DLL modders: let invoke the in-game editor!

[OrSpeeder 72]

Well, I was poking around here and there, and found out the game has a lot editor.

Also it has a Lua debugger.

Also it has a network lot editor.

The thing is, I can't figure how to fire them up, I concluded that you need a dll similar to cheats dll... anyone here that made DLLs before is willing to help with that?

[Mister Giggles 310]

You're that guy on SC4devotion, eh?

Ask Simmaster07. He's made a .dll. His .dll also has source code available, if you're able to understand all that magically magical C++ magic. There are quite a few other people who can program on the site, as well. Perhaps one will read this topic or be guided here by someone. Because they love SimCity 4 and wouldn't betray it.

If you and Simmaster worked together on this, imagine the possibilities. I'd argue, with things like the hard coded 6 minute commute time and multi-threaded issues murdered in broad daylight, it'd usher in a new golden age.

(And yes, they have to be murdered in broad daylight. There must be witnesses.)

An in-game LUA debugger could be exceptionally useful depending on how extensive its functionality is, same with the lot editor. My, what better way to edit a lot than in the very game that'll be using it?

I'm rooting for you, Speeder. You could be the guy. I want you to be the guy.

Be the guy.

[OrSpeeder 72]

Heh.

By the way, I found this on the archive.org version of SimCity.com site from the end of 2002 (right next to the release of the game)

 

Quote

Many games studios create production tools for internal use to streamline the creative process, and these have to be named. For SimCity, we use Edith, Ingred, Rosie, Bob, Uber-Bob, Freshness, and the Porcupine Racetrack. No telling where these names came from; I'm not even very clear on what they are used for. And we have pet names for certain features in the game, such as "zippers," "gopher holes," "criminess layer," and the elusive "Willio" who shows up now and then.

 

I found out what is Edith, Ingred and Freshness.

Freshness, is related to audio, I am not sure how, but the game has a couple classes called "freshness" that are related to audio.

Ingred, that many people probably heard about with "Ingred.ini" is Maxis version of the Reader, according to Paul Pedriana (I e-mailed him) he thinks (he is not sure) it means "In Game Resource Editor", among its features is check if the values you entered on the editor are valid (Reader will happily let you do invalid stuff).

I have no idea what Rosie, Bob, Uber-Bob and Porcupine Racetrack do.

 

Now Edith is interesting: Edith is the editor for Sims behaviour, it was invented for The Sims 1, and re-used while making The Sims online, and seemly all Sims game since, it maybe was used on SimCity 4 to make the "MySims" feature, but I am not sure, but the interesting thing about it, is that it leaked when EA shut down The Sims Online servers, they made a "final release" of the client, having more stuff in it (including many dlls that weren't by default present), probably this was the work of Maxis employees doing it "behind the back" of EA, knowing full well the community would reverse engineer and clone TSO, indeed the community did just that, but EA never took the download down.

Out of curiosity, I downloaded EA TSO, and took a look on its files, Edith is indeed there, it is a dll that works exactly like the Cheats.dll, thus proving my earlier theory true (that you need a dll to launch some editors). But my time is limited, and I won't plan in trying to launch Edith with SC4 any time soon, since I am uninterested in MySims feature.