Meatballs Traffic Density Mod (UPDATED v1.88 November 23, 2023)

[meatballs_21]

Hello folks,

I have made a traffic density mod! For the time being you can grab it here:

http://www.9ats.com/meatballs-traffic-density-mod-v1-0/
http://sharemods.com/hly32iksxzd6/Meatb ... 0.scs.html
v1.3 -> http://www.modsats.com/meatballs-traffic-mod-v1-3/
v1.5 -> http://www.modsats.com/meatballs-traffic-mod-v1-5-ats/
v1.6 -> http://uploadas.com/l33hzo0eqd6g/Meatba ... 6.scs.html
v1.7 -> http://uploadas.com/464iz56t5k9p/Meatba ... 7.scs.html
v1.7.1 -> http://uploadas.com/x3td7j26oo2o/Meatba ... 1.scs.html
v1.7.2 -> http://uploadas.com/35q2kfthebdc/Meatba ... 2.scs.html
v1.7.5 -> http://uploadas.com/hocq16nfx6zc/MBTMv175.scs.html
v1.7.6 -> http://uploadas.com/tl5s0drtspj6/MBTMv1761.scs.html
v1.7.7 -> http://uploadas.com/t77loepizmpv/Meatba ... 7.scs.html
v1.7.8 -> http://uploadas.com/b2i5cefnoyun/Meatba ... 8.scs.html
v1.8 -> http://uploadas.com/7orzilma6owu/Meatba ... 8.scs.html
v1.81 -> https://sharemods.com/p2uv3jd0en1d/Meat ... 1.scs.html
v1.82 -> https://sharemods.com/fwdxfyouekv2/Meat ... 2.scs.html
v1.83 -> https://sharemods.com/czvok2fq5t7y/Meat ... 3.scs.html
v1.84 -> https://sharemods.com/22ulxoe1rci9/Meat ... 4.scs.html
V1.85 -> https://sharemods.com/nvvhkdwbfksi/Meat ... 5.scs.html
v1.86 -> https://sharemods.com/lpxrnys83kds/Meat ... 6.scs.html
v1.88 -> https://sharemods.com/2kg1vrd31cc0/Meat ... 8.scs.html

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =663926807

All the other traffic mods I've seen either didn't do much or did WAY too much (1t5_Luc1f3r yours was my inspiration)

After a lot of playing with the numbers and experimenting I think I've figured out what some of it means and here is the result. Traffic is heaviest on freeways, lightest on two lane roads. I have also adjusted the time of day settings so roads are understandably quieter and night and there's a morning and evening rush hour where it gets very heavy.

Please let me know what you think! I have tried to pick the most sensible levels to take into account how bad the game's handling of left turns, stop signs, and other AI traffic issues is. You might still need to do the save/reload trick to reset it but after hours of testing I don't encounter problems very often.

In future versions I hope to tweak the car spawn rates too, so as to change the current silly situation where the world and his wife own classic cars.

EDIT: Added 9ats link

EDIT 2: Added Steam Workshop link

[Desulishor]

Pretty interesting idea and it's also nice to see that ATS is optimized a bit better, I ran this mod a laptop without significant slowdowns or overheating. Granted that my graphics settings are nothing to brag about, but I don't think I could have expected the same out of ETS2 remembering how that ran on my cpu. But personal comments aside...

While you mentioned there are still problems, you might want to look into AI behavior rules and try to see if there's any sort of parameter you could adjust in order to avoid situations with highway ramps. On just one trip from Sacramento to San Francisco, I already ran into a completely clogged up highway ramp. The traffic wouldn't move at all for at least several (real time) minutes, while there had been other stops on right-most lane during the trip, those were usually cleared in less than 15 seconds. So, I drove up to see what the problem was, but for some reason, it seems that the AI had simply managed to confuse itself. The traffic on the highway bridge wasn't moving on either lanes and the first car on the ramp was signaling for a left turn...
http://imgur.com/nUb3yuc

I do understand that modding the map itself in order to ensure smoother movement for the traffic might be outside the scope of this mod, but this is a 'best of possible worlds' -sort of a suggestion, I suppose. Other than that, another thing I'd like to see would be moderate time-scale adjustments, since arriving on time is naturally a bit harder or nigh impossible in some cases. (A long route through California for instance, with numerous cities on the way.) It's really irritating to watch the ingame clock tick away at what's pretty much a minute per second rate when you're stuck in traffic at a highway area. (Realistic traffic jams, possibly... realistic in-game time vs. distance cleared, hardly.)

[meatballs_21]

That is something beyond the scope of this mod, I think. What I'm doing here is changing the rates at which the AI traffic spawns.

What seems to cause those problems is how badly the AI communicates to other AI what its intentions are. Have you ever noticed that when turning left, very often oncoming traffic will stop and let you go even if they have the right of way? That seems to be a special privilege only you, the player, get. The AI does not communicate to other AI vehicles that it is about to turn, or perhaps the AI doesn't care about letting them do so. Some equivalent rule to 'do not block intersection' is what's needed. Most of those off-ramp jams would be solved if the AI cars kept the intersections themselves clear, which would mean not entering until they could completely clear it.

[TheRailfan]

This simulates california drivers much better than the default. They cut me off and switch lanes all over and follow eachother really close. Works especially well with Jazzycat, cause then you get realistic traffic jams, and what could be more fun than that. xD

[BlackBloodRum]

Thanks!

Works okay here, there's a little slow down from time to time on medium/high settings with a GTX 650, and I had to disable my forced FXAA, but side from that in runs just fine! (To be fair, this still performs much better than ETS2 ever did for me without this mod! )

Although I do have to be more careful on time now, for example it's more realistic for the "expected" time to be wrong like real life, where the planners will go "oh yeah no problem you'll get there in 5 hours, guaranteed!" and it takes you 7 hours in the truck, you speak to them tell them it can't be done and their like "Hey computer says it can be done in this time, and I checked the route in my car!"

Of course what it never takes into account is heavy traffic and hills, sure their car can whip past people at 70mph and maintain speed up hill, but you're truck won't so yup going to take longer!

Anyhows, thanks again, this makes the game feel more realistic now and not so "empty" on the motorways.

[meatballs_21]

That is one thing about - those time sensitive jobs are based on the nearly deserted roads from the default traffic. You can still do the urgent and very urgent deliveries, but you have to start prepared (rested and full of fuel) and also be prepared to save/load to reset any big jams.

[meatballs_21]

Updated it for v1.3

SCS seems to have added a new road type to the game, the "no_traffic_road" which was causing issues. Pasting those lines in and it worked.

Uploading to Workshop, and the uploaded insisted I add the road_look.sii file to the mod or it wouldn't upload. Strange. Whatever.

[meatballs_21]

Forgot to tell you guys, updated for v1.5. New link posted.

[meatballs_21]

v1.6 is now posted. I figured out how to make the AI more likely to change lanes but without changing into your path too much while you overtake a lane of stopped traffic.

[meatballs_21]

V1.7 is now posted (after I finally remembered my password for this forum). Currently unable to update the Workshop version as Workshop Uploader is broken.