T-RAM

[z]

No, we have not seen such a problem with the SFBT T-Ram stop. I downloaded your station from the STEX and was able to reproduce the problem with your station, but when using our station in the same location and any direction, it works fine. So, something is wrong with your station.
I spent a few minutes comparing our stations. There are some differences, but I cannot see an obvious reason for your problem. I believe that Andreas will publish our station soon, so you will be able to compare yourself. Or PM me your email address.
Of course, it is possible, but somebody would have to create the model.

Chrisim kindly sent me a copy of his stations, and I was able to compare them to mine.  There were precious few differences that could possibly have any effect, so it didn't take long to find the culprit.  The problem was the orientation of the non-existent building, which was east.  I had started with a lot from another RTMT station, which had no problem with this; looking through the other RTMT stations, I see that this non-existent building has various orientations that do not affect the workings of the station.  For reasons unknown to me, this seems to matter only with T-RAM.  So for the benefit of future T-RAM station builders, it's useful to know that this problem is avoided completely if the building and texture orientations all point south.  (It may work if they all point north; I just didn't try that.)

Meanwhile, I noticed that the bulldoze cost of the SFBT stations is much smaller than the bulldoze cost of the underlying T-RAM tiles, which get destroyed along with the stations during bulldozing.  Since these stations haven't been released, someone may be planning to fix this; if not, I thought I'd mention it.

I will be fixing these stations and uploading the fixed versions onto the LEX and STEX within the next couple of days; you'll be able to tell when this is done by the upload date.  The stations are functionally equivalent, and people can continue using the current ones; the new ones will simply be slightly easier to use.

[SimFox]

I wonder if this issue with East-ward orientation is a problem due to the station being TE with one way road?
I also assume that those Station on LEX are already fixed one, right?

[z]

No, it had nothing to do with the one-way road.  I had the same problem when I tried a two-way road.  The problem was completely due to the orientation of the non-existent building.

Interestingly enough, Chrisim recently found that that same building was preventing fire trucks and police cars from getting through a diagonal station he had built.  Here the orientation was part of the problem, but the location of this building is also involved.  This problem appears to extend to all diagonal RTMT-style stations.  That's quite a lot of trouble from a building that doesn't even exist.

And yes, the stations on the LEX and STEX have been updated with the fixed stations; the "last update" date tells you exactly when.

[webcammy]

Hi all, this is the first time I've posted in these forums so just thought I would say a big thank you to everyone on this and other websites who have worked on all the additions and enhancements to SimCity 4.  It's all great stuff, especially the NAM and T-RAM which has brought me back to playing the game after a long break and I appreciate that people must put a lot of their free time in to it...  Anyway, enough waffle.

I have found a problem in one of my cities with the new RTMT stations.  I downloaded and installed the original version and plopped a few in my city, then when 'z' released the update, I deleted the old version from my plugins and replaced it with the new one.  Now when I open my city and try to bulldoze the stations it doesn't do anything, they just stay exactly as they are and it flashes up saying '£0'.  Sorry, I probably haven't explained this very well, but was just wondering if anyone else has come across this and does anyone know of a way to fix it?

Many Thanks in Advance.

[webcammy]

Sorry ignore that last post, I'm a newbie and I just seen something about it in the RTMT Support Thread.  Apologies. 

[Xyloxadoria]

A little update on my stuff. I have the avenue transition fully working now with the new model.
On the road one, im learning pathing to do that.

Im still looking for a couple unused base texture IIDs that i will need to make the lots for those look right.

Oh and also, after some PMs with z, i am now a member of the RTMT team so i will be doing more mass transit stuff in the future.
Heres a screenshot of my first thing i made:


Its fully functional and whatnot and sits on a 1x3 lot. Its at the end of a route so thats why the TE looks weird.

[vester]

Xyloxadoria: Love your tram stop 
Will sure use it, when it's released.

[FrankU]

Yes, very nice station!
I could use that for sure. 

[allan_kuan1992]

looking good =)

I wonder... hmm... that might look good in a set with these:
- GLR
- Elevated Rail
- High Elevated Rail

Also, I recommend that at least one (larger ones can also be made) design fit into the 2x2 lot as it looks funny having a platform sticking out into an intersection with prop families. =O

- Allan Kuan

[b22rian]

Hi I have a few questions...

How is the amount of traffic calculated for the T - ram network and stations ?

Does the congestion data view accurately display the amount of congestion for both
the networks and the stations ?

thanks , Brian

[z]

For both the network and the stations, the traffic is considered to be the total number of Sims passing through that square.  This means that even at a bus stop, the tram traffic is counted.    This is why the RTMT T-RAM stations capacities are as high as they are.

The congestion view should display the network congestion correctly.  It also shows if the stations are over capacity, and if so, by approximately how much.  But station performance doesn't degrade the way network performance does; unless a station has at least several times its capacity in use, there is no degradation at all.  Stations may show up red in the congestion view but be performing with no degradation of service.  But if the station reaches its ultimate limit (which appears to vary in different circumstances for reasons that aren't completely clear), station performance falls off a cliff.  This is because all stations have some multiple of their nominal capacity above which they will not accept any more Sims.  This is why it's good to err on the high side when designing station capacities.

[b22rian]

For both the network and the stations, the traffic is considered to be the total number of Sims passing through that square.  This means that even at a bus stop, the tram traffic is counted.    This is why the RTMT T-RAM stations capacities are as high as they are.

The congestion view should display the network congestion correctly.  It also shows if the stations are over capacity, and if so, by approximately how much.  But station performance doesn't degrade the way network performance does; unless a station has at least several times its capacity in use, there is no degradation at all.  Stations may show up red in the congestion view but be performing with no degradation of service.  But if the station reaches its ultimate limit (which appears to vary in different circumstances for reasons that aren't completely clear), station performance falls off a cliff.  This is because all stations have some multiple of their nominal capacity above which they will not accept any more Sims.  This is why it's good to err on the high side when designing station capacities.

OK Z,

thanks for answering this so promptly and accurately..

Brian

[z]

Xyloxadoria's T-RAM station, shown above, has been added to the RTMT Interim T-RAM Stations pack.  For full details, including installation instructions, please see this announcement.

[b22rian]

Ok Z...,

    Thanks for the heads up on Xylo's new station...
Judging from the pic  that he posted, this looks like its going to be 1 Awesome T - Ram station for sure !
Ive already got it down-loaded and I look forward quite eagerly to trying it out.. Thanks to Xylo for
providing us with yet another suberb looking T ram station.. ,

My Compliments and regards,

Your good friend, Brian

[Schleicher68]

The SFBT T-RAM stations are be uploaded to both the German SimCityKurier and the LEX.

 

Thank you, Andreas!

[pierreh]

I have been playing the game for quite a while and I have read a lot in the SC4D forum with great interest, but I have virtually posted nothing until now. This is likely to change since I am getting involved, among other features, with T-RAM.

I set out to implement some tram lines in a relatively mature city which until now has had only a few rail lines and lots of buses. Since there is no room in the developped areas for tram in reservation and I don't want to bulldoze what is already built, I will be using more or less exclusively tram-in-avenue and tram-in-road (I have a small problem with the implementation of tram-on-road, which I may explain later on).

I have encountered 2 issues that are visible on the following picture (in which a T-RAM puzzle piece was inadvertently left over a residential building – sorry about that, it should be ignored):



A. Avenue/street intersections with tram

I like to use streets in my cities where there is little traffic, this forces inasmuch as possible the trafic on roads and avenues. In residential areas the streets are mostly dead-ends with circles or loops.

The design of the intersections of tram-in-road / street and tram-in-avenue / street is different from that of the intersections of road tram-in-road ad or one-way-road (OWR) and tram-in-avenue /  road or OWR. This is visible in the picture showing the various puzzle pieces:



- when the intersection is with a road or OWR, the road or OWR 'crosses' the tram tracks, allowing traffic to enter into or exit from the road or OWR in both directions on the road or avenue that has the tram tracks;

- when the intersection is with a street (crossing the intersection or terminating at the intersection), the street does not cross the tram tracks; therefore trafic can only enter into the street from the right, and exit from the street to the right; this restricts the movements to and from the street, compared to a situation where there are no tram tracks.

Returning to the picture of the city:

1 - the avenue/street intersection at the top is the original form (gap left in the tram tracks): although the street terminates at the avenue it crosses the median stripe to allow traffic from and to all directions including left turns;

2 - the avenue/street intersection in the center has tram tracks: it is not possible to cross the avenue, there is no 'street path' through the tracks (indeed, I could not put the puzzle piece, until I bulldozed the original intersection).

--> Could the streets crossing or terminating at a tram-in-road or a tram-in-avenue be treated in the same way as roads and OWRs?

(Meanwhile I could use a workaround and turn crossing streets into roads one tile away from the avenue or road with tracks; but I don't really like the idea).


B. End of tram line for tram-in-road and tram-in-avenue

I would like to be able to terminate the tram line in the middle of a road or avenue. In the picture submitted, I planned to terminate the line (possibly temporarily until a further extension) just before the bottom avenue/street intersection (nb. 3) – with an end station to be installed close to the last tram-in-avenue puzzle piece. The problem is one of aesthetics: the 'junction' between the avenue with tracks and the normal avenue does not look good, because of the difference in width of the trafic lanes and the sidewalks.

Such 'stubby' ends of line  in the center of an avenue or a road are relatively common in many European cities. Therefore it would be nice to have 'end of line' puzzle pieces for tram-in-road and tram-in-avenue (and probably tram-on-road as well). Nothing fancy, just the ending of the tracks and a proper junction with the regular road or avenue.

This may not be the proper place to request this enhancement, in which case, please point me to the proper topic where I can submit it.

[Chrisim]

A. A street across a tram-avenue. Usually roads (or onewayroads=half an avenue) run across tram-avenues, but not the low capacity streets, in real life and in the game. I believe that this is the reason why it was not created. Technically, there would be no problem to create such a piece, if there is enough demand and if the piece is deemed realistic.
For tram-in-road, we created both, street intersection and crossing, because tram-in-road has less capacity than avenue and therefore you find both, in real life and the game.

B. End of tram line for tram-in-road and tram-in-avenue

I would like to be able to terminate the tram line in the middle of a road or avenue.

You can end a tram line using a tram-avenue station. It works (except for UDI), but it looks "stubby" using your words. We are not going to create such a puzzle piece because of the UDI issue, but an end station lot with a single track circle is in preparation.

[io_bg]

I also think a piece with a street crossing tram-in-avenue would be great.

[gn_leugim]

simple use the road cross piece is what I do

[mike3775]

simple use the road cross piece is what I do

That's what I also do.

If they were to make a piece, I would use it as well, but using the road is fine for me