Removing zigzag sidewalk effect on diagonal avenue?

[jonnyquest 71]

I'm about to pull my hair out over this! So I've got a diagonal avenue in one of my cities. At some point some development took place on one end of the avenue and the sidewalk texture appeared in this ugly zigzag pattern:

I tried using sidewalk filler pieces to even out the pattern (this lot specifically)...

but after plopping down several of them, the sidewalk texture of the avenue changed back to grass!

Has anyone successfully fixed this issue? I'd really prefer for the avenue to just have a simple grass texture, but I'd also settle for sidewalk filler pieces that don't somehow revert the avenue back to grass. I swear I'm about to give up on this game, every so often I get sucked back into it and end up eventually giving up because of obnoxious quirks like this..

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

Not familiar with that set. Try another one-

 

[jonnyquest 71]

This worked, although for anyone else who finds this thread, I found a better solution. I placed some of the tiles next to the avenue which caused the grass texture to reappear, then with the highway disconnector tool that's part of NAM I was able to delete those tiles. Aesthetically they disappeared, although the element of them that dictated wealth level and created the grass texture remained. So I was able to get back the grass texture along the length of the avenue, which really looks better than having unnecessary sidewalks the width of the road in an uninhabited area.

[rsc204 21,857]

To explain what happens in this scenario, it's important to know that the Avenue network is unique in that the wealth of a given tile will not be specific to the zone/lot touching it. Rather for Avenues a given stretch, usually between intersections, is wealthed based on the most prevalent zoning type along its length.

So when Med-High density zoning became the most prevalent type for this segment, it caused the entire section to show full sidewalks. However, Plop Lots don't have the ability to change density and usually not the wealth either, some examples like the Maxis Parks can, so in essence most such lots activate Low Density $ Wealth zones. As the number of such fillers you are using increased, Low density $ Wealth took over as the dominant wealth type, so the entire avenue changes.

15 hours ago, jonnyquest said:

I placed some of the tiles next to the avenue which caused the grass texture to reappear, then with the highway disconnector tool that's part of NAM I was able to delete those tiles. Aesthetically they disappeared, although the element of them that dictated wealth level and created the grass texture remained.

I suspect when removing them this way, it left the 'zoning' behind but removed the lots, however if you want to do this, there is an easier way. By default networks without any zoning or lots show as unzoned, but of course Avenues don't because if one part of a segment is zoned, all parts are. If you select a zoning tool, any of the Res, Com or Ind will work, place the cursor next to an unzoned network, then whilst holding CTRL down, drag the zone from the outside of the networking 'into' it. This 'fake zoning' allows you to wealthify segments that would otherwise look bare and will even transmit power as if zoning existed along that section.

Everyone comes across the diagonal jaggies issue eventually, there are many solutions/mods which can help better control the wealthing. For example in this scenario, my Diagonal Filler Set includes half-tile grass textures, which can be used to provide a neater edge in such situations:

Similar lots exist for all Grass and Sidewalk wealths, in addition to many other useful pieces for dealing with the jaggies.

[matias93 7,535]

I've always wondered if this couldn't be solved by modding the fillers to be considered by the game as high density...

[jonnyquest 71]

5 hours ago, matias93 said:

I've always wondered if this couldn't be solved by modding the fillers to be considered by the game as high density...

Probably could be if I felt like digging into iLive Reader. Kind of a ridiculous oversight that they aren't already coded this way, at least the ones I was using

[rsc204 21,857]

9 hours ago, matias93 said:

I've always wondered if this couldn't be solved by modding the fillers to be considered by the game as high density...

3 hours ago, jonnyquest said:

Probably could be if I felt like digging into iLive Reader. Kind of a ridiculous oversight that they aren't already coded this way, at least the ones I was using

Having spent a lot of time trying to find a way to do this, I can confirm that at present there is no clear or consistent method to mod a Plop Lot in this manner. The mechanism that allows for wealth to be triggered by a Plop Lot seems to be no more complex than the Wealth Property of the Buildings Exemplar. Whilst it is possible to assign a wealth level, no matter what you do every Plop Lot will end up with Low Density zoning, so already we have a limitation. However, if you look at the example here, using $$$ wealth fillers along an unzoned road, there is a problem with the wealth too:

You may need to look closely, but the sidewalk part has been given the $$$ wealth sidewalk (using a custom sidewalk here), in fact even the T21s recognise this as $$$ wealth. However, the same is not true of the grass, for reasons I can't explain it doesn't invoke the $$$ textures for the road network in this situation. So the only way to get a good match is to use $ wealth fillers and switch between Grass or Sidewalks depending on what else is happing in a given situation. Sometimes if sufficient zoning is present, it can help to have the right wealth for a filler, but by itself it just isn't enough to provide for a uniform look.

This is an area I am heavily invested in, given a lot of my mods attempts to fight this very problem. For example if you unify the Grass textures, i.e. use only one for all three wealths, you only need one type of filler, something possible with every version of TGN. Personally I dump the $ wealth grass and sidewalks, then try to make the $$ and $$$ ones similar enough as to minimise the problem. Likewise it’s something I spend a lot of time fighting when playing too. But there just isn’t a quick/easy solution, I doubt one even exists, I've poured more effort into this over the years than I care to admit. So if this is something that matters to you, you are left having to figure out how everything works and using tricks to try and control things.

For example, PedMalls don't (as a transit network) invoke zoning, so sometimes are better used instead of a Lot as a filler. But of course, depending on what else is in the area, the drawback can be that you'd otherwise end up with completely unzoned areas.