rail base earth textures

[iviaarten 534]

Hi everyone. I have a question.

 

I'm trying to make the railways in my industrial area look good. When playing around with RUM for RRW I found out that I can change the base earth texture to:

-maxis default (so that's the basic dirt texture)

-changed dirt texture

-mossy earth

-transparent

 

now both transparent and mossy earth look great in my rural area's, but maxis default and dirt texture makes the industrial look good.

 

Is there a way to get this texture to change based on use (so industrial, farms, residential or commercial) instead of just a single texture or based on wealth? (if the maxis default even does this?)

 

If there's no way to do this, how do you guys make your industrial area's look good while not messing up rural?

 

if it's not clear what I mean, I can post some pictures.

[rsc204 21,869]

I just installed the transparent version and was done with it, the side effect is that sidewalks are removed from farming areas but all my rail is clean and I don't need to think about those awful half-dirt textures on diagonals.

 

Basically this texture is an extension of the $, $$ and $$$ (Grey, White, Pink) sidewalk textures, by default its dirt but there is only one texture used. The railway system uses the same texture as the farm sidewalk texture, so are both linked. Anything you change here will affect both so this must be taken into consideration. In theory I can think of a way to achieve what you are asking using the wealth system inherent to the game, but it would require some work to realise and mean you'd have to be very careful about what buildings grew where or the effect would look terrible.

 

In short, there isn't really a quick fix I can think of here. If that doesn't deter you, I can be a bit more detailed in the "how" department for you.

[iviaarten 534]

Thanks for your reply. I was expecting it tbh.

 

I'm trying to look for other solutions (mainly for making my industrial sections with rail look good). I tried out Paeng's grunge concrete fillers (the extender ones), but sadly they cover up the rail itself. Would it be possible (or maybe this already exists) to make a version that makes the rail texture show over on top of the plopped overlapping texture? That would pretty much solve all my 'problems'.

[rsc204 21,869]

Yes and no, the rail network is at a fixed height, so no point trying to change this I suspect (no idea if you could or how in any case), for this to work the rail would need to be higher than the filler in the "z" space of the game. So for example as the Maxis Ground Highway is slightly raised (I think .5m) from the ground, you can slide fillers right under it and it won't ruin the road surface. The rail is at ground level (0m), usually overhanging fillers must be placed off the ground at .02m to avoid something called z-fighting, this is where two objects both appear at the same height and the game doesn't know which to show and makes a bit of a mess.

One way around this problem would be some TE (Transit Enabled) lots, it's pretty easy to make them (for straights at least) and they'd work much like Paeng's fillers that cover the road surface and show either Grunge Concrete or Sandstone sidewalks on top of the roads. Adding lots of TE lots can have a negative impact on the rail network, however, if you used them in areas where the main passenger lines did not need to go, then this wouldn't really be a concern.

Here is an example of what I'm thinking of only it would be properly enabled for transit, mock-up just to show how it should look. The only slight problem with this approach, straights and diagonals are not too hard to make, but points and curves etc, the pathing starts to become a bit of work.

[iviaarten 534]

Is there any way to mod all the railways to be 0.5m above surface just like the highway? Or will this give additional problems (I can imagine with rail bridges for example)?

Your mockup picture is exactly what I'm looking for.

[rsc204 21,869]

What I'm envisioning wouldn't require the rails to be changed, they are not fillers, the lots are actually the rails here. The problem you have is that you can't place 2 TE lots next to each other, so what Paeng did with the road fillers is made the lots 1x1, then either side of the lot overhangs to make a 1x3 lot, this way they will join up when multiple lots need to be placed.

If you've not used them, the idea is basically working just like these from Paeng:

Only instead of plopping them on roads, they'd be on rails.

The base lot is simply a TE lot for rail, the two edges need to be made with either a batted model or a suitable S3D model (16x16m or one tile large) and the correct texture applied. In theory I have all the resources to make such a thing or I could talk you through it in more detail if you were looking to create one yourself.

:edit:

I've been playing around with this a little this evening, and managed to come up with this:

It's a 1x1 TE lot for rail, with two overhanging props that works just like I described, pretty pleased with the colour matching too. I was thinking I would only enable it for Freight Rail, so they don't mess up the passenger network, but perhaps that's not so great for everybody? In any case, if anyone wants a copy I'll attach it here for now once I've tested it a little. Not sure about going any further with this really as overhanging fillers will start to get difficult trying to do any sort of curve or junction, a diagonal version is perhaps possible, so maybe I will do something more with it? One last thing, these really hate even the smallest of bumps, so absolutely flat land is required.

OK, tested and all fine, file is attached if anyone wants it. Only really works for RRW users, must be on flat land, it messes with T21s like the cantenaries shown (game limitation, sorry) and because of the effects of TE lots on the traffic simulator I've enabled them for freight traffic only, so passenger rail must have another route. One dependency, paeng_Grunge_Concrete.dat is required from this pack:

Find the attached lot in the Misc Transport Menu, enjoy.

MGB - Industrial Rail Filler.zip