Left-hand drive conflicts?

[VitaBellae 25]

Sorry for the painfully stupid question here. Just did a fresh install, with fresh plugins, and was thinking if it'd be worth switching over to LHD (as I'm from Australia and we drive on the left here). So I was wondering if anyone out there who uses LHD in their regions, have you come across any plugins you've installed that came into conflict with it? I have no idea how the game mechanics of this works, so sorry if this question is stupid.

 

Thanks in advance.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

3 hours ago, Activate said:

Sorry for the painfully stupid question here.

No worries. When it's all new and overwhelming the question isn't stupid.

Try these threads and let us know if you still have questions about it after that:

 

[rsc204 21,808]

Speaking as a predominantly LHD user and NAM Developer, I can tell you LHD has been an uphill battle. Support for LHD in the NAM can sometimes be a little flaky, mostly stop lines on the wrong side of the road, paths that don't have LHD variants and very occasionally, features with no LHD support at all.

Stop Lines / Textures

It would probably help if I explain how LHD works in practise within the NAM/SC4. Typically for textures, you need a special set, although the defaults are mostly neutral without stop lines, so it's not the biggest problem. Not to mention, some pieces don't support mirroring, this means if you drag a diagonal from top to bottom over a road for example, the stop lines will be one way. But dragging from bottom to top over the road, the stop lines reverse instead. This is an issue that affect both RHD and LHD installs, so it's not strictly a LHD problem. Most pieces however do flip correctly, so provided you have LHD textures, they display fine.

If you use my TGN and SWN (currently unreleased, but the SEN mod it's based on is on the STEX) mods, I've tried my best to fully include LHD support:

Of course these are big changes, but together you will get a very compatible LHD setup. TGN only makes sense if you use one of the four HD Terrain Mods. SEN only works with Paeng's Sandstone Sidewalks and EU textures, but when SWN is released many more sidewalks will be supported, in addition to US textures too.

MGB - LHD-NWM-Tuleps Center-tile fix.zip
This patch fixes the EU TuLEPs for LHD Support.

Paths

The next problem you'll likely encounter is with paths. Typically, SC4 knows you are using LHD and simply reverses the paths automatically. However, rail-based networks were never supported by Maxis, these require dedicated paths for LHD. So any piece with Rail, El-Rail or Monorail as part of it can be affected, including overrides like HSR and GLR. This is a minor issue within the NAM, but there are gaps. Actually, if you find one, just let me know about it, I'll either have patched it or I'd happily do so. The paths don't break anything, it just stops automata or UDI from acting normally, which I dislike intensely.

LHD NAM Paths Patch.zip
This patch fixes the main missing LHD paths from NAM, mostly for Overpass x Rail/GLR networks.

T21s

You might ask what the hell is a T21? Well you know when you connect two roads in a 4-way intersection, you'll see traffic lights? The props that display are handled by T21s. By default all stop lights are on the wrong side of the road, but this fantastic mod by Maarten fixes that:

The other thing that's on the wrong side is the crossing barriers on Rail Crossings. Again, simply fixed by this fantastic mod by Jondor.

Not to mention that both these mods look so much better than the default props too. There are other T21s out there, but few where LHD/RHD matters, things like placement of trees really don't need to be LHD specific.

Custom TE Lots

A TE is lot is a lot that allows transit networks to pass through them. This includes any station where you drag the network through it. When modded correctly, these should almost always support LHD, but sadly not all are. Some have complex custom paths, in which case if the modder does not include LHD variants, it won't work.

However, it's a two second job to switch paths directions if you know what you are doing. So again if you do come unstuck, feel free to ask for help.

Summary

I really hope this whole raft of potential pitfalls does not put you off. I wanted to explain the issue, but show that there are many solutions. When I started playing I considered ditching both EU Textures and LHD for the longest time, because I was frustrated with their coverage. Instead of doing that, I dedicated myself to fixing the problems instead. As a result, I'm confident that these days things are nowhere like as bad. It does take a little more work to setup, but both EU and LHD are so intrinsic to the style of my cities, I'm glad I didn't ignore them.

With the exception of TE Lots / NAM networks, there is no content out there that won't work with LHD. Since those are the only things that require LHD support.

[VitaBellae 25]

Wow, thank you @rsc204That's a mountain of information! Everything I need to get a head start on my LHD challenge.

One thing I was wondering as I was going through plugins, will RTMT road labels be in the correct position with LHD? Also I can't seem to unzip MGB - LHD-NWM-Tuleps Center-tile fix.zip, any reason why this might be?

 

Thanks again!

[rsc204 21,808]

They will be if you use the special "UK" Bus Markings like I do:

Ignore that the car is driving on the wrong side, as part of development I'd accidently been using the wrong option when I took this.

Are you in the UK/Making UK-themed cities? The Bus Signs/Telephone boxes I'm showing here are my own custom ones, if you are interested, I've attached them to this post.

MGB_RTMT Props.zip

[VitaBellae 25]

I'm going for a suburban Australian look, but I doubt I'll ever find Telstra payphones anywhere. I'll give your phone booth a go. Thanks again. Maybe one day I'll do a London region. Maybe I'll find some DLR signs too, haha. Used to ride from Blackwall to Bank every day for work.

[rsc204 21,808]

1 hour ago, Activate said:

but I doubt I'll ever find Telstra payphones anywhere

I can't say I would have been paying attention. But there are quite a few payphones in various prop packs you might also consider. This is a very UK-centric design, but more generic ones exist too. Making a prop you find into an RTMT override is really pretty simple. Just adjust the Resource Key Type 1 property of the prop exemplars to match the ID of the model you want to use and it will automatically populate your RTMT lots.

As for Australian props, @Reddonquixote is one of the most prolific AUS batters, perhaps he has something? I think he made a lot of street-furniture as part of @noahclem's GLR project (WIP), so perhaps there is something unreleased. A polite PM is usually enough to get hold of some goodies .

[rsc204 21,808]

On ‎09‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 6:24 AM, Activate said:

Also I can't seem to unzip MGB - LHD-NWM-Tuleps Center-tile fix.zip, any reason why this might be?

Sorry, think I missed this before. No idea what happened, looks like the file was corrupted. I've just re-uploaded this fix and tested, should be working now .

[VitaBellae 25]

1 minute ago, rsc204 said:

Sorry, think I missed this before. No idea what happened, looks like the file was corrupted. I've just re-uploaded this fix and tested, should be working now .

Awesome, thanks for that.