Elevation problems when using Real Railway mod

[ZaneyZap 11]

Hi All, I hope you can help me with this issue

I cannot figure out how to use the real railway mod now that the old maxis rails are gone.

It's fine  as long I'm working on flat terrain but anything else gives me gray hair.
See the 2 pictures I've attached. When I connect the rails, the surrounding terrain gets flatten, or in other similar  cases the terrain elevation goes crazy.

How can I fix this?
I hope I can learn the ins and outs of this mod, because it is frustrating me to the point where I have been looking for ways to get the old maxis railroads back.

 

[rsc204 21,808]

There is an option in the NAM installer, which is installed by default, that adds adjusted Tunnel and Slope properties for the Rail network. The file "RealRailway_SlopeParameters" is located here:

Plugins\Network Addon Mod\2_Additional Network Features\Rail (RealRailway)\c_RealRailway_Tunnel\Tunnel and Slope Parameters

You can remove that to restore the original slope settings, but there is a problem. Without the adjusted Tunnel Properties, the new RRW Spec tunnel portals may not look very good. I think in the first instance you need to ask yourself if Slope Mods are something you might warm too. Many players prefer more restrictive, but also more realistic slopes when drawing networks. Of course Maxis made the defaults user friendly, so you can pretty much build anywhere.

Ideally if you really don't want to keep the Slope settings, you should keep the new Tunnel settings, but that would require a bit of modding. Therefore I've attached a replacement for the original file, which does this, for those who prefer the default Slope settings. You should remove the original file and replace it with the attachment, DO NOT keep both.

RealRailway_SlopeParameters_TunnelOnly.dat

[ZaneyZap 11]

Thank you so much!

It worked, and I can happily continue my city building again

[paddy0174 58]

@rsc204

Sorry for jumping in here, but my question seems to fit better here, than in the general NAM support thread. But please feel free to move it, if you see fit.

Since NAM37 I have the problem, that my normally used Slope Mod doesn't work anymore. It's the original BRF-Tunnel-and-Slope-Mod. Is there any chance getting this to work again? I very much like the restrictive way, this mod works, especially for the RRW (L2 needs 22 tiles). Would be a shame to loose it.

Thanks

[paddy0174 58]

Nevermind, I found a work around. I just put the slope-mod *.dat file into the last NAM folder (`z_NAM Controller_RHD`), so it would def. load after NAM, and what should I say - it works!

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

On 7/23/2020 at 1:29 PM, rsc204 said:

You should remove the original file and replace it with the attachment, DO NOT keep both.

RealRailway_SlopeParameters_TunnelOnly.dat

You can have both. There's another thread where the tunnel numbers were given. With iLives, you can enter those numbers into your own personalized RR slope exemplar, and then everything will be perfect (search me and "tunnel")

[rsc204 21,808]

19 hours ago, paddy0174 said:

Nevermind, I found a work around. I just put the slope-mod *.dat file into the last NAM folder (`z_NAM Controller_RHD`), so it would def. load after NAM, and what should I say - it works!

Thing is, you can only have one set of settings for each network, all you have done is override the NAM settings with your slope mod. Both the MHO and RRW settings are primarily there to ensure the replacement tunnels blend with the slopes properly.

In order to achieve that if you are using a custom slope mode, you will need to edit your current mod so it has the tunnel properties from the RRW one. After that, you can either delete the NAM file "RealRailway_SlopeParameters.dat" or load your custom slope mod after NAM.

8 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

There's another thread where the tunnel numbers were given.

Is there? I did give them for MHO, but at the time didn't have a copy of the RRW one to compare. Of course I may have missed it, but I didn't see anyone giving these figures out. Just in case though, those would be:

MinTerrainSlopeForTunnelStart	12
MaxTunnelSlope	7
TunnelResourceIds	0x0ADD0000,0x0ADD1000
TunnelModelHeights	7.5,7.5

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

8 hours ago, rsc204 said:

RRW:

MinTerrainSlopeForTunnelStart 12

MaxTunnelSlope 7

TunnelResourceIds 0x0ADD0000,0x0ADD1000

TunnelModelHeights 7.5,7.5

MaxTunnelSlope only affects the elevation difference between tunnel end-points, so it is adjustable. The other three parameters could affect appearance, though I'd sincerely hope that MinTerrainSlopeForTunnelStart would not (feel free to experiment in a dummy region / city).

TunnelResourceIds is critical, but I expect those codes to be unchanged from vanilla. If not, then those values make all the difference between vanilla and RRW.

[rsc204 21,808]

10 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

MaxTunnelSlope only affects the elevation difference between tunnel end-points, so it is adjustable. The other three parameters could affect appearance, though I'd sincerely hope that MinTerrainSlopeForTunnelStart would not (feel free to experiment in a dummy region / city).

You might get away with adjusting the MaxTunnelSlope, but that may possibly affect how the tunnel portal has to cope with angles. MinTerrainSlopeForTunnelStart is about ensuring a good visual transition between the tunnel portal and the cut into the hill, so lower figures may in particular cause visual issues.

10 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

TunnelResourceIds is critical, but I expect those codes to be unchanged from vanilla. If not, then those values make all the difference between vanilla and RRW.

Whilst I believe the first Rep is unchanged, an additional second rep has been added. Likewise the TunnelModelHeights now needs two reps and the values there shouldn't be messed with.

In any case, these are the settings used in NAM, there is always wiggle-room to experiment should users prefer to do so. But if you want to replicate the Properties that control tunnels, such that the NAM portals work without the included Slope Mod, (note in the installer at least, it's both or neither), these settings are your starting point. It's not as if the new tunnels (with the exception of the second rep's, which I believe are for the STR portal), wouldn't work without the slope mod. But it's unlikely they would look right either.

[JessiLaurn 183]

As a reminder:  the maximum grade on main line rail in the real world is 4% -- that is, up one meter for every twenty-five meters forward. The solutions to unforgiving terrain that railroad surveyors and engineers use are excavation (cuts through hills, etc), tunnels, fills, trestles, etc. You'll note that in hilly terrain, most rail lines follow along the banks of rivers; it's usually the best path available. If you emulate these practices, you'll wind up with regions that have realistic-appearing rail networks.