Maxis Highway Override (Project Symphony) - Development & Support

[Wiimeiser]

Of course it will.

Added as Issue #94

Link's broken in Firefox, hasn't been getting along with SMF since the attachments issue it seems...

[Swordmaster]

The link should actually be this.


Cheers
Willy

[Shadow Assassin]

It's what happens when I'm too used to doing HTML coding in my day job. :p

[jmdude1]

i am unable to find entrance ramp A1 (L2). all my other ramps are there except this one. does anybody else have this problem or is it something on my end?

[[Delta ²k5]]

i am unable to find entrance ramp A1 (L2). all my other ramps are there except this one. does anybody else have this problem or is it something on my end?

https://github.com/BluelightningSC4/Network-Addon-Mod/issues/119

Also applies to the B Ramp

[Panther559]

i am unable to find entrance ramp A1 (L2). all my other ramps are there except this one. does anybody else have this problem or is it something on my end?

https://github.com/BluelightningSC4/Network-Addon-Mod/issues/119

Also applies to the B Ramp

This is the best addition to the NAM ever!  Although, I came 10 days too late apparently.  I just got this update and I'm experiencing the same problem as jmdude1 with the A1 entrance ramp not being available. Please help me.  Much appreciated!! This project rocks and I am changing ALL my cities/region to have this new style of transportation.  Thank you!!

[Medu Salem]

Hello,

so this is my second post, even I'm not new to Devotion, I'm normaly a silent user, reading the development-threads, city-journals and stuff... 

I've got a question... Is it a design-choice of the NAM-Team to make the T-Interchanges of Project-Symphony a Full-Prefab? I know the design-paradigm of the NAM-Team who don't like Prefabs since they require a lot of model-working and are mostly inflexible in any way and you have my full support in that.

So my thought while placing them ingame was why didn't you make the T-Interchanges Semi-Prefab like the Roundabout-Interchange Pieces? Not that they are bad or something, they are actually much, much, much better than the Default-Maxis T-Intersection, which were just ugly... 

My idea was to make just the diverging dual-flyover's a semi-prefab, because I imagine making them flexfly would just be too much work, and connect them with starterless height-transitions and/or entrance/exit-ramps of your choice, like in the screenshot I borrowed and edited from MandelSoft It would make the setup of the T-Interchange much more flexible in any means and reuses some of the pieces, like the height-transition and Entrance/Exit-Ramps already used in combination with the Roundabout-Semi-Prefab, although it comes with the trade-off of being a little bit more complex to build if done that way. There's a choice to be made between flexibility and usabillity, I think... Also it would be easier to mix the Semi-Prefab with other RHW pieces not from Symphony... I find myself often combining both of them in Interchanges since NAM31.

One of my other reasons is that I don't really like the A/B-Style Ramps you are limited to with Symphony... I hate them when driving in reality, they are mostly suicidal overkill situations on highways where people get mad, honk at each other or crash into each other because someone is in the blind spot. All that because of missing acceleration/deacceleration-lanes and that's why I try to avoid building them in my virtual cities.

I know I could do a Trumpet, directional or semi-directional T-Interchange myself with RHW pieces only, which I do when there's enough space and reasonable traffic to expect, but they always end up bloated even when you don't want a high-capacity Interchange and just limit yourself to MIS.  A big interchange that serves a little village/town in rural area is nonsensical in my opinion when there's little traffic expected. Therefore the Symhony-T-Interchange comes in handy for some variation, but is a little bit limited in the Ramp- and Transition-Styles.

Yeah, I know I could do some parclos and other stuff in rural-area, but for example I live in a village where the highway is squeezed in between the village and a nearby parallel river and there's no space for anything else then a semi-directional T-Interchange to serve the village and because there will be no bridge going over the river EVER (the river being too wide to fit a bridge in the magnitude required into the narrow space available) a Parclo-setup or Diamond-Interchange would make no sense at all. And I often find myself with similar problems in SimCity because I also often run my Highways in parallel to a river or beach, where everything else then a T-Interchange just looks like being out of place.

So that are my two Cents to the Prefab-problem, since I also don't like them very much because of inflexibility and favor a Semi-Prefab-Style, where I can do with the pieces whatever pleases me.

- Medu

[GDO29Anagram]

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The T-Interchange is the only exception to the No-Prefabs rule because it better reflects how the original T-Interchange is designed. That's the best answer I can provide since the main developer is away right now.

[noahclem]

I don't know what Maarten thinks either but I agree with you. It would be very useful to not have the ramps as part of the prefab T. I'd be in favor of dropping those right turn ramps as well.

[Medu Salem]

Yepp, that was my thought too... Dropping the fixed right turns as well, you could use FAR-Pieces and/or the 45/90°-Curves (depending on how many lanes you want to turn), using your own slope if L0+L2 Highways are involved, or the MIS L0-L2 Curvy-Heighttransitions instead if space is scarce... Whatever fits the situation...

Only inconvenience may be that you would have to decide yourself which Semi-Prefab to use in each situation because the game won't know then which heights of the Highways are involved in the intersection. So you would have to TAB+Rotate through them until you get the one you want... But that doesn't really bother me.

- Medu

[whatevermind]

It seems the short L0/L2 (Ground/Elevated) transition is reverting to the old Maxis textures:


The long transition is working fine though, as you can see in the back.

I also noticed that for some of the puzzle pieces, as well as sometimes when dragging, the preview showed the Maxis highway instead of the PS highway. Other than the short transition shown above though, I think it always ended up building with the right textures.

Having finally seen PS in-game, I have to say it's a huge improvement over the Maxis highways. In fact that picture above really shows just how big of a change it is. Well done! 

[APSMS]

I believe that due to it's lack of realism there is no short transition in the PS/Maxis Highway Override Mod. Like the MHWxMHW auto cloverleaf ramps, the size of the interchange (or similar item) is too small to look properly scaled in-game. So it's not a bug (from what I understand).

[jdenm8]

That transition reverting is intended functionality, the gradient change is incredibly severe and would probably rip vehicles apart at Motorway Speeds IRL.

[themaroonday]

@whatevermind  I've had that problem as well. The problem also continues when creating T-intersections and a few ramps. The Maxis Symphony Project may use the basis of the Original Maxis Highway, but it will still use up much more room. While, it may not use up as much as the traditional Real Highway Mod, it still uses more space than the Original Maxis Highway.

[MandelSoft]

The transitions were made intentionally that way. Such short transitions were just not realistic. To compensate some of the lost functionality, a diagonal transition was also created.

[themaroonday]

The transitions were made intentionally that way. Such short transitions were just not realistic. To compensate some of the lost functionality, a diagonal transition was also created.

I agree. I also think the Network Widening Mod is a great alternative for those who want a larger capacity without too much destruction of preexisting buildings. Although it may increase commute times, it's a great alternative to expensive demolition. Mass transit such as Subways are also very helpful in reducing road congestion.

[whatevermind]

That transition reverting is intended functionality

The transitions were made intentionally that way.

Gotcha. I guess I would have expected it to red draw then if it's not supposed to be part of the system. Might I suggest that change for a future update? Or if that's not practical, then to just put the short transition in there for those willing to sacrifice realism for aesthetic uniformity.

I believe that due to it's lack of realism there is no short transition in the PS/Maxis Highway Override Mod.

Ah, but there is a short transition. It may not look right (or function, I didn't test that), but it does exist and can be built.

...would probably rip vehicles apart at Motorway Speeds IRL.

True, but sims enjoy slightly different laws of physics than we're used to in this world. 

[Indiana Joe]

There's a ton of draggable MHW stuff that appears ugly and unconverted like that.  I see no reason to forcefully take it out; if it doesn't look right, obviously it hasn't been converted!

It's stated in the FAQ at the beginning of the project thread that every single component will not necessarily be converted.  The purpose was to move MHW in the direction of RHW, not vice versa.  I'd rather see development on the front of diagonal ramps, etc.

I'd also like to say that default MHW has actually been under appreciated since Symphony came out.  The latest textures blend perfectly with the RHW, and you get the full range of custom interchanges and pieces.  If you like compact, there's really no advantage to using Symphony.

[Tarkus]

The reason that transition wasn't disabled for Symphony was because it'd require a separate controller--the same reason all the other MHW AutoPlace stuff pops up on Symphony.

-Alex

[APSMS]

This is perhaps outside of the scope of the PS project, (and also probably outside the scope of this thread), but would it be possible to make the MHWOr/PS cloverleaf 3/4 circle L0 to L2 ramps available for non PS users (like simply include it in the RHW instead?) (You know that piece designed for cloverleaf interchanges to replace the MHW prefab ones?).

I find that piece ridiculously useful for a number of situations involving avenues, and it fits the old, low-speed design paradigm of the intersections I'm emulating (despite their current high capacity). It seems a shame that it wouldn't be possible to make this ramp generally available, esp. since I still find uses for non-converted MHW/I don't want to rebuild my existing regions.