High Speed Rail Project

[Andreas Roth 607]

*overriding new page bug*

[3ddz 17]

It just came to my mind that the double icon problem might be depending on the game language because no one of the english language users mentioned it. Eventually this appears only in the german language versions of the game?

So i need some more feedback, especially if it ocours in the english version too.

[LP 1]

Mhmm, I noticed two icons, sorta just shruged it off and went ahead and tested it out.

But, I must say, its quite amazing. The curves are just beautifull and with just a bit of messing I was able to get all 1700+ sims to ditch commuter rail and jump on the high speed network to shoot over to the neighboring city. However, I'll be waiting for new skins to come out, the one with it now isn't as flashy and lacks that oooh-ahhh effect I'm looking for. But eh, I won't be able to use this much because several of my regions have sucessfull monorail networks in them. I may look into the plugin manager for that though.

Anyway, thanks again, amazing job.

[3ddz 17]

I made some additional changes to the tunnel entrance an i think it looks mch better now.

Made it a bit less smoth and added some lines on the concrete.

[Dark_Jedi06 13]

I have the English version and ended up with two icons.

[JayStimson 211]

3ddz: the tunnel entrance looks better.... although i'm not feeling the style matches very well with the general style of the new tracks. wish i could offer some constructive advice but artistic criticism is not my forte. sorry. something more imposing looking ?

As far as the traffic control parameters ... I agree with AR that the traffic exemplar should be in a separate file. Very nice of him to offer creating an installer. I'd take him up on the offer.

Finally, .... I took a look at the speeds and capacities in the exemplar and changed the max speed to 4,000 (yours is 6000) in my NAM exemplar because I'm using the 5x10x10x perfect pathfinding version and didn't want the capacities reduced to 2x (I have the NAM loading last) . I might bump it back to 6,000 after testing. I'm sure AR can figure out a method for dealing with the various combinations to make it somewhat straight forward for the user to match up HSR with NAM on capacity and speed to their preference. Just thought I'd share the info.

Now I'm going to go test it in-game.

Final Note: Very well done !!!! A great innovation.

[giorgos69 52]

I also have double icons english version.

Also, the train dosnt seem any faster than Monorail??

[Andreas Roth 607]

I just had a closer look at the files, and it supports my earlier conclusion - since there's only one traffic speed/capacity related exemplar file, it has to be separated, like in the NAM, since not everybody wants such "radical" speed settings. Adjusting all traffic plugins that come with the NAM might be a tedious work, but for the end user an installer similar to the NAM would be feasible. But as I said, you could also instruct the user to use Traffic Cop for editing the file.

The doubled menu icon is not caused by the NAM, as I assumed earlier; I can't find a doubled exemplar file, which usually causes problems like this. But if everything fails, I'd suggest to remove it entirely, along with the modified costs per tile. 1000

[SC4BOY 20]

Andreas, would it be possible to make the installer, as the last step in the install, pop up a "plainly written" set of choices for the user to choose from, and that entry would then be used to modify ONLY THE MONORAIL speed? By plainly written I mean in some sort of "400Km/Hr" type entry instead of "6000" program units, etc.

Do I read you correctly that it is not possible to speed up the monorail independently? Sorry if I am a bit dense. If one chooses ONLY the NAM parameters as they are currently written, what would the speeds transfer to for 1X, 2X, 5X (forget if this is NAM choice) and 10X.

Isn't it also true that capacity is not an issue as I've read before that the monorail had no "capacity" limit?

I suppose commute distance would still apply?

Personally I don't really wish to have all my other items thrown out of whack just for the HSR.. I'm willing to accept the "old" monorail speed if necessary even tho it would be soooo sweet if it had like a 2x or 3x over mono use..

[Yoman3 5]

Alright that sounds cool. All I rly need is a HSR terminus and I'm good. Howevere could I see the power car on the skin. Is it based on something?

[3ddz 17]

Im at the moment reworking the overhead wires, since i cant get the prop things to work correctly im now putting them in the actual 3d track model which will increase the polycount a bit

but i think its not too dramatical....

but if anyone has a solution for my prop problem i would prefer to use props instead of real geometry

@SC4BOY: what he means is that all the network speeds for road street highway and so on are stored in one file so you have to replace this file when you want to change monorail speed.

So you cant adust the monorail speed seperate.

@Andreas Roth: im also not so happy with the night lighting and some other things so i think i will rerender the station. Since i now use BAT for 3dsmax i think i can improve the rendering quite a bit.

About the double icon i have actually no idea why it shows up twice. All i did was to copy the exemplar from simcity1.dat into my dat and changed the values...

[LBraden 14]

Okay Guys, I have returned to find one of the best things to come out of here, as many say, second only to the NAM

I would like to say,

By gods this is an excellent mod, when will be finished totally, as that I do like it, and it seems to fit to only get my system working 100% here, just to play SC4 again

[Yoman3 5]

I forgot to add to my last post that I can currently BAT bridges.

I remembered that you guys need a bridge to cross longer streaches of water. I could possibly BAT the bridge for it and pass it on to 3ddz for the modeling and HSR stuff for it? The only problem is I currently havent tried to make a dragable bridge. I might be able to make a BAT that could reskin the monorail bridge though?

[jj88 23]

looks cool but it shouldn't replace monorail

[toxicpiano 125]

well, how would you suggest we get it into the game then?

[jj88 23]

hmm i wonder

[vester_DK 477]

Yoman: Please dont use shoortings like rly. Not everybody has english as there first language and using shortening that makes it's harder to read.

To quote the Etiquette forum (taken from the The All in One Guide to Posting on Simtropolis):

2. Do not type in abbreviations or overuse netspeak. While most netspeak is universal, let's try to use full words and sentences when possible. #337$p34|{ 1$ 3$p3(14##% 4||||0%1||9 (Leetspeak is especially annoying).

3. Proper grammar and spelling are appreciated. If you are an able English-speaking member, please type in proper English and avoid overuse of netspeak abbreviations. Likewise, please be patient with non-English speaking members trying to write in English.quote>

[Andreas Roth 607]

Well, we can't add new types of transportation, so we can either modify the existing ones by changing their appearance and behaviour (to a certain extent), or extend them, i. e. by adding puzzle pieces (like the GLR pieces). Since the el-rail has been "touched" with the invention of the GLR mod, using the monorail network for HSRP was the best choice, considering the fact that the monorail is advertised as high-speed connection between several cities as well. With the Startup Manager, it shouldn't be too hard to use both (in different regions/cities), so it's no dramatic loss, I'd say.

@SC4BOY: As 3ddz already pointed out, all values for network speeds and capacities are stored in a single exemplar file, so we have to create multiple files for different settings, and only one can be installed (it's the same with the NAM, where you can choose between 20-something different files). The monorail has also a certain capacity limit, but it doesn't suffer from congestion, that means the commute times don't vary due to the current usage (speaking in pictures: there can't be any monorail traffic jams that slow down the trains ).

[thebestguy 0]

I have just added the HSRP to my city and although i have seen pics here that shows tunnel entrances, i've tried making tunnels with it but i always fail, the lines go from yellow to red without green, is this because its just a beta or is there a way to make tunnels?

[prince_of_sims 0]

most likely either because you have a slope mod installed, or the terrain is too close to the sea level/ water table, meaning the tunnel would get flooded if built

[3ddz 17]

Originally posted by: thebestguy I have just added the HSRP to my city and although i have seen pics here that shows tunnel entrances, i've tried making tunnels with it but i always fail, the lines go from yellow to red without green, is this because its just a beta or is there a way to make tunnels?quote>

 

Thats not a special HSRP problem its the same with elevated rail, for a tunnel you need a great slope so try ploping single road tiles until the slope is so great that you cant plop anymore  tiles.

Remove the tiles and do so on the other side of the hill. Then you can drag the track over the hill and you will get the tunnel.

Unfortunately it cant be made easier to get tunnels i think, have you ever tried to get an elevated rail tunnel?

The game rather cuts a grand canyon through the hill instead of building a tunnel.

[SC4BOY 20]

Well I have had the opportunity to actually BUILD IT INTO A CITY and work with it.. I have several observations

1. I don't find the NAM limits a problem based on my initial playing around.. I use Perfect2X10X10X normally and I loaded HSR first to keep my settings

2. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the stations!! I think you guys did a fine job on them and the "BIG HUB" is great.. What a fine use of HST! PS: Would it be illogical to put a subway terminus there too?

3. Kind of late to be complaining, but I just think the support posts are way too close for bridges .. looks ok elsewhere.

All in all big congrats on the team for making a FINE contrubution!! I look forward to the tweaks as you move from beta.

Oh, and I also voted wrong  I read it wrong.. I see now that it was supposed to read "how far would you like SIMS to be able to travel".. I read it to read "what is the typical closest distances I'd use the stops" .. sorry...

EEEEP.. I did come across an issue that I believe is not covered in the doc's. DO NOT place roadways at the ends of the BIG STATION where the tracks enter/leave. If you do so, you will BLOCK TRAFFIC from leaving the station via rail!! Visually it appears to be fine and the tracks readily draw through the station, but NO TRAFFIC will leave the station via rail.. It works fine as far as I can tell on the small station, but not the large station. . 

EDIT: Correction: This last point is proven through later research to be wrong. The issue only is a problem if the ground is not PERFECTLY LEVEL as only the slightest level break will stop traffic from working. The road may be placed adjacent to the ends.

[Fraz86 0]

This is an awesome project, and it's already working great in my cities. However, I have one small problem. In Zoom 3, one of the views has what appears to be a partial texture failure. It is one of the views in which the track runs from the lower left part of the screen to the upper right (the opposite view, which has similar orientation, has no problems). The texture failure only affects the left part of the track, which seems odd to me because I was under the impression that the whole surface of the track is a single texture. The left part of the track is covered up by a texture composed of red, green, and white shapes. This isn't a big deal, considering that it only shows up in one particular view at one particular zoom level, but do you have any idea what the problem might be? I can try to post a picture tomorrow if it would help. Thanks.

[3ddz 17]

Originally posted by: Fraz86 This is an awesome project, and it's already working great in my cities. However, I have one small problem. In Zoom 3, one of the views has what appears to be a partial texture failure. It is one of the views in which the track runs from the lower left part of the screen to the upper right (the opposite view, which has similar orientation, has no problems). The texture failure only affects the left part of the track, which seems odd to me because I was under the impression that the whole surface of the track is a single texture. The left part of the track is covered up by a texture composed of red, green, and white shapes. This isn't a big deal, considering that it only shows up in one particular view at one particular zoom level, but do you have any idea what the problem might be? I can try to post a picture tomorrow if it would help. Thanks.quote>

 

Sorry but i have absolutely no idea what you are talking about?!?

Please post a pic if possible, so i can see what the problem is.

[simpletown24 0]

I installed the High Speed Railway Project into my plugins folder and now all my monorails are replaced with the HSRP, and all the 'Y' intersections are ruined. I have double HSRP icons also and my monorail icons have disappeared. I also tried deleting HSRP from the plugin folders and did a restart but that didn't help. All my cities/regions monorails have been damaged and inoperable big time. Please help me.

Simpletown24.

[Andreas Roth 607]

@simpletown24: You should have read the description - the HSRP is a replacement for the monorail, so naturally it will affect all monorails that have been placed in your region. In addition, it was clearly labeled as "beta", so bugs and errors are likely to happen.

[SC4BOY 20]

Originally posted by: simpletown24 I installed the High Speed Railway Project into my plugins folder and now all my monorails are replaced with the HSRP, and all the 'Y' intersections are ruined. I have double HSRP icons also and my monorail icons have disappeared. I also tried deleting HSRP from the plugin folders and did a restart but that didn't help. All my cities/regions monorails have been damaged and inoperable big time. Please help me.

Simpletown24.quote>

 

All of these things are mentioned in this thread AND most is in the readme files as well..

I do have another item to note that I have not seen mentioned elsewhere. You might add this to the to-do list as you go through the beta revisions.. The HSR rail bridges don't show on the "transportation view" of the regional view... I'm sure this is some simple setting, but thought I'd let you know. If this has been noted elsewhere, I apologize.  WHOA!! I was completely wrong here, but this leads to another strange issue??? I exited and played an adjacent region where I reconciled edges.. and my bridges completely dissappeared.. I am not reporting this as a PROBLEM as I am not sure what causes it.. I am mentioning it only so that if anyone else has something like this happens or if it happens to me again, we will have 2 rather than 1 point of data.. I must have done something weird during the reconcile process, so probably it isn't anything.. LOL

[3ddz 17]

@simpletown24: Im sorry but there is nothing i can do for you, the HSRP is a monorail replacement so its not recommended to use it in cities that already use monorail since 

it drastically changes the network characteristics.

You will have to redrag the broken parts of your monorail network after you removed the modd.

@SC4BOY: I have no idea why the bridges dont show up in the transportation map, i havent changed anything on the bridges except replacing the models. About the reconcile thing i have to do some test. But personly i never use reconcile edges in a build city because it alsways does strange thing even whit no modds involved, like crashing nearly the halv city and so on.

[jj88 23]

I just tried the mod in a test city it was great

Thinking about it, it doesn't really matter if it replaces monorail as monorail is used that much

[Franzeus 0]

Hi, I found the new High Speed Rail project very interesting, and I´m trying to implementing it in my regions to see the results. So far I have to say everything was done very well, I really like the tracks (very realistic), so I had a look around at the train hubs here and there, to give some suggestions in case someone wanted to design a Grand High Speed railway station, as the system of transportation in Europe seems to be focused on a double system: the normal rail network and a whole new system of high speed railways with its own stations, connected to the old stations but able to work indipendently. Here are some examples, in case someone wanted to have a look and decide to design some cool looking stations (I like the station implemented in this mod but I find it somehow "static", like a Lego building.

Firenze Belfiore