Grass Tunnels

[Jay]

Grass Tunnels





Author : Jay

Category : Tunnel, Arch, Shelter, Transport

Date Added : June 29, 2013

Current ztd date: June 24, 2013

Size : 67 KB

Compatibility : All Game Versions

Description : Here are tunnels with grass terrain on top. There are 3 types within the ".ztd", all using the same graphics. One type is in the Zoo Scenery purchase menu and is called Grass Tunnel. It works like an arch. The second type is in the Buildings purchase menu and is called Tunnel Entrance. It allows guests to appear to go through 2 tiles of solid terrain. The third type is in the Shelters purchase menu and is called Tunnel Shelter Entrance. It allows animals (that can use shelters) to appear to go through 2 tiles of solid terrain. The icons for the tunnel entrances in the Buildings and Shelters purchase menus have a "2" on them as a reminder that guests and animals will go through 2 tiles of solid terrain between the tunnel entrances. So when placed, you would use:
tunnel entrance - tile of solid terrain - tile of solid terrain - tunnel entrance

These tunnels allow creating what appears to be a bridge, with guests or animals going under and over the bridge at the same time. There are many ways these objects can be used. The first screenshot shows an example. It does not have to be as complicated as this example, but I wanted to show that they can be used in this way. That screenshot shows a giraffe exhibit with what appears to be a viewing island in the middle of the exhibit with a bridge going over to it. Guests walk over the bridge to that viewing island. Other guests walk under the bridge and the giraffes also walk under the bridge. To accomplish this, the second image shows what parts are being used and where. The exhibit does not actually go completely around the island. The exhibit is more of a U shape. The center of the bridge is actually terrain that is raised up 6 levels. It is outside of the exhibit. The red lines show where the exhibit version of White Half Curbs are. Below those red lines, at the exhibit ground level, is where the White Half Curbs are. So some of those White Half Curbs are between the raised cliff terrain and the tunnel pieces, and some more of those White Half Curbs are between the various tunnel pieces. When a guest reaches the Tunnel Entrance, they will disappear and reappear 4 tiles away, which is passed the 2 tiles of raised terrain and to the other side of the other Tunnel Entrance. I put 2 Grass Tunnels in front of each Tunnel Entrance so that you cannot see the guests disappear and reappear. It will look like they are just walking through without disappearing. Those Grass Tunnels also hide the cliff that would be seen through the Tunnel Entrances. Since the Tunnel Entrance is configured like a free attraction, a guest will usually only enter 1 Tunnel Entrance and will usually only do so once. So there needs to be regular paths on both sides of the Tunnel Entrances that can get to the zoo exit. Similarly, when a giraffe reaches the Tunnel Shelter Entrance, it will disappear and reappear 4 tiles away, which is passed the 2 tiles of raised terrain and to the other side of the other Tunnel Shelter Entrance. I put 2 Grass Tunnels in front of each Tunnel Shelter Entrance so that you cannot see the giraffes disappearing and reappearing. It will look like they are just walking through without disappearing. They enter a Tunnel Shelter Entrance whenever they want to use it as a shelter. Each Tunnel Shelter Entrance is configured just for a capacity of 1 so that, when there are more than 2 animals in the exhibit, there can be regular shelters as well. There should not be more than 1 bridge to an exhibit island, because ZT would see that as 2 exhibits instead of 1, with the animals leaving 1 exhibit and reappearing in another, which will change the exhibit statistics. Like arches, ZT does not know which part of the Grass Tunnels can be walked through and which part cannot. This is usually not a problem for guests, since guests try to stay on paths. But that is a problem for animals. So I did 2 things to prevent the giraffes from trying to walk through the walls of the tunnels. I added an exhibit version of the Cobblestone Cliff Wall to the side of the outermost Grass Tunnel and I added 2 of the exhibit version of the White Half Curb to the front of the outermost Grass Tunnel. The second image shows these. Similarly, I added a Cobblestone Cliff Wall and 2 White Half Curbs to the Grass Tunnel at the opposite side of the tunnel as well. I couldn't use decorative fences because animals walk through decorative fences. As can be seen in the images, I made 1 side of the tunnels to look somewhat fancier than the other side. But it does not matter which side is used. In the images, I alternated the direction of the various tunnels so that the grass terrain and tunnel wall texture look more random than they really are. In addition to being allowed in exhibits, the tunnels can also be placed over water terrain, so that it can look like guests are walking over a river, possibly even having exhibit animals swimming in the river under the bridge. These tunnels can also be used similarly to a water tunnel, where water terrain is put on top and guests appear to walk beneath it. ZT has a graphics glitch where parts of guests or animals disappear as they walk through an arch that has its base too close to the path. The opening of these tunnels are wide in order to avoid that ZT graphics glitch for guests and for animals that are not taller than guests. The graphics glitch will still appear, though, for the hats of staff members (although it is not too obvious) and for tall animals. Since ZT does not check the terrain height where the guests reappear, the Tunnel Entrances can also be used like entrances to an elevator, allowing the guests to go to higher or lower terrain. The messages for the Tunnel Entrance and Tunnel Shelter Entrance are in LANG--ZTCDD.dll dated January 26, 2013 or newer:
http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=3734.0

When a tunnel is next to a cliff, ZT puts a dirt edge between them. That was not a problem for the example in the screenshots, though, because the path is covering the dirt edge on the cliffs. But if you need to hide that dirt edge in other uses of the tunnels, you can use the Grass Curb:
http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5380.0

Here are links to other things used in those screenshots:
Cobblestone Cliff Walls: http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5379.0
White Half Curbs: http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5377.0
Water Tunnels: http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5378.0
Water Curb: http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5376.0
Wooden Curb: http://www.lunamanar.com/zklounge/viewtopic.php?t=1847

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