Three Rivers Region

[psander5]

Here's some of the things I've been doing so far with FAR/FARR...





Nothing inspiring creatively there, but I have been having fun making new shapes.  I made this city specifically to test FAR/FARR... and to experiment with RHW.

A couple of issues arose, but these might be specific to me as no-one else seems to have had the same problems:

1: Plopping time (FARR only).  I've counted a 12-20 second game freeze every time I plop a FARR piece.  As I said above, this might just be my issue as I have the same problem with the avenue, highway and RHW long curves.  The NAM road and rail 45 degree curves cause no problems though. They plop instantly.
2: No rail use through FARR pieces.  Again, this might be just me as other people have already said that FARR works perfectly in their game, but I noticed my rail wasn't being used in the city above.  I constructed a test (below) to see what was happening, and it seems that my FARR pieces are blocking rail traffic.



It seems my sims would rather go the long way round rather than take the shiny new FARR route!  When I broke the line, leaving no option but to go through the FARR section, rail use dropped to zero.

Maybe someone here knows where i'm going wrong!

Happily though, FAR has no similar issue for me.  I even drove a few laps around these lovely curves:






This excites me by the way.  I've been itching for a more realistic way of making racetracks, and now it can be done!  I've added several more items to my BAT,  'things to do' list as a result of this track!


I've had no problems plopping so far, besides the small 90 degree road curve which a few people have mentioned.  It seems to behave more like a 4x4 or 3x3 piece than a 2x2 in most cases, unless you plop it first.  Then other pieces can be placed directly on the road stubs.  I find the rest of the pieces very easy to use.

I don't use a slope mod, and I've not had any issues when placing FAR on moderate slopes.  They seem to conform nicely in most cases.  I haven't tried to make a mountain road yet though! 

[JoeST]

psander5 : can we have a picture of the FARR problem with the drawpaths cheat on? (ctrl+x; drawpaths)(cheats.dll)

[sim-al2]

I displayed the paths while I was plopping it in one city and it showed paths. Of course, I didn't actually test it for functionality, but trains would at least visually go over it (u-drive and trains from automa generators)

[psander5]

On request:





I never knew that cheat existed!

[Tarkus]

2: No rail use through FARR pieces.  Again, this might be just me as other people have already said that FARR works perfectly in their game, but I noticed my rail wasn't being used in the city above.  I constructed a test (below) to see what was happening, and it seems that my FARR pieces are blocking rail traffic.

I'm guessing that since you're from the UK, your copy of the game is probably Left-Hand Drive by default.  Rail paths don't auto-reverse, so an extra set of LHD paths is needed for them.  ebina did a set already, though it didn't get incorporated into the test set that went out.

Edit: And the lack of paths can cause temporary freezes when placing puzzle pieces or draggable network items.

I've attached the LHD file here--it should solve the issue.

-Alex (Tarkus)

[deathtopumpkins]

Ohhh... somebody got a messed up copy of FARR... or just didn't install it right!  
It's clearly not working.

psander, may I recommend this? It fixes the texture difference between rail puzzle-pieces and regular rail.
And that racetrack's pretty cool! Though I can imagine there are a lot of wrecks on that Z-curve...

Oh and, David, that smooth switch looks great! Is there any way to get the orthagonal one to just override the default, or will it have to be a puzzle-piece like the others?

[psander5]

Thanks Alex.  Those files fixed all the problems I was having with FARR. I'm now seeing normal use, and they're quick to plop. 

I also installed the texture mod, deathtopumpkins.  Thanks also.  Formula 1 cars can handle that curve just fine.  They simply press 'shift', and there's no worry!

[toxicpiano]

I'm guessing that since you're from the UK, your copy of the game is probably Left-Hand Drive by default.  Rail paths don't auto-reverse, so an extra set of LHD paths is needed for them.  ebina did a set already, though it didn't get incorporated into the test set that went out.

Edit: And the lack of paths can cause temporary freezes when placing puzzle pieces or draggable network items.

I've attached the LHD file here--it should solve the issue.

-Alex (Tarkus)

thanks for these 

[sithlrd98]

psander5 ...That is something I never thought about...that is soo cool!
I've only got one new pic and so far , I think I'm getting the hang of the fractional curves.


I definitely like the small curve

Goodbye Grid!

Jayson

[flame1396]

Hey psander, I tried the same thing (racetrack)... you succeeded.

Though I was trying to make it with hills and tunnels etc.

EDIT: I seem to have problems placing small curves (among other pieces - but those have workarounds) back to back while others seem to have no problem. The problem is kinda like 2 like magnetic poles repelling each other, I move the curve where I want it and it rotates away and won't allow itself to be put back. What's up?

[Masochist]

All right...so I finally got around to uploading these pictures from my FAR test tonight...so here they are, for your viewing pleasure.  Just to let you know, I'm about to abuse that 1024x768 size limit SC4D has...

A bit of background: in my region Merideth Valley, there's a particular city tile along a mountain range that has mountain passes molded into it for a proposed rural highway route.  I've been meaning to test out how effective these passes were (in terms of being able to handle the highway), and so this presented a way to kill two birds with one stone: I'm going to use a two-lane road complete with FAR pieces to do the testing for me.

First, here's the large city tile I'm going to be building this highway on (DON'T laugh at my trees, I know they're hideous...!):



...and here's the proposed highway path (not accurate):



So...I got to work.  I started at the edge of the map, and I built a bit.  Really, I was just playing around with the pieces, trying to get a feel for them.  There really wasn't that much of a problem starting out (as it's mostly gentle hills and valleys), but as I got to a mountainside, my terrain parameters became apparent:



This was the first FAR curve I built.  As you can see, I don't have a slope mod of any sorts (the one I tried wasn't as easy to use with my current region as I'd like), and I also have a diagonal edge mod (making cliffs appear at slightly softer slopes than usual).  Still, this curve didn't look too bad, and the FAR straight pieces sloped upwards gently enough to not be a problem.

It did get a bit harsh going down, though:



That just lets me know that I either need a slope mod, or I'm going to have to do a good bit of terraforming to get the most out of these pieces.  I'll keep that point in mind for later...

Anyways, I came up on the real meat of this weaving road, and the real test for the FAR--getting up and over this mountain without too many cliffs appearing (that was my challenge):



With a combination of orthogonal, straight and fractional-angled pieces, I got a great looking result (IMO)



Now for the downslope...it looks soft enough to just come down straight....



Ahh...nope !  Okay...we'll try and come back diagonally to the left...



Even worse...and this isn't even with FAR pieces, this is with regular road!  So I deleted it and tried to go the other way...and then ran into a small problem.  As it turns out, when you delete a straight FAR piece, you're left with something like this:



You can delete all of that...but you have to leave that one nub attached to the next piece, like so:



If you delete that small piece, the next FAR straight piece will turn into those two parallel roads.  I learned that rather quickly...then I learned something else:



You can't attach the curves to that piece--that's the closest it gets.  I, lacking common sense, thought that meant I had to delete the entire diagonal road segment all the way to the first non-FAR road tile (which I did); what it really means is that you have to simply delete one straight piece farther than intended, because a straight FAR piece can attach to that nub perfectly fine.  But...I thought I'd bring it up, just in case something might be able to be done about it.

Continuing on, I figured out the smoothest way down this mountain was to cut the other way, then follow the mountain range to the edge of the map like so:





Those far pieces are phenomenal there!

And with that, the entire road is complete:



Here's a mosaic of it a bit closer; click on the picture to get the full-sized version (5 MB; 2006x2100 px.)



...and the entire thing with contour lines on, for your viewing pleasure; again, click to get the full-sized version (2 MB; 1440x900 px.):



And that's the end of the FAR test in Merideth Valley.

So, to draw a few conclusions:

-The FAR pieces did fairly well with conforming to terrain; even with no slope mod and a diagonal edges mod, few cliffs appeared along the finished road.

-The FAR is pretty versatile as-is; it weaved pretty well throughout the terrain and handled moderate hills fairly well.

-The FAR does not handle steep hills very well straight on; a different approach (along with a bit of trial-and-error) must be used than what might be used to build a straight road (at least...I had to use a different approach).

-A healthy mixture of FAR, diagonal and straight road piece will give you the best look and functionality of all three.

-There are a few fundamental pieces missing from the FAR set other than intersections, namely a FAR-to-45-degree connector piece, as well as a FAR-to-FAR connector piece (connecting all the angles of FAR together); the lack of the former is really apparent as soon as you get used to the other pieces in the set.

-I need to utilize a few of these other dozen Mayor-Mode trees I have....

Anyways...that's all I've got from this test.  I didn't test the FARR, I didn't build along this road and I didn't drive on the road (though I should've...it's gone now).  More tests may follow; until then, I hope this was sufficient.

[MandelSoft]

I've checked the paths of all FAR(R) pieces (You never know if it's wrong) and they are OK...



But with the FARR-road crossing I see some wrong T21's...



And I don't have a picture of that, but the 90 degree curve has too bright yellow lines. They don't match with the other pieces.

Pieces that are missing in my mind:
- FAR/FARR crossing.
- FAR(R) curve 45 degrees and 90 degrees (FAR(R) to FAR(R) Curve).
- FAR(R) to diagonal curve

Best,
Maarten

[Andreas]

The railroad crossing gates have been fixed by Jan (Swamper77) already. Alex (Tarkus) accidentially included some old T21's into the current plugin. I also tried to fix the texture brightness of said curve in the Euro textures, so it's pretty much unnoticeable anymore, but David might want to check his source files for the US version once more.

[bat]

Some great looking shots of your testing there, @ all!
Nice work,

And looking forward to more, dedgren!

[ben_meissner]

Wow! So much activity this weekend. I have been away from the computer and the internet while moving, but will get back to testing FAR(R) this week. Looks like all the testers are putting them through rigorous tests. Those trees look great too, David.

Later,

Ben

[dedgren]

Just popping in to say good (late) morning from Montana.  It's distinctly cooler here today.  Heather says winter's arrived in Alaska since I left.

Here's the last couple of hour's work.



There's as many corresponding alpha texture pieces.  These are off my plate today.

* * *

Beta testers- I'll be sending by email later today an updated WC/FAR/FARR that incorporates the T21 fix made by Jan (Swamper77), some pathing and other corrections, and a nice new set of menu icons by Andreas.  The plugin simply replaces the old one- plug'n'play!

Later.


David

143346

[thundercrack83]

Looking great, David!

Beta testers- I'll be sending by email later today an updated WC/FAR/FARR that incorporates the T21 fix made by Jan (Swamper77), some pathing and other corrections, and a nice new set of menu icons by Andreas.  The plugin simply replaces the old one- plug'n'play!

I'll be on the lookout for it, my friend!

Take care!

Dustin

[Sheep49]

Great work, David! That's deinitely a step forward in ungriding the game!

[JoeST]

this is just getting out of hand.

your one texture making MACHINE!!!

Joe

[metarvo]

Way to go, David!  3RR gets better every single day.



Now, I'm going back to testing.