MGB's Mods and other stuff

[owlsinger]

Here's another one for you! The underground rail maxis roadway intersection pieces revert when placed. I have the 33 pre-release installed.

Edit: I wasn't sure I should post this here. If not, where should it go?

[mgb204]

Ortho ones have been fixed since v1 of my mod.

Currently these fixes are not a part of the NAM. Whilst my intention is to merge my fixes into the NAM, that won't happen for v33. In the meantime, I figured people would prefer not to wait. So once I've a sufficient number to bundle together that justifies an update I will release them.

You can find my MHO Patch here on the LEX.

As I mentioned earlier, I've already finished the diagonal variants for URail, those will be released with v3. In fact v3 will hopefully get a lot of the diagonals covered, until now I'd been focussed on the orthogonal crossings. RRW Crossings (DTR) are now all fixed too.

If you do notice anything not covered as part of my mod, please feel free to point it out to me. The diagonal avenue was something I felt needed rectifying and the request caught me on a good day. A 24h turnaround is not to be expected for fixes. I've attached the Avenue, U-Rail and RRW Fixes to this post if anyone wants to get their mits on a preview.

:update 5th Nov 2016: Attachment removed, please update your NAM version to 35 or later, which includes these fixes. MGB.

[owlsinger]

Ah, it turns out I only had the BTM installed from your MHO Patch, mea culpa! Thank you for the other fixes!

[owlsinger]

I spoke too soon. When I changed out the partial MHO patch folder for the full one I got this. It was working
before I added in the entire MHO patch. Is there a folder that I need to remove?
Thanks.

[mgb204]

It looks to me like you need to remove the folder zJap NAM FL Overpasses for the Jap NAM Facelift mod. Since you don't have this mod installed, it can not reference the textures on the overpasses.

[owlsinger]

Thank you, that worked!

[compdude787]

Oh, I was having that same problem when I tried to build an avenue overpass over the PS highway and was wondering what the deal was. Thanks as well for providing this solution! Now I can go upgrade that overpass from a road to an avenue, since it's starting to get near capacity.

[mgb204]

In case anyone missed it, the fixes for ML's El Rail over RHW have been uploaded to the LEX.

In the meantime, here's one for LHD users only. For some technical reason it seems the usual pathing for LHD can not be invoked for certain 7.5m overpasses. The same issue occurs with the DBE (diagonal bridge enabler). This means for LHD players that automata will always disappear when entering a 7.5m high piece or the DBE.

This has annoyed me, not because I care for UDI (although that's also a big problem), but rather because I can't always have trains where I might want to take screenshots of them. What I've therefore done is simply override the RHD paths with the LHD pathing for these pieces, which seems to work flawlessly.

My patch will cover Rail and GLR networks for the overpasses, the DBE and a path for the NAM diagonal GLR station. Included are options for either Maxis-spec paths or RRW-spec paths for the rail pieces.

I figured some others might like a copy, so please find the mod attached with basic instructions.

[mgb204]

Time for some updates I guess. I tinker a lot, some things work out, others get placed to one side, some things simply never work and eventually I move on.

With that in mind, the MMP paths idea didn't really work out. I spent hours with Vortext's textures trying to get a good match, but simply never could. I think the textures are so detailed that you simply can not represent it well with such a small object. Even with the UV map scaled correctly, some colours simply dominate the model and others never appear. I could just never get satisfactory results.

The overhanging S3D props will make a proper release some day. The only outstanding issue is to re-size them a little as when they are placed .2m higher the game makes them look slightly offset, which is undesirable. I will probably put them into a pack with some updated diagonal fillers. I'm still looking to make some new pieces for FAR and WRC at some point.

Belfastsocretes showed off a rail depot a while back in his CJ, after talking with him I decided to make a new rail-depot building, since I don't know of any good ones. I'm pretty close to finalising the main design:



This is a standalone prop, the doors on one side will be timed to open/close. Next I have to adapt it to make a modular version you can string together for larger complexes. The real purpose is to release the props, but for the sake of making them useful, I will probably include some basic lots too. There are no batted in rail textures, so you could adapt the depot for GLR, RRW, HSR or whatever with some custom textures.

[mattb325]

Very nice It's good to see a more modern rail depot

[Girafe]

Your modeling skills have drastically increased 

Few points I have in mind by looking at the depot:

- aluminium is maybe a little bit too blueish.
- roof windows are white, they reflect the sky and should be blueish, try to turn on sky option from BAT4MAX and see the result
- you could be dirty with the wall by adding graffitis

[Gugu3]

Very nice depot!

[noahclem]

Great work on that    Definitely a building type we could use more of and flexibly designed 

[belfastsocrates]

Looks excellent so far! Looking forward to using these for my planned GLR depot. The access ramp/platform looks good as well.

I'd not be overly keen on Girafe's idea of graffiti given that most modern depot facilities are secured and vandals are rare. Could be an option for more 'exposed' yards though. 

Looking forward to using these!

[mgb204]

Thanks Girafe for your words of wisdom and to everybody for the support/comments.

Taking on-board Girafe's advice, I think this is much better. I've tinkered with the blue, perhaps I went too far, but it blends with some Maxis industrial buildings well. I've been trying out using Mental Ray for the windows, I'm not 100% happy with the day view, but they've enabled me to really improve the nightlighting.



I won't add Graffiti for two reasons, one I couldn't make textures for that. Two, props exist to add this so the option is there to add them in the LE.

[TheTeaCat]

These are lovely! Really like the nightlighting.

[vortext]

Too bad the MMPs didn't work out. I recall Krashspeed spend quite some time as well to match the HH dock props with the LE textures, and that was a relatively simply texture indeed. Glad to hear the overhanging props are still in the works though!

The depot looks excellent, as do the recent bridges. 

[Gugu3]

Excellent night lighting

[mgb204]

As part of my sidewalk mods/GLR style, I've had problems with 5 remaining BATs that I couldn't unify together. Rivit was instrumental in making the Regular and TIA Flups for me. Recently I was given permission by Xyloxadoria to retexture his GLR transitions. He provided me with the original model files to retexture the rails. So now that's 4 of those pieces matching, one to go.



The last piece remaining is the TiR bridge by Xannepann. Vortext mentioned in another thread about T21ing an S3D model of the new texture onto bridges. I've given that a go:



It seems to work. I've just got to track down the remaining IDs and T21 them. The nice thing about this fix... I'm referencing the NAM network texture. So regardless of the GLR mod used, the correct texture will appear on the bridge.

[romualdillo]

Fantasctic work!!!