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Tutorial: How to Create a Highway
Jasumi
Posts: 521 Member
Hi 
I've been asked enough times how to create a highway system that I thought I'd post a tutorial about it. The only requirement is that you need Late Night for the neighborhood deco that came with it. Otherwise, your highway won't look very complete. 
Here's what you'll be able to create:
![highway1.jpg"width=700"](http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/33/highway1.jpg"width=700")
![deadspace.jpg"width=700"](http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/3182/deadspace.jpg"width=700")
Nice, yes? Let's move onto Step 1.
Step 1: Creating the Road Texture
This is the easiest step. You simply need to ensure your road and sidewalk texture is the same. Doing so makes the road look like it has a shoulder lane (instead of a sidewalk).
-Create a new road
-Go to User Tool Data/ Source Textures and choose the same .dds image for both the road and the sidewalk
-You may also want to use ashillion's CAR: Create A Road Urban Pack
Tip: Make sure you use "nosidewalktile" for your sidewalk normal
Step 2: Laying the Roads Down
Make sure you turn the grid on. The roads need to be straight. When making bends (which are kinda tricky, and will be discussed later) is the only time you should place connecting road pieces off the grid.
Example:
-Place one road. Make it fairly long, but not too long. We'll have to adjust it later to fit the railing.
-Place another road right next to it. Make sure they don't overlap, and don't leave any space between the two roads.
Tip: Sims will still be able to drive on these roads, they'll simply "switch lanes" onto the adjacent road (just like on a real highway lol).
Road Bends (To Be Covered Later)
![91659826.jpg"width=700"](http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7770/91659826.jpg"width=700")
Step 3: Laying Down the Railings
Simply line your railing up along the side of road. Don't bother playing with the rotate tool (it's a mess), use the property browser.
--Type "retain" in the filter to quickly grab the retaining wall. Look through these for the one you want (There are three highway retaining walls of different sizes). The size you choose will impact where your exits will be and how many you'll have.
--Try to line the railing up along the side of each road. Make sure the highway sign is facing the right direction!
--In the property browser, change the Y-Position value to 19 or so (this number varies according to elevation). You'll probably have to pull the railing in closer, so do that as well. To get a precise value, play with the X-Position until it's lined up perfectly.
--Now drag the road out until it matches the length of the retaining wall you used.
Tip: When placing the retaining wall, press down on the pointer, rotate your object, and let go when it is lined up to avoid using the property browser. This is just like using the ALT key in-game. When using the Property Browser, edit the Rotation Y value to change the direction of the railing.
After placing the railing, it may be tricky to grab the road again:
--Create a new road and click on it (you could also use a pre-existing road).
--Now, make sure your pointer is in "select" and not "move" mode (look up at the top-left of the screen, you want the box with the pointer highlighted).
Voila! The pointer should now ignore the highway railing, and select only roads that you point at. But as soon as you click on the railing again, it will ignore your road, so remember this tip.
Step 4: Highway Exits and Overpasses
This is perhaps the hardest step, because it requires both imagination and basic sculpting skills to pull-off a decent exit ramp.
Example: Cliff Before Smoothing Edges
--Place an intersection piece
--Sculpt a mound near the highway, and smooth it out. Make sure it's not too high (or it will look strange). You could also create a valley as your exit ramp.
--Connect a road piece to the intersection and make sure you use proper road grading (22 is a good number for most exits), and do not smoothen connected roads or your highway will be ruined.
Tip: Use a wide brush without alot of falloff for your exit ramp. Also sculpt the hill about 5 cubits away from the road, and gradually smoothen this out.
Now for Overpasses:
This is a simple technique. After you've drawn the hill you used for your exit ramp, use the flatten-gentle brush to extend this to the place of your choosing. At this point, simply plop a bridge over the highway and voila! It's so simple, it sounds almost complex on paper, but you'll do great!
You should now have the beginnings of a highway system!
I've been asked enough times how to create a highway system that I thought I'd post a tutorial about it. The only requirement is that you need Late Night for the neighborhood deco that came with it. Otherwise, your highway won't look very complete. Here's what you'll be able to create:
Nice, yes? Let's move onto Step 1.
Step 1: Creating the Road Texture
This is the easiest step. You simply need to ensure your road and sidewalk texture is the same. Doing so makes the road look like it has a shoulder lane (instead of a sidewalk).
-Create a new road
-Go to User Tool Data/ Source Textures and choose the same .dds image for both the road and the sidewalk
-You may also want to use ashillion's CAR: Create A Road Urban Pack
Tip: Make sure you use "nosidewalktile" for your sidewalk normal
Step 2: Laying the Roads Down
Make sure you turn the grid on. The roads need to be straight. When making bends (which are kinda tricky, and will be discussed later) is the only time you should place connecting road pieces off the grid.
Example:
-Place one road. Make it fairly long, but not too long. We'll have to adjust it later to fit the railing.
-Place another road right next to it. Make sure they don't overlap, and don't leave any space between the two roads.
Tip: Sims will still be able to drive on these roads, they'll simply "switch lanes" onto the adjacent road (just like on a real highway lol).
Road Bends (To Be Covered Later)
Step 3: Laying Down the Railings
Simply line your railing up along the side of road. Don't bother playing with the rotate tool (it's a mess), use the property browser.
--Type "retain" in the filter to quickly grab the retaining wall. Look through these for the one you want (There are three highway retaining walls of different sizes). The size you choose will impact where your exits will be and how many you'll have.
--Try to line the railing up along the side of each road. Make sure the highway sign is facing the right direction!
--In the property browser, change the Y-Position value to 19 or so (this number varies according to elevation). You'll probably have to pull the railing in closer, so do that as well. To get a precise value, play with the X-Position until it's lined up perfectly.
--Now drag the road out until it matches the length of the retaining wall you used.
Tip: When placing the retaining wall, press down on the pointer, rotate your object, and let go when it is lined up to avoid using the property browser. This is just like using the ALT key in-game. When using the Property Browser, edit the Rotation Y value to change the direction of the railing.
After placing the railing, it may be tricky to grab the road again:
--Create a new road and click on it (you could also use a pre-existing road).
--Now, make sure your pointer is in "select" and not "move" mode (look up at the top-left of the screen, you want the box with the pointer highlighted).
Voila! The pointer should now ignore the highway railing, and select only roads that you point at. But as soon as you click on the railing again, it will ignore your road, so remember this tip.
Step 4: Highway Exits and Overpasses
This is perhaps the hardest step, because it requires both imagination and basic sculpting skills to pull-off a decent exit ramp.
Example: Cliff Before Smoothing Edges
--Place an intersection piece
--Sculpt a mound near the highway, and smooth it out. Make sure it's not too high (or it will look strange). You could also create a valley as your exit ramp.
--Connect a road piece to the intersection and make sure you use proper road grading (22 is a good number for most exits), and do not smoothen connected roads or your highway will be ruined.
Tip: Use a wide brush without alot of falloff for your exit ramp. Also sculpt the hill about 5 cubits away from the road, and gradually smoothen this out.
Now for Overpasses:
This is a simple technique. After you've drawn the hill you used for your exit ramp, use the flatten-gentle brush to extend this to the place of your choosing. At this point, simply plop a bridge over the highway and voila! It's so simple, it sounds almost complex on paper, but you'll do great!
You should now have the beginnings of a highway system!
Post edited by EA_Solaire on
0
Comments
I can't wait to see more worlds with highways like yours.
It looks really nice. Is this actually one road, or is it two roads place side by side? If its two roads side by side, doesn't that cause routing issues? I heard that you were not supposed to do that.
I read a thread at MTS some time back, about the bridge over roadway issue, and the consensus was it works, but can cause some interesting graphical images. The cars can drop down to the bottom, then back up. So, I suppose it's a give and take situation. :-)
The Sims Creators' Consortium
Very interesting, AuntieLynds, because before the bridge would just stop anything trying to drive under it. I probably didn't ask my question clearly enough, because that's what I was wanting to know if EA fixed. It would be pretty sweet if it actually works now.
Here's a pic:
But the routing works though, like AuntieLynds said.
It's two roads. And yes, routing works fine. In fact, the two roads have worked fine together since about Ambitions came out. Might have acted wierd before then though...
Here's a pic of a car actually using both lanes to get to an exit:
The car was on the other road and turned onto this one.
Thanks for the pictures!
That second picture really surprises me...
Follow me on the Sims 4 Gallery - ID 'MariannaSims'
youtube.com/IronSeagull
For the crosswalk, make it the same texture as it normally is...
Really thanks for this, I really love this little tutorial and I already created so much with this concept! I just got one little question:
This is how the cars drive now:
-<-<-<-<-<-
->->->->->-
-<-<-<-<-<-
->->->->->-
And this is how I want them to drive:
-<-<-<-<-<-
-<-<-<-<-<-
->->->->->-
->->->->->-
I'm pretty sure this is not possible, but if I'm wrong, can someone please tell me the solution for this?
~Elmigo
So nope, the roads don't flow in one direction like they should
Well, I already thought it's not possible but maybe there was a solution for it...