Better Overpasses Tutorial Series

[metarvo]

Part 1: Diagonal RHW Overpasses

NOTE: Later RHW versions have partially outdated this tutorial.  However, it is still somewhat useful, because diagonal ERHW-4 cannot yet pass over all networks.

Version 3.0 of the RHW has added so much realism and functionality to this great game known as SC4.  Elevated RHW-4, one of the most sought after features, has brought so much to the table.  It can even curve 45-degrees, making diagonal segments possible.  Even so, very little, if any, interaction can be made between the diagonal El-RHW segments and other networks at the present.

#1

For example, here's a situation in which a transit network, in this case an avenue, needs to be built under a diagonal El-RHW.

#2

If one tries to simply drag the avenue under the RHW, this is the result.  It's not something I would want, that's for sure.


#3

So, it's time for a little demolition.  It's strange how construction starts with destruction, isn't it?  Please don't try to recreate #2.  Instead, start with #1 and build the desired transit network up to the elevated RHW-4.  Then, bulldoze the El-RHW tiles closest to where the center of the transit network going under the RHW will be.  Nowadays, you should take it a step further and bulldoze one additional El-RHW tile from each end.


#4

Now, it's time to get out the Diagonal GLR-in-Avenue piece.  Build one piece in each of the two openings in the El-RHW, so that each piece fits neatly within the opening.  Build two more pieces on either side of the first two, to form a square.  You don't need to do this anymore.  Just place diagonal ERHW-4 filler pieces over the ends to get the same effect.


#5

Bulldoze the two pieces nearest to the center of the transit network that will pass under the El-RHW. Step no longer necessary.


#6

Drag the desired network that will pass under the El-RHW.  An avenue is used here, but Road, OWR, Rail, etc. could also be used.


#7

Build Diagonal OWR-over-x puzzle pieces over the network, making sure that the arrows line up properly with the El-RHW stubs and that network x matches the network that you just dragged.  If network x is a 1-tile network, such as a Road or Rail, OWR-over-Blank Terrain puzzle pieces can be used to fill any gaps.


#8-1


#8-2

There it is, a diagonal El-RHW over Avenue overpass.  It is functional, according to the Route Query tool.  This technique can be extended to make an El-RHW overpass for other networks as well.

[metarvo]

This installment of Better Overpasses is the result of a rather boring RL at the moment.  When I'm bored, you never know what I'll do.  For years, there were no diagonal on-slope pieces for networks to pass over sunken networks.  Eventually, Rail and MHW diagonal on-slopes would be made, which helped some.  However, networks such as Roads were left out.  Until now, that is.  Thanks to the NAM Team's hard work, we now have the DBE (Diagonal Bridge Enabler), which allows for the once-impossible diagonal bridges to be constructed at last.  This tutorial describes the use of this wonderful tool to build diagonal Road on-slopes.  For the purposes of this tutorial, I'll be building a Road overpass over a sunken RHW-4, but it can be extended to any network for which there are DxD Road overpasses.

For this tutorial, you will need:

NAM Version 30
RHW Version 5.0
DBE
Hole Digging Lots

Caution: Do NOT activate the DBE yet.  Otherwise, the hole digging lots will not work.


Use the hole digging lots to dig a 15 m hole anywhere within the desired path of your sunken highway.  Notice the lack of development here.  You may find yourself doing this in an already developed city.  If so, you'll probably have to do some bulldozing to make room for the highway and its accompanying accessories.


Use single Road tiles to level the terrain along the desired path.  Make sure the trench is wide enough for your network of choice.  The trench shown here is for a diagonal RHW-4 with the narrowest median possible.  You'll essentially be stairstepping rows of Road tiles since the highway will be diagonal.


Bulldoze the single Road tiles.

Oh, and here's a tip: you can also use single Street tiles to level the terrain.  While the single Road tile terrain leveling technique won't work with the DBE active, the method works with single Street tiles because Streets are not yet included in the DBE.  This may be good to know if you find yourself having to level terrain with the DBE active but you don't want to exit the game.


Build the network as desired within the trench.

Save and quit at this point.  You'll need to leave the game to place the DBE in the Plugins folder, and then you'll need to restart the game with the tool active.


Bulldoze all of the sunken network within one tile of the edges of the desired path of the Road overpass.  You'll be unable to drag the Road bridge across the trench if anything is too close.


Drag the diagonal Road across the trench at the desired location of the overpass.


Place DBE Road pieces as closely as possible to the edge on both sides of the overpass.  In the preview, the arrows should be on the last level tile before the trench.  While you can use whatever bridge style you want, I would recommend the level bridge, because I feel it is the closest (but not a perfect) match to the NAM Elevated Road.  If any Road sections convert to bridge format undesirably, bulldoze and rebuild them.

It will be really easy to mess up when you start bulldozing, so you might want to save often in case something goes wrong.  (I'm sure you already do that anyway, right?)


Bulldoze any bridge segments within the trench that rest on level tiles, except for the ones that come in contact with only the outer edges of the sunken network's path.


Build orthogonal Underground Rail under Road segments on the two ends you are left with after the last step, making sure they are rotated so that the Roads appear to connect.  Build more of these segments on the tiles immediately after the first ones you built.


Bulldoze the Underground Rail segments that are resting on level ground in the trench.  You should now see Rail stubs hanging onto the ends of the Road overpass.


Bulldoze the Rail stubs that are now connected to the ends of the Road overpass.  You'll end up with diagonal Road bridge stubs.


Drag out your RHW so that only the tiles that will be passed over by the Road are blank.  (If your network isn't RHW, just drag it all the way through.)


Place diagonal RHW-4 filler tiles on the ends.  Make sure the directionality is correct.  If you're using North American textures, you can use the yellow and white lines as guides.  (If your sunken network isn't RHW-4, you don't need to do this.)


Build DxD Road over RHW-4 pieces over the remaining tiles so that the overpass will be complete, taking note of the directionality once again.  (If your sunken network isn't RHW-4, just substitute the network of your choice to be the lower one.)

Now, you're done.  Be sure to save if you want to keep your work, and exit and remove the DBE if you're not building any more diagonal on-slopes for now .  Now it's time for a break, but class will resume next time with diagonal OWR-2 on-slopes.

[noahclem]

Thanks a ton for this one! I've been playing around with these since I saw your post in the "show us your intersections" thread and so far not been successful. Really a major development!

Will there be a diagonal avenue version of this tutorial?

[metarvo]

Noah (Noahclem): You're welcome.  There most certainly will be a diagonal avenue version.  I spent the better part of the weekend trying to come up with something, but I think the effort has paid off, and you should see it in the next installment (with just a glimpse in this one).

The next network we'll be working with is the OWR-2.  The procedure is slightly different than that used for diagonal Road on-slopes.  You can catch a peek at the Avenue overpass we'll be building next time in these pics.

3-1.
Follow steps 1 through 5 in the above tutorial as necessary.  Of course, you won't have to dig the trench or build the RHW if either of those already exist, but I'm posting this step here for clarity.

Be sure the DBE is active before performing Step 2!


Drag out OWR-2 in the desired direction across the trench at the desired point of crossing to form the bridge.  Remember to keep track of the direction so that your overpass will work.


Place OWR-2 DBE pieces near the trench so that the arrows in the preview are on level tiles and are pointing to the trench.  You'll probably have to bulldoze and rebuild some of the land OWR-2 so that the bridge effect is only present on the overpass.


This time, bulldoze all OWR-2 bridge segments that are resting on level tiles within the trench.


Build DxO Rail over OneWayRoad Puzzle Pieces over the two end segments.  You may have to rotate the camera to see what you're doing.


Build orthogonal Rail under Road pieces in the trench next to the two Rail over OWR pieces so that the Rail segments connect.


Bulldoze the two Rail under Road pieces so that OWR-2 bridge stubs remain.

Break Time: Bonus Tip


While this step isn't required for this tutorial (and certainly not if you're building a non-RHW sunken network), it might make things easier later on if you're planning to build lots of overpasses in close proximity over your RHW.  While there are no dedicated diagonal RHW-4 starter pieces yet, the diagonal RHW-4 ramps can be used for this purpose. 

The stubs seen here are the diagonal RHW-4 starter pieces.  You'll want to level enough of the terrain to make room for the ramps.  Make sure the stubs end up two tiles away from the bridge site so you can still build it.  Please don't attempt to do this if you haven't built the bridge yet.  Bulldoze the ramps and level the terrain when you're done.

It's true that you could just use diagonal RHW-4 filler pieces in between overpasses.  However, good old draggable RHW-4 can take advantage of T21 mods you might be using.

Break's over!  Let's go back to the tutorial.


One of the problems with the use of the Rail over OWR pieces is the limited control over directionality.  This would be a good time to turn DrawPaths on and check the directionality of the OWR.  If any segments flow the wrong way, re-drag OWR-2 over those segments.  You can turn off DrawPaths now if you want to.


Drag out each section of RHW so that the ends are next to (but not crossing) the overpass site.  (If your sunken network isn't RHW-4, just drag all the way through.)


Place diagonal RHW-4 filler pieces over the ends, making sure to rotate them correctly.  (If your sunken network isn't RHW-4, you don't need to do this.)


Build DxD OWR over OWR pieces to complete the bridge, making sure the directionality of the upper OWR-2 is correct (the lower ones don't matter this time).  If your sunken network isn't RHW-4 or OWR-2, just substitute the network of your choice to be used as the lower one.  Use DrawPaths one last time if you want to make a final check of directionality.  You're done now.  Save the game, and quit and remove the DBE if you're done building diagonal on-slopes.

Next time, I'll be covering diagonal Avenue on-slopes.

[metarvo]

Now, I'm going to show you how to build diagonal AVE-4 on-slopes.  The procedure is quite different than those used to build diagonal Road or OWR-2 on-slopes, although it does share some steps.

4-1.  You probably know the drill by now.  Follow steps 1 through 5 in the diagonal Road on-slope tutorial above as necessary.  If the trench and the RHW (or other sunken network) are already there, you're good to continue.

Activate the DBE at this point.


Place the Avenue Level Bridge DBE with the guardrails ending on the last two parallel ground level tiles before the trench (these tiles are indicated by red dots in the picture) and the arrows pointing to the trench.  If there is an extra ground level tile (indicated by the red X) between these two tiles on either side of the trench, you'll have to do some leveling in the next step.


Level the sloped tile that is directly in front of any leftover ground level tile you found in Step 4-2.  Any tile that is directly in front of the pointed end of a AVE-4 DBE piece must be sloped for the diagonal AVE-4 on-slope to be possible.


Drag out the diagonal AVE-4 bridge across the trench using shared-tile RHW to connect the two ends.


Bulldoze all diagonal AVE-4 bridge segments resting on level tiles within the trench.


Drag out the RHW-4 so that the ends are just before the bridge site but not crossing it.  (If you're dragging out a non-RHW network, just drag it all the way through.)


Build diagonal RHW-4 filler pieces on the ends of the RHW sections, with the directionality correct.  (If your sunken network isn't RHW-4, then you don't need to do this.)


Build diagonal RHW-4 pieces on the RHW-2 ends of each diagonal AVE-4 bridge section, with the directionality correct.


Build Diagonal Avenue over Blank Terrain pieces to fill in any trench tiles that the sunken network doesn't cross.


Build DxD Avenue over OWR pieces to complete the overpass, if the sunken network is RHW-4 or OWR-2.  Substitute your network of choice for OWR if it is not one of those two networks.

You're done with the overpass now, but I thought I would show you one more trick to reclaim any extra space you lost by setting DBE pieces back away from the trench in Step 4-2.


In this case, I want to use OWR-2 to build frontage roads on each side of the RHW.  Notice that you can't cross the DBE piece with roads.  However, this can be fixed.


Bulldoze the AVE-4 leading up to the DBE, so that only the AVE-4 end immediately before the guardrails remains.


Place Tram-Avenue - Straight pieces perpendicular to each other on each side of the AVE-4 end.


Bulldoze each Tram-Avenue piece, clicking on the tiles adjacent to the AVE-4 end to do so.  You should be left with a smooth AVE-4 end.


Now you can drag a Road, OWR-2, or AVE-4 across this end to form an intersection.

Save the game, and exit to remove the DBE if you're not building any more diagonal on-slopes for now.

[memo]

metarvo, (despite it's been almost a year) I just have to applaud you for your creativity with the diagonal bridge pieces. Hats off to you. I did never have that in mind, though.

Perhaps, the effort you put in finding this could have been put into creating diagonal onslope pieces just as well.

[Gugu3]

Very nice tutorial!Nice job