Supported
About This File
SC4DataNode - A SimCity 4 Exemplary
- is intended as a Gold Standard SC4 Audit Tool
- is NOT an Editing Tool - for this there are Reader, SC4Tool, Lot Editor and a number of others.
The program supports four main Tasks
1. Audit/Review of Loading Sequence, file redundancies and Overrides
2. Dependency verification (as many as possible)
3. Audit/Review of
a. SC4 file integrity (.dat etc) and
b. TGI file content integrity (Exemplars etc) to the Property Level
4. Exploration - a really good informative display of Exemplar Property Values and file contents so that one can learn something of how SC4 works.
Tasks 1 and 3a focus on the physical SC4File View
Tasks 2,3b and 4 mostly on the TGIFile view (SC4 Content)
These tasks can focus on the whole SC4 Environment or incidentally scanned files/folders (or both)
Potential Audiences are:
- The User who wants to make sure that some new plugins aren't broken
- The User who wants to make sure the game loads plugins in the right order
- The Modder who wants to learn what/how things work
- The Modder who publishes work and wants to make sure its correct, and will work correctly with a given environment
- The SysAdmin who wants to make sure their site is only hosting quality products
- Potentially programmers to make use of the functionality (of the SC4DataNode.dll)
How it works:
SC4DataNode loads all of the files that SimCity would load, in the order it would load them when starting a game. It then marks all files that are redundant, checks the contents for accuracy, finds the interdependencies and marks them as found or not and offers a number of views of the resultant data. This can also be carried out for any given set of files.
Use the included installer (program can be installed anywhere) and you're on your way
The program is written in VB.NET v2.0 and should run on any machine that can run the .NET 2.0 Framework or an equivalent.
It also installs one very clear to read Font. Full Documentation is accessible from within the program. (Docs Button)
cheers Ron
May/Jun 2012
What's New 1.33 View Changelog
Released
A lot of things have changed since the last updated version in 2020.
Please make sure you read Manual pp. 39-40 for changes and new functionality.
- The growing list of agreed SubMenu IDs that have been developed over the last several months are identified. In the building Report the Menu and Submenu (if it is applied) are identified. This report can be used for source data to quickly make submenu cohorts.
- The program applies the Submenu cohorts in the same manner as memo's submenu dll. It does not replicate the auto assignments as that is not directly TGI data driven but applied though the dll code. The cohorts themselves will display under Unknown as they have no Exemplar Type property.
- A correction has been made to the display of lot configuration lines to account for multiple Prop or Flora entries, one of which will be chosen at random. This display has apparently been incorrect for several years, although the dependencies these choices create were properly accounted for.
- Internal Bookmarks have been added per view so that when skipping between views the last reviewed item will be bottom of the page when returning to that view. This helps when tracking things down.
- Improvements have been made to restrict memory usage to a minimum - this will help with large plugin collections.
- 3D Model files are parsed for the first time, this enables finding the Texture and Effects dependencies they use, and some characteristics like Number of Frames, Frame Rate, Number of Triangles and Vertices. These also show in a report. Scanning time and memory usage increase slightly.
- Throughout the data, downward references are counted. Thus, from the Menu down through Lot, Building, Prop, and then Model and Texture it is now possible to see how many times something is referenced. This data is now included in the reports. The long goal here is to be able to identify superfluous unreferenced content in a plugin collection – the complement of redundant though override - and enable packing only that which is referenced.
- The reference tables have been updated with more info – in particular, the Family Property Descriptors have been further expanded. Also decriptions for all of the agreed submenus.
- Further dependencies have been traced – notably Terrain Textures, S3D Models Textures – this can change the number of Faulty and Missing Deps.
- Row limits have been made selectable for the Reports. (Preferences)
- Better TGI sifting has led to the thinning out of the Unknown view. Incorrect TGI Types are flagged as faulty TGIFiles.
- A NAM Edition featuring the NAM analysis and Reporting has been added to the set. (Preferences, Reports). In this edition some reports are available in formatted .xlsx and .csv format. You do not need Excel to produce these reports, but you need a modern spreadsheet to read the .xlsx files. (e.g., LibreOffice is freeware). Please write to me if you would like a copy of this debug version. You need a high level of knowledge of SC4 structures to make use of this reporting.
The Manual has been updated to reflect these changes (please read it).
Many thanks for community feedback
6 June 2024
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