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SC4 Modding - Open Discussion

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General SimCity 4 modding discussions, experiments, make requests and ask for help here.

2,847 topics in this forum

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SC4PIM-X 2026 & New Properties Update Out Now!
By Ulisse Wolf, July 10
- simcity 4
- 20 Replies
- 1,068 Views
- Andreas Roth
- 1 hour ago
Post Modding Requests Here
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 51
By Tropod, August 11, 2004
- simcity 4
- modding
- (and 1 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  simcity 4
  
  modding
  
  requests
- 1,528 Replies
- 91,951 Views
- TheReno
- Thursday at 03:01 PM
Game framework compatible DLL loading (and other modding discoveries)
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
By simmaster07, May 16, 2016
- loadable
- dll
- (and 1 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  loadable
  
  dll
  
  modding
- 111 Replies
- 18,668 Views
- Propfam
- July 13
[sc4pac] Let's write our own package manager
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 11
By memo, October 22, 2023
- simcity 4
- sc4pac
- 319 Replies
- 22,108 Views
- nos.17
- June 24
Building Styles Master IID
- 1
- 2
By Ulisse Wolf, July 9, 2024
- simcity 4
- building style
- (and 1 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  simcity 4
  
  building style
  
  iid range
- 50 Replies
- 5,214 Views
- Lab Rat
- February 6
Colossus Addon Mod 3.0 Out Now
By Ulisse Wolf, August 18, 2025
- simcity 4
- colossus addon mod
- (and 1 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  simcity 4
  
  colossus addon mod
  
  CAM
- 5 Replies
- 3,093 Views
- Ulisse Wolf
- September 28, 2025
SC4Fix: third-party patches for SC4
- 1
- 2
- 3
By simmaster07, December 25, 2015
- experimental
- crash
- (and 3 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  experimental
  
  crash
  
  ctd
  
  sc4
  
  patch
- 81 Replies
- 19,807 Views
- Haljackey
- July 26, 2025
How to: Make your own Mods
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 10
By funforfree99, May 26, 2003
- sc4
- modding
- (and 2 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  sc4
  
  modding
  
  mods
  
  reader
- 290 Replies
- 59,200 Views
- Rj Simas
- July 25, 2025
SimCity 4 Open Access: Repository of modding tools
- 1
- 2
By Ulisse Wolf, January 8, 2023
- simcity 4
- modding
- (and 5 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  simcity 4
  
  modding
  
  coding
  
  tools
  
  programs
  
  index
  
  list
- 46 Replies
- 10,937 Views
- memo
- November 1, 2024
Modding Made Easy: A Beginner's Guide
- 1
- 2
By docj101, April 10, 2013
- modding guide
- guide
- (and 4 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  modding guide
  
  guide
  
  beginners guide
  
  modding tutorial
  
  reader tutorial
  
  tutorial
- 38 Replies
- 15,121 Views
- rsc204
- September 15, 2024
How to: Ilives Reader, Beginners Guide
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
By Tropod, July 10, 2003
- ilive
- reader
- 90 Replies
- 52,568 Views
- nic49548
- July 21, 2024
The Future of SC4 Modding: The Matter of Digital vs. Disc, and Windows vs. macOS in the DLL Era
- 1
- 2
- 3
By Tarkus, February 14, 2024
- simcity 4
- dll
- (and 9 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  simcity 4
  
  dll
  
  modding
  
  mac
  
  windows
  
  NAM
  
  CAM
  
  digital
  
  disc
  
  safedisc
  
  sc4macinjector
- 81 Replies
- 43,407 Views
- Null 45
- July 18, 2024
Submenus DLL
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 19
By memo, February 25, 2024
- simcity 4
- dll
- 551 Replies
- 44,349 Views
- Andreas Roth
- 19 minutes ago
SC4 Mod Migration Assistant
By Ulisse Wolf, yesterday at 06:52 PM
- simcity 4
- tool
- 2 Replies
- 90 Views
- Ulisse Wolf
- 3 hours ago
Tropical Weather Expansion
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 8
By TropicalWeatherEP, February 14, 2021
- weather
- tropical
- (and 10 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  weather
  
  tropical
  
  storm
  
  squall
  
  flooding
  
  tropical rainstorm
  
  tropical cyclone
  
  simcity4
  
  photoshop
  
  destructive
  
  stormsurge
  
  supercell
- 215 Replies
- 16,789 Views
- TropicalWeatherEP
- 3 hours ago
TMC's 'SimCity 3000 ordinances for SC4' - support topic
By TheMurderousCricket, 4 hours ago
- sc3000
- sc4
- (and 3 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  sc3000
  
  sc4
  
  ordinances
  
  troubleshooting
  
  issues
- 0 Replies
- 21 Views
- TheMurderousCricket
- 4 hours ago
Scoty's small tinkering
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 10
By hugues aroux, April 16, 2022
- modding
- experiment
- (and 1 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  modding
  
  experiment
  
  scoty
- 284 Replies
- 23,280 Views
- hugues aroux
- Yesterday at 08:04 AM
Advanced Lot Plop - new GUIs with DLLs
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 6
By CasperVg, October 18, 2025
- dll
- lotplop
- (and 2 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  dll
  
  lotplop
  
  lot
  
  simcity 4
- 156 Replies
- 8,131 Views
- junspud
- Sunday at 02:44 PM
Two WinTextEdits for one Query
By Urban Vibravant, July 14
- query
- modding
- 16 Replies
- 213 Views
- Null 45
- Saturday at 10:31 PM
SENT - Support & Development
- 1
- 2
- 3
By Aka, December 14, 2024
- sent
- euro
- (and 5 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  sent
  
  euro
  
  replacement
  
  texture
  
  mod
  
  aka
  
  NAM
- 80 Replies
- 8,713 Views
- Ernestmaxis
- Saturday at 07:27 AM
Nex-gen Energy Operating System (NEON) - Development and Support
By Ulisse Wolf, June 8
- simcity 4
- colossus addon mod
- (and 3 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  simcity 4
  
  colossus addon mod
  
  CAM
  
  neon
  
  nex-gen energy operating
- 4 Replies
- 624 Views
- Ulisse Wolf
- July 15
Allow More Building Styles - DLL Plugin
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 15
By Null 45, February 10, 2024
- simcity 4
- dll
- (and 2 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  simcity 4
  
  dll
  
  tilesets
  
  building style
- 429 Replies
- 24,811 Views
- Tyberius06
- July 14
Seba's submenus
By smf_16, January 31, 2025
- submenus
- 19 Replies
- 2,575 Views
- hugues aroux
- July 10
Is it possible to make a building that provides jobs and a functional subway?
By Urban Vibravant, July 4
- jobs
- subway
- (and 1 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  jobs
  
  subway
  
  hybrid
- 3 Replies
- 146 Views
- Urban Vibravant
- July 10
Girafe Flora Pack Submenus Exemplar Patch
By Lokiness, July 8
- girafe flora
- submenus
- (and 2 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  girafe flora
  
  submenus
  
  exemplar patch
  
  icon
- 8 Replies
- 218 Views
- Propfam
- July 10
Deconstructing a Seasonal Tree Controller
By oathbound_hunter, July 7
- tree controller
- seasonal
- (and 3 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  tree controller
  
  seasonal
  
  evergreen
  
  flora
  
  god mode
- 3 Replies
- 111 Views
- nos.17
- July 8
Resource Loading Hooks DLL for SimCity 4
By Null 45, May 11, 2024
- simcity 4
- dll
- 21 Replies
- 1,161 Views
- Lokiness
- July 6
New Modern 3D Camera Plugin
- 1
- 2
By Rj Simas, June 13
- plugin
- camera
- (and 3 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  plugin
  
  camera
  
  mod
  
  mouse
  
  simcity 4
- 47 Replies
- 1,905 Views
- StevieKam84
- July 6
Help with Everseasonal Flora
By oathbound_hunter, June 29
- everseasonal
- flora
- (and 2 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  everseasonal
  
  flora
  
  mod
  
  help
- 20 Replies
- 370 Views
- oathbound_hunter
- July 6
Exemplar Patching
By Lokiness, July 4
- exemplar patching
- performance
- (and 1 more)
  Tagged with:
  
  exemplar patching
  
  performance
  
  overwrite
- 7 Replies
- 174 Views
- Lokiness
- July 4

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- Andreas Roth

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Forum Activity
- Submenus DLL
  
  By Andreas Roth · Posted: 19 minutes ago
  
  NTUser.dat is a Windows system file that shouldn't be touched, an it certainly wasn't created by the SC4 CLI tool. I'll try to write down a short walk-through how to create a new submenu and then add a lot (or several lots) to it: 1. Start SC4 CLI Tool and select "Create a new submenu" with the arrow keys, enter a name an a description (just type and then press enter to go through the next step). 2. Select the parent menu for the new submenu, i. e. "Civics" and then "Parks", if you want to create a new submenu for a set of park lots. Pick "[root]" once you entered the desired sub(sub-sub)menu. Just accept the randomly generated button ID. 3. In the next step, a browser window will open, and you're supposed to select a PNG file for an icon. Ideally, you have some screenshot of a lot ready, but you can also pick any other image. If you keep the checkmark, it will use the default icon template and add the four icon states, along with the standard icon borders. Click "Use as icon" to import the selected image. Finally, enter an Item Order, which defines the placement of the icon in the menu (the default would be 0 or 1). 4. Now open your Plugins folder, you'll find a new file called "submenu_[the name you entered before].dat" in the Plugins root. If you like, you can open this file with the Reader. It will contain an Exemplar file with the necessary properties, two LTEXT files with the name and description of your new submenu and a PNG icon. 5. For adding lots to the new submenu, the easiest way is close the CLI tool first, and then open the folder where the tool's executable file (sc4.exe) is located. Open another Explorer window with the folder where the lot(s) that you want to add to the submenu are located. Now drag this folder onto the sc4.exe. It will open again with the proper folder path applied. Now select "Add lots to a submenu" and press enter. 6. Use the arrow keys again to navigate to the submenu that you just created (i. e. "Civic"/"Park"/[the name that you entered before]). The tool will ask where you want to save the submenu patch, simply select the pre-defined folder (which should be the folder where your lots are). It will save a new file called "submenu_patch.dat". If you open this file with the Reader, you'll find a single Cohort file, this contains a property named "Exemplar Patch Targets". This is basically a list of all lot IDs that were added to the submenu (by default, all the lots that were in the folder that you selected before). 7. Personally, I like to remove clutter, hence I copy the Cohort file over to the "submenu_[the name that you entered before].dat", then delete the patch file, and move the other DAT from the Plugin's root into the subfolder where the lots that have been added to the submenu are located. In this file, you can also edit the LTEXT files with name and description again, if desired.
- SC4PIM-X 2026 & New Properties Update Out Now!
  
  By Andreas Roth · Posted: 1 hour ago
  
  Wow, the new preview background looks really spiffy, reminds me of that early 2000's clean pixel art that was popular on websites and such back then! Minor suggestion for the layer/preview style menu buttons in the Lot Editor: Add a small triangle in the lower right, so you can see that this is a menu, and not just a button. Apparently, you missed my updated language file above, so a lot of stuff was not translated. FWIW, I've updated the file again and added all the new text strings, and reworked a handful of your own German additions, avoiding the "Sie" in favor of the more personal "Du" (see attachment below). I've noticed that the category tree on the left side contains some misleading entries for growable residential lots. Everything else is labeled CS$, CO$$ and such, but the R category just has $ signs. I fixed that in the German language file already. de.toml_v4.zip Everything else looks really great, and with the new building/lot converter SC4-PIMX gets even more powerful! I wonder what the next step could be, maybe a wizard for new submenus, similar to the SC4 CLI Tool? EDIT: I just found one untranslated text string in the Lot Editor's lower right corner: "Family variations" (German: "Familien-Variationen"). EDIT2: I found one other misleading label in the lower left corner with the model preview. The "viewerModel" text string should be simply "Day" (German: "Tag") instead of "Model state".
- SC4 Mod Migration Assistant
  
  By Ulisse Wolf · Posted: 3 hours ago
  
  These are those edge cases where the program flags duplicates because they use the same filename and have the same TGI, since MGB - RRW ReSkin Type A overwrites Real RailWay (RRW) Reskin 3rd Party Lot Support because it is a reskin.
- Tropical Weather Expansion
  
  By TropicalWeatherEP · Posted: 3 hours ago
  
  Tropical Cyclone Disaster (Developing) The goal is to allow a single cyclone object to evolve naturally over time instead of spawning a new disaster for each development stage. I am currently researching disaster-related functions, including LUA scripts and DLL plugins responsible for disaster management. I am also investigating how EffectDir resources are loaded and how the update loop handles active disasters. Based on everything I have described for the upcoming update, this project is becoming more than just a disaster mod — it is evolving into a game engine extension. If I can identify the disaster manager and understand the EffectDir update logic, I will be much closer to creating a tropical cyclone system that can realistically develop from a tropical wave into a major hurricane instead of appearing at full strength immediately. A natural lifecycle system is needed because a cyclone cannot realistically grow from a tropical wave into a Category 5 hurricane if each stage is controlled by hardcoded disaster spawning.
- TMC's 'SimCity 3000 ordinances for SC4' - support topic
  
  By TheMurderousCricket · Posted: 4 hours ago
  
  Good morning Everyone, As many of you may know, I am the author of the 'SimCity 3000 ordinances for SC4' mod series. The goal of this series is to revive old ordinances in SimCity 4 as many of them did not make it into the SC3000 successor. I recently received a complaint that one of the ordinances I uploaded into STEX did not work as intended and, alas, after more detailed investigation it turned out to be true... This is why I decided to create this thread which shall act as a support topic for my mod series. This is your place to discuss my "ported" ordinances and report any problems or unintended effects that you discover while playing. Coming back to the problem just discovered, it was caused by my incorrect understanding of the format that "Boost" effects use. This resulted in creating effects that are either ridiculously weak, or totally opposite from the ones intended. I intentionally omit links to my resources for now, because all ordinances are under review to identify those which contain incorrect values. As soon as the situation is tackled, new files will be provided and links added to this topic. Thank you for your attention and I'm terribly sorry for any inconvenience and disappointment caused!
- 551
  
  Submenus DLL
  
  By memo
  Started February 25, 2024
- 20
  
  SC4PIM-X 2026 & New Properties Update Out Now!
  
  By Ulisse Wolf
  Started July 10
- 265
  
  BAT4Blender
  
  By memo
  Started July 30, 2024
- 59
  
  STEX Custodian General Support Topic
  
  By STEX Custodian
  Started September 26, 2019
- 43
  
  STEX Restoration Tracker: Info & Discussion
  
  By Cyclone Boom
  Started June 13

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