Network Extensions Project

[GC_Vos 714]

Refer to main page for updates: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=478820060

Please note while I am part of the NExt/TAM team helping with graphics and textures, I don't do any coding. So while I do my best to answer questions I honestly don't know the answer to everything, especially when it comes to 'under the hood' stuff.

[GC_Vos 714]

Thank you! I do believe one tile roads / alleys are planned yes. But atm we are still using default meshes until the guys have figured out import/outports. Road meshes are setup very differently from regular assets so it'll probably take a while to figure out.

[boformer 3,169]

I followed the development of the mod. Looks promising.

It is sad that roads (meshes + textures) are hardcoded and can only be added when a city is loaded. I would love to have a customizer ingame to add or remove lanes on the fly, change the configuration of intersections, replace decorations, speed limits... but that's just a dream that will most likely never come true.

[NielsC007 499]

Yes! I've been wanting this mod since release! Very useful!

[GC_Vos 714]

You are right Boform, road meshes are rendered procedurally thru the engine. I believe it uses a baseline obj which will dictate road width, UVs, pavement etc, but these cannot be changed ingame as they become a set gameobject (similarly to how you can't change the look of a building outside of the asset editor). Traffic lanes are also coded in advance and require the whole game to be restarted. However upgrading/downgrading and traffic mods are decent alternatives.

[Linoa06 1,374]

Amazing, hope that it will become compatible with Some Roads

[GC_Vos 714]

I think it could potentially work with the Some Roads mod. I know a lot of people use it for the darker color roads, and we do have the alphas setup so people can mod/alter road color. But from what I remember the mod itself is coded a bit messy, I know Katalyst contacted Danny who created the mod to make it compatible somehow, because the mod hasn't been updated since march...

[_Michael 2,681]

I just can't wait for the NAM of CS. Great work! 

[Nevermore2797 112]

Nice WiP of the roads like 6 lane avenues with central islands and more type of wide and narrow roads.  I hope they will have a decoration variant (those with trees) soon like the vanilla road types, and being compatible with some mods soon.

[GC_Vos 714]

Yes, most road types we are making will be expanded with trees and grass. But first all the lanes have to be working.

[GC_Vos 714]

We have three new 4 laners working, still fixing some things before they are published. 4 Lane oneway is based on a new mesh that's 3 cells wide. We have textures for twoway as well.

The turning lanes are working surprisingly well, apart from the occasional head on collision, it actually flows very good.

We also have 1 cell oneway working

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Amazing new roads! So the one-cell one-way actually is one cell wide? It just does not look it in the picture. Lastly when will one-cell wide two-way roads be coming out?

[boformer 3,169]

looking forward to the one cell road

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Need ! Want !!!!! 

[zdza 547]

This road should have longer median lines in the centerline to mark the middle of the road.

 

Like this

[GC_Vos 714]

@LnX: It is an 8m mesh, but in the pictue it shows plots at 2 cell regular width. Our goal is to have it plot at 1 cell. We also have textures for it to work twoway, but I think there's still some lod problems and other bugfixing.

@ zdza: That's more a stylistic choice I think, the new 4L oneway is inspired by roads like: link

and:

That's why the new one is 3 cells wide

 

  Edited September 3, 2015 by GC_Vos  

[_Michael 2,681]

@LnX: It is an 8m mesh, but in the pictue it shows plots at 2 cell regular width. Our goal is to have it plot at 1 cell. We also have textures for it to work twoway, but I think there's still some lod problems and other bugfixing.

@ zdza: That's more a stylistic choice I think, the new 4L oneway is inspired by roads like: link

and:

That's why the new one is 3 cells wide

 

zdza is talking about the two way road in the image, not the one way. I agree with him, for two way, the lines should be longer or solid in the middle. (Depends on the country)

[GC_Vos 714]

Ah I see what you mean, that was actually just testing oneway texture on a twoway road All our twoways have one or two unbroken lines in the middle

[Kaschperl 92]

If it works as good as it looks, this mod will be one of my must-haves once I can play again!

I thought about how it might be possible to use non-symmetrical layouts, such as 2+3 lane avenues, as turning lane pieces on median avenues. That means that the layout would, for example, be the same as a 2+2 lane median avenue, but with the median being an extra traffic lane for one of the directions. This way the length of the turning lane could be customized. The only problem i see with that would be that you'd have to place very small stretches of road in some occasions, and that those ugly crosswalk transitions coud ruin the appearance of it :P

[GC_Vos 714]

We already have 2+3 and 1+2, the problem is the game tends to rotate or invert textures especially when you curve the roads. It can be fixed manually but we think a lot of players might complain about it. That's why (for now) we are sticking with symmetrical.

[Kaschperl 92]

I see, now that's a problem. And in fact I really hate those crosswalk transitions with a passion. I see some   hard-edge transitions in your pictures, but I don't know if that's a tweakable property of the roads or just because they're non-functional prototypes? Well, let's not go off-topic, I can't wait to put together some fancy freeway interchanges with the new 2-lane and 6-lane highway options, and I'm very keen on seeing your TLAs at work too. Thank you for putting your time and effort into this!

[GC_Vos 714]

The crosswalk transition only occurs between different road types, and I don't like them either. The 3+2, 4L and 4LTL can all be connected to 6L without rendering crosswalks. However, if you connect them to regular 4L with median, you do get them because it has a different base mesh. So the game decides it's an intersection. It is possible for us to replace the crosswalk textures (intersection nodes) with something more neutral, but we have kept most of them like default for now.

Edit: Just to illustrate this is what most roads have...

You have the regular texture on the right, and the intersection node on the left. The crossing gets attached as an end cap, then blended with generic grey at the center of the intersection. That's why all of them look like that, because it's dictated by the road type.

  Edited September 4, 2015 by GC_Vos  

[Kaschperl 92]

Thanks for clarifying! Seems logical, I remember that for example 2L roads with grass and with trees blend in seamlessly, I forgot about that. So, as I understand, it would actually be possible to make the transitions look (more or less) decent if there was an extra 4L MAVE that uses the same mesh as the 2+3L AVE, which would mean just a flat, purely textured grass median?

Sorry if I'm going on too much about this MAVE turning lane thing. It's just something that I really miss when I play C:S  I use the NAM turning lanes quite a lot in SC4.

  Edited September 4, 2015 by Kaschperl  

[GC_Vos 714]

No problem, it's an interesting topic! I remember even Rush Hour had turning lanes on the roads out of the box!

We have an alternative to 4LTL called Medium Avenue:

It's the same thing but with a striped median. It's interchangible with the turning lanes, and it's the closest thing we have right now that gives you that type of seamless transition. (you can see it in the pics above, avenue on the left has it)

  Edited September 4, 2015 by GC_Vos  

[Kaschperl 92]

Wow, it's amazing how much fancy stuff you're working on! Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. So it would be a mere change of texture to make it a grass median avenue! I should really get into C:S modding when I can play again, changing a texture for private use shouldn't be too hard... Although I don't know what you guys will come up with till december!

The texture flip thing isn't cool, but I could certainly live with it. Does fixing it 'manually' mean you have to completely rebuild the road, or can that be done by using the road upgrade tool?

Another thing I thought about was a draggable concrete median barrier for use between highways. I know it's not exactly a network mod, but it does have to do with it. The thing is that urban freeways rarely feature a grass median. I sometimes work around that by placing a ped path between the carriageways, not the most beatiful solution though  However I'm not sure whether this can be done at all. But it's just eyecandy after all.

[Attercap 123]

Thanks for this work ! Definitely something we need.

But what about bus lanes ?

Or bicycle paths ?

Or avenues with car park in the middle (with elevated tracks above!)  I'm speaking about a long term work ; there are just questions.

  Edited September 4, 2015 by Attercap  

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

We already have 2+3 and 1+2, the problem is the game tends to rotate or invert textures especially when you curve the roads. It can be fixed manually but we think a lot of players might complain about it. That's why (for now) we are sticking with symmetrical.

Can you not use the right-click on the mouse to flip the roads to the correct orientation? That is extremely quick to do.

[pieuponieu 70]

I think I'm looking forward to one-cell roads more than the After Dark update and DLC.  

Thanks for this work ! Definitely something we need.

But what about bus lanes ?

Or bicycle paths ?

Or avenues with car park in the middle (with elevated tracks above!)  I'm speaking about a long term work ; there are just questions.

@Attercap, the After Dark DLC is supposed to include some kind of bike path functionality. Not sure if it will be a path tool or a type of road, but this part may not need to be modded. And I know Traffic++ has bus lanes, but those roads don't work with the road color changer mod, which I really like using.

[Attercap 123]

Flippityfloo you are right but I was thinking about integrated bus lanes or bicycle paths. For example the 1 cell oneway with one bus lane or bicycle path, could be amazing (even if its need to use two tiles...) All of these new roads type are really interesting and they will probably be declined (trees, bus lanes, and so on)

[GC_Vos 714]

I am not sure about the bus lanes, I'm sure they could eventually make it in there but it isn't a high priority.

Same with bicycles I am guessing they will implement a node system like how parking and bus stops work, we will have to wait and see...

@ Kaschperl / Lnx: I've had to demolish the incorrect part and route it from the other side. But sometimes the game will flip it back if you build or upgrade another road nearby.

I'm not sure if inverting works, textures are aligned separately from traffic lanes so I don't think it would solve it. It seems more based on the axis the road is oriented closest to. That's why it's so wonky in curves when you cross the 45 degree angle.

People have been asking for twoway highways, but I think the closest thing we can create in the short term is the six lane with median.