NAM Issues Thread - PLEASE POST YOUR NAM QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS HERE

[eggman121]

Hello and Welcome Back Moonraker0

I do think that based on your information that the issue may be the fact that the RHW has changed significantly in recent years and that the installer may not be picking up the old files and there would be some redundant files that have to be removed.

I would install again and remove the files by clicking the Cleantol checkbox to be sure that cleans up the old files using the custom install.

Also since you are using a Steam version I would make sure you set the CPU count to -1 That may also be a factor. But I believe it is the former.

-eggman121

[Moonraker0]

Hello eggman121,

Thanks for the response.  It would make sense that the RHW has changed in recent times since the last NAM version I used was (I think) 31 or 32 and I believe we're now at 36.  However, I made sure I used the BSC Cleanitol tool as part of the NAM installation.  I usually DATPack my plugins (not including the NAM however), so I moved all my non-DATPacked plugins into my normal Plugins folder so the Cleanitol tool could pick up and then remove any obsolete files, then re-DATPacked my plugins.  I used a custom NAM install again; it didn't pick up all the options I had selected before but I made sure to make the options set to the same ones as before.  Also, regarding the CPUCount argument, I already have added -CPUCount:1 to the game's command-line launch arguments.  Do you indeed mean to say that I should try -CPUCount:-1 or is that a misunderstanding?  I seem to remember using the CPUCount argument to prevent random crashes in the game when running on a multi-core CPU.

Thanks again for your help,
Moonraker0

[Tarkus]

Welcome back, Moonraker!

There's a couple of things I can think might be possibilities--eggman already mentioned the CPUCount matter (-CPUCount:1 is the correct version), and the other possibility would be the matter of whether or not your Steam executable has gotten the 4GB Patch applied to it.  Old RHW files, if present, wouldn't be prone to causing a crash, but more likely just a big mess.  Slope mods wouldn't conflict with the NAM in any way (there are no slope mods within the NAM), and the types of interaction there aren't crash-prone in any case.

There was a bridge-related crashing issue on the updated Mac port for some time, due to an obscure exemplar encoding issue that Intel Macs didn't like, and which we had no way of even diagnosing for years.  There were never any reports of it happening on Windows, however, memo finally discovered it and fixed it back in 2014.

The other possibility is that there could also be some sort of corruption in the old city tile that causes CTDs when network tiles are placed in a certain area--I experienced that myself quite some time ago.  Have you tried replicating the issue with the bridge with a new/clean city tile?

-Alex

[solovinodelmal]

Hi everybody, coming back from a long hiatus and trying the new NAM, looks exciting...

Do you have any clue why I can't make this flex ramp work? I'm trying to split the RHW 4S in two separate MIS lanes



Thanks!

[Tarkus]

Check the white and yellow lines.  You've placed the Type E1 FLEXRamp, but it looks like you're actually trying to build a Type E1-Inside ramp (which doesn't have a FLEXRamp form, but does exist as a Draggable Ramp Interface, or DRI).

-Alex

[mgb204]

I have one half (one direction/carriageway) of a RHW-4 bridge at the moment.  Unfortunately, when I try to drag the other half of the highway bridge and click OK after choosing the bridge type, the game immediately crashes.

I'm not entirely convinced this issue is related to the NAM myself. It sounds very familiar to a CTD you get when terraforming around networks, caused by having duplicate or conflicting settings for tunnel placement.

So as Tarkus suggested, start by seeing if this issue is still there in a new blank tile. But if that isn't helping, you should look for all mods that include "### Placement Tuning Parameters" in the exemplar name and ensuring you do not have two of any of these installed. Where ### is the network in question. I realise this isn't overly helpful for those not familiar with the inner workings, but in essence such mods will include slope mods, mods that modify the setting for tunnels and potentially others that change these network properties. This isn't a well-documented problem, but I've seen it first hand myself and the fix is simply merging all the changes into one exemplar, so no duplicates for a given network can exist. What I can do, if you are handy with SC4 DataNode, is give you a test file, containing one such exemplar for each network, you can then use DataNode to easily find every file that has the same IDs in use, to isolate the files behind the issue.

In short the issue is caused because something you do in game, requires auto-terraforming the land, like building a bridge. The game then looks up the settings to ensure what you are trying to do will be possible. But it's picking up conflicting settings, creating a situation where the code simply doesn't know what to do. When an application does this, unlike a human who will try to resolve the problem, a computer simply stops, unable to continue, otherwise known as a CTD.

Some will be thinking at this point, oh, but don't these exemplars simply override each other when loaded later? Well, yes that should be the case, but I know first hand for these exemplars that's not what's happening. We know for example you can't override the exemplar for the I-HT fix, you must replace the original file with a fixed version. What's really odd here is that you can override the Maxis default exemplars, but the problem occurs with further overrides of such overrides only. Honestly I can't tell you why the code works this way, but I am certain that's what is happening. After extensive testing because this problem crept into my own setup, it was fixed by removing duplicate exemplars.

[solovinodelmal]

Check the white and yellow lines.  You've placed the Type E1 FLEXRamp, but it looks like you're actually trying to build a Type E1-Inside ramp (which doesn't have a FLEXRamp form, but does exist as a Draggable Ramp Interface, or DRI).

-Alex

Thanks, I get it but still don´t know how to drag a Type E1-Inside ramp with DRI, is there any tutorial for that? I can´t seen to find it anywhere.

Again thank you very much for your help

[Alan_Waters]

Hello everybody!
Tell me please, does not everyone work Railway in the Diagonal Bridge Enabler?
Thanks in advance.

[mgb204]

Thanks, I get it but still don´t know how to drag a Type E1-Inside ramp with DRI, is there any tutorial for that? I can´t seen to find it anywhere.

Somewhere in this playlist. But you might find them all useful, since there are a lot of DRI's and it's a very useful feature. Otherwise, there is a handy reference here too:



...but watching the videos will help to understand that better.

Tell me please, does not everyone work Railway in the Diagonal Bridge Enabler?

RRW User? RRW uses different IDs to the original rail, so you need to install this patch for the DBE to work. Note the texture patch (separate) is now part of the NAM (36) and no longer required.

[Kitsune]

swear this use to work (with the wrong textures)

[Tarkus]

While some diagonal crossing/intersection coverage was added to the NWM single-tile networks during the NAM 30/NWM 2.0 cycle in 2011, that project was shelved at about 15-20% completion, with the parts that were complete/semi-complete left as-is, as an unsupported feature.  We never fully catalogued what was covered in the end, as we didn't want to draw a bunch of publicity (and tech support requests) to it, but OxD NWM x STR was never supported for any network.  OxD NRD-4 x DTR is, however, and judging by the behavior of the network with the situation you've drawn (having just tested it with some clicking around), there's probably some partial stub of code elsewhere that is interacting with it.

-Alex

[mgb204]

Having tested every working setup for NAM36 to update the RRW crossing textures, I guarantee if you don't see a texture, it's not supported.

Willy was working on improving STR support, but went MIA before any of that was integrated into the NAM. At some point STR support should happen, but I can't say when really. Although a lot of additional crossings were provided by NAM36, all the base networks Ave, Road, Street, OWR, MHY, El-Rail, Monorail and even SAM are fully supported now.

[nickWtn]

Ok I've got a quick question, do the new slip land work with Ave? Or do I have to use the old puzzle pice ones?

[mgb204]

Yes the new FTL Sliplanes work with the Avenue network.

[nickWtn]

Ok thanks, now I got another question is there a way to access the NAM Documentation files somewhere els? I ask because I can't have chrome and SC 4 open at at the same time and I was hoping there was a way to view them on my iPod touch while I work.

[APSMS]

@NickWtn: You could always copy the NAM Documentation folder over to your iPod.

I did notice, though, that the documentation hotlinks are a bit screwed up, at least in my installation. Navigating between pages works fine, but the table of contents wants them to be in 2 folders deep, which means that I have to constantly edit the filepaths every time I click on a link from the table of contents.

I thought of adding that extra folder in but wasn't sure if that would then screw up the links between the actual pages themselves since those links seemed to have been written correctly.

[nickWtn]

Unfortunately I can't even get to pages once I uploaded it that way.. I sure wish all that info was available online somewhere.

[mgb204]

It kind of is, we have the NAMDoc over on the SC4D Wiki. One of the benefits of switching the documentation back to HTML, is that we can mirror content included in the installer on the official web-based version. Both Tarkus and Eggman put a huge amount of work into making the new documentation for NAM36, I'm guessing it will make it online eventually. If I'm honest, after a NAM release, I think we (the team) all need a little time to get ourselves back into modding. So the point being, such flaws with the offline docs (I've too seen the same issues as APSMS) and syncing with the online version will get sorted eventually. But we've only so much time, I hope you understand.

Now, HTML is a very flexible method of working, actually how it works on the internet is much the same as you see on your home PC. Starting from the root folder or "Index" page, the subfolders and filenames for where each page/image/etc is found must be explicit. In other words, it's safe to copy the entire Documentation folder from Documents\SimCity 4\NAM Auxiliary Files, provided you keep all the subfolders/files and do not alter any file/folder names. Wherever you locate such a folder, it should still work as intended, just open the Index page "1-start.html" in your browser by double clicking it (or whatever method your device prefers).

Now, whether or not your iPod is capable of displaying the HTML formats used or not I can't say, but any web browser should not have issues with offline websites. Instead of looking through your internet connection, it will look through your hard drive, but otherwise showing the pages should be identical. We've not used any particularly unusual formatting or modules, so unless your device's browser has some serious limitations, there is no reason why this shouldn't work properly.

Otherwise the option should be there to switch between SC4 and a web browser whilst playing. You just may not be able to see both at once. I'm lucky having a dual monitor setup, I can have both side-by-side, although I need to leave the game to interact with the documentation, like scrolling the page for example. So yeah, a second screen like a mobile device is a great place to have this documentation. Honestly, unless Apple are being useless (sadly, they often are), this really should work. Can you copy the files to the device without issue? If so, where do the problems start? Can you get a different browser in the AppStore? Perhaps the one in use is outdated or unable to work with CSS or some such. But like I said, we're not using anything alien or futuristic here, so this doesn't really seem likely to be the problem to me.

[nickWtn]

Well so far my problem seems to be actually getting the file to a browers. I can sent the HTML files and such as atchments (however I have to zip the other folders in there, for example the images folder), then once I've sent them there's no way for me to open them in a browser... bright side is I can see the images I just can't see the accompanying text that I would find on the actual page. 

[Andreas]

I think the main problem is that the iPod's screen is just too small to display those readme files properly. While browsers on mobile devices should support HTML and CSS fine, they always render any website to fit the screen, and in case of the small iPod or a smartphone screen, there's a lot of wrapping and re-formatting going on in the background, so a tablet might be a better option after all.

Apple devices are known for their "closed world", hence it's not possible to access files that you copy over to the device with some file browser. However, there are many apps that allow this, and I'm pretty sure that some of those can handle HTML files as well. If not, you could still convert the HTML into PDF or EPUB on your computer, and then use iBooks or another eBook reader app for viewing those.