there's no mirror effect, because in LHD the arrow goes straight into the crossroads, whereas in RHD the arrow goes to the left (in the previous image of the same crossroads). For the moment, as far as my texture progress is concerned, FTLs are the only textures that use a mirror effect to switch from RHD to LHD...

( Yes, it's small ! )

Spoiler

 

[memo 1,445]

9 hours ago, Aka said:

Why is it that by setting the NAM to LHD with the game settings in LHD (UK), the FTLs textures are mirrored, but not the other module types?

In the photos below, we see FTLs with RHD textures mirrored for LHD, and an LHD driving. On the other hand, the other types of network continue to use RHD textures (this is intentional, just to see how it works, I also made LHD textures), despite an LHD conduit.

How does the game and NAM work in relation to the driving direction?

There are essentially three different modding techniques for LHD:

• The first and most straightforward approach is to create dedicated LHD textures (FSH). These use the same IDs as the RHD textures, so will simply override the RHD textures. This approach is used on the older (non-FTL) turning lanes and probably a lot of other NAM content here and there. For LHD, the game automatically reverses all the Car paths. This is wholly unsuitable for turning lanes, so this technique also requires replacing the RHD SC4Paths files by LHD ones. There are other drawbacks of this approach. For example for a T intersection with turning lanes, one of the three roads doesn't have a turning lane – which one it is depends on the drive side – which makes it impossible to tackle this with LHD replacement textures alone. In practice, you end up with dummy textures that have a turn lane in LHD but not in RHD and vice versa.
• The FTLs were implemented using a RUL-based approach instead. The RULs define whether an entire network tile appears mirrored or not (for example, in a 45 degree curve, the same texture is used for both the mirrored and non-mirrored variant of the curve). When you load a LHD NAM controller, the FTL starter pieces, and subsequently the entire FTLs, are mirrored. As such, this approach doesn't require LHD textures, but you'd need to rebuild the FTLs after switching the drive side of the game.
• Do nothing. This is sometimes used for simplicity when there are just minor details that reveal the drive side. It's more often a problem with signs and traffic lights than with the textures themselves. This is also the approach taken by Maxis in some cases, for example the diagonal Road × Railroad crossings, where the stop line markings are just wrong for the LHD variant of the game.

[Chrisim 44]

RRW dense parallel diagonal tracks

 

Hi, I am Chrisim and had been active in the past for the SFBT and NAM teams, mainly on trams and underpasses. I haven’t played SimCity 4 for more than 10 years. It’s great to see that there are still active modders, and that this website and forum exists!

I downloaded NAM48 and started to compare with my plugin folder that contained version 30. I see new amazing developments and much better sorted menus. I am particularly intrigued by the RealRailways (RRW) in NAM48. Draggable elevated railways – amazing! And other features usually look more realistic than the Maxis railways that got replaced. I would like to play with it.

My existing cities were built with NAM30 or before. Loading an existing city with NAM48, many of my existing Maxis tracks show a mix of old Maxis textures, new RRW textures and gaps. Re-drawing rail tracks does solve some issues, however it is much work. Re-drawing does not solve the problem described below.

Parallel rail tracks (i.e., two times two tracks) are good to separate local from longer or regional connections. No problem with RRW if parallel tracks are orthogonal, but dense parallel diagonal tracks are not implemented correctly in RRW. It is shown in the right and bottom parts of the attached screenshot. The left part shows that wide parallel diagonal tracks are fine, but I always used dense tracks.

When four diagonal tracks are on the same tile, the Maxis texture is shown in most cases. For road crossing the four tracks – a green texture or gap is shown. The draggable tram crossing shows an elevated rail piece (and paths are elevated, too). And the widening from dense to wide parallel diagonal tracks (bottom center) also shows false Maxis texture and paths.

The implementation of dense diagonal tracks exists in the original game and could have been used for RRW. Are these problems known? Do you still have somebody in the NAM team to correct it?

[rsc204 21,808]

Hi Chris, nice to see you around these parts and thanks for all your past contributions.

Regarding RRW and parallel diagonal tracks, indeed there is no shared version as with Maxis rail. The main reason is that shared-tile diagonals must share capacity, effectively making diagonal sections support no more traffic where dense double diagonals were used. In other words it is working as intended.

I think there was some plan to add 3 and 4 track rail and maybe add support that way. But to date we have been unable to find a solution that really works for either, since again there is no way to up capacities for rail network as with say RHW.

[Chrisim 44]

Hi Rsc204, thank you for replying quickly. It is great that such an old game still gets support from its community!

I agree to the capacity argument. I just wonder, is reduced rail capacity really a problem for my cities? I will dig deeper into the RRW and will find out.

My claim on dense parallel diagonal tracks in the original game was actually incorrect. It is not possible to drag them when the Plugin folder is empty. This means that the feature of dense parallel diagonal tracks was introduced in an early version of the NAM.

 

[Chrisim 44]

My next question, sorry, but I have a 10 years gap to bridge. Diagonal bridges are part of the NAM (the special download for diagonal bridges contains the temporary files only). Diagonal bridges have not been updated for years, as far as I know. Building a diagonal bridge can be a pain, and it is due to the starter pieces. I observe new "FLEX" starter pieces in the NAM. Is there information available anywhere? Maybe this new technique could simplify the (often difficult) process of building a diagonal bridge?

(this mix of orthogonal and diagonal bridge is officially not supported, but possible with some patience)

[matias93 7,535]

6 hours ago, Chrisim said:

My next question, sorry, but I have a 10 years gap to bridge. Diagonal bridges are part of the NAM (the special download for diagonal bridges contains the temporary files only). Diagonal bridges have not been updated for years, as far as I know. Building a diagonal bridge can be a pain, and it is due to the starter pieces. I observe new "FLEX" starter pieces in the NAM. Is there information available anywhere? Maybe this new technique could simplify the (often difficult) process of building a diagonal bridge?

(this mix of orthogonal and diagonal bridge is officially not supported, but possible with some patience)

@Lucario Boricua recently made a small modification to the Diagonal Bridge Enabler to make it a bit more tolerant of height differences between opposing shores, but that's the full extent of what usable now. There's some early experimentation in what has been called the Advanced Bridge Enabler, to allow for curved bridges, but that's mostly loose prototypes at the moment.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

42 minutes ago, matias93 said:

@Lucario Boricua recently made a small modification to the Diagonal Bridge Enabler to make it a bit more tolerant of height differences between opposing shores, but that's the full extent of what usable now. There's some early experimentation in what has been called the Advanced Bridge Enabler, to allow for curved bridges, but that's mostly loose prototypes at the moment.

It should also be mentioned that Diagonal Bridge Enabler will be one of the NAM components where NAM.dll will be required to be used from NAM version 50 onwards since the mod DLLs are making it easier for us to use the DBE and opening up further scenarios

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Hello @Chrisim and welcome to the future of SimCity 4 content over the last decade!

Concerning the Diagonal Bridge Enabler (DBE), there have been no substantial advancements in terms of additional network support. However, it is possible to build a few limited configurations featuring viaduct curves. For those, you will need to use the RealHighway (MIS, RHW-2, RHW-4 or RHW-6S) or the RealRailway (L2 RRW preferably), the only networks which currently have wide radius curves in viaduct form in a network that does support drag pattern construction for said curves. For this you'll need to do an R2 curve--make a 45° diagonal bend, and on the inner side of the bend, form an L-shape, this'll form your curve in middle of the alignment. For your road configuration, you can use RHW-2 to achieve this.

I do have some limited work intended to modernize the DBE, specifically by changing the tolerance of the slope mod parameters, making bridges a lot more forgiving to build when there's small deviations of the terrain elevation. These changes are still unpublished, but I do intend to publish them very soon.

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

This has probably been asked and answered before within this thread but please humor my laziness if it is indeed the case.

Anyway my question is... 

Why was SAM1 made to use Parking Lot textures? I'm only asking because of the recently released WestWindStreets SAM1 Facelift mod that switches out  the Parking Lot textures for streets with Parking bays which are aesthetically are more pleasing if you ask me 

I used to use Magneto's SAM1 visual upgrade nod at one time to spruce up SAM1 but I still didn't understand,  at the time, why a Parking Lot based Street 'skin" was made in the first place.

I hope I didn't sound disrespectful with what I just said though...

[CaptCity 4,753]

38 minutes ago, CahosRahneVeloza said:

Why was SAM1 made to use Parking Lot textures?...

I'll preface this by saying I did not have a hand in the creation of the SAM and am only going on memory (which isn't what it used to be ) of the times...

When the SAM was developed and released, most of what was related to parking lots came as lots of specific sizes. There may have been a set or two of 'modular' lots, but they may have come later. SAM-1 was an attempt to provide a draggable way of producing parking lots that could be formed to fit non-specific and larger spaces rather than depend on lots of certain sizes.

Again, this is all suposition related to what I 'remember' of the times. Hopefully, someone might come along if there's a more specific answer.

 

[serpe 75]

2 hours ago, CahosRahneVeloza said:

This has probably been asked and answered before within this thread but please humor my laziness if it is indeed the case.

Anyway my question is... 

Why was SAM1 made to use Parking Lot textures? I'm only asking because of the recently released WestWindStreets SAM1 Facelift mod that switches out  the Parking Lot textures for streets with Parking bays which are aesthetically are more pleasing if you ask me 

I used to use Magneto's SAM1 visual upgrade nod at one time to spruce up SAM1 but I still didn't understand,  at the time, why a Parking Lot based Street 'skin" was made in the first place.

I hope I didn't sound disrespectful with what I just said though...

The SAM1 has come in very very handy numerous times in my game. You can create a parking space with a driveway that seamlessly connects to any othey type of road.

If any of the SAMs had to be reworked in my opinion would be the SAM6, it looks quite cartoonish to me, although there is probably gamers that like it use it.

Just my two cents.

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

By the by, can somebody point me in the direction of a Visual T21 mod for SAM10 Moonlight San's Japanese Streets that add Japanese Guard rails and the Japanese Powerlines to SAM10 street segments?

[rsc204 21,808]

SAM1 was made to create parking lots easily by dragging streets. As you’ve noted, mods exist to alter that because everyone has different tastes. But if it didn’t exist functionality, there would be no mods for it either.

The SAM 10 T21 mod is in no way linked to the textures in use. Are you saying you want the T21 mod (props) on SAM 10 without the SAM 10 textures?, the Japanese streets are the default there. Of course as with all SAM sets you can override them with something else. The only thing you need consider with T21s is that the placement of props may not appear correct if not using the intended street textures.

I agree about SAM6, the textures stand out too much. Hence I created this:

 

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

@rsc204 I meant something similar to the Japanese NAM Facelift mod for roads but for SAM10 specifically.

By the way, I use your Darkened SAM6 textures mod too.

  Edited February 4, 2025 by CahosRahneVeloza  
Addendum

[rsc204 21,808]

Honesty there aren't a whole host of T21 mods for SAM, I've certainly not see anything like that for SAM10. With the exception of the official Japanese Streets T21 mod:

It doesn't include the wires, but complements the Japanese Sidewalk Mod.

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

1 hour ago, rsc204 said:

Honesty there aren't a whole host of T21 mods for SAM, I've certainly not see anything like that for SAM10. With the exception of the official Japanese Streets T21 mod:

It doesn't include the wires, but complements the Japanese Sidewalk Mod.

Oh sweet~~!

Thanks man