LRMv.4 Mega Pack Double Light Pole Issue

[sevithethird 54]

Hi, I'm getting "doubled" light poles. I tried to play around with the files and folders but seemed can't find the workaround for this. The issue started after I installed LRMv40 Mega Pack while I already have the SMP Highway Light Modd in my plugins folder. Could it be possible that there's a conflict between the two mods? 

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

@sevithethird

While this might not help at all, I do recall reading that some mods which affect props on T21s (network pieces) sometimes need the existing one re-clicked with that same tool on the cursor and then they resolve themselves.

Ofc, if that's happening on the first time drawing them out, said re-clicking won't be a solution.

[sevithethird 54]

25 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

Ofc, if that's happening on the first time drawing them out, said re-clicking won't be a solution.

It's also on LRM's documentation, but yeah re-clicking or bulldozing aren't the solution in this case. 

I found the link the discussion thread for it but I'm not sure if it's still active. 

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

2 minutes ago, sevithethird said:

I found the link the discussion thread for it but I'm not sure if it's still active.

By this do you mean the topic hasn't had a reply in a long, long time (and that it's here on ST)? If so, the old rule about not bumping old topics has been completely rescinded as long as the new post is relevant.

[sevithethird 54]

2 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

By this do you mean the topic hasn't had a reply in a long, long time (and that it's here on ST)? If so, the old rule about not bumping old topics has been completely rescinded as long as the new post is relevant.

Yes, here in Simtropolis. I just checked back on the readme file few minutes ago and that's where I found the link to the thread. Unfortunately, I didn't find any conversation related to my situation. Saddest part is, the creator, @MandelSoft  is no longer active since his last activity was almost four years ago. =(

I actually feel it's a dead end for me here, unless someone can really attest whether or not this can be fixed. =((((

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

4 minutes ago, sevithethird said:

I actually feel it's a dead end for me here, unless someone can really attest whether or not this can be fixed. =((((

I imagine there is a solution and we do have current experts who'll know the answer. It's beyond me, but that's not a good indication for what other peeps know.

As this doesn't seem like this will really be a Quick Question, how about I parse out our posts and make them into a new topic over in the SC4 - Custom Content forum? (That's where said experts hang out and will be more likely to notice and reply.) I could make the title of the new topic be LRMv40 Mega Pack Double Light Pole Issue (which you could change by editing as your posts will still be yours).

[sevithethird 54]

6 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I imagine there is a solution and we do have current experts who'll know the answer. It's beyond me, but that's not a good indication for what other peeps know.

I'm sorry if I sounded helpless =(
 

 

8 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

As this doesn't seem like this will really be a Quick Question, how about I parse out our posts and make them into a new topic over in the SC4 - Custom Content forum? (That's where said experts hang out and will be more likely to notice and reply.) I could make the title of the new topic be LRMv40 Mega Pack Double Light Pole Issue (which you could change by editing as your posts will still be yours).

I would really appreciate that! 
 

[CorinaMarie 29,568]

2 minutes ago, sevithethird said:

I'm sorry if I sounded helpless =(

No worries. I've felt the same way with other game related things before.

 

3 minutes ago, sevithethird said:

I would really appreciate that! 

Done.

You'll need to re-follow (upper right corner of the thread) in order to get beeped (notified) of new replies. (Or, if you have the default auto-follow when replying still enabled for your account, just reply and that'll do it for you.)

[sevithethird 54]

1 minute ago, CorinaMarie said:

Done.

You'll need to re-follow (upper right corner of the thread) in order to get beeped (notified) of new replies. (Or, if you have the default auto-follow when replying still enabled for your account, just reply and that'll do it for you.)

Thanks a lot I really appreciate this! You've already helped me once before about another topic that turns out to be quite a bit complicated!  

[rsc204 21,805]

If you installed a mod that adds lights to the Maxis Highways and also installed LRM (which too adds lights to the Maxis Highways), you have a problem since only one can actually show. What we need to know is which of those two mods is causing the lights to appear as they do. I've a feeling this is related to the LRM light props, perhaps being offset/rotated wrongly, but it could also be the SMP mod/interference between the two.

Try removing the SMP mod, then click around to refresh and see if anything changes, if not we know these effects are purely from LRM. At which point I should mention that v5 exists, only there are multiple versions of the mod which can all be downloaded through separate STEX entries. I'd have to recommend updating LRM in the first instance, since the problem may only exist in v4.

[sevithethird 54]

25 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

Try removing the SMP mod, then click around to refresh and see if anything changes, if not we know these effects are purely from LRM.

I already tried that beforehand. It does the trick. The replacement sets do showed up, but ofc it goes back to the default. I mean, median/side light poles on a maxis highway won't appear unless there's a zone or lot next to it, in which SMP modifies. Maybe I should try the v5 as you've said?

[rsc204 21,805]

The next question is whether once the SMP mod is removed and you add the zoning for the T21s to appear, are the lights still out of position (i.e., not centred). LRM will replace the actual lights in use so it would be possible to load the SMP after LRM, which would ensure the behaviour of the SMP mod was kept for these segments, without messing with the rest of the LRM mod.

[sevithethird 54]

On 25/11/2021 at 8:39 PM, rsc204 said:

The next question is whether once the SMP mod is removed and you add the zoning for the T21s to appear, are the lights still out of position (i.e., not centred).

They appear just fine. This is how it looks like without SMP. 

[rsc204 21,805]

So whilst they are properly centred, the patterns (spacing) clearly aren't right at all and I think there must be some issue with the lights themselves. If a Prop is offset (not centred), even if the T21 pattern is correct, it can lead to bunching up like in your screenshot.

I'll delve into the LRM mod and see if I can't work out exactly what is wrong here. Since you are using v4 of LRM, I need to know which options you selected during installation, so I can be sure I'm working from an equivalent setup.

[sevithethird 54]

22 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

I need to know which options you selected during installation, so I can be sure I'm working from an equivalent setup.

Originally, I did a custom selection by mixing or choosing a particular style for each streetlight.

However, as of this writing, I can't replicate the issue (duplicated light poles). They do show up once the city is loaded, but once the highway is re-clicked, they disappear, completely. This happened after I tried chose a preset (German style). It is kind of odd because I made sure that "Maxis Highway Streetlight Position" under "Streetlight Override" is set to median. 
 

*The installation style is German. This option above is originally set to "none"  

  Edited November 27, 2021 by sevithethird  

[sevithethird 54]

30 minutes ago, sevithethird said:

However, as of this writing, I can't replicate the issue (duplicated light poles). They do show up once the city is loaded, but once the highway is re-clicked, they disappear, completely. This happened after I tried chose a preset (German style). It is kind of odd because I made sure that "Maxis Highway Streetlight Position" under "Streetlight Override" is set to median. 

I got the duplicating poles back.

 

 I simply renamed the SMP folder and file for it to load in the game first. It appears that if SMP will load after LRM, SMP will not work.

[sevithethird 54]

Just now, sevithethird said:

I simply renamed the SMP folder and file for it to load in the game first. It appears that if SMP will load after LRM, SMP will not work.

I mean, SMP won't appear in the game if it loads after LRM. When I made this latest attempt, I had the LRM uninstalled, and re-installed it with the same preset style but left the Maxis Highway Streetlight Position blank

[rsc204 21,805]

So it's important to know that LRM replaces all the streetlights that come with the base game, that's sort of it's primary function since it's the light cones that come with them that have the most dramatic change in terms of lighting things up.

The SMP mod doesn't do anything to the lights themselves, it's simply a T21 mod, in fact it only contains 4 T21s. LRM also includes T21s for the Highways. A T21 is a way of 'attaching' props to networks and it determines both under which conditions they will appear as well as the placement.

You can't mix and match T21s (generally speaking), combining them to get the effects of two mods doesn't usually work, one will cancel out the other or as you are seeing, it will end up with unintended problems. Where both mods use the same IDs, one will simply override the other, but T21s are more complicated here. Since more than one T21 can use the same Network ID (i.e. affect the same piece), even if the T21 IDs themselves are totally unique. In this case for the Regular and Elevated highway, only one of each uses the same ID when both mods are installed, which is messing up the positioning of the lights.

You must either remove the 4 T21s from LRM that cover the same pieces or otherwise remove the SMP mod. The good news is that changing the LRM T21s so they don't require zoning is very simple to do. However, LRM actually covers around 300 T21s for the highways, because each different network piece has a unique ID, for example a T21 for the standard straight won't cover one with a road under it. Applying this to every T21 is more work than I'm willing to sign up for, but the basic pieces as otherwise covered by the SMP mod are in this patch:

zT21_MHW_MedianLights_NoZone.dat

Place this file in the same folder as the original file T21_MHW_MedianLights and it *should* work. Ideally you want to take the original file and the patch and DATPack them together. Duplicate/override T21s cause all sorts of funny problems and DATPacking them together will avoid this. Of course this all assumes you've removed the SMP mod too.

Here is a quick test setup showing the light placement with my patch present:

However, whilst it may seem like everything is fine, without zoning the lights don't receive any power:

Hence to actually see the lights at night, you must ensure power reaches the highway via some method. I made a similar mod for the RealHighway (RHW) and specifically kept them so zoning was required, precisely because of this problem. It has two benefits to my mind, one you actually have a way to control whether or not a given section is lit, plus if a light appears it should always be powered, unlike the NoZone method.