It seems as though no matter what values I put in for <nSpanStart> and <nSpanEnd> only 50 pieces or rather 50 instances of my model will be drawn. After that, the track just continues in mid air without any supporting structure.
I have tried lots of combinations. My custom bridge will support a height of 1650 railroad (generic) units. After which I have the game use the Cantilever metal bridge. That much works as it should. I have also created a custom overlap bridge which also works as it should. But my main custom bridge, which I want to be used predominantly in my upcoming map, will only draw 50 pieces and then quit as you drag out some new track. When the bridge span is within the size of my 50 pieces put together, the bridge works and looks as it should.
My question here is, is there something hard-coded into the game that limits this? I am stumped. Even if I build my custom bridge on water, after 50 pieces are drawn it quits and just track with nothing below continues along the water. So height has nothing to do with this. It has something to do with the span. My custom bridge is for the most part the same size as WoodenTrestle_01.nif except much taller. It is of type wood. I have relentlessly examined the stone01 bridge, the metal bridges, and the mason bridge which will draw as many pieces as needed but I see no differences in the xml versus my custom bridge. Also there is no difference in the .nif file either except for total vertices of course and the shader files that are used.
What I have tried...
- Increasing the span amount in the xml.
Decreasing the span amount in the xml.
Decreasing depth start in the xml.
Increasing depth start in the xml.
Making copies of my custom piece to have the bridge drawn as piece1, piece2, piece3, piece4 and piece5 with piece 3 repeating 9999 times.
Repeating piece 999 times.
Repeating piece1 999 times and piece5 999 times.
Tried setting all 5 pieces to 1 (as in cantilver's xml).
Tried using just 1 piece repeated 999 times and 9999 times.
Here is what seemed rather odd to me and why I have come here. I went back to 3ds max and basically quadrupled the length of my piece. When testing, it quit drawing the bridge pieces right at the same length it quit when I was using my initial normal sized piece. It's as if something in the game is stopping the continued drawing of my bridge as soon as it hits Xamount.
Is it the type of bridge? Wood?
The masonry, stone, and metal bridges all will draw whatever is needed. I have never seen the default wooden trestle bridge draw long distances while playing in game. Is it nerfed in code?
While I am here making a plea to Firaxis, can you please expose custom loading screens to xml? Seems the game only looks for loading screens in the default location and could care less if you try and use one in your UserMaps folder. I have tried many calls to the custom loading screen xml file I made, but none worked.
In RRT_Scenario_User_xxxx.xml I have tried the following:
- <LoadingXMLFile>
<LoadScreenXMLFile>
<LoadScreensXMLFile>
<LoadingScreenXMLFile>
Tried to place a call directly in the scenario xml file using the same commands as those located in the RRT_LoadScreens.xml file.
I did take RRT_LoadScreens.xml and copied it to the custom assets folder and then put in my information for the custom screen I made and that worked like a charm. Was nice to see my custom map loading screen. But this is disadvantageous to modding, as it would be the only loading screen for every single map in the game. So I am asking in the next patch that custom loading screens be exposed.
I have been building a map now for about 2 months. I will not release it until it suits me. Everyday I probably work for about 3 hours on it. Texturing, detailing, reworking industries, adding, removing cities, modeling, etc. And of course working out scenario objectives. So far I only have two objectives in the first Era. Ha! I am a perfectionist I guess, it takes a lot for me to be satisfied. Most of the time is actually spent in 3ds max and nifscope learning those two programs. While the wiki has some decent information on how to bring a model into Railroads, it lacks quite a bit of information. The nif exporter for 3ds max is not quite up to par for Railroads. Using Civ4 is the best choice for sure, but after exporting, a lot of changes are needed within nifscope to make it right. Thank goodness for that program.
If I get up to speed with all of this, which I will because I am a very determined individual, I will be adding some info to the wiki. My next project is to create animated buildings.
Looking forward to some input and thanks in advance,
G3mInI
