Lane Connectors - CitiesSkylinesMods/TMPE GitHub Wiki

Verified: January 2021 - TM:PE 11.5.2 / TM:PE 11.6

Overview

Use this tool to customise the allowed routes traffic can take at junctions and nodes.

Tip: If you want a simpler alternative, use Lane Arrows instead.

Usage

This tool can be applied to nodes and junctions on:

  • Roads
  • Tram tracks
  • Metro tracks
  • Rail tracks
  • Monorail tracks
  • Level crossings

Activate

Choose Lane Arrows on the Toolbar:

Lane Connector tool

Button missing? Enable Lane Connectors in Maintenance settings.

You can set a keyboard shortcut to activate the tool in the Keybinds settings.

Overlays

While the tool is active, detailed overlays will show all nodes customised with lane connectors:

(todo: image)

To see the lane connectors for more distant nodes, scroll the camera towards them. Depending on camera position, you might need to zoom in a little.

Unlike most other overlays, lane connectors don't currently support transparency settings.

When the tool is deactivated, overlays will be removed. You can enable a persistent detailed overlay, which is visible whenever the Toolbar is visible, in Overlays settings.

Customise

(todo - see Shortcuts for now as it summarises it)

Shortcuts

The following shortcuts are applicable when the Lane Arrows tool is active...

Camera / Overlays:

  • Mouse wheel - zoom in or out
    • If you zoom out too far, overlays may disappear
  • PageDown - underground view
  • PageUp - overground view

Selection:

  • Click a node - select node to customise
    • Any previously selected node will be deselected
    • You can now use basic and bulk applicators
  • Right click anywhere - deselects currently selected lane or node
  • Esc - exit Lane Connectors tool

Basic applicators:

  • Click an incoming lane - select the incoming lane
    • You can now click outgoing lanes
  • Click an outgoing lane - add or remove connector to/from current incoming lane
  • Del or Backspace - reset all lane connectors

Bulk applicators:

Refresh

Vehicles calculate their path before starting their journey. As a result, when you make changes to lane connectors, only vehicles spawned after that point will be aware of the changes.

To force a refresh, you can:

  • Enable Customisations come in to effect immediately in General settings to force vehicles to automatically recalculate their paths when lane connectors change.
    • This may add some momentary lag on old potato computers or on big cities.
  • Or use the Clear Traffic tool to remove all existing traffic from the map, leaving only newly spawned traffic that is aware of your changes. This causes less lag, but you have to do it every time.

Deactivate

Press Esc or switch to any other tool when you're finished.

Notes

Unlike Lane Arrows, which set a general direction that an incoming lane can exit by, lane connectors explicitly link to one or more outgoing lanes in any direction. Essentially, you are hard-wiring the paths that can be taken through the junction.

If an incoming lane does not connect to any outgoing lanes, it will be treated as a "lane arrow" lane - the game will deicde which outgoing lanes it can connect to.

If an outgoing lane is not connected to any incoming lanes then it is likely that no traffic can enter it, unless there is a suitable "lane arrow" incoming lane. Inaccessible outgoing lanes can wreak havoc in your city if they prevent vehicles reaching a destination.

If you have enabled Enable highway-specific lane merging/splitting rules in Policies settings, and you override a highway junction with lane connectors, the highway rules will automatically be disabled for that junction and it will act like a normal city road junction - for all lanes at the junction, including any that aren't connected. We recommend either connecting all lanes at a highway junction, or no lanes, in order to avoid unexpected vehicle behaviour.

FAQ

Does it affect frame rate or cause lag?

Not really. The game already has to route through junctions, we just change the possible routes. However, if you go crazy with the tool you could force vehicles to take longer routes, which means more work for the pathfinder.

When I load my city, my lane connector customisations are gone

Try unpausing the game. See Lane arrow and connector not loading for details.

Can I allow buses to ignore lane connections to avoid them taking detours?

No. Unlike Lane Arrows, the lane connectors are very strict and must be obeyed by all buses.

Can any vehicles ignore lane connections?

  • Only emergency vehicles which are responding to an emergency can ignore lane connectors.
  • All other vehicles, including Reckless Drivers and buses, must strictly obey the lane connectors at all times.

See Also

Toolbar:

Issue Tracker: