Network Skins (Coming 2016)

[Delta2k5 311]

1 hour ago, ArkenbergeJoe said:

Hallo, ich schreibe mal in Deutsch, damit Google keinen Kauderwelsch rausgibt....

Hab mal eine Frage, ist der Mod nicht mit GreenCities kompatibel? Ich habe damit große Probleme. Es blinken Props und Bäume, sogar Buildings verschwinden auf einmal. Ich habe sämtliche Mods deaktiviert und nur den NSM extra laufen lassen. Ohne diesen, aber auch mit allen anderen Mods, wird die Grafik, also die Stadt, wieder normal dargestellt. Durch das Deaktivieren bleiben wenigstens alle Verkehrswege erhalten bleiben, wenn auch nur Standard.

Ich würde ihn auch gerne in Green Cities weiterverwenden wollen, da ich nicht für eine Pappelstraße oder unbeleuchtete Autobahn stets ein neues Verkehrssystem im Editor erstellen möchte.

Der Mod ist laut STEAM seit 7 Monaten nicht aktualisiert worden, wird er denn überhaupt noch weiterentwickelt?

Oder muß ich letzlich doch für gleiche Straßen, nur anderen Laternen oder Bäumen nunmehr extra neue Verkehrswege erstellen, was ja auch möglich, aber unnütz wäre?

 

Bei mir funktioniert er noch wie gewollt. Die Entwicklung ruht, da boformer aktuell keine Zeit findet daran zu werkeln.

 

Just for non-germans: He asked If the mod ist compatible with green cities update and if the mods development has been canceled. I replied that it's kinda on hold and that it is compatible as it's running like it should on my end

[ArkenbergeJoe 35]

@Delta2k5 Danke für die schnelle und hilfreiche Antwort. So habe ich mich noch mal in die Tiefen der Grafikeinstellungen und Sicherungsordnern gewagt, und bin tatsächlich einem Störenfried auf die Spur gekommen. Eine weitere, noch ältere Variante schlummerte in den Addon-Ordner, und wurde wohl durch den GC-DLC irgendwie teilaktiviert. Natürlich braucht der Mod nicht weiterentwickelt werden, der Tausch von Laternen oder Bäumen funktioniert ja, und für andere Brücken oder Pflasterstraßen gibt es ja jetzt den Editor.

The Mod is Green Cities compatible, I had problems in the addon folder with duplicate old files

[boformer 3,169]

ich entwickle den Mod nicht mehr aktiv weiter, bin komplett raus. Ich werde versuchen die Zeit zu finden den Mod für neue Versionen des Spiels anzupassen, mehr aber nicht.

[ArkenbergeJoe 35]

Kein Problem, es war ja nur noch eine Uraltdatei in meinen Ordnern, welche wahrscheinlich durch Greencities wieder auflebte.

Aber es ist ein genialer Mod, besser, als was C:SL selber zu bieten hat. Eine vorhandene Straße "umzudekorieren" ist ja auch speicherschonender als für jede unterschiedliche Laterne ein komplett neues MB-reiches Asset zu erstellen.

Aber auch ich bin gut raus, zu SC4-Zeiten hatte ich fast ständig am NAM mitgewerkelt, jetzt bin ich froh, wenn ich mal ausreichend Zeit finde, nur mal ein Stadtbezirk weiterzuspielen.

[Avanya 2,605]

If you at some point have the time for it, adding support for quays and canals would be handy. With the network editor we can add all sorts of props and trees to them, so being able to swap out trees and lamp posts like with roads would be nice.

[boformer 3,169]

On 9.5.2018 at 9:52 PM, Avanya said:

If you at some point have the time for it, adding support for quays and canals would be handy. With the network editor we can add all sorts of props and trees to them, so being able to swap out trees and lamp posts like with roads would be nice.

Maybe with the next release, shouldn't be too difficult.

NetworkSkins was just updated for Park Life. BloodyPenguin created the patch, so kudos to him!

[wasmic 111]

If you're going to update the mod anyways, would it be possible to also make it possible to change the monorail pillars? I see that this was also asked some time ago, and you said it would be simple, but last time I tried (a week or two ago), it still wasn't possible to change monorail pillars. Did you run into trouble?

[boformer 3,169]

18 hours ago, wasmic said:

If you're going to update the mod anyways, would it be possible to also make it possible to change the monorail pillars? I see that this was also asked some time ago, and you said it would be simple, but last time I tried (a week or two ago), it still wasn't possible to change monorail pillars. Did you run into trouble?

No, I'm just short on time.

[wasmic 111]

Oh - well, that's understandable

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

This mod currently causes about 15-25fps drop. There's something very wrong with it. Will it be updated? It's currently un-usable IMO.

 

I'd like to know if it will be fixed or not so I can adjust my building approach accordingly.

[Distanced 114]

Yep its pretty bad, I agree with @AmiPolizeiFunk, but it's absolutely necessary for my city :/

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

* considers the amount of time it will take to export no-lamp versions of roads so that I can plop custom streetlamps manually *

 

 

Bat-pager-light calling @boformer

[boformer 3,169]

Hmmm, actually it was just updated to make it compatible with the Parallel Line Tool. But that should not impact performance.

When did it become so slow?

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

At Parklife.

[Distanced 114]

Also there are two really annoying bugs as of right now:

1. Pillar names don't appear properly - a series of numbers (pretty sure its the asset ID, too lazy to check) appears in front of the names
2. After deleting or adjusting pillars with Move It! they reset upon re-loading the save, resetting to original height and rotation, and appearing even if they were deleted

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

I'm at the point where I need to either keep waiting for an update @boformer or I need to start making roads w/o lights. All I ask from you is a post as whether or not you plan to look into it.

[Bad Peanut 826]

On 06/07/2018 at 3:34 PM, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

I'm at the point where I need to either keep waiting for an update @boformer or I need to start making roads w/o lights. All I ask from you is a post as whether or not you plan to look into it.

dude be patient - he hasn't been online since the last post he commented... and also, if it's that big a deal just start making them without lights. then you won't have to rely on anyone else getting back to you and finding time in their own lives just to do what you want...

[Avanya 2,605]

@AmiPolizeiFunk Please be mindful of the fact that not everyone has the same amount of time to put into the game. Boformer is aware there's something up with the mod and bugging him about it isn't gonna magically give him more free time in his life.  It's gonna take the time it'll take. If you can't wait for the mod to get fixed, then I suggest making custom roads instead.

[Distanced 114]

3 hours ago, Avanya said:

@AmiPolizeiFunk Please be mindful of the fact that not everyone has the same amount of time to put into the game. Boformer is aware there's something up with the mod and bugging him about it isn't gonna magically give him more free time in his life.  It's gonna take the time it'll take. If you can't wait for the mod to get fixed, then I suggest making custom roads instead.

Its actually surprisingly easy to use the road editor, so if its that urgent that's probably the way to go

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

All I'm asking for is a post. Those of use whose builds depend on the mod are sitting in limbo wondering which path we should take to move forward.

 

If Boformer doesn't want to maintain the mod, he could simply say so, then perhaps some other modder would want to pick it up.

[Bad Peanut 826]

49 minutes ago, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

All I'm asking for is a post. Those of use who's builds depend on the mod are sitting in limbo wondering which path we should take to move forward.

 

If Boformer doesn't want to maintain the mod, he could simply say so, then perhaps some other modder would want to pick it up.

Well as a gauge: he still hasn't been online since July 2 so maybe take that as an indication to his expendable time? I would start working on your alternative plan and make your own  

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

my own mod?

[Bad Peanut 826]

1 hour ago, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

my own mod?

 

On 06/07/2018 at 3:34 PM, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

I'm at the point where I need to either keep waiting for an update @boformer or I need to start making roads w/o lights.

i was thinking this part of what you said

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

It just seems silly to make 6-10 versions of common roads just to remove the lights.

[Bad Peanut 826]

8 hours ago, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

It just seems silly to make 6-10 versions of common roads just to remove the lights.

It seems sillier to wait on someone who isn't very active the days, but each to their own. I guess it's the tradeoff. Wait and not have duplicates or get your roads and deal with duplicates

[boformer 3,169]

On 10.7.2018 at 12:59 PM, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

All I'm asking for is a post. Those of use whose builds depend on the mod are sitting in limbo wondering which path we should take to move forward.

 

If Boformer doesn't want to maintain the mod, he could simply say so, then perhaps some other modder would want to pick it up.

You are free to pick it up, of course! It's all open source!

I just came back from my summer holidays in France, which gave me some nice city building ideas!

Regarding the performance problem:

I will see if I can find a solution for the problem within the next 1-2h. I'm not sure if I will find a solution because performance problems are hard to debug.

If a more complicated analysis/rewrite is required, it is unlikely that it will happen before the next DLC, if at all.

Sorry for the inconveniences! I know that this mod is essential, and compared to other options. It is so much more elegant, but sadly also quite difficult to maintain.

[boformer 3,169]

Ok, so here is the result of my mini investigation:

The previous updates were actually not made by me, but S__T and BloodyPenguin. I'm not sure if they created a dll in "release mode", which should make things faster (maybe they did though!). So I went ahead and recompiled NetworkSkins in release mode.

I created a new city with a lot of roads with street lights and trees and a few heavy assets, and opened the save without and with NetworkSkins.

The FPS dropped from higher 40s to lower 40s, though I'm not sure if it was caused by NS, or just the growth of the city. In some situations the city with NS was even rendering faster!

I'm not sure the the "release mode" actually solved the problem, but I pushed the update to the workshop!

Can you give me some feedback if the latest update improved the situation?

[boformer 3,169]

I also started adding few comments to the code on GitHub, which should make the code easier to understand for other developers:

https://github.com/boformer/NetworkSkins/commit/0b6b72817ad8b745cdad0181e29bd05e086182bf

It's still not much easier to maintain, because the thing that breaks the mod is the heavy modification of the game's rendering logic. That means whenever CO updates the network rendering logic, the mod must be updated.

I'm not even sure if the rendering code that is bundled with the mod (taken from the games source) is still up to date. It's still from pre Parklife, not sure if they changed something. But even if it was not up to date, that should not cause FPS drops. just rendering errors.