Railroad crossings and other traffic props

[MandelSoft]

European Crossbucks.

Well, the European crossbucks look a bit different:



They don't have a red edge, just red tips.

[jondor]

I've installed it, and it looks spectacular.    One thing, though.  I notice that, instead of white signs that say "Railroad Crossing," I'm getting white signs with red outlines that are blank.  Why would that be?

That means you installed at least one of the optional texture mods.  They live in the Modular RR Props\z_Texture_Mods folder.  The others change the object markers to White on Black, the wide crossbucks to read Rail Way Crossing, and similarly for the modern crossbuck (which gets overridden by the red borders if they're both installed).  If you want the default props, you should delete the entire folder.

Oh these are great! Installed it and tested it. Great job, jondor. Though I'm having the same problem as kassarc16.

I answered this issue:

That is a bug that affects (among other things) the Tram-in-AVE puzzle pieces as well.  The Maxis gates on that piece are similarly affected.  If you plop it on an existing AVExRail crossing the props will show up.  Also, I think you mean TuLEP, not FLUP.

[MandelSoft]

Maybe you should consider the following color combinations for the object markers:
- Yellow-Black (currently available)
- White-Black (currently available)
- White-Red
- Yellow-Red
- White-Blue
- Yellow-Blue

[jondor]

I don't know that any of those other combinations are from countries that use RR crossings that look like these, but if people want them, that's actually the least labor intensive texture mod, so it could be easily done.

[Jack_wilds]

Hello jondor,

Like using the RR crossing props, particularly the signs and I am using it... thanks for making this and sharing it

However, when rebuilding a maxis RR/road crossing the game crashes and this happened a few times BUT what is odd about it is it didn't crash when I rebuilt other the maxis crossings [that is, out of updating 10 crossings it crashed on three times]... so what I am hoping for is an example config folder -arrangement, of the RR crossings as I may have configured incorrectly; not seeing what the instructions mean...

Thank-you
Jack

[jondor]

Hello jondor,

Like using the RR crossing props, particularly the signs and I am using it... thanks for making this and sharing it

However, when rebuilding a maxis RR/road crossing the game crashes and this happened a few times BUT what is odd about it is it didn't crash when I rebuilt other the maxis crossings [that is, out of updating 10 crossings it crashed on three times]... so what I am hoping for is an example config folder -arrangement, of the RR crossings as I may have configured incorrectly; not seeing what the instructions mean...

Thank-you
Jack

That is odd.  The readme that comes with the Mac version, and also the one that gets installed with the Windows version (not the one loose in the zip file with the installer) have a diagram of the folder structure, however that shouldn't be a problem.  I had the development files strewn all over my plugins folder while I was creating the props.

The one question I have is, are you using software or hardware rendering?  The texture I used for the gate arms has the potential to crash the game in software rendering mode (as it is wider than 256 pixels, but it has fewer pixels than a 256x256 square image and I had no problems with it working in software mode when I tested.)

Unfortunately though unless it is a consistently reproducible problem, it may have to be chalked up to SC4's habit of randomly crashing for no discernible reason.

[Ryan B.]

Jondor, this is amazing work.  Just plain awesome! 

[Sebbe99]

Awesome work, jondor!

Would be just great, if you're going to make some European crossings too. I can't wait for them... 

[Jack_wilds]

Hello jondor,

Like using the RR crossing props, particularly the signs and I am using it... thanks for making this and sharing it

However, when rebuilding a maxis RR/road crossing the game crashes and this happened a few times BUT what is odd about it is it didn't crash when I rebuilt other the maxis crossings [that is, out of updating 10 crossings it crashed on three times]... so what I am hoping for is an example config folder -arrangement, of the RR crossings as I may have configured incorrectly; not seeing what the instructions mean...

Thank-you
Jack

That is odd.  The readme that comes with the Mac version, and also the one that gets installed with the Windows version (not the one loose in the zip file with the installer) have a diagram of the folder structure, however that shouldn't be a problem.  I had the development files strewn all over my plugins folder while I was creating the props.

The one question I have is, are you using software or hardware rendering?  The texture I used for the gate arms has the potential to crash the game in software rendering mode (as it is wider than 256 pixels, but it has fewer pixels than a 256x256 square image and I had no problems with it working in software mode when I tested.)

Unfortunately though unless it is a consistently reproducible problem, it may have to be chalked up to SC4's habit of randomly crashing for no discernible reason.

Hello Jondor...

After playing around with the config a while and also removing any other RR add-ons that might interfere it is working and the crashes appeared to be a random thing... I like the props alot and I also like the HD aspect when zoomed in... particularly like the RR structure over-head arms  thanks for thoughts... then to add a thought for a possible mod 'add-on' for simply having the cross-buck signs for rural, low traffic and IND areas as the lights seem to want to be everywhere... or is there something all ready

Jack

[jondor]

The by-zone and by-wealth sets that are included both include crossbuck only crossings on the Maxis street and SAM networks in the lower density and lower wealth areas respectively.  (I'd have to go look at the files to see exactly where I set them to show up.)

All of the other networks (from Maxis roads up) feature at least lights and upgrade to gates in higher density/higher wealth areas.  I'm working on a RHW related project at the moment, but as I've said, I will be creating a program that will allow people to configure their RR crossing T21 sets more to their liking.

[Jack_wilds]

Ok then... thanks for the heads up about making even more customizable, that will really change things for better liking... 

[Wthrwyz]

When I play with mrtnrln's stoplights, I get this wonderful mess:


I take it the crosshatching is is due to my nvidia graphics card and I'm stuck?

[j-dub]

Judging by how refined the poles are, it looks like hardware rendering is on, so I don't get why only the lights are being affected. Other then Mrtnrln's lights, have you had similar behavior with anyone else's traffic lights instead? You know, just for experimental purposes. That will verify if its a graphic card related thing. I use Nvidia, I have had some buildings and no texture areas do that stuff before, I just never seen it on any custom signals I have used before.

[jdenm8]

It's S3D clipping, something only relatively recent nVidia cards do and it's probably not going to be fixed by nVidia any time soon.

The Tru3D traffic lights used by that mod actually have two planes in close proximity, one for the front of the light, another for the back. nVidia cards have severe issues with this, as demonstrated by the wealthed transitions in NWM 1.0.

[Wthrwyz]

That's kind of what I figured, since it only does it on the ones with a frame around the lights.  Out of Mrtnrln's pack, the Dutch, Germany 2, and US styles all exhibit this.

I get the same thing on occasion with the FLUPs ramps and other various things, and I figured it was my video card because I remembered reading a post about it somewhere in one of the NAM-related threads.  I just thought I'd ask.

Unfortunately, I like my dual GTX260's too much to get rid of them just for SC4.

[jdenm8]

Why not upgrade to dual 6870s or 6950s? Just saying

Yeah, the z-fighting isn't something we can help without modifying the models and all of the S3D traffic lights will exhibit it unless they're modified to have a greater depth.

[MandelSoft]

And I already modified them a bit to overcome this problem. The back panel is about 0.25m further back then the lights are. Obviously it didn't help...

[Wthrwyz]

Why not upgrade to dual 6870s or 6950s? Just saying

Unfortunately, it's a SLi mobo.  Although, it's mainly because I got so fed up with having the "who's getting the next upgrade?" argument that I spent $4000 last year building my wife and I matching workstations.  I do not intend, nor do I have the budget (especially after buying two new cars this year) to spend another red cent on PC hardware for several more years.  And darnit, a Core i7-960 with 12GB of RAM, RAIDed 1TB HDDs, and dual GTX-260's ought to be bleeding edge enough to last a while. 

Actually, for a very long time I was a huge ATI fanboi.  Then I swung over to nVidia.  Lately I've become somewhat ambivalent - I've taken to buying what seems to be the best value for the money at the time.  I've come to realize that the hardware is all pretty capable and the real issue is crap drivers. 

Yeah, the z-fighting isn't something we can help without modifying the models and all of the S3D traffic lights will exhibit it unless they're modified to have a greater depth.

That's what I suspected.  Thanks for indulging me.

And I already modified them a bit to overcome this problem. The back panel is about 0.25m further back then the lights are. Obviously it didn't help...

A quarter of a meter?!  Sheesh...nVidia really does need to get their act together.

[jdenm8]

Although, it's mainly because I got so fed up with having the "who's getting the next upgrade?" argument that I spent $4000 last year building my wife and I matching workstations.  I do not intend, nor do I have the budget (especially after buying two new cars this year) to spend another red cent on PC hardware for several more years. 

Ha ha ha, fair enough

And darnit, a Core i7-960 with 12GB of RAM, RAIDed 1TB HDDs, and dual GTX-260's ought to be bleeding edge enough to last a while. 

*blink*

Actually, for a very long time I was a huge ATI fanboi.  Then I swung over to nVidia.  Lately I've become somewhat ambivalent - I've taken to buying what seems to be the best value for the money at the time.  I've come to realize that the hardware is all pretty capable and the real issue is crap drivers. 

Yup, DirectX/OpenGL/Whatever really fixed a lot of the compatibility issues. Now it's the implementation between DirectX/OpenGL/Whatever and the hardware that's being stuffed up.
Oh well, it'll be interesting to know how they stuffed this one up.

[NCGAIO]

... I will be creating a program that will allow people to configure their RR crossing T21 sets more to their liking.

The work is really good .. very good.
My comment goes to the texture of the gate. I think the Maxxis also suffers from lack of realism to be very bright. I noticed he had a great job with the lights that really look like light bulbs instead of just flashing red. (Three to seven groups) so I think a more realistic texture to complement the model has to justify his excellent work. Congratulations ..