Creating a GLR-in-Avenue Station

[Andreas]

The GLR-in-Avenue puzzle pieces were one of the most anticipated items in the June 2007 version of the NAM. Shortly after the release, the first GLR-in-Avenue stations were started. Here's a short overview how to create the lot for such a station, and how to mod it properly.

Generally speaking, the lot shouldn't be much larger than 2x2, since a transit enabled lot blocks access to residential buildings. If you zone a lot that is wider than one tile, you can still use the station in residential areas if you offset two lots that are at least two tiles wide next to the station. By making the station a prop, it can exceed the lot borders to both sides, if necessary.



Put your model into the plugins folder, start the Plugin Manager and drag it to the "Prop" entry. In the window that pops up, adjust the following properties:

Is Ground Model = True
Orient To Slope = False
AppearanceZoomFlag = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Light = True (if your model has nightlights)
Previewable = True
Query as main building = True

For creating the lot, I made a template which has the proper textures and a complete set of transit switch properties. I've attached the file below, so you can make your own station in a snap. Just load the template, put your props on it, and save it under a new name. However, I'm going through the full process again, so you can make your own station from scratch.



Open an existing lot of the proper category, ideally another GLR (el-rail) station. Change the lot size to 2x2 and orient it from north to south (the road that is displayed in the Lot Editor always points south). Add a base texture and put the GLR-in-Avenue overlay texture (ID 0x58404000) on all tiles. Don't worry if there's still another building on it, we'll get rid of it in a minute.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the actual building is invisible, only the grey box that represents the building can be spotted below the GLR tracks. This is due to a modification that can be done with the Reader. Save your current lot under a new name, exit the Lot Editor and open your lot in the Reader. Click on "Fill the list" and then on the building exemplar file.



Here's a typical building exemplar file of a regular GLR station. Note the green marking, which shows that this is the building exemplar file (and not the lot exemplar file). A few entries below, you will find the "Resource Key Type 1" property. This property is the link to a building model. Since we don't want a building, all we need to do is to delete the property. Right-click on it, select "Delete property", save the lot file and exit the Reader again.

Note: If the original building was larger than 2x2 tiles, you won't be able to make the lot that small. In this case, also modify the "Occupant size" property. The actual size doesn't matter, but since one tile is 16x16 meters, you can make it that large. Just remember that you shouldn't move the grey box too close to the lot borders, otherwise the lot might become indestructible.

Ok, back to the Lot Editor, so we can create the lot for the station...



Go to the "Props" tab and select your station prop from the list. If it is larger than your lot, it won't show up in the list. Make your lot one or two tiles larger temporarily, then it will show up and you can place it. Reduce the lot size again afterwards. Every prop may extend across the lot borders up to 50%. If your prop is larger, you can use the trick with the "Occupant size" property as well, just open the SC4Desc file that was created by the Plugin Manager, click on the prop exemplar file and edit the values. This will modify the size of the blue box that is shown in the Lot Editor. Add some more props, such as waiting passengers, some benches, trashcans etc. in order to make the station more lively. When you're done, save the lot again and exit the Lot Editor.

Now comes the modding part, starting with transit enabling via SC4Tool. Start SC4Tool, select the TE Editor and open your lot file. We will transit enable the lot with oneway-roads, which has quite some advantages. First, it will prevent those avenue median props to show up, and second, it will eliminate the crashing issue that TE lots suffer when you hover a puzzle piece over them.



Select oneway-roads ("B") in the bar on the right and drag it to all four tiles. Then switch the TE editor to Expert Mode, if necessary (via the "Mode" drop down list). Right click on the first tile and select "Edit". The "Edit Reps" window pops up. You will have to edit the Rep 3 value (orientation), Rep 15 (directions) and Rep16 (the ID of the path file). Just edit all values as shown on the screenshot above. The other three tiles are edited in the same way, as shown in the screenshots below.

   

Now go to the "Transit Switch" tab and add/modify the transit switch properties. SC4Tool has added a few ones based on your initial transit enabling, but some more are needed. All transit switch properties are pairs of "outside to inside" and "inside to outside". For through-traffic (such as cars and buses), both values in the last two lines are the same, and both pairs are the same as well. The directions should be set accordingly to the setup of the lot (north-south in our case).



Above is a list of all transit switch properties that are needed for a GLR-in-Avenue station. I'll explain them one by one from the top down to the bottom of the list. The first pair is for letting el-trails (and GLR, since it's nothing else than el-rail on the ground) through the station, only in north-south direction. The second pair makes incoming pedestrians from all sides boarding the el-rail, and el-rail passengers getting off the train into all directions. The next three pairs allow cars, buses and freight trucks to pass the lot. The last pair finally allows pedestrians to pass the lot, and since the directions are set to all sides, they are also able to cross the avenue here. this is useful if you add a zebra crossing or a pedestrian overpass to your lot.

Don't forget to set the desired passenger capacity in the second line. "Entry Cost" is usually 0; it has nothing to do with the fares the commuters have to pay, but it's the amount of time the station slows down the traffic. You can use this property to "encourage" the sims to use public transportation rather than their cars, but don't set it too high (0.1 might be a good compromise). If you're done, save the lot and exit SC4Tool.



Unfortunately, SC4Tool has a small bug that causes another bug with the Mac version of SimCity. It sets the "Rep count" of the Transit Switch properties to 1, whereas they should be 0. This can be corrected with the Reader, though. Open your lot, select the building exemplar file again and locate the Transit Switch properties (usually near the bottom of the list). Double-click the two entries with a "1", and set the "Rep" value to "0". Hit the "Apply" button left to the input box near the bottom of the window, and then the other "Apply" button at the bottom. Save the lot again and close the file.

While you're in the reader anyway, open the SC4Desc file that was created earlier and click on the prop exemplar file. Right-click somewhere in the list of properties and select "Add property". A new window pops up; click on the drop-down list and look for "User Visible Name Key". Enter "0,0,0" in the input box below, hit "Apply" on the right and then "Apply" at the bottom of the window. A new property with "0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000" should have been added. Together with the "Query as main building" property, this allows the game to display the hover query with the subway icons.



In the final step, we will add a proper name and description to the station, and add a nice icon. For creating the icon, please refer to one of the icon tutorials that is around. Basically, you make a screenshot in the game, crop a 44x44 image out of it, copy it four times and add the appropriate borders. Open your lot in LEProp, select a PNG icon file from your HD, hit "Apply" and then "Save DAT". Do the same after editing the name and description of the station. Note: LEProp seems to have a small bug that prevents adding the name and description in a row. Therefore, create one of them, hit "Apply" and save, then exit and re-open the lot to add the other text. You can also adjust the other properties, please refer to SC4Tool's building reference for suitable values (i. e., use the same properties as the in-game el-rail station).

For using the station in the game, plop the GLR-in-Avenue puzzle pieces as normal and leave empty spaces of the size 2x2 for the stations. Then plop your station in there and drag two short stretches of oneway-road through them (inside the lot). This will activate the automata paths.

You can use this guide for creating other stations, i. e. "regular" GLR stations, as well, only some properties are different. Have a look at existing stations in order to see which properties are used, and how the transit enabling is done. For a GLR station, I suggest a setup in east-west orientation, since the GLR paths are rotated this way. You can rotate them in SC4Tool, but I guess it's easier to set up the lot properly in the first place. If you have any questions. feel free to ask.

[Gaston]

Thanks for making this Andreas.    I'm gonna have to read this several times to make sure I understand it all.        I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box but I'm sure if I can figure it out anyone can.     


---Gaston

[nwelsh]

Don't worry Gaston I have already read it twice and am going in for a third.   


Thank you very much for this tutorial Andreas.  I have tried making a glr-avenue station before but have always run into problems trying to TE it.

Thanks a lot.

[iamgoingtoeatyou]

Thanks for making this Andreas.    I'm gonna have to read this several times to make sure I understand it all.        I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box but I'm sure if I can figure it out anyone can.     


---Gaston

Isn't it the brightest crayon in the box? Anyways, Same goes for me, read it a few times and I'll probably have to read it many more times to understand it all. Thanks for the tutorial Andreas

[le_harv]

This is excellent, it goes beyond simply creating a GLR/Avenue station. The same basic principles from this tutorial can be applied to creating other forms of road top mass transit (e.g. bustops, subway). Thanks...

[Andreas]

Thanks for the comments, guys! It's certainly involves some advanced modding, but I tried to describe the process as detailed as possibe (hence the wagonload of text and pictures ). As le_harv pointed out, you can use the tutorial as a reference for transit enabling other types of stations as well. You just need to know how they are set up, and this can be done by examining an existing station (that has been properly modded in the first place ) in the first place. Actually, this is an important key for any modding: Look at existing examples and try to replicate them. Together with some trial and error you'll get a good grip of what setting does what soon.

[Gaston]

Andreas,
Okay I still don't get it, but that is my own fault not your's.     Let's just say "I ain't the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree."          But that's okay ya'll keep makin stuff and I'll keep downloading it.     


---Gaston

[jmdude1]

i was just wondering about the dragging of the 1 way roads. they dont actually go through the lot, correct? therefore i would just have to drag the 1 way road for 2 tiles in 1 direction and then 2 tiles for the opposite direction as well, so the roads wouldnt be dragged off the lot at all.  i hope this makes sense, and i hope its right. hehe.

[Swamper77]

i was just wondering about the dragging of the 1 way roads. they dont actually go through the lot, correct? therefore i would just have to drag the 1 way road for 2 tiles in 1 direction and then 2 tiles for the opposite direction as well, so the roads wouldnt be dragged off the lot at all.  i hope this makes sense, and i hope its right. hehe.

For Lots that are designed to work with puzzle pieces, you have the drawing of the networks correct. The networks are not drawn off the Lot due to how the transit-enabled tiles are set. They way they are set on such Lots, you can't drag them off the Lot.

-Swamper77

[jmdude1]

thats good news. thanks for the help.

[cogeo]

Great tutorial Andreas! It's also of more general interest, explaining TE techniques.
My roadtop GLR-in-Avenue stations are modded different, but there are definitely several ways to get something done.

@jmdude1: There is no way to make TE lots that actually "connect" to GLR-in-Avenue networks, because tiles on TE-lots can be of one network type only (eg avenue-only or GLR-only), while these networks are indeed "dual", ie both avenue and GLR on the same tile. So these stations (just like the GLR stations) have closed ends and need to be plopped and TE-ed by dragging two stretches of one-way roads along the station. The query will report these sections as "One-Way Road", but other than that they are fully functional. Making them TE-ed as avenues would be possible but this causes some problems: the station should be at least 3 tiles long (it's possible to make them 2x2 too, but dragging a 2x2 avenue section is very inconvenient and tricky) plus the avenue props in the median (lightpoles, dividers, planters do appear).

[Tarkus]

File from initial post reattached here.

-Alex