SAM - Street Addon Mod

[Diggis]

one way roads, that's what I meant. If I were to make a new set of textures that were aligned to a side rather than centered, and otherwise transparent, then the effect would work? And it's just a matter of having another track back to the rest of the grid right? I don't see that as a problem either, unless they have to be really close to one another. How close would they have to be?

There just has to be another way back, anywhere you want.  However, offsetting the texture to one side would result in having half the cars drive on the grass.

[thingfishs]

From my brief experiments since you said that, I'm thinking it's not as straightforward as half the cars being on the grass. I built a little test setup:



With four houses and a shop (using CAM) over four game years (on cheetah mode) the cars on the one-way roads (they've just had their arrows removed) used the left lane exclusively (I'm using the LH version) When I tried it in a small city (30, 000) the cars mostly used the left lane but sometimes would spill out onto the right. However I would be using such a road texture in exclusively rural settings, beyond rural even (because the two supplied dirt street textures in SAM do a great job for rural towns etc.), but for farms etc. just for roads used by a few people. I'm guessing there must be a point at which the numbers of automata becomes high enough that both lanes of a one way road are used... (or maybe it was when two cars arrived from different directions) Either way it seemed a rare enough an occasion that it wouldn't be a problem. What did seem wrong though was the increase in speed the cars got when on the one-way roads. Is it possible to lower the rate of a network?

[j-dub]

I don't see why not. I can see a street style OWR happening, its just all the RUL's, combined with the pathing, the texuring, and all the intersections with every other network will be time consuming. It is not like it will happen over-night, Alex had been working on a one lane OWR for the NWM, and I have used that in my suburban areas, however that is still road based, and they still speed on it, because of that. As for a one directional street network system, I would assume functionally, because the RHW has one direction, two directions, and one lane options; all in the same network. That makes me question why the street network could not do the same. Maybe street puzzle pieces could be made to overlap the street oneway, then no more worrying about speeding motorists through residential areas. While I just use one ways to block traffic one direction down the side streets, I did it that way because in my RL city's, the streets have no arrows, are two lanes wide, but they still have you drive only on the right side, and not use it as two lanes, despite road signs may be on both sides. Parking is usually on the left.

As someone else discovered streets can carry neighbor connections too, they just can not be built that way from the start, but because of that, I believe OWS, oneway street is possible. I will be experimenting on how to connect OWR to neighboring cities, since it turns out wider RHW also can connect and carry traffic to neighboring cities, why couldn't said OWR networks? If street carries connection, then shouldn't OWR? Thing is, I do not see why you use both lanes on a OWR street, because there would be no lines down the street, and you know the motorist debate about the no lane linage thing there, which is why you treat one way streets still as only one lane, despite the two lane width. It is different if there are lines, but the OWR has lane lines. In RL when I have seen oneways through suburban areas, they do make them road width when they are officially two lanes wide. While I believe the possibility of OWS, that reason about the lane lines, I don't see this idea being considered, but it has to work. Maybe the puzzle piece idea could achieve this. Maybe if you want OWS and do not care about cars only driving on the right, just 1 path restricted street puzzle piece could accomplish this, no new network would need to be made, but these are just ideas.

[thingfishs]

Thanks for the input j-dub. I would be happy if it could be achieved by any method, puzzle pieces or whatever. But I would also willingly forgo and modify my one way road setup if it could be done. The city I live in doesn't have one way roads, it's a shock going to other cities and not being able to just go straight where I want to go. So for this reason I rarely use them and am able to do just fine using roads, avenues & highways.
With intersections, as these tracks would be too small to influence the passing road and could even fade in from complete transparency if need be (visually I'm talking, I have no idea how this would influence the actual setup and whether it would make it any easier or not), could you just have a multipurpose texture that would be used to join it to whatever network? (as well as an over rail one)

[Andreas]

Hmm, since the pathing would require some time and knowledge, and since it might be necessary to create a number of new textures for a SAM set, why not use the RRP textures on some pedmall puzzle pieces, like we did with PEG's mountain trails? The major problem that we're facing right now is the transparency bug, but that could be circumvented by making them puzzle pieces instead of lots.

[Complete]

Am I being an idiot here or is there no download link ?

There is nothing in the first post that gives you any information n hw to actually download the mod ?

[j-dub]

Furthermore Andreas, aside from the high demand I too have heard for traffic carrying Chris Adam trails, I have heard many people ask for a paved functioning trail network, think the dirt trail ped-mall tiles except with asphalt on them. We have been over many times that the problem with having these types of networks pathed for cars in each direction, puzzle piece or dragged would result in cars colliding head on, but I feel a bunch of players would be satisfied with at least having ped mall versions of these networks. I swear I have drove on Ped-Malls in UDI, you just can not go very fast, but I bet there is desire to drive on those dirt RRP tire tracks. As for the paved tiles, for now, those that want paved trail lots, will have to use the Meandering Bike Trail set from the stex, they basically are the same setup as the RRP tire track trails.

Complete, you can download the SAM off of BSC lex or the stex sites, but those require separate login credentials; and some stuff you saw pictured on here may not be in the current version.

[Glazert]

You need to register separately on the LEX to be able to download.

[Complete]

Thanks guys. Just realised I had to register to the LEX. I am finding it hard to understand all this stuff as I am new to SIMCity4. Yes I know it has been out for years but hey thought I would finally give it a go!

[thingfishs]

Okay, well you guys have my attention. So because these would only be one way I assume the colliding cars wouldn't be an issue.
I'm very keen on the idea, what's the next step?

[dedgren]

I've done quite a bit of Chris's dirt tracks as a SAM set.  There's the STR issue- cars and trucks going in opposite directions pass "through" each other.  The ultimate thing that caused me to abandon what I'd done, though, was the type and volume of traffic- it should be tractors and wagons, not cars and trucks, and it should also be very infrequent.

I'd be happy to pass along what I had done- it's just a matter of finding it.


David

[thingfishs]

I'm a bit confused here... also this may need to go to another thread. But what are the options with the one way road idea? Could they be replaced (texture wise) by the RRP set? (I've been told yes) Can the speed of the network be reduced?

Although I would like to try the RRP as a SAM set as well degren, especially if it's already been done. That way there would be two way traffic (which is good in a sense) and the speed would be right. I agree tractors and wagons would be better, but I'm willing to overlook that. As for what you said about the volume of traffic, how did your use compare to what I have above? I really would be mostly using such a network as driveways, not roads as such, so they would only ever lead to a few houses at most.
I am using a persistent automata mod, may that have interfered with the behaviour of the traffic? Because I was happy enough with the rate of cars, but we may have different standards.

[wes.janson]

A quick question: How does one go about drawing the 4-Way diagonal SAM + OWR and the 4-Way diagonal SAM + Road intersections? (Found in the 4 Way Intersection folder of the SAM Creation Set; 0x5e52dx00 and 0x5e52ex00 respectively) For the life of me, I cannot get these to reproduce in game.

[Diggis]

A quick question: How does one go about drawing the 4-Way diagonal SAM + OWR and the 4-Way diagonal SAM + Road intersections? (Found in the 4 Way Intersection folder of the SAM Creation Set; 0x5e52dx00 and 0x5e52ex00 respectively) For the life of me, I cannot get these to reproduce in game.

Are they reverting back to the original textures?  Or can you not just create it?  If it's the former it means that it was never RULed.  There are still a few obscure textures that Jason hasn't RULed and it's beyond my abitilites to do it.

If it's the later, you'll need to post the texture and I'll see if I can make it.

[wes.janson]

Are they reverting back to the original textures?  Or can you not just create it?  If it's the former it means that it was never RULed.  There are still a few obscure textures that Jason hasn't RULed and it's beyond my abitilites to do it.

If it's the later, you'll need to post the texture and I'll see if I can make it.

It must be because it was never RULed. Making the textures is turning out to be quite simple when I am able to get the time to sit down and do so. I had a complete set done, but as always, I've figured out a way to make them look better (In my opinion) as I was finishing them it up, so I've elected to go back and re-do them.

I have to say it is kind of fun playing with the intersections. I've always hated how roads/owr taper into a street intersection. So I tried this out:

[wes.janson]

Sorry for the double post, but I'd like to get peoples feedback about how these look in-game.

I've completed all but the roundabouts and transistion textures, but I've just got the standard textures in-game so far.

There is a few little tweaks that I can see, mainly the texture off-set on the intersections, but I'd like any outside opinions I can get.

So without further adieu...

[Jack_wilds]

first impression -wow, over all I like it as it appears to have a 'new' asphalt that has been traffic worn... 

a slight contrast to the lighter side of things it appears too black... I see mid-line alignment issue, most I'm sure your aware of other notes are mostly creative differences... just tweak it here and there, does it function ok?

color variation with asphalt mixes will-be retained over time with a balanced mix of aggregate to fines to bonding material versus other mixes containing more or less 'tarr', lower aggregate volume and more fines (asphalt mixes can be a real recipe -see your favorite CE textbook about asphalt formulas and batch mixing) also temperature changes both ambient and mix and base also effect the final look in texture and color and how long such characteristics will remain over time...

asphalt inspection is a boring always hot thing to do and the paperwork involved is just a pain... but I did it

-learning on the job conclusions through observation...   

Jack 

[kassarc16]

Oooh! I like, I like a lot! Nice job on that set.

[jdenm8]

Nice new set! That's an Asphalt colour I have never seen before. Around here, our crappy weather mix (cool-ish in Winter, foolishly hot in summer, raining little but when it does... Don't be outside  ) seems to ensure either Very dark black asphalt (when it's clean) or a mid-tone grey or sometimes even a grey-ish blue. 

Great work!

[j-dub]

Guess I have not been here for a while, great work wes! Seriously those are awesome.