Three Rivers Region

[JoeST]

hehe, I was just about to suggest what Swamper did... tho a puzzle piece would be awesome

Joe

[metarvo]

Oh, my.  He's unstoppable!  He's out of control! 

These new rail textures are incredible, David.  It is a shame that Maxis made us put up with those old textures for so long.  At least we have been given some hope.

[deathtopumpkins]

You know how I was wondering if David's rail texture updates were compatible with the SFBT Rail Texture Mod? Well I tested it out in my game, and they are... kinda. I noticed that where any zones touch the rail the SFBT textures show up, and in unzoned areas David's do.

I took a pic:


That new puzzle-piece looks great David! I'll sure use it.

EDIT:  That's really interesting info, dtp, and well-worth a K-point.  As I don't zone that close to railroad tracks, I would not have known that.  If you look, you'll see that the entire DR texture has reverted to the "game" texture- the ties are further apart being the main difference.  I'll do some further looking into this, as it would become an issue with seasonal tree lots.  I have been thinking about rail rights-of-way and textures for them, and this is very timely to know. Thanks. -DE

[Andreas]

If you look, you'll see that the entire DR texture has reverted to the "game" texture- the ties are further apart being the main difference.

Well, that doesn't surprise me, as the SFBT Rail Texture Mod is simply a copy of the Maxis textures, with added wealth textures (grass in various shades in particular). If you change any in-game textures, it's probably better to make a wealth-dependent version along with them. I can send you my templates (the grass and concrete textures) for this, on which you can paste any texture replacements, and then run them through SC4Tool's Texture Generator, with the IDs edited to reflect the proper wealth level.

[Pat]

Hmmm David is on the roll and DTP is right up there making sure that it works!!! Now whats the coindence here??? LoL

[dedgren]

Well, no more dxd dual rail puzzle-piece.

Don't despair, though.  We figured out (with the kind assistance of Jonathan (Warrior), Alex (Tarkus) and others on the NAM Team) what was blocking my draggable version.



This is not your grandfather's SC4.  Heck... this isn't your two-years older than you sister's SC4.

I'll reload I've reloaded the 3RR Rail Upgrades file on the 3RREX [linkie] in just a bit.  Don't DL it until you see the link there refer to today's version.  It looks like these will make it into the new NAM, as well, which is...

...what's that word, Alex?

...oh yes, imminent.

Later.


David

211089

[Pat]

hehehee David that is sooooo freaking sweet!!! I am so glad you gotten that solved I was about to reference something like so........

[deathtopumpkins]

heh, thanks for the Karma point David! That's 2 in one week, I'm on a roll! 

A draggable texture's better IMHO anyway, so I'm happy.  Off to the 3RREX.

[wes.janson]

Well, no more dxd dual rail puzzle-piece.
It looks like these will make it into the new NAM, as well, which is...

...what's that word, Alex?

...oh yes, imminent.
211089

Is that a typo meaning to refer to the imminent release of RHW 3.0 or is an actual new NAM release imminent?

EDIT:  Wes- yes. -DE

[dedgren]

I've not exactly been Mr. Speedy this year with my usual January recap of 3RR facts and trivia over the past year.  Let's get started, then.

The first of these things we'll look at this evening is 3RR's monthly page view count during 2008.  As you will possibly recall, in April of last year I started placing the page count current as of the time I put up each post in agate type [linkie- lawyers love agate type] at the bottom.  Why did I do that?  Well, truth be told I don't really recall.  It was never intended to be a long-term thing, but here we are today.  And, what a wealth of info doing that has generated.

We started 2008 with just under 48,000 page views in 3RR here at SC4D.  Just after the first of the new year, I was predicting that both 3RR-SC4D and 3RR-ST would reach 50,000 page views right about the same time [linkie].  At the time, as that post attests, we were moving along at what I considered to be a pretty good clip: about 4,000 page views a month, which was a viewership that had pretty much stayed constant over the course of the year we had been up at this site.

By April, I guess, I must have had a sense that the pace had picked up, as I started watching the numbers to the point where, as mentioned, we began to write them down.  Over the next few months, it became apparent that daily page views were substantially higher- between 300 and 350 per day, as we were averaging around 10,000 page views during the summer months.  I remarked in several posts how I thought that was just amazing, and noted that, if that kept up, we would wind up with around 100,000 page views during 2008.

Then September came along, and I fairly quickly realized something huge had happened.  In that month, and in each of the "brrrr!" months that followed, 3RR's page views increased once again- this time to about 650-700 per day- 20,000+ per month!  On a sustained basis, that's a quarter-million page views a year.  Here's a chart that sums all of that up.

Now, in January through April I've simply averaged the total number of page views over that time by each of the four months- so those are estimates.  My guess is that the change from April to May wasn't as abrupt as the chart makes it appear.  On the other hand, what happened between mid-August and mid-September?  I'll give you my thoughts on that, and what the significance is for 3RR in the future, in a post over the next couple of days.

Now, before I wear out my arm patting myself on the back, let me very humbly say that I have nothing to do with the current level of page views- they reflect individual decisions made by you, 3RR Regulars^* and lurkers alike, to stop by one or more times during the day and give us a look.  You don't have to do that- we're not likely to go anywhere if you miss a day or two.  But you do, and for that I am truly grateful.  It means a tremendous amount to me to know that what we do here has been and remains of interest to so many- Thank You!  I'll do my very best not to let your expectations down during 2009.

And more about 2009, along with further explorations into last year, tomorrow.


David

^*  A 3RR Regular, as the chorus goes, is anyone who has ever posted here or over at 3RR-ST at least once (and quite often many, many times more).

211336 - on track for 20K this month, too!

[buddybud]

hey there....

That's quite some tally! Congrats and keep up the inspirational work! 
I gotta catch up on reading about 296 pages of your work...lol
Bud

EDIT:  Hey, neighbor!  It's great to see that your Expansive Attempts at Anything & Everything thread has joined us here in the SC4D Projects showcase [linkie].  I'm a huge fan, and its one of my favorite places to go have my mind boggled. -DE

[Geronimo]

Hi David!

Thats great work there, nothing seems to stop you guys. 
Happy new year and keep on its very inspiring!

I havent tried this out myself as Im not into railroads atm. But be sure, as soon as I am I gonna try this sweeties! 

[Albus of Garaway]

Great work, David. I've always loved graphs, and this one is really fascinating.

About the rails, they look really nice! Being a huge train buff myself, I should probably start using those nice smooth curves that are appearing everywhere, but I'm old-fashioned about SC4 it seems. I'm sure I'll switch to them sometime. Just not in the coming months, since the region I've started has already began using the boring old straight and diagonal rail and road pieces. Oh well, maybe next time.

Hope you're having a great new year, David. Don't wear yourself out!

[BigSlark]

Hi David,

The new textures are awesome, although I've found a problem with them. The RUL file included causes avenue to road and street transitions and draggable GLR to not function at all. Just a heads up.

Cheers,
Kevin

EDIT:  Thanks for the heads up, my friend. -DE

[CaptCity]

Just to add something to BigSlark's post...

Another observation... The new RUL patch file seems to interfere with the workings of the STR also. Attempting to drag for single tracks from the starter piece produces regular double tracks.

CaptCity

EDIT:  Heh!  That's striking pretty close to home.  A fix is in the works, thanks. -DE

[JoeST]

thats just crazy... I know of pretty popular sites that dont have as many views as you have had this year in there 10 year uptime

[Ryan B.]

You're doing a great job with these rail textures, David.  

[dedgren]

[tabular type=9][row][data]

^©2008, P. Bunch, all rights reserved===

[/data][data]===========================================
Well, that's a kick in the shorts.  You hate to wake up to find your brilliant idea of the night before lying all over your living room floor (figuratively, anyway) in smoldering heaps of rubble.  Thanks very much, Kevin (BigSlark) and CaptCity, for alerting me to the failure of a good idea.  It appears that you can't simply add a couple of lines of code to the RUL 10000002 file simply by patching them in as a load last.  The moral of the story- it's great to be on the cutting edge, but that makes it all the more important that you mind your fingers.

It appears that the fix in the code that will be part of the NAM controller file will make this work just fine, as well as leaving everything else alone.  That's the significance of my pic on the left- while I am completely ready to go on playing and working to improve SC4 until the end of time, I am also very aware that you can only hang, as it were, so many ornaments on a Christmas tree.  I jokingly commented in the NAM Team thread yesterday that I sure hoped that mine would not be the lines of code that would be the straw that broke the camel's back.  It's good to know that the lines in this instance were not the issue but rather their placement.  It's a bit scary to know that changing one little thing can literally break much that we've added to the game.

Hang in there just a bit more- the NAM is on the way.[/data][/row][/tabular]


David

211726

[CaptCity]

David,

Sorry for messing up your living room floor  , and it wasn't really a 'failure' but one more thing that is now known. Without you (and others) being on the 'cutting edge', we wouldn't have nearly the amount of fun stuff for the game we now have.

As always, looking forward to more,
CaptCity

[Ryan B.]

Just another example of the great people and support system we have in this community.  It's something to be proud of!

Oh, and about the picture . . . . the guy stacking books is not me - I'd never let a stack get that high in the library!