Network Extensions Project

[charlesnew 262]

This is so exciting, thank you  

[andreharv 1,197]

Thanks guys.  I'm glad this project has some shock and awe left lol. With less than a month until C:S 3rd birthday, I wanted to share some progress I have been making as well as some future plans.

In the past two weeks I have been making fairly steady progress on extended sidewalks and median connectors (please ignore the blue stuff).  Most of the transitions are complete.

We are making progress everyday!  Please note I took it upon myself to add a solid white line to the basic roads.  I would've loved to have this done by March 10th but I still have a lot of work to do so I won't bet my life on that.  

With the advent of the road editor, most individual variations of roads can be readily made.  For this mod to justify it's existence, I have decided to focus more on the mod side.  For now, I am focusing on the appearance of the roads and minor AI changes.  My ultimate goal will be to one day use these median connectors to build divided intersections and thus, proper two way divided highway.  I still plan on creating a 3+4, 3+5 and 5L oneway (maybe).  Don't want to say too much.  Just, happy Thursday!

[Stanil 15]

41 minutes ago, andreharv said:

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The pics are not shown.

[andreharv 1,197]

Ok I reupped...can you see it now?

[Stanil 15]

[Avanya 2,605]

Oooooohh!! This looks so awesome! No more trying to get it to look like that by hand. Very very cool stuff you're working on there

[Matthias King 348]

This does look really cool.

[ghosty20 150]

Those new roads look awesome, to the point I had to get a new pair of pants.. rofl..

[Badi_Dea 476]

This is really amazing, I applaud your efforts! (we need a clapping llama lol)

Question though: The node and junction road lines for the 'smooth transitions' you mentioned earlier - the mipmapping looks different; are you using line props for those transitions? If so, is that logic you wrote into the mod, or something you figured out how to make the road editor do?

[andreharv 1,197]

Thanks everyone! I will keep you posted as things develop.

@Badi_DeaLike I said, I will be investing more efforts into the mod so yes these features are all written into the mod.  There are no additional props used (yet). One purpose of this mod is to attempt to build meshes that save players their props to use for other things.  Perhaps not a one size fits all but hopefully one size fits most?  Could you clarify what you mean by 'the mipmapping looks different'? I haven't worked with any mipmaps.  The LODs are far from complete.  Feedback would be appreciated 

[Badi_Dea 476]

6 hours ago, andreharv said:

Could you clarify what you mean by 'the mipmapping looks different'?

If you look down the road in your last picture, the dashed lines that are part of the segment blurs more than the dashed lines that are part of the node. This led me to think that those lines aren't part of the diffuse texture.

I was mostly trying to figure out how you can programmatically determine what transition node to render in order to properly match with each lane configuration of the previous and subsequent segments. It really sounds like an extraordinary amount of work to make separate textures for each transition node, are you changing something about how they're mapped?

I'm very interested watching the progress on this. You're doing a phenomenal job and I can't thank you enough!

[Black_Dahlia 3]

Wow! These look amazing!

[Shannanigan O'Crabby 41]

I finally subbed to this the other day... I can't believe all the roads in there I didn't know I needed! I can't imagine not using this now...

One thing though... and maybe it has already been addressed, but having versions the alley roads without growable zones would be nice.
I noticed the current ones add zoning which isn't usually the case for alleys, since they are more likely to give rear entrance to buildings on "proper" streets.

[Bad Peanut 826]

5 hours ago, Shannanigan O'Crabby said:

I finally subbed to this the other day... I can't believe all the roads in there I didn't know I needed! I can't imagine not using this now...

One thing though... and maybe it has already been addressed, but having versions the alley roads without growable zones would be nice.
I noticed the current ones add zoning which isn't usually the case for alleys, since they are more likely to give rear entrance to buildings on "proper" streets.

There's a mod that allows you to control zoning

[Shannanigan O'Crabby 41]

17 hours ago, Bad Peanut said:

There's a mod that allows you to control zoning

Theres a mod for pretty much everything isn't there?

[jumonjii 19]

I love these...... only if the straight through lanes could line up, it would be amazing...but I know nothing about modding, so I'm guessing it's not possible because of how the nodes work.

[jumonjii 19]

Any updates or new info available?

[andreharv 1,197]

I have to put this project oh hold temporarily while I get out a much needed MOM bugfix update.  Then I will need to update this mod to get it ready...er for the next EP.  I will pick up where I left off after that and will keep you all posted.

[jumonjii 19]

Thanks for the update. I have a quick question, how feasible is it to make a turn around in the center median? 

Kind of like this:



It would be handy so traffic doesn't route through neighborhoods or other areas so they can turn around.

 

[wasmic 111]

It's certainly possible! This asset does it: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1351881090

 

Actually, you can just use TM:PE to link the fast lane to the other side's fast lane. It might look weird if the road isn't made to support it, though, or you may need to use some props to make it look good.

[jumonjii 19]

I haven't seen that one.... that's cool.

It just seems odd to me that the devs made a  road with a "cement" median but no way to cross over or turn around.

I've made boulevards like the one above but it's kind of clunky. If it was an actual road feature, it would be better.

[andreharv 1,197]

I put up a poll regarding the now abandoned 'New Roads For Network Extensions 2' mod.  CLICKY HERE TO VOTE!

[Bad Peanut 826]

27 minutes ago, andreharv said:

I put up a poll regarding the now abandoned 'New Roads For Network Extensions 2' mod.  CLICKY HERE TO VOTE!

why not release the roads as separate networks from the road editor - most of them can be, and keep the ones that can't, that require specific changes in code, to network extensions ie the 1 cell roads, turning lane roads and roads you plan on giving that customization tool

[andreharv 1,197]

Well dang...I should've added that as an option to the poll...I guess I'll do it now.

[Bad Peanut 826]

5 hours ago, andreharv said:

Well dang...I should've added that as an option to the poll...I guess I'll do it now.

if you don't know already (I'm sure you do though) with Next enabled you can actually clone them in the editor, with all the values you coded and save them as road editor .crp files, this may help cut down the time to convert them.

you may have to load the editor with NExt enabeld, then once opened start a new asset again to see the next roads in the menu.

[Avanya 2,605]

The downside to making them as networks through the editor is I imagine they won't be recognized and replaced in cities. I'm all for new roads being made with the editor, but maybe for transition from New Roads for NExt2 an option where the game recognizes them would be better.

[Bad Peanut 826]

1 hour ago, Avanya said:

The downside to making them as networks through the editor is I imagine they won't be recognized and replaced in cities. I'm all for new roads being made with the editor, but maybe for transition from New Roads for NExt2 an option where the game recognizes them would be better.

if they're called the same names though maybe they would? might be worth checking out before executing 

[Avanya 2,605]

I dunno. Usually SteamID also plays a role, but there's no doubt the mod roads work differently than the asset roads. We could switch from the old to the new without a problem, so SteamID didn't matter there. However the mod roads break saves when they're missing while the asset versions just disappear (at least in a vanilla environment). I would imagine a mod would still be needed for the game to recognize them as the same when they're made with the editor, but ofc new subscribers would then get the benefit of them being assets which won't break in an update. Might be the best way if it isn't a huge amount of work getting the game to recognize the roads.

[Delta2k5 311]

20 hours ago, Avanya said:

while the asset versions just disappear (at least in a vanilla environment)

Huh? Is that true by now? Last time I unsubbed some network accidentally my city was messed up afterwards  Networks are tricky anyway.

I voted still for the convert-to-vanilla option cause I don't use all roads featured (like the highways as this kind of road shipped with MT). So I could save some RAM and HDD space

 

Also yes, those are update-proof  Still the tiny 8m networks should stay with Network Extensions!  

[Avanya 2,605]

18 minutes ago, Delta2k5 said:

Huh? Is that true by now? Last time I unsubbed some network accidentally my city was messed up afterwards  Networks are tricky anyway.

Yes, they were prepared for the fact that we'd mess up roads and have them disappear. Any networks from mods don't count ofc, but any in the road category on Steam will just disappear from your city like a building would. However there seems to be some cases where it doesn't happen. Most likely related to a mod. I've tried and tried to break my cities by removing those new networks (all sorts of them, in use an everything) and I just can't get it to happen. But I know it happens to some people, so I'm assuming it's mod related in some way.