jplumbley

The NEW Traffic Plugins Simulator "A" written by JPlumbley Simulator "B" written by Mott Please remember only ONE of the NAM_Traffic_Plugin files must be installed at one time. These are intended to replace the old NAM_Traffic_Plugins, the ones that are: 2x, 5x and 10x Capacity, 2x, 5x, 10x Commute Time and 2x, 5x 10x Speed. The is a cleanitol that will automatically remove the original files. What are NAM_Traffic_Plugins intended to do? Well, there are two Central "cores" named A and B for lack of a better identifier. These two Central Cores have both been mathematically designed to re-balance the structure of the Simulators. With new information discovered by Mott from investigations he preformed the previous Simulators have been found to be harmful to the game in some cases. Not only were the old NAM Simulators found to be flawed, but also the Vanilla Simulator from MAXIS was found to have flaws in it as well. These two Cores have been designed to limit and/or remove these flaws, as well as expand on ideas MAXIS had that simply were not implemented or not implemented properly. What is the Difference between Simulator "A" and Simulator "B"? These Simulators have been designed to do two different things. Simulator "A" has been designed by JPlumbley to extend the original travel distances set by the MAXIS Simulators. For example in the original game the MAXIS Simulator allows the Sims to walk up to 7 tiles, but with Simulator "A" the Sims will walk upto 43 tiles to get to work. This change in travel distance is due to the calculations used to allow Car Traffic to travel one full distance of a large city tile (512 tiles) on Avenues. Simulator "B" has been designed by Mott to work with the original travel distances set by the MAXIS Simulator. For example in the original game the MAXIS Simulator allows the Sims to walk up to 7 tiles, therefore in Simulator "B" the Sims will walk upto 7 tiles. Simulator "B" has also been re-calculated to be more balanced and provide better pathfinding overall. Other modifications to both Simulators include changes to the follow properties with minor variation: Congestion to Accident Probability - Revamped the probability curve. Congestion vs. Speed - Made use of this, not used to full potential by MAXIS. Sims will now look for better routes if the network is over congested. Trip Length to Minutes Display Multiplier - Used in calculations for time displays on Commute Time Graph. What is the Park and Ride Mod? The ?Park and Ride Mod? is a mod that will make it so that cars cannot reach their destination. So, what this forces you to do is place parking lots near transit systems, or in you CBD so that Sims can park and then walk or ride the rest of the way to work. These are the Simulators named with a P after the Simulator Type like so: NAM_Traffic_Plugin_AP_Easy What do the different difficulties mean? The only difference between the different difficulties is the Capacity of the networks. All have been altered from the original MAXIS Simulator. Road, OneWay Road and Avenue have all been equalized in speed and capacity in preparation for the Network Widening Mod. The following is a list of the Network Capacities for each difficulty: Easy Difficulty Street: 2250 Road / OWR / Avenue: 5600 Highway / El-Highway: 10800 Ru

Originally posted by: simzebuBut I do think a lot of things were lost in the split. I think a lot of features in the RHW seem to have disappeared following its move. But then, that could just be from the technical problems that tend to follow these major projects. quote> I dont think this is the time, nor the place for us to be getting into things "Lost" in the transition. If you think there was something lost in the transition during the RHW Project you are seriously mistaken. Here is what you may "think" was lost, but has really been re-evaluated and undergoing major re-developements in their implementation. Alex (Tarkus) was working on the MIS and Elevated RHW at the time. Since that time, Alex and I have had nurmerous discussions on how to implement these additions in a much, much more user friendly way. Puzzle Pieces have the ability to cause CTDs when being placed, so they are a type of implementation that is not entirely desirable as a first choice. Around the time of the NAM Team's decision to make SC4D its primary home, Alex and I were in the begining stages of creating the Street Addon Mon (SAM) and we were becoming to realize that the RHW could benefit largely from what we were learning from the SAM. You may have noticed that only 7 or 8 months later we would have a new RHW. What was different about the new RHW? Well, it was redesigned so that we now have "Starter Pieces" rather than side-by-side textures. Textures now have a new IID scheme, which took the most time to reorganize. The new RHW-MIS was included not as puzzle pieces but as a draggable option. RHW-6 was introduced and much more options beyond that of RHW v12. So Im not sure what was left out or lost when we changed homes. Unless..... Unless you mean, the leaving of qurlix from the RHW Team. Well, that is something of a different story. In the months leading upto and including the decision to make a new home, qurlix made alot of posts about a RHW v17 with RHW-10. Well to let you in on a little secret, even those who were part of the developement team never saw a single file from qurlix on this RHW v17. Due to this we have never been able to help him with his work, let alone continue it, leaving us to do all the leg work from scratch while still working on the other things we have been working on. The actual fact of the matter is most of us on the developement team have been left wondering if the things qurlix ever showed or talked about ever existed beyond an experimental stage. From what I have seen, we are much closer today to a RHW-10 than we were when qurlix showed his phantom "RHW v17". I think it is time that everyone realizes the NAM Team made a new home not for "political" reasons but for the good of the Team. Because what is good for the Team is what is best for the Community as a whole, without a Team, there will be no new updates.... But Im sure you guys realize this.

Originally posted by: haljackey Originally posted by: JaxCoJazz One of the major "tipping" points I noticed came when the Mod Squad: Transport was ready to release a new version of the NAM. However, the NAM cannot be released on the STEX because it exceeds 10MB in size and had to be uploaded in the modds and downloads section of the site, a place where only drik (the webmaster) can upload files. Plenty of advance time for the release was given to ensure there were no problems with the upload. Unfortanutely, drik was sick at the time and was not active for quite a while. This made many people angry and the idea for separation was gaining momentum from many major members. No one person can be blamed for this. Eventually, everything brewed into a massive melting pot that encompassed everything from mods to bats, teams, even city journals to move away from the site. The Sim City community was split. Alliances were made against other Sim City "factions" and it was tough to get along. Finally, this hit me hard as my favorite project, the Rural Highway (RHW) announced that it too was leaving ST. This was the final straw for me and I, among with many others were in a wreck. Some were outraged that these legendary projects were moving to a "sanctuary"; free from newbies making pointless posts, loading times, and all that jazz. A heated discussion took place HERE that saw the withdrawl of the project's founder (who has not made another post since) and disappearances of many of ST's beloved members. After the ashes settled, I decided to take a stand and keep the project alive by being active in both sites, bringing info back here. Some liked what I did, some didn't. After some more debate, harsh action was taken at first but the smoke settled soon after. quote> To be blatanly honest... The move of the NAM Team, has actually been something good for the community as a whole. As a result of making SC4Devotion our home, we have had much more control over our own threads than we ever had here. Our Private Boards have become a much more creative out out as they are much more versitile compared to what we have here and due to this we have had much, much more technical discussions and even some amazing experimental projects that I am unable to discuss (dont want to cause a riot LOL). One aspect that shows where we have been able to use some of the features at SC4D to the full extent is by using the first post of a "Stickied" project thread as a Readme/FAQ which has stemmed alot of those newbie questions that get asked on every page of the thread, etc. The NAM Team has flourished and our projects are getting stronger, wider and more comprehensive. This is not meant as an attack on ST, Im just saying that it has actually been a benefit for the team and by comparision to the entire community because you get a better product in the end. Yes, there were frictions, but in reality there are no lasting grudges. The members of the NAM Team, like anyone else have a limited amount of time to spend on SC4. We could spend that time making new stuff, or dealing with complaints or dealing with support issues. We have decided individually where we will update our projects, not as a result of what happened but due to the amount of time we have to spend in the community. Please remember what is best for us as a Team is best for the Community as a whole, and our goal is to provide the community with the best product we possibly can. [Edited quote formatting]

I cannot see your preview picture.. If you want something included in the SAM I would suggest you take a look through the following thread: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4369.0 -- Additional SAM Texture Nomination Thread

There is no virus in this file. I am assuming you probably have AVG, which has shown a tendancy to provide "False Positive" reports with SC4Terraformer and SC4Mapper. I have both and have had every version of them as I was involved with testing SC4Terraformer.

Originally posted by: qqHiqq For some reason, the download link here for the updated NAM doesn't work at all. Is there some known problem with it, or is it just my computer acting up...I'd register for SC4 Devotion and get the one there, but I'm lazy. quote> Id suggest registering for SC4D... It is the home of the NAM and where it is going to be available first.

Originally posted by: Bones1 I'm not criticizing NAM. I think it's the best mod ever created for Simcity. I'm just wondering if it is backwards compatible, because the coincidence of my problem starting after I installed the new NAM was rather startling. It could just be a coincidence, though.quote> Yes NAM is backwards compatible. New updates add things and make fixes. Generally if there is a problem with a certain component in the NAM it will CTD when entering the city if it was placed and then the component was broken while "updating". Or it will CTD when plopping or dragging the component. This is when things change and it is checking the components and will not find what it needs. Does the game crash when you push the "play" button? If so, there may be and existing Transit Station that has either been modified or removed. I found this bug when testing a mod for TE Stations.

Follow the links... The latest NAM has been released on other websites. Get the new NAM here: Windows Version: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=851 Mac Version: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=852

Originally posted by: SkiGeek Is everything now locked? I know some files are. not sure if all are. I talked with Dirk and we are talking with Andreas Roth and Jasoncw to get this resolved. Thanks!quote> Actually the files on the Modds and Downloads are still working. These are outdated since they are from June 2007 NAM. We are now on April 2008. Glad someone reached Dirk.

Originally posted by: SkiGeek I'll talk with Dirk and see what's up.quote> Do you have the ability to lock, or break the link, etc to the Outdated NAM so that it removes the potential of people downloading the wrong files and causing a Support Issue. Until a solution is found.

Originally posted by: Bones1 Originally posted by: Tarkus bones1, it's completely compatible with existing cities using previous versions. It's possible there may be a conflict in your Plugins. Also, have you been trying to use any sort of Transit-Enabled Lots in those cities? -Tarkusquote> I use a very limited amount of mods and BATs, the same ones I've been using trouble-free for over a year. NAM is the only one I changed. No, it's not the TEL bug. I'm not using any of those, nor was the crash due to any user-action. It just crashes at a specfic date, the same thing every time. I can bulldoze all the buildings, and then the city will grow back and avoid the crash. But when it reaches a certain point, the crash happens again. I suspect it has something to do with route-finding. It started occuring after I bulldozed most of my commercial buildings, and forced them to grow back as commercial service. Maybe that has nothing to do with NAM, or it may have been a trigger used to find new routes that used some NAM structure unused previously. The only thing I didn't try was to bulldoze all my traffic system (roads, rails, transit stops). That's just too time-consuming. I'm starting a new city from scratch, and see if I run into it.quote> This has nothing to do with the route finding. Thousands upon thousands of people have installed new Pathfinding Engines since the introduction of the first NAM, hence look at the almost 290,000 downloads of the NAM in 4 years. If there was an issue with swapping in and out Pathfinding Engines it would have been found in those 290,000 downloads. And people have always re-zoned, bulldozed areas, etc including the 3 months that the new Pathfinders were released separately, with not a single account for a CTD. Nothing in the new ones is different from what was done in the past, they were just simply designed to be mathematically balanced to the original game again. But, I cannot tell you what your problem is, because simply, you havent really given much information to troubleshoot on. Like, what exactly are you doing when the game CTDs? Is it when you bulldoze a lot? Were you sitting there watching the game not doing a thing? (probably a lot was growing) Did it happen when a lot was growing? What lot was it? (this would be your closest bet to a bad lot, maybe its corrupt file in your plugins) CTDs in NAM are caused by the Puzzle Piece over TE Lot bug. We have done alot of work lately and have alot of testing hours, noone has experienced a CTD out of the ordinary. You are so far the only one who has reported this issue, which leads me to believe it is isolated to your plugins. Generally meaning you have something in your plugins that is conflicting with something else. Many CTDs can be attributed to faulty modding in lots, files not being included in lot downloads, or maybe a corrupt file in a lot that has lost required information for the lot to function.

Originally posted by: Tarkus The fact of the matter is that a solution to this problem needs to be found, as the current situation is not only not good for the NAM Team, it's not good for Simtropolis and the entire SC4 internet community at large. We are more than happy to continue providing ST with the NAM and to work with the staff on finding a solution, but if this is not possible, we must ask that the obsolete version be removed. quote> I dont know if it is because it hasnt had a chance to sink in yet, or something. But, we are talking about the availability of the NAM at Simtropolis, silence gaurentees that there will be no further releases of NAM at Simtropolis because no solution will have been raised. Consider this a bump for the North American afternooners getting home from work in the next few hours.

Originally posted by: Tarkus Admittedly, we haven't entirely taken advantage of the system yet, but hopefully, we will soon. -Tarkusquote> I think the reason for this is because in the last 6 months instead of having small things added here and there everyone on the team has really come together and produced so much new stuff at a much faster rate than we have ever seen. This really is an awesome time to be a part of the NAM Team, and to see the stuff in developement its amazing sometimes.

Please read through some of my posts in the following threads: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=124&threadid=96866&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=1 - NAM Simultors (ST) https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=3693.0 - NAM Simulators (SC4D) https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2763.0 - TE Lots, Traffic Switches and You https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=4272.0 - Traffic Switch Discussion

Originally posted by: ChookWoods ok so ive tried removing all mods except for the essential stuff like nam and stuff i knew worked fine in the past. and tried different combinations of traffic simulators. i also tried putting the game on my friends computer which has 4gb ram and a intel Q6600 processor.nothing changed the performance problems. the only thing i can think of, and will ask now, is i use the curved roads in nam extensively in my cities... like, VERY extensively. is it possible the pathing on these could cause the slow downs? i even started a new city on a medium size map this time, 30k population and the slow downs are begining again. also, sorry about the seemingly newby questions about the reply button... it seems this website isnt very compatible with opera so the text formatting options and quick reply fields never loaded.quote> After a bit of discussion with one of the awesome Transit Modders of old, Karybdis, he has given me an idea that could be the culript of the "slowdown". Lets, just say you arent the first person who has given me the heads up about the slowdown issue. I have had reports of it since before the Simulators were even released, but they started after the January 08 Update of the NAM. It seems that we may have reached some sort of threshold (maybe) in the RULs. Either, there are now simply too many RULs and it is causing this slowdown, or there is a line or a couple of lines of RULs that could be in conflict with each other or trying to do similar things. The latter is probably the most likely, but is VERY hard to determine. This will definately need to be discussed and tested further within the NAM Team but I am not sure how likely a "fix" for this issue can arise, if we ever find what the culprit is. I can be sure that the issue is caused by the January 08 Update of NAM, and not the NAM Simulators as my first report came approximately 3 weeks before the Simulators were released publically, and reported by someone outside the Simulator test group. I have also experienced this issue, and I didnt think anything of it at the time, but now that I think about it is was before I had the Simulators for even my testing purposes. There were major RUL additions to the January 08 NAM, changes to the NAM Controller included RHW v20, SAM v2, Arkenbergejoe's El-HRail puzzle pieces, and a few minor things. As it stands now, for SAM v3, there will be 200 pages (66 lines per page) of SAM RULs, thats approximately 13000 lines of RULs. RHW has a few thousand lines aswell. So, if the issue is in those RULs we will have to narrow it down.

I have done some experimenting with the Traffic Congestion Data View and released a mod on it. In my experimenting I have found that: Odd values are the Congestion %/10... So 0x00000004 = 40% congestion. Even values are the colors. 0x11223300 This is a hexidecimal value for the color taken right out of a color chart. You can use Photoshop or something and enter one of the hex falues from the first 6 digits and it will give you the exact color that will be used. 11 = Red 22 = Green 33 = Blue 00 = As stated probably means Opacity (transparency) I have experimented with adding "new" colors, but I have failed.. I may have missed something or maybe the colors must be defined properly in the Data View: Legend Colors property... But it may have to do with the me changing the % values in which the colors turned up. I have released this publically and I have had a very limited number of complaints about the Congestion Data View displaying nothing at all. I dont understand why this is, because of the 2500+ downloaders that have it installed with the new NAM Simulators only a handful (less than 10) have complained about this. This error is what I have come across in some cases when changing the colors that appear. Any ideas on this error would be interesting.

Originally posted by: doorknob60 *downloads* looks really nice! I'll have to try that out soon EDIT: Not sure if I'll keep using this actually because it improved commute times a ton, the speed on my Rural Highways is reduced to a crawl (maybe the speed of streets). Any plans on fixing this? EDIT2: Looks like this shouldn't be happening. Maybe it just makes it look like they're super slow? Can you confirm this? I might also try messing Around and see if I did something wrong quote> For your problem on the RHW visually being "slow"... It is only visually slow, the actual speed of the network is the speed of the higways. This happened when you used the Clean-it-ol file, when I was copying the file names I accidentally included the NAM Automata Plugins. It deleted your Automata Plugin. This will be fixed when the next version of the NAM comes out and these files replace the original Traffic Plugins in the NAM. You can fix this by re-installing the NAM and then manually removing the old Traffic Plugin installed with the NAM. Originally posted by: ChookWoods so ok i made a fresh nam install... selecting the standard traffic plugin in nam and then installed the new plugins mode a park and ride. it didnt overwrite the nam installed one so i deleted it manually. so i gave this a try... commute times were around 90 instead of 3, but this didnt seem to change anything with sims complaining about long commutes even though the majority of them were a medium - long commute. quote> These Simulators are not designed to "fix" your Traffic System, they are designed to be a balanced alternative to the MAXIS Standard and implement things that MAXIS didnt tune properly or even use. If your Transit System has faults in it, it cannot correct them it will in fact highlight some of them for you to fix it yourself and give you a more challenging experience while planning your Transit System. btw, something i have been meaning to ask. am i doing something wrong in the way i am replying? i enter paragraphs in the reply window, but when i submit it comes out as just a solid block of text. the only reply button i can find is the text reply under every post and thats what i have been using... is there another button that will allow paragraphs, or is it not as simple as just pressing enter twice?quote> There is a "Reply" button at the bottom of each Post that will bring up a reply window that will allow alot of extra formatting. The "quick reply" at the bottom of the page is for just that quick replies.