SC4Terraformer, a tool for regional handterraforming

[mightygoose 92]

i cant load regions past building colour database even though my computer is brand spanking new, i tried it with a config file of a single small city tile and even then it would not load any ideas???

[prince_of_sims 0]

can you run the Debug mode version and post any error messages? it'll help identify what might be wrong.

[Romaq 18]

wouanagaine: You are correct, I'm going at this too much the hard way. I didn't think things through towards moving the waterline up or down within SC4TF. That's why interacting within a community is a good idea. If I didn't see Simtropolis.com, I would be stuck fiddling around with the regions that shipped with SC4 and wondering how I could do better.

[wouanagaine 86]

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YES France did it ! it was not the last match for Zizou, and he scored the last goal in additional time

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Back to topic

mightygoose

This can occurs if you have not correctly uninstall previous versions

I don't know why the installer do not overwrite the old versions in fact, but it seems that it is a reccurent bug, so I will add a kind of version checking file in next version to be sure the correct one are installed.

What I suggest is to uninstall SC4Terraformer, make sure that your installation folder is empty ( normally it should not exist anymore ), then reinstall the latest version.

Keep me inform on what 'll be the result please , so I will be sure it is that bug and I can fix it.

as prince_of_sims said, you should try the debgu version, or look for a file call SC4Terraformer.exe.log in the installation folder, if it is what I'm thinking of, it will tell you that a call to a function does not match the parameters count.

romaq

Enjoy the community . Until now you always ask and suggest good things, so you participate in it !

I will make with the help of the testers team a complete readme for next release. So you will know 'hidden' features of SC4Terraformer

For your previous post, I was not talking about image in it, I was just saying that it is not allowed to post one thing then post again another thing if no one as replied after your first post. You should edit your post if you want to add something ( if no one post after you ). The only 'permitting' is for CJ author if I remember correctly.

Take care !

[prince_of_sims 0]

wouanagaine

i haven't unistalled SC4TF since v0.6b. i've just been installing over the files, not really taking care to delete old stuff. everything still works for me....

[wouanagaine 86]

prince_of_sims

I think it is soimthing to deal with user system or something in the installer, but I know that Karybdis and MrFood had the same bug. I identified it when Karybdis sent me the output of the debug console. I don't know why the installer in some case do not override the files. Maybe something lock the files ( I think the dxEngine.pyd tools3D.pyd and qfs.pyd mainly ) and then the installer can't override them. still the installer should tell the user I think.

Good to see you have not the same problem , neither am i, neither the whole tester team in fact.

Btw I think that it is better to uninstall each version before installing the new one, or your window registery will still hold information for deleting previous versions

Take care !

[Rayden 7]

I've been uninstalling every version before installing the new one, and so far, not a single crash or what so ever. I sugest everyone to do the same

[Romaq 18]

wouanagaine

Oh! I apologize. I didn't realise that I had to edit the prior post even if my intention is to post 'something different'. I'll try to keep that in mind.

[HandsOff 0]

So, now we know that I was indeed stupid. Found it, used it and I think it is perchance the best addition to SC4 to date. One caveat though, you might warn folks that 2GB memory is the absolute minimum. Otherwise the lag between using a tool and the display update is just too big. Alas, if I may be so bold, a few suggestions: a "Center Display" button would be useful; the edge scrolling has the habit of continuing when you select another tool. Further to that: is there any way the Geo Tool could allow users to alter the city mapping SC4 adds automatically to a region? And lastly - hope you do not think I am nitpicking - I think you meant Equalize rather than Egalize (or am I mistaken). Thanks for a fantastic addition to SC4 DocRorlach (aka HandsOff)

[wouanagaine 86]

Rayden

Thanks, I really don't know why this happen

Romaq

As no moderators warn you, I think it is ok

HandsOff

Good to see you find the link . Thanks for testing and enjoying it

About the RAM issue, well it depends on the size of the region you terraform. and the lag depends on the GX card and your CPU, not that much on the RAM. Even with 2 Go of RAM, a 48x48 size region will take time to refresh and render

About the suggestions:

edge scrolling is quite hard to tweak

'center Display' is done and will be available in next release. it will be more than a 'Center display' as it is a 2D top view of the region and you can clic on it to move the camera at that point

Further to that: is there any way the Geo Tool could allow users to alter the city mapping SC4 adds automatically to a region?quote>

I do not understand what you mean . Did you mean a way to change the layout of cities in the region ? if it is the case you can edit the config.bmp for that

And yes I mean equalize, egalize is kind of french

Take care

[HandsOff 0]

Dis donc: vous etes Francais? Am guessing here. What I meant was indeed the seemingly random way SC4 assigns city sizes. For example, I have a region that now approaches 1.4 million inhabitants. It has one central monster city which is becoming (to an amateur like myself) rather unmanageable because of its sheer physical size. On the other hand, the rather minute, scare cities SC4 creates an abundance of, are simply too small and require too much attention. Thus it would be fantastic if your tool would permit the creation of those divisions responsible for the city outlines. DocRorlach

[wouanagaine 86]

HandsOff

Ben ouias je suis fran

[Yoman3 5]

Hi i got the latest version and I opened it. I have the lastest direct X. Anyway I open a region and nothing happenes???

[wouanagaine 86]

Yoman3

Can you show us the content of the SC4Terraformer.exe.log that is located on the folder you install SC4Terraformer please ?

It may be cause by not uninstalling previous version ( so uninstall this version,make sure the installation folder does not exist anymore then reinstall )

It may be cause by some other applications that require DirectX exclusivly ( but in this case it should display a message box )

Take care

[Romaq 18]

wouanagaine:

I have created some things and attempted to import them between World Machine and SC4TF. World Machine has several 16-bit formats, the notable exception is PNG. Another noticable problem is that World Machine goes from 32 pixels to 8192 (for standard version) in powers of two, but does *not* permit that extra pixel for the formula (X*64)+1, (Y*64)+1 used by SC4.

I am guessing (though I can't be sure at the moment) that PGM(ASCII) would be the most straight-forward 16-bit image format to work with. Would you be willing to create a script in Python I may experiment with? Such a script would do the following, if possible:

1) Read standard World Machine sizes, PGM (ASCII) format
2) Tack on an extra bit to the right and to the bottom that is a copy of the last row or column, as appropriate. This is a 'quick and dirty' way to rescale, and I hope that one extra bit isn't noticable.
3) Output to SC4M format.

The script may require asking me to tell it how many meters to use for the summit (pure white). The script may also require an offset (how deep is the ocean?) or other information required for an SCM4 file.

I can install Python, I believe I have it installed already under Cygwin.

I've noticed when I import into SC4TF, a scale of 8, an offset of 0 appears to be close to what I *think* I am looking for, though I am not sure. Since I'm using 8-bit images, the terrain is quite terraced and elevation changes are between flat and steep. This, of course, is the fault of an 8-bit elevation map scaled to such an extreem. I expect terrain to look much better with a 16-bit import, but I hope that a script such as I described would be much easier to test with than to put it into SC4TF. Of course, if it's easier to put it into SC4TF, well that is happy too.

Edit: http://www.daubnet.com/formats/PBM.html has a description of the PGM (ASCII) format, if you need it.

Cheers!

[wouanagaine 86]

Hi romaq

Just a qquick response, I'll elaborate more latar

The correct way will be to export to r16 format in WM, it just plain 16 bit integer, no header.

Once you got r16 you can ( I'm not sure ) load this raw format in GiMp to convert it to 16bit png and resize it ( add the 1 column missing )

Then you can load the png in SC4TF

BTW : SC4TF v9 is on testing stage, so maybe public this weekend or at the beginning of the next week

Take care

[Romaq 18]

The process you describe is what I attempted to do, however GIMP would convert it to 8-bit anyway. There is a fork of GIMP, http://www.cinepaint.org/ for at least 16 bits per channel (bpc), and may support 32 or 48 bpc. I just have not yet figured out how to download a Windows version, but I will work on a windows version tonight.

Addendum: CinePaint has removed the Windows version due to a crashing bug until their next release due out 4 July 06. I will continue experimenting with 8-bit translations until a 16-bit method becomes available. With 6000m elevations in 10 cm graduations, enough bpc is never enough bpc. ;-)

Cheers!

[threeswept 12]

Hi, wouanagaine...

This programme seems to be pretty cool. I downloaded version 6 quite some time ago and finally had some time to go about installing it today. Not sure what happened; however, when I ran my antivirus on the file it detected Trojan.Zlob within the file and deleted all traces of the setup of SC4 Terraformer from my system. Don't know if any others have had this issue. But, I thought it was worth bringing up.

[prince_of_sims 0]

what antivirus do you use? i havent had any problem with the SC4TF installation programs. It's possible that since it's been sitting so long on your hard drive that it got infected, in which case you should run a thourogh virus scan. viruses that embed themselves into files are nasty pieces of work...

[threeswept 12]

Norton...and, a slew of other forms of virus/spyware, etc programmes...but, Norton caught it first. I scanned the file before executing, as I always do before installation. Anyway, I'm sure it's not a big issue...I only remember one other time in three years my antivirus catching something in a BAT/lot download. In any event, I'm looking forward to downloading the updated versions of the Terraformer and having some fun.

[prince_of_sims 0]

it's possible the file got infected while sitting on your hard drive. i didn't have problems with v0.6 and i'm using Norton. anyways, get the latest version and see what comes up. good luck to ya!

[jplumbley 5]

I got the same virus!!! That Threeswept got.... Wouanagaine I think you should remove that pack.

[prince_of_sims 0]

oh crap... guess i should run a scan on my computer, huh?

EDIT:

i just remembered the Zlob Trojan... i've gotten it on loads of files, mainly those in my Temporary Internet Files (mainly because i rarely save anything). it may be something that spreads itself and infects servers

yup, Norton just showed it up on a activeX control (i just had it scan temporary files)

[jplumbley 5]

@POS I had it in only 2 files and this is a new hard drive... Both files it was in was the Uninstall for SC4TF and the other was in the installer... I found it tonight... Hopefully wou can fix it.

I ADVISE noone to download the latest version untill this has been solved and reposted!!!

JPlumbley

[Romaq 18]

I am unable to get a 16 bpc import. Steps I took:

1) I created and saved a 2048^2 image using World Machine. I had it make a Perlin bump map and I scaled it from lowest to highest (0 to 1) and then I saved it as output.r16 (raw 16 bpc grey). I used IMGCON 3.3 from http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/~yongyue/imgcon.html to convert it to what I *think* is 32-bit using "imgcon.exe -scale 2049 2049 -png -iraw 2048 2048 1 2 0 0 output.r16" to create output.png.

Windows reports the PNG as 'Bit Depth: 32' which is NOT a good sign. Having imported the file, I checked the region and cities in SC4:

I'm considering just going with an 8-bit image I can more easily pass along to others in the forums, and then hit 'egalize' 32 cycles to smooth the appearance. Oh, I used Scale Factor 8 and 0 minimum.

If there is interest in how this compares to a smoothed image I'll post it, but it looks like there are other issues to resolve at the moment so I'll just play with what I've got and find out if the trojan is a false positive.

Cheers!

[prince_of_sims 0]

yea, that would be a good idea.... i've still got nothing on my end, using Norton with latest updates. but until this issue has been cleared up, DON'T DOWNLOAD THIS PROGRAM!

[jplumbley 5]

Anyone who has downloaded the latest version v0.8c I advise strongly that you run a virus scan on your computer.... 

The Bug in question is a trojan horse named Trojan.Zlob

Anyone who finds this virus on thier SC4TF files please make us aware.... Thank you.

And Please do not download the latest version of SC4TF until this is cleared up.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

JPlumbley

[wouanagaine 86]

To everyone,

Please do not download

I need to investigate on that, I know that NSIS installer with some compression method can be report as a virus by antivirus software.

I'm deeply sorry for the inconvenience. I assure you that my antivirus software is uptodate and not reporting a virus on my computer, but who knows

I'll work with testers for a new installer to see if it is the installer or SC4TF

Take care

[Romaq 18]

Ouch! Good luck on finding the fix. Hopefully it is only a false positive.

[threeswept 12]

Hi, again...

With wouanagaine's kind permission, I attempted to download an even newer version of the Terraformer. However, Norton wouldn't allow the download due to the same Trojan. Therefore, I could not determine that it was either the installer or the files within the installer. My Norton is 2006 and is updated daily, btw. 

Although, this detection COULD BE A FALSE POSITIVE.

For anyone who has downloaded the files, you may go to the link below to investigate whether this Trojan is installed on your computer and to find the resolution of removing the Trojan IF it is installed on your computer. Remember to follow the instructions very carefully if you choose to use this method of scanning for and removing this Trojan:

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.zlob.html

ABSOLUTELY REMEMBER TO DISABLE SYSTEM RESTORE BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO REMOVE ANY TROJAN!!! Otherwise, you WILL back up the Trojan and reinstall it.