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

[Andreas]

So yeah... we should probably put that as a requirement/dependency for the NAM...

Actually, the readme points this out already.

[larlin]

This may already be know I tried searching didn't find anything obviusly related.

So here goes:

When using the avenue highway on/off ramp I get that alot of the trffic goes off the ramp and then on again. Creating a huge congestion on the avenue pieace.

Like this:

link

Know or are there any work arounds?

No one?

[riiga]

No one?

It's probably because of the bad simulator coding in SC4, and to my knowledge there is no fix. However, one isn't really needed.

[sumwonyuno]

@larlin:  It appears to be related to pathfinding, and how that on/off-ramp is constructed.  There is a continuous path from the highway entrance to exit.  The traffic simulator is determining it's "faster" for some trips to get on and off the highway, and other trips, it's better to stay on the highway.  It's not really a bug, it's just unexpected; it's perfectly legal according to how the simulator works.  You could rebuild that interchange with NAM pieces, and see if there is a difference.  Nevertheless, it is harmless annoyance that you could just ignore.

[zakuten]

The simulator might look at existing congestion first, so if you remove that offramp, run it for a while, and then re-add it, it might determine, seeing the avenue traffic, that it's no longer advantageous to get on and off.. I'm not sure, but that could work if you didn't want to use RHW.

[larlin]

Thanks for the replies!

I do think it is a bug either in NAM or Sim City as it doesn't do this for "road" on/off ramps.

I think it is a issue as it to me looks like it increases congestion on the avenue.

Got some more pics:

avenue-ramp
road-ramp

I get this on a few other places. Only ever with avenue ramps. But I got avenue ramps that don't show this behaviour also.

[zakuten]

Mmhmm, if I remember correctly, the original avenue ramps didn't have access to cross the avenue. Somewhere waaaay back in the day, it was patched-- Could have been with Rush Hour itself? I can't remember, but it seems like just dirty path patching; I think road ramps don't have a go-straight-across path, but I'm not sure

[jdenm8]

One of the official patches for Rush Hour changed the intersections so that they crossed over avenue. It's actually in the fix list.

The reason why traffic can go straight through the Avenue intersection is because the paths don't go straight through, but they're close enough that traffic can 'change lane' on the tile border and continue straight through. All I can recommend is replacing with OWR ramps, if it's possible.

The Road one however doesn't have this, therefore the traffic can't exit and re-merge.

[turtle]

Dear NAM team,
Thank you for all your work with this virtually indispensable mod.
I just want to turn your attention to a problem that is caused by the wide curves and FAR(R). In some cases they seem to produce an immortal model (not to be confused with immortal lots). This can happen with the 'auto completion' feature on a TE lot, if the lot is TE'd in a way that creates a FAR piece when a road is placed next to it(like Feroxx Warsaw main station). It also happens when a rail curve(auto completed or not) is placed to close to a rail station  so that it overlaps the rail TE on the lot. Furthermore, Lowkee33 have reported it to happen in some circumstances when placing a FAR or curve piece next to a normal, non-TE'd lot. The problem should be easily reproduce-able, at least with TE lots, such as train stations that have the rail tracks running through them. Just place the station, drag out the rail a bit, then either use the auto completion feature for a curve or plop a curve piece overlapping the TE of the station. 

Luckily, there's a relatively easy fix discovered by Catty and Lowkee33. Maybe this fix should be posted somewhere in the NAM board. For more info see the thread here.

*edit: Here are some TE train station models that I made immortal through the outlined method:

[sffc]

NAM Team,

My post regards a certain Tram-in-Road puzzle piece, labeled "Tram-in-Road curve - Tram T-junction".  It seems to exist in one orientation, but not the other.  Here is a picture to illustrate:



No matter how much I rotate the puzzle piece, I can never get the orientation of the piece to fit the first scenario in the picture above.  Such a puzzle piece exists when the road is going in the opposite direction.

Thanks for all the time you have put in to this indispensable plugin!

[Tarkus]

Dear NAM team,
Thank you for all your work with this virtually indispensable mod.
I just want to turn your attention to a problem that is caused by the wide curves and FAR(R). In some cases they seem to produce an immortal model (not to be confused with immortal lots). This can happen with the 'auto completion' feature on a TE lot, if the lot is TE'd in a way that creates a FAR piece when a road is placed next to it(like Feroxx Warsaw main station). It also happens when a rail curve(auto completed or not) is placed to close to a rail station  so that it overlaps the rail TE on the lot. Furthermore, Lowkee33 have reported it to happen in some circumstances when placing a FAR or curve piece next to a normal, non-TE'd lot. The problem should be easily reproduce-able, at least with TE lots, such as train stations that have the rail tracks running through them. Just place the station, drag out the rail a bit, then either use the auto completion feature for a curve or plop a curve piece overlapping the TE of the station. 

Luckily, there's a relatively easy fix discovered by Catty and Lowkee33. Maybe this fix should be posted somewhere in the NAM board. For more info see the thread here.

The Autoplace FAR(R) feature got added in the May 2010 release (Version 28) and the only issue we had been previously aware of with it, until now, was the whole Car Ferry CTD, which was caused by the unexpected interaction between the Road AutoPlace FAR straight piece and the TEing of the ferry.  We disabled that singular AutoPlace in Controller r85 for Version 29, which fixed that. It seems that what you've reported here is a logical extrapolation that has a similar root cause.  The game, oddly enough, appears to be able to override the TE Lots' transit-enabling when reading an AutoPlace entry out of RUL 0x10000000. 

The only way we can fix this would be to completely eliminate the remainder of the AutoPlace Fractional Angle functionality.  As this is built into the RUL controller, it's not something I can attach a patch for, and would have to be propagated either by a NAM release or a NAM Essentials update.

My post regards a certain Tram-in-Road puzzle piece, labeled "Tram-in-Road curve - Tram T-junction".  It seems to exist in one orientation, but not the other. 

Just checked that one over.  It would be very easy to fix the Tram-in-Road curve/Tram T-Junction piece to allow for that setup . . . all that would be needed are a few minor modifications to its RUL entries to allow for mirroring.  I've already put the modifications into my controller file and they'll be in the Version 30 release.

-Alex

[turtle]

The Autoplace FAR(R) feature got added in the May 2010 release (Version 28) and the only issue we had been previously aware of with it, until now, was the whole Car Ferry CTD, which was caused by the unexpected interaction between the Road AutoPlace FAR straight piece and the TEing of the ferry.  We disabled that singular AutoPlace in Controller r85 for Version 29, which fixed that. It seems that what you've reported here is a logical extrapolation that has a similar root cause.  The game, oddly enough, appears to be able to override the TE Lots' transit-enabling when reading an AutoPlace entry out of RUL 0x10000000. 

The only way we can fix this would be to completely eliminate the remainder of the AutoPlace Fractional Angle functionality.  As this is built into the RUL controller, it's not something I can attach a patch for, and would have to be propagated either by a NAM release or a NAM Essentials update.

That is a sound explanation

This happens also when you place a wide curve/FAR(R) puzzle piece close enough to the TE'd part of a lot. So it's not just the Autoplace feature, which I btw would hate to see go away. Instead, I think the problem should be recognized and the solution posted in the FAQ or someplace like that.

[Tarkus]

It's kind of odd that it's happening with non-AutoPlace puzzle pieces . . . theoretically, though, judging by what we know about TE Lot/puzzle piece interaction, usually, it results in CTDs if the TEing and the puzzle piece have the same base network (as per NAM FAQ #4). 

I'd be curious to see if that could happen with other NAM puzzle pieces with certain layouts, or if eliminating the AutoPlace lines would change that behavior.  This all seems to suggest that the relationship between RUL 0x10000000 and TE Lots is more complicated than previously thought.

-Alex

[Lowkee33]

I posted about this on the other thread (Here), but I thought  I would bring it up here as well.

You can't blame NAM for this.

I first had this problem with Lots that I was making, namely growables with no base textures.  With no base or overlay textures, a growable will not loose the construction texture.  If you add an overlay texture all will seem okay.  The lot will get the water bug, but going into zone view will fix it for a while.  However, on occasion the overlay texture will become immortal/reluctant upon demolishing.  De-zoneing will cause none of the props or building to be removed.  The solution is to plop something (anything) over the building and then demolish.  I did some experiments, and the results are strange as far as when a texture will become immortal.  These tests were done with all Maxis equipment.

The auto-complete does a similar thing in that it effects the Transit Textures.  The solution there is to not only plop a lot, but also to drag a network over it.

So again, I don't think you have a problem that NAM specifically has to solve, other than to (edit: ponder) disabling the auto-complete (or something technical within NAM).

[Jayster]

I'm having quite a frustrating problem....  No matter where I click along the lower RHW-4, it will NOT change to MIS. I've clicked along this stretch quite a lot, like about 50 times and I've dragged the RHW through the area and it still won't change.



Hope someone can shed some light on my problem! 

Jayster

EDIT Nevermind, I just did some more finagling to get it to work.

[Niarro]

Heyo, been enjoying NAM and SC4 again for the first time in awhile. But then I started experimenting with rail and monorail stuffs. I've been poking at the forums and haven't found anything directly relating to my issue, though perhaps I'm searching for the wrong keywords.

Don't know if this is how it's supposed to be (feels like it shouldn't be), but whenever I have rail crossing over road, or the default monorail over road, the road is no longer useable.

Same with the puzzle pieces. I took everything out of the plugins folder (I had CAM and lots installed), uninstalled NAM v29, and reinstalled it... and tried this out.



on the right, from top to bottom there's a direct road with a bit missing (when completed the lots is connected to the network), the down one is a road that I placed, then ploped a puzzle piece onto (monorail with road) but that blocked it... the one underneath is puzzlepiece first, then road. Still nada :<

I am running deluxe with update 1, not sure if there's any other relevant information I can provide.

[zakuten]

Truthfully, I've had fully connected landfills give me that from time to time, just keep running it for a few ingame months and it should resolve itself. I think the commercial won't develop either without any residential, but I'm no expert.

[Tarkus]

It sounds like you have an LHD game and did not install the LHD Plugin.  See here.  While it's not explicitly mentioned, another symptom of this situation is that any sort of Rail/Elevated Rail/Monorail blocks off any network that is crossing it.

-Alex

[Niarro]

Wonderful, thank you Alex. That seems to have done the trick. I didn't think that I had an LHD game, but... surprise surprise, I suppose!

[Cali]

I found an error in RHW that i was told to post for you guys. i posted it in game oddities on pg 40. The infamous sinkhole. Now i know it would make world travel alot easier, i just don't think this was supposed to happen.