The Art of "Intersection Marking Tool"

[@p75369]

As someone who works on highways: getting to play with intricate junction markings without needing to worry about the temporary traffic management needed to *actuall* paint it, bliss. In real life, you're getting 4 yield signs and you better like it!

[@YUMBL]

😂

[@bailey125]

@Richard Cranium hell yeah

[@p75369]

@Richard Cranium it got painted when the road was built, you better hope the good paint was used. :P

[@mymemeplex]

yield? I thought in the US they just put in Stop signs and call it a day. Let everybody figure out themselves who goes first once they're all stopped.

[@soundlessbird9181]

@@mymemeplex In Taiwan no one give a damn to Stop sign. They just straight into the roundabout.

[@vegaomega6072]

i gotta say, even though it might be "overkill" that SPUI intersection is beautiful, and honestly probably the safest bet IRL, since it very clearly shows drivers which directions are allowed, rather than them accidentally taking a wrong turn and causing unnecessary conflict or wrecks.

[@christopheralvarez6230]

I’ve said it before, but this is some of the best, if not the best City Skylines content out there. Everything from the way you explain things, your pacing, the details, your tone of voice, to the knowledge is superb. Real top notch.

[@YUMBL]

Thank you very much! :)

[@SeanLamb-I-Am]

The only thing I would mention is that not all traffic agencies use the same marking rules. For example, here in Wisconsin, the DOT doesn't use chevrons on merge fillers while they do on splits. The standards for different agencies are usually published on the interwebs.

[@s.muller8688]

The melting point of iron is 1.538 °C.

[@NyaNyon]

umm ok?

[@YoWhatGoesHere]

@@s.muller8688 that's 2,800°F for the American in us.

[@s.muller8688]

@@YoWhatGoesHere congratulations, you have said something. enjoy your 1 second of fame.

[@bobblebardsley]

I learned something! I never knew chevrons are angled in the direction of the traffic (I think I assumed they always aim toward the point of the triangle) but I've looked at some UK motorway junctions and it looks like that's how they work here too. Between that and the general better awareness of what intersection markings mean, I honestly feel like this video (and the intersection marking tool overall) has made me a better driver.

[@cylisplaysgames]

They are there so your eye follows the line and guides you back onto the roadway.

[@872463051]

I always remember it as this: imagine the slashes are angling drivers back towards their lane/travel direction if they were to enter the median.

[@twrk139]

You don't need to understand this to make you a "better driver". This design subconsciously influences the brain. When lines converge, you are drawn towards it. When they diverge, you are drawn away from it.

[@Ruhrpottpatriot]

That's a US thing. In Germany, France, Italy and Spain the Chevrons always point against the direction the traffic flows, while the Netherlands don't use chevrons at all. Only the UK has Chevrons like the US.

[@YUMBL]

@Ruhrpottpatriot no, a quick google search shows me chevrons that point in the same direction in all those places. Maybe you’re confused about what direction the US does chevrons, but its the same.

[@shaneintheuk2026]

I love these videos because even if you’re familiar with the mod every so often a little gem pops up. Holding shift to get solid lines is worth it’s weight in gold.

[@coulrophobic123]

In my hometown, there's a SPUI where there used to be that diamond in the center of it all that they made into a raised median with a "keep left" sign facing all left turning traffic so that left-turning drivers knew to stay to the left of that raised diamond center point of the SPUI. It caused more issues than it solved. They eventually just removed the raised diamond median and marked the lanes better.

[@phil6031]

I think you'll get a neater set of yellow stripes across the parclo if you add the curved line around the hard median before the filler, instead of the offset.

[@Lussimio]

😃😃😃

[@balazskuglicz614]

@@Lussimio he tried, but there it is not possible to draw a line atm

[@Lussimio]

@@balazskuglicz614 Yeah, I know, it was a badly ironic reply that meant excatoy your message. I just like the stupidity of the emoji 😃😃

[@protoborg]

@@balazskuglicz614 You don't get it. When putting in the lines for the intersection, you can put a curved line. Once all three lines are in you can make a filler with a curved line. 23:05 you can see what it would look like.

[@facechriscat4214]

I've been learning how to use TP:ME and I think your routing is an actual masterclass in design. Sorting traffic to give them the quickest, easiest path to where they want to go is awesome!

[@m.a.3864]

I love the SPUI _especially_ for the central yellow diamond. Just existing there and vibin'

[@YUMBL]

He chillen ;)

[@xander7915]

I have a SPUI near where i live and they have the diamond in the middle

[@richskater]

Same here. Williamsburg, KY exit off I-75 is a SPUI with the diamond.

[@SuperPyro]

Again, your videos are amazing. I wish I had this video back when I was learning the lane marking tool! Your videos are next level, please never stop!

[@mickdriver3942]

'If it isn't about fun, I don't know what it's about.' Never a truer word spoken. :)

[@CardboardArm]

Great tutorial! Extra tip: 2:04 you no longer need to paint a line from 2 starting points if you want to create a filler in the latest version of the mod. You can, if you want the line, but you don't have to anymore.

[@TheScania1991]

Ngl, that mod was one of the first mods I added when I got back into CS a couple of days ago. That mod is a piece of art and I'm merely using ten percent of its power. Your video opened a whole new world for me and using that mod

[@frans97]

SPUI! Ah my favorite intersection design. It's beautiful in its natural state, but you just made it absolutely GORGEOUS!

[@monster7947]

bro this is so good i find it so confusing to use this tool though

[@notLekii]

For me marking intersections has brought a new life to the game, the mod feels like a DLC. I always spend a lot of time just marking streets and junctions eventhough it doesn't affect gameplay, is so relaxing and feels so rewarding after you're done.

[@tonyschulz3558]

As a small point, handy piece of information I use for marking intersections; especially with the par-clo; is to join the two nodes with a line on the edge near the median. It provides you with a far neater filling for line marking

[@_kiewicz6340]

I can say that since I started using that mod I watched more carefully the paintings on intersections in my neighbourhood and I love the copy-paste function of that mod which allows me to spend a lot of time on detailing one intersection and nextly in few seconds do the similar one intersection somewhere else

[@dycedargselderbrother5353]

I initially downloaded Intersection Marking Tool for aesthetic purposes but discovered that its greater purpose was helping me better understand traffic flow. There would be times where through lanes wouldn't be as straight as I thought they were or that the reason I couldn't make the markings work is because my lanes were set up in a suboptimal way. The lines make much more sense of things than I predicted they would. One feature I wish for is an eyedropper function so that I can select the color I want for fillers. Color masters can play around with RGBA values but it's not for me. Something about this tool which is revealed when YUMBL struggles to explain at 6:43 is that its operation eventually makes sense but there are some initially unintuitive aspects to it. I can draw the chevrons in a way where I don't need to invert them, but I, too, struggle to explain how to do it. You just need to do it about 50-100 times and then it'll become automatic. Same goes when you need to rotate left, right, and/or invert after pasting. There is a way to do it in a few clicks, as when YUMBL shows at 7:38, but it's something you figure out after doing it a bunch of times.

[@WolfyLuna]

Thank you so much for showing how the mod is used properly. I was not aware of a lot of features the mod has and it took me way longer at first to make simple designs. Now I can try to use these techniques myself in my city.👍

[@YUMBL]

Have fun!

[@mattsmith8160]

I keep coming back to this because I can never remember how to cut lines and there's surprisingly absolutely no hint at all in the mods tool tips or mod configuration panel so thank you, Sir, for making this video.

[@trevorp-j]

Beautiful. Over 2800 hours in the game and I'm still learning. Thank you! Please keep up the great content. 👍

[@ChocolateMilk..]

"It's okay to redo things, you just need to do it again" - Thank you ! I was looking for the answer to this!

[@YUMBL]

Np

[@TheSneakyone18]

Thank you again for another great showcase for such an amazing mod! You really do a great job of simplifying how these mods can be applied without overexplaining or leaving things out.

[@YUMBL]

Thanks a lot :)

[@Pystro]

22:51 That's a piece of art. You could get that as a tattoo and it wouldn't look wrong.

[@knightriderlv]

Thanks for showing Intersection Marking Tool. This was a very good demo explaining how it all works. Keep the video’s coming.

[@BeachLookingGuy]

I've been doing all of this for a while now but nice to see other little details you use. adding colors for the lines and chevrons is such a nice touch

[@brickisland6353]

This tool made the game so much better and nicer to play.

[@EnzoVinZ]

I didn't know you can trim them and add segments. Thanks for this video.

[@nanfredman1991]

The little yellow diamond: a thing of beauty. :D

[@YouAreKimBlix]

Love it! Didn't know it was possible to cut down lines as this is the first tutorial even mentioning it that I've seen! Had a bit of time off from Cities but will for sure play a bit more this weekend to correct some intersections!

[@CJoubert]

Those harmonics on the guitar at 22:00 is so nice... epic video. Now i can overuse my mod! Lol

[@PeachyPixel28]

that final intersection is beautiful!

[@Eternal_Muerto]

Watched video again to see interchange been marked. Would really like to see series of marking with no to minimum cuts, minimum comments 'how to', calm music and satisfying results (as always on this channel).

[@SpencerFoxworth]

I would absolutely watch more videos with IMT! Love how detailed and intricate you can get with mods like this!

[@keeblebrox]

13:25 if you add a line from one side of the median to the other before drawing the stripes then Intersection Marking Tool will make the stripe fill follow that curve. That change means you won't need to adjust the median offset. You can make the guideline invisible if you don't want to have a visible line there.

[@YUMBL]

Yes. In this case it would make a straight line. Cutting through the median.

[@DE4DR4T]

Hey Yumbl, if you don't want the filler to go over the median like at around 14:05, you should connect the the dots on the median with a line. The line will curve around the median. After doing this the filler will also curve around the median instead of going over it!

[@YUMBL]

The line would be straight though. I dont see where the curving happens

[@abueloaltieri2694]

this video is so calming for me i will see 10 hours of this ❤️

[@moramento22]

Oh I love the Intersection Marking Tool! In my opinion is the single best mod for Cities Skylines!

[@Bendigo1]

I think TMPE, Node Controller and Intersection marking tool. are the 3 top mods for the game. tthey dont just add to the game like other mods, they completely change the game.

[@gunnerzz1008]

Did not know you could break the lines! Game changer.

[@rhandhom1]

I am in training to be a driving instructor and your channel came up as a suggested recommendation because I was watching videos on how to park (and because I like watching videos about OpenRCT2.) Your videos are interesting and strangely relaxing and maybe they may take the nerves off a little because this is all new to me and I don't want to die at the hands of a teenager... lol (Edit: This is not necessarily the position that I had initially wanted at this company, so we'll see how it goes.)

[@YUMBL]

Good luck! :)

[@TheJorgVideos]

A technique I personally use to get the lines trimmed right: 1 use TM to setup the intersection's paths 2 start marking the lines of travel for all paths 3 for every single path on the intersection use a filler (Temporary use to find the areas of the intersection where traffic will never go) 4 Use a filler (this time permanant) for the areas not used by traffic 5 delete the temporary fillers 6 trim the lines the permanant fillers will help understand where traffic is supposed to go so you can trim and add rules without the risk of misplacing them

[@sololeveling7390]

Sir that last intersection isn't really an intersection it is a piece of art. I should hire you to do this to my city

[@YUMBL]

Much appreciated ;)

[@Corum001]

Thank you for the information explained and disseminated in such a delightful manner and there by allowing us all to have more fun. Cheers :)

[@the.skirmisher]

Another great tutorial. I just love watching your videos

[@VelesM198]

Thank you so much for this video! I have only fairly recently discovered the IMT mod, and I was wondering how to do just those things you describe. Very informative!

[@DonaldKronos]

Not meant as a critique, but rather as a bit of humor. Note right near the end of the video, starting at 23:53 ...the half a dozen or so collisions that happen almost immediately with vehicles passing through each other as if the other vehicles are not even there. As at least one other commenter pointed out, there are definitely some yield signs needed, or perhaps at least a blinking yellow light somewhere, or maybe drivers that actually care about whether they live or die. It reminds me of something you said in one of your videos. (Not sure if it was this one.) Where you asked something to the effect of what else was there to consider besides having fun, and I laughed out loud and said... "Safety? Maybe the safety of your vitual people?"

[@MegeGabe_Personal]

It's always so nice to view the comment section and see hearts from the KZbinr Makes you know they actually spend the time to read what we have to say which is such a good thing in my opinion Yumbl if you see this I really hope you continue the great work Also if you could make a tutorial on Unified UI and how to make our UI as clean as yours that would be awesome!

[@YUMBL]

Have a heart :)

[@JackMacLupus]

Damn, i learned SO much about this tool in this video, its incredible!

[@ShadowWolfTJC]

Personally, to better keep track of which lines cross eachother as you're adding road markings, I'd put dotted or dashed lines in the empty spaces in-between solid lines (as what I typically see on the interchanges near Raleigh, North Carolina) AS you're working on the road markings, not necessarily after.

[@Britany406]

Awesome. Love the quality of your stuff.

[@Chris_Cross]

This was really helpful. I had no idea how to cut lines our what the add rule button did.

[@sockswayup]

This was great! I struggle with the complex ones. I’ll be rewatching this a few times I’m sure!

[@JKTCGMV13]

I love YUMBL tutorials ❤️

[@moondog548]

Yesssss. Delicious and functional asthetics....

[@jeffd8465]

when it comes to roundabouts I've found that using the traffic management works fine for me. I just set going out lane with outer lane turns, middle lane can turn or go straight, with the inner lane unmanaged. I don't know if it works better, I just like how easy it is and still have it work. If I'm missing something I'll find out soon I'd guess.

[@stefans4562]

5:50 that white truck coming from the bottom and ignoring the markings killed me.

[@YUMBL]

Yep. The markings are for looks only.

[@battlehawk77]

On the SPUI, there should be stop bars in the straight-ahead lanes, as they will stop when there is left-turning traffic. :) Love your videos. I find myself learning something new with each one.

[@YUMBL]

Thank you! Yes, i realized after ;)

[@EspeeZombie]

I changed the default line to be solid and shift to be dashed, because I make so many more solid lines.

[@BlackHat302Gaming]

Looks awesome, the diamond in the middle, we have at least two like that where I live, and the are concrete islands raised up.

[@randallcromer66]

You sir are the master of the highways in Cities Skylines. I've really been enjoying watching your content and I would like to say thank you for sharing your video's and ideas with us. I hope your channel will continue to grow. 🤟😲👍

[@YUMBL]

Thank you :)

[@Jurvaa]

You could also draw solid lines above the dashed line after and before the intersection. That would mark where it is too early or late to switch lanes. Of course you have to add lane rules with traffic manager.

[@konikitty]

when yumbl teaches you to copy and paste and realize you've wasted countless hours manually doing every highway off and on ramp :deadinside:

[@arnomrnym6329]

Nice. 👍🏾😎 Just subscribed to some of your intersections. 😁

[@MugiwaraRuffy]

Oh damn, I though I knew how to use the ISMT. But I never realized you could also trim line segments.

[@AgentBlack50]

Man love your dedication and work.

[@aoilpe]

I learned a lot , thank you 🙏 And understood some more things mentioned by Biffa…

[@thecreativitysyndrome]

Those really reminds me of Swiss intersections. Most Central European countries don't really bother using fancy road markings unless those intersections are in very touristic/historical places like capital cities, but Switzerland really cares about it's roads let me tell you that.

[@Diana-le7oh]

I always have trouble with this mod, for some reason the colors never quite match and when I zoom out the marking almost entirely disappear. You've done some magic with this mod and I admire these intersections. :)

[@bobblebardsley]

The zoom thing could be related to your graphics settings - the game will only draw small details (like custom intersection markings) once you zoom in on one area, because it would use too much memory and affect performance if it tried to do every detail in the whole city while zoomed out. If you have a very powerful computer you can probably increase the detail in your game settings but for most people it's just how the game works to keep things running smoothly.

[@AceEverett]

Ultimate Level of Detail mod lets you change render distance for things, not sure if it affects road markings, but you could try it out. For the colors, if your RGBA numbers all match yet the color is different, then IDK what it could be.

[@YUMBL]

You can change the LOD in the intersection marking tool options

[@Diana-le7oh]

@@bobblebardsley Thank you for this, I have a relatively powerful computer, so it shouldnt be a problem if i adjust the settings. :)

[@medrano_rm]

Using Intersection Marking Tool is very rewarding. We need to hail macsergey for that.

[@Jisaacs91]

Love that I learned how to use this, it's the little things ^_^

[@Lankpants]

You can make that fill on the yellow stripe box look a lot more accurate by creating a guide line using the turning lanes. For the one on the left of the screen this would probably be going from orange to red and blue to red, just to give you something that kinda traces the median and keeps your stripes off of it as much as possible.

[@HanifJordan]

I learned a lot! Thank you so much YUMBL 👌👌👌

[@JMWZ_E]

Oh, I just wish a further version of the Intersection Marking Tool could actually read the TMPE lane connectors or at least somehow show all allowed movements ... I'm just to impatient to use this version.

[@roqsteady5290]

Yeah maybe it could also work in conjunction with roundabout builder. You can already have RB set up TMPE settings for roundabouts, would be great if automatically added intersection markings too.

[@balazskuglicz614]

@@roqsteady5290 it does sound useful at first, but i forexample use a lot of different concepts of lane mechanics even in one city for roundabouts, so when you consider how ppl preferention changes from country to country, it would be difficult for the modders to chose a default setting for it

[@roqsteady5290]

@@balazskuglicz614 Well TMPE has a default setting for roundabouts already and it works pretty well for most roundabouts. Besides these are just defaults and if you want to customize further, then there would be nothing to prevent you doing that. There is so much going on in CS that it can be good to just plop stuff and come back later to refine it.

[@pleappleappleap]

The I-87/NY-2/NY-7 SPUI in Latham, NY is marked at least this much. And the funny diamond in the center is a pavement island with "keep left" signs on it.

[@tylerdurden639]

I have never seen merge chevrons pointing anywhere but towards the merge point (Like 7:46) The opposite of what you have at 8:04. The chevrons always point into the place where the lanes come together or split.

[@YUMBL]

That is incorrect for most places. Look up your local laws and see what they do for chevron markings

[@Pakistani890]

Thx so much there was a much needed tutorial for this

[@Bendigo1]

On the SPUI, I thin the turn lanes would have dashed lines on both sides of each lane to prevent people from turning right in the middle of the intersection. Also it should could have been mentioned that the dash lengths can be changed. For example, the dashed lines crossing straight-through traffic are usually short and closer together than the dashed lines for switching lanes. I reallyu like the videos you make, they are relaxing and informative and give me many ideas for my own cities. Thank you.

[@balazskuglicz614]

yeah i use real "dotted" lines, by just making the dashes very short

[@Bendigo1]

@@balazskuglicz614 Yup.

[@willewiking98]

very good and informative video. great help for a cities skylines enthusiast

[@cheezewizz2000]

Well, that was relaxing viewing

[@abbc1999]

23:53 those trucks just went through each other 😂

[@unconnectedbedna]

If you just added a lines between the opposite lanes (when making the striped fillers) the filler would follow the line and not above the pavement and no need to use for offset from median (will also look better). Also, there is a "curb" texture you can add to a line. Use these as outlines on pavement fillers. Sometimes they glitch out a bit, then use a curb network mod to add curbs yourself. But usually the curb texture on the line is enough to make it look nice.

[@sabretooth1997]

There usually is a small diamond-shaped island in the middle of a SPUI, at least the ones I've seen. It would then have 4 "Keep Left" signs mounted on it, one facing each entering left turn.

[@CurtieKing]

The only thing that would make a SPUI better is if you do a pass-thru lane for traffic going straight. It would essentially eliminate the need for a traffic light as both the left-hand turns, straight-thru, and right-hand turns would all merge into a singular point. It basically would combine a stack (for straight traffic turning left onto the highway), the left-hand coming off the highway going into the middle, the straight over's going between the middle lanes and the outer lanes (for the right-hand turns OFF of the highway), and it all would happen without the need for a single stoplight. There would be some merging happening that would just make it beautiful!

[@lordraven2264]

16:16, we have these junctions in St Louis. You should teach them how to mark, it's just a free for all....lol

[@Jl57562]

Hey Yumble, I love your videos. I've always struggled to make things symmetrical and nice looking and your tutorials are always very helpful! I just had one suggestion that I think would make your parclo-spui and spui interchanges a little more real world realistic. I think that if you had the complicated parts of the interchanges on ground level with the highway bridging over top would be better. They way you've always been designing everything is bridges connecting to bridges connecting to bridges and something like that would be insanely difficult and ridiculously expensive in the real world but not so much if they were at ground level.

[@low-key5978]

I can imagine with uneven left-turning flow across the axises, if one axis has both sides running at full left-turn capacity it could result in halting both sides of the the other axis. But that's just the nature of it being essentially a signal-less intersection. Probably best described as an expanded/circular bypassed intersection!

[@A.Martin]

normally marking an intersection up like that SPUI you would have those hatched areas, and then maybe a couple dashed lines for the turns and that is it.

[@PhattyMcdugen]

I've been waiting for this!!! Let me grab some popcorn! brb

[@PhattyMcdugen]

Lets Go!!!🍿🍿🍿

[@slate613]

I wish ODOT had used that Single Point Urban Interchange for US-40 and I-75. Also, if you have a minute, take a look at the I-70/I-75 interchange. Don't know the actual name for that type of interchange, but we locals call it a mess. 75N to 70W is several stories off the ground, 75S to 70E tunnels under both roads, and 70E to 75N [the worst on ramp/slip lane] was barely altered so it still can cause backups and wrecks during rush hour. . .

[@deilusi]

16:20 this screams 4+2 road, but I am not sure if with those markings, symmetric one does not look nicer.

[@chrispysaid]

EVREEBUDDEE WELCOME *BACK!*

[@diki8236]

Love the video man, appreciate it.

[@beck0n527]

dude intersection marking tool is the coolest mod and I don't even actually play this game. makes me realize how many intersections are just anarchy in rural america, too

[@KashiARTW]

The manual setting of the traffic light interval at the intersection of TMPE affects the FPS or LAG to a certain extent. In comparison, does the setting of lane drawing of the TMPE have an impact on the FPS or LAG?

[@marcosda4th92]

For those who want striped lines to follow a median instead of offsetting it, just add a line on the arch of the median before you draw your filler. A filler will follow all and any lines you draw. If it doesn't have a line, it'll just connect the two points in the shortest way possible.

[@Sajjad-x1s]

Great video as always

[@shellbackbeau7021]

I love that spi!

[@roqsteady5290]

Very useful video! The draw distance on my markings is very short, and I was wondering if there was a ULOD setting to improve it. Thought they were probably decals, but decal draw distance doesn't seem to help.

[@Bendigo1]

I think the setting is in the mod itself.

[@roqsteady5290]

@@Bendigo1 Thanks! I'll take a look when I get back.

[@Bendigo1]

@@roqsteady5290 I had to double check, from the main menu go to options then go down into mod settings to intersection marking tool and on the first settings page at the top is visibility and lod distance. I would probably set it to something like 2000 and 500 but thats up to you.

[@roqsteady5290]

@@Bendigo1 Thanks that is super helpful. Was quite high on my list of CS things to fix :). Just didn't occur to me that it might have it's own LOD settings.

[@Bendigo1]

@@roqsteady5290 I know it did not have it a while ago when i installed it, i just learned to live with it. nut your comment made me check it out and it was there. I was thinking it might have to be changed in the files but it does not.