NAM 31.1 Release Announcement

[fefenc]

I hope that the 5 minutes of loading screen bug has been fixed .-.

It's not a bug, it's the game parsing the RUL2 file. It's VERY big for a SimCity file (Larger than a lot of BATs) and takes a long time to parse.

But the 5 minutes is so..... boring, but just happens when u open a first tile since you entered the game, it can be a city or just an empty terrain.

After this, the loading screen takes 15 ~ 30 seconds to load the tiles.

This is the cause that I think this is a bug.

Doesn't quite take 5 minutes for me for that file to load, and yes when you open new tiles this delay is gone.  The reason I think is that once the file is loaded into memory, it doesn't need to reload again until you exit and re-enter the game.

by the way... I'm hoping that this delay can be minimized, cuz it's so boring to wait 5 minutes, and the game crashes to desktop, and wait more 5 minutes. I know that the "crash to desktop" and another bugs are being fixed in 31.1, but this delay is horrible. For me, this is the worst issue of NAM 31 :S

[titanicbuff]

I was one of those lucky enough to grab it before it was locked- I ptted several issues incluing some drag issues with highway over road- but overall I'm 99% impresses- The team deserves a big hand on this!!!!!

     

[Tarkus]

And the corrected NAM 31.1 is now on the LEX.  Thank you all for your patience.

-Alex

[z]

1. Many of the new custom stations trigger underground mode when selected - dont know if this is deliberate.

This is true of all stations that include subway access; it's built into the game.  All of the elevated custom stations contain optional subway connections, so that's what you're seeing.

[mikeseith]

I tried to download it but I'm getting this message ...

"Download Quota for this lot has been exceeded ..."

[Swordmaster]

I don't. Is there maybe a limit how many times a user can download a certain file?


Cheers
Willy

[z]

There is a per-day limit.

[mySimCities]

I downloaded with no problems and I am quietly impressed with the improvements.

[fefenc]

It worked here, the delay on loading screen is taking less time to load the first tile.

BRASIL-SIL-SIL!

[Jack_wilds]

exceptionally well done set of NAM-readmes...     

[Diggis]

I hope that the 5 minutes of loading screen bug has been fixed .-.

It's not a bug, it's the game parsing the RUL2 file. It's VERY big for a SimCity file (Larger than a lot of BATs) and takes a long time to parse.

But the 5 minutes is so..... boring, but just happens when u open a first tile since you entered the game, it can be a city or just an empty terrain.

After this, the loading screen takes 15 ~ 30 seconds to load the tiles.

This is the cause that I think this is a bug.

This isn't a bug.  Many programs, and SC4 in particular, take a long time to load the first time, however, are significantly faster after that. It's normal.  I'm not a hardware expert, but I believe it's because much of the information is retained in the Cache after that first load. Unfortunately it's just the price we have to pay for large plugins.

[z]

I hope that the 5 minutes of loading screen bug has been fixed .-.

Virtually none of the time taken from starting SC4 to reaching the Region view is due to the NAM.  On a typical computer (i.e., mine), the NAM adds about 25 seconds to the time you start loading a city and the time it finishes loading.  Subsequent loads of the city are faster.

If you are taking five minutes to get to the Region view, or even to load a city, this is due to a large Plugins folder, and most likely you are not DatPacking your files.  Use the DatPacker - it will make a huge difference.  It also eliminates most of the time delay involved in returning from the Zones view or the NAM Subway Building view.

[Durfsurn]

Well we found bugs and you, the amazing people that you are, fixed them with great speed and effort! You have lives yet some of you are writing 331 PAGES of documentation! I think you people are a cut above! While not having actually downloaded it yet I'm sure it will be up to the extremely high standard of the NAM! Thanks again NAM team for keeping a 10 year old game alive!

[jdenm8]

If you are taking five minutes to get to the Region view, or even to load a city, this is due to a large Plugins folder, and most likely you are not DatPacking your files

This is an issue highlighted by slow hard drives and is endemic to most laptops since nearly none of the manufacturers have moved on from using 5200RPM mSATA drives introduced in about 2005.

If you have a desktop PC, there are PCIexpress cards you can buy which add SATA3 ports to your existing system. I would recommend moving SC4 and its plugins to a new SATA3 capable hard drive, this will drastically improve loading times if you've already DATPacked your plugins and are unhappy with the increase. By the speeds you're getting, you're running it on an ancient SATA drive that could be highly fragmented.

[DJSun1981]

Many many thanks for the update, dont have crash yet, but whats the problem here:

[z]

That is the classic symptom of a dual NAM installation.  You need to find the other copy of the NAM and get rid of it.  If you've DatPacked your files, be sure to check in there.

[DJSun1981]

How can I find it? I search for "NAM", but I didn found all files

[Tarkus]

Very few of the NAM's files actually have "NAM" in the name--usually, it's spelled out "NetworkAddonMod" or "Network Addon Mod".  Unless you renamed your NAM installation directory, the most likely name for a DatPacked NAM file would be "Network Addon Mod.dat" (with the spaces).

-Alex

[TEG24601]

Thanks guys for all the hard work.  As one of the few Mac users, not using Wine or Bootcamp, I can confirm that it appears NAM 31.1 works great, with the exception of the Bridges Plug In.  By not working, I mean you can use it to build the required bridges, but only when the game is paused.  If you start the clock it freezes.  I have solved the problem by simply removing the controller.  I'm still able to use the bridges I've built, I just need to add the plug in back to build new ones.  Everything else is perfect, and this is only a minor issue, so kudos, especially for a platform you guys don't really support.

[Tarkus]

NAM 31.1 has been succeeded by NAM 31.2, and is no longer available or supported.  Thank you to all our loyal users who reported issues, making the improvements in NAM 31.2 possible.

Thread closed.

-Alex