Asking for opinions on road systems for US route?

[Dermmy]

I use YARN and not the YARNish, because the traffic on the YARNish roads goes way too fast for my liking. To see a car speeding around a sharp curve doing 55 mph doesn't look good to me, so I stick with YARN on my routes. If the traffic creeps along so be it. I guess everyone who lives on my route is an old fart who just goes 22 mph no matter what the posted speed limit is.

Hey, wait a minute--- I'M an old fart....:hehe:

Cheers,

Dave

I agree about the speed thing Dave, but the problem with YARN is that there is a 'step' in the level of the attachment points between the spline parts of the system and the object parts. YARNish roads fix the 'step', but I agree the speed setting on these is too high. The speed setting is s pretty easy config edit though - the 'tafficspeed' tag is the one you want. The tag is set in meters per second, but by happy co-incidence meters per second is (very) roughly half the resultant speed in miles per hour. So if you want 40 mph, set the traffic speed to '20'. It won't be exactly 40mph, but you will never know the difference.

The other issue with YARNish is that traffic with shadows will sit just a tad low and not show the shadows, this is a result of the 'step' fix. The fix for the traffic is to add the tag

position 0,0,0.1

to the mesh-table container for any shadow-baring cars.

Despite the 'fixes' needed, IMHO YARNish (with the speed and traffic fixed) gives the best results in terms of road variety and available matching objects...

Andy

 

[davesnow]

I agree about the speed thing Dave, but the problem with YARN is that there is a 'step' in the level of the attachment points between the spline parts of the system and the object parts. YARNish roads fix the 'step', but I agree the speed setting on these is too high. The speed setting is s pretty easy config edit though - the 'tafficspeed' tag is the one you want. The tag is set in meters per second, but by happy co-incidence meters per second is (very) roughly half the resultant speed in miles per hour. So if you want 40 mph, set the traffic speed to '20'. It won't be exactly 40mph, but you will never know the difference.

The other issue with YARNish is that traffic with shadows will sit just a tad low and not show the shadows, this is a result of the 'step' fix. The fix for the traffic is to add the tag

position 0,0,0.1

to the mesh-table container for any shadow-baring cars.

Despite the 'fixes' needed, IMHO YARNish (with the speed and traffic fixed) gives the best results in terms of road variety and available matching objects...

Andy

Thanks, Andy. I will make a note of these fixes. Doesn't look like I'll be able to incorporate these fixes, however, in a route that is going to be hosted and has hundreds of DLS and other assets. That is, unless I clone all the YARNish stuff and my specific Region (with the custom traffic), do the necessary fixes, then have these items ready for my route. I don't know if I want to mess with that...


Oh if the world of Trainz were only perfect! :hehe:

Dave

 

[Dermmy]

I hear you! I had planned a YARNish-ish set of mods for my Evansville Western, but by the time you work out all the invisible roads, intersections and everything else that needs 'fixed' life is just too short. Then there's the traffic which pretty much can't be fixed and distributed anyway. So my route will go out with Yarnish and a ReadMe with suggested fixes and folks can have very fast cars sunk in the bitumen or fix it all themselves. I still reckon it's the best road system though!

Andy

 

[GP30Fan]

I'll second the I hear you... and after you spend days fixing
all the fixable things, the darned traffic still speeds around
traffic stopped for closed gates, plunges head long right
thru a train and for all general purposes ignors the lane it
is supposed to be in. Traffic is by far one of the most
infuriating things about trainz. It is uncontrollable!

From an example point of view, it sets a bad example
to the younger set. Surely it can be fixed, and should
be at the earliest possible date.

-AL

 

[PerRock]

I prefer the AASHTO system. However it does have some limitations, especially when dealing with Highways. Hopefully gfisher will update the collection sometime in the future & offer more parts to it.

peter

 

[Euphod]

I really appreciate everyone's input and am better informed for it, thank you all. It's a damn shame that all of these considerations couldn't have been worked out in one road system; the person who accomplishes that will be a hero amongst Trainzers indeed!

 

[William0d0]

Wow, thanks to this thread I discovered YARN.

I really like the easy to set-up traffic lighting at intersections.

Just started replacing all my roads with YARN. One thing I noticed (or maybe I'm not looking hard enough), it seems that there are only 90 degree intersections. Are there any 45 degree 4-way and 3-way intersections?

Or is there a workaround intersection that will allow joining roads at odd angles other then simply running the roads into each other without joing splines (holding down the shift key)?

Also, is it possible to selectively disable road traffic for specific roads?

 

[GP30Fan]

Yes there are both... but searching for Y intersections isn't the way
to find them... search for "angled road". As for 4-way, not so sure of that one.
The angled intersections are 45 degrees.

There are a lot of T-intersections. As far as I know there are no variable angle
road intersections.

Traffic patterns seem to favor right turns. Thanks to PEV's Attachment Maker,
you have the capability of making the turns left or right as the situation arises.

Both the Yarn and Yarnish intersection can be modified to do just about anything
you wish with the roads, except the variable angle.

-AL

-

 

[Dermmy]

Wow, thanks to this thread I discovered YARN.

I note you have TS10 and 12 - in both those versions you should use the updated 'YARNish' system, it fixes some issues...

 

[davesnow]

I have a question about the YARN & YARNish traffic lights... Are the cars supposed to stop when the light is red, or is this just a cosmetic thing?

Thanks everyone,

Dave

 

[GP30Fan]

Dave,

The traffic lights supplied with both Yarn and Yarnish are purely cosmetic.

To make them actually do something, you need andi06 traffic control system.
There is a tutorial somewhere, I forgot where, that discribes how to set up
a working traffic control system.

-AL

 

[PerRock]

If you don't use the supplied intersections you can set up your own (and have more options) and use the ATLS system which will make the cars stop at the Lights. There are ATLS versions of the YARN traffic lights.

peter

 

[davesnow]

Thanks Al & Peter.

I don't think I'm gonna mess with all that.

Now, another question. . . Will use of the ATLS system slow down your TRAINZ? It uses invisible locos, correct? Seems like if you use a LOT of ATLS X-ings, you're gonna have a LOT of invisible locos for your computer to have to keep track of when you running a session.

Dave

 

[slabay]

I like to use BNSF50's crossing components. I use ATLS for complex/non 90 degree intersections with the NRC (no road connection) stuff and use the regular "pre-built" stuff for the simple 45-/90-/135-degree intersections. I've never used enough ATLS stuff to bog the system down this way (although I don't know if it will bog down or not). Now if you start using ATLS to build a bunch of cycling traffic light intersections too, that seems like it could get out of hand.

Since I don't have TS12, I can't say anything about it, but I understand Jointed Rail's Mojave Sub (built in to TS12) uses ATLS crossings. I don't know how many crossings there are or what their impact on the system is, but since you do have it, maybe you could try it out?

 

[maruffijd]

I do use 12 and I have yet to see any ATLS slowdowns on either my desktop or laptop. Some routes do come close to the 99 ATLS channels limit.

 

[Dermmy]

I don't have anywhere near 99 channels, but I do have several places where three or four ATLS crossings are so closely spaced that the triggers overlap, but I have never noticed the slightest twitch in performance in these areas...

 

[maruffijd]

The reason for the high count is because one is an old quickie route I overloaded with ATLS right after I discovered the system because I wanted to experiment with it. ( I try to find an assets "choke point" to see if I can use it alot or a little.) The other route I have is a fictional route that runs about 190 miles end to end, and has 41 ATLS controlled crossings and 40 traffic controlled intersections and 10 that is a combination of the two. There are also 4 ATLS "other" setups for drawbridges and such. (Totalling 95 channels)

 

[slabay]

I don't have anywhere near 99 channels, but I do have several places where three or four ATLS crossings are so closely spaced that the triggers overlap, but I have never noticed the slightest twitch in performance in these areas...

Yet another reason in favor of the "preassembled" grade crossings where they are convenient- not having to worry about the overlapping triggers (or any triggers, case may be) and trying to keep them straight. Labeling them helps!!!