Creating Noise Barrier>>?

[Trigger_tre 1]

Ok I am close to finishing my first BAT. I would like my BAT to also have the function of being a Noise Barrier/Reducer as well as its other function as a pullution filter. I modified the air pollution, but....I have been unable to locate the option to modify Noise in the plugin manager.

How do I go about adding this function to my BAT?

your advice and/or links are helpful.

thanks,

-trigger

[deadwoods 542]

I tried the same thing a while back. According to the modding experts it can't be done; you can reduce the noise with a lot. You also need to be careful with the air pollution effects. I got to about -65 over 4 tiles (which is a very strong effect), but I wasn't significantly reducing the air pollution (the yellow didn't go away).

If you can get it to work, many of us would love to know how you did it. I hate the road noise/air pollution problem.

[Trigger_tre 1]

The air pollution problem is...well...not a problem. Its gone. When I get a chance later Ill post a picture of my test render object and the effects it had on my little city. I placed my BAT right down a strip of yellow pollution/high traffic road and its allllll gone.

Also I only used a -10 over a 3 tile radius = no yellow

The effects of pollution reduction might get blocked by other objects in the city like high rises for instance (not sure). I tried to test about 5 different so called air pollution BATs from the STEX and they seemed rather useless when they were blocked from the source of pollution. Its possible it has something to do with other buildings.

I am still curious about the Noise Barrier thing though....How come I see them on the STEX listed under Noise Barrier for the sides of highways if they dont really act as noise barriers? How is that possible?

If someone could clarifiy this I would be much abliged.

thanks,

-trigger

[T Wrecks 10,209]

That's possible because there is no actual noise in SC4. In the end, both noise and air pollution reduce desirability and are transmitted through the air, so apparently the programmers didn't see the need to introduce yet another parameter. That's also why the Monorail causes some air polltion, which is actually kind of stupid: The air pollution simulates a small NIMBY effect due to noise.

If you see a line like traffic noise: high in the query window of a residential building, I guess that's caused by high traffic density near the building - quite probably the same parameter that would cause a commercial building to report: customers: many.

And no, highrises don't block air pollution. Strictly speaking, nothing does. There are either lots that cause air pollution or those that reduce them. If you place several pollution-reducing lots in a row, you can simulate a barrier quite nicely. But it's impossible to create a lot with neutral stats and a behaviour such as blocks pollution, but doesn't really reduce it. Highrises, like all other RCI buildings, cause some air pollution, so they don't block anything.

[mpetryni 0]

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but don't all pollution/noise effect happen in terms of a tile radius, ie. having an effect of 2 over an area of 20, or something. And if so, how would it be possible to create a barrier?

You could create a lot which has a negative effect over a given area, but I don't think it'd work to have a barrier like those which exist in real life: with higher effects on one side than on another. This is of course in exception to the edge of the map, which acts as a pretty clear cut barrier to most sorts of desirability effects.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

You're absolutely right; water and air pollution (unlike garbage) usually come in a radius of at least 1 tile around the structure that causes them.

Of course, with larger radii, the effect is strongest in the middle and slowly diminishes towards the outside.

One thing I don't know is how the propagation of the pollution effect is calculated. Let's pretend we have a building that causes an air pollution of 100 at a radius of 20 tiles. Let's say this pollution diminishes by 5 for each tile. You would reach zero at tile 20, hence the pollution radius ends there:

100-95-90-85-80-75-70-65-60-55-50-45-40-35-30-25-20-15-10-5-0

Now if you place a structure that reduces pollution by 5 in a radius of 1 tile at the 4th tile from the polluting building (where the pollution reaches 80), it might look like this:

100-95-90-80-70-60-55-50-45-40 etc.

(-5 per tiles as per default, in case of the three affected tiles plus an additional -5 per tile because of our pollution blocker.)

Now let's pretend we add another pollution blocker at 5 tiles from the polluting lot. Would the result look like this?

100-95-90-80-65-50-40-35-30-25 etc.

This would already be quite a strong effect. Just two lots of two tiles in total width, and they could bring down the pollution at 8 tiles from our polluting building from 65 to 30 - with an effect of -5/1 tile! In this scenario, placing one single lot with an effect of -10/3 tiles at 4 tiles from the polluting building would be enough to eliminate all pollution beyond tile 5 from the the polluting building!

100-80-65-50-35-20-5-0


Of course, all this calculation is entirely theoretical and based on mere speculation. And it only treats a straight line parallel to the radius of the pollution circle, so it's terribly simplified. But it shows that you can create a kind of barrier after all - if the propagation of pollution effects is calculated according to a similar pattern as the one I outlined here.

With an effect of -(ridiculously high number)/0 tiles, even an actual barrier effect might be possible, I don't know...

My brain starts aching, I'd better stop now...

[Sam 163]

Date: 1/3/2006 4:46:59 AM
Author: mpetryni

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but don't all pollution/noise effect happen in terms of a 'tile radius,' ie. having an effect of 2 over an area of 20, or something. And if so, how would it be possible to create a barrier?

You could create a lot which has a negative effect over a given area, but I don't think it'd work to have a barrier like those which exist in real life: with higher effects on one side than on another. This is of course in exception to the edge of the map, which acts as a pretty clear cut barrier to most sorts of desirability effects.

quote>

The pollution amounts and radii are controlled by the Pollution at center, and Pollution radii properties respectively in the building exemplar, as in the picture below (first and last lines):



Note the four values at the right, separated by commas, for each of the two properties. These four values are respectively: air, water, garbage, radiation.

Traffic Noise is not a type of pollution. It is treated differently to the four pollution types.

For an explanation of how traffic noise is calculated, check out this message: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=42892&forumID=40&search=1&searchstring=#149746

[Trigger_tre 1]

Well in my experiments I have a freshly built city. It is in a new large map however I have only used a small portion of it roughly 80x60 tiles so far and have a population of about 140k. I placed 5 different types of air reducers around my city and hardly notice a difference with these....

2xPatagonia (tall skinny tower)
1xNew Hope Ionizer
1xAir Purication Plant(not sure its name)
1xMega air purifying plant(not sure its name)

*My only pollution in my city is along roads (this might be why all those Purifying lots are semi-useless).

The only noticeable reduction I noticed was in the far corner of my map were I have a Delta Turbine power plant(provides power as well as reduces air pollution) and 13xBlack hole water towers(provides water and reduces air pollution).

This is why I started to build my own bat to counter the effects of air pollution.

A. I cant afford to waste so much land on numerous purifiers
b. They seem (at least in my city) to be useless in reducing pollution from roads unless stacked in numbers.

My result from my bat (which I can place directly at the source HINT-HINT) is that all the pollution is nullified while only using a -10 to air pollution over a 3 tile radius.

So from my what I can see...the mass of air pollution and air reduction MUST deminish as it gets further from the source.

My bat is about 80% done so ill leave it up to you guys whether or not it works when I release it on the STEX.

thanks for your insights,

-trigger

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Your BAT wouldn't happen to be that tunnel thingy I saw in a different thread today?

[Trigger_tre 1]

It is. But it isnt a finished product yet.

I've added automatic doors and widows so it looks better now then the picture I posted.

I just need to find out how to make it a continuous tunnel and add some night lighting and I am done.

-trigger