Aqualine progress and video

Hello, Simskii here.

I just wanted to show a bit of the areas I am working on: Aqualine, K6 and the junction that connects them to the Bayshore route. Most of the work has gone into the junction unfortunately. Due to multiple factors, this section takes the most time. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the junction is (essentially) a full 6 way junction. The amount of lanes needed for a junction expands exponentially with the amount of directions one can go. For example, a simple 3 lane junction needs 6 lanes. But a 4 way junction already needs 12 lanes. For a 6 way junction like this one, there is a need for a whopping 30 lanes or even more. One of these directions would have been a large parking area around the junction, but this was never finished (IRL) due to its proximity to Daikoku PA. Here is a (blurry) image of a scale model, showing the full junction.

This in turn resulted in a lot of unfinished side roads. There are even some flyovers that stop mid-air. What also doesn't help is that the part of Bayshore south of the junction and the road towards Daishi PA are both in a separate toll zone. This means that when you enter either of them, you'll have to pay the toll, but you must still be able to freely move between them.

Modeling-wise, most of the existing junction was deleted when I started here. Only the Bayshore tollbooths and part of the road mesh remained. Currently, all the drivable junction roads are completed. Also completed is most of the expressway section of the road between Aqualine JCT and Daishi PA. This presents another issue though: in 2007 (the time frame SRP is modelled after) the road to Daishi PA was only finished halfway. The rest has to be driven on street level and this has not yet been modelled. In the other direction, the mighty Aqualine already goes on for the entire length of the tunnel. Unfortunately the lights are still missing, as well as some other details. Due to how the tunnel is made, the second half still lacks elevation for now. Overall, all the things needed to replace the current junction are done. The junction will be locked behind barriers in 0.9.4, but players will still be able to explore it if they remove those.

Have a look in the attached video which features a quick exploration of the new area. The video begins on Bayshore, a part that already exists on SRP as you know, but immediately peels off to the left and starts showing the brand new roads. (By the way, to get a sense of scale: the RX7 in the video reached 402kmh / 250mph halfway through the tunnel).