Cori's First FLUP - With Pics

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

So, those FLUPs in NAM really had me confuzzled for a while.

I'm going to attempt a tutorial which I wish I could've found whilst I was having difficulties in learning this concept. I simply don't do well with videos as instructions and all the nicely written tutorials I found have long since lost their pictures. For all the peeps who already know these basic steps I'll ask if I'm over thinking this and how could this be improved. For peeps using NAM for the first time I hope this proves helpful. (I'm using way more pics than is prolly necessary cause I like seeing each actual step and the change which occurs.)

Let's start with the thriving metropolis of First FLUP (Population: 5). It's simply a Road running East/West with a house on the west portion. A Street runs North/South intersecting the Road to the east of the house. At the north end of the Street is a farm.

 

Using the Route Query tool we see that 2 pedestrians walk to the farm and one freight truck goes south from the farm, turns west, and drives off the map at the Road's neighborhood connection.

 

What I'm going to do is for a proof of concept rather than a suggestion on city layout. First I bulldozed the Street connections both north and south of the East/West Road. (Bulldoze one tile on either side and leave the Road still fully intact.)

 

Next I select FLUP from the Transportation Tools / Build Roads menu and hover it over the Road where the intersection used to be. By default it is the Ramp for underground Road.

 

Now I tap the Tab key until it changes to Diagonal underground route under straight Road. This is a preliminary step to get to what I really want. (This part was not at all intuitive to me.)

 

Then use the End key until it changes to Straight underground route under straight Road. (It looks like a narrow dirt path running perpendicular to the Road.)

 

And here it is after plopping. (It now looks like a normal road with the same kind of sidewalks you get next to commercial zoning.)

 

Going back to the Transportation Tools I select FLUP again. (It's back to the Ramp for underground Road.) I position it one square north of the Road at the south end of the Street in the empty space.

 

Press Tab key until it changes to Street ramp connecting to underground road.

 

Press Home key once and it rotates to the proper orientation:

 

Now click to plop it and we see the Street going down a ramp which looks like it's going under the road.

 

With this particular FLUP still on the cursor I moved directly south of the Road in the space between the rest of the Street.

 

At this point I thought I could just use Home or End keys to rotate it into position, but NO, that didn't work. So, I moved south one more tile so it was on top of the Street and then it auto rotated.

 

Next I moved it back one tile north next to the Road.

 

And here it is after plopping:

 

To test that it would actually allow traffic thru, I then connected the east end of the Road with the south end of the Street forming a small square with them:

 

And using the Route Query tool we see 2 cars and 1 freight truck are now using the FLexible UnderPass.

 

 

Edit: Useful tip suggested by @Mandarin(a): Use Shift-Tab to cycle thru the items in reverse order. This is especially useful if you hit Tab too many times and want to go back to a previous option.

Note: This is the ideal part of a community helping each other. I was aware of this, but it did not occur to me to include it when I was writing this guide.

Edit 2: FLUPs can be use as underwater tunnel too. See Ro-Bo's: How to Build Underwater Tunnel Using Flexible Underpasses (FLUPs).

Edit 3: I've added a Tutorial for Road under Rail to this thread.

 

Edit 4: Added Tutorial for Avenue under Rail.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Thank you for posting this basic tutorial! You had a rep point from me at "confuzzled", but the remaining tutorial was no letdown, either. This should be helpful for late adopters of the NAM.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

1 hour ago, T Wrecks said:

This should be helpful for late adopters of the NAM.

Like me.

I already used flups in the short time I've been using the NAM but I think that yep, it will be very useful... and we need more tutorials !!

 

A lot of thumbs up for CorinaMarie !!!!!!!! 

[Mandarin(a) 35]

That's great! You could add that pressing TAB+Ctrl changes items in reversed direction. Very useful if you accidentaly hit TAB too many times ... Took me way to long to discover this, clicking TAB to circle through items again

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

@Mandarin(a): I'm sure you meant to say Shift-Tab and I've edited that into my post. Thanks!

[rsc204 21,805]

One thing I would add. It's always worth going through every item in a Tab Ring if using a new part of the NAM. It will help give you an idea of what pieces are available and thus what you can accomplish with them. Note also some pieces have additional "tooltips", describing how to use them.

Edit - thought of something else too...

Also, using Home and End which alters the rotation of the piece can be used to change the piece that will be placed. For example the Road Ramp piece switches between Road and Two OWR ramps in this way. Many of the FLUPs use this system to vary the selected piece.

[jimbursch 2]

Excellent! Thank you! I'm an absolute newbie and was desperate to find a tutorial like this to get me started on NAM.

By way of proof of my noobiness, what is FLUP?

[rsc204 21,805]

FLUPs are covered in my NAM tutorials series on YouTube (you want part 3a for this). Basically they are underpasses for various networks, you could think of them as more flexible tunnels.

[TekindusT 3,809]

About rotating around Tab rings, sorry if I'm hijacking this thread but I think this can be useful for others...

I'm running SC4 off Steam, so when pressing Shift+Tab, instead of rotating the Tab ring backwards, it brings me to a Steam homepage. Is there any way to deactivate this shortcut in Steam?

[_Michael 2,681]

7 minutes ago, TekindusT said:

About rotating around Tab rings, sorry if I'm hijacking this thread but I think this can be useful for others...

I'm running SC4 off Steam, so when pressing Shift+Tab, instead of rotating the Tab ring backwards, it brings me to a Steam homepage. Is there any way to deactivate this shortcut in Steam?

 

Go to Steam Settings; "In-Game"; Disable Steam Overlay. That should disable it!  

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

Also, what about bypassing the Steam part altogether?

On 2/29/2012 at 0:12 PM, Wiecher said:

As I found out, the problem is not in the command, but in the shortcut target. Steam uses steam://rungameid/24780 as default shortcut, and the commands only work with an .exe. So I changed the shortcut to "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\Simcity 4 deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" and then added the commands, and it works, also with the command I posted, although yours is shorter and I use that now.

 

On 2/29/2012 at 2:33 PM, A Nonny Moose said:

And that (steam://rungameid/24780) my friend is an Internet address. It logs you on to their server to allow you to play. Getting that out of your game target has cut off their ability to snoop.

 

In other words change your launch shortcut as @Wiecher did.

Edit: I'm guessing the drive D: part might have been a custom location during install. Drive C: seems like it would prolly be the default location. If needed just do a whole hard drive search for: SimCity 4.exe to find out where yours is at.

[Ro-Bo 183]

FLUPs can be use as underwater tunnel too.

_{Shamelessly points out my own tutorial.}

How to Build Underwater Tunnel Using Flexible Underpasses (FLUPs).

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

1 hour ago, Ro-Bo said:

FLUPs can be use as underwater tunnel too.

_{Shamelessly points out my own tutorial.}

How to Build Underwater Tunnel Using Flexible Underpasses (FLUPs).

Excellent! I've edited in your linky to my first post so it doesn't get overlooked way down here in the comments.

[simlacroix 274]

This is exactly what I was looking for but, could you please make one for roads that goes under rail? That will help me a lot.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

On 7/10/2016 at 5:50 AM, simlacroix said:

This is exactly what I was looking for but, could you please make one for roads that goes under rail? That will help me a lot.

Sure, I can give that a try. I'll have to learn it as I go since it'll be my first time.

Ok, here we are going to have a Road which will use a FLexible UnderPass (FLUP) to go under a Rail Line. I bulldozed the neighborhood connection on the west end of the Road (so that is no longer an option for freight traffic). Then I extended the Road to the east and had it turn south to make a new neighborhood connection there. I drew a Rail Line running north / south crossing the Road. The sims in town protested saying it was dangerous and time consuming to have to wait for the trains to pass. So, we will tunnel under the Rail Line to alleviate their concern. Here's how it looks as we start this project:

 

Like in the Street under Road tutorial above, I bulldozed one tile on either side of the network we want to have traffic pass under. In this case it's the Road which is removed on either side of the Rail Line. Next I selected FLUP from the Transportation / Build Roads menu, positioned it at the old intersection where the Road crossed the Rail Line and pressed the Tab key until it became the Diagonal underground route under straight Rail.

 

Next I pressed the End key until it became the Straight underground route perpendicular under straight Rail:

 

Here it is after clicking to plop it. That one Rail tile now looks like regular Rail Line with the texture you see when Rail is adjacent to Ag or Industrial zones:

 

I then selected FLUP again and positioned it on the end of the Road on the east side of the Rail Line. By default it is the Ramp for underground Road which is the one we want.

 

Move it one tile west so it is next to the Rail Line with its tail covering the Road:

 

Click to plop it and we see a Road ramp which looks like it is going under the Rail Line:

 

With the same FLUP on the cursor I moved to the west side of the Rail Line, but no amount of rotating with the End key nor moving it over the existing Road would make it turn the way I needed it. Grrr. So, I bulldozed more Road and one tile of the Street so there are now 4 tiles of bare ground in the path where I want the ramp and the Street has a one tile gap from that path as well. Here we see I have the FLUP on the cursor and have it positioned adjacent to the Rail Line in the path I want the Road to go. For some odd reason it decided to become the Entrance Ramp for underground Onewayroad.

 

While pressing the End key several times it flipped and flopped around every which way (kinda like I imagine a fish being reeled in would do) and it eventually became the Ramp for underground Road in the proper orientation:

 

Click to plop and now it shows as a ramp going under the Rail Line:

 

Back to the menu and I selected the plain ol' Road tool and drag it across the two unconnected ends. (The end of the west side of the Road ramp and the east end of the existing Road.) This will reconnect the Road to the Ramp.

 

Next I selected the Street tool and reconnected the Street to the Road:

 

And finally (using the Route Query tool) we see the Freight Truck is now using the new FLexible UnderPass:

 

In summary, it seems that one needs to clear most other nearby transportation networks to make creating a FLUP easier. On the side that matches its default orientation it isn't a problem, but on the side where it just doesn't like to provide the correct orientation, removing the other Road and Street pieces to create an empty work space seems to be the best solution.

 

[simlacroix 274]

THANKS A LOT.

[nilepereiraa 21]

hey Corina! I was wondering about how do you get those round things at the end of the road?

Is it part of NAM? Or am I just using an outdated version.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

5 hours ago, Nile_TC said:

hey Corina! I was wondering about how do you get those round things at the end of the road?

Is it part of NAM? Or am I just using an outdated version.

Yes, the round things are a part of NAM. I'm using version 34. They are called Cul-De-Sacs. I'm pretty sure you get them with the default install options, but I can't say for sure since I had a custom install going when I did the above screenshots.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

This is in reply to this question:

On 8/4/2016 at 5:43 AM, Vasilij said:

Hello, I'm trying to put an avenue that passes UNDER ground rail, but I can not connect the two sides of the avenue. How can I do it?

 

I don't have time before work this morning to make this an entire tutorial in and of itself, but the one above about a Road Under a Rail is all the same except the following:

Use two Straight underground route perpendicular under straight Rail flups side by side:

 

Then use the Ramp for underground Avenue on both sides:

 

And, ofc, replace the Road in the above (scroll up) tutorial in all instances.

[Vasilij 1]

Tnx a lot

[Handyman 765]

Excellent work Cori. I struggled when I first tried using FLUPs too, wish these were around then.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

Well, if we're going to resurrect this thread: At my first opportunity to use FLUPs, I'm gonna see what they look like in the subway view. If the tunnel doesn't show, then I'll be writing in the NAM suggestion thread.

I'm also wondering if FLUPs can cross each other or Maxis tunnels (i.e. could I construct an underground flt-under stack?). And what about highways? Do FLUPs have a discussion thread somewhere that talks about traffic capacities etc?

Experimentation is in order to see what mischief I can get into 

[rsc204 21,805]

4 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

At my first opportunity to use FLUPs, I'm gonna see what they look like in the subway view.

They don't show up there, because they are not a subway. If you use the query tool though, it will show the path of the FLUPs as you hover over them. For a visual example you could look at my YouTube NAM tutorials (link in my sig).

Quote

If the tunnel doesn't show, then I'll be writing in the NAM suggestion thread.

Further FLUPs development is not going to happen. Beyond a possible new implementation in future, but there has been no development on that for some time. See Tarkus' post here:

4 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

I'm also wondering if FLUPs can cross each other or Maxis tunnels (i.e. could I construct an underground flt-under stack?)

Maxis tunnels, yes. Subways too. But FLUP x FLUP is simply impossible I think, you'd have traffic jumping between height levels. One thing to remember, FLUPs are not like tunnels, they take up a tile of land where placed. If that tile is a transit network, then there is nothing lost. But if that tile is otherwise empty, you won't be able to place buildings or anything else where the FLUPs are.

4 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

And what about highways?

There are basic FLUP pieces for the MHW and most Ortho RHW networks. Not sure if that's what you were asking about though?

4 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

Do FLUPs have a discussion thread somewhere that talks about traffic capacities etc?

Capacities should mirror the network used so far as I know. Again I'm not sure if there is a specific FLUPs thread. But given there is no development on them, probably best in the NAM General Support Topic.

[MissVanleider 1,850]

It always annoyed me i couldn't 'shift-tab' back through the ring because that stupid steam overlay came up. Had no idea i could a) disable the overlay and then b) that shift-tabbing worked. You guys! You rock! (Quietly) 

[huzman 445]

I'm just getting into the NAM and such, and I find your tips very useful. AGAIN.

My problem is that I don't know how to use those 'culs-de-sac' and underground ramps. In other words, how to use the NAM features.

For instance, where is the 'Transport Tolls/Build Roads' ? How do I use the NAM's road/street instead of the normal MAXIS ones ?

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

1 hour ago, huzman said:

My problem is that I don't know how to use those 'culs-de-sac' ...

My answer (guess) a few posts up was they were part of the standard install and that is incorrect. I believe it came up about the same time in another thread and was correctly answered by someone else. They are selected during a custom install.

For your other questions I'll confess I don't know.

My initial flupping around is as far as I've been with the NAM myself. I got sidetracked with my CORIMAPS research and later wrote that guide. Since I needed to start and exit the game so many times I removed NAM to speed up the load time. Then I did my Shoppes threads. And after that I started playing and posting my farms region. I definitely will be using NAM sometime in the future. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  

The good part is one of the NAM gurus will have answers when they log on and have time to reply. In the meantime find any post by @rsc204 and check out the tutorial links in his signature.  

[huzman 445]

My ! What a busy lady : Like I said before, do ever go to sleep ?

Now,  that

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

the standard install and that is incorrect

Maybe, maybe, I been moving files back and forth and they may have tangle every thing up. Deleting and re-installing SC4D seems daunting. I think I'm going for a coffee break, come back and face the future.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

1 hour ago, huzman said:

Maybe, maybe, I been moving files back and forth and they may have tangle every thing up. Deleting and re-installing SC4D seems daunting. I think I'm going for a coffee break, come back and face the future.

Cori is referring to installing the NAM, not SimCity 4.  In the NAM installer you can customize which NAM features are installed:

 

 

In the section above you can select the desired appearance of roads and streets.  The "Retextured Standard Road Textures" will give you American streets with cul-de-sacs.  There are also several European-inspired options to choose from.

[APSMS 1,892]

On 2/5/2017 at 10:02 AM, huzman said:

How do I use the NAM's road/street instead of the normal MAXIS ones ?

To answer this, there isn't any difference e between NAM roads/streets and Maxis ones. Once the NAM is installed, all networks will comply with NAM standards. The only thing that may be different is override networks, and these are created by placing the requisite starter piece, and then dragging the indicated network through the starter (you will see the override immediately in the preview)

[rsc204 21,805]

9 hours ago, APSMS said:

To answer this, there isn't any difference e between NAM roads/streets and Maxis ones.

Not entirely true, if you choose the Retextured Standard Road Textures, it will alter the appearance of the road textures, the changes are subtle, but they are there.