Civil engineering support thread: slope mods, other tools and issues

[JoeST]

OMG...

* star.torturer waits as patiently as he can

Joe

[patch_110]

Hi i'm having weird issues with the nhp slope mod medium 315 to be excact in that its almost impossible for me to build bridges unless they're road ones. street and rail just turn red when i try to increase height which mean ships cant pass underneath and avenue and highway bridges wont build at all unless they are really really long. the water i'm trying to cross is maybe 10 to 12 tiles wide max. thanks in advance
Patch

[Gaston]

Fantastic stuff.   I'll be able to use combinations to get a final hieght that I really am looking for.


---Gaston

[Jonathan]

Great work here so far
Would it be possible to include 1m diggers/raisers?

[Ennedi]

Hi i'm having weird issues with the nhp slope mod medium 315 to be excact in that its almost impossible for me to build bridges unless they're road ones. street and rail just turn red when i try to increase height which mean ships cant pass underneath and avenue and highway bridges wont build at all unless they are really really long. the water i'm trying to cross is maybe 10 to 12 tiles wide max. thanks in advance
Patch

The quick answer could be as follows:
You can make all bridges using all NHP slope mod versions. Look at the picture below, the third one from the bottom is the One Way Road (I use a mod removing arrows from OWR).



Some bridge height adjustment is possible too (compare the right side of the avenue bridge on both pictures).





But to do it you need a bit of terraforming: You should have some flat terrain on both riversides (or projected ends of the land bridge). It can be done in two ways:
1. Use God Mode levelling tool, level the terrain along the projected bridge line and then make a valley/river leaving some levelled terrain on both ends;
2. Use TerrainQuery code (click Ctrl X, then type this code or use Extra Cheats Plugin, close the code window, click the query button. The mini query at your cursor will show you x, y, and z terrain tile coordinates, the "y" one is the terrain height).

You can also have a slope on both riversides, but it should be very soft.

It was a quick answer. I could finish at this moment, but it would be unhonest. You have found a real problem.
I didn't noticed it - I checked all networks, but my terrain was prepared in the way I described above. I checked only road bridges on the uneven, "raw" terrain.
And your (and mine too  ) intention is to make creating bridges for all networks easy also on the unprepared terrain.
Unfortunately, if we want to make all bridges as easy as road ones, I should change the "MaxDisplacementBeyondTheReferencePlane" parameter. It has both advantages and disadvantages. I want to check also a few other parameters such as a group of smoothening properties.

I need a few days to prepare not only a detailed answer, but also something like a "buliding bridges guide". So, please for some patience  

Adam

Edit:

Great work here so far
Would it be possible to include 1m diggers/raisers?

I'm sure it is possible. But what could be a purpose of such subtle adjustment?

[DFire870]

For the bridge problem, would that be solved by using joerg's Bridge Height Mod?

-- John

[Gaston]

One Way Road (I use a mod removing arrows from OWR).

where does this need to be placed (in order) in the plugins.     Mine no longer works.


---Gaston

[Ennedi]

For the bridge problem, would that be solved by using joerg's Bridge Height Mod?

-- John

No. Every bridge has it's own exemplar and there is a property called "Min Clearance" in it. The name speaks for itself, it is the minimum clearance between the network surface and terrain (or water). It's default value is 22,5 m, Joerg changed it to 0 m.
Bridge exemplars decide also which is the minimum bridge length, it's minimum span, possibility to be built as a water/land bridge and such things. They are independent from network placing parameters.
And of course if you want to build low bridges, you should use the Joerg's mod.

where does this need to be placed (in order) in the plugins.     Mine no longer works.

---Gaston

OWR arrows reducing plugin is placed in it's proper position by the NAM installer.
The NAM folder ("Network Addon Mod") has a subfolder called "Plugins". The installer puts here automata plugins, traffic, roudabouts and others which you have choosen during installation. This is a place for reducing arrows plugin too.

[patch_110]

Thanks for ur help Ennedi  i seem to be getting good at finding problems lol

[Jonathan]

So it is possible to have any hieght if needed.

[Ennedi]

So it is possible to have any hieght if needed.

Yes, but it depends on which bridge you choose. Some bridges can look ugly if you will make them too low.

[figui]

wondering why never before i looked at this topic
looking patiently for what's to come on here

mauricio.

[CasperVg]

Whew, your Slope Mod is awesome, Ennendi. "Smooth" is exactly what I was looking for, and could never find.
It is way more realistic then any other Slope Mod released, and uncompareable to the original slope settings. This, in combination with the Hole Diggers/Ground Raisers Shadow_Assassin is creating, will totally enchance the way that I, and many other people, will play Simcity.
Huge kudos.     

[Ennedi]

Whew, your Slope Mod is awesome, Ennendi. "Smooth" is exactly what I was looking for, and could never find.
It is way more realistic then any other Slope Mod released, and uncompareable to the original slope settings. This, in combination with the Hole Diggers/Ground Raisers Shadow_Assassin is creating, will totally enchance the way that I, and many other people, will play Simcity.
Huge kudos.     

Thank you very much Casper!
Shadow Assassin ordered a "Diabolical" ie. even more smooth version  and I made it for him, but I didn't release it because I was afraid it could be too challenging for most players. But it exists too 

[Shadow Assassin]

And I love the Diabolical version. 

In any case, the hole digging lots are finally ready for upload. They should be on the LEX pretty soon. A detailed tutorial will be posted here soon.

Come and get your lurvely lots here!

[CasperVg]

Excellent! What's the next step? A reissue of the Diagonal Jagged Edges Mod, so it compatible with all terrain mods? 

[JoeST]

I dont believe that is possible Casper, as the terain mods change bits of the same file that the jagged edges mod does.

oh and YAY cant wait to use these in game, well done

Joe

[Ennedi]

Excellent! What's the next step? A reissue of the Diagonal Jagged Edges Mod, so it compatible with all terrain mods? 

Yes, the Diagonal Jagged Edges Mod will be available soon, but it will be released in a different way - see below 

I dont believe that is possible Casper, as the terain mods change bits of the same file that the jagged edges mod does.

oh and YAY cant wait to use these in game, well done

Joe

Yes Joe, you are right. The DJEM modifies the same exemplar (Terrain Properties) which is used by all terrain mods. It modifies only one parameter in this exemplar, but it changes the terrain look a bit (causes more rocky textures). I made some experiments to minimalize this effect and this work was successful. But some changes are still visible.
The old pjot's mod changes the terrain look much more (both Columbus one and Maxis one), but most people didn't notice it because this effect is not visible on flat/soft hills terrains, only in mountains.

As you remember, the pjot's DJEM contains five versions: for the Maxis terrain, Columbus terrain "Standard", "Snowcapped", "Snowcapped Low" and "Snowcapped Lower". We can do the same ie. make the DJEM for all these terrains (new version, less affecting the terrain) and in addition for every new CP terrain mod (Italia, Meadowshire, Missouri Breaks etc.). But we are thinking about something more:
- There are some mods which modify the Terrain Properties exemplar - Gizmo Water Flora, Gizmo Day-Night Mod (!), Limitless Beach, Water Monolith Night Textures and some others. We want to coordinate these plugins and collect all Terrain Properties modifications in one special plugin placed after the terrain mod and all other mods.
There will be two ways of release it:
1. Releasing maps with specially prepared terrain mods "DJEM included" and with some other features, according to the demand
2. Preparing the terrain with (or without) all mods described above for individual request.

There will be a new thread about it soon 

Adam

Edit:

(...) In any case, the hole digging lots are finally ready for upload. They should be on the LEX pretty soon. A detailed tutorial will be posted here soon.

Come and get your lurvely lots here!

Thank you Daniel, it's an excellent tool! 

[CasperVg]

That seems to be a very interesting idea, Ennedi.

I am experiencing some trouble with building road bridges that are raised to meet the needs for boats to pass (Wysokosc adpowiednia dla promow). Although it is 'fixable' by dragging the road one tile further then the bridge start/end, and then dragging the slope with a street/rail and after this slowly replacing the street/rail with road tiles; this is not really an 'easy' solution.

With kind regards,
Casper

[macbony]

This mod is excellent. I'm trying a tiered city right now but have never done a sunken network before. I'm using 15m increments and was curious how to get a decent looking sunken ground highway onramp. All of my experiments have the road piece being leveled to the ground highway and the overpass road screws up the leveling pretty badly. Do I have to sink it more or make the sunken space something like 4x4? I'm using the NPH slope mod with the Urban setting.