SC4Terraformer Support

[JulesDaDestroyer 0]

Hello

Havent used this program cos havent got round to dl the new direct X. However it is installed. This morning my virus checker updated (AVG free) and detected 2 viruses:

Trojan horse PSW.Generic2.EUH E:\Program Files\SC4Terraformer\ConvertIsoclines.exe 15/08/2006 07:39 ConvertIsoclines.exe 32.5 KB

Trojan horse PSW.Generic2.EUH E:\Program Files\SC4Terraformer\SC4Terraformer.exe 15/08/2006 07:39 SC4Terraformer.exe 25.5 KB

Any comments??

[jplumbley 5]

Well, JulesDaDestroyer...

We had a problem like this in testing... What it turned out to be was every so often the installer program used creates a false positive for virus protection. We thuroughly check everything out and came to this conclusion. Also, out of more than 7,000 downloads so far.... you are the first one to report this issue since the final release. The only thing I can see it being is if you have recieved a false positive or the trojan horses you have picked up are real and came from somewhere else and infected those 2 files.

What I recommend is that you uninstall delete the installere and redownload. This should tell us if it is a false positive or not. When wouanagaine comes back and you are still having the false positive problem he may be able to send you a version just for you. But he wont be back from vacation for another week or so.

Hope this helps!

JPlumbley

[pwillard 0]

No, He's not the only one.  I also installed it but have not used it yet and my virus checker told me the very same thing today.  It's removed now, since I was not actively using it... but I wanted to make you aware that AVG is seeing it as a positive trojan match.

[existential member 0]

I've got a strange problem not with the SC4Terraformer but with regions made with it. What happens is if I try to reconcile the terrain it says it doesn't match, and when I accept the reconcile it matches it to the lowest ocean point. I tested the game with plugins and that happened, so I tested it without plugins but it still happens. Anyone know how to solve this problem?

BTW I wasn't too sure where to post this so I chose here because the regions were made with this tool.

[The Duke of Rockford 1]

Originally posted by: pwillard No, He's not the only one.  I also installed it but have not used it yet and my virus checker told me the very same thing today.  It's removed now, since I was not actively using it... but I wanted to make you aware that AVG is seeing it as a positive trojan match.quote>

I got that too but when I got that report from AVG Free, I just decided to uninstall it anyway since I hardly used it lol. But, ya, I thought it was odd. What do we know about this trojan? It appears that AVG Free had detected it immediately after its latest update so would it be possible that computers where this program was developed have a trojan but was not discovered or detected until now? I mean, it take time for computer security analysts to discover it and put it in next update. I dunno though. *shrugs*.

I may reinstall the program if I felt like I need to produce maps but I hardly produces maps much at all lol. >.>

[SC4BOY 20]

Originally posted by: existential member I've got a strange problem not with the SC4Terraformer but with regions made with it. What happens is if I try to reconcile the terrain it says it doesn't match, and when I accept the reconcile it matches it to the lowest ocean point. I tested the game with plugins and that happened, so I tested it without plugins but it still happens. Anyone know how to solve this problem?

BTW I wasn't too sure where to post this so I chose here because the regions were made with this tool.quote>

 

This is because you tried to reconcile before you loaded and saved each city .. this must be done in SC4 for it to "understand" that it has new info. This is SC4, not SC4TF issue.

[existential member 0]

thanks, and come to think about it I think I did read something about that in the readme  stupid me whacks wet fish off head

[jplumbley 5]

Ok all concerning the Trojan Horse - FALSE POSITIVE.

We had this problem during testing.

We INVESTIGATED thoroughly into the aspects that it could have been a real virus.  There were 2 computers in which SC4TF was being created on.  One a work computer of Wouanagaine, and his home computer.  Both computers have antivirus programs which he used to check his systems.  The work system is a very secure system and there was no virus found.  And he scanned his home computer and found nothing aswell.

Originally posted by: threeswept

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.

quote>

One thing I would like to point out is that we were not the ones who pointed out that it could be a false positive.  One thing we noticed with the false positives is that it doesnt spread like a normal trojan horse, in fact it doesnt spread at all.  Also it always seems to only be found in the .exe of the files installed e found by only one anti-virus program(you can check this too)... This time it seems to be AVG Free, last time it was Norton Synamtec.

If you actually have this virus and it is spreading I can assure you that it is NOT coming from SC4TF as STEX also checks all uploads for viruses before posting them.

@existential member  Dont use the reconcile button when first loading your region.  SC4Terraformer saves files in your region folder.  And until SC4 opens and saves the files it doesnt see the terrain in region view.  The reason you see the SC4TF colors in the region view is because Wouanagaine has made some thumbnail pictures that show up in region view so that you can see your region instead of blue water, but the land really isnt there according to SC4 and when you reconcile it thinks its blue water and you get the problem you are having.

JPlumbley

[prince_of_sims 0]

Also, I would like to add that the viruses were only detected on systems using Norton Internet Security. Coupled with the very few reports, and the detection being restricted only to NIS users, the chance of a false positive is very high.

[Pokemen9103 0]

May I have a look at the source? I might be able to port it to the mac.

[prince_of_sims 0]

wouanagaine is on vacation currently. Send him a PM, he will probably get back to you when he gets back.

[jurgestonian 0]

Originally posted by: prince_of_sims i dont know for sure if SC4TF was ever tested on mobility Graphics cards. i don't know enough about low-level communications that occur to tell you if the problem is caused by your laptop itself. but more than likely it's not.

as SC4BOY said, you should download and install the latest DirectX (Microsoft releases a new one every month that isn't part of autmatic updates). you should also make sure that you have the latest updates as well as the .NET updates and patches. to find out if you need them, go to http://update.microsoft.com and search for updates. if you've hidden any, unhide them. install any High Priority updates as well as any .NET updates.quote>

I am sucessfully was running SC4TF on a ATI Mobility 9200, the problem may lie in the actual graphics drivers, make sure you are using the latest version that your lappy manufacturer put out, as ATIs drivers are generic and may cause more harm than good.

Wow, I am the worst at breaking stuff. Soon after this post I saved the region I was working on. I wanted to alter the config for it. I altered it to taste. I then entered Sim City 4 to see the updated changes in the Terraform and my new Boundaries. Sim City reported them as flat land, not the bluish-green that Terraformer puts there before the city is first loaded. Thinking that I just killed the region I painstakingly worked on, I went back into Terraformer. It errored out, telling me to look at the log file. Here are the contents:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "SC4TerraformerApp.pyo", line 700, in OnCreate

OSError: [Errno 17] File exists

C:\Program Files\SC4Terraformer\library.zip\Image.py:1610: DeprecationWarning: integer argument expected, got float

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "SC4TerraformerApp.pyo", line 700, in OnCreate

OSError: [Errno 17] File exists

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "SC4Terraformer.py", line 1, in ?

  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 78, in load_module

  File "SC4TerraformerApp.pyo", line 83, in ?

  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 78, in load_module

  File "terraTools.pyo", line 16, in ?

  File "Image.pyo", line 1717, in open

IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'datas/mask.png'

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "SC4Terraformer.py", line 1, in ?

  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 78, in load_module

  File "SC4TerraformerApp.pyo", line 83, in ?

  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 78, in load_module

  File "terraTools.pyo", line 16, in ?

  File "Image.pyo", line 1717, in open

IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'datas/mask.png'

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "SC4Terraformer.py", line 1, in ?

  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 78, in load_module

  File "SC4TerraformerApp.pyo", line 83, in ?

  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 78, in load_module

  File "terraTools.pyo", line 16, in ?

  File "Image.pyo", line 1717, in open

IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'datas/mask.png'

The directories are still there, as are with the files. I am going to re-install Terraformer, and post the results. Thanks, Jurgestonian

[Opals25 0]

I'm trying to get the 16bit exported PNG file converted to a properly lit 8bit for use in the old fashioned region importing. Importing the 16 bit png to SC4 doesn't get recognized and just makes everything under water, and trying to boost the contrast, lighting and levels on Photoshop with the image leave it grainy and just poor looking overall. I'm working with a pretty large region and just don't have the time to load and close each one by hand and really need to get it loaded in this way. Anybody have any ideas on what to do with this, or anyway to modify the program to export it at 8 bit instead?

[jplumbley 5]

Hi Opals25,

16-bit PNG files are the closest image format that can handle the data that SC4TF creates. SC4TF can store information of upto 0.1m in elevation with a maximum hieght of just over 6000m (SC4's limit if I'm not mistaken). And JPEG can only reach a 2.4m accuracy at the same maximum hieght. JPEG import/export was an initial option in SC4TF where as 16-bit PNG wasnt. 16-bit PNG was added near the end in the last or second last testing release, because some users were asking for it. The problem with 16-bit PNG is only a select group of image programs like Photoshop are able to handle them. Most that do cannot really use 16-bit PNG and end up reducing it without you knowing it to 8-bit PNG. And many of these programs cannot save 16-bit PNGs but only 8-bit PNGs. So, really the only thing the 16-bit PNG export option is really useful for is sharing an already finished map from SC4TF with someone else who has SC4TF. Although, Photoshop can open and edit in 16-bit PNG, I think the conclusion was it saved only as 8-bit PNG. Not much more research or testing time has really gone into this aspect. It's there for those who asked for it.

I hope this information helps you understand the 16-bit PNG issue.

@jurgestonian  Hi,  well you had it running GOOD!!  Now first thing I want you to do is try a different region.  If this works you didnt break SC4TF.

Second, never, I mean NEVER! change the config.bmp after you have already started your region in SC4TF and saved it.  SC4TF will not recognize the layout of your region since it saves each city tile separately.  Fortunately for you map makers, there is a way to change config.bmp's....  

Heres the secret:

1.  Create your map

2.  Save as .SC4M

3.  Create a new folder in your SC4/Regions folder

4.  Edit the config.bmp to your liking (Must be the same size as the .SC4M map)

5.  Open SC4TF and load the blank region

6.  Open the .SC4M you had saved already.

Any question? Alrighty then. You know how to change config.bmp's now.

JPlumbley

[Romaq 18]

JPlumbley is correct on the 8-bit images vs. 16 bpc PNG's. With 16-bit PNGs, each pixel has a value between 0 and 65535. If you throw a decimal in there, then you can say the value is between 0.0 meters and 6553.5 meters. Wouanagaine initially decided to save his region data in a 16 bit format known as SC4M, which again leaves him with 0.0 meters to 6553.5 meters. He decided to cap the maximum value at 6000.0 meters. SC4 uses *real number* values, so you have a 'practically rediculous' range of values you *could* potentially use. However, by default SC4 will not let you raise terrain within the client higher than 4000 meters. It appears there is an exemplar value you may edit to raise this cap, but 3750 meters above sea level (0 to 250 is under water by default) is pretty high up there.

The 16 bit values are being used 'absolute' as they are, and 8-bit values are scaled and then eroded within SC4, by default. If you want to 'accurately convert' your 16 bpc PNG image to something that will import and be *close* (but never accurate) as an 8-bit image, you have to do two things:

1) change the brightness and contrast of your 16 bit image to match the default scale change of the 8-bit image, and

2) You have to bump the brightness and contrast a bit more for the default LOSS of elevation when the client runs a city-wide erosion on it. The erosion is done to keep your 8-bit data from making horrid looking terraces (See http://www.world-machine.com/World%20Machine%20Help.pdf and look at the second page to see the difference). That is, you have flat areas or 22 degree, 44 degree, 66 degree slopes, all alike. The Erosion that the client does on the image is to keep import from looking quite so horridly ugly.

You are much better off if you can exchange 16 bit PNG images or SC4M files, or use an archive tool and exchange entire regions just as they are in the regions directory. By dealing with 8-bit images, you are using 1/256th of the elevation data your image contains. Friends don't let friends use 8-bit images for SC4 terrain import. If you are going to go through the work of making a really nice terrain, you may as well ship all the data you went through the trouble to create and use 16 bpc images.

By the way, your 8-bit images are scaled so the value 255 (white) reaches around 4000 meter altitudes while keeping the value 0 at 250 meters below sea level. A 16 bit image does NOT scale ANYTHING. Value 0 (black) is still 250m below sea level, while your highest altitude you can normally build within the SC4 Client is 4000 meters. A 16-bit image *can* go to 6553.5 meters. If you do a 'straight' 16 bpc to 8 bpc image conversion, your nice low-level areas around 250 to 300 meters becomes a value between 1 and 2, which is why all your nice terrain is under water when you import that 8-bit image converted from 16 bit. If you had peaks at 4000 meters, converting 40000 to 8-bit becomes 157, or 61% a light shade of grey. Once you have a region in 16 bit format, you really *really* want to keep it there.

JPlumbley is also correct on the pain of dealing with 16 bpc images. You should be advised that unless you are using Adobe Photoshop *or* CinePaint (http://www.cinepaint.org/), most image software you use will either *not* read the 16 bit image, or worse yet cheerfully import the 16 bit image and ONLY SAVE as 8-bit. Gimp (www.gimp.org) will at least warn you it is converting to 8-bit, but it can not handle 16 bpc images. It simply wasn't designed with 16 bpc images in mind and it can't deal with them. I have run other conversion software, and all the ones I have found will convert the 16 bit TIFF image in and write out 8-bit PNG. I currently use CinePaint (http://www.cinepaint.org/) to do my image conversions on Windows, and CinePaint is too buggy and unstable at the current release version to use it as an image editor. Adobe Photo Shop is really the way to go, if you happen to have around $600 USD around for the license. Hopefully CinePaint will release an updated Windows version in September, and I'll be able to recommend it as a free image editor for 16 bpc use.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

[jplumbley 5]

Hi Romaq,

Thank you for explaining further what I had said!! You were our tester when it came to 16-bit and 8-bit PNGs. I hope you are enjoying the program.

JPlumbley

[Funddealer 0]

Hi!

Well, I havent tried the Terraformer yet but I´m intend to do so, and for the possibility it

seems to be a great work.

Before that I want to be sure that my machine can take the TF.

In the list of Additional Features it says among othet things:

* Unlimited region size ( provided that you have a lot of RAM and a very good GFX card )

Is 1024 MB enough RAM or do I need more?

Kind Regards

                    /   Funddealer

[Romaq 18]

Yes, I am enjoying SC4TF, JPlumbley. At this point, I have already created my 4096 x 4096 tile region and I'm building upon it. The focal point is an island in the center of the region split between two huge cities, North and South Landing Island. Landing Island is to be as packed a megaopolis as I can manage, and I have used SC4TF to extend the natural coastline into docks ready for the CDK. Two things I lack:

1) 'Draw' allows for precise shorelines of 250.5 meters, but it doesn't do 'smooth' which allows a *minimum* of 250.5. I use Smooth, but I only have whole meter values on the slider bar, so I can't specify 250.5 as a minimum and allow smoothing to go up. This is really no big deal, as I can use the CDK leveler lots to get that half-meter down at the shore. I also can't think of a way to make the slider bar user interface handle 0.1 meter precision without making the slider bars a burden.

2) A 'save' on SC4TF rewrites everything, even if it didn't change. I'm using Concurrent Versioning System (CVS - www.wincvs.org) to track file changes I make so that at any point I can revert a specific city or group of cities to a specific point in time. CVS tracks this by the date the file was last 'modified', and when SC4TF 'saves', even if nothing else changes, that counts as a modification. Fortunately, I only have a few cities I'm working with at this time. When I get around to putting the entire region of 256 large cities into CVS, I'll have to choose between resaving the entire region in CVS or deleting 'everything but the cities I know I edited' and using CVS to restore the cities I didn't change. Having SC4TF *only* write cities that were modified will vastly help. As it is, SC4 will write to every neighboring city that has a transit link crossing the boundary even if those cities are otherwise unmodified. This includes ferries. So a 'save' in CVS of one city implies saving data from four adjacent cities unmodified. I'll have to live with it. But having to save a 'backup copy' of an entire region on behalf of a single modification to a city is ... expensive. So I'm hoping SC4TF can be modified to *only* touch cities that it knows have had changes to them.

Anyway, beyond those two issues, SC4TF has been a real life-saver for my SC4 Terrain.

Cheers!

[jplumbley 5]

Hello Funndealer,

Your computer should be fine. I have 1gb of ram aswell and my maximum region size is in the range of about 40 or so large tiles before i start getting lag issues.

@romaq I'm glad you like the program!! The sliders came from one of my requests while helping create the tools, before we figured out how to extract the SC4 tools. Wouanagaine made them as accurate as possible before making it too hard to control what level your at. On your second point I think this was discussed and we found that it would eat tooo much ram as it has to memorize what you have changed... This is the same reason only a one-level undo was created and not a full undo version. I hope this helps.

JPlumbley

[Romaq 18]

JPlumbley: I understand about the slider bars. I was thinking it may help to have them swapped and perhaps put on the same line, such that minimum is on the left, maximum is on the right, and pushing maximum below minimum pushes down minimum. That would save room, and make the sliders more intuitive. Though, not knowing how the interface controls actually work, this may not be feasible. But it's an idea. If it were possible to have text boxes to enter specific values for each slider, this might also help. But all that said, I'm greatful for the controls I have, and they really present no problem. I use the PEG CDK Leveler tools and the shoreline gets where I need to. Beyond the 'half meter above sea level' issue, I have a hard time thinking of a case where decimeter precision will be quite the issue with terrain.

Concerning 'touching' city files, I wouldn't know of course how city arrays are stored. Since what I'm asking for is not an 'undo' but a 'touched/ not touched' flag, would it be possible to add a 'touched' boolean to the same array that holds the 'locked unlocked' status? Since 'locked/ unlocked' is checked before changes are committed (I see I can 'change' a locked city, but the terrain springs back), perhaps a 'touched/ untouched since last saved' boolean can be updated as well. This will make a HUGE difference in the time saves take, especially when one is simply making touch-ups in a specific city within huge regions. And those who are looking for a more convenient way of making 'save points' in their region editing will have an easier time using CVS. And, by the by, if anyone is using CVS or curious about using CVS with their SimCity region, https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=24&threadid=80357&enterthread=y is where I started a thread on it.

That said, I'm hoping that making a 'touched/ untouched since last saved' boolean array is feasible in the context of the 'locked/ unlocked city' array. Depending upon how the boolean array is declared, an 8192 x 8192 tile region would be about 2k bytes if only small cities were used (all 16384 of em). I'm hoping 2k would be a small memory price to pay if someone has the memory to use SC4TF to work on an 8192^2 tile sized region. Hopefully, it would only double the memory footprint being used for the locked-unlocked city array anyway.

Cheers!

[wouanagaine 83]

Hi all, I'm back and read all the thread,

I want to thank Romaq pos SC4Boy and Jplumbley for helping everyone

It seems that a lot of issues were resolved this way

For the dlls needed in SC4TF, here what the exe maker tells me :

OLEAUT32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\OLEAUT32.dll

USER32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll

SHELL32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll

ole32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\ole32.dll

WINMM.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINMM.dll

WSOCK32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\WSOCK32.dll

COMCTL32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\COMCTL32.dll

ADVAPI32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\ADVAPI32.dll

msvcrt.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll

WS2_32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\WS2_32.dll

GDI32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\GDI32.dll

KERNEL32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\KERNEL32.dll

MSVCP71.dll - C:\Python24\MSVCP71.dll

comdlg32.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\comdlg32.dll

RPCRT4.dll - C:\WINDOWS\system32\RPCRT4.dll

Those are the dlls SC4TF needs but that I can't distribute due to licensing terms. All others needed dlls are enclosed in the installer and in the DirectX update

And for romaq, I'll do a new pass of coding so post all request in the Dev thread

[Romaq 18]

Yay! Good to see you back. I mentioned an SC4TF tutorials section along with ideas of what could go in there. The 8-bit <--> 16-bit image issue has come up, and people are finding that confusing. People are also being hit with using their favorite image editor to import their 16-bit PNG, then saving it as 'PNG' without realising it is saved as an 8-bit PNG. I hit the same problem myself when trying to convert 16 bpc TIF images to 16 bpc PNG for import with SC4TF. There are also other 'How do I?' questions that might require an extended FAQ to get sorted out, such as making 16 bpc accurate map renders from DEM data, realistic fantasy regions and so on.

I'm really very excited about what SC4TF has done for me personally concerning Sim City and the region I wanted to create.

Cheers!

[CarmineHilton 6]

Hi,

Maibe this thing is already asked but... I wan't to play this region in SC4 -> (https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?page=1&keyword=Dubai&type=all#) = Dubai With Palm Jumeirah.

So i generate it in 'Convert Isoclines'... But is just stops @ 'Building distance map for level 45'..... Is there something wrong or???

:s

[wouanagaine 83]

CarmineHilton

the Dubai With Palm Jumeirah is a normal jpeg file, just import it in SC4Terraformer with the standard parameters

The Convert Isoclines tool is for generating image from contour pictures. ( now why it freeze is another problem, but this tool has not been very deeply tested )

Take care

[CarmineHilton 6]

wouanagaine

How do I do that? I want to select the JPEG file, but I can only select a map.... :s

[wouanagaine 83]

You need to create a region folder in MyDocs\SimCity4\Regions, copy the config.bmp you downloaded in it, then run SC4TF select the new region and import the jpeg

[jammin77 0]

Where is the menu for this?Do you use it in region view or do you use it on the desktop?

I know this uestion is dumb bit I really want to use this too!

[buckbeach 8]

Excuse me, I just posted a message to the other thread (erroneously) professing I didn't think I was going to be able to use the tool because of not understanding.  What you state here seems simple enough even for me.  I'm going to give it a try.

One question, I have already made folders for the various regions (not yet rendered) that have both the config.bmp and the JPEG file already.  Do I have to delete the JPEG and re-download it to start the process?

[Evil_Someone 1]

Hey i can't open mine, when i try to open it it says:"The application failed to start because MSVCP71.dll was not found.Re-installing the application may fix this problem."

I have re-installed it billions times aand it still shows this message.

Please help!

[buckbeach 8]

I am very new to this (like today) but in the openning instructions is does state you may need that MSVCP71.dll and there is a link where to download it.