pharmist

@Jesse Swiss.... Hi Jesse Swiss, thanks for asking your question about the 3x3 expressway. Yes it is possible to put the middle rail one the USA and other road paks. I will add this to my list of road experiments to create. I have not been able to keep this post on Simtropolis up to date and all of the current discussion about the experiments can be found on CXL official site forum. I have updated the main page here with all current new and updated experiments. This week I will mainly be working on the New Bus Lane experiment and an update to the Pedestrian Paths (PP's). Thanks -pharmist

I have a question for anyone who uses the UK roads. I have discovered a bug in the UK one-way roads when they have Bus Stops which causes a game Crash. At first I thought it only involved the 6-Lane road, however I have been able to replicate it on other UK one-way roads with Bus Stops. It would be a very rare circumstance that you would run into this scenario which causes the game to crash. If you layout a normal road and place a bus stop on it and also have the return bus path put another stop on the other side, then intersect the road on both sides of the bus stop with two other roads, then delete these intersecting roads, then change the road into one-way, then repeat the intersecting on both sides of the bus stop. When you try to lay the second intersecting road the game will crash. I wondered if anyone who uses the UK roads has run into this bug? I have been testing out the 6-Lane road update making sure everything functions properly and while observing one of the Bus stops I noticed something strange happening behind an unskilled Large density residence. It appeared to be a woman beating up an odd looking man, and just after they finished their skirmish I saw a HotDog kicking a boy with a back pack on. There sure is a lot of violence in this game... Here are a few pictures to illustrate what I saw. Uploaded with ImageShack.us -pharmist

Hello, I thought I would post two pictures that are kind of humorous of some tests I performed on creating better tracks for the Peds to follow on our PP's. This is one of the hardest parts of making the PP's. Creating the new tracks for my road experiments were just a matter of following the pattern used in the standard roads. There is no pattern except for the seaside pedestrian path THEJESTR showed me in the USA Pack. Since most of the PP's only use sidewalk pieces rather then road pieces this causes a problem creating the tracks for the Peds to follow at the intersections. Last night I created a little experiment to give myself more room to observe how the Peds followed the tracks I created for them. This is not meant to be a PP, only an experiment for me to gather more information for future PP updates. -pharmist I think this looks like a large parade of People, all we need is for someone to put new cloths on the Peds to make them look like a marching band.. -pharmist

Hello, I made a follow up reply to a member of CitiesXL forum I though some of you might find interesting. Here is a copy of that post. -pharmist ________________________________________________________________________ Post from CitiesXL Forum made on Jan-22-2011 @Rob.............. This is a followup to a comment you made back on page 12, "those pedestrians still seem to have path-maps for crosswalks...so this isn't just pedestrians randomly everywhere?...they have intelligence built in?". During my experiments with the PP's I found that the pedestrians do appear to follow a path-map through the cross-walks. This seems to be an unfinished part of the game or possibly the programmers could not find a way to make it function properly. They have locked out the pedestrians from traveling on the cross-walks because the intersections do not function like real intersections. You notice when cars stop at an intersection they treat it as a stop sign rather then a traffic signal. Actually each lane takes turns at the intersection and can turn from outside lanes which is not realistic. Since there are no real traffic signals at intersections, if we unlock the pedestrians ability to travel on cross-walks you will see cars driving through people at the intersections. I have experimented with this and like the "Pedestrians Exerywhere" PP experiment it can be very humorous to watch the Peds travel on their paths. If enough members show interest in making an experiment based on this I would be glad to do so. Here are a few pictures showing Peds crossing the cross-walks. -pharmist

UPDATES: 1) Z_8_LANE_ROAD_v4.25.zip:List of Experiments:Make sure to delete the old .patch file from your PAK folder called "Z_8 LANE_ROAD V4.0" before you install this new Patch.Z_8 LANE_ROAD_v4.25:CREDITS: MircoMarco AsterianUPDATE: This an update to the 8 lane road, I call it "Z_8_LANE_ROAD_v4.25". This is an update to the 8-Lane Road which fixes a bug discovered by a member of CitiesXS forum named Asterian. This is an update to the 8-lane Road which fixes a bug that had to do with the default foundation. When you made a road after raising its height the default foundation was to narrow for the width of the 8-Lane Road. I failed to realize that this road required its own default foundation layout file that had the correct width. Since I modeled this road after the Expressway it defaulted to the foundation layout file of the Expressway which is two lanes narrower then the 8-lane Road. A member of CitiesXS forum named Asterian discovered the bug and reported it to me through the forum. Because of this Asterian receives credit just like MircoMarco did for discovering the first bug with the 8-Lane Road. Take a look at the file called "Foundation_Default_T3_Expressway_40x50.layout" under the path (data/design/layout/road/foundation). This is the file that I had to create with the correct dimensions for the 8-Lane Road. You will see the positions of the two pavement pieces to be 25 and -25 to accommodate the width of the 8-Lane Road which is 50. Take a look at the file called "rf_default.class" under the path (data/design/buildings/construction/road/foundation). This is the Class file that calls all of the default foundation layout files for all of the roads. I had to add the default foundation layout file I created mentioned above for the new foundation to work. -pharmist

UPDATES: 1) Z_PED_PATH_v8.zip:List of Experiments:Make sure to delete the old .patch file from your PAK folder called "Z_PED_PATH_v6" or "Z_PED_PATH_v7" before you install this new Patch.Z_PED_PATH_v8:CREDITS: THEJESTRUPDATE: This is an update to the Pedestrian Path (PP) Experiment called "Z_PED_PATH_v8". I have only included the Normal PP version where the Peds walk just on the paths. I can make the "Pedestrians Everywhere" version of the PP if others show interest and provide feedback telling me so. This is an update to the Pedestrian Path (PP) Experiment called "Z_PED_PATH_v8". I have completely redone the entire experiment with this version. Because of this there had to be file name changes which will effect the old PP's. I have take steps this time to prevent any potential game crashes by leaving the old PP's in the experiment however I have deprecated them. This means the old PP's will still appear in your cities however they will not appear in the road menu. The new versions will appear in the road menu now with the same names and thumbnail as the old. It will be best for you to upgrade your old PP's to the New PP's by selecting each section of old PP and upgrading through the Parameter Panel, these are the New PP's. Or just delete the old PP's. You will find that the new PP's behave much better in this version. They now have the City Link so we can build next to them. They are now functional as a path for the Ped's to get from point A to point B. The Ped's now for the most part behave in a normal fashion by moving out of the way of other Ped's instead of walking through each other. I have changed some of the textures for a few of the PP's to make them behave better. I have also flipped each pavement piece 180 degrees which now makes the curves behave in a some what better fashion (except for the small road and medieval road). I was able to fix the Ski Gem PP and it now behaves like a proper PP. I was not able to fix the Beach Gem PP yet because the developers made some serious mistakes by forgetting to create the correct size junction sidewalk pieces in the Sgbin file. I will try some more to fix this because it helps me learn the sgbin files better. I have included bridges for all of the PP's. For now I had to use the small road bridge but will continue to look for better options. The PP bridges are selected through the Bridge tool and are called "Small Pedestrian Bridge" and "Medium Pedestrian Bridge". These will lay the PP6 path for the Small and the PP11 path for the Medium bridges. You will be able to upgrade the bridge to the other PP's by selecting it and using the Parameter Panel to upgrade to other PP bridges. I have separated the Small PP's (5 units wide) from the Medium PP's (10 units wide) so that only the respective sizes will be available through the Upgrade Parameter Panel.Hint: The more intersections you make with the PP's, then more Peds will appear. The larger the city also means more Peds.Please give me lots of feedback on this new PP version. I need to know if I am going in the correct direction with this experiment. -pharmist

@mrtnrin........... Thanks for the information about how you placed lights near the intersections. I no what you mean about the game not being convincing enough to buy. I took the $20 offer out of curiosity to see what if any changes were made. If this game is going to have a chance to succeed it will be through members creating new content for the game. There is not enough content to make our cities original. I am trying to add some new content with my transportation experiments. Hopefully Focus will release some tools soon so we can create new models for the game. This is the major problem holding us back, not being able to create new 3D models. -pharmist

@mrtnrin............ Hello, Thank you for informing us about the LRM mod you made for CXL09. I will check it out and see what you did. Were you able to put the street lights on the intersections? I am unsure but believe it is possible. @Aspire........... Thanks, maybe Mrtnrin would want to make a version for CXL2011. -pharmist ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, This is a brief catch-up to what I have been working on this week. First I had to make some corrections on the 8-Lane Road involving its default foundation width. I will be posting an update with the corrections and explanation this week. Second I have been working on the Pedestrian Paths (PP's) for the last 3 days. I have done little with the look of the PP's yet except replacing a few with different pavement models. My main goal is to make the PP's function properly. By this I mean that they will have a City Link allowing us to build any buildings along them. Also they need to function as true paths allowing Peds a way from point A to point B. Also the Ped's need to behave properly on the paths the way they do on sidewalks. By this I mean the Peds should not walk through each other, they should move out of the way. I have struggled to find a way to keep the City Link when I remove the Traffic. I thought there might be a way and possibly there is one yet to be discovered. Luckily for us there is another solution, one brought to my attention by a member of CitiesXL forum named THEJESTR. THEJESTR told me about the Wooden Pedestrian Path in the USA seaside Pack which functioned as a PP, no traffic on it, and still had the City Link. The problem with this solution, traffic (cars) can still use the PP's as a route however they are invisible. For me a true PP would just have Ped traffic and zero cars. Since I have not found another solution I decided to use THEJESTR's idea to expedite delivering an updated version of the PP's with functionality. THEJESTR deserves credit for the next version of the PP's. I am happy to say I have completed half of the PP's as of now. I think everyone will find these versions much more usable than the last. We still need to work on the textures to get the look we want with the least visual problems, however this can wait while everyone tests the new version of the PP's and have a chance to provide feedback. I hope to have the rest of the PP's finished by tomorrow (Friday). Thanks to everyone who has tried the PP experiment. -pharmist

@Aspire........ Thank you for the complement. Yes we can put street lights on the highways and also the interchanges I believe. Here is an example of the USA highway with street lights. I will try the interchanges some other time and report back to you. -pharmist

@Damastius........... Thank you for the complement. They do not function as well as the picture show. I am posting the experiment for everyone to try right now. -pharmist ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, This is a new experiment involving Pedestrian Paths I call "Z_PED_PATH". There are 2 versions one called "Z_PED_PATH_v6" and "Z_PED_PATH_v7". Only Use One Version. Version 6 is the "Normal" PP's where the Peds only walk on the PP. Version 7 is the "Pedestrians Everywhere" PP's where the Peds have a wider roaming path.Only Use One Version of the Z_PED_PATH Experiment. This is a New Experiment so there are no old .Patch files to remove.List of Experiments:Only Use One Version of the Z_PED_PATH Experiment. This is a New Experiment so there are no old .Patch files to remove. 1) Z_PED_PATH: OLD VERSION FOR REFERENCE ONLY Please only use these PP's in experimental cities because these PP's you build now most likely will have to be deleted with any final versions of the Pedestrian Paths (PP). This is the first attempt at making Pedestrian Paths (PP) for the game. They are by no means what I consider a final version of the PP we all want for the game. These are just a prototype allowing us to experiment with what a potential PP could look like in the future. First you will find that these PP's have no city link. This means that nothing can be built by them or it will say no link to city hall. Since there is no city link we can not use them to connect another road that has no city link either. Second all of them except the small road and medieval road will behave in strange ways at junctions. Some look better then others, but you will find this out as you experiment. Some of these problems might be able to be corrected with new textures which would mirror properly. -pharmist

Hello, This is a follow up on the rather long PP post I made last night. I made a discovery last night that some of you might find interesting. A member of CitiesXL forum named AzemOcram made a comment about a member of Generation City who had been experimenting with pedestrian Malls. I found this intriguing and felt it would fit well with the PP's. I could not find a posted Mod only pictures but wanted to make it happen. Last night I made a mistake which brought about some funny consequences. I have no idea if this is how the member of Generation City accomplished their experiment. It is kind of buggy and can make some funny action scenes but think some will want to experiment with this. -pharmist Pictures of Pedestrians everywhere........... Watch out mister, get back on the cross walk. Watch out for the old man crossing the street. -pharmist

@Damastius............ Thank you for the complement. Yes a "car" version could be made as well but would still have some strange graphic bugs like the PP. What you would want to do is just retexture the sidewalks to look like grass or dirt to simulate a road with out sidewalks. You should check out Skimbo's road texture Mods. You will find roads with the textures you are talking about. Skimbo is much better at making textures then I. -pharmist

A few pictures that got cut off the last post -pharmist

Hello, I want to talk to everyone who is interested in the Pedestrian Paths (PP's for now on). I apologize for the delay but problems with some of the other roads I have worked on has taken most of my free time. I also am very interested in the PP's because I believe they will add much needed originality to our cities not to mention a functional way for people to travel rather then car or metro. I have not had much time to spend experimenting with the PP's so what material I have useable now is a jumbled mess and not ready to post. I promise I will put something together on my next off work week for everyone to experiment with. For now there are some decisions that need to be made by those interested in the PP's. My first attempts at the PP's involved using the sidewalk pieces which makes since because that is what the Peds walk on. I figured it would not be hard to see if the experiment was even worth pursuing by just making a sidewalk into a road, which it wasn't. This method has problems though because the game editor does not know how to put the road pieces together at intersections and curbs. The editor seems to mirror the road pieces when it assembles them at intersections and curbs making this method have reversed pieces at these locations. Even though this can look rather visually disturbing, all and all they do not look bad when you take your time a laying the PP's. This problem might be corrected if we make new textures that would mirror correctly and I plan on trying this out. My second attempt involved an experiment I was performing for a member of CitiesXS who wanted a road with only one sidewalk. I ran into the same mirroring problems at junctions as I did with the PP's which led me to try various methods of correcting it. During one of these trials I noticed that I could make a road piece act as a sidewalk....yesssss This led me to experimenting with the small road turing it into a PP, and please do not worry, there will be no cars traveling on this path to run our Peds over. This is just the first run and hope to find better pieces for the PP's. Here is where we need to make some decisions. I am going to post a lot of pictures showing the Pros and Cons of what I have experimented on to date. I need to know which ones everyone thinks is worth including in the test that I will post in about 10 days from now. Please provide some feedback to aid me in choosing which ones to include in the experiment. Thanks for your interest and taking your time to share your feedback. -pharmist --------------------------------------------------------------------- These are some pictures illustrating the Pros and Cons of the PP's I have experimented with to date: These are the different PP's so far. Some are from the GEMS. See how the junction is messed up. See how the curb is messed up. The pieces are backwards. The same with this one. Another example of the reversed curbs. A silly example of what you can do with the curved road tool. See how the PP does not mesh with the road sidewalk properly. A texture change should solve this. This is an example of just a road piece with no sidewalks. It actually works pretty good. Another shot of the road piece from ground level showing how it fits with the road sidewalks nicely. Picture of same road pice from above. Picture of same road piece showing how it does not mesh with the back side of the roads sidewalk. Picture of small road turned into a PP. Notice how it works properly with the roads because it is a road. But no cars on this road, it is a PP. Another shot of small road PP from above. See how the Peds walk on both the sidewalks and the road. Another shot of small road PP from above. These last several pictures showing how the PP's look in a small park. -pharmist

@Jesse Swiss........... Thanks for the complement. I like how these roads look in my cities also. @Aspire........... I am not sure about the height of the tower/spires, however I will now be looking for that possibility when I scan the game files for the experiments. The bridge textures should be modifiable, however I am new to creating textures for the game and so far have only worked with the road textures. Sometime in the future if I become good enough at creating new textures I will not try to make some for the bridges and other items in the game. Thank you very much for taking your time to share your ideas about the game. I really appreciate it because this gives me the opportunity to see ideas I would not have thought of. -pharmist