SFBT Releases

[Andreas]

SFBT Tree Replacement Mod by Andreas

Although Cycledogg already created a similar mod (or a set of mods, actually), I always thought some of his trees were too large, compared to the Maxis ones, and therefore looked out of place in certain situations. So I made a test lot with all Cycledogg trees and all Maxis trees and compared the sizes and picked those Cylcedogg trees that seemed to fit best for the various Maxis trees. Replacing the Maxis palms wasn't that easy as well, since the best looking tree that Cycledogg made was rendered offset (and even hovering a bit in the air ), but thankfully, Chrisim edited the S3D model manually, so it would fit in perfectly into the dirt circles.

This mod will replace all Maxis trees "on the fly", this means that you don't have to bulldoze or re-plop anything, however, you will get brown boxes immediately if you don't have all dependencies. So make sure to install Cycledogg's tree models and prop packs as well. Apart from the trees on the lots, the ploppable Mayor Mod and the God Mode trees are replaced as well, including the flora props that grow over the time, and the Maxis street trees (but not the trees that are added with the various street tree mods, or any non-Maxis trees on custom lots).

 

 


SFBT Light Signals by royal

Following the mechanical semaphore signals that were released some time ago, royal also created a prop pack with modern German light signals. This package is pretty extensive, it contains almost 150 individual props, since most signals are available as orthogonal and diagonal versions, including offset-rendered props. As usual, the prop pack doesn't contain any lots, so this is mainly intended for upcoming SFBT lots, and for lot builders who want to create their own railway-related lots.

 


SFBT Railway Props by Kenworth and royal

Yet another prop pack, containing more than 40 different German railway props, such as various engines, freight and passenger cars, and a few additional catenaries etc. You might know the "Regio Runner" bi-level cars already, as they were converted into automata by Swamper77 a while ago. Everything else has been created over the last few months, and with some luck, you might see more of the models as automata, depending on automata modder's free time. The props will be used heavily on a set of upcoming SFBT lots, so watch the LEX for those.

 


Merry Christmas from all SFBT members, and have fun with the new releases!

[sithlrd98]

Great job to all of the SFBT! Thanks for sharing , and Merry Christmas to you too!

Jayson

[vester]

Thanks you all from the SFBT team for the christmas presents.

[Andreas]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. And so the upload spree continues...

SFBT Passenger Car Sidings by Praiodan

Some lots of this set have been made a long time ago mainly for private use and where shown in various MDs. People kept asking about them, so we decided to expand the set and release it finally. Praiodan created a total of 16 different lots with various sizes, some of them featuring the SFBT Catenary props, so people can create electrified railway scenarios as well.

All lots can visually connect to your railway tracks, but they are not transit enabled, meaning that trains can't go through them (which would be a bit pointless anyway ). The icons should give you an idea about the layout of the tracks, and all lots are sorted by size in the menu. If you don't want to install all of them, you can also use any given number and delete the rest (i. e. if you don't use the catenaries, simply remove the ones that are labeled "_elektrifiziert" (electrified). The electrified lots are marked with an "e" in the icon.

 


SFBT Freight Car Sidings by Praiodan

Like the passenger car sidings, this set contains a whopping 19 different lots with freight cars in different configurations. The handling is exactly the same as with the passenger car lots, except that the background of the icons is green instead of red. There is one lot that is "drive-through" enabled, this is mentioned in the menu description, but the rest is only visually network enabled as well.

The lots will look very nice next to larger railyards (see below) or stations, but you can also use them to assemble a modular railyard of your own. They are pure eye-candy, this means they don't provide any jobs nor cap relief, and they don't use power or water, nor do they have any pollution. The maintenance cost is kept rather low, so unless you don't use hundreds of them in a very small city, it shouldn't have much impact on your budget.

 


SFBT Railyard by royal

In contrary to the lots above, this is a huge, 18x6 tiles railyard that functions as a freight railway station with a capacity of 10,000 in the game. For an SFBT lot, it's a bit heavy on the dependency side (10 dependencies in total), but the dependencies are either very common or they will be used by other SFBT rail-related lots as well, so they will serve a large set of lots at the same time. Additional rail lots may follow in the future, in order to get the max out of Kenworths and royals wonderful props.

 

[CasperVg]

I have downloaded all of them and I am now waiting for them to be DatPacked. I can't wait to use them in-game. Great work!

they will be used by other SFBT rail-related lots

So, there's more coming? Awesome!

[FrankU]

Hey, this is fabulous... Maybe I will replace North Country Dude's enormous railyards with these! They are more flexible, I guess.
Looking very good.

Will there be lots useful in container ports? (Always asking for more. When will I need a new computer to play the game... It's getting slower every month now!  )

[ehbk2006]

Nice trains 

[jmyers2043]

Hello Andreas. The street tree replacement mod. Does this replace the older SFBT street tree mod that I've have in my plugins?

[Andreas]

Hello Andreas. The street tree replacement mod. Does this replace the older SFBT street tree mod that I've have in my plugins?

The SFBT Tree Replacement Mod is completely separate from the SFBT Street Tree Mod. What the Tree Replacement Mod does is replacing all Maxis trees models with Cycledogg's tree models, this means all in-game prop and flora exemplar files have been modified to display the Cycledogg models instead of the Maxis models.

The Street Tree Mod, however, introduces new prop exemplar files that make use of prop families; this means that depending on the prop DAT file that is installed, the game will show different trees (similar to the concept for the various BSC Park Set path textures). Since I created new exemplar files for the Street Tree Mod, the Tree Replacement Mod won't affect those at all.

If you want, you can use both mods together, and despite of the tree replacement feature, you can use different trees along your streets this way. Also, since my Street Tree Mod does not cover the SAM streets yet (I found out that I'd have to modify over 1000 T21 exemplar files for this, so this is not an option at the moment  ), you can get rid of the Maxis palms along the SAM streets this way, they will be replaced by a nice looking Cycledogg maple tree.

[jmyers2043]

If you want, you can use both mods together

Hey Andreas! Thanks!   

[lorenz4]

Hi, I am using the "SFBT Parking Lots" including its bus stations and enjoy it a lot, thanks! However one think I don't like is that the bus stations don't "highlight in green" like the other stations when in traffic view, what makes very difficult to locate them.

Is there a way to activate that "green highlighting" on those stations?


Thank you!

[Swamper77]

The only way to do that is to use an actual model for the building, instead of the "invisible" building model. Andreas knows what I mean by this.

Also, the transit buildings will only be highlighted if you are using a specific dataview mod.

-Swamper

[lorenz4]

Yes, I am using the "Z traffic simulator" data view. Not idea about the invisible building model though.

Thanks!

[Swamper77]

Maxis uses a very tiny model on their park lots to avoid foundations from appearing where the buildings are. Many people use park lots as a base to make their own creations, so their lots inherit the "invisible" building which is a flat 2D model.

If the creator of the bus stop for the SFBT parking lots had used the Maxis bus stop as a base for their lot, then the building would show up with the highlight as it would be using the Maxis bus stop building.

As for the highlighting on the transit buildings, it sounds like Z used the DataView Modd RH as a base to highlight the transit stations in his traffic view. Tropod created this file long ago, shortly after Rush Hour came out.

-Swamper

[Andreas]

Well, actually, I don't like these highlighted green buildings, so I never noticed before. But Swamper77 is right, it doesn't work because the bus station shelter is a prop, and not a model. If you haven't noticed it yet, there are several props that are included in a prop family, so a different one shows up each time you plop the lot. Civic lots don't support building families, though, so we had to use a prop family for that. However, when using the DataView Modd, the lots should show up as blue dots on your transportation map, and clicking on them centers them in the main city view.

Personally, I often use the built-in signs for marking the positions of my transit stations. During playing, I switch off the signs, but when I need to locate a specific station, I display the signs again, which makes it a lot easier to find those small lots within a concrete jungle. The signs even show in underground mode, so I can precisely locate my subway stations. This also helps a lot when building a new subway line - simply mark the cleared tiles with a sign, switch to undergrund mode, and plop the stations where you put up the signs, then connect them with subway tubes.

[lorenz4]

Thank you both.

Can you explain me which dataview modd will make appear them as blue dots. I am using the "Z traffic simulator" data view and I don't see the blue dots. Is there any way to activate them?

Thanks also for the advice about the signs. One thing I find annoying though is having to write the text on each sign, is there a way to mass copy and paste them?

[Andreas]

The original mod by Tropod adds those blue dots, but apparently, z's mod doesn't. You'll have to ask him why he removed the feature, though.

As for the signs, I simply type in "u" for "underground" or something like this, this is quicker than adding a whole word. I agree that it's a bit inconvenient to manually type something, though.

[lorenz4]

Thanks Andreas, do you know where can I locate the original Tropod's mod? I looked in the LEX but couldn't find anything by Tropod.

[Andreas]

Swamper77 posted a link above.

[lorenz4]

Sorry, I didn't notice that. Thanks again.