1 General
Pedestrians in this sense are simply human figures walking along the sidewalks and the street, but also passengers who have not yet got on or have already got off. So all people whose base coordinate system is the world and not a vehicle!
Pedestrians can walk/run/dash, stand or sit. The former they do mainly on so-called sidewalk paths, they stand on so-called group polygons (usually to wait for a bus or train) - and sitting will always be linked to scenery objects later on.
Human figures cannot be modified.
2 Footpaths
Sidewalk paths and group polygons are created and edited in the MapEditor in the "People" section. The basic functionality when laying them is similar to that of AI paths or other lines and they have the possibility to define a width course (like AI paths or routing elements).
To distinguish sidewalk paths from AI paths, their edges are always dashed (with much shorter lines). Unlike (normally or currently still) AI paths, sidewalk paths do not have a preferred direction, people can (currently still) walk on them in both directions.
A sidewalk path does not have to be installed at exactly the correct height - if the sidewalk paths are e.g. (and sensibly) at sidewalk height, the paths that then cross the street can also be installed at sidewalk height, the difference is then automatically compensated in the game. But the difference should not be too big, because the difference - depending on the settings - will not be compensated on a longer distance. If there was a difference of e.g. 1m, this error would also be noticed at longer distances.
2.1 Additional parameters
Sidewalk paths can currently have two additional parameters:
- Traffic Light+Traffic Light Direction: This is added in the same way as for AI Paths and Tracks - to do this, the path must be selected, in the "Street" section the traffic light to which it is to be assigned, and finally click on "Mark. Add obj. to plant" must be clicked on. After querying the direction, the path is assigned.
- Path must always be cleared (in the path properties): This parameter must be clicked if it is a path where people should not stop. A typical case is the crossing of a road: If a vehicle comes on the rear lane, then (without activating this parameter) the human would walk over half of the road and wait there until vehicle has passed. But if another vehicle and another vehicle come behind, the human stops there, with the consequence that gradually approaching vehicles in the front lane are stopped by the human. Realistically, however, in such a case, a person will not even enter the marked path if an approaching vehicle crosses it at any point. But if the person is already on the path, he or she will definitely continue to walk so as not to block other vehicles. A person only stops if a car is driving or standing directly in front of him.
3 Group polygons
A group polygon is a polygon on which people can stand in a selectable density, e.g. to wait for a bus or train. Group polygons are constructed in the same way as terrain polygons and the same rules apply to the height as for sidewalk paths (small differences are automatically compensated).
Since, as mentioned before, group polygons are also used for waiting people, and since they are generally mainly oriented towards the potentially approaching vehicle, a preferred direction can be set here.
3.1 Additional Parameters
The additional parameters are:
- Minimum distance between the persons (m): The distance between the waiting persons is chosen accordingly. This also results in the density: If the passenger density is set to maximum (300 %) in the simulator, then every place on the polygon is occupied while keeping the distance.
- People have preferred orientation: As indicated above, this parameter is used to distinguish whether people should have any or preferred orientations.
- Medium orientation of the positions: The orientation (in degrees) in which people look "approximately", if the preferred orientation is active. This direction can also be set using a helper on the polygon, which can be set with the mouse.